January 14, 2019

Chapter By Chapter: Tom Clancy’s Op-Center chapters 27-30

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.

Look, I understand not wanting your heroes to be perfect, but so far only one person at Op-Center is someone I would want to spend time with, never mind trust with my safety. Everyone wants either the head man’s job, or the head man. Paul’s the only character at the center I like. The other two heroes in Korea I’m rooting for but one of them is in bad shape. I’m kind of curious to see how they end up saving things if at all, because at the moment I’m only rooting for them because I don’t want to see a second Korean war, even in a fictional universe. We still have a little less than two-thirds of the book left to change my mind though. And this week it’s going to take four chapters to fill in the count.

  • Chapter 27: Tuesday, 9:55 PM, Seoul: 4 pages
  • Chapter 28: Tuesday, 7:57 AM, Op-Center: 2 whole pages
  • Chapter 29: still Tuesday, 10:00 PM, Seoul: 3 pages
  • Chapter 30: day before Wednesday, 8:05 AM, Op-Center: 4 pages

At this point I’m having to entertain myself. I’m kind of wishing the book would stay in Seoul, have Paul show up to manage things there, and leave the rest of the cast besides Paul’s family and the actual special-ops team to blow in the wind. Will these four win me over?

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Posted by on January 14, 2019 in Tom Clancy's Op-Center and tagged , , , , .

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January 14, 2019

“Yesterday’s” Comic> JLA: Year One #12

Spectre’s like “What are you all looking at?”.

JLA: Year One #12

FINAL ISSUE

DC Comics (December, 1998)

“Justice For All”

WRITERS: Mark Waid & Brian Augustyn

PENCILER: Barry Kitson

INKER: Michael Bair

COLORIST: Pat Garrahy

SEPARATIONS: Heroic Age

LETTERER: Ken Lopez

EDITOR: Peter Tomasi

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Posted by on January 14, 2019 in DC Spotlight, Yesterday's Comics and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

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January 14, 2019

BW’s Morning Article Link: Alterna Helping Indie Creators Accept Newsprint

image source: Bleeding Fool

One of the ways Alterna Comics keeps their prices low is by using newsprint, the old type of comic pages that supposedly isn’t as good as the more high-priced glossy stuff but Alterna claims has improved in quality over the years. It reduces their costs and reduces how much they charge, with their comics at $1.50 while even the Big Two are charging $4-5 a comic now. Even printing services like Ka-Blam has stopped offering it as an alternative, so Alterna has decided to help with their new partnership program. You won’t get promotion nor are they publishing your book. There are different channels for that. But if you are an indie or self publisher and you want to reduce your costs, thus increasing the likelihood that more potential readers can afford your comic, this might be an option for you.

Frankly none of my old comics from the “newsprint” days are in bad shape beyond my having read them over and over as a kid and causing a bit of wear. The newer paper hasn’t been in comics long enough to give them the same kind of judgement. I think I would go with that if I ever get to publish anything in single comic form.

Posted by on January 14, 2019 in Comic Spotlight and tagged , , , .

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January 13, 2019

Jake & Leon #391: Busting For Science

I don’t think most adults come for the science. I don’t.

I don’t know what happened to the last Mythbusters team, but the new Mythbusters Jr. is rather fascinating. Six kids, one of whom is a college sophomore at age 15, join Adam Savage in testing myths. They’ve already done whether air freshener can blow up a car, the old duct tape right of passage, and of course plenty of poor Buster abuse. I’m hoping Brian, Bo, and Jon come back, and Tamera’s one of the aids, but I like this version too.

Hey, I did something on The Clutter Reports this week! It’s my review of Mutant Beast Wars Icebird.

In the features this week expect more videos by other people because the cable company change happens this week, and I probably won’t be able to make any content at all that day, plus I have a few movies left to get to for Finally Watched. In comic reviews I’ll be completing the single issue Doctor Who comics, and yes Sean I will have more Who content in the future. We have the next set of chapters of Tom Clancy’s Op-Center, but it’s too soon to pick the next book. If anyone besides Sean wants me to do a Doctor Who novel next get your vote in now. I’m also considering a Transformers movieverse prequel novel, another Star Trek novel, or another license/novelization entry. We’ll see. I’m not even halfway through the book I’m reading now and I want to focus on that.

So I hope you like other people talking about stuff, because that’s what I have time for this week. At least you know it will be fun and interesting. I just hope I don’t burn through my filler videos too quick.

Posted by on January 13, 2019 in Jake & Leon, Television Spotlight and tagged , , , , , .

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January 12, 2019

Saturday Night Showcase: Transformers: Broken Mirror

I haven’t done a Transformers fan film on Saturday Night Showcase for a long time. Let’s fix that tonight. For those of you not aware, “Shattered Glass” is a convention comic exclusive, created for the Transformers Collector’s Club. The story follows a version of G1 Cliffjumper being tossed into a mirror universe (now referred to by fans as the Shattered Glass Universe) where the Autobots are evil and the Decepticons are a rebel group trying to oppose their plans of conquest. Other stories followed and the concept has a strong fan following.

In tonight’s Showcase we’ll be watching a 2015 stop-motion fan movie based on that idea. A Decepticon from the Shattered Glass universe finds a plot by the evil Autobots to invade another universe. Can he warn the good Autobots of their plot, and possibly find…love? It makes more sense and less squick in context. The Transformers are performed by the actual toys, but since there is a severe lack of human action figures even close to Transformer size the creators went with Lego figures and sets. If you can get past that, there isn’t such a bad story here for a low-budget fan production. If you can’t handle that it isn’t Hollywood quality that’s on you. If you can get over yourself that hurdle you might enjoy this. I did.

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Posted by on January 12, 2019 in Animation Spotlight, Internet Spotlight, Saturday Night Showcase and tagged , , , , .

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January 12, 2019

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Batman: Gotham Adventures #23

Ra’s gets his money’s worth for pay-per-view.

Batman: Gotham Adventures #23

DC Comics (April, 2000)

“Do The Wrong Thing”

WRITER: Scott Peterson

PENCILER: Tim Levins

INKER: Terry Beatty

COLORIST: Lee Loughridge

LETTERER: Tim Harkins

ASSISTANT EDITOR: Frank Berrios

EDITOR: Darren Vincenzo

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Posted by on January 12, 2019 in Animation Spotlight, DC Spotlight, Television Spotlight, Yesterday's Comics and tagged , , , , .

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January 11, 2019

Finally Watched…Casablanca

Having to change cable providers means I have to clear out my part of the DVR. With so many movies and so little time I’ve been writing my Finally Watched reviews in a Word document, and I’ll be release them over the next few weeks. So I have my Friday article for a while.

This was one I was hoping to review when it came out but circumstances kept delaying it and I ended up putting it on the back burner. So tonight I finally bring you the long-teased review of Casablanca. While not in my ordinary list of interests, the film has been homaged, parodied, and referenced so many times, often with inaccurate quotes and just barely in context usage that I really should know what the actual movie is like. Some time ago Turner Classic Movies aired it so I’ve been waiting to review it. And now here we go.

RELEASE DATE: 1942

RELEASED BY: Warner Brothers

RUNTIME: 1 hour 42 minutes

RATING: PG

STARRING: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Paul Henreid

SCREENWRITERS:  Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch, based on the play by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison, while IMBD also lists an uncredited Casey Robinson

DIRECTOR: Michael Curtiz

GROSS REVENUE: $1,024,560 (US only listed on IMDB), with an estimated budget of $950,000

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Posted by on January 11, 2019 in Finally Watched and tagged , , , , , , .

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