June 3, 2019

Chapter By Chapter: Tom Clancy’s Op-Center finale

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.

Here we are at last, the final three chapters of a book that’s been a chore to get through. Odd pacing, too much focus on introducing series characters, and not even very likable ones most of the time, not enough on the central plot, and all with a chapter system that just doesn’t work for me. It’s time to finally finish this book and move on to something else.

  • Chapter 86: Wednesday, 9:50 AM, The Diamond Mountains: 4 pages
  • Chapter 87: Wednesday, 10:30 AM, Seoul: 4 pages
  • Chapter 88: Wednesday, 9:00 PM, Op-Center: 5 pages

So let’s find out how this all wraps up.

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Posted by on June 3, 2019 in Tom Clancy's Op-Center and tagged , , , , .

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June 3, 2019

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Superman Adventures #48

“I hear He-Man has days like these.”

Superman Adventures #48

DC Comics (October, 2000)

“The Believer”

WRITER: Jay Faerber

PENCILER: Neil Vokes

INKER: Terry Austin

COLORIST: Marie Severin

SEPARATIONS: Zylonol

LETTERER: Phil Felix

EDITOR: Joey Cavalieri

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Posted by on June 3, 2019 in Animation Spotlight, DC Spotlight, Yesterday's Comics and tagged , , , .

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June 3, 2019

BW’s Morning Article Link: Dungeons & Dragons & Automobiles

While Hollywood and comics are putting out mainly re-imaginings and mockeries of 80s favorites advertisers have been trying to play favorably to the nostalgic. For example this car advertisement from Brazil shows the cast of the Sunbow animated version of Dungeons & Dragons in live-action form using their car to finally get home. I have to say, someone must have been a fan because not only are the actors dead ringers, the CG accurate, and the costumes spot on, but they even got their Earth clothes from the intro accurate. That’s a level of detail I wouldn’t have expected.

Posted by on June 3, 2019 in Animation Spotlight, Television Spotlight and tagged , , .

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June 2, 2019

BW Programming Update

This has been a recovery week for me. I missed a few articles and stuff because I was having trouble staying awake. This includes not completing a Jake & Leon strip this week. I could have thrown something together but I want to try to get back on schedule and not produce crap comics (on purpose, anyway), so no comic this week. However I’m hopefully going to be back on track. I’ve started sleeping better for one thing. So there is content coming up.

For one thing it’s time for the conclusion of Tom Clancy’s Op-Center on Chapter By Chapter. I’ve chosen my next book and this one is going to be a bit lighter before getting back into a longer book. That’s the good thing about young reader books. We’ll also get to the TOS Star Trek comics this week, and I made a goof last week. Apparently the comic I’m starting on is from DC’s first run on the series. Most of their stuff took place during the movie period of Star Trek so I got a bit confused. This story takes place during the original five year mission, but I think the second run comes up after that before we finally get into DC’s original run, plus Marvel had the license during the period between the first and second movie so we’ll get that as well. Otherwise it’s time for the crew most of you know and love.

I don’t know what else is coming due to whatever’s going to happen this week but I will bring you interesting and fun reviews, trivia, and commentary as I always try to. And I’ll actually be mostly awake while doing so!

Posted by on June 2, 2019 in Uncategorized.

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June 1, 2019

Saturday Night Showcase: What Does “Abridged Series” Even Mean Anymore?

The internet has given rise to whole new types of productions as people not concerned with short-sighted producers and standards and practices boards have been more willing to experiment just for fun only to create something new. This isn’t always a GOOD thing mind you but we can take that case by case.

One new type of video that has gained a large fan base is the “abridged series”, a parody that follows the story beats of a given show, anime being the most popular works to use, but in a shortened form and combined with humor. However, what qualifies as an abridged series seem to be getting murky as many parodies have called themselves abridged but aren’t telling a shorter version of an episode. It’s just a regular parody, qualifying as fair use only as a transformative work of parody. It might be funny but that doesn’t make it abridged.

So what is the difference? YouTuber The Cartoon Cypher recently had this discussion with one of the legends of the abridged series, Team Four Star’s Scott Frerichs, aka “KaiserNeko”. His work on projects like Dragon Ball Z Abridged and Hellsing Ultimate Abridged as well as actual DBZ games and the group’s recent work on a non-abridged anime dubbing for the movie Hells gives him a unique bit of insight into what is an isn’t officially an abridged series. Let’s get our labels correct here.

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Posted by on June 1, 2019 in Animation Spotlight, Internet Spotlight and tagged , , , , , , .

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June 1, 2019

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor FCBD

You’d think the “journey of a lifetime” would start on the show but after her first season it doesn’t appear so.

Doctor Who Free Comic Book Day issue 2019

Titan Comics (2019)

WRITER: Jody Houser

ARTISTS: Giorgia Sposito with Roberta Ingranata & Valeria Favoccia

COLORIST: Tracy Bailey

LETTERING: John Roshelle & Sarah Jacobs

EDITOR: Jonathan Stevenson

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Posted by on June 1, 2019 in Television Spotlight, Yesterday's Comics and tagged , , , , , , , , .

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May 31, 2019

What Happened To Superman II?

Superman: The Movie was the first attempt to bring a live-action take on the Man Of Steel to the big screen since color films were invented. Before that you had the serials and Superman And The Mole Men (later turned into an episode of the Adventures Of Superman series it was introducing), plus the animated shorts. It did very well and of course a sequel was made, simply titled Superman II. It wasn’t as good despite being mostly decent but the quality dropped from there, and that’s coming from a guy who honestly likes the third movie.

While much of the blame is put on the replacement director there were a lot of other problems involved behind the scenes, including why Richard Donner was replaced by Richard Lester. JoBlo takes a look at why the sequel failed to live up to the original.

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Posted by on May 31, 2019 in DC Spotlight, Movie Spotlight and tagged , , , .

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