What Happened On 9/11

I know, some people don’t like Prager U, but the video below sums up events nicely. It’s the recommendation that came up on YouTube so that’s what I’m going with. I don’t want to hear it. Not today.

I had considered doing an article about 9/11 and other events and how it affects fiction, especially the stuff I usually talk about here at BW Media Spotlight. I may still do so this week but it didn’t feel right doing it today. I would like to know something else. This was the first time Al Qaeda attacked the World Trade Center. On February 26, 1993, terrorists drove a van into an underground and blew it up. Six people (seven if you count the unborn child) were killed in the explosion. It was suspected at the time that this could have caused unseen structural damage that caused the Towers to fall apart faster than expected when rescue workers attempted to evacuate the Tower along with the damage caused by the two planes and the burning fuel.

Now this is not an excuse to attack Muslims, and smart, compassionate people already knew that. These were a group of extremists, and that should also be acknowledged, not hidden to protect mainline Muslims. Extremism is always our worst enemy no matter the political, social, spiritual, or other types of worldview divisions. Every group has extremists, including those who claim to share my values (they clearly don’t). Evil is about actions, and these actions were evil. We should have gotten bin Laden after the first bombing. We did after the second and thus far there hasn’t been a third. It was the first big invasion (not counting spies and minor sabotage) since the Revolutionary War and we weren’t prepared. We should fix this but not by becoming extremists ourselves, and those who use it for personal political game be they Democrat, Republican, or Independent should be called out for their actions.

Remembering 9/11

I made that comic 10 years after and what’s said still holds true. Even when we know why we find it hard to accept. Evil exists and we can’t forget that just because we don’t want to punish the innocent with the guilty. I’m all for understanding and unity but it’s done as much by thought as by heart. This was a tragic event in American history, if not human history as a whole. Never forget what happened, but what happens now to ensure this doesn’t happen again should be done with compassion and wisdom together, not just feelings or just logic. I hope we never see this again in any country and still hope for a better world for us all.

Regular BW topics return tomorrow. Sorry for the ramble. I just wanted to do something for 9/11 and reading a Batman novel didn’t feel like it. This is what I had time for.

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #9

As mentioned previously, issue #8 was not up on Mirage’s old website, probably because it was a crossover with Dave Sim’s Cerebus and thus rights issues would have kept it off. It was the first time the Turtles would meet the time-travelling sorceress Renet, who we may get to see in a future story. If I ever get a hold of the issue I’ll reviewing but the Mirage postings was official until the purchase by Nickelodeon and thus I have no problem using that version versus going to one of…those sites, which I only use for research when I absolutely need to.

“Wow, if he acts like that with anchovies, how does he handle pineapple?”

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #9

Mirage Publications (September, 1986)

“The Passing”

WRITERS: Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird

PENCILER: Michael Dooney

INKERS: Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, Michael Dooney, Ryan Brown, & Jim Larson

LETTERER: Lavigne

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BW’s Daily Video> Legendary Knockoff Games

Catch more from Guru Larry on YouTube

BW Programming Note> No Comic Again

I had a bit of writer’s block this week as I couldn’t come up with a good Jake & Leon comic idea until late last night…while the power was out. That’s what inspired it but I didn’t get to work on it last night even though the outage was short. By the time I got today’s chores done it was too late to even start despite how easy this one is. If I have to speed up one this easy it’s best not to bother. The thing is I have a doctor’s appointment this week and Monday is going to be busy as well. So I’m going to focus on getting the content people actually come for. Jake & Leon is for fun an art practice but it’s one of the least read features on the site despite usually being a weekly one.

Over at The Clutter Reports this week I went into how collecting can get out of hand, using my oversized comic collection as an example.

This week I have more from the Batman: Knightfall novelization for Chapter By Chapter and the first official installment of Beast Machine Hunters, looking at the various production material from Beast Machines: Transformers and the original Beast Hunters concept. That’s on top of other topics, comic reviews, and all the stuff I have to do this week. I really hope I can do a Jake & Leon for next Sunday but until then have a great week, everybody!

Saturday Night Showcase> Gunsmoke: The Radio Show

Let’s do something a little different for tonight’s Saturday Night Showcase. Usually I look at sci-fi and superhero stuff but I wanted to get away from the recent flood of Ultraman shows and the Old West seems to fit the bill. Plus it’s an interesting piece of TV, and radio, history I thought at least some of you would find interesting.

I’m not much of a Western fan but my dad enjoys a few. One of them is Gunsmoke, the CBS Western series about Matt Dillon, Marshall of the Kansas region during the Old West. Developed by Charles Marquis Warren, it was the longest running prime-time live-action show until the crown was taken by, unfortunately, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. I have…minor issues with that show we won’t go into here. Point is the show was very successful and still gets plenty of reruns and even a devoted channel on live-streaming sites like Pluto TV.

Except it wasn’t originally a TV show.

Airing on CBS radio when the chairman, William S. Paley wanted a “Philip Marlowe” type Western show, Gunsmoke was a rare cowboy show for adults. Most were made for kids, my research sources pointing to Hopalong Cassidy as their main example. The final show was created by John Meston and Norman Macdonnell after finding one of two pilots for the show (the actor they wanted was already tied to another Western called Broken Arrow) by Harry Ackerman and some of his script writers, on the request of programming head Hubell Robinson. The show would go on to air on radio even when the TV show was airing, until the radio show ended in 1961 and the TV show in 1975. I even had a coloring book based on the TV show. Australia even had their own version of the radio show, but that’s all I know about that.

None of the radio cast moved to the TV series. William Conrad was considered too overweight to play Dillon, which if you’ve seen a picture back then wouldn’t be a surprise. While not as heavy as when he played in TV shows like Cannon and Jake & The Fatman (he wasn’t Jake), he still had nothing on James Arness, who was encouraged by John Wayne to take the TV role. His deputy only went by Chester until actor Parley Baer improvised the last name “Proudfoot” during rehearsal, while the show would replace Baer’s aging sounding voice with a limp for Dennis Weaver’s Chester Goode…and that’s the guy from the TV series McCloud? Huh. Age and a mustache really does change your appearance.

Miss Kitty wouldn’t get her name until later, and Georgia Ellis would be replaced on TV by Amanda Blake, while Doc Adams would get a new first name from the radio show, played by Howard McNear (mostly known as Floyd The Barber from The Andy Griffith Show) as Charles, to the TV show, with Milburn Stone as Galen. Fun fact: Adams gets his name from Charles Addams, creator of the Addams Family comic strips, on the suggestion of Conrad.

Tonight’s episode is “Billy The Kid”, the first official episode as neither version of the pilot was ever aired. I think we can guess who’s stopping by the Longbranch…an actual Kansas saloon back then by the way. The name is a bit more accurate in this one. See if you can recognize his voice from cartoons. Enjoy.

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“Yesterday’s” Comic> The Blue Beetle #25

“Your tire need filling, mister?”

The Blue Beetle #25

Holyoke Publishing (September, 1943)

Well, two Blue Beetle stories, one actually starting the book. That’s something I guess but it’s why Golden Age comics are remembered for the stories themselves and not the presentation. I wouldn’t want to spend a whole dime (that’s a whopping $1.77 in today’s money, for a bigger comic with ads than you can get today for $4) on a comic and only enjoy two or three of the stories where are like eight to ten of them. I know, comics were still new and these were being published like any other story magazine (which seems to have disappeared long before the print media decline) but it’s often all I have to discuss before starting these anthologies and it’s a system I’m glad isn’t the norm anymore. One or two would be okay in certain situations but these weren’t it.

[Read along with me here]

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Introducing A New Story Bible Review Series

First, there was…

Then I found…

Now thanks to TJOmega on YouTube I learned about not one but two entries from the world of the Transformers I get to do. Tonight I bring you the first of those. I’ve been wanting to do another story bible review article series since I finished Star Trek: The Next Generation season one, and now I’m happy to go over…

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