Jake & Leon #386: Power Meal

Does this mean he also eats stars, Tanukis, flowers, cats….

I wish I could take credit for the art, but I can only take half-credit. Thanks to a time crunch I used official Mario and Luigi art as my roughs, but I did have to add original facial expressions and arm positions, plus I tried to make it as original as I could. So I still have one over Greg Land. 🙂 The point is still clear though. Not every character touching an item means he or she is eating it. Otherwise a lot of people eat first aid kits in shooter games.

Over at The Clutter Reports this week I helped my dad reduce our overload of Christmas decorations. Because you can have too much of a good thing.

This week in reviews we have more from Op-Center, an original IDW Transformers movieverse miniseries that I haven’t reviewed (I think I reviewed the others when they came out as BW was active by then) and I think that will be it from Cybertron unless I get more comics in the…no, wait, there are some collections I might review for Scanning My Collection once I’ve run out of DC’s Secret Files comics. So I have maybe four days to dig out the next franchise to review. I think I know what’s next, but I say nothing now. It would be nice to get another movie review in but we’ll see about that. We are nearing the end of the story bible for Star Trek: The Next Generation and we still have more terminology to get through before that’s completed. I also have a commentary in mind I hope to flesh out in time but we’ll see about that as well.

And of course Art Soundoff continues. So we’ve got something you might enjoy this week.

 

Saturday Night Showcase: SF Debris’s Doctor Who TV Movie Review

I know the Who fandom isn’t all that keen on the BBC/Fox co-produced Doctor Who TV movie that gave us the Eighth Doctor, Paul McGann, even though they’ve embraced him thanks to the Big Finish productions and various comics and novels that fleshed him out as the Doctor. However, while I do agree with a number of the flaws listed I do like him as the Doctor, the altered TARDIS console room has been a staple since New Who changes it with every showrunner or sometimes regeneration, and I see more potential in “restoring the mystery” of the Doctor with “half human on my mother’s side” than any intended variation of the Cartmel Master Plan or “the question that must never be answered”, but it seems that’s just me. Maybe because I thought Lungbarrow‘s answer was kind of dumb and “Doctor….who?” will never be answered satisfactorily. And I guess I’m the only person NOT bothered by Eric Roberts’ Master, especially after seeing John Simm’s two variations on New Who. Granted Simms wasn’t as over the top as Roberts but imagine Anthony Ainley or Roger Delgado prancing around dancing to “I Can’t Decide” (“if you should live or die”) or absorbing people while blasting energy out of his hands to fly around like an armorless Iron Man. They should have kept Derek Jacobi around a while longer.

At any rate SF Debris just released a fascinating look at the TV Movie. He points out the flaws, but also connects it to lore and meta histories. There’s a second (well, first on the page) video chronicling the events of how the movie was made and why it started on a bad foot. Now in the past when I’ve tried to get permission to post videos here (after hearing that had been an issue in the reviewing community–long story) he instead would rather I link to his website, which I would do anyway since that’s how this feature works, rather than post them here. Assuming this to still be the case, here is the link to the review. And look around for his other Who reviews, other sci-fi work, anime, cartoons, and of course the Star Trek franchise reviews he’s most known for.

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Batman: Gotham Adventures #21

“Little girl, please tell me you sprang a leak?”

Batman: Gotham Adventures #21

DC Comics (February, 2000)

“How This World Goes!”

WRITER: Scott Peterson

PENCILER: Tim Levins

INKER: Terry Beatty

COLORIST: Lee Loughridge

LETTERER: Tim Harkins

ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Joseph Illidge

EDITOR: Darren Vincenzo

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Star Trek: The Next Story Bible–Technobabble part 3

Our trip through Trek terminology continues. For this installment I want to get through all the “S” categories. You know, shields, the saucer section, subspace, the works. By the time this installment is done you’ll swear Superman flew by to tell you S is his favorite letter. Like this:

See, it does stand for S. Man Of Steel and Supergirl lied to you. Would Sesame Street lie about the letter “S”? I think not. Star Trek also starts with S so let’s get back on topic before I pad out this lame intro even more!

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“Yesterday’s” Comic> Robotech: Academy Blues #4

I was going to make a joke about “air mail” until I realized they spelled Karl’s name wrong on the cover. It’s the same artist!

Robotech: Academy Blues #4

Academy Comics Ltd (December, 1995)

“The Calm Before”

WRITER: Robert W. Gibson

ARTIST: Frances Birchfield

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BW’s Art Soundoff 2018 #14: The Shadow Tool

I figured out the problem afterwards. The tool’s “blend mode” setting was set to “add (glow)” so it would only go on a space with color on it. Which means if I want to do it on a separate layer or an area surrounding the space I need to set it to “normal” and the layer to “add (glow”). This is what I mean about playing with the settings.

Scanning My Collection: Green Lantern Secret Files & Origins

For those of you who need a Superman break, you sadden me but don’t worry. This one drops his name a few times but he’s not actually in this one. He shows up maybe three times in background shots and that’s it. Considering how many of the Secret Files books I’ve reviewed in this portion of Scanning My Collection lately has been about him or a group he’s part of (like the Justice League or Team Superman) that may surprise some of you at this point but DC did do ones for other heroes. Good luck having that happen nowadays with Batman. They just did a whole event surrounding multiversal Batmen because they can’t get enough Batman. And they say the Joker is obsessed with Batman.

But enough about Batman, we’re here this Thanksgiving to talk Green Lantern. There is absolutely no connection to be made here. It’s just what was next in the reviews. Alan Scott does get mentioned a number of times but this comic is focused on only two ring slingers, Hal Jordan (of course) and Kyle Rayner (I’m kind of surprised he was part of this as much as he was). Ron Marz did most of the writing, with assists on profiles by other writers, and I’m getting the impression he really wanted to be writing about Hal Jordan at this point. Earlier this week we had the start of a storyline with Hal, and now this has more Hal that it should. I wonder if there’s a Flash Secret Files in my collection that’s mostly about Barry than Wally? DiDio would love that. But this is the 1990s so we’re talking Kyle. Or trying to. The stories presented in this one are a bit different from what we’ve seen in previous Secret Files books so at least there’s some variety.

Don’t worry, they didn’t forget Guy and John. Granted most people who know Guy WANT to forget him…

Green Lantern: Secret Files

DC Comics (July, 1998)

STORIES WRITER: Ron Marz

PROFILE CO-WRITERS: Scott Beatty (also the timeline) and Matt Brady

COLORIST: Tom McCraw

SEPARATIONS/COVER COLORING: Digital Chameleon

COVER PENCILER: Gil Kane

COVER INKER: Kevin Nowlan

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