Jake & Leon #375: Panic!

When you can’t think of a strip, make not thinking of a strip the strip.

Fun fact: I actually did script this. Or at least thumbnailed it so I wouldn’t lose the idea.

So my laptop’s not working again. Indications are it’s the hard drive so I can’t use my art station for drawing until I get a new one. Lucky they’re cheap even by my lack-of-income standards but that’s money I don’t want to spend right now. I have a friend who’s computer savvy and maybe he can save the info on the drive and maybe he can’t. Lucky for me most of the stuff on there is easily replaced or I never used anyway. It’s just really annoying and I’m wondering if it’s connected to that memory issue I had a couple of weeks ago. It’s just getting on my nerves is all.

Speaking of hard drives, over at The Clutter Reports I’m beginning work organizing my back-up hard drive, which I never used for the laptop, just my and my parents’ computers. This is my next virtual clutter project.

Nightwing is making his return to the Monday DC comic reviews, while another Secret Files And Origins comic will be showing up in Scanning My Collection, this one during the period where Superman was split into a blue and red version of his electric form, because they decided to double down on a bad idea. For Superman anyway, A hero with electric superpowers is a cool idea. And while I don’t have the next issue of Marvel’s Doctor Who I do have an issue of IDW’s Doctor Who Classics with the same story reprint but with their own coloring, so we’ll be continuing along there. I also want to finally get the next Finally Watched in but I’m waiting to see what surprise will mess me up THIS week. It’s getting to the point where even the good surprises are getting to me because it’s still eating into my productivity. But I’ll make this a good week to follow one way or another.

BW Panelling: Crowdfunding In Comics

As I was organizing my computer files some time ago I stumbled across a convention panel I thought I had lost, from the 2013 Brass City Comic Convention. The panel was about using a crowdsourcing site to get funding for graphic novels, although that advice could also be modified for other projects. Kickstarter and Indiegogo are the two sites he focuses one. Again, this is in 2013, before Patreon and other long-term funding sites were set up, but you might be able to modify towards those services as well.

The panelist is Tyler James (no connection to multi-appearance toy reviewer TJ Omega), comic creator and publisher for the small publisher ComixTribe, who has managed to succeed numerous times at getting his projects funded on Kickstarter. So he has a lot of cred when it comes to this project. Enjoy!

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“Yesterday’s” Comic> Batman Beyond #1 (DCAU ongoing)

The blueprint for Adam Beechan’s miniseries.

Batman Beyond #1

DC Comics (November, 1999)

“Grounded”

WRITER: Hilary J. Bader

PENCILER: Craig Rosseau

INKER: Rob Leigh

COLORIST: Lee Loughridge

LETTERER: Tim Harkins

ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Joseph Illidge

EDITOR: Darren Vincenzo

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Star Trek: The Next Story Bible–Scripting: Believability

I don’t know how short tonight’s installment is going to be but I’m expecting the next one to be longer so I’m cutting it at the right spot. The next few sections cover how to and how not to write a script for Star Trek: The Next Generation, with the first part being the how to, the next part being the how not to, and the last one a look at the formatting of a script. I think part three will be the shortest of this set of articles but it may only interest the creatives out there.

The first section is “believability”, which covers how to make the story seem believable. Note that it doesn’t say “realistic”. While science has given us the communicator, the tricorder, and even some of Dr. McCoy’s medical equipment the transporters are all but impossible and there are people who assume we’ll all lock ourselves in the holodeck because there’s an occasional news story about someone playing World Of Warcraft way too long. “Realistic” in some minds seems to mean “show humanity at its absolute worst”, which is the opposite of what Star Trek should be? Why do you think Voyager and Enterprise had problems? Well, that and bad writing. I only know Discovery from SF Debris’ reviews because even if I had money coming in I wouldn’t spend it on CBS All Access, and I don’t have money coming in. But from what I’ve seen of those reviews I don’t think they get it either. Even Deep Space Nine, the one where we went to war and shows the kinks in the utopia, remembered this. At least in the good episodes.

So what does a good season one TNG script need according to the guide?

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“Yesterday’s” Comic> Robotech: Academy Blues #1

“These are only the first heads I shall hunt!”

Robotech: Academy Blues #1

Academy Comics Ltd (June, 1995)

“Tests”

WRITER: Robert W. Gibson

ARTIST/LETTERER: Sean Bishop

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BW’s Morning Article Link: Aretha Franklin Passes Away

Mar 25, 1942 – Aug 16, 2018

Word came out yesterday that the Queen Of Soul, Aretha Franklin, passed away at 76 years old due to pancreatic cancer. Our prayers and well wishes go to her family and friends.

Free Comic Inside: McDonald’s Commandrons

I didn’t get to do the Finally Watched…again…because I was finishing the BW Panelling. I did however watch a biography on Andre The Giant I picked up from HBO during a recent preview weekend. It was quite fascinating but not really worth of a Finally Watched article. So…next week? Hopefully?

During the height of popularity of Transformers and GoBots in the 1980s other companies have sought to cash in. And fast food restaurants are no exception if they offered any kind of kids meal. For example Wendy’s offered their own GoBots, which were later also available by mailaway offer if you collected enough Kool-Aid points. Kool-Aid doesn’t do that anymore. Kids are getting ripped off because parents think their kids are dumb. McDonald’s is no stranger to this either. During the Beast Wars line they partnered with Hasbro to release a set of figures from the regular and Transmetal periods of the Beast Wars toyline as well as Beast Machines and a few other lines since.

Before then, however, McDonald’s released their own transforming toys for their Happy Meals. The more famous one is the robots that turned into the various Happy Meal offerings–shakes, fries, and hamburger transforming robots were actually made. Not as well-known according to what I’ve seen on the internet were the Commandrons, a line of toys with an interesting backstory. They were created by Tomy but only his stores in Canada as far as North America is concerned, under the name Super Alternators. They also got the Happy Meal release but the US got something Canada didn’t: minicomics!

“No, guys, you can’t keep it as a pet!”

Commandrons #1?

DC Comics/McDonalds (1985)

“Airborne!”

Oddly there are no credits for the creative team. I guess this is one they didn’t want to be known for. And I couldn’t find any information on the sites I thought to look on. Minicomics aren’t as well documented unless they’re part of a big fanbase like Masters Of The Universe so if anyone knows who worked on these, please let us know. I also don’t know for sure that this is the first issue but I’ll just pretend it is.

Four in all were produced but thus far the only one I’ve found a scan of online is the article I found out about it from, Battlegrip.com. Oddly the comic also included an ad and mailaway offer for another Tomy line, Robo Strux, which was a rebrand of the Zoids. The minicomics were made by DC Comics, who are showing off more often in this series than I expected. Super Powers Collection, MASK, Masters Of The Universe, Atari Force, Commandrons–what mini-comic will the DC logo appear on next? So click that first link in this paragraph and read along as we follow the adventure of four heroic robots and their pre-teen human pilots. Wait, what?

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