Come on, Daph, you’ve been in the Batcave before. This shouldn’t be new.
Scooby-Doo #47
DC Comics (June, 2001; posted to comiXology October, 2014)
COLORIST: Paul Becton
LETTERER: Ryan Cline
ASSISTANT EDITOR: Harvey Richards
EDITOR: Joan Hilty
“Bats What I’m Afraid Of”
WRITER: Brett Lewis
PENCILER: Joe Staton
INKER: Dave Hunt
“Tune Goon”
WRITER: Scott Cunningham
ARTIST: Karen Machette
SEPARATIONS: Digital Chameleon
Catch more of TJOmega’s various shows on his YouTube channel.
This goes back to what I was saying the recent Art Of Storytelling article on letting your game be open and accepting things not going as planned. This is something I bet has rarely happened in one of these games, but it sounds awesome that it did. While I’m still not the type to play these games (my control freak issues when it comes to the narrative) I do like hearing these stories.
Did you see today’s Daily Video and wonder where I heard of such madness? The below video is your answer.
While Toho is known primarily for Godzilla and his giant monster pals it’s usually in the theaters. Even without kaiju Toho is known as a movie producer or at least distributor. However in Japan they have produced a number of shows for Japanese television, a small number of which have shown up on US TV. They’ve even added a few entries into the Toei-dominated world of super sentai.
As part of the Kaiju Masterclass online event in 2020 Kevin Derendorf, author of Kaiju For Hipsters, gives us a look into Toho’s travels into special effect driven television, or tokusatsu. (The term also applies to movies, including Godzilla.) This is where I heard of that wacky thing from earlier today was mentioned but don’t worry. Most of it is quite sane. MOST of it.
Oh right, we left these guys in trouble, didn’t we?
Robotech II: The Sentinels book 4 #10
Academy Comics, Ltd (September, 1996)
“Dance With The Devil”
WRITERS/ARTISTS: John & Jason Waltrip
From what I’ve just recently heard this is the only English dub (I hope you can understand…most anything they say) of a series of skits called Godziban from the official Godzilla channel on YouTube. I’m not sure there’s any other English content on there but if you understand Japanese there you go. Apparently the two various sons of Godzilla are now his brothers. Not sure why. It’s not like this made any sense.
When a toyline goes on for long enough you run into a problem. Your promotional media has been tied to a select group of characters even if the line itself allows for more characters. If enough kids already bought your hero then that toy becomes a pegwarmer, but at some point a new year of kids may get into the toys and want one of the hero from the show that they love so much. You could try removing that character, but ask Hasbro how well that worked out with Optimus Prime.
The usual go-to solution is to re-release the character with a new toy and some new gimmick. In the case of He-Man you have self-repairing battle armor, a backpack that supposedly boosts his punch to a level Iron Fist would be jealous of, and so on. This ensures that your hero (and your villain, as Skeletor needed his own new gear) stays fresh on the shelf and everyone gets some version of the character. Note that all this was before the adult collector market. I’m just talking about kids here.
So what kind of upgrade did He-Man’s sister get in her battle against evil? A new cape and a new crystal dye job for her horse. What kind of power enhancements does that come with? It…looks prettier? Good thing the toy version of the Princess Of Power wasn’t the one fighting off a conquering horde or I might be worried. Yes, it’s time to return to minicomics She-Ra, where they completely misunderstood why He-Man & The Masters Of The Universe even had a spin-off cartoon and made it girly as heck…while racking up an impressive death toll. Who’s getting turned into a butterfly this time?
“So glad I remembered to put on underwear today.”
Princess Of Power series 2 #1
Mattel (1986)
Hey, we have credits for this issue!
WRITERS: Tina Harris & Eric Frydler
PENCILER: Jim Mitchell
INKER: Todd Kurosawa
COLORIST: Charles Simpson
LETTERER: not listed, but still more credits than series 1 gave us
EDITORS: Joan Dumbauld & Lee Nordling
You can try to read along at He-Man.org but they don’t have the pages in proper order, so have fun searching like I did. This wasn’t a problem before.
Was someone afraid to put Michael Dorn in whiteface on this cover?
Star Trek: The Next Generation #79
DC Comics (January, 1996)
“Artificiality”
WRITER: Michael Jan Friedman
PENCILER: Gordon Purcell
INKER: Terry Pallot
COLORIST: Gene D’Angelo
LETTERER: Chris Eliopoulos
EDITORS: Margaret Clark & Dana Kurtin
The Clutter Reports (my other site) Atop The Fourth Wall Crisis On Earth Prime Lean Into Artcast Bully Says “Comics Oughta Be Fun” Siskoid’s Blog of Geekery
Cartoon Hero’s Lair SF Debris Four Million Years Later
