Saturday Night Showcase: A Voice From The Dark

I don’t usually do horror stories but the events that led to it are interesting given it involves people I follow. Until all the drama happened and contributors fled the site in droves, Channel Awesome used to do an annual get together of people on the site, usually the more popular people. the stories usually involved some enemy that the group had to fight, but wasn’t always researched the best as to what happens on the individual web shows, even when they had clear storylines involving fighting the forces of evil during their reviews.

Lewis Lovhaug, aka Linkara, missed doing these movies, if only because he liked hanging out with his friends. The sets themselves apparently were not the best run, something they fixed for Demo Reel and the reborn Nostalgia Critic shows, but often made making the movies terrible. Using that as a sort of metatext Lovhaug and co-writer Leslie Rice brought as much of the old crew together as they could, as well as former CA contributors who didn’t get to be in the movies. The result was A Voice In The Dark, a six-part audio drama in which a mysterious force known only as The Voice targets our heroes, and I don’t mean for a singing competition. Can these few reviewers deal with a cosmic threat, numerous betrayals, and their own wacky personalities to save the world or are we doomed?

Fun fact: Back when I was with Reviewers Unknown one of our contributors, TestZero, wanted to do a video about trying to make our own anniversary video but nobody having the time or money to put it together…but none of us had the time to put it together. I’m pretty sure that’s irony (darn you, Alanis Morissette!). I wonder if we could have actually done an audio drama? Ah, what might have been. Enjoy this playlist of all six part of A Voice In The Dark so I don’t have to embed six videos and you don’t have to download and click on them all. Apparently some mistakes will be fixed for the DVD release, so if you spot them let Linkara know.

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Resurrecting The Dead With Computers

I had planned a commentary for today but it didn’t work out. I’ll save it for next week and bring you this instead.

There’s a new process called “deepfake” that is both amazing and terrifying. Terrifying because used by bad people it could be used to make that sci-fi gimmick of using computers to fake something criminal or otherwise damaging become reality. Hollywood however is trying to use it for long-term franchises to allow a dead performer a chance to play his or her character one last time. Like every computer generated effect it takes talent and the right software to pull it off convincingly. Even with a big budget this doesn’t always happen.

The crew at Corridor Digital, the Corridor Crew, takes a look at these successes and failures to see what they did right. In a second video they try this trick themselves and show how it can be pulled off. You will be amazed and terrified. And not always for the reason I gave above. Some of these are terrible.

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“Yesterday’s” Comic> Radioactive Man vol 2 #4

Radioactive Man stands in for Orkin Man.

Radioactive Man volume 2 #4

Bongo Comics Group (May, 2001…I mean 1953)

WRITER: Batton Lash

PENCILER: Mike DeCarlo

COLORIST: Nathan Lane

EXECUTIVE EDITOR: William Morrison

“The Amazing Radioactive Spider!”

INKER: Robert Smith

LETTERER: Christopher Ungar

EDITOR: Terrance Delegennie

“The Thing In My Head”

INKER: Murphy Anderson

LETTERER: Chris Ungar

Gloria Grand: Reporter At Large: “The Beauty Queen From The 21st Century”

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BW’s Morning Article Link: Mouse Guard Movie Canceled

I could have sworn I had images from the Free Comic Book Day reviews. I think I gave them away so this is the only mouse with a sword image I could find in my library.

The Mouse Guard is a comic I’ve only seen sample stories from in Free Comic Book Day samplers I don’t think I own anymore. It’s a fantasy story with mice in a mouse society. It’s quite good. Fox was going to make a movie but after the Disney acquisition (I think we can guess why given mice in Disney properties…okay, maybe not but I know someone out there is thinking it) the project has been scrapped. Slashfilm has a look at what could have been since the pre-production and casting were already done.

Wolverine Abuse Through Science

This never gets old.

Longtime readers know I do love my Wolverine abuse, within limits of course. Hate that guy, but I haven’t given up my humanity even for fictional characters. So many writers want to make him the awesomest ever but the next writer will purposefully eliminate any character growth of his or her predecessors so they can write the angry feral man. They created a character whose sole purpose is undoing Logan’s character growth. I’ve grown to hate the character and everyone insistence he’s the best ever just makes it worse. I don’t respond well to peer pressure.

Wolverine abuse is also fun because he cannot die. Or at least if he does it isn’t for long and he comes back with a freaky new power because he wasn’t awesome enough somehow. The Wolverine shrine needs an extra mark or something. However, it is possible to really ruin Logan’s day and it is possible to at least temporarily kill him, which by superhero comic standards is close enough for government work. Kyle Hill of Because Science explains the many, sometimes gross, ways to create Wolverine abuse if you’re a supervillain. Or me.

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“Yesterday’s” Comic> Robotech: The Macross Saga #10

Never make fun of Breetai’s eyepatch.

Robotech: The Macross Saga #10

Comic The Comic Company (March, 1986)

“Blind Game”

ADAPTATION: Jack Herman

PENCILER: Mike Leeke

INKER: Chris Kalnick

COLORIST: Tom Vincent

LETTERER: Bob Pinaha

EDITOR: Diana Schutz

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BW’s Morning Video: Mail-Order Space Waifu

The only cursing is the creator’s catchphrase at the end.

Here’s a link to that full video he mentioned, and of course the obligatory creator’s YouTube channel link.