Six Comments About Comics That Are Dumb

This wasn’t the article I was going to do but I need to get myself back on schedule so I’ll do that one tomorrow. Hopefully you’ll like what we have here.

When discussing comics, especially in blogs like this one or on YouTube, one can fall into hyperbole and pessimism when it comes to the future of comics. They’ve been declaring DC dead since Time Warner was bought out by AT&T is the big one that comes to mind. On the other side you have rabid defenders of the current state of comics that also isn’t accurate when you run the numbers and it’s really being defended by people who might not read the comics but love the social commentary and progressive attitudes of the writers whether it actually benefits the story or not. Some are too quick to condemn while others are too quick to praise.

Comic store owner Perch of Comics, By Pearch goes over a few of these comments that are being made, and as this is the feature post for today I’ll toss my own two cents in there as well.

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“Yesterday’s” Comic> Robotech II: The Sentinels Halloween Special

“Does anyone else smell smoke?”

Robotech II: The Sentinels Halloween Special

Academy Comics, Ltd (October, 1996)

WRITERS/ARTISTS: John & Jason Waltrip

This is only near perfect timing. I’m swapping this week’s issue with this one for obvious reasons if you look at the post date. Otherwise I’d be reviewing it next week.

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BW’s Daily Video: 10 Time The Doctor Appeared In Video Games

Check out more WhatCulture Gaming on their YouTube channel.

And for the curious here’s the WhoCulture channel mentioned in the video.

 

The Problem With Transparency Tube

Nowadays politics and social issues…it’s not even sneaking anymore. With so many celebrities, writers, and even reviewers taking a side in pretty much every current sociopolitical topic out there and shoving it in your face left, right, and center it’s getting harder and harder not to discuss this stuff. Even I’ve tried to dance around the subject itself to the heart of the positive and negative effects on storytelling, and the right and wrong way to do it, whether I agree with a particular subject or not. I’m not here to discuss politics, I’m here to discuss storytelling.

Therein lies a huge problem with the new website Transparency.Tube. Billing itself as “The First Comprehensive Look at Politics on YouTube”, this site is attempting to catalog every YouTube channel that discusses social and political issues. At least that’s what it says they do. As always the devil is in the details and that’s why a number of people on the site, especially those who made the list, are not happy with how the site is being run. While I first heard of this site on a Clownfish TV video (I don’t regularly watch their shows but they come up in my recommendations a lot so sometimes I do look into it) and a couple of other channels I follow since then has weighed in, the most BW-friendly (as in content, I don’t think she knows of the site and yet something else that happened on her channel will spark an article later this week) is dannphan, an independent comic creator whose channel reviews comics and occasionally discusses some wacky war going on in the “wonderful” world of Twitter rage. She sums up the main issue nicely because she’s one of the “lucky” to get on this list and isn’t happy with how her channel is being labeled.

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“Yesterday’s” Comic> Star Trek: First Contact movie adaptation

The Borg discover Quidditch.

Star Trek: First Contact

Marvel/Paramount Comics (November, 1996)

STORY: Rick Berman, Brannon Braga, & Roland D. Moore

SCREENPLAY: Brannon Braga & Roland D. Moore

ADAPTATION: John Vornholt

ARTISTS: Terry Pallot and Rod Whigham (also layouts)

INKER: Philip Moy (for Whigham’s pages)

COLOR DESIGN: Shannon Blachard

COLORING: Malibu

COVER ART: Jeff Pittarelli

LETTERER: Edd Fear

EDITOR: Phil Crain

SENIOR EDITOR: Mark Paniccia

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BW’s Daily Video: How To Play Flash Games After Adobe Ends Flash

Note that the games featured in this video may contain swear words or mild graphic violence.

Catch more videos on Two Left Thumbs’ YouTube channel.

Chapter By Chapter> BattleTech: I Am Jade Falcon chapter 3

Chapter By Chapter features me reading one chapter of the selected book at the time and reviewing it as if I were reviewing an episode of a TV show or an issue of a comic. There will be spoilers if you haven’t read to the point I have, and if you’ve read further I ask that you don’t spoil anything further into the book. Think of it as read-along book club.

Three chapters and we’re still on the same scene. I guess he’s dividing by good story breaks, which is actually not a bad idea. Chapter one, introduce the main characters. Chapter two, bring out the early antagonists. Chapter three, show their initial fight to further define everyone. I don’t have a problem with this.

So now Joanna is going to hopefully show the punk kids a lesson for mouthing off to their superior while they’ve had less battle experience than I have, and I was never in the military. I’m hoping the whole chapter is just Joanna schooling the test tube brats, and I’m not a supporter of any of the Clans, given I’m coming to this franchise from the show and comics. To find out let’s return to the book later that same day and see what happens.

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