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Messages - irishmoxie

#151
Reviews / Re: Some reviews.
January 26, 2017, 03:18:20 PM
Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on January 26, 2017, 02:36:24 PM
ARCHIE JUMBO COMICS DIGEST #276 - Haven't finished reading this yet, but I flipped through it and read a few stories, including of course, the new lead story by Dan Parent.

Some of the highlights in this issue include: "The Elevenaire" by Craig Boldman and Stan Goldberg; a section with 2 stories of Archie's SuperTeens: "Mad Doctor Doom's Dupe!" (I wonder if that wasn't the first teenage Archie story to use Mad Doc D, who usually appeared only in Little Archie stories prior to this?) and "Evilheart's Revenge!" - both stories spotlighting Reggie as Evilheart, and both by Frank Doyle and Bob White; and a couple of selections from LIFE WITH ARCHIE issues, "That Far Out Feeling" (in which Archie encounters teen alien invader Supro) and "The Perilous Past!" (a 24th Century interplanetary escapade with the crew of Starship Rivda), again both written by Doyle with art by Stan Goldberg.

The new lead story is "Dear FAKE Diary", featuring Archie, Veronica, and Jughead. Dan's art is always a pleasure to look at, but the ending of this story left me puzzled and a little disappointed. The plot concerns Jughead putting Archie up to making up a fake diary as a test for Veronica - which he leaves lying around, and of course (I don't think this should be a spoiler for anyone - otherwise there wouldn't be any story here) she does read. I won't say any more for fear of giving it ALL away, but the ending sort of flabbergasted me, so I guess I have to explain why. At the end I sat thinking about it for a minute or two, and it seemed to force me to come to one of the following multiple-choice conclusions:

A)  Veronica is pretty stupid.

B)  Archie is pretty smart.

C)  Both A and B are true.

Since ANY of those conclusions seems to fly in the face of everything I've learned about these characters, I just didn't know what to make of the story's ending. Even more mystifying to me was that, in thinking a bit more about it, I know DAN PARENT can't believe any of those things. So I really, REALLY don't know how to explain this story.  ???


I think they've used the fake diary story before. I think Betty wrote a fake diary about her life to fool Veronica.
#152
Isn't that India story a digest? Once again more interested in the digest stories especially the Trudeau one.
#153
Unsolved Mysteries. It's on Amazon Prime now!!!!!!!
#154
Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on January 21, 2017, 12:24:16 AM
Quote from: irishmoxie on January 20, 2017, 06:58:04 PM
Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on January 20, 2017, 12:24:25 AM
AVENGERS #3.1
KILL OR BE KILLED #5
ARCHIE #16 - It didn't change my opinion.
REVOLUTIONARIES #1
SUPERMAN #15
SUPER POWERS #3 (of 6)
JLA THE RAY: REBIRTH #1
CAVE CARSON HAS A CYBERNETIC EYE #4
CAGE #4 (of 4)
BLACK WIDOW #10
WALT DISNEY'S COMICS & STORIES #736
BLACK HAMMER GIANT SIZED ANNUAL #1
COUGAR AND CUB #1
DOLLFACE #1
CURSE WORDS #1
STAR TREK: WAYPOINT #3 (of 6)
KAMANDI CHALLENGE SPECIAL #1


How's Dollface?

By the same creative team as Zombie Tramp (which I haven't read, but the character appears in this first issue). Action Lab publishes some interesting stuff, but it's all over the map. Some of it is bottom-of-the-barrel crap, and some of it has an interesting alt/UG vibe. This is one of their "Danger Zone" (Mature Readers) titles, but they also publish a lot of kid-friendly stuff too. I may read a couple more issues of this to see if there's anything to it, but I'm undecided at this point. The first issue didn't seem to have a lot of depth to it, but a didn't get much of a sense of where (if anywhere) the story was going. Cougar and Cub #1 (also published by Action Lab/Danger Zone) was the more interesting (and funny) of the two titles I read by that company this week.

Link to the company's website: http://www.actionlabcomics.com/ Looking over their other titles, I'd imagine that there are other things they publish that might interest you a lot more than Dollface. I've only read a scant few of their titles.


I like Action Lab Dog of Wonder, Princeless, and Ghoul Scouts. I've read others like Nutmeg, Vamplets, Mishka, and Hero Cats but they were just ok. They seem to have long stretches between issues though. I read the FCBD of Doll Face. The art kinda reminds me of Sky Doll.
#155
Quote from: BettyReggie on January 20, 2017, 11:17:02 AM

I bought these
oct160441jNOV160434Jdec160556j1606558 ful


You're reading Jem again? What made you change your mind?
#156
Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on January 20, 2017, 12:24:25 AM
AVENGERS #3.1
KILL OR BE KILLED #5
ARCHIE #16 - It didn't change my opinion.
REVOLUTIONARIES #1
SUPERMAN #15
SUPER POWERS #3 (of 6)
JLA THE RAY: REBIRTH #1
CAVE CARSON HAS A CYBERNETIC EYE #4
CAGE #4 (of 4)
BLACK WIDOW #10
WALT DISNEY'S COMICS & STORIES #736
BLACK HAMMER GIANT SIZED ANNUAL #1
COUGAR AND CUB #1
DOLLFACE #1
CURSE WORDS #1
STAR TREK: WAYPOINT #3 (of 6)
KAMANDI CHALLENGE SPECIAL #1


How's Dollface?
#157
Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on January 15, 2017, 02:35:55 PM
Holly G's SCHOOL BITES: NIGHT CLASSES Part 1 - "Just Desserts" (digital) - Completed (after more than a year) back in 2014, this 22 page story is the final SB story has done to date (and also the only story she did that was printed as a floppy comic book). Doesn't look as though there will be any continuation at this point, I'm guessing. So many unresolved plot threads left hanging. It feels like the readers had barely gotten to know the large cast of characters, and it makes me wonder where (if she'd even planned it out that much in advance) Holly G thought she was heading with the story. She drew around 380 pages of this webcomic before abandoning it, and there's nothing like a real ending. Ah, well.

I'd like to see her reboot it as a regular print comic, and go for shorter, done-in-one-issue stories (although she could keep the connecting subplot threads), concentrating more on comedy situations. I think she was possibly overly ambitious with this series, and shouldn't have introduced so many new characters, and planted so many plot threads that never came to any sort of fruition - or maybe that's just the nature of an ongoing webcomic that posts new pages once or twice a week. I guess the fact that this last story, a 22-pager, took her so long to complete (where her earlier, and longer, stories had posted new pages far more frequently) was a big hint that she was running out of steam. SCHOOL BITES had been around as early as 2004 in a print digest format (I'm pretty sure it was initially a Kickstarter project) before having the first two printed stories (about 125 pages) serialized as a webcomic (3 times weekly) beginning in 2009, and after which she continued with new stories online (and later funded print versions of the webcomic pages again through Kickstarter). You could tell at one point she couldn't devote the time to it, because she began to frequently post sketches, pin-ups or 1-page gag strips (and even some of those were done by guest artists) instead of new pages of the current storyline, and even began an ongoing once-a-week 'backup feature' on Fridays called "Life With Prince Pangur Ban the Fluffy" (supposedly based on the real-life antics of her cat). Maybe she should have just slowed down and dropped the frequency of posting back, and not wasted her precious energy trying to draw pin-ups or gags, solely to maintain the relentless grind of a 3-times-weekly schedule. Apparently Prince Pangur Ban had his fans though, because that also went on to become a successful Kickstarter campaign that resulted in a collected print edition. It was cute, but I'd rather have seen more pages of SCHOOL BITES to move the story forward with all those plot threads.

Now see, I already spent a couple of hundred words talking about SCHOOL BITES without even giving one hint about the characters, storyline, or... anything, really. But it's weird because the comic has a lot of things I like, and a lot of things I don't like about it -- or rather, let's put it this way... there were some aspects of it that definitely need work and possibly a little re-thinking. I can't help but feel that some of those latter problems had a lot to do with the fact that it was being created as a webcomic though, as opposed to the normal sort of schedule that a writer/artist needs to maintain to create a regularly-published comic book.

And you might be asking what does Holly G do all day that she can't find the time to draw 3 finished pages of a webcomic in a week, since she isn't committed to drawing any other comics? Well, the answer there is that her "day job" is helping her husband, Jim Balent, run his little self-publishing comic book company, Broadsword Comics. Balent publishes his own title, TAROT: Witch of the Black Rose (not really my cup of tea, but just to put Holly's world in context here), and Holly is not only his wife, she's his VP of operations, which means she deals with the business and production end of running a one-comic-book publishing operation, while Jim spends the majority of his time doing the writing and drawing of TAROT (which is how the couple really pay their rent). Plus, of course, Holly has her own fanbase and takes on commission work for her own fans, and always seems to be putting together another Kickstarter project, some sort of ancilliary merchandising (prints, limited edition variant covers, buttons, magnets, stickers, etc.), either for TAROT or for SCHOOL BITES, and of course, they both maintain a heavy convention appearance schedule, because it's all about promotion, keeping in touch with their fans, and selling that ancilliary merchandise and getting new private commissions work. Ya gotta hustle to be a self-employed entrepreneur. Holly also maintains a bunch of other interests like cosplay, glamor photography, and burlesque. What I'm leading up to here though is that I think she put a lot of energy into promoting SCHOOL BITES at first, hoping that it would get a little more well-known, and thus generate a lot more income for the couple, but for whatever reason, when that didn't happen and it didn't really "take off", as it were, for her (she was doing it for ten years, believe it or not), she got a little burnt out on it, as I think the energy she was putting into it was taking more out of her than it was really worth. I think at one point she had hoped it might be optioned for animation or something. I can see why there weren't any takers, because it's not (in its current form) an all-ages property. It could be re-worked that way, or at least as a PG-rated thing, but maybe she isn't interested in doing it that way as a webcomic or a print comic. There's a few mild adult situations and some minor nudity, but that's about it. In its current form it would have to have a fairly narrow audience range, because it's reflective of Holly's tastes and not really "mainstream".

Anyway, I think what it is, is that for Holly to really focus her energy on SCHOOL BITES and address some of the weaknesses I mentioned, she'd need to be free to spend the majority of her time "in the zone" of creating that comic, which is what her husband needs to do to get TAROT (which is supporting the both of them) done on a timely basis and make it a consistent product. And he can only focus on that because he has her there to support him and do a lot of the grunt work of running a one-comic-book publishing operation. And it's equally true that she'd need someone to do all the same stuff for her that needs getting done, for her to really put the same level of energy into SCHOOL BITES and make that something that generates a living wage for her, but I don't think she can do it. It's kind of like a Catch-22 thing, where they'd need to be successful enough each on their own comics that they could afford to hire someone else to free up both of their time, knowing that all the important stuff was still getting done while the two of them were spending most of their time just writing and drawing comic books.


Is it entirely collected in print form? Or did you read some of it online?
#158
Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on January 13, 2017, 12:33:35 AM
Quote from: irishmoxie on January 12, 2017, 07:58:01 PM
The first season is the best. Once the Aunts left it wasn't as good. Salem was great throughout though and probably the best part of the show.

The Aunts were only in the first season? Or if not, when did the format change?


I think they left in the 6th or 7th season when Sabrina became a young adult and moved out.
#159
Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on January 12, 2017, 09:13:17 AM

Holly G's SCHOOL BITES (digital) - It's a webcomic, so I'm going to call what I read "issues #1-7 (of 8 )" (some of these have a print version, but not all of them are printed as individual stories/comics). I might review this later on my review thread.



I'd like to see a review of this! And how it compares to Eerie Cuties.
#160
The first season is the best. Once the Aunts left it wasn't as good. Salem was great throughout though and probably the best part of the show.
#161
General Discussion / Re: What have you done today?
January 10, 2017, 12:39:21 PM
Quote from: Archiecomicxfan215 on January 09, 2017, 07:36:26 PM
Quote from: irishmoxie on January 09, 2017, 05:58:33 PM
Quote from: Archiecomicxfan215 on January 09, 2017, 12:50:38 PM
So far just gave my dog a bath (chihuahua). He hated the bath but is so clean and fluffy now he loves it😍


I love chihuahuas. Do you have a pic?


This is Harleeā¤





Cutie!!
#162
General Discussion / Re: What have you done today?
January 09, 2017, 05:58:33 PM
Quote from: Archiecomicxfan215 on January 09, 2017, 12:50:38 PM
So far just gave my dog a bath (chihuahua). He hated the bath but is so clean and fluffy now he loves it😍


I love chihuahuas. Do you have a pic?
#163
Lock Up - a reality show version of Orange Is The New Black. Helps me put things in perspective when I have a bad day
#164
Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on January 08, 2017, 06:06:56 AM
Quote from: irishmoxie on January 07, 2017, 05:21:22 PM
Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on January 07, 2017, 01:01:26 AM
I've been binge-watching SCOOBY-DOO: MYSTERY INCORPORATED, trying to get through a single DVD disc (6-7 half-hour episodes) a day. It's been pretty addictive (this is the first time I've seen any of these) and amazing on so many levels: the writing, parody/satire, characterization, ongoing subplots. There are so many interesting things about this show, whether you admit to being a fan of Scooby-Doo or not. I always liked the general premise of the original cartoon, but the writing was pretty bad and it was repetitious, and it was hard to sit through viewing multiple episodes without getting quickly bored. This rebooted version of the show is obviously aimed at an older audience. It's smart writing, and not only that, there's an ongoing mystery that links all the episodes together. As the seasons progress, there are lots of new characters introduced. Some of them are ongoing, while some of them return unexpectedly in much later episodes. There's both comedy and drama in the series, with the levels of danger, action, tension, and scariness being slowly ratcheted up as the seasons progress, and the ongoing mystery being slowly revealed as more and more complex. They do a lot of plotting where it sets up an obvious suspect to be behind each episode's mystery, but the obvious suspect invariably turns out NOT to be the perpetrator. And the monsters actually get quite scary as the episodes progress (even though you know that there has to be a scene in the end where a rubber mask gets pulled off to reveal the villain). At least they're scary in the context of a cartoon, and what's happening at that moment in the episode's plot. The animators came up with some impressive monster designs, and lighting, camera angles, and animation timing are all used to good effect, as are vocal and sound FX. Sometimes the monsters or ghosts are so impressive that the inevitable explanation at the end of the episode seems a little implausible. Then there is the ongoing romantic tension between Daphne and Fred, Velma and Shaggy, and even Scooby and... that goes through many twists and turns over the course of the series. I could probably write a few thousand more words on several of the specific episodes - it's that good.


I might watch this even though I'm not that into Scooby Doo. I need some more comedy.

Trust me, I'm NOT that into Scooby-Doo... or wasn't, until I watched THIS show. You'll like this if you give it a chance. It builds up slowly at first. There's even a girly episode with a girl band called the Hex Girls:

(Click on pic for music clip.)

Here's another clip from that same episode, where Daphne goes undercover as bait for the monster, posing as the band's new lead singer:

(Click to go to the clip. I can't really explain the significance of the song title "Trap of Love", but that's something you'll only understand when you get to know Fred Jones.)

At first I thought that the Hex Girls was a one-off episode thing, but they make a return appearance (I won't say exactly where or how) in the 2nd Season*. There's a lot of that in this series, where you think you'll never see certain characters again after their initial episode, but they wind up returning again unexpectedly somewhere later on. Continuity is very strong in this series and episodes HAVE to be watched in order (they all even have Chapter #s at the beginning of each episode's title card). I just finished watching the 2nd (and last) Season ending yesterday, and it was absolutely awesome and unexpected. The ongoing plot really heats up in the last few episodes. Can't recommend this series highly enough. So many good things in here, with references to every horror movie trope imaginable, from Vincent Price movies to The Shining, to Twin Peaks(!) -- that last one caught me by surprise. Don't want to say too much more, because the surprises were a big part of the fun of watching the show, knowing very little in advance about it.

(*I also just discovered, while looking for those music clips, that the Hex Girls apparently appeared in one or more other Scooby-Doo DTV features, so maybe it's some kind of new ongoing house band for Mystery Inc.)


I really liked the Hex Girls one. I've watched about 10 episodes so far.
#165
Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on January 07, 2017, 01:01:26 AM
I've been binge-watching SCOOBY-DOO: MYSTERY INCORPORATED, trying to get through a single DVD disc (6-7 half-hour episodes) a day. It's been pretty addictive (this is the first time I've seen any of these) and amazing on so many levels: the writing, parody/satire, characterization, ongoing subplots. There are so many interesting things about this show, whether you admit to being a fan of Scooby-Doo or not. I always liked the general premise of the original cartoon, but the writing was pretty bad and it was repetitious, and it was hard to sit through viewing multiple episodes without getting quickly bored. This rebooted version of the show is obviously aimed at an older audience. It's smart writing, and not only that, there's an ongoing mystery that links all the episodes together. As the seasons progress, there are lots of new characters introduced. Some of them are ongoing, while some of them return unexpectedly in much later episodes. There's both comedy and drama in the series, with the levels of danger, action, tension, and scariness being slowly ratcheted up as the seasons progress, and the ongoing mystery being slowly revealed as more and more complex. They do a lot of plotting where it sets up an obvious suspect to be behind each episode's mystery, but the obvious suspect invariably turns out NOT to be the perpetrator. And the monsters actually get quite scary as the episodes progress (even though you know that there has to be a scene in the end where a rubber mask gets pulled off to reveal the villain). At least they're scary in the context of a cartoon, and what's happening at that moment in the episode's plot. The animators came up with some impressive monster designs, and lighting, camera angles, and animation timing are all used to good effect, as are vocal and sound FX. Sometimes the monsters or ghosts are so impressive that the inevitable explanation at the end of the episode seems a little implausible. Then there is the ongoing romantic tension between Daphne and Fred, Velma and Shaggy, and even Scooby and... that goes through many twists and turns over the course of the series. I could probably write a few thousand more words on several of the specific episodes - it's that good.


I might watch this even though I'm not that into Scooby Doo. I need some more comedy.


I've just been watching random movies on Netflix: Blackfish, Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List, GBF.