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.

Last Thursday, the UK Government has confirmed another three more weeks of lockdown at least and, to be blunt, I have no idea what the US Government seems to be planning though, in fairness, I'm not sure the US goverment does either, with POTUS 45 being at his most disruptive, the day after agreeing that Governors would control when their lockdowns are eased, starts tweeting out "LIBERATE..." messages to, coincidentally I'm sure, Democrat run states. And sure enough, protests start forming with dubious connections in far right activist groups, almost immediately. Sigh....

I mean, you KNOW you're in the bad timeline when even a frankly horrible person like Piers Morgan is seeming reasonable, with his wild suggestion to the US and UK administrations that some statescraft and non-partisan leadership might be a rather good idea..

So I beg of you, if you have good news stories at the moment, please share them!

Actually, you know what, that's not good enough, i MUST be able to find good news... so here goes

New York's Governer has issued an order allowing weddings to be carried out over Zoom

Hospitals in Massachussetts are playing the Rocky theme as they discharge recovered Covid 19 patients

Captain Tom Moore, the 99 year old whose sponsored walk of his garden raised over £27 MILLION pounds for NHS supporting charities after his story went viral, has received over 25,000 cards for his 100th birthday!. His final lap of his garden saw him with an honour guard from the local army base and he is being recommended for a Knighthood. (It's regrettable that such an NHS charity drive is needed, but I will brook no disagreement that this is an amazing achievement)

The Matterhorn is being used as a giant projector screen for the Swiss to display flags of the world in a gesture of solidarity. Okay, that's maybe more weird news than good news, but I'll take it.

If you're on Facebook and not following Bill Scienkiwicz, now might be a good time to start. Aside from being a genuinely brilliant artist and thoroughly nice chap, his posting of a photo reference of himself he'd used in the past where he was wearing... not very much, though delicate areas were carefully blocked out, has lead to a LOT of artists, professional and amateur, doing a little tribute to him in their own styles. The results are.... eclectic, but rather wonderful.

More Doctor Who livetweets took place, notably Russell T Davies, Catherine Tate, David Tennant, John Barrowman and Freema Agyeman and Noel Clark all being on fine form for "The Stolen Earth" and "Journey's End", the story which saw the departure of Donna Noble.

Also, in honour of the ninth anniversary of the passing of Lis Sladen, star of Doctor Who and The Sarah Jane Adventures, RTD hosted a live tweet of the last ever episode for TSJA, completed just before her untimely death. But there was so much more. With the permission of her family, RTD released an endpiece to the series and the character. I'm not going to lie, this was a VERY tough one to get through, and if you were a fan of the show, I strongly advise you to have tissues handy because it's gonna be rough, but it is also perfect, with charming, unexpected appearances that address some matters that we have long known were intended to be in the final block of episodes which never got made and some moving new ones. RTD can certainly still write an emotionally devastating scene.

Also, Lis' daughter Sadie Miller has been confirmed to be taking on the role of Sarah Jane for audio stories from Big Finish, the first being with Tom Baker in "Return of the Cybermen" from a script that on the show was reworked to become "Revenge of the Cybermen". (Harry Sullivan is also being recast)

So, partly inspired by Mr Sienkiwicz above, (though NONE of the Mod Team's posteriors will be involved we assure you) and in a move to perhaps get us all a litle more creative, how would you feel about a community art challenge? A daily prompt of a character, who you cuold then draw, write or create somethign about and then share the results on the post?

Comments

[commodus]

Well, I'm kind of short on good news at the moment, I'm afraid. Things seem pretty miserable. For myself, I've been trying to stay as positive as I can. I'm working on a big project, trying to draw my own comic, which is something I've always wanted to do. So I guess that's something? Not that anyone will care, of course, but whatever.

[icon_uk]

Well, we are suggesting an art challenge, so the timing might be quite good!

[tripodeca113]

The Clone Wars finale story began. Its apparently quite good.

My Twilight Zone DVD boxset has arrived. Hooray.

I also figured out how to properly download RAR files on my computer.

Batman Earth One Volume Three, isn’t coming out is it?
They’re making a gritty Perry Mason prequel? Who really cares about Perry Mason?

[icon_uk]

I'd also question why make it "gritty"?

[owlbrigade1]

Everything must be "gritty" right now, for some reason. I'm hoping for a return to when everything was fantastic or campy, myself. Although "gritty" Perry Mason sounds more like someone wanted to write a "gritty" lawyer show, but couldn't get it off the ground, so they shopped around to see if there was a pre existing property with a bit of goodwill and name recognition that they could bootstrap it onto.
See also: every other "gritty" reboot since 2003.

I swear, we're only a couple of years away from a "gritty" Murder She Wrote at some point.

[thezmage]

He’s not a lawyer in this one, apparently. He’s a private investigator.

[icon_uk]

Then he's not Perry Mason, he's Paul Drake!

[owlbrigade1]

Like I said, someone has a script they can't get off the ground on its own merits...

[thanekos]

Alas that we live in the world where NBC's planned Murder, She Wrote reboot (starring Octavia Spencer) didn't make it to series, and " Columbo starring Mark Ruffalo " was just a neat idea that got kicked around.

[icon_uk]

Well, Alan Cummings plan for a gay remake of "Hart to Hart" didn't make it, but he is now the only gay married detective on TV I can think of in "Instinct"

[skjam]

I like Perry Mason! Though seriously, gritty? Have they even read the early Perry Mason books? They just need to include more of his rather high-handed behavior outside the courtroom.

[icon_uk]

I remember reading that in the original TV series they actually had him lose a case early on, and the public reaction was so incredibly negative that they swore THAT was nevr going to happen again! :)

[owlbrigade1]

That seems to be the same thing that the L&O franchise did, every episode had a last minute breakdown confession on the stand at one point.

[lego_joker]

The only ep of Perry Mason I ever watched was the one with Yvonne Craig (playing Neil Hamilton's daughter a good decade before Batman '66, if you can believe it). Her overacting has to be seen to be believed.

[icon_uk]

They're rerunning it over here at the moment. I've never seen it before (only some of the 80's and 90's TV movies) and I can't watch it regularly, but it has a certain charm. Haven't seen the Yvonne Craig one.

[bradygirl_12]

I like the show, too. Very classy, the clothes are fantastic, and there's good chemistry among Perry Mason, Della Street, and Paul Drake. :)

[scorntx]

Recasting Sarah-Jane? Blasphemy!
It was alright when it was replacing no-names like Hartnell, but Sarah-Jane! Is nothing sacred to those monsters at Big Finish?
(ooh, Cybermen. It's always nice to have a Cyberman story. Especially when they're not reduced to henchminions.
Y'know, like they've been on the show the last six years.)

a writer of Transformers: Cyberverse released some tweets about the stuff they would've liked to include.
Like Minimus Ambus, a female Jazz (!!!) and even a friggen Beast Wars: Uprising reference.
(Not a fan of the modern trend of mixing G1 and Beast Wars, but if it helps raise Uprising awareness, gimme!)

Apparently Digimon Adventure Last Kizuna is getting an English dub.
Mixed feelings. It'd be nice to see it, but at the same time what info's actually reached foreign shores about the plot makes it sound... well... crap.
(But once again, totally ignoring all the plot threads of tri in favour of something completely different mixed with angsty BS also makes it the perfect sequel to tri.)

Having troubles with the dog lately. Poor thing's off her food, which is figured to be because of an abscess, and given the current awfulness, can't exactly take her along to the vets.
... that said, whatever's afflicting her isn't stopping her trying to eat the cat's food any chance she gets.

Planning on inflicti-... err, watching Rise of Skywalker with the family the night.
(By a mysterious coincidence, several cases of beer showed up on the doorstep the other day. How odd.)

[icon_uk]

BF have been very wary of recasting roles, and with Hartnell they DID wait until they had an actor who had actually played the First Doctor, so that's sort of an out.

Many of the others have required the approval of the creators, so they could only recast the Brigadier with the approval f the estate of the writer who created him, Mervyn Heisman. Sometimes they have aldo requested the approval of the actor's family, both as a courtesy gesture, and a means of mollifying outraged fans.

As DWM pointed out a while back, with a Third Doctor story where the Doctor, the Brigadier and Liz Shaw have all been recast (and the Brig by Jon Culshaw) it did seem more like a Doctor Who meets Dead Ringers crossover at times.

And mysterious indeed are the ways of the booze Force

[thezmage]

I had originally said that I would see Rose of Skywalker when I could do so for free on Disney+, but when they announced that all of the Star Wars movies would be $5 next week I decided to make an exception. I still have no intention of liking it

[scorntx]

$5?
... sounds about the right price for ROS.

[tripodeca113]

Free is too expensive for that film.

[werehawk]

You might be pleasantly surprised. I hope this doesn't get me hated here but my family and I thought ROS was decent albeit not perfect.
My previous sequel scorecard fyi: Force Awakens - LOVED it, Last Jedi - disliked but did not hate

[scorntx]

Second time watching ROS.
First time was in the cinema.
Going in, figured the worst would be the CGI Leia, and the Knights of Ren being utterly pointless (which they were, so yay?).
Brain checked out when it turned out they really were going with the Palpatine plot. So, five minutes into the movie.

... it's a garbled, frantic mess of a movie that tries to do far too much.
But it's hard to actually hate it.

[beyondthefringe]

Yeah, it's a pretty messy film, but I really wouldn't say it's outright hate-able.

Even if I was cracking jokes about Lando saying "on your left" as the black supporting character arrived with the army of literally everyone at the last moment... :)

[cainofdreaming]

Pst. You typoed Catherine Tate as Catherine Tennant. I was like, did the Doctor divorce his daughter and marry Doctor Donna?

The meta is as weird in Whoverse as the actual show.

[icon_uk]

Oops, slightly more Moffatt-y than intended!

What with Doctor's daughter marrying the Doctor, and having child who is both the Doctor's daughter, AND the Doctors grand-daughter, but not the granddaughter of the Doctor we already met when we first met the Doctor?

Wibbly-wobbbly...

[cainofdreaming]

And the actor who married the Doctor played the doctor's daughter while also being the daughter of the Fifth Doctor? Yeah, kinda feels like there's a paradox here somewhere.

[icon_uk]

Yeah, that was the situation I was outlining.... :)

[dewinged]

In my head that translates to Uncle Scrooge marrying Magica DeSpell..

[skjam]

Got a couple of going out in public masks from my sewing-able mother, and I am told my company will be sending some more as soon as they have them.

Working from home has been doable.

Over at my blog, I look at an old Ellery Queen magazine: http://www.skjam.com/2020/04/20/magazine-review-ellery-queens-mystery-magazine-august-1953/

[nightauditguy]

I've been playing Animal Crossing. Feel as though I've accomplished nothing for the day if I haven't played

[icon_uk]

I downlaoded "Best Fiends" last Friday, but having seen how it is EXACTLY the kind of game I have to avoid because I can develop a near obsession with them, missing sleep and wasting nearly a day on whilst KNOWING I had things to do... deleted it on Saturday. I feel much better now!

[leahandillyana]

Is there any info when will the comics return?

[icon_uk]

No word, as yet,

[thezmage]

Not sure what this could mean, but Fandango just bought the digital movie service Vudu from Walmart. Fandango still has Fandango Now to provide digital movies (which for some reason never had an Apple TV app). Apparently it’s at least in part a reaction to Walmart’s apparent failure to turn it into a platform for original content.

[zachbeacon]

I've always been wary of the digital only thing but when I express that concern with movies I've had people tell me "oh, Vudu's owned by Walmart. they aren't going anywhere"

Now they're owned by Fandango who are no doubt struggling to remain relevant in a world without movie theaters.

[thezmage]

I do share the skepticism of the lasting nature of digital purchases and prefer to wait for a physical release if it’s something I really care about owning, but there are quite a few giant corporations with a vested interest in keeping the market afloat. It only needs to fail once to bring down the whole industry. Nearly every major movie company other than Lionsgate has signed on with Disney’s Movies Anywhere service to make sure that a purchase you make on Apple, FandangoNow, Vudu, Amazon, or Google Prime is also recognized by the others. It benefits nobody to let your digital movies disappear

Also Fandango is owned by NBC and Comcast so it’s not like every company isn’t somehow owned by another larger company.

[zachbeacon]

I hope so. I just worry that they'll vanish overnight like Ultraviolet did.

Still, I own very few movies digitally that I don't own physically.

That's not true for music, books, and comics.

I really hope Amazon never loses interest in Comixology.

[thezmage]

I get that. For what it’s worth I firmly believe that Movies Anywhere killed Ultraviolet, as there’s only really room for one company there and Disney and Apple (which was connected to MA but not UV) just steamrolled the over.

I did actually lose a movie I had redeemed on UV and had to pay $2 to the Vudu Disc to Digital program to get it back. The first animated Lego Batman movie (Heroes Unite, the one that just took the plot of the second video game)

[janegray]

Some angel on a fansite has been translating the Devil May Cry novels and Drama CDs. I could cry ;_;

[zero_elec]

That's Amazing! I've always wanted to read the novels but, you know, the lack of Japanese knowledge really puts a damper to that. Had to settle for summaries.

[janegray]

I know right? Plus I hate the hole in my collection. I'm a HUGEDMC fan. Comics, manga, novels, action figures, art book... If they are DMC and were sold outside of Japan, I own them.

(Even if I ended up keeping the DMC3 manga just for collection's sake, and read the fantranslated scans that were posted on LiveJournal a million years ago, because it turned out that TokyoPop did less "translation" and more "make half the script up")

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post a link to the fansite here. Piracy is against S_D rules, and comments that contain links to downloads are not allowed. But does it count as piracy if the material in question has never been published outside of Japan?

I'll play it safe and avoid posting the link here.

I highly recommend the Drama CD too. It ties up some loose ends from the manga and the anime (if Dante in the manga worked with Enzo, why does he work with Morrison in the anime?), confirms a cherished pet theory of mine (why did Dante change the name back to Devil May Cry, after changing it to Devil Never Cry in the first game?), and explains why Dante loses all of his Devil Arms after each game and is always only left with Rebellion.

[janegray]

If anybody is interested in getting a personalised video from a celebrity (actor, voice actor, writer, etc), right now Cameo is doing a promotion. If you get a new account through a link provided by a user, you automatically get a $5 coupon.

Tl;dr: click this link here, create an account, and you get $5 off when you ask Famous Person to say something nice to you. Like, say hi, or sing happy birthday, or comment on your fic, or whatever you like.

https://www.cameo.com/join/7llbbcvm

Disclaimer: the person who gave you the link will also get $5 if you buy a video.

[janegray]

So, they just passed a law in my country that forbids selling books and comics and manga on online stores with more than 5% discount.

On the one hand, I get that they are doing it to protect physical book stores. When Amazon and other estores routinely sell books with 35% discount, physical book stores have been wiped out.

On the other hand, for all intents and purposes this means I can only buy used books/comics/manga now, because I simply can't afford to consistently pay full price for the stuff I like. If I only have $20, and that $20 either buys me one trade that lasts me a couple of days or a semi-recent videogame that lasts me one month, I'm picking the game.

[zachbeacon]

"I have no idea what the US Government seems to be planning though, in fairness, I'm not sure the US government does either"

The sort version is that the federal government has done very little in most cases* so its been up to each individual state (and sometimes county, city, or town) to develop a response. Naturally that leads to wildly uneven results.

*And actively hinders the states in some cases.

I'd go into more detail but then I'll want to scream and I've become very aware of just how thin the walls in my apartment complex are.

[thezmage]

https://www.cbr.com/scoob-skips-theaters-goes-to-vod-covid-19/

Scoob has joined Trolls in foregoing a cinema release and just being rentable