#Guy Delisle

[semper-legens]

108. Hostage, by Guy Delisle

Owned: No, library Page count: 432 My summary: Christophe André was at work yesterday. Now, he’s sleeping on the floor, chained to a radiator. He doesn’t understand - why has he been kidnapped? What do his captors want? When will he be freed? As the hours turn to days turn to weeks, his situation remains obscure, but there’s one thing he’s sure of. He’s going to get out of here. Whatever it takes. My rating: 4/5 My commentary:

This has been my white whale for a while, but not because I wanted to read it, necessarily. It went missing at my library, and I spent ages looking for it, only to find that it had somehow made its way to the basement without my noticing. So I decided to read it. Out of spite. And also because it looked interesting. The true life story of a man named Christophe André, who was working for Médecins Sans Frontières and was kidnapped in 1997. He was imprisoned for three months in various locations in the Causcaus region, before eventually escaping to freedom. It's an interesting story, and this graphic novel tells it really well, keeping the tension and isolation of a man getting increasingly desperate.

The art in this one is really effective. It's all monochrome blues, with the rooms André was kept in being rendered pretty much as just voids with him squashed against a corner. Time of day is indicated only by the lightness and darkness of the scene, which would have been the only way André could tell if it was night or day. Despite the limited locations and characters, I never felt that the art got samey; it wasn't showing the same few shots over and over again, there was a lot of variation, which I very much appreciated. Seeing André's appearance deteriorate over time was very effective, as his hair and beard grows out and he gets grubbier and grubbier.

But the most effective thing here was the tension. André doesn't know anything about what's going on - the first thing he thinks is that he's being robbed, then he hopes he'll be released soon, but the days go on and on. He speaks no Russian and his captors only have limited English, so there is virtually no communication. For the first month or so, he doesn't even know if there's anyone working on his release. The date of his sister's wedding comes and goes. He keeps himself oriented in time by reciting the date to himself every morning, but he can never be sure that he's completely correct. His resolve starts to crumble the longer he's stuck in captivity, and we see him panic and try and hold himself together as much as he can. It's a really tense sequence of events, the uncertainty and lack of information is hugely effective, even if you as the reader know that André must have survived and gotten out in order to tell this story in the first place. It's a good read!

Next up, back to the sea, for a very famous mutiny.

[panzerdrako]

100 all time greatest comics (2014)

[zahirevliyasi]

Bu yazının ilk çizgi romanı güzel bir Viktoryen çağı mâcerası, ikincisi dehşet verici ayrıntıları olan yumuşak bir anlatı ve sonuncusu ise mecbûrî hizmetten sarsılmaz bir dostluğa evrilen bir ilişkiyi anlatıyor. İyi okumalar ❤️ 

Yazıyı okumak için tıklayınız

[stairset]

I'm gonna be honest Azula and Darth Maul fall into the same category for me in that they're both among my favorite villains and I keep seeing people insist they should've had redemption arcs because of their sympathetic backstories and that them not being redeemed is bad writing and if you disagree you're a bad person or whatever. And I'm just like okay but the thing is though. Watching them get worse is what makes them fun. Sue me.

[airyairyaucontraire]

do you ever stop and assess your outfit based on how easy or difficult it would make things for you if an adventure began today?

[jaanii]

need everyone to know i sobbed throughout the whole episode

[death-rebirth-senshi]

No way

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

You're saying that zutara wasn't supported by the writers and shouldn't have been an endgame. That's a lie! and you can verify this, for example, by reading this post. Zutara has a huge support of writers and actors, she was supposed to become a canon! We were just robbed.

https://www.tumblr.com/crienselt/744143410729041920?source=share

I can show you lots of videos of Grey Delisle saying Azula and Zuko are totally fucking (including one she recorded for my birthday), and there's an infamous clip of Bryke proposing Azula and "The Blue Spirit" as a potential ship in a pannel. Somehow I don't think you'll take that as meaning my OTP is canon and was just robbed of it's endgame at the last second - but apparently tumblr posts are solid proof, therefore my argument is perfect and all you Zutara fans are now gonna have to accept that you ship Katara with a guy that canonically (by the standards YOU GUYS are trying to set at least) loves incest even more than Jaime and Cersei Lannister did. And oh, would you look at that! During one of the times Grey mentioned Zucest, Dante said "The Fire Nation are a bit like the Lannisters." See the links if you don't believe me. WHERE'S YOUR GOD NOW?

The creators/showrunners, writers, and lead writer have all said a billion times "Kataang was always the heart of the show and by the time the first episode aired we were set on it being endgame. Some people in the crew liked BOTH Kataang and Zutara, but Zutara was NEVER seriously considered as a real possibility for endgame or even temporary romance. The only love triangle ever considered was Aang, Katara and MALE Toph."

It doesn't matter how many interviews yall fake, how many clips you take out of context, how many deleted scenes you claim existed without a shred of proof to back it up, how many times you go "but this actor whose job is ACTING not WRITTING says he likes Zutara" or "This writer that wrote tons of Kataang episodes said the word Zutara once when writting a scene between Zuko and Katara" - your ship is still fanon. That's not a dig at you or saying it's bad, it's just a fucking fact.

Write some fanfic if you like it so much, but don't turn the production of the series itself into your fanfic just so you can lie to yourself about how there was ever any chance of you getting what you wanted in the actual canon.

And for real, you're gonna try to use the LIVE ACTION as proof? The thing the creators disowned? Netflix's over-glorified cosplay session that everyone keeps saying "It's mid at best" is THE argument you go for? Have some goddamn standards, I'm begging you.

[randomslasher]

You guys guess what, I met Princess Azula yesterday! (Aka Grey DeLisle-Griffin). I got a picture with her and she said in character voice "You should have feared me more. I banish you from the fire nation!" I FREAKED OUT it was so cool!!!

[kustas]

i'm going to be honest i am not versed in politics at all. i don't have the knowledge to back up why with solid arguments, but this article is pissing me off. this is gonna be my attempt to articulate it not via geopolitics but via my (also limited) knowledge on animation. discussion is welcome.

for context, here's a link to it, TLDR a hacker discovered animation files for US animated shows coming from NK internet.

outsourcing has been a thing in animation for a long time - the article says it right there: "unreasonably low-cost labor" is why. it's not a secret, studios can outright boast about the money they're saving by doing this in professional circles like festivals, and anyone who has contacts in countries notably in south asia knows about it if not knows people who have worked on outsourcing themselves. animation takes a lot of work and that's why the ending credits to animated films are so long. have you also noticed how international they are? that's outsourcing baby. if outsourcing is good or bad is another debate but here it's the way they talk about it in NK that pisses me off.

regime this and regime that, this article several times mentions animation, comic books and always ties it to propaganda. i know little about korean culture but if they've been "proeminent since the country's founding" i would assume it's not because big evil government wants the little cartoons to brainwash, but because they already liked cartoons there.

animation outsourcing to NK in france predates the digital era. there is a rather famous comic here called "pyongyang" by canadian artist guy delisle who details his everyday life as an animation supervisor in the capital. it mentions by name at least two productions, one of which i've actually seen. it's strange for me to see this article acting like it's an offense until they dropped the big one - apparently, the US forbids contracts with NK, woopsie!

so we have the US, a country with immense international soft power and the world's biggest movie industry, notable for their own comics and cartoons, who's taking a stance against outsourcing not because of the nature of the practice but because it's done in NK, a country who's only interests in animation would be for propaganda reasons apparently, nevermind outsourcing working due to exchange rates and how poor compared to the outsourcers the workers from these countries are

ironically the first example they state is a superhero show, a genre born in USA and famously apolitical. what the fuck man

[fountainpenguin]

Riddle watches New Wish - Post #6

Department of Magical Violations, here we go!

"With a pair quite strange!" Got it, got it.

Ooh, this title card implies Jorgen~!

SLKDJF, did Wanda become a seahorse immediately after they were complaining they spent so long as fish last episode?

Whoa, we're already 100 wishes forward in the future? That leaves a lot of wiggle room. Show me the moon phase; you know you want to...

Yep, she likes the fish guy from the theme. His name is Kennueth.

That cat photo is driving me up the wall. Is it Mittens, who hangs around Dinkleberg? I really feel like I've seen this cat...

Oh, Jorgen's gotten older! As he should have, I suppose, though you wouldn't think this would have been such a significant time jump for him. I'm not sure I love it.

sdfklj, I'm glad we're sticking with "Jorgen is in charge of godparents." Like... that man has no legal rights to Fairy World. He's over godparents and that has always kinda been his thing.

His braces are too big...

I'm glad SOMEONE here is yelling at them for not filing godparent paperwork. You sniped someone else's godkid assignment, you dummies!!

Wish Inspection! It's back! THE DMV! It's also back?? ... With fewer flying cars this time, but... wow. Didn't expect that one.

"Tedious structure and drab settings is my happy place" - Hazel, I know a race of magical beings you would love to hang out with.

I'm glad "I wish he had a trampoline instead" [of a parachute] turned out exactly the way I envisioned.

Jorgen has not changed at all, and he still loves dancing with bright lights around. I support him. I feel like they've not emphasized his sliced-off wings to new viewers, though.

Cookie: I know what you want. Hazel, who did not want a car:

I see where this is going.

Cosmo's cute pocket <3

Teacher's Pal

Nottttt sure it was a great idea to make one character's whole personality saying "Football," but let's see where it's going.

Aw, I like that Hazel's school has squirrels as a mascot since Timmy had the Squirrely Scouts.

... huh? was that Timmy?

Cosmo: Does she not know how a door works?

Tough talk for Fairies who like poofing doors away.

She likes mushrooms and anime... What a combo.

Having Dimmy as a nickname for the Dimmadomes is really gonna throw me off (Sounds like "Timmy").

Oof, did she wish for all the teachers to like her? And does that make the lady who doesn't like her... the principal? (Yes)

Wow, we are on a streak of brown and orange eyes. Who knew they were all hiding in Dimmadelphia?

... Is that Grey DeLisle / Grey Griffin voicing the principal? (It is!)

His shades are too big...

This is an attack against me specifically.

OKAY I thought I was going crazy during the quick glances earlier, but YES, that IS Timmy as the mascot! Oh, RIP...

He haunts history even when he's gone, as he should.

Bigfoot Club sounds like something Hazel's dad would want her to sign up for.

Okay, so it's end of 5th grade, so she's 10-turning-11?

OH, Wanda just called Hazel "squirt..." It's so similar to "sport." That's cute.

???

Where is Dev? Where is he?

Forget Dev- What is up with this kid?

Dev is running around somewhere, unsupervised. He just dipped out halfway through the episode. There were no teachers to make him stay and he's rich. I expect no less.

A little less upbeat and dramatic than the debut episode, but that's not a surprise. I'd say it fits the theme of the old show really well. I look forward to more, though I do think Jorgen's appearance wasn't pushed as far as it could've been. On the other hand, it's perfectly in character that he doesn't want to spook Hazel as much as he wants to spook Cosmo and Wanda.

Got through a bit faster than expected, so maybe a little more watching.

[burningexeter]

[PITCH]

Where The Magic Happens

What is it —

A 25 episode limited series event that's both a second yet truer Ben 10 reboot and an action-animated series that's a combination of not just action but also sci-fi, horror and magic.

PREMISE:

Set in the fictional Bellwood, California, we follow Gwendolyn "Gwen" Frankenstein, a 10 year old girl who is incredibly intelligent and well read for her age but at the same time she's also a rude, mean, obnoxious, spoiled and stuck-up brat who rarely gets into any trouble due to her manipulation skills. Her summer break has been planned out by herself and herself only and Gwen seems perfectly fine and comfortable being the awful know-it-all who nobody likes. That is until the night that summer vacation starts when Gwen is forced to answer the front door since she's the only one home, she is kidnapped and bagged by three women — her mother's closest friend Sandra Tennyson, her school principal April Munroe who's revealed to be a green skin alien named Xylene and one of her neighbors Camille Mann who's revealed too to be a dark purple skin sludge alien — who proceed to bring her to a deadly, twisted, boisterous, vile and sadistic femme fatale teen witch named Charmcaster that is responsible for the disappearances of several spoiled girls and has her eyes set now on making Gwen her 100th victim to add to her body count.

However, things that have already taken an unexpected turn takes another turn equally unexpected when Charmcaster decides to let Gwen go once she senses that unlike the other girls, she has a magical aura which leads to her giving Gwen her dark purple lipstick as a way to contact and have her come by and visit.

In doing so, this ends up setting off a chain of events that not only brings Gwen into this almost-hidden world of witches, wizards, aliens, creatures and enhanced robots but also has Gwen, Charmcaster, Sandra, Xylene and Camille form together as an unlikely team in order to take down the main threats that affects them all in some way, shape or form with each of them changing for the better in too their very own ways.

NOTES/TRIVIA/DETAILS:

• While the limited series will be done in the same animation style and overall aesthetic as the original Ben 10 series, it won't be the only thing that the show will share with the OG. The series will have the same dark and intense edge in this case to show the high stakes and danger that the characters are in especially Gwen who is devoured whole by Charmcaster who blows her out of her stomach later, has her nose fall off, is split in half, her eye squeezed so hard her pupil pops out of it and is kissed by Charmcaster on the cheek only for her lips to stick to it.

• Meagan Smith, Kari Wahlgren, Tara Strong and Grey DeLisle will all reprise their roles as Gwen, Charmcaster, Sandra, Xylene and Camille but will be given new and interesting material to work with and be given new and fresh takes on their previous characters.

• A perfect example of the type of dark storytelling that the limited series will have is that in a middle episode, Charmcaster finds that she accidentally traveled into the future and she's arrested by a police force with ways to block and subdue magic. Here, she discovers that not only is she the captain of this police force but that also she's a good guy and married to Gwen. We delve into what this does to Charmcaster and her having to come to grips with who she'll be.

• All five of the protagonists will each have their own distinctive arcs where they both learn, face and see the consequences of their actions and how it affects others, especially Gwen whose main arc is turning into a better, kinder and more caring person.

• The influences for the limited series are the following: Return To Oz, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003), The Incredibles, Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Beware The Batman, in terms of the tone, dark edge and most of all style.

[ethancrossmedia]

From 2 days ago, my first photo together with Grey DeLisle and an autograph from Roger Craig Smith, the current voice of Sonic the Hedgehog since 2010. My special thanks to you guys spending time seeing them for my first time in person.

@greydelislegriffin

[optimistpax]

For comic recs:

Senator Shockwave (IDW1)

Senator Shockwave

Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea by Guy Delisle

A comic about a Canadian Cartoonist’s experience working in North Korea and his observations about the culture and politics.

For You

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

The OG character with a science-induced evil alter ego

[lemaistrechat]

Masters of the Universe: Revolution SPOILERS

A more spoiler-y follow-up about how rushed/badly paced this show was.

Again, SPOILERS. I also tagged this post #motu revolution spoilers and #masters of the universe revelation spoilers if you're temporarily blocking tags.

LAST WARNING

My worst-case scenario for the Horde was that only Hordak and new character Motherboard would get speaking parts. I was pretty much correct.

Mantenna, Leech and Grizzlor are in two scenes and have no lines.

Modulok, Multi-Bot, Dragstor and Mosquitor are not shown to exist. (Same non-appearance goes for everyone from She-Ra, but legally they had no choice.)

5 half-hour episodes make this effectually movie-length, and there's a "post-credits scene" equivalent (though before Episode 5's credits) where Grey Delisle (voice of Evil-Lyn in the 2021 CGI cartoon) appears as Despara. Yes, that made me happy. But now we need another series to give her and other Horde members screen time, space to breathe. It won't fix the fact that the Horde invasion of Eternia depicted here was ridiculously rushed.

Speaking of Horde invasions of Eternia: the one that took place when Queen Marlena had recently given birth in the 80s Filmation continuity also happened here. Skeletor has a flashback to when he and Hordak invaded the palace via a window. A crying infant Adam is seen with his parents and Skeletor crouching on the floor captured by Duncan. Skeletor is looking forlorn at Hordak as he escapes, and there's obviously something in Hordak's arms the animators are trying not to show us. If they weren't being so coy, it would actually be proper foreshadowing for the last scene! As it is, you need to be a Filmation fan to understand what's going on.

Heroic Warriors:

Gwildor has a key role. Snout Spout and Rio Blast are two new friends of He-Man who appear in a couple of fight scenes and have a couple of lines. It's not explained where they came from, which is especially odd considering that they're both cyborgs and people getting turned into cyborgs by a cult is a huge theme of the series.

Buzz-Off is even more of a cameo. We saw him at the end of Revelation. Stratos was at the end of that too, and I forget if they drew him into a crowd scene or not. In previous continuities, these guys were both royalty, and in Revolution Episode 5 He-Man abolishes monarchy and tells the people of... Eternos City? All of Eternia? To elect a leader. You'd think Stratos and Buzz-Off would react to that, but no. (All heroes who died in Revelation are also present as mute cameos.)

The short running time makes Eternia feel tiny: there's Eternos City, Castle Grayskull "outside town", Snake Mountain, a cave in Darksmoke, Gwildor's Hobbit house... that's basically it.

Evil Warriors:

Two Bad goes to Snake Mountain hoping to get a job. He gets a cyborg form. The Revelation versions of Tri-Klops, Trap Jaw, and Whiplash appear but have no lines. Webstor, Clawful and Spikor have new cyborg forms, also mute cameos.

Others:

Lyn is interesting.

Granamyr is OK. John DeLancie didn't seem to be putting a lot of heart into the role. The character is like a Cliff's Notes version of his Filmation self.

Cosmic Enforcers exist. We see deep cuts like Zanthor from Filmation and the canceled 1988 toy Strobo, but only Zodac talks (he's Jeffrey Combs).

[ironbloodaika]

Not gonna lie, this crap with Tara Strong is starting to irritate me. While I'm fan of her work, that doesn't mean I agree with everything she does. That said this latest thing accusing her of being a bigot? That's bullshit.

She said in multiple posts she was referring to Hamas. Not to Palestinian or Muslim civilians. I've seen that same screen capped pic of her Tweets and people tend to ignore the posts she made before and after it specifying who she was addressing: Hamas.

The only thing Tara is guilty of is the same thing a lot of do when something horrible happens that we have something horrible happens that hits close to home: post/reblog/like without making sure we're getting our point across. She's since deleted and apologized for posts she liked that went beyond criticizing Hamas. It was foolish, but not malicious.

And look, I get it. What happening now in Gaza is horrific. I don't pretend to be knowledge on the history of either nation or this conflict, but I can see it is taken VERY seriously and a lot of people are taking sides. On my timeline I have friends each sharing posts taking up different positions in this conflict. And I've seen just as many demonizing the opposing side and accusing them of being Anti-Semitic or Islamaphobic. It's not pretty.

And to accuse Tara of it? Doesn't fit with her history of speaking out against bigotry especially against Muslims. She spoke out against Trump's Travel Ban and against all the rising hate crimes Muslim Americans faced in a Post 9/11 America. I don't see how that could suddenly change.

Ultimately this weird sort of mob mentality is annoying cause it happens SO often with VA's when ever they do something people don't like. Just a few months ago Grey DeLisle was getting shit over how she reacted to someone using AI of her voice. Yeah, somehow they made HER the bad guy there.

Overall I just find this mess exhausting. Look, if someone I admire does something fucked up, I'd have no issues washing my hands of it. I did it with JK Rowling and with Vic. I'm not gonna call someone a monster or "always had" for mistakes made by foolishness and not malice.

Anyway, this has been one of my rare returns to long posts. Will I regret it or do it again? Who knows. Have a good weekend everyone!