“Somebody used way too much chlorine in this pool!”
The Strangers #10
Malibu Comics/Ultraverse (March, 1994)
“The Door To Doom!”
Englehart
Hoberg
Eldred
Lanphear
Baumann
Mann
Prisms
Names and credits, people. Don’t forget them.
Making plans is easy. Following through on them is the hard part.
Well, I did manage to create a sort of starter schedule, and it already bore fruit. In this week’s Clutter Report I finally have my email situation all organized and easier to keep up with. This completes the second of the big declutter goals I made for myself last year but have only been able to actually push through this year. Late, but I made it. Now for the other six. It’s also helped me keep up on the RSS feeds for researching potential article topics or Saturday article links, but I’m not ready to call that project even close to done just yet.
Well, we’re back to the usual comic review schedule (speaking of schedules). Malibu’s Ultraverse on Monday, pre-DC characters on Tuesday which is now starting Captain Atom proper, Sonic Wednesdays, whatever’s next in my Drive Thru Comics library on Thursday, and Golden Age comics on Friday. We also have the next Chapter By Chapter review of Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Mirror Image, and starting the second report we’re looking at for Doctor Who: 1963 Reports & Notes. As for whatever else is going on during the week, we’ll find out together.
Have a great week, everyone! God bless.
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Many moons ago I did a Showcase for the first miniseries of The Transformers, “More Than Meets The Eye”. It introduced the series in three episodes, and it did well enough for a full syndicated series to be made, one season weekly and two weekdays. Yes, it is working again after the theatrical airing or whatever made them take it down for a short time.
Tonight we look at the next episode, the first episode of season one and the full series. “Transport To Oblivion” introduced the concept of the “space bridge”, as the Decepticons make contact with Cybertron and begin transporting their energon back to the Decepticon cause. The bridge would not only be a recurring element in the original series, but in the Aligned continuity it would be used even more often. A different take on the bridge would show up in the original comics, being a physical bridged that crossed hyperspace between planets. That’s not the only reason we’re here. This is posted to the Hasbro Pulse YouTube channel but there are plenty of streaming options, including their 24/7 livestreaming channel.
Transformers At The Moon managed to get their hands on a series of recording session tapes with famed voice director Wally Burr instructing the actors. They show off his attention to detail, a level of perfection not enough voice directors do even though it helps make the cartoon characters feel more real. It might have annoyed the actors at times, but the quality speaks for itself. Susan Blu, who worked with Burr in later seasons of The Transformers, would learn from him and later become a voice director herself. They’re interesting listens.
While trying to get caught up with my backlog, I was going through James Eatock’s Cereal:Geek TV YouTube channel and notice he put these recordings alongside footage of the episode where the lines were supposed to go, though there were some scenes that had voice recordings but weren’t used in the final episode. So for fun I’m posting them as well. They’ll come after the episode but you can watch them in any order. There’s one for the aired episode and three videos covering the entire set of recordings for the sessions of those episodes. Enjoy.
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I never played the original Final Fantasy VII and only know the remake through watching others play the game. I do know it’s considered one of the great story games, and may be at least partially responsible for video games becoming a storytelling media by making it so popular. Then people who didn’t understand why it worked came along…well, that’s for another time. For this time we go to author Brian Niemeier and his examination of the missteps in the game and the remake. Not hating on it, but nothing’s perfect.
Yes, I did push back on something he said last week. That’s the beauty of not being part of a hivemind. You can disagree on (A) and agree on (B), while having an interesting conversation about (C).
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The second half of the first report. In part one we looked over how two people not versed in science fiction explored the possibility of science fiction on British TV. Not very well, apparently, and that continues here.
As a reminder: the Head Of Light Entertainment asked the Head of Serials of the BBC drama department to look into science fiction on television. I couldn’t tell you what sparked that, but he sent Donald Bull & Alice Frick out to make a report about the possibility, with Bull writing the final report we started reading last time. You could already see how this was progressing into the ramblings of your typical upper class elitist who had no understanding about the genre or if it would actually work.
Today we see the second half of that report, which only confirms all of that. By the time this is done, the fact that Doctor Who was ever made will be the surprise. Decades later you’d have a controller who worked to axe the show rather than improve the show’s budget, his biggest complaint. Executives make no sense to me. I don’t know where Bull and Frick fit into the hierarchy at the BBC, but here the rest of their report, still being written by Donald Bull. Fitting, as there’s a bit of “bull….” in this.
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The fashion police get serious.
Keen Detective Funnies vol 2 #12
Centaur Publications (December, 1939)
And so we’re back to the Golden Age anthology era of comics after some time away. Keen Detective Funnies is one where I’ve enjoyed enough of the stories that it’s a nice one to come back on. Why does Comic Book Plus list an ongoing number and the actual volume/issue numbers? I don’t know. Since I’m linking there I put both in the article title but this is the second issue of volume 2, though with the way they did numbering back in the day due to shipping rules or something it could be done for that reason. Anyway, back to comics.
BW Media Spotlight 