August 19, 2025

BW’s Daily Video> Skybound’s Transformers Vs Dreamwave’s Transformers

Catch more from Megacosm on YouTube

from my comments:

Celebrating Dreamwave while trashing Furman and humanized Transformers? I’m totally onboard with all that. Dreamwave is my favorite as well, but a few clarifications are in order.

For one thing, Dreamwave’s first miniseries wasn’t done by Furman. (He responded by saying that wasn’t what he intended to say and hope that’s not how he came off.) He did The War Within and oddly the two parts of the Unicron Trilogy, Armada and Energon (Cybertron came out after Dreamwave collapsed because Pat Lee screwed over the talent and his company by using the money to buy cars for him and his family instead of paying the talent or the bills). The first miniseries was by Chris Saraccini, and did its own “adult” moments like Megatron squashing a guy as he took a leak. The rest of the DW run was by Brad Mick and Adam Patyk and was good. Actually, outside of Furman sneaking Galvatron into the Unicron Trilogy, one of his pet characters (he would have done Grimlock in if he could), The War Within, Armada, and Energon are not that bad. It’s the only time I’ll say that about Furman Transformers stories, which includes a lot of that “humanization” of Transformers as beings. It’s one of the reasons I’ve been writing my own Transformers lore on my site. That and the whole “forced caste” nonsense that’s gone on since IDW and the Megatron: Origins miniseries.

I’m also of the mind that Transformers is a kids toyline, and thus the media should at least be accessible to kids. Nobody asked Sesame Street to “grow up with the audience”, and that’s why I can’t get into Skybound’s take. That and killing my boy Bumblebee at the start. I’m not saying it should be a “kids comic”, given what that usually means to the kid-hating modern writers, but that it should at least be kid accessible, which Skybound most definitely isn’t. I would have rather something closer to Super Dinosaur than Invincible.

All that said, Dreamwave is my favorite take, followed by the Marvel Budiansky run. Shame he doesn’t get to write more Transformers while we can’t get away from Furman

TL;DR: I agree with pretty much all of this.

Posted by on August 19, 2025 in Comic Spotlight and tagged , , , .

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August 18, 2025

Chapter By Chapter> Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Mirror Image chapter 59

Chapter by Chapter features me reading one chapter (or possibly multiple chapters for this one) 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.

Slight change in plans. Due to my current situation I only have time to review the one chapter, just barely making the length count. Not sure how this will screw this up scheduling wise but the next one will definitely be two chapter.

In last time’s two chapters, our only Russian hero thus far tried to get Striker to the train on time while the undercover Strikers tried to get out of Dodge…or rather St. Petersburg. We’re apparently back to the train this chapter.

I’m low on time and lower on ways to pad out the intros for this really long book, so we’re just going to jump back into this.

Chapter 59: Tuesday, 10:51 PM, Khabarovsk

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Posted by on August 18, 2025 in Op-Center: Mirror Image and tagged , , , , , , , .

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August 18, 2025

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Prototype #9

My money’s on Prototype.

Prototype #9

Malibu Comics/Ultraverse (April, 1994)

“Prototype Unplugged”

WRITERS: Tom Mason & Len Strazewski

ARTISTS: Roger Robinson & Jeff Whiting

COLORING: Keith Conroy & Violet Hues

LETTERER: Tim Eldred

EDITOR: Roland Mann

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Posted by on August 18, 2025 in Yesterday's Comics and tagged , , , , .

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August 18, 2025

BW’s Daily Video> How Comic Books Are Made

Catch more from INDUSTRIA on YouTube

They lean heavy on the traditional, but that’s basically how it’s done. Unless you’re making a webcomic like I do. Then you find a place to upload the images (if you’re doing it on a webpage or an online reader, depending how that works) or PDF/CBR file (your preference for the digital download) and get your comic out. Personally I never use a script or the thumbnails because the story runs in my head until it’s laid out, but I haven’t done a full length comic in years. Also, the tablet (I use a Parblo A610 currently) is the tool. Clip Studio Paint (which I also use, though other some artists use other programs) is my program of choice since it was Manga Studio 5 before the addition of limited animation tools. Finally, the video seems to put blame on the letterer for blocking the art than the artist leaving room for the word balloons and sound effects. Both are a mistake, but it’s not always the letterer’s fault.

Posted by on August 18, 2025 in Comic Spotlight and tagged , , .

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August 17, 2025

BW Programming Note> We Might Be Spotty For A While

So no comic this week. I’m just not in a (what passes for) comedic mood at the moment and I have distractions taking priority. That’s why I took time off from The Clutter Reports this month because I have places besides BW HQ to be for a while. I’ll be lucky if I can keep up with content here, and I still had to use up a couple of buffers before I really build that up. So don’t be surprised if there’s a day without one of or all three of the weekly posts missing. Comics will return when I get a chance to come up with something, write it down before forgetting it, and then making the comic. You wouldn’t think four panels would take long to make, but it depends on the comic and how tired I am the days I have something to make.

I should at least get the next chapter of Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Mirror Image. (Just one this week after all, which right now is good for my time crunch.) When I finish this I’m going to clear out my filler video backlog just so I don’t have to worry about that (there’s more there than the filler article buffer) and work to get comic reviews and some kind of content out. I’m really hoping everything gets better this week because for all I wrote here, I’m not the one actually suffering right now, hence my vagueness in this sphere, though I’ve been through it and thankfully his isn’t as bad. Prayers welcome. I’d like to get him home this week.

So apologies if there’s a day without a post, but priorities rise above the site. I’ll do what I can if only to distract myself, but I miss a post or a full day, there’s nothing I can do about it. I’ll hold on and build a buffer the best I can. Also, I found out what my next pre-production story bible series is going to be, so when things stop being crazy that will come up. I might have a preview this week from another source. In the meantime, have a great week, everyone!

Posted by on August 17, 2025 in Uncategorized.

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August 16, 2025

Saturday Night Showcase> The Three Doctors (Who)

Just because they’re available and it’s easy for me to drop them in now and deal with other distractions, the next three weeks will show off the three anniversary Doctor Who crossovers. I don’t have “Time And The Doctor” from the new series available to me and the charity crossovers are either short, a parody, or whatever the hell Dimensions In Time was.

Of the three official crossovers, you’ll note that they all have the second Doctor, Patrick Troughton, reprising his role. This is interesting given his adventures take place as he was on the run from the Time Lords still, but the later Time Lords were somehow able to find him and recruit or kidnap him into the story.

Tonight’s story is where it began, the 10th anniversary special “The Three Doctors”. At the time, Jon Pertwee was the active one, the Third Doctor. It’s also the first appearance of Omega, a lost Time Lord who basically created the power source Time Lords use to travel through time. You might think you remember him from Ncuti Gatwa’s recent stories, but as you watch the episode you will realize you don’t and Russel T. Davies screwed the depiction up royally. This would also be the last appearance of William Hartnell as the first Doctor, trapped in a time eddy because the same health issues that caused him to leave the show were still in effect, if not worse, so advising his future selves was all he could do. It set the standard for future crossovers in different media. Enjoy

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Posted by on August 16, 2025 in Saturday Night Showcase, Television Spotlight and tagged , , , , , , , , , .

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August 16, 2025

BW’s Saturday Article Link> The International Manga Recruitment Competition

Have you always wanted to work for a Japanese comic/manga company but aren’t Japanese and have never been to Japan? Well, thanks to the slow suicide of low birth rates in the Land Of The Rising Sun and the dwindling talent pool that comes with it, Kadokawa is taking advantage of fans who love to draw and write comics in the Japanese style and format to create the International Wordless Manga competition. The winners will get money and a chance to work with one of the biggest manga publishers in Japan through the power of the internet. It works for US comic companies, so why shouldn’t comics that actually sell try to recruit new creators that way?

Posted by on August 16, 2025 in Comic Spotlight and tagged , , .

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