Mod Post: Off-Topic Tuesday

[icon_uk]

In the comments to these weekly posts (and only these posts), it's your chance to go as off topic as you like.

Talk about non-comics stuff, thread derail, and just generally chat among yourselves.

The intent of these posts is to chat and have some fun and, sure, vent a little as required. Reasoned debate is fine, as always, but if you have to ask if something is going over the line, think carefully before posting please.

Normal board rules about conduct and behaviour still apply, of course.

It's been suggested that, if discussing spoilers for recent media events, it might be advisable to consider using the rot13 method to prevent other members seeing spoilers in passing.

The world situation is the world situation. If you're following the news, you know it as much as I do, if you're not, then there are better sources than scans_daily. But please, no doomscrolling, for your own sake.

However, it would feel inapporpriate not to acknowledge that this is the second anniversary of the attack on Israel by Hamas, which has led to the massively destructive war in Gaza.

Tonight is the first supermoon of 2025, the Harvest Moon. Though our community here is scattered across the globe, and we all see a slighty different assortment of constellations, we all see the exact same moon in our skies, which is a lovely thought, no?

Britain, and the world, lost three remarkable, and remarkably different, ladies in the arts and sciences this week.

Primatologist, anthrolopologist and outspoken environmental activist Jane Goodall, whose six decades plus career studying chimpanzees transformed an entire field of science.

Superb character actress Patricia Routeledge, perhaps best known as the magnificently monstrous social climber Hyacinth Bouquet (Spelled "B-U-C-K-E-T") though personally I was always more partial to her role as a retired housewife turned PI in Lancashire's "Hetty Wainthropp Investigates".

And Jilly Cooper, whose writing career led to the creation of an entire romance sub-genre know as the bonk-buster.

Oh, and if you're looking for something gentle, beautiful and thoughtful to read, Charlie Mackesy's sequel to 2019's "The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse" (Which I know helped me, and others, get through some dour times in 2020) just arrived in shops this week, called "Always Remember: the Boy, the Mole, the Fox, the Horse and the Storm"

Comments

[iamrman]

I will be no longer making comics posts due to the Imgur situation. If anybody wants to take over any of the titles I have been posting, then they are free to do so. (I doubt anybody will want to take over posting Extreme Justice though.)

[metadronos]

While I'm saddened to hear that, I want to express my thanks for all that you've posted here. I won't ask where you found the time both to make multiple posts a day and to provide context, commentary and even snark on them, and also to engage with us in the comments. That's none of my business. :-) Just know that your efforts have been very much appreciated and I hope you'll at least stick around for discussion of others' posts.

[iamrman]

You very kind for saying so.

I'm not going away. I still intend to engage with others' posts.

How are you getting on with Knightfall? I have started the first volume of Knightquest. The Shadow of the Bat issues have some terrible art.

[metadronos]

I figured you'd be sticking around for discussion of others' posts, since the Imgur situation has nothing to do with that. And I'm glad. :-)

As for Knightfall, I finished my reread (and, in some cases, first read) some time ago. I even, just last week, read the Sword of Azrael mini which first introduced The Man Who Would Be Batman (and Fail Miserably at It). Strangely, that's never been collected, not even in the 25th anniversary Knightfall trades. I'm not sure even the omnibus includes it. Maybe for the best, though, as despite the decent art I found it wanting, especially the extremely abrupt end.

I may -- no promises -- decide to post some of the remainder of Knightfall. I don't have any desire to cover the whole shebang, and in my opinion the saga became something of a mixed bag after Az-Bat's defeat of Bane. The early Knightquest: The Crusade issues, with Jean-Paul seeking to manipulate decidely uninteresting gangsters against each other, and ohgod that horribly unfunny Three Stooges rip-off criminal trio, were the lowest point for me. It picks up considerably with the Joker-as-film-director story, one of the saga's post-Bane highlights.

As for the drawn-out Abbatoir story arc, were I to post from it, it'd basically just be the climactic chapter which both seals Abbatoir's fate and shows dramatically, and effectively, how much Jean-Paul has deteriorated mentally and why he was the wrong guy, morally and otherwise, to succeed Bruce as Batman.

Knightquest: The Search... although O'Neill himself would later consider it a failure, it has its moments, especially the bittersweet ending. My only reservation is that Shondra, prior to this arc, had appeared so rarely and received so little fleshing out -- despite her being Bruce's designated love interest throughout the saga -- that her whole "big reveal" past seems kind of, if not info-dumped, then at least frontloaded. Still, The Search or part thereof may be post-worthy, by me or by whoever else wishes.

Knightsend was pretty consistently strong. Really, the saga properly ends there, with Prodigal and especially the barely-Knightfall-relevant Troika being epilogues. But in a sense, Knightfall didn't really end until two things happened: Alfred's return to Wayne Manor, and Gordon finally deciding to trust and work with Batman again... whenever that was. I skimmed at least a year's worth of post-Troika Batman and Detective Comics issues for such a resolution before giving up.

In sum, I'd say there's a fair amount of post-"Broken Bat" Knightfall content worthy of posting. Maybe by me, maybe by others (please, feel free anyone).

[iamrman]

Yes, the post-Bane villains are pretty mid. The Joker-as-film director is indeed a highlight. Although, saying that, I found the new Trigger Twins charmingly silly.

The Abbatoir story did drag on. I suppose the writers couldn't kill off a villain that was actually important.

Knightsend has a special place in my heart because Lady Shiva is in it.

[metadronos]

Oh yeah, the Trigger Twins. I'd forgotten. I did like them; they were fun.

[iamrman]

I forgot to say, the Sword of Azrael has been collected along with the first few issues of Azrael's solo book. It may still be available digitally, but I'm not sure how you prefer to read comics whether digitally or physically.

[metadronos]

The uncollected issues are available digitally on Amazon, so that's how I got hold of them. Thanks!

[lego_joker]

Honestly, back in the day the Hollywood Joker story might've been my all-time favorite (I think someone posted it here a year or two ago). To this day my soft spot for it, and really to Knightfall-era Detective in general, really tends to get me knee-jerk defending Chuck Dixon even though he's long past deserving it.


By the way, have you touched Denny O'Neil's Knightfall novelization yet?

[mister_terrific]

I'm very sorry to hear this, though I completely understand. And as others have said, thank you for all your hard work. I've enjoyed looking back at all those series!

[iamrman]

Thank you for the kind words. As I have said elsewhere, I am not going anywhere. I still intend to interact with others' posts.

[deh_tommy]

NOOOOOOOO! You’re, like, 80% of what’s keeping this community active! I may not always comment, but I’ve read so much from you! Is there truly no other image hosting website that fits the bill?

[cainofdreaming]

I found this list of places that still allow hotlinking.

[iamrman]

I used to use Flickr to host my images back in the day, but people complained.

[scorntx]

Bit late in the day (late in the evening, even), but tis a shame.
Lots of fun and fascinating looks in at old series.

[zachbeacon]

Thanks for all the posts.

You deserve a break...even if the circumstances weren't exactly ideal.

[icon_uk]

Sorry to hear that, both as a Mod and a member, though I can understand the reasons of course.

Many thanks for the several gigabytes of scans you have posted!

[ladymidath]

I am really sorry to hear this.

[malurette]

French politics are a circus, but what else is new?

On a more relevant topic, I failed to watch Matrix before it got removed for Prime Video's catalogue, boo, sucks for me.

[tripodeca113]

well I saw Emilia Perez. Wow suddenly all the criticism make sense!

I think piecing together information about the live action Avatar The Last Airbender show from production websites is starting to weigh on me. Sure I know some stuff it's just not very interesting....
sigh someday we'll see a picture of live action Toph

I read this comic. It was okay, but sometimes 'fuck' was censored and other times it wasn't, and the lack of consistency was strange.
Well that and the back cover claimed that the story was told through letters, newspaper articles and notes, and I guess they did do that a few times but it didn't seem prominent enough to be worth mentioning (there's just a page of a letter, it's not like we read seven pages of files and have to piece together a characters backstory based on that)

I also read a fantasy comic, the art was nice but the fantasy swear words didn't work for me.

[numeronone]

We're dipping into the delightful revival of "The Twilight Zone" by Jordan Peele - to be honest, the perfect person to take the reins from our dear departed Rod Serling, for the fact that keeping the work relevant and culture-critical has always been a focus of his.

And booked our tickets for a Hallowe'en showing of Del Toro's "Frankenstein" at a rickety local indie cinema. I like to think Guillermo would be pleased with the choice.

For privacy reasons I won't say which, but in the town neighbouring mine there was a Far-Right protest over the weekend - which was met by more than double the amount of counter-protestors. In these times, it's always reassuring to remember that our communities are by and large kind, moral people.

[deh_tommy]

You’d think Jordan Peele and The Twilight Zone would be a match made in Heaven, but man was it REALLY hit or miss.

[leahandillyana]

And thusly, my holidays are over. I managed to fullfill less than half of the goals I set up to fullfill, but I’m pretty sure that it’s because my initial plans were simply too ambitious. I have learned that Gore Screaming Show is one of the longest eroge on the market and You and Me and Her is considered to be the hardest one to finish period, so the low completion levels are not my fault. In the past week I finished Shizune’s route in Katawa Shoujo, all endings in We Know the Devil, and the beginning of the Burial route in The Coffin of Andy and Leley. Shizune’s story has writing on par with the other routes, but for personal reasons I really prefer scenarios where Hisao pursues another girl, not because I dislike Shizune but because of how his presence influences the relationship between her and Shiina. I enjoyed We Know The Devil, though was surprised with how short the story was. It’s a very athmospheric tale, with limited worldbuilding details only showing that the characters are not living in ‘our’ world and making me yearning for more. I think the game would have make an unique movie if adapted in such a format. I also enjoyed The Coffin of Andy and Leyley due to how the characters are ‘bad’ victims, lashing out on those who wronged them in an exaggerated way impossible in real world to a very catharctic effect. I see the siblings as two parts of one person, somebody’s yin and yang, and I am only interested in a story where they are in good relationship with each other, so I will postpone playing until more of Burial route is released. In addition to the games that are on my disc, I want to purchase Slay the Princess, another Western horror visual novel with unique premise, as well as Dokidoki Literature Club, which seems to be You and Me and Her with more developed characters and hopefully easier gameplay mechanic (I hate you, Straight Homura.), and Hatoful Boyfriend, for unique premise and dark true route.

I dedicated the remaining few days of my holidays to rereading Kaze to Ki no Uta. This is my all time favourite manga and a story that I mentioned frequently. It is also a series that I’ve read over a very long time span due to multiple people starting and stopping their translation efforts over many years due to sheer length of the story and the painfully sidetracking middle of the manga. I tended to forget what happened before when I was reading newly translated chapters. This time, I decided to pursue the whole story at once (well, over two days), in one language I am fluent in (English). This made me appreciate the story better and realize the sheer extend of the works inspired by KazeKi, from Falsely Accused to Revolutionary Girl Utena, which I unironically now see as ‘moder day gender swapped magical girls AU of KazeKi’. Perhaps most fasinatingly, the last two volumes of the manga serve as a very bitter if not outright nihilistic deconstruction of the themes and messages of previous fifteen volumes, and after my visual novel adventures I genuinely felt as if I stepped in a bad end at the very last choice. The story was finished in 1984, I wonder whether the issue with the funeral was reflection of how contemporary gay men were often not allowed to bury their partners. Perhaps that’s why the story shifted so drastically and started including, how to say it without spoilers, plot points more relevant to 1980s than 1880s. Being older and more aware of social issues, I could really appreciate what the story had to say about race and feminism in addition to being pro-gay. Truly a masterpiece.

I have also read Marginal, a science fiction BL manga roughly contemporary with KazeKi. It is set in a world where women died out in a pandemic and children are artificially created by scientist elite while most of the population lives in a few cities with preindustrial level of development and culture seeming to be a cross between classical Greece (slavery, institutional pederasty), renaissance Italy (fashion and architecture in the cities), and Bedouin Arabia (fashion and lifestyle of the desert dwellers). The story is very cerebral, but also very dated (for example all children are born dark but lighten to a near-albino levels during maturity, so there are no dark skinned adults on Earth). It’s interesting with how it plays with gender (main uke character is intersex and pregnant for part of the story, making it the earliest mpreg story I’ve found), but like The Left Hand of Darkness, it is a product of its times. Like KazeKi, Marginal doesn’t have a happy ending, but at least it ends on an ambigously bittersweet note.

I have not planted any flowers yet, with all bulbs waiting in boxes segregated by colour and height. It is still relatively warm, though near frost one time killed a lot of my remaining flowers, but sunflowers stay strong. Knowing that I’d be able to finish most visual novels in a day of intense playing, I decided to dedicate my Sundays to gaming in foreseeable future. I have not yet decided how to pursue the stories – whether to go in chronological release order to see how tropes and gameplay elements developed over the years, or to focus on games I am totally unfamiliar with rather than the ones whose adaptations I’ve read or watched. I still have a week to decide. Do you guys have any visual novels you’d recommend in particular?

[iamrman]

I don't grow anything myself, but my father usually grows his own vegetables. That reminds me, I have to ask if he's going to pickle any shallots for Christmas this year.

[metadronos]

I'd been considering, for some time, a series of posts on comics dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, featuring the work of journalistic cartoonist Joe Sacco among others. However, I've ultimately decided not to proceed. First, the subject is (to grossly understate) extremely volatile and controversial and I worry about causing flame wars in the comments and headaches for the mods (even though they've readily granted me permission to post on the topic). Our community has been peaceful and cordial for some time and I'd like to keep it that way.

Second, after two years of Israel's longest, most brutal and most ultimately pointless war, Israel's leadership seems to have accepted that, even with Trump in power, it won't be able to accomplish its ultimate goal of expelling the Palestinians from Gaza, while Hamas seems to have accepted that, even with Iran's continuing but severely hampered support, it won't be able to end Israel even indirectly. So the current ceasefire talks seem for once to have a chance of success in bringing respite and quiet, if not actual peace. And thus whatever I post here next, it's probably best it be something that won't fan flames.

[mister_terrific]

My wife and I finally managed to take a 40th-anniversary vacation trip--to Dollywood, believe it or not. :) We had an incredible time--got to ride their steam train (what can I say, it's in the blood), enjoyed all the crafts creation, just relaxed and enjoyed our time and each other. We visited some unusual attractions, such as the Bush Bean Museum and Store (and it's really fascinating!), and just enjoyed interacting with some of the nicest people anywhere.

And...ahem...yeah, I found a quilt fabric store and went nuts. Sue me. :)

Sadly, the main reason we went up there--to visit the Oak Ridge Manhattan Project museums (my wife is a huge enthusiast)--fell by the wayside due to the Shutdown. But as Red pointed out, we're both retired now and there's no reason we can't go back up there any time we want. Oh yeah, still getting used to that!

My FIL's condo sold! Yay!

I pulled "Batman: Last Knight on Earth" off Comixology and...damn. That was...different. Still not sure what to think.

[iamrman]

I have no idea what the Bush Bean Museum and Store is, but it sounds fun.

[mister_terrific]

Ask and ye shall receive:

https://www.bushbeans.com/en_US/about-us/visitor-center

[iamrman]

And to think Americans make fun of the British for eating baked beans.

[cainofdreaming]

On toast. Don't forget that part.

[iamrman]

This coming from a country that invented canned cheese. (Says a man that has baked beans on pizza.)

[cainofdreaming]

I'm not actually American. So this is coming from a country that invented mämmi.

[iamrman]

Apologies for assuming.

That picture isn't helping matters.

[icon_uk]

Not having heard of this before, and having just looked it up, I am both intrigued by what it might taste like, and slightly disconcerted by it's appearance

[cainofdreaming]

It's mostly just sugary, and you eat it with added sugar and milk. The texture is also a bit more substantial than it might look from the picture, as it's made out of rye.

So, in summary, no it doesn't taste like runny droppings.

[icon_uk]

That's their loss then, beans on toast is terrific... if you can have it with a sausage, bacon and a fried egg, it's a damn good meal!

[cygnia]

Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson are teaming up with Annika Nilles for a limited tour in 2026.

https://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/2025/10/rush-announces-2026-tour-at-intimate-rock-hall-gathering.html

I has a HAPPY~!

(especially if I can get tix)

[scorntx]

Long week...
Little mini-holiday on Thursday. Started off fine enough, right until the massive twelve hour long traffic jam which we'd managed to avoid hearing about until we were right on top of it.
Two hours just going one mile... urrgh...

And despite having gone up for a reason, there was disagreement on what to do about stuff.
Going at it slow and methodical, or just smacking up everything with a mattock.
Mattock-smacking won out.
... but apart from that and being horribly ill on Monday, everything was fine.
Sat around and did a lot of nothing.
Also found a shop which seems to sell the right kind of bombay mix. Nya-ha-ha!


Brain-wracking over Dark Phoenix, mainly how the mind games with Jean get instigated.
I was thinking Emma approaching Jean as a psychiatrist, but at the same time feel like it's leaning way too hard into "every psychiatrist in Marvel is evil, incompetent, or Mysterio in disguise".
Hrrn...

Another idea batting around is some version of one of the New Mutants annuals (2? 3? The one where the world is introduced to the word Psylocke.)
A very, very loose one, though, given the stuff with Spiral and Roberto's death being faked are out.
Think it's just Kwannon (or Kannon, spelling as you like) attacking the X-Mansion for reasons possibly relating to Wolverine.
"Psychic knife" and "focused totality" are still in there, obvs.


In anticipation of Legends A-Z next week, went looking for the Switch charger, which fortunately had not been accidentally "cleaned up".
... bit stickier than it should've been, though.

[iamrman]

What is the "right" kind of Bombay mix, pray tell?

New Mutants Annual #2 was the one you were thinking of.

You lost me with the mention of Kwannon, but found me again with the talk of focused totalities.

[scorntx]

The right mix of salt and more salt.
Also, preferably not spicey.
(I don't mind spicey mix, just I prefer salty. All the local shops seem to serve is savoury and sweet kinds. Even when they say spicey. Rassa-frassa...)

Ah, thanks.
(was concerned it wouldn't mesh up timeline wise after Wolverine and Kitty Pryde. But it does. Mwa-ha-ha! ... 'course, it's fan-fic anyway, so pretty sure fudging's allowed sometimes anyway...)

It is very possible one of the poor kids is stumbled upon by a rogue ninja, and finds themselves experiencing the focused totality of their psychic power right between the eyes.
Meaning Roberto.

[iamrman]

Just as long as it's not the sort of mix with raisins in. That can eff right off.

[scorntx]

Fortunately, it is not.
Just peanuts.
As it should be.

[iamrman]

The correct response.

[knight_moves]

There's only one recorded case of anyone even *attempting* to give smallpox-infected blankets to Native Americans and it's not clear if it had any effect. The entire notion is an ahistorical myth.

[zachbeacon]

IGN bought Humble Bundle years ago and it's been ...mostly fine. There are little changes here and there I don't love and the customer service is mostly gone but it's still a place that I can get cheap comics, books, and games while benefiting charities.

However, as part of the recent price hike for the "Monthly Choice" games bundle, they started throwing in a free month of IGN Plus and I really don't get why anyone would want it. The benefits are all contests and coupons. I guess they used to have game keys in very limited quantities but that seems to not be a thing anymore.