April 19, 2020

Jake & Leon #450: The Other Victims

I blame the press. They like pressing us to fear everything.

I think this video speaks to my current frustration.

Look, I’m taking the precautions. I wore my mask as the governor of Connecticut demands of me when I went to get my medication today and when I saw the doctor earlier this week on unrelated stuff, do the social distancing, and while I’m not washing my hands every 5 seconds until I can see the bones I am keeping clean. Speaking of which a friend of mine went to see the doctor recently and he apparently was getting flack from someone over it, as if every doctor on planet Earth should only be working on this pandemic even if it isn’t his or her area of expertise. Yes, even the dentist if you listen to these people. All I can tell you right now is…

DON’T PANIC!!!!!!!!

This is not the worst disease in the history of mankind. I’m not even sure it’s the worst in the 21st century but I haven’t run the numbers on the other pandemics we’ve had the past 20 years. You know, the ones we didn’t shut ourselves away from like some sci-fi dystopia. Parts of Florida are beginning phase 1 of the new reopening protocols because they’re doing well enough despite some people still being sick. The other viruses we had pandemic warnings for with less severe penalties are still around but we know how to treat them. This too shall pass and become yet another illness in the world. Push back against the abuses and do not become a hypocondriac but do follow the guidelines to stay safe until this is under control where you are. I’ve lived in fear during my bully victim years, and I refuse to go through that again! I will do what I need to stay safe and encourage others but I will not surrender what little life I have left to some bug. God made me better than that.

Meanwhile my main computer is down. Again. I’m doing this from the XP artputer so I could upload today’s comic but the images I need for my other reviews are on the other computer and if I can’t sort this out I may end up losing them. I’m hoping it won’t come to that but it means I’m forced to take a shorter (please) break again. My first article coming back (besides a Daily Video I already scheduled for Monday) will be the next Chapter By Chapter review of Spider-Man: Carnage In New York; I just don’t know what day that will be. From there I’ll see what comics I can review before the week is out, which means I’m interrupting Iron Man again in the same storyline. Have a good week and stay safe people. And again…DON’T PANIC! God bless you all and keep you and your loved ones safe.

Posted by on April 19, 2020 in Jake & Leon and tagged , , , , .

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April 18, 2020

Saturday Night Showcase: Lightspeed Electroid Albegas

Hey, remember this guy?

Lightspeed Electroid Albegas was intended to be the third Voltron, or second if you want to be specific, referred to by fans as Gladiator Voltron. I wrote about this some time ago but here’s the short version. When World Events Productions originally planned Voltron they meant to have it as a trilogy, The Voltron Trilogy. The vehicle team would be the Voltron of the near universe, the lions would be the Voltron of the far universe, and three robots would be Voltron of the middle universe. Matchbox had released the toys with the vehicles as Voltron I, the robots as Voltron II, and the lions as Voltron III. This didn’t work out because the show was aired wrong. When it finally aired the Lion Force was released in full and then the Vehicle Team. Their method of connecting the two Voltrons was using Galaxy Garrison footage from Armor Fleet DiaRugger mixed into the Beast King GoLion footage and making Chip the brother of Pidge. Most kids didn’t pick up on it and DiaRugger was a far different show than GoLion. So the robot trio never got out of the planning stage as World Events Productions just had original Voltron episodes made with the Lion Force and just had a few characters from Galaxy Garrison wearing the Dairugger officer uniforms. Then there’s the TV movie Fleet Of Doom which was to be honest more like a Lion Force episode with cameos by the Vehicle team rather than a full cameo.

At the time of the original article I couldn’t find more than a few clips of Albegas. Enter Toei’s new Toei Tokusatsu World channel. Though most of the shows are tokusatsu shows they did slip a few giant robot anime in there and guess what popped up? Yes, tonight we finally get to look at the Voltron that wasn’t and see if it would have worked as a Voltron show. Episode one introduces us to a trio of robot builders, whose giant robots are no match for an invading force known as the Derinja (at least that was the name I found in the article; the subtitles call them Derringer) until they’re rebuilt into true fighting robots and able to combine into Voltron…I mean Albegas. Enjoy, and remember to click on the captions to get the English subtitles!

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Posted by on April 18, 2020 in Animation Spotlight, Saturday Night Showcase, Television Spotlight and tagged , , , , , , .

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April 18, 2020

At Home Comic Con

I’ve never embedded a livestream from Twitch before so I hope this works. If not I’ll have links below to the Twitch and YouTube channels hosting the event. They don’t have a set stream for YouTube so I have to try it this way. Hopefully it works.

In place of a comic review today (Saturday Night Showcase will post per usual so check that out later) I bring you At Home Comic Con, a live stream featuring a series of comic book YouTube discussion channels (including some of my favorites–in no particular order: Comic Drake, Strip Panel Naked, NerdSync, Owen Likes Comics, and Comicstorian plus ones I haven’t followed but you might like) doing live panels online for Hope From Home, a charity pushing against Covid-19. It’s organized by Comic Drake, Owen Likes Comics, and Matt Draper. If you’re fans of those or any of the other participants their panels will also be streamed on their YouTube channel in case you only want to see your favorites. Click the image in the embedded tweet below for the last posted schedule (only part of the image is showing below). I won’t be part of the stream but I might show up in the YouTube chat for some of the panels, depending on what I’m working on that day and when I get up, but I do plan to at least be listening most of the afternoon. Note that I can’t promise they won’t be swearing.

At Home Comic Con on YouTube

At Home Comic Con on Twitch

At Home Comic Con’s Twitter (to keep track of who’s next and when)

I’m hoping if they do this next year reviewers and actual creators…not just the big names but indie and self publishers–I have some friends I could recommend…as well as webcomic creators could be involved, because that would be cool.

Posted by on April 18, 2020 in Comic Spotlight, Streaming Spotlight and tagged , , , , .

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April 17, 2020

A Non-Thundercats Fan Trashes Thundercats Roar

When those of us who grew up with the original Thundercats put down Thundercats Roar the show’s defenders will pop up and make all kinds of claims against them, about how they’re too attached to the original and blinded by nostalgia and don’t like change. This is in spite of the fact that many of us old fans liked the 2011 remake. It made a few translation errors but for the most part the spirit was still there while it did its own thing. It’s not one of my best examples of reboots done right but I’ll add it to the list. Thundercats Roar on the other hand feels like another example of mockstalgia, and of course pushed back against its critics using Teen Titans Go!, a show famous for wasting whole episodes to spit in the face of fans of the previous series who hate the direction the parody has taken. (I think the creator of Roar worked on Go! but I could be wrong.) They even got Larry Kenney, voice of the original Lion-O, to chime in.

Yep, that’s a dead Panthro in the corner, more picking on original Snarf, and saying that any criticism against the new version are made by bad people, and not fans who hate that their action show was turned into bad comedy. My own review found the first episode to be merely meh and only annoying because of what it did to beloved characters. But you don’t want to hear us old fans defend what we love against something that mocks it? Fine, here’s the Mysterious Mr. Enter, who never really saw the original, telling you other reasons the show is bad. Swearing ahead.

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Posted by on April 17, 2020 in Animation Spotlight, Television Spotlight and tagged , .

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April 17, 2020

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Scooby-Doo #11 (DC)

No wonder this massage place gets such low reviews.

Scooby-Doo #11

DC Comics (June, 1998)

EDITOR: Bronwyn Taggart

“Hajj Dodger”

WRITER: Terrance Grief, Jr

PENCILER: Joe Staton

INKER: Andrew Pepoy

LETTERER: Ken Lopez

(oddly no colorist credited)

“Behavior Modification”

WRITER: Chris Duffy

PENCILER: Bill Alger

INKER: Bob Smith

COLORIST: Trisha Mulvihill

LETTERER: Phil Felix

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Posted by on April 17, 2020 in Animation Spotlight, Television Spotlight, Yesterday's Comics and tagged , , .

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April 17, 2020

BW’s Daily Video: How Could Covid-19 Affect Future Anime Dubs?

Catch more Cartoon Cypher on their YouTube channel.

While I think some of the stuff that’s going on right now is a bit on the extreme side there are some legitimate issues. The main one here is that sharing the booth may not be safe until they can be sanitized properly between actors. Hopefully this will be under control soon. We can’t get rid of the virus but there are other viral infections we don’t have “cures” for but way to manage and eventually immunize against, and even then people get sick and die from, some worse than the coronavirus. As a bonus link the Mysterious Mr. Enter, who will be back later in today’s feature article, made a great commentary about the right and wrong things we’re doing against this virus as he actually tried to collect the facts. It’s not usual BW material but I thought it was worth showing.

Posted by on April 17, 2020 in Animation Spotlight and tagged , , , .

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April 16, 2020

Free Comic Inside: Starriors #1

I know this isn’t the comic I said I’d do but I’ve had this article in my toolbar waiting for me to finally review a Starriors minicomic so I gave in. What are the Starriors?

Created by Tomy, the Starriors takes place in one of may post-apocalyptic Earths, back when they still had utopias to balance things out. By now dystopia is all sci-fi wants to do to our planet and I’m long since tired of it. I used to be able to enjoy a story set in Earth gone to heck on occasion but now I’m long past over it. I wasn’t into the toys because by that point if it wasn’t tied to Star Wars I wasn’t into robots that didn’t transform into something.

The gimmick of the toys were that parts were interchangeable. The story of the line is that a cosmic event forced the remnants of man underground, leaving the Starriors to protect and restore the planet. For reasons explained in the Marvel miniseries (which will get reviewed in the daily comic reviews once I get there, though I’m missing an issue or two) to groups form. The Destructors are out to wipe out the Protectors for basically going against the cultural norm…most of them unaware that the Protectors are actually trying to find and reawaken man after finding proof he did exist. The Destructors’ leader, Slaughter Steelgrave, is convinced man’s return will mean the end of the Starriors and in his paranoia is manipulating everyone until the Protectors’ leader, Hotshot, learns man is alive and leads a group of other believers to find them. It helps that Hotshot’s group are mostly collectors and builders while Slaughter keeps all the nasty psychos in his party. And thus a toyline was born.

Marvel also produced six minicomics, released with the Starriors figures. In Marvel’s take, unlike what you saw in the commercial, the Starriors are the giant robots, like the Transformers and Robotix so someone was in a rut. For years I was hoping to find scans of the miniseries and got lucky recently when I found a site hosting all six issues. So let’s see if the minicomics were any good.

“Man, what did you have for breakfast?”

Starriors minicomic #1

Marvel/Tomy (1984)

“Deadeye”

scanned by Virtuanaut.net, link earlier in this article

Sadly this is another minicomic where nobody is credited for working on it outside of Marvel producing it. It’s always a shame to see that happen.

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Posted by on April 16, 2020 in Free Comic Inside and tagged , , , .

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