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knifeonmars · 3 years

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Capsule Reviews April 2021

A few of the things that I've been reading over the past couple of months. I surprised myself when I noticed that most of these were indie books, but that's probably because all of my needs for big dumb superhero comics are currently being more or less covered by the material I'm reading for my podcast, Regarding Spawn. Anyway, here's some review.

Grenade by Will Kirkby

Grenade is in many ways an art showcase, a vibrant little volume centered on a world somewhat along the lines of Shadowrun, a cyberpunk setting with fantasy elements. The story focuses on a main character somewhat typical for the cyberpunk genre, a traumatized transhuman war veteran turned cop, haunted by their memories as they are drawn into a web of conspiracy tracing back to their wartime experiences. The story is hardly surprising, but this is a book that you read for the texture, not the plot. Grenade is gorgeous, jam packed with detail in the maximalist tradition of artists like Geoff Darrow but with an angular, punk edge, and the world building and concepts are all fun and have great hooks. There are certain ideas introduced at tossed aside that I wished to see a bit more of, but overall it's a very satisfying cyberpunk flavoured romp that would be well worth it for the art alone.

Home Time Vols. 1-2 by Campbell Whyte

Stand By Me by way of Over the Garden Wall, if put in reductive terms, I picked up the conclusion to Campbell Whyte's stellar first volume of the series and recently had the chance to read them back to back. They're excellent, maybe some of the best comics I've read this year, stellar YA material with a bold, experimental style and great storytelling. Centering on four friends about to graduate from middle school and go their separate way, the characters are suddenly caught up in a strange fantasy world with no way back home and the story focuses on how they cope with this as they gradually learn more about the world. The kids all feel like kids (or at least how I remember being a kid), the worldbuilding is really unique and off-kilter, fleshed out by loads of journal inserts ranging from photos to diary entries, to a handmade encyclopedia right out of Gravity Falls. The art is stellar, sticking to a general cartoon-y aesthetic but jumping back and forth through various styles of coloring and rendering with each viewpoint character, including sections rendered in a pixelated style which evokes a great deal of nostalgia for me as someone who grew up reading sprite-based webcomics. Some of the plot beats might not surprise you, but others probably will, and I can't recommend checking this out enough.

The Grot by Pat Grant

Another Australian book, not that I've been on a kick or anything. The Grot is quite excellent, a sort of "low post-apocalyptic" story set in a world littered with the detritus of our own. The world building is a treat, lived in and recognizably plausible but strange; cars and boats are powered by low wage laborers on pedals, electricity and running water are unheard of, cholera runs rampant, and anyone and everyone is partaking in an algae-based gold rush. The Grot is very much a gold rush story, and indeed about the biggest criticism I could make about it is that it could just as easily be set in any given historical gold rush with little effect on the narrative, the conceit of a post-lapsarian world is hardly taken advantage of, but then perhaps that's the point, "the more things change, the more they stay the same" and all that. The story itself is a classic one of ambition and confidence games, following two young brothers who arrive in a boom town with plans to be the only ones not getting suckered. The artwork and colors are vibrant and distinct, a loose, cartoonist's touch which nevertheless manages to make everything look distinctly real and absolutely filthy. Everyone is ugly and dirty, dressed in distinct clothes, cutting distinct profiles, looking real and alive, even if Grant doesn't pursue a photorealistic style. I'd recommend it for those looking for something different from the standard action oriented fair coming out from most major American publishers, but not sold on art comics. The Grot is a great read packed with story and personality.

Sazan and Comet Girl by Yuriko Akase

Coming out in 2018, right in the meat of Wife Guy culture, and preceding the rise of himbos by two years, Sazan and Comet Girl is a book well suited to the moment. It's about a nice, not entirely bright young man pursuing a Cool Girl across the stars as they fall in love. It's also, in fairness, Sazan and Manic Pixie Dream Girl in some ways, though it holds off the worst of that genre by characterizing Sazan primarily through the lens of sincere enthusiasm and support for his much cooler, more powerful love interest. It's a distinctly fun, peppy book, that's really gorgeously rendered, with full lush water colours on every page and a design sensibility firmly in line with retro-anime. It's not entirely without points to criticize, the titular Comet Girl spends the entire book rarely wearing more than bra and a pair of brave Daisy Dukes, and the trick employed throughout the final sequence of the book, which takes up the entire back half (the pacing is also a touch off) to get the whole universe cheering for the heroes is a little cheap. But overall Sazan and Comet Girl is really charming, it's cute, incredible to look at, just a little horny, and a fun adventure. I heartily recommend it.

PTSD by Guillaume Singelin

I'd had this sitting in my To-Read pile because I wanted to take some time between reading Grenade and this book, since there are quite a few superficial similarities between the two: they're both sci-fi adjacent, they both star traumatized veterans, both are lushly rendered by indie cartoonists, so reading them back to back would have felt like a disservice. For the record, they're ultimately not similar at all. PTSD is the story of Jun, a traumatized war veteran living on the streets of an unidentified city, pushing away all attempts at help or community as she slowly spirals downward, killing drug dealers to fuel her addiction to pain pills. One thing that stands out to me about PTSD tonally and about its main character is that it's willing to let Jun be really unpleasant in a meaningful way. Jun isn't an "asshole" because she's too much of a hard drinkin', hard fuckin' badass, she's an asshole because she's so deeply traumatized that she lashes out verbally and physically at anyone who comes near her. It feels unglamourous and real in a really enjoyable way.The art is also a revelation, it doesn't quite cross the line into Geoff-Darrow-insired visual maximalism, but every panel and ever inch of the pages are packed with lovingly rendered detail. Singelin's drawing style tends more towards cartooning than pseudo-realism, in a way that makes the charming moments utterly charming and the brutal moments appropriately shocking. I have some minor issues with the ending, the story kind of cuts out without really delving into the messy implications and the long tail to Jun's conflict with the drug dealers, and there's a touch of action movie logic in that the main character is alone among the veterans in her trauma having left her as a kind of towering badass rather than one of society's victims, but putting those aside PTSD is a really satisfying story about trauma and community.

#comics #capsule reviews #indie comics

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zitkaplushie · 4 years

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nightwing secret files liveblog:

this is gonna be a long one so it’s under a cut!

taking wing-

is that jason??

i like this 'a christmas carol' type exposition i'm ngl

i'm not sure if 'jason''s dismissal of the circus is dixon using an unreliable narrator, or if dixon actually believes that

god i hate this art so much

how dare u insult the teen titans in any way 😤 i like the name

also titans cameo!!

more awful jason characterisation (pls dixon just stay 8732894738 feet away from jason)

"without robin i have no family" i guess the titans are just chopped liver huh

"i always thought that one day i'd be batman" nope nope nope nope you have 0 understanding of dick's character if that's what you think mr dixon

i love clark having a part in dick becoming nightwing - i adore it - but the way dixon retcons the importance of the titans, and especially kory, in dick becoming nightwing rubs me the complete wrong way. i'm choosing to read this as a between the scenes moment, but i 100% dixon intended this to replace the titans' importance. and the way ppl just swallow it up w/o thinking about the reasons behind why dixon would want to erase the titans - and kory - pisses me off lmao

"i didn't mean to stay so long [with the titans]" *eternal screaming* he really wants to undermine the titans at every possible turn wow

at least the next page acknowledges the importance of kory in dick's life, but right afterwards we have "lmao she must've liked your costume. all the girls did. you're a chick magnet" (paraphrased) and i'm just back to sighing

also hi i'm mad at the framing of babs being the endgame bc of course they'd do that. and also at kory being shorter than dick. thanks! i hate it! i'm willing to bet that dixon asked for that specifically.

"this is where i came in" i'm confused at this part but tbh i don't care enough to think abt it any more

i'm also ughhhh at the way they're trying to give bludhaven importance. i don't care, i don't like it, he should've never moved there

ok i do really like that last page

the fact files things are good enough, i love the art for the haly's circus one! the pt barnum ref is 😬 though (ik ik it's the 90s but fjskdh why)

lost pages: teen titans-

ok so, i don't like devin grayson. i don't like her writing at all, i don't think she gets the characters at all, and hot take: if you dislike a character who's super important part of dick's life, and helped him come into his own and be who he is, you shouldn't be writing that character. (i'm talking about kory here, but tbh if you dislike any of the characters who dick interacts with frequently and are a huge part of his life - especially his love interests, and his family - you shouldn't be writing dick.) so i'm not going into this story with high hopes. however i've seen ppl talk about this story as being really good so i hope i'll like it too

you can tell she mostly cares about the fab five, which wouldn't be a problem if she treated the ntt characters better but alas ://

kory and vic both say 1 thing the entire page lmao

ALSO KORY NOT KNOWING WHAT DAY IT IS IS ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT I CANNOT BELIEVE

i loooove the parallel between dick grasping wally's hand and young!dick holding his dad's hand 🥺🥺🥺🥺

vic legit says one thing the entire story lmaoooooooo 🙃🙃🙃

i love garth and roy being brought to the tower 🥺

this is def some of grayson's better work, but it suffers from the same thing all of her stories do. she doesn't fully understand all the characters. if one character is off it affects the whole story. a lot of her stories have good ideas and poor execution, and this one definitely doesn't have awful execution but there's still something missing and as someone who loves the titans it's just sad. i get why people like this story - it made me tear up at the end ngl - but the rest of the titans are just as important as dick and it feels like the writer doesn't understand that. (i get this is a dick comic but it's still a titans story.) (it does however make me want to write a fic expanding upon this moment and the aftermath bc the idea of the titans all coming together to cheer dick up is so goooooood. are they gonna have a party celebrating dick's parent's lives? are they gonna eat junk food and watch a comfort movie? are they gonna just sit and talk?? the possibilities are endless!!)

the art is gorgeous as all of jimenez' art is, i love his style so freaking much!!

the next page is of the bludhaven supporting cast and all it does is remind me how much i do not care abt them. i think the only one i actually like is clancy, the others are expendable and forgettable. (i do love clancy a lot though, i wish she'd been written by more people than just dixon). though, i usually love guice's art, i think i actually prefer mcdaniel's take on clancy??? which is 100% a first for me.

i like seeing the set up to dick's apartment, bc i'm a sucker for layouts and maps. i wish this comic was way better written bc the concept of dick living in an apartment building and interacting with his neighbours is one i really like, esp in superhero comics. but again i have to say, alas.

a day in the life of nite-wing/hangin'-with tad:

painful... just painful...

i physically couldn't care less about this if you paid me

the next page is tad's file and i am Not Reading That. nope nope nope. and also fuck you.

next is a map of bludhaven, and like i said, i'm a sucker for maps.

the page after that is brutale's file and again i just do not care. the art is by damion scott who i really like, but the design looks like knock off scarecrow so

the next pages are files for double dare, lady vidc, shrike and blockbuster and i'm skipping them all bc i give negative fucks

next is a spread of what i assume is dick's cork-board? it looks kinda interesting but the writing is hard to make out and i don't care enough to try to decipher it

next is torque's files and same same, idc idc

nightwing's romances/orange you glad i didn't say banana?:

ok so y'all know i hate dickbabs. i hate everything about how it was built on the foundation of tearing down kory and dickkory and i'm a kory fan first and foremost so i hate this whole situation. so i'm already predisposed to disliking anything that talks about how babs is dick's true love, and talks down any of his other love interests. i come into this with an admitted bias. i'd try to be charitable but i don't see why i should when no one involved in the writing of dickbabs is charitable towards my faves so 🤷

i love love love stelfreeze's art! he's drawn babs in something else i read and i loved it then and i love it here!

i adore dick and babs' friendship, so the beginning is really sweet and cute. i also love the concept of baby!dickie being obsessed with watermelons and wanting to eat them forever

dewey decimal system!!! librarian babs reference!! fdjkh she's such a nerd i love it

babs trying to talk about romance and dick's like 'lol nah what abt fighting' lmao

i Do Not like babs hitting dick while talking abt 'i was segueing into talking about romance, hint hint'

this is romance? dick giving exactly 0 fucks?

why are these writers obsessed with hinting at dick and donna??? like first dixon and now grayson??? please stop!!!! i do love how he says he loves her bc 🥺🥺🥺 i love them

ur not being slick having babs call donna 'donna' and kory 'starfire', i see you grayson. i see ur hate for kory.

and reducing kory to just her body, and dick's sexual attraction to her boils my blood

i'm choosing to interpret babs's face in that panel as her being attracted to kory too

i do like that dick talks about being in love with kory, and thinking about still being with her. a) i'll take those crumbs, and b) thats how i see dick's relationship to love as being (though devin views him as kinda flighty and unfaithful so idk how we're agreeing on this lmao)

pls stop talking shit abt huntress devin, ur the one who made dick/hel a thing

since devin loves her brudick subtext, i'm side-eyeing the mention of bruce there

also why are we hinting at cass pls stop

babs being jealous and petty pls stop

the ending was smooth i have to admit it. if it was any other ship i'd probs love it but as it is, i'm tired of everyone else being downplayed in favour of the ~babs is dick's true loooooveee, it's always been herrrrr, from the beginningggggg~

i don't mind babs being dick's first crush though, in fact that's my hc for him because hello?? who wouldn't have a crush on babs??

thank you mr stelfreeze for accurately portraying babs' bitchface bc she's being a petty bitch here (and i love her but lmaooo i hate this whole thing)

next is the files on the bludhaven pd and i do not caaaare

then there's a timeline, but i don't care about any timeline that dixon writes. i'm petty though so i'm gonna read it and talk abt why i don't like the retcons.

i hate the dickbabs reference in YEAR FUCKING 3 jfc. pls stop with the retcons.

also lmao the difference between the way dick's canon relationship from that time is described in the shittiest way possible (though reluctant at first, dick begins a long and tumultuous romance with teammate starfire.) and how he wrote dick and babs' relationship (robin first teams with ... barbara in her guise as batgirl. the two will pair time and again over the course of their careers and develop a burgeoning affection for one another) this was at a time when they weren't even remotely interested in each other!!! there was no affections there dixon! no matter how much you wish it to be true!! and again the contrast with 'starfire' and 'barbara'! like it's dehumanising and i hate it.

and he can't even bother to get the new teen titans' team name right.

no mention of kory's importance in dick becoming nightwing, nope we ignore that bc it's thanks to superman now.

stepping away from the way he hates kory to talk about the way he hates jason! jason's described as a 'troubled orphan' and a 'juvenile delinquent'.

no mentions of how jason and dick bonded but as soon as tim gets introduced he talks about how dick and tim 'switfly bond as brothers'.

another incredibly impersonal description of dick and kory's relationship (the wedding of dick grayson and kory anders (aka starfire) is aborted by the rogue titan raven. dick and kory soon part company and dissolve their relationship.) but at least he calls her kory this time.

also i love how he speeds up through all the 'non important' development for dick but spends a whole page talking about all the bullshit he's been writing for nightwing. i understand why, but it's just lmaooooo 🙃 when you read it like that, it really shows how shitty this comic is.

talks of the 'doomed relationship' between dick and hel and i really hate it pls stop

the last page is dick's evaluation by the police academy and i do not care so i'm skipping it too.

#welp. this comic was a ride. i hated 95% of it and i hate dixon and grayson's writing #antidickbabs #bc i talked a lot of shit abt them #and i'm free to do so but i'm tagging for ppl who don't want to see ship hate #reyes reads comics #reyes.txt #long post #negative #for the blacklist #edit - i added a cut bc it was too long #2nd edit - ooff so many typos

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freeword23399njul · 4 years

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dollsorwhatever · 6 years

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Cloe+ Collection Overview

I decided to give Cloe’s hair a shot before completely writing her off for that ugly rooting, so I straightened and gave the hair some wave/body and then tucked the front of her parting back in an attempt to even out the thin-ness and give it some balance.

She’s definitely not terrible, but her facial flaws bother me too much to consider sending this one out for a reroot or keeping her in my permanent collection. This is the one that Amazon CS told me to keep (or dispose of...lol) and I returned the last replacement for yet another replacement Cloe (So....Cloe #4) and after I get a perfect one, this girl’s head will find herself in a gift package for someone that might be able to use her. (will keep her arms and clothes tho) Thoughts on the line below the cut.

My overall thoughts on this line are still forming, since I haven’t been able to enjoy them in their best state bc of the constant exchanging I’ve been going through, but my overarching thoughts so far are: -I hate the body, I’ve hated the 2001 torso since I was a teenager and it’s frankly the worst choice for this line or any line, period. Nothing looks good on it. I would have preferred the Pixiez torso hybrid with 2010 legs and Movie arms (which Hayden/MGA did know about during the conception of this line...so idk why they chose 2001) but since that torso has a smaller chest and would therefore limit compatibility with older dolls, I’d pick the Kiani body as THE choice to be the standard Bratz body going forward, since it has a nice shape and rotational hips rather than hinges, with Movie arms added on, while fitting 2001-body clothing perfectly (better than 2001 does even lol) and the legs are gorgeous. -They fucked up the skintones. The heads are all standard Bratz skintones, but the bodies are all wrong. Cloe and Jade’s torsos are like bright reddish pink and the hands match their heads, Yasmin’s entire body is bright fucking orange, Sasha’s body is slightly more olive-toned than her OG body so I won’t be able to use her arms (though I’m willing to accept this because she has the most subtle and pretty skintone of the line and she looks good as-is). Yasmin’s skintone is the most annoying because there is no subtlety to it, it’s just blatantly orange, and her shoes won’t match any other dolls.

-The shoe sculpts. Now I personally PREFER for them to utilize one sculpt more than once and I don’t want there to be a unique shoe sculpt for every doll in every line, I think that’s a waste of sculpts especially because so many Bratz shoes are pretty versatile and can be altered with pant and designs very easily, as well as the issue of skintone matching since the feet pop off. I don’t think they utilized enough of the sculpts Bratz has done over the years and executed most of the shoes poorly. Yasmin’s ‘boots’, for example, could have easily been a pair of these boots or these boots in a dark magenta and flocked, with lace socks and it would have been a prettier/better translation of the sketch while also staying consistent with the collection. Yasmin’s second shoes should have been the Feelin Pretty heels (even matches the sketch closer than the Classic heel), Jade’s first boots should have been the PnP boots rather than the RA boots (which we’ve also seen, with that exact paint design, several times already), and switch out either Cloe or Sasha’s Classic heels for something else entirely, like more boots. Maybe those cute timberland fakes in a different color. Also they fucking destroyed the Feelin’ Pretty sculpt with Jade’s second shoes. The printed fishnet and the flame motif with the straps is just too much and really overpowers the sculpt (which btw was only used in ONE collection bitd so two pairs in this line would have been swell- especially if they used them for Cloe’s 2nd outfit instead of Jade and got rid of those fugly fishnets and flames) The fact that they used one shoe four times and remade an exact version of a pair of shoes we already have seen a billion times makes the entire shoe wardrobe of this collection feel very unfinished and poorly thought. I can only use, like, four pairs of shoes in this collection and the others are unoriginal or don’t match any dolls (Yasmin’s orange ass)

-The designs are (mostly) lame as fuck. I feel like, especially since Bratz haven’t been OG Bratz for a very long time, that they should have referenced the previous lines to make sure we were getting something new and consistent with the quality we’ve come to expect. We’ve seen several pleather bralettes already and there’s THREE in this line (we’ve seen a lot of pleather too, even), Jade’s first top is a bland PnP Meygan top and we definitely didn’t need TWO identical mesh bodysuits in this line. The clothes don’t seem to be well-rounded, just like the shoes. The quality is really lacking in some places too; Yasmin’s jacket has no inner lining (would have been a stunning piece otherwise), Sasha’s jacket is really weird and not at all what it should be (tho it is pretty well made), Cloe’s second outfit is poorly tailored especially the pants (tho her first outfit is incredibly well made, the best of the line actually), Sasha’s second dress is massive and those panels on the sides are ugly (shame bc it could have been a nice piece otherwise), Jade’s skirt doesn’t fit that well (mostly bc of the body they made it for), etc etc. And let’s not forget the fact that every studded piece, has studs falling apart in seconds. Jade’s pants and Sasha’s pants are sub par in comparison to the exquisite denim pieces we’ve gotten for Bratz in other eras, with realistic stitching and ‘thick’ denim with real belt loops and pockets and just going the extra mile to really push that ‘’Real clothing but mini’’ vibe. The chokers are very nice, Cloe’s first outfit is INCREDIBLE, the hats are very nice, Yasmin’s second outfit is the second best outfit of the entire line, the bodysuits (while there should only be one) are well made, Yasmin’s 1st top (while a poor translation of the art) is cute and versatile and Jade’s white T-shirt will be a big staple piece for collectors and is very well made. The Faces- I like all of the facial screenings on these dolls, not much to say there. I think Yasmin’s lip color should have been more subtle and Jade’s shine dots are wonky by default, Sasha’s lips are smaller than the rest but otherwise I like all of these screenings. The Hair- The rooting patterns are bad. This isn’t a QC thing, this is a design flaw; all of the dolls have thin rooting patterns, Sasha and Jade’s partings are very short and none of the dolls have dense rows under the partings or dense rows in the back, Jade’s thatched bangs are terrible and her space buns look like antennae because they’re smushed underneath her hat. Will have to send all of my keepers for reroots and that pisses me off because MGA knows how to correctly root hair, and these 50$ dolls are basically bald. -The Price. This price is really fucking high considering how little we got and how little they seem to have thought about this collection’s design and quality. If they fixed all of the things I mentioned above, this line would be worth 50$ to me. Higher quality denim, more diversity in clothing pieces and shoes, thicker hair and fixing the skintones would have made this a solid collection and I would have paid 35-50$ happily. But with the collection as it is, I feel like I’m not getting my money’s worth. Cloe and Sasha basically share two pieces (mesh bodysuits and pleather bralettes), Yasmin’s ‘boots’ are hideous and her second ones don’t match any other dolls (And she won’t match any other shoes), both pairs of Jade’s shoes are a travesty and Cloe’s heels are very been-there-have-70-of-that. The QC- a joke, garbage, terrible. I shouldn’t have to return a doll four times to get a good one, and the studs on these pieces shouldn’t be falling off. MGA had over 2 years to get this collection going and they started production in August when they should have started in April, instead they rushed at the last minute and sacrificed the QC to get stock on time.

#bratz #bratz 2018 #bratz collector

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orbemnews · 3 years

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Miss Broadway musicals? Try Clubhouse Clubhouse, which is still in beta testing, is an invitation-only app with hundreds of audio chat rooms where its millions of users can talk about a wide range of subjects. For Broadway afficionados, it has provided a platform for actors and artists around the world to connect and get their performing arts fix. And while audio drama isn’t a new concept, Clubhouse users have used their own creative backgrounds to revolutionize the app experience. On her first day using the app in September 2020, Noelle Chesnut Whitmore — who was on furlough from her music festival marketing job — joined a Clubhouse room called “The Cotton Club.” Created and led by singer-songwriter Bomani X, the room resembled a real-life jazz club experience where people virtually mingle and designated users act as the club’s bartender and DJ. Participants were required to change their profile photos to a black-and-white image of their favorite jazz musician, tapping into Clubhouse’s visual capabilities that are limited to user profile photos. Whitmore’s “Cotton Club” experience inspired her to find her own way to get creative. Within two months, she began working on a Clubhouse-based “Lion King: The Musical,” connecting with other artists who were interested in pursuing musical opportunities on the app, and it wasn’t long before she saw the benefits. During a music industry panel that Whitmore hosted, she connected with the CEO of Geojam, a rewards-based music platform, which is how she landed her current position as chief marketing officer at the company. The musical went live on Clubhouse on December 26 with afternoon and evening performances. The production followed the 1994 movie script of “The Lion King” word-for-word, with an added original narration by Mir Harris — a creative strategist who starred in and produced the musical — to compensate for the lack of visual components in the performance. “Lion King: The Musical” took off, serving as the impetus for other Clubhouse performances, including “The Wiz” and “Dreamgirls.” The musicals revived a century-old form of entertainment: radio drama. “Audio theater was the standard for our grandparents,” said Sherita Carthon, the casting and creative director for “The Wiz” on Clubhouse. “Through the drop-in audio app, we pulled on the spirit of times past to open up our audience’s imagination through pictures and sound.” Listeners tuned in from as far as Germany and Afghanistan, Carthon said. “There is no way for a locally based theater production to have that type of reach,” she said. While many platforms lend themselves to creative use cases for artists, Clubhouse differentiates itself by placing an emphasis on feedback from users, who can recommend features and products that they want to see on the app. Paul Davison and Rohan Seth, the app’s founders, hold town hall meetings in a Clubhouse room every Sunday, a conversation that is open to all users until the room hits its capacity of 8,000 people. Users who don’t make the cut create overflow rooms so additional people can listen to a live recording of the meeting. “They tell us what is being rolled out, and we could submit questions on a weekly basis or live to talk about things or suggest product features, and that is definitely not normal for most platforms,” Whitmore said. “We as creators kind of get to influence the app, and what the future of the app is, and I’ve never seen that before.” Whitmore held auditions for “The Lion King” in Clubhouse rooms, with more than 60 people from countries including the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada trying out, vying for roles in the musical. When it was finally show time, the “Lion King” cast members kicked off the audio performance by making their profile image a red curtain like those used in theaters. Once the music began, the performers changed their profile pictures, and the icons transitioned into the corresponding character images. Around 5,000 people tuned in for each show — the maximum allowed in a Clubhouse room, which has since increased. The performance received rave reviews on Twitter, with fanfare extending beyond Clubhouse. During the show’s afternoon debut, #TheLionKingCH was a trending topic on Twitter. “Wasn’t it beautiful? Hats off to director @noellechesnutw and every talented person who brought joy today through #LionKingCH. A gorgeous indie production,” film director Ana DuVernay tweeted after listening to the show on Clubhouse. “Strong and compelling performances. Crew was on point. You all did that! Black excellence on @joinClubhouse. Jus’ sayin’.” And while the audio experience isn’t comparable to what audience members would experience at in-person shows, with Broadway, theaters and music venues closed, artists are making it work. “A lot of what we do now has been relegated to online, said “Dreamgirls” musical director Elle.Morris. Leroy Church, Elle.Morris’ fellow cast member, worked as the casting and artistic director for “Dreamgirls” on Clubhouse, but he was part of the Broadway cast of “The Lion King” before the pandemic. Church said putting together a musical on the audio app highlighted how to “bridge the gap to make a digital theater space” and get creative when in-person Broadway shows come back. As for that timeline, in March, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said he expects Broadway and off-Broadway to return by September 2021. Source link Orbem News #Broadway #Clubhouse #creatorsareturningtoClubhousefortheirmusicalfix-CNN #musicals #Tech #WithBroadwayonpause

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recentanimenews · 4 years

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The Wild and Wonderful World of WEBTOON Series

Many anime fans are familiar with manga, with lots of classic and modern anime being adapted from the medium, such as Naruto, One Piece, Bleach, and many more drawing on their graphic novel counterparts. But this season, a different comic tradition is responsible for starting a new anime trend with the adaptation of Tower of God: Korean manhwa, specifically, WEBTOON series! But what are WEBTOON series and what makes them so unique? Aren’t they just Korean comics? Well, you may be surprised to learn that WEBTOON series are a global phenomenon, with readers and creators all over the globe! And furthermore, they’re a wholly unique digital platform that relies on the screen of your phone to help tell the story. If that’s got you curious, then read on!

First, it’s probably important to specify that WEBTOON series and manhwa aren’t the same word. Much like manga, manhwa just means “comic” when translated from Korean. WEBTOON series are a type of comic, but a very specific digital medium—compared to print comics, there are a lot of differences! WEBTOON series occasionally get printed as paper copies, but these are mostly collectible items rather than the regular way to read them. Instead, WEBTOON series are designed to be read vertically on screens, most specifically smartphone and tablet screens. If Tower of God made you curious enough to go check out the WEBTOON series, you might already be aware of this verticality, but for new readers, WEBTOON’s approach to reading style is very unique and can take a bit of getting used to—but it's certainly rewarding when you dive in!

Unlike manga or American comics, WEBTOON series don’t generally rely on panels and gutter layouts on single pages. Instead, WEBTOON series use an “infinite canvas,” with readers scrolling vertically down as they read chapters. WEBTOON series chapters vary in length, but many of them are pretty long. If you were to try and print out an entire chapter, you’d find yourself printing 30 plus pages or more for most titles, and a lot of those pages would be blank! When I started reading WEBTOON series, this negative space was something that really caught me off guard—at first, I kept thinking my screen wasn’t loading. I realized that titles used this white space (or black or gray!) to space out story beats and big reveals, making tense, dramatic moments even more hair-raising as my own reading speed affects how quickly I’d see what happens next. (This may come as no surprise, but WEBTOON series are really, REALLY easy to binge read!)

In fact, this use of vertical reading space and chapter size makes another aspect of WEBTOON series somewhat shocking in comparison to manga: they’re in color! While many WEBTOON series use negative space to help with that burden, it’s still quite impressive to think about how much work goes into creating weekly chapters with full color, and these vibrant comics really make their unique worlds pop on the screen. In many cases, WEBTOON series will change their background colors from white to black, or some other variation, in order to transition between things like time changes (night and day or even past and present) or to really ram home emotional moments. Watching all of the color drain out of even the page you’re reading can make the gut punches in some WEBTOON series really hit hard!

Similar to manga, WEBTOON series cover almost every possible topic. You’ll find WEBTOON series about school life, professional careers, sports, fantasy, sci-fi, and almost everything in between. On the off chance that you catch up on a long-running series, you’ll find plenty of other titles to take their place. When I first started reading WEBTOON series, I only read about five stories. Now, my subscription page is up to fifty titles! Let’s just say they can be addictive and leave it at that! Perhaps something that fewer people know, though, is that WEBTOON series artists aren’t just Korean. There are many creators from all over the world publishing WEBTOONS series and the variety of art styles and storytelling really make the platform something unique and magical to explore.

In 100 percent honesty, I was actually a pretty late adopter to WEBTOON series, as I always preferred reading physical mediums over digital and never found reading manga on my phone very entertaining. Something about "turning" pages digitally, waiting for them to load, and other things just made the experience less desirable than picking up a volume and reading it. During a layover on a flight earlier this year, I found myself stuck without much to entertain myself with except my phone and remembered that a friend had suggested I check out Tower of God. Five hours and one flight later, I had nearly drained my entire back-up battery and read my way through most of Season 2. Since then, I’ve been hooked. If you’re like me, and skeptical of digital media, I really think you should give WEBTOON series a try. In fact, I’ve got a few personal recommendations ready to get you started! All of these can be found on Naver’s WEBTOON website or app check (here for Apple or here for Google)and you can start reading them right away!

Tower of God

This is the WEBTOON series that got me into WEBTOON series, and from other Tower of God fans I’ve spoken to, that seems to be par for the course. The series has been running for nearly ten years now, so you have a LOT of reading to catch up on if you’re only just getting invested thanks to the anime this season! The adventures of Bam, Khun, and the rest of the Regulars sucked me in with it’s deep, unraveling story and I found myself having to force myself to stop reading “just one more chapter” before bed. Creator SIU has stated he’s had the story planned out from the start and it really does feel that way as you read through it, seeing little details you didn’t think about before suddenly become relevant, or small bits of dialogue or art that you didn’t understand before suddenly rushing back and making you go “HEYYY, wait a minute!” as some new development unfolds. SIU manages to follow a large, diverse cast of characters throughout Tower of God and the series absolutely deserves the attention it’s getting right now. If you’re curious to see what happens to Bam and company after the anime ends, there is plenty of Tower of God waiting for you in the WEBTOON series!

GOSU

I’ve always been a huge fan of martial arts movies. I fondly remember how I used to watch badly dubbed martial arts flicks with my grandma as a child. GOSU, by Giun Ryu and Mun Jeong Hoo, takes me back to the magic and excitement of martial arts stories. GOSU might be the most gorgeous WEBTOON series I’ve ever read and the authors really know how to let visuals do the storytelling—there are some truly breathtaking moments in GOSU that are conveyed solely through still, almost unchanging landscapes. Protagonist Gang Yong is really quite something and there have been times when I’ve audibly gasped or yelled at big moments in this series. With the wave of WEBTOON series titles getting adapted into anime, I’d absolutely put GOSU on my list of series I’d love to see get an anime. If you like martial arts stories, or just really gorgeous art, GOSU is worth the read!

Lore Olympus

Rachel Smythe’s Lore Olympus was a series I frankly never expected to read, let alone love. Talking about Greek mythology usually makes me think back to college humanities classes or playing God of War, and while both of those were great, they weren't usually my cup of tea. I’ll admit that I actually ended up reading this one because I kept seeing it so highly ranked on the WEBTOON app—seriously, it’s number one in like, every demographic and overall—and finally gave in to the not so subliminal message that I’m obviously missing out on something here. And boy, was I! Lore Olympus is a simple concept: reimagining mythological Gods and Goddesses in somewhat “human” situations. This story is a bit mature and dramatic, but the romance and suspense in it are really something, and the art is colorful and gorgeous. Persephone and Hades’ story has never been so gripping and I find myself always waiting for the next chapter to drop.

The God of High School

Yongje Park’s The God of High School was an easy sell for me since it evoked memories of classic school battling anime like Tenjho Tenge and a hint of fighting games. Since the anime is about to begin, I won’t spoil anything, but the action in this series is top-notch with gorgeous art to match! Like Tower of God, this WEBTOON series has also been running for quite a while, meaning you’ve got plenty of material to get through. Jin Mo-Ri is a pretty deceptive protagonist, too. At first, I just assumed he’d be the usual battle-crazed fighting style character, like Goku, but he’s got his own unique personality that helps set him apart. A lot of my enjoyment of The God of High School comes from the supporting cast, which Park has really done an amazing job with. The main trio of characters is fun and strong and it always feels exciting to see various martial arts and skills used in this series.

Sweet Home

If you like horror or zombie movies, this series might be right up your alley. I got quite a few friends into reading WEBTOON series by getting them to read this relatively new title that features some of the creepiest and imaginative monster designs I’ve seen in a while. Sweet Home’s authors Youngchan Hwang and Carnby Kim really manage to hit that survival horror itch, and in terms of using the WEBTOON series medium, I can’t think of many other titles that take advantage of the vertical scrolling pages like Sweet Home does to deliver some absolutely bone-chilling moments. As a monster horror series, it is only fair to warn you that it can be a bit gruesome at times, so please keep that in mind if you decide to check it out!

WEBTOON series are becoming a global phenomenon. The market for them is estimated to be over 300 million USD a year currently, and with anime adaptations and even larger potential audiences about to learn of them through Tower of God, The God of High School, and Noblesse, I can only see those numbers going way up! If you’ve never tried WEBTOON, then now is absolutely the time. I guarantee you’ll find a series you’ll absolutely want to read, and then another one, and another one, and another one… Uh oh! How did that queue get so huge?! Anyway, happy reading, and I hope this helped get you interested in the wonderful world of WEBTOON series!

Are you a WEBTOON series fanatic? Is this your first time hearing about them? Let us know what titles you like and what you think about WEBTOON in the comments!

➡️ Catch up on watching Tower of God today! ⬅️

Nicole is a frequent wordsmith for Crunchyroll. Known for punching dudes in Yakuza games on her Twitch channel while professing her love for Majima. She also has a blog, Figuratively Speaking. Follow her on Twitter: @ellyberries

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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micaramel · 5 years

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"Terrace House" is a hit Japanese reality show now showing on Netflix. The current "Tokyo 2019 – 2020" season is the latest of five available to watch on the streaming service.

Three guys and three girls move into a luxury house in Tokyo. Some become friends, some fall in love, but nobody is here for any drama.

The show has a slow, hypnotic vibe that will keep you hooked.

It's perfect if you're a foodie or obsessed with beautiful homes. The residents cook at least 50% of the time and the house needs its own Instagram.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

The concept for "Terrace House" is simple. Six young, attractive men and women move into a beautiful house in Tokyo.

They swim in the pool, cook dinner in the absurdly minimalist kitchen and drive the complimentary sports car. But this is where the similarities to shows like "Love Island" and "The Bachelor" end.

The unspoken assumption is that we're waiting for these beautiful people to pair up – but there are no confessional diary rooms, no staged contests, no audience votes.

"Terrace House" is a perfect, uninterrupted bubble of low-key dates, cooking and rooftop chats. There's nothing to hurry them along either because nobody on this show is competing for a final rose or cash prize.

A post shared by TERRACE HOUSE ( テラスハウス ) (@th_6_tv) on Nov 25, 2019 at 3:08am PST

"Terrace House" runs for at least a year, airing every week in Japan and dropping in 12 episode blocks on Netflix.

The residents can stay as long as they wish. When somebody quietly leaves, a new housemate arrives.

If someone doesn't find love, that's cool. Beyond dates, the cast share hobbies, career advice and a ton of food.

Most conversations happen around the dinner table, at a trendy Tokyo bar, or in a cute café. It's a microcosm of the reality of being a twenty-something in a big city, finding love and growing into adulthood.

Why you should care: 'Terrace House' is an unscripted reality show that avoids any artificial drama

If you want something to binge-watch that's relatable and relaxing, this show is perfect.

The residents of Terrace House are free to come and go as they please – which is pretty integral, as they all have jobs to do.

Unlike the cookie-cutter "Love Island" cast of Instagram models, the current residents of "Terrace House" have a variety of professions.

Among the girls, Kaori Watanabe (28) is an illustrator, Haruka Okuyama (24) is an actress who spends her spare time competing in drag races, while Risako Tanabe (20) works as a fitness instructor. As for the guys, Kenny Yoshihara (31) fronts indie band Spicysol, Shohei Matsuzaki (25) is an actor, travel writer, and part-time decorator, and Ruka Nishinoiri (20) works as a shop assistant while dreaming of becoming a Marvel star.

While we wait for them to pair up, a panel of six commentators – all established actors and comedians in Japan – watch the show alongside the audience. They appear every 15 minutes to give their expert commentary on every microscopic detail of the cast's interaction – which is necessary because it's the little moments "Terrace House" makes big.

Whether it's Kenny teaching Haruka to play guitar, Risako bringing Ruka medicine when he gets ill or Shohei and Kaori discussing their views on starting a family, the commentators pop up with perfect timing to gush and gossip alongside viewers.

There's an underlying expectation that the "Terrace House" cast is here for a genuine opportunity to meet someone new. Nobody is on the show to cash out with a brand sponsorship – and the panel of commentators delight in calling out singer Kenny for over-promoting his band Spicysol by wearing his own merch.

Meanwhile, Kaori is shown in tears after realizing a recent art commission may have been more due to her exposure than her talent.

In 'Terrace House,' nothing much happens, but everything is significant

The "Terrace House" residents are probably the politest reality TV cast on television. Any drama is downplayed or downright avoided.

Case in point: episode two is titled "The Tempura Incident" in reference to an argument between Haruka and Shohei.

The fight itself is pretty anticlimactic. Shohei asserts his aim to explore a variety of career options, while Haruka suggests this might possibly appear flaky. Instead of taking offence, Shohei brushes it off with a wise food analogy: "I love tempura, but it wouldn't taste good if I had it every day."

This is the kind of conversation barely worth commenting on, but in the world of "Terrace House," it anchors an entire episode. It kick-starts a debate between the commentators on the merits of both perspectives.

Shohei is marked out for his laidback attitude, a trait that comes to define his character throughout the series, whether he's casually announcing his decision to star in a soft porn film or dismissing a later love triangle as a "first-world problem."

Romantic tension stays at a constant simmer. The cast dance around each other, but instead of inducing boredom, it keeps viewers hooked.

You can't leave the room for a snack or get distracted by your phone — not when there's a chance you might miss the moment when a tipsy Risako asks Ruka to be her boyfriend – but he mishears her.

Or when Kaori refuses to let Ruka pay for dinner, and, in doing so, breaks the boy's heart. It's so innocent it might seem unrealistic, but what the show lacks in PDA it makes up for in sincerity.

The bottom line: 'Terrace House' is the ultimate reality show

"Love Island" is the Tinder of reality TV, but "Terrace House" takes the subtle, slow elements of courtship that have vanished with the rise of social media and puts them front and center. If the cast's shyness seems antiquated, it only adds to the show's charm.

"Terrace House" is the ultimate reality show. Viewers watch relationships develop over weeks in real-time. The cast is decent to each other. They continue with their day-to-day lives. The camera pans slowly around the gorgeous house and lingers on the meals they share. It might seem mundane, but that gentle vibe is what defines this sleeper hit.

In an industry that thrives on drama, "Terrace House" proves that truth is stronger than fiction.

Camila Cabello blamed paparazzi for her public displays of affection with Shawn Mendes: 'Might as well just make out on Instagram'

James Van Der Beek posted dramatic body transformation pictures showing how dancing has changed his physique

The 20 most-watched shows on Netflix in 2019, so far

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: How sounds are made for fight scenes in movies and TV shows

from Design http://bit.ly/34vw8Bw

#micaramel

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aion-rsa · 5 years

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Joker: DC Comics Reading Order - The Best Stories With the Clown Prince of Crime

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Has the Joker movie inspired you to read some comics? We've got some suggestions!

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The Joker is the most recognizable villain in all of comics, and as such, there are as many takes on him as there are creators who have worked on a Batman comic. Fortunately for us, for every Jared Leto out there, there are fifteen awesome comic stories. So if you’re coming out of the Joker movie with a thirst for more good, thoughtful, interesting stories using the Clown Prince of Crime, we’ve got some comics for you.

Batman: The Killing Joke

This is probably the most influential Joker story of all time. Alan Moore’s dense psychoanalysis of the Joker is formative to just about every writer who came afterwards, and Brian Bolland’s stunningly gorgeous pencils combined with John Higgins perfect colors to create an eerie, dark, vicious story that has become the generally accepted origin for the character.

read more: The Many Joker Origin Stories Explained

The story bounces back and forth between showing how an unnamed, down on his luck schmo got wrapped up in a heist that ended with him at the bottom of a pool of chemicals, and showing that schmo, now a criminal mastermind, kidnapping Commissioner Gordon and trying to drive him to the same kind of mental break that the story implies is at fault for the Joker’s creation. It’s the first one to really draw strong parallels between the Joker’s mental state and Batman’s, casting the two of them as two possible outcomes to the same break.

And did I mention it’s incredible to look at? Whether you’re a comics scholar or new to the medium, I can almost guarantee you’ve seen that cover, with the Joker holding a camera sideways in front of his face telling you to smile.

Buy Batman: The Killing Joke on Amazon

Batman: The Man Who Laughs

Ed Brubaker isn’t often talked about as a seminal Batman writer, but he’s defined entire swaths of Batman’s world over his career, and The Man Who Laughs is a big one. This book, drawn by the great Doug Mahnke, takes a look at the Joker’s first interaction with Batman. He’s poisoning people all over Gotham City, and he has a plan to poison the reservoir. Batman works to stop him.

It’s a much more straightforward, less avant-garde Joker than he can get in later times, but the story is told with a modern sensibility and outstanding art from Mahnke. Brubaker (and Greg Rucka, who we’ll talk about in a few) writes detective Batman as well or better than anyone in a generation, and The Man Who Laughs is full of really great detective work with Bruce piecing together who the Joker is and what he’s trying to do. And the fight sequence at the end of the issue is good, classic, straight up Batman/Joker brawling. If you want a way to ease into Joker stories, this is a great one.

Buy Batman: The Man Who Laughs on Amazon

The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge

It’s not often an entire character can be distilled down to a single panel of comics, but Neal Adams effectively did that in Batman #251. Adams is a tremendous artist who changed the entire industry with his panel layouts and action sequences, but the Joker’s “ta daa!” hands and his smile next to a bearing down shark as he says “We resemble each other!” is incredible.

read more: What the Joker Controversy Gets Wrong

This one-off story has the Joker breaking out of a pre-Arkham Asylum mental hospital, hunting down the five ex-henchmen who might have betrayed him to put him away. Only one of them did, but he’s covering his bases, and the issue ends with a wheelchair-bound ex-aide precariously balanced over a tank with an angry shark in it. Batman gets dropped in and has to beat the shark and then save the henchman. It’s one of the best Batman sequences of all time, and the issue captures so much about the Joker that makes him great: his meticulous planning and forethought and his absurd, violent sense of humor. This one is collected in The Joker: The Greatest Stories Ever Told and will likely be wrapped up in a Neal Adams omnibus sooner rather than later.

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The Laughing Fish

Detective Comics #475-476 is another quick story that was incredibly influential on how both Batman and the Joker were portrayed moving forward. That importance stems from two things: the ridiculous, malicious joy of the Joker’s plot, and Marshall Rogers’ art.

The plot was turned into the episode of the same name for Batman: The Animated Series. A fish wholesaler has made fish that look like the Joker for branding purposes, and the Joker, mad he can’t monetize his own visage the same way, goes on a killing spree to get his rights back. This is darkly hilarious, especially the deeper you dive into the metaphor - the mid ‘70s was a big time for comic creator rights, and Rogers was a big part of that. This comic is basically an effigy for comic creators rights.