Category Archives: cartoon

Asante Sana, #MilestoneMedia Artist Mark (M.D.) Bright, 69

Posted on by toddpanther

This is truly sad news. He was the artist for Icon, who, despite being a conservative in his first incarnation, was perhaps my favorite Milestone superhero!

Here are some obits and here is his Wiki.

“X-Men ’97” Official Trailer

Posted on by toddpanther

I remember so clearly when this was “sneak-peek”ed in the fall 1992. It feels like a lifetime ago: I had just started grad school. It was on #FoxKids, home of #BatmanTheAnimatedSeries. I hadn’t read a X-Men comic since 1985 so I didn’t know half the team’s members. I quickly learned and for much of the ’90s dopamine instantly flooded my insides whenever I heard the words, “Previously, on ‘X-Men’….” So, #MarvelEntertainment #MarvelEnterprises, please air these *in order* this time? An advance THANKS!

MARCH 25th UPDATE: WOW, WOW, WOW! What a debut!

“Meanwhile, At The Hall of Justice….” Fifty Years Ago Today……

Posted on by toddpanther

…..Saturday mornings on ABC became appointment television for millions of 1970s children across America. (All this and Scooby-Doo and Schoolhouse Rock, too!)

Oh, an important societal note:

If you want to see a 1973 future-forecast prediction of Amazon.com, streaming services allowing people to stay home, etc., please find and watch all of the first-season episode “Professor Goodfellow’s G.E.E.C.” Two small excerpts:

My Novel’s First Draft: Labors End, Labors Begin

Posted on by toddpanther

So that’s what writing a rough draft of a novel is like!

Mine was easy since my novel is 80 percent true!

So I learned that all the fiction-writing stereotypes are true.

  • You do get ideas when you’re trying to go to sleep.
  • The characters do talk to you in your head until you write down what they are saying and/or doing.
  • It does take as much time as you give it.
  • It is true that the reader doesn’t have to know the whole history and background of your characters, but you do.
  • You do miss your characters when you are done and it is a good idea to jump right into another project–as in “meeting someone new.” 🙂
  • It does take a certain stamina and commitment to finish–particularly when you realize it’s just a first draft. (I haven’t run it through the AI yet.)

Marvel Studios’ The Marvels | Teaser Trailer

Posted on by toddpanther
x3

Just the trailer makes me want to see this team in its own movie trilogy! And I love this choice from The Beasties!

SEPTEMBER 14th UPDATE:

Some Comments About “Star Trek: Picard” @ The Halfway Point Of Season 3, The Final Season

Posted on by toddpanther

If the last five episodes are as incredible as these first five, this one season of this one streaming show will have made up for:

  • Every bad episode of TOS;
  • Every bad episode of ST:TAS;
  • Every bad episode of TNG (yes, even the race/ethnic stereotyping and overt racism of Seasons 1 and 2);
  • Every bad episode of DS9 (were there bad episodes of that? 🙂 );
  • Every bad episode of Voyager (and I love the fact that there are not many of those 🙂 ),
  • Every bad Trek movie (maybe even including the new ones, depending on how powerful this particular story and series ends!) and 
  • Every misstep of streaming Nu Trek, animated and live-action (including Picard Season Two)

This is an amazing time to love this franchise! Today is a good day to live 🙂

[UPDATE AFTER SEEING FINALE ON 4/20/23: The finale might have been the weakest. With the amount of time spent, the showrunners are determined to set up Star Trek: Legacy–something that technically doesn’t exist (yet)! I can’t believe the Trek people allowed the showrunners so much setup for nothing. There was less setup for a new movie the Trek folks have already announced! The story as a whole is almost the GOAT, but perhaps time will push this to an A+.]

*****

A Related Aside: Between this and what’s going on with Star Wars streaming shows, it’s beginning to be understood that good writing fixes everything–even bad movie sequels and prequels. The Star Wars streaming showrunners are creating world-building that’s so well done [LINK ADDED 4/20/23] it’s actually showing the greatness of the content of the prequels and sequels. An example of re-evaluating and changing your long-held view of something based on something else new that puts the old in a new context, a la the maxim, “If you change the way you look at things, what you look at changes.”