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.

After first threatening to ban TikTok in the US, and then suggesting he would unless it's sold to a US company, Trump is now suggesting that the US Government should get a "very large percentage of that price" from such a sale, because it's only his action that is making it possible. Legally, never mind ethically, this might prove... controversial.

SpaceX returned it's first manned commercial space passengers to Earth safely with a good old fashioned splashdown.

The whirl of rules about lockdown in the UK (and individual regions therein) continues to spin like a demented merry-go-round.

John Hume, one of the architects of the Peace Process in Northern Ireland, passed away.

Audi in Germany drop an advert featuring a little girl eating a banana whilst leaning on the front of a sports-car Not even sure how to process that one.

Got the Doctor Who Season 14 Bluray set, which includes Sarah Jane's departure story "The Hand of Fear" as well as "The Deadly Assassin" (Perhaps DW's most redundant title) and the first few Leela stories. The tribute to Lis Sladen documentary is lovely and I may have misted up a couple of times during it.

The first season of "Wizards", the third of Guillermo Del Toro's interconnected "Tales of Arcadia" series, after "Trollhunters" and "3Below", drops on Netflix this week. David Bradley returns as Merlin, and the trailer has shown the return of Jim Lake, though I have no idea if that's a major role or a guest spot. Loved "Trollhunters", took a while to warm to "3Below", which used the same setting and characters, but a completely different lore to focus on, so will be interested to see how much "3Below" is a part of "Wizards".

Umbrella Academy Season 2 is proving to be a bit more slow going than the first, for me at any rate, with another countdown to an imminent apocalypse mirroring the first season somewhat, and a slow build to the family interactions that made the first one so compelling.

Also caught up on some (but not all yet) Doom Patrol. After spinning it's wheels a little, they're taking some interesting diversiosn from the comic I think, with appearances by Valentina "Negative Woman" Vostock, random entities like the Shadowy Mr Evans and the Sex-Men, and a spectacular looking Candlemaker, but underpinned by still strong performances from the main cast, and a genuinely remarkable one from Abigail Shapiro as Dorothy Spinner.

Today's completely random question: Favourite holiday destination? (We might not be able to go on them this year, but we can always plan ahead!)

Comments

[stubbleupdate]

Nothing for Seb Patrick?

[icon_uk]

I don't know who that is, but please feel free to elaborate.

[zachbeacon]

A comic movie podcaster who died suddenly over the weekend. I don't actually know many details beyond the little that was posted on Twitter but i really enjoyed his work.

https://www.cinematicuniverse.com/

[iamrman]

Nothing particularly exciting with my comics reading this week. I have been re-reading Power Pack by Louise Simonson.

I resisted reading the series for a long time because I thought a series about pre-teen heroes sounded too twee. Naturally, I changed my tune when I actually got around to reading it and found the series to be surprisingly mature.

Some issues did come dangerously close to being Very Special Stories about some topical theme or another, but I didn't let it put me off.

At the moment though I am presently re-reading Dan Slott's She-Hulk. I also have the trades that collected the run by You Know Who that followed. After that I was thinking of re-reading Sensational She-Hulk by John Byrne. That is unless people can recommend any other runs on She-Hulk.

[nightauditguy]

Tomorrow, Big Brother All Stars 2 begins

[malurette]

Wait Wizards drops this week? was it advertized? how did I miss it until then? Thank you for the info!!

Favourite holiday destination: that village in the French Alps where my mother's family has a house. The mountains are beautiful, the place is quiet, and the luxury of having a family house here instead of having to rent a place makes things so convenient.
(But I can't go this summer, Work is getting in the way, and by the time things slow down I'm sure we'll be in lockdown again. Bleh.)

[tripodeca113]

Well my copy of Shadow of Kyoshi finally arrived. It was good, and I liked it, expect for one part which I didn’t like at all. I really must get on to doing the rest of the Avatar comics.

I have finally finished The Witcher games. My ranking for them goes 3,1 and 2. They had their shortcomings, but overall, they were good games. It makes me consider going out and pre-ordering Cyberpunk 2077, but having played all their games in rapid succession, I’m aware of CD-Projeckt Red shortcomings.

Apparently Youtube plans to discontinue its community captions systems. Oh, but there’s a service you can subscribe to in order to get captions.

I worry that Patreon, is about to change its guidelines which will screw over a lot of its users. I assume that they’ve been getting bad press about enabling stuff, which will lead them to place major restrictions on NSFW content, which’ll screw over a lot of artists.

[deh_tommy]

Have we learned nothing from tumblr?

[janegray]

Or LiveJournal. Or Fanfiction.net.

This just keeps happening. A site gets popular, the onwer makes the idiotic decision to ban porn, the username mass migrates and the site implodes.

Again and again and again. You'd think they'd learn from history.

[stubbleupdate]

If anybody listened to the Cinematic Universe podcast, or paid attention to Mifflinfinity, F1 Colours, Beyond The Touchline, When Saturday Comes, Empire, Roy of the Rovers, Den of Geek, Ganymede & Titan, Forum365, Unlimited Rice Pudding or Noise to Signal or the red dwarf fan community, you'll have heard of writer and podcaster Seb Patrick.

He died, suddenly and of natural causes, at the weekend, aged 37.

His colleague Ian Symes has set up a gofundme to support Seb's widow and daughter.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/in-loving-memory-of-seb-patrick

His final tweet has taken on a new light following his passing.


Hazel Southwell's written about his wonderful attitude of just really liking things a lot, without apology or pretence.

[tripodeca113]

oh....

[zachbeacon]

The new Cinematic Universe podcast episode is a really great tribute to Seb.

Edit: And here are some others ...

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/tributes-made-to-seb-patrick-including-on-red-dwarf-tonight/

[zachbeacon]

Its worth noting that the TikTok thing seems to be largely a distraction because a lot of Trump’s financial records were released.



So Muppets Now is basically what the Muppets would be if they were YouTubers. I guess I should have seen it coming considering the music videos and shorts on YouTube are among the better recent Muppet content.

Piggy is a lifesty(le) blogger because of course she is.
The Swedish Chief has a cooking show. Considering his ingredients always fought back, I never really considered if he was a GOOD chief or not.

Kermit does a little bit of everything. The constantly interrupted RuPaul interview is probably my favorite just because it seemed the most Muppety. The “photo” bit seemed like a better fit for Gonzo or someone but it also provided one of the better gags in the episode BECAUSE it was Kermit.

It’s a solid premise that’s flexible enough that I have hope for the series but it could have used some better jokes. Apparently all six episodes have already been filmed so I’m a little worried we won’t see improvements until the next season but the format of the show gives me hope they can actually make a new season soon (unlike all the Marvel shows that may never be finished because of the pandemic).

I will say it’s pretty annoying that they played the “we made fun of ourselves so now we’re immune to criticism” card right out the gate.

[cygnia]

One day, I hope to go back to Lisbon and take my husband with me...

[deh_tommy]

Why can’t you, might I ask? Lockdown?

[cygnia]

Yeah, lockdown, alas. No travel for us here in the US (at least, for those of us who don't wanna endanger ourselves or others).

Was there back in Feb. '01...beautiful city. I'd hope to see it one more time.

[leahandillyana]

An MP talked about reintroducing death penalty in Poland. For what? Being a homo.

[onsokumaru]

There is not a week without this kind of news from poland. I saw pictures of people waving a banner against nazism, communism and homosexuality. And others celebrating the rebellion against nazi... by burning a raibow flag.

It reminded me of an educational book that made a bit of scandal in France, because it was telling children that they should accept differences and diversity among european cultures, with as an example the fact that two men being married in Poland was unthinkable.
https://www.franceinter.fr/politique/frontieres-brexit-et-polonais-homophobe-l-etrange-bd-pour-enfants-sur-l-europe-de-nathalie-loiseau

[deh_tommy]

I... I just... what? Am I missing something? What’s so bad about that Audi photo?

[onsokumaru]

My first reaction was "and that's how you get a kid crushed by their parent's car". And that is indeed one of the arguments against the add.

Apparently, some people also thought the kid was sexualized because of the banana and the tradition of pin-ups to sale cars. Honnestly it puzzles me a bit and I'm wondering if that's not a case of "your dirty mind".

[lissa_quon]

I'm not sure I classify as a "dirty mind" (I'm ace as they come) but my brain was reading the visual symbols of "sports car" "banana" "girl" as something that - on paper sounds...not great. Now that I see it I'm even more baffled.

[skjam]

The local bus system is back to requiring onboard fare payment.

Over at my blog, I review "Hopalong Cassidy", which is not the first Hopalong Cassidy book, but might as well be.

[sisterofbloomerjunior]

Even for the rapid transit lines? It's been months since I've ridden.

[skjam]

Ah, no, those are still done with the sidewalk machines.

[liliaeth]

am I missing any postings of the second 'Old Guard' miniseries? Still loving the movie, and was wondering if anyone had posted the comic yet, before I start posting scans.

[cyberghostface]

Only four episodes in but I think pacing wise this season of Umbrella Academy is moving generally faster than the first one.

Bonus answer.

[sisterofbloomerjunior]

Green Bay and Door County, WI, especially Egg Harbor.

[bruinsfan]

"Nice social media platform ya got there. Be a shame if it... broke."

[zachbeacon]

"You can't spy on Americans like that! That's OUR job"

[silverhammerman]

Watched the first season of the What We Do in the Shadows TV series, it's rather good. It takes some time to feel like its own thing as it runs through the tropes of the movie, but it's quite fun.

I read Batman Universe and Batman: Last Knight on Earth, two books which are basically at opposite ends of the spectrum of Batman-in-the-DCU stories. I had a lot of thoughts about the latter and might link to a blog post next week. Also finished Christopher Priest's Deathstroke, and while I never bothered to read the crossovers (because I hate crossovers) I still found it coherent and think the whole thing hangs together very well. It genuinely succeeded in making Deathstroke interesting to me, and had some very cool stuff going on by the time of the final arc. I'm sad to see it go, but glad to see it end properly. If DC fails to give Priest another series after this it'll be a huge mistake.

Favorite holiday destination was Prague. I'll never again have enough money to go there, but I really liked the city.