January 9, 2021

Saturday Night Showcase: Unraveling The Real Bob Ross

Bob Ross may be the most famous painter of the late 20th century. Host of PBS’s The Joy Of Painting, Ross has now become something of a celebrity on the internet. I have literally seen people cosplay as him at conventions. He has his own channel on Pluto TV and his own YouTube channel, both as of this writing, despite having passed away in 1995 at 52 years old. His is a strange phenomenon given his genre…unless you know his full story. The problem is the company that was built around Bob Ross doesn’t always tell you the whole story to hype up the brand. So what is the full history of the happy little painter? It’s more detailed than you’d think.

At least it is according to the research by Scott Niswander over at NerdSync, who brings us this documentary look at the history of man who did AMSR or however it’s spelled (it’s a YouTube genre I admittedly know little about) before it had a name. How did the man known for showing how much fun it is to paint and push the message that anyone can learn to paint pictures have a somewhat controversial start?

Continue reading →

Posted by on January 9, 2021 in Saturday Night Showcase, Television Spotlight and tagged , , , , , .

Leave a comment

January 9, 2021

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Doctor Who: The Forgotten #1

“You’d think they’d let me be in color in this modern comic, hmm?”

Doctor Who: The Forgotten #1

IDW Publishing (August, 2008; as posted to comiXology, no longer available)

“Amputation”

WRITER: Tony Lee

ARTIST: Pia Guerra

INK ASSISTS: Kent Archer & Shyanne Corbett

SELECTED COVER ART: Nick Roche (digital version also includes the variant photo cover)

COLORIST: Charlie Kirchoff

LETTERER: Neil Uyetake

EDITORS: Chris Ryall & Tom Waltz

Continue reading →

Posted by on January 9, 2021 in Television Spotlight, Yesterday's Comics and tagged , , , , , , , , .

Leave a comment

January 8, 2021

Are Redhead Characters Being De-Gingered By Hollywood

There’s a weird trend starting up in Hollywood, as if someone higher up in the chain hates redheads. People are starting to notice that redheaded characters from comics and cartoons are being replaced by blonds, brunettes, bald people, and even people whose skin color doesn’t have redheads so they don’t even bother. There are exceptions. Amber Heard went red to play Mera in Aquaman and Scarlett Johansson plays Natasha Romanoff with her proper shade of hair but this is becoming the exception rather than the rule. At least that’s what you hear.

For the record I don’t count Zendaya as MJ in the Spider-Man MCU movies. As part of Sony insisting Marvel Studios ditch as much of Spidey’s iconography as possible in case they want to go back to ruining the series (until Into The Spider-Verse they hadn’t made a well-received Spider-Man movie since Spider-Man 2) Zendaya doesn’t play Mary Jane Watson but Michelle Jones, a new character who shares the initials of Joe Quesada’s hated Mrs. Parker. The original April O’Neil is a brunette and became a redhead in the first cartoon. In fact when looking up characters being replaced, some of the lists I found got their hair color wrong or was just complaining that the actress wasn’t redhead. (Though I could have sworn Mystique wasn’t a redhead in live-action I was wrong.) I don’t mind if they change their hair color. Gwyneth Paltrow and Kirsten Dunst both did so to play Pepper Potts and Mary Jane Watson respectively, and the girl who played Gwen Stacey in the more recent Amazing Spider-Man is naturally a redhead but dyed her hair to play the blond Gwen. However, while the trend may not be as serious as it looks people are noticing a trend.

Continue reading →

Posted by on January 8, 2021 in Animation Spotlight, Comic Spotlight, Movie Spotlight, Television Spotlight and tagged , , , .

10 Comments

January 8, 2021

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Scooby-Doo #56 (DC)

Wasn’t this an episode of Friday The 13th: The Series?

Scooby-Doo #56

DC Comics (March, 2002: as posted to comiXology)

COLORIST: Paul Becton

SEPARATIONS: Digital Chameleon

ASSISTANT EDITOR: Harvey Richards

EDITOR: Joan Hilty

“The Case Of The Cinema Spirit”

WRITER: Chuck Dixon

PENCILER: Joe Staton

INKER: Mike DeCarlo

LETTERER: Sergio Garcia

“The Italian Hellion”

WRITER: Dan Abnett

PENCILER: Anthony Williams

INKER: Jeff Albrecht

LETTERER: Jenna Garcia

Continue reading →

Posted by on January 8, 2021 in Animation Spotlight, Television Spotlight, Yesterday's Comics and tagged , .

Leave a comment

January 8, 2021

BW’s Daily Article Link: The 3 Stooges Superhero Cartoon Gets A Comic

It’s true. This is a real show that really existed in 1977. Hanna-Barbera basically turned the Three Stooges (not the first time they’ve been a cartoon–their appearance in The New Scooby-Doo Movies I think was their second after the Stooges’ own cartoon in the 1960s) into Dynomutt. Now they’re about to return in all their mechanical glory in the pages of their own comic book. (Also not the first time Moe, Larry, and Curly have been in a comic book.)

Posted by on January 8, 2021 in Animation Spotlight, Comic Spotlight, Television Spotlight and tagged , .

1 Comment

January 7, 2021

The Force Of New Star Wars Series

Star Wars hasn’t been doing so well since Disney took over. Longtime fans were upset about the novels and Dark Horse comics going away even though they could contradict each other and would be hard to follow, the emphasis on Rey has gone into Mary Sue territory since she can do things no other Jedi have done despite having less Jedi training that I’ve had, and even the good movies (I haven’t seen Solo or Rise Of Skywalker yet, but I plan to) haven’t had that Star Wars feel. George Lucas was inspired by old serials and samurai movies while the DisneyFilm movies have been less and less inspired by Star Wars.

However on TV…or rather the streaming service Disney+ they’ve done much better. And by “they” I mean The Mandalorian. I haven’t seen it or the resumed Clone Wars series because I don’t have Disney+ but fans have celebrated…the baby not-Yoda Gorgu and the bounty hunter himself. Maybe it’s because I don’t follow more modern Star Wars watchers but that seems to be all the Disney-owned LucasFilm has going for it and the reason people have flocked to Disney+…and not the huge variety of Disney and Fox shows and movies, the Marvel stuff, and other offerings. (I still hear the Artemis Fowl fans crying…you know the pun that’s coming.)

So it shouldn’t be a surprised that at the Disney Investor Day posting I was on vacation (in theory) for they announced a new batch of Star Wars streaming series. Two had been in the works for a very long time back when they were aiming for television, a prequel for Ben “Obi-Wan” Kenobi and a story featuring Boba Fett, originally planned as another “Star Wars Story” movie. However, they also announced eight more shows they’re putting in the works for a grand total of way too much Star Wars in one shot. They really want Disney+ and Star Wars to succeed but Mandalorian fans are happy they’re getting something that resembles (though I don’t know how well) actual Star Wars and the question is whether or not these will go that route and if indeed there is way too many Star Wars shows coming out while the movies are supposed to be taking time to actually strategize this time and the multi-format “High Republic” series is not winning a lot of the longtime fans over. Well, let’s see what they have planned.

Continue reading →

Posted by on January 7, 2021 in Animation Spotlight, Movie Spotlight, Streaming Spotlight, web series and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , .

2 Comments

January 7, 2021

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Robotech Masters #3

“The insurance company’s not going to believe this story.”

Robotech Masters #3

Comico The Comic Company (November, 1985)

“Volunteers!”

WRITER: Mike Baron

PENCILER: Neil D. Vokes

INKER: Rich Rankin

COLORIST: Tom Vincent

LETTERER: Bob Pinaha

EDITOR: Diana Schutz

Continue reading →

Posted by on January 7, 2021 in Animation Spotlight, Television Spotlight, Yesterday's Comics and tagged , , , .

Leave a comment