March 20, 2020

BW Filler Video: The History Of Bill Murray’s Difficulties With Ghostbusters

l-to-r: Ghostbuster, V for Vendetta, and Darma agent (Lost)

I have to apologize folks. The comic I wanted to review this week turned out to be something worth a multi-part review so I’m going to save it for next week. So I was going to do an Art Of Storytelling, but I ended up taking a longer nap than I planned after having a moment of insomnia last night. Nothing to do with the current pandemic, just a recurring issue with my brain not wanting to shut down. I wasn’t even planning to do anything this week but plans altered so I want to at least give you something worth stopping by for.

So here’s a retrospective from Midnight’s Edge going over the history of the Ghostbusters movies, focusing on a particular detail: Bill Murray, who plays Peter Venkman, the womanizing psychologist. Getting him to do any of the movies proved a huge challenge and why it took so long to do a third movie that one of the other stars passed away first. I wonder if they’re sorry they brought him on in the first place? It also goes into the early concept, Ghost Smashers, which was not going to be a comedy.

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Posted by on March 20, 2020 in Movie Spotlight and tagged , .

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March 19, 2020

BW Filler Video: History Of The Invisible Man

He can turn invisible. It sort of counts.

Time got away from me today (I was supposed to be taking the week off originally and I’ve been following this coronavirus like everyone else) so here’s a quick filler video. The Invisible Man started as a novel but soon found his way into the Universal Studios monsters. There have been numerous incarnations of the concept and even some of the original character. In this video we see the history of the classic movie franchise. It doesn’t go a whole lot into more recent stuff like the really cool Sci-Fi Channel crime drama (which I recommend checking out if you come across it) but it’s still interesting light of the movie recently hitting theaters that is nothing like the book or classic film…you really couldn’t come up with a new name?

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Posted by on March 19, 2020 in Book Spotlight, Movie Spotlight and tagged , , , .

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March 18, 2020

Shout Factory Launches TokuSHOUTsu

Tokusatsu is just a term for Japanese live-action special effects shows usually involving giant monsters fighting people in high-tech spandex. It’s where Power Rangers, Ultraman, and Masked/Kamen Rider come from. While a few series and movies have been released (not counting Godzilla and friends, who also count) there hasn’t been a place to see it outside of home video and one highest-tier TV channel, Toku. Now Shout Factory has created an entire channel on live streaming cable-like but ad-supported Pluto TV dedicated solely to this genre of Japanese science fiction. Let’s see what you get.

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Posted by on March 18, 2020 in Movie Spotlight, Streaming Spotlight, Television Spotlight and tagged , , , , , , , .

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March 17, 2020

Doctor Who’s Timeless Retcon

For the record I’m not here to join the hate New Who bandwagon. I pretty much gave up on it a long time ago. It doesn’t have the same charm of the original series, and while we could go over why my reason for posting the following two videos and my own commentary on the latest retcon of the Doctor’s lore is more to discuss storytelling and the dangers of the retcon bomb.

Retroactive continuity, or “retcon” for short, is when a writer doesn’t just change current events but when they do so in a way that retroactively alters not only the past but the way we go back and watch those old stories. I’m not talking about plot twists like Magic Knights Rayearth, Terra’s heel turn in Teen Titans, or (insert almost every M. Night Shyamalan movie here) that were intentional from the start. This is something never intended by the previous creator that was shoved into it later on. Think Donna Troy’s origin, that Picard clone from Star Trek: Nemesis, or The Timeless Child.

The Timeless Child comes from the most recent season finale of Doctor Who, “The Timeless Children”. It gives a brand new origin for the Doctor, which if you haven’t seen it yet I’ll let the first video handle the spoilers. It’s a change that fundamentally alters the Doctor as a character by giving an origin to the Time Lords’ ability to regenerate versus the regular Galifreyans. However, the story appears to have gone too far and this very much affects the Doctor as a character and as we’ll see in the second video the already scattered lore of the Time Lords.

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Posted by on March 17, 2020 in Television Spotlight and tagged , , , , .

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March 16, 2020

Chapter By Chapter> Spider-Man: Carnage In New York chapter 10

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.

While we’re all stuck home scared of the coronavirus fictional New York had to deal with a superpowered serial killer. And thanks to some really stupid moves by some really stupid people he may end up running around New York with the potential to turn everyone into crazed killers. Just in case you think you’d want to live in the Marvel universe.

We’re at the halfway point of this twenty chapter book, so let’s see the result of a really bad idea being interrupted by an even worse idea trying to be a better idea. If that makes sense you’ve been reading along with us.

Coming up on this week’s Dancing With The Superheroes.

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Posted by on March 16, 2020 in Marvel Spotlight, Spider-Man: Carnage In NY and tagged , , , , , , , , , .

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March 15, 2020

BW Programming Update: Slow Week

Well this is crap timing!

With schools, businesses, and events shut down thanks to the coronavirus this is the perfect time for draw in a few more readers with discussions, reviews, and comics. So naturally this is the week I chose before all that to take a week or two off to prevent burnout! And what bad timing! Half my comic reviews are on cliffhangers and so is the Chapter By Chapter book review, plus another example of weaponized retconning just popped up I have to talk about, plus the aforementioned potential to snag an extra reader or two who have nothing better to do than read discussions about comics, TV shows, and other media. This is my life, people! I even took a lazy day yesterday and had nothing for this week’s Clutter Report.

I wavered between taking my anti-burnout break and not squandering the opportunity, and finally I decided on taking the middle road. I will have the main articles this week. We’ll continue Chapter By Chapter, have another installment of the Art Of Storytelling, and I get to discuss a graphic novel that I own virtually but it’s still “legal” enough to call Scanning My Collection. Plus of course I have to discuss the New Who retcon bomb and what that’s done to Doctor Who because it’s another example of misuse of the retcon, the most dangerous tool in storytelling. Maybe I’ll discuss that as well or save it for this year’s Art Soundoff in November? There was the one I did about the dangers of turning characters evil where I did make note of it.

However, that’s all I’ll be doing this week. No daily comic reviews and no morning posts…about that by the way. Considering I have some international readers who don’t have the same morning I do the morning post is going to be renamed. The currently considered title is either Daily Article Link/Video or just BW’s Daily Quickie. I haven’t decided just yet. Then I’ll maybe take the next week and do the reverse, just the daily comic review or just take the full week off so I can come back at full speed. It’s just the wrong week to take a full break. Stay healthy, people!

Posted by on March 15, 2020 in BW Progress Report and tagged .

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March 14, 2020

Saturday Night Showcase: Virtua Fighter (the anime)

I was going to go with an indie production for this week’s Showcase but I was so confused what was going on I couldn’t even finish it. So instead I went back to TMS’s official anime channel on YouTube for one my favorite anime I never see mentioned, even when I look for it on fan sites for the game. Virtua Fighter is an arcade fighting game series created by SEGA. Fighting games usually don’t have a lot of story besides the backstory so it’s open territory for making a story around. In the past I used it for a Friday Night Fight and it’s another comic I could have sworn I reviewed for “Yesterday’s” Comic but apparently I haven’t. It’s a good comic and I wish it had gotten to full series.

However, finding information on the Virtua Fighter anime in the past has been a struggle just to see it discussed. Not only is it a really good game (I have the PC port of the first game, the anime featuring characters from the first game and later cameos from the second) but it’s a TMS production. You’d think more people would have heard of it. Especially since it’s just a lot of fun.

The series follows Akira Yuki, who in this incarnation basically has Goku’s personality, and his friends as they deal with an international gang of martial arts bad guys. Akira searches for the eight stars, a symbol that shows his dedication to the martial arts. His quest for fame cost him this vision and now he’s on a quest to reclaim it. In our opening episodes he is drawn into Pai and her war with her father, and later episodes also add Jacky Bryant and his sister Sarah. If you know the game we see her before being brainwashed as well as her capture and alteration by the villain organization of the franchise. I’m also including the second episode because I want to make sure you guys see this show. Enjoy.

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Posted by on March 14, 2020 in Animation Spotlight, Saturday Night Showcase, Television Spotlight and tagged , , , .

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