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.

In a move so inept one has to wonder how accidental it was, it appears that a significant number of Epstein files redactions can be undone by the simple process of copying and pasting the text into another file, they changed the font colour, but that was it. In a possibly even more bizarre twist it seems that the reason the redacting was so slipshod is that DOGE slashed the budget for Adobe Professional licences and they had to use the much less fancy basic free version instead. Once again, satire can't keep up with reality.

Not that impressed with the Christmas TV selection this year (and missing my usual "Doctor Who" fix), but did catch up with a few films, including FINALLY getting to watch the new "Superman".

Comments

[malurette]

Omens for the end of the year: A black cat was spotted at Stonehenge on the solstice. No arson nor jackdaws this year, the Gävlebocken fell over due to a windstorm. And ex cinema icon turned far right supporter Brigitte Bardot died.

Now for some reasons I can't explain, instead of spending my holidays binge watching the last seasons of Star Trek DS9 & Voyager on Netflix while I still can... I binge rewatch some choice early DS9 episodes?

[cyberghostface]

The Stranger Things finale is tomorrow. I’m seeing it in theaters.

[iamrman]

This week’s comics ramblings:

Guardians of the Galaxy. Not even Roger Stern can make me care about Starhawk. Also, Korvac will never not be ridiculous to me thanks to originally being half-desk.

Harley Quinn by Karl Kesel and Terry Dodson. Harley and Ivy were still in the baiting stage of their relationship at this time.

Hawkman. The 90’s bullshit continues with some loser named Bad Blood. Also, something-something Hawkgod.

Impulse. Every Flash inevitably gets their own Reverse-Flash, so now Impulse has to deal with Inertia.

Incredible Hulk Masterworks Vol. 12. I have always had a soft spot for Sal Buscema’s pencils. That being said, his faces can be a bit much. Love the way he draws the Hulk though. There is also a fun annual where the Hulk fights some old Atlas Era monsters.

Infinity Inc. I enjoyed All-Star Squadron, so I was eager to read the adventures of the children of the Justice Society. A bunch of them go on to even better things after the Crisis screwed everything up, but that isn’t for a while yet. Roy Thomas came up with a perfectly cromulent word by referring to them as “Infinitors”.

Iron Fist. Danny interrupts a ballgame between some Marvel staffers to fight some Middle Eastern stereotypes. Yes, this is the beginning of the Claremont run. Why do you ask?

[beyondthefringe]

Infinity Inc was such a delightfully bonkers series. Soap opera superheroics. Love triangles! Squabbling! Hijinks! Helix! Early Todd McFarlane art!

I still miss it.

[numeronone]

I don't live in the USA, but this was still heartening to read.

[mister_terrific]

It appears that our year-long ordeal is just about over: my FIL's estate is settled, and we should be getting our share sometime in January. Due to the size of the check, we'll have to return to St. Louis to deposit it; I told my wife we'd receive it about the time a major Winter Storm Warning hits the midwest. :)

My brother-in-law Gallant has done an incredible job of tying things up. The only remaining question is how my other BIL, Goofus, will screw things up. He's getting a significantly smaller share, due to his damage to the condo and a judge ruling that he owed rent to Gallant, and we're betting he'll raise a stink with the lawyer about it. Ah well. Not our circus, not our monkeys.

So...let me tell you about my daughter's gift to me. She goes all the way to 11 on things, and this was no exception. She got me...a Moopsy from Lower Decks. She knows how much I loved that episode. But that wasn't enough for her, oh no. She bought a sound chip, recorded the "Moopsy!" line on it, and sewed it. ***I*** have a talking Moopsy! This tops the Owl House miniature she made me that had Hooty lines on its sound card!

Reading-wise, I borrowed the first part of Matt Fraction's X-Men from Comixology Unlimited and generally enjoyed it, though the Land poses got to be a bit much a few pages in. I like Fraction's writing style, though, so it was a nice way to spend a few days.

[mastermahan]

Dang, your daughter is an amazing gift giver! Respect!

[scorntx]

"Now... tell me..."
What would have happened if you hadn't saved him?
"Yes! The sun would've risen all the same, yes?"
No.
"Oh, come on. You can't expect me to believe that. It's an astronomical fact."
The sun would not have risen.
She turned on him.
"It's been a long night, Grandfather. I'm tired and I need a bath! I don't need silliness!"
The sun would not have risen.
"Really? Then what would've happened, pray?"
A mere ball of flaming gas would have illuminated the world.
They walked in silence for a moment.
"Ah," said Susan dully. "Trickery with words. I would've thought you'd have been more literal-minded than that."
I am nothing if not literal-minded. Trickery with words is where humans live.
"All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."
Really? As if it were some kind of pink pill? No. Humans need fantasy to be human. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.
"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little-"
Yes. As practice. You have to start out learning to believe the little lies.
"So we can believe the little ones?"
Yes. Justice. Mercy. Duty. That sort of thing.
"They're not the same at all!"
You think so? Then take the universe and grind it down into the finest powder and sieve it through the finest sieve and show me one atom of justice, one molecule of mercy. And yet - Death waved a hand. And yet you act as if there is some... some justice in the universe by which it may be judged.
"Yes, but people have to believe, or what's the point-"
My point exactly.
She tried to assemble her thoughts.
There is a place where two galaxies have been colliding for a million years, said Death, apropos of nothing. Don't try to tell me that's right.
"Yes, but people don't think about that," said Susan. Somewhere there was a bed...
Correct. Stars explode, worlds collide, there's hardly anywhere in the universe where humans can live without being frozen or fried, and yet you believe that a... a bed is a normal thing. It is the most amazing talent.
"Talent?"
Oh, yes. A very special kind of stupidity. You think the whole universe is inside your heads.
"You make us sound mad," said Susan. A nice warm bed.
No. You need to believe in things that aren't real. How else can they become?
-- "The Hogfather", Sir Terry Pratchett (1996). GNU.

[icon_uk]

Magnificent!

Though, not being that deep a thinker very often I usually resort to a couple of others from "Hogfather"
- - - - -

IT'S THE EXPRESSION ON THEIR LITTLE FACES I LIKE, said the Hogfather.

"You mean sort of fear and awe and not knowing whether to laugh or cry or wet their pants?"

YES. NOW THAT IS WHAT I CALL BELIEF.
- - - - -
and
- - - - -
“You can't give her that!' she screamed. 'It's not safe!'

IT'S A SWORD, said the Hogfather. THEY'RE NOT MEANT TO BE SAFE.

'She's a child!' shouted Crumley.

IT'S EDUCATIONAL.

'What if she cuts herself?'

THAT WILL BE AN IMPORTANT LESSON.
- - - - -

[full_metal_ox]

Then there’s the king who officiously invades a peasant’s wretched hovel to gift his holiday banquet leftovers (of the likes of widgeons stuffed with swans’ livers), demanding forelock-tugging gratitude. Substitute Hogfather! DEATH arrives on the scene:

WERE YOU HERE LAST MONTH? WILL YOU BE HERE NEXT WEEK? NO. BUT TONIGHT YOU WANTED TO FEEL ALL WARM INSIDE. TONIGHT YOU WILL WANT THEM TO SAY: WHAT A GOOD KING HE IS.

Once he’s scared the king and his entourage off, DEATH has a better gift idea:

HAPPY HOGSWATCH. HO. HO. HO.

There was a string of sausages. There was a side of bacon. And a small tub of salt pork. And a mass of chitterlings wrapped up in greased paper. There was a black pudding. There were several other tubs of disgusting yet savory pork-adjacent items highly prized in any pig-based economy. And, laid on the table with a soft thump, there was—

“A pig’s head,” breathed the old man. “A whole one! Ain’t had brawn in years! And a basin of pig knuckles! And a bowl of pork dripping!”

HO. HO. HO.

“Amazing,” said Albert. “How did you get the head’s expression to look like the king?”

I THINK THAT’S ACCIDENTAL.

[scorntx]

I just felt since no-one had done it last week, som'un shoulda...
Ho. Ho. Ho?


The sword scene is a good. Though there's a lot of that book that's memorable.

(kind of fond of another Death line from a bit before the fight with the Auditors.
It is the things you believe which make you human. Good things or bad things, it's all the same.)

(also only discovered during this re-read that it's spelled Ridcully. Always been writing it as Ridicully fer some reason... odd.)

[scorntx]

Got a new sofa, after the old one had to move country. (But it's fine. Fresh seaside air. It'll be good for it.)
The cat has made her feelings on it pretty clear; not even worth the effort to scratch.

... well, that was just generally an unpleasant year all around.
Some bright spots, but the sheer, relentless, unremitting bleakness surrounding them does tend to quash those memories.

The quest for a Gogoat continues. Searching on Amazon proved fruitless.
I'm not spending over a £100 on a plushie, thank you very much.

Random weirdness: On the morning of December 24th a discussion was had regarding an absence of custard powder, and therefore the need to do a last minute shop for it.
The remark was made that X-Mas would not be X-Mas without custard.
This was followed by sarcastic singing of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" which was a little odd given the person doing the singing has never heard of "The Chimes of Midnight".
Spooky.
(Plum pudding, anyone?)

Thanks to that stupid movie with the tall smurfs, the news browser is just flooded with articles about Avengers: Doomsday.
This gon' be a looooong twelve months.
Gotta admit, my expectations are... not high.
For Doctor Doom, all I'm expecting is he might wear a green hood for some of the movie.
I don't hold much expectations of him staying masked for all of it.
Any other resemblance to Doctor Doom feels like it'd be coincidental.


Ultimate Endgame starts this week. Apparently. I think.
(I have no idea if delivery pond-side will be messed up from the holidays and New Year's, but probably.)
I am going to miss The Ultimates.
... still having a tremendous amount of difficulty figuring out what I feel about Ultimate X-Men.
It's a very bizarre series, but I don't mean because of the horror aspects.
Different bizarre.
(Think one of the bigger headscratchers of the whole NUU is the near-total lack of exploration of the magic side of things.)

[icon_uk]

I haven't listened to Chimes of Midnight again this year, I seem to have less fond memories of it than many, but will give it another try.

I DID blow a bit of a gift card I got for Christmas on "It's a Wonderful War", a miscellany of Christmas stories from Big Finish, consisting of a Missy story, a Jago and Litefoot story, a Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan story and an 8th Doctor story.

The Jago and Litefoot one doesn't have either gentleman directly present, as we lost Christopher Benjamin this year but is a nice homage to them using other characters.

The Smith and Sullivan one is fun, and the 8th Doctor one even has an explanation for the Christmas Dalek on the cover of the set

The highlight for me though is the Missy one, where she finds herself stranded on a planet which is the embodiment of Hallmark Christmas movie, and none of her usual tricks are working, which is especially frustrating as, by their standards, she is "a workaholic professional from the big city" and you KNOW what that means.... Michele Gomez is having a BLAST throughout.

[tripodeca113]

let's see this year I got a job and achieved my life-long dream of watching The Wire
(oh course then they let me go, but I was able to find another job, but they didn't get the contract they expected to so they let me go, but they did forward my information on to the people who would be taking over from them and now I have two potential jobs)

The 25th of December 2025 was an important milestone in the history of Doctor Who.
yes it was the 60th anniversary of The Feast of Steven
also the twentieth anniversary of the Tenth Doctor's first adventure. He saved the world and ruined Britain's golden age by getting the liberal, progressive prime minister removed from office.
(I guess blowing up the aliens as they were leaving does seem like a war crime, but they were here to conquer the Earth, sell half the population into slavery, and killed some people they took prisoner for being annoying. But I did find her motivation for doing this odd. If she'd said "Now other alien conquerors will know Earth is defended" that would have made sense, but she said she did it so they wouldn't spread information about how vulnerable Earth was. But that was right after the Doctor talked about how the planet's radio signals, broadcasts and space probes were drawing attention to it, so it doesn't really fix the issue)

Well looks like the 7th of January will have some sort of update about the live-action Avatar show. It's part of a more general update about Netflix's shows so it probably won't be very specific, but we'll probably learn when season two airs. Or maybe three seconds of new footage.


An artist I support on Patreon had their account flagged and then deactivated. They managed to get it back, but that was a rough few hours.

[dewinged]

Ngozi Uzaku is starting A New Chapter of Check Please! in 2026.

Was NOT expecting that!

[icon_uk]

Yeah, that was AMAZING news! :D