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theabstruseone · 2 years ago

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Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, and the Open Gaming License (OGL)

So this story has broken out of the tabletop roleplaying community and gotten into the mainstream and, due to outlets covering the story who aren't well-versed in the RPG industry, there's a LOT of misinformation going around. So I'm going to try to clear up what's going on. Short version: The new OGL is a shitshow, but people are treating speculation and rumor as fact and a lot of people are focusing on the wrong problems.

Oh, and if anyone wants to know why they should listen to me about this: I've been covering the tabletop roleplaying game industry for almost a decade and it's been my primary job for over six years. I've also done extensive research on the history of tabletop roleplaying and made several videos about small aspects of it.

First a bit of history.

Side note: Pretty much every sentence in this part is an entire whole-ass Story on its own, so I'm glossing over a lot of stuff to stay focused on the Open Gaming License.

In 1974, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson wrote a new game based on the Chainmail miniature wargame called Dungeons & Dragons. This is widely considered the start of the tabletop roleplaying game genre. The game was published by a company called TSR Inc., which was taken over by the heir to the Buck Rogers publishing fortune, Lorraine Williams. By the 1990s, TSR dug itself into a deep financial hole. It was on the verge of bankruptcy before being purchased by Wizards of the Coast, the makers of Magic: The Gathering.

Wizards of the Coast launched a new Third Edition of Dungeons & Dragons in 2000 and, as part of the launch, released the Open Gaming License (OGL). This license allowed third-party publishers to create their own products based off of D&D 3rd Edition with some restrictions (they couldn't use specific intellectual property of Wizards of the Coast like the Forgotten Realms setting or some monsters created specifically for Dungeons & Dragons rather than based on myth or folklore). This launched a boom of third-party publishers creating their own products under the "D20 System" label.

The primary reason for creating the Open Gaming License was that we almost lost Dungeons & Dragons altogether. If TSR had fallen into bankruptcy, the assets of the company would be divvied up by creditors and likely auctioned off. Meaning the rights could be scattered to the wind or picked up by a company with no intention of developing a new game or keeping old material in print. Or worse, the rights could have been chopped up so that it became a confusing quagmire to figure out who owns what precisely. This actually has happened in many cases in tabletop roleplaying over the decades with several games currently (and likely permanently) out of print because nobody knows who owns the rights to them.

With the OGL, it was ensured that, at least in some capacity, Dungeons & Dragons would survive.

When Wizards of the Coast decided to update the game to the 4th Edition, they decided not to release 4th Edition rules under the OGL, but offered publishers an alternate but more restrictive license called the Game System License (GSL). This license was so unpopular it's difficult to even find a copy of the license online anymore.

As part of this move to 4th Edition, Wizards of the Coast canceled their contract with a company called Paizo to create the official D&D magazines Dragon and Dungeon. Paizo, who were also publishing campaign collections called Adventure Paths under the OGL, decided they wanted to keep making material for D&D 3rd Edition. So they created their own version of D&D called Pathfinder. Pathfinder became very popular in the gaming community as an alternative to D&D 4e. For modern fans, the home campaign that eventually became Critical Role started out as a Pathfinder campaign.

Due to a combination of factors, Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition was not as successful as Wizards of the Coast's new owner, Hasbro, hoped it would be. It was not a "failure" in terms of a tabletop roleplaying game as it sold very well for a TTRPG and maintained its spot as the highest-selling RPG in the industry through mass-market channels throughout its lifetime (even if Pathfinder did spend a year out-selling it in hobby channels like comic book and game stores). But Hasbro is a multibillion-dollar corporation and they expected D&D to perform as well as their other large brands and it underperformed to that expectation.

So when Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition was in development in 2014 under the name "D&D Next", expectations from Hasbro were lowered and far more realistic. They were more hands-off and less focused on aggressive monetization of the brand. This meant that D&D 5e was released under the OGL. A new boom of third-party content resulted. Several companies ran Kickstarter campaigns for D&D 5e-compatible material, some raising hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars.

Then, thanks to huge gains in the audience from live streaming, YouTube, and podcasting, Dungeons & Dragons became a major hit again under 5e. The game experienced a revitalization and managed to meet the high expectations that Hasbro had for 4e.

The New Open Gaming License

In 2022, Wizards of the Coast announced they were "refreshing" D&D 5e with a new product codenamed "OneD&D". This would not be a new edition, just an update to the previous edition. All 5e material would still be compatible with the new "OneD&D".

In December of 2022, rumors started floating around that Wizards of the Coast was going to "abolish" the Open Gaming License. These rumors were based on pure speculation and "insider information" which turned out to be only partially accurate. Just before Christmas, Wizards of the Coast made a blog post on D&D Beyond (their online portal for D&D) explaining that OneD&D would still use the Open Gaming License, but an updated version of the license.

This new version of the license would function less like the GNU Public License for open-source software on which the OGL was based on, but more like the license that Epic uses for its Unreal Engine for video games. Companies could still use the OGL, but would have to register their sales if they make more than $50,000. If a company makes more than $750,000 a year in gross sales, it will have to pay a royalty to Wizards of the Coast.

In January, "leaks" of this new OGL appeared online via YouTube channels reading select pieces of it. Speculation and rumors ran rampant once again that Wizards of the Coast is "revoking" the OGL.

After almost a week of this, the actual Open Gaming License v1.1 document was also leaked. This was sent to some third-party publishers to get feedback and make them aware of the changes in advance of a public announcement under NDA. The document was split into two sections, the actual License itself which was written as a legal document and a commentary section that is not-legally-binding explanations of the intent of the legalese in that section.

Much of the speculation was based on early leaks, which focused on the not-legally-binding commentary section rather than the actual legal terms of the license. The one that caused the most concern was a statement "de-authorizing" all prior versions of the Open Gaming License.

This story broke out of the tabletop roleplaying news outlets and online community, who began to cover the story as well including outlets like Gizmodo, iO9, Polygon, and Forbes. In many cases, these outlets do not normally cover TTRPGs and Wizards of the Coast had yet to comment, so they ran the story with the version full of speculation and rumor framed by people who had a long history of criticizing Wizards of the Coast (for reasons justified and less so) because it was the only story they had.

Legal experts began to weigh in as well, with a decided split between those who believe that Wizards of the Coast COULD revoke the OGL and those who believe that Wizards of the Coast could only do so for those who agree to the new OGL v1.1 but NOT for people who did not agree to this license.

In the fallout of these events, several tabletop roleplaying companies began making announcements to stop producing third-party material for Dungeons & Dragons. Some announced a new focus on their own original systems, and others stated they planned to develop a version of D&D that they could legally publish without using the OGL.

And, as of January 11, 2023, this is where we're at. Wizards of the Coast only released a "We're working on a statement, please be patient" style statement only posted as a tweet, but no other comment since December.

So...CAN They Revoke the OGL? AKA I, Someone Who Is Not a Lawyer, Explains Legal Issues

When the rumors started in December, I spoke with a couple of lawyers I know, one of whom works in the TTRPG industry as a side-gig and one who works often with open software licenses. Other legal experts have weighed in as well. And the answer to that question is "...maybe?"

The entire case for revoking the OGL is based on a single clause in the original Open Gaming License that allows for the updating of the license. This cause states that, if the license is updated, creators may use any "authorized version" of the license.

However, the license itself does not state who authorizes the license or a process for making a different version of the license no longer authorized. Also, the OGL v1.0a (the older version) only has a process for revoking the license if one party violates the license. There are no other conditions for revoking the license listed in the OGL v1.0a. Also, case law exists for companies attempting to revoke rights under the GPL and other open-source software licenses where they were not legally allowed to.

However (again), the OGL states that the license is "perpetual", meaning it does not have an expiration date. It does NOT state that it is "irrevocable". Meaning that some legal experts believe that it CAN be revoked.

However (again again), when dealing with lawsuits over licenses and contracts, there are two things to keep in mind. In general (and varying on jurisdiction), ambiguity in a contract is generally interpreted as the fault of the side who drafted the contract and so, if the terms of a contract are unclear, the courts will generally side in favor of the one who did NOT write the contract. Yes, I said "generally" a lot because it all comes down to details and we won't know for sure how this will play out unless it goes to court.

Secondly, courts will examine things like industry standards when determining the validity of an interpretation of a contract, and the established industry standard within the TTRPG industry is that the OGL could not be revoked, a standard established by Wizards of the Coast themselves in 2006 when they stated so clearly in a FAQ about the license (formerly on their website, now only available via the Wayback machine...and this isn't because they're trying to hide it, but because they revamped their entire website several years ago and a whole lot of posts and documents from the 2000s were removed).

Finally, the Open Gaming License is used by companies beyond Wizards of the Coast. I don't even mean like Paizo (Pathfinder/Starfinder), Pelgrane Press (13th Age), and EN Publishing (Level Up) who made D&D derivative games, but systems like Basic Roleplay from Chaosium that powers Call of Cthulhu and RuneQuest, FATE which powers the licensed Dresden Files RPG, D6 System used by West End Games before that company collapsed for Ghostbusters and Star Wars, and several others. The systems released by these companies have NOTHING to do with Wizards of the Coast or Dungeons & Dragons, so "revoking" the OGL would directly affect them despite not interacting with Wizards of the Coast's IP in any way.

So CAN Wizards of the Coast revoke the Open Gaming License? Maybe, but probably not. But the bigger question is...do they actually WANT to do it? I mean, yeah, they probably WANT to, but what I mean is do I think it is their actual plan to revoke the OGL?

What I Think Wizards of the Coast is Actually Doing AKA It's Bad in a Different Way

Wizards of the Coast purchased D&D Beyond, a website that acted as a character builder and digital storefront for official Dungeons & Dragons material, last year for several million dollars. They also announced their own virtual tabletop (VTT) is in the works, a system that allows people to play RPGs remotely by simulating the tabletop experience on a computer or tablet. They also have a licensing deal with OneBookShelf (the company that owns the VTT Roll20 and the digital storefront DriveThruRPG) for Dungeonmasters Guild, a site that allows community content creators to make their own D&D products under a license more permissive than the OGL in content (you can set your adventures in Forgotten Realms or Ravenloft and use characters like Drizzt and Raistlin) but that requires payment of royalties to Wizards of the Coast.

I believe that Wizards of the Coast wants to encourage third-parties to sign the OGL v1.1 in order to gain access to their walled garden digital storefronts. Because D&D Beyond and the VTT are first-party products and Wizards of the Coast has a far larger marketing budget, they can easily create an environment where the vast majority of the tabletop gaming customer base uses their marketplaces. Meaning if you want access to millions of customers, you HAVE to go through Wizards of the Coast and agree to their royalty terms.

After a few years, this would give Wizards of the Coast the same dominance in the online tabletop gaming space as they have in the mass market space through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, and other mainstream retail stores. And when the eventual Sixth Edition is released that is no longer compatible with 5e, they can release that document under the OGL v1.1 and cut off anyone from creating products without agreeing to the terms.

However, I don't think they want to eliminate the OGL v1.0a for ALL creations. It would be an iffy legal case and, as you've likely seen, would be a public relations nightmare. It would also be a bad move for Wizards of the Coast as the company (like all TTRPG companies) relies heavily on freelancers. Freelancers who typically get experience by writing and publishing on OGL material. I'd be utterly shocked if there was anyone working at Wizards of the Coast right now in a game design capacity who did NOT, if not getting their start in OGL material, at least published something under the OGL for D&D 3rd Ed, 3.5, Pathfinder, or 5e.

Not only would revoking the OGL v1.0a entirely be a costly endeavor, it would be a fruitless one. You may have seen in the various discussions the phrase, "You can't copyright game rules". This is true - game mechanics are covered in intellectual property law by patents, not copyright. You cannot copyright a set of game rules, you can only copyright the expression of those rules.

Side note: This is also the reason why every online recipe starts with an overly-long blog post about the recipe's role in the author's life - they can't copyright the actual recipe because it's just a list of ingredients and a description of the steps. They CAN copyright the story surrounding the recipe though, so if some bot steals their blog post and reposts it, they'll know because the story that IS protected under copyright was likely stolen as well.

While it isn't necessarily an easy process because it requires interpreting what is and is not a "creative expression" of describing the rules, it IS possible to recreate pretty much any game's core system in a way that is perfectly legal under copyright law. Kit Walsh wrote about this for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (though I disagree with some of her other conclusions here, that part is a pretty accurate explanation).

Side note: The EFF formed thanks to tabletop roleplaying games. The US Secret Service raided Steve Jackson Games, the publishers of GURPS who eventually went on to create the card game Munchkin. A group of lawyers represented SJG in their lawsuit against the government, and those lawyers decided to form the EFF as an organization to continue defending digital rights. I did a video about it a few years ago.

The OGL's primary value is that it addresses this hole in intellectual property law. While it's possible to publish compatible material for a game system without a license or even recreate the entire game system, it's not exactly easy. There are many ways that creators can accidentally violate copyright without realizing it.

For example, many Old School Rennaissance systems attempt to re-create the rules from older editions of Dungeons & Dragons which were NOT released under the OGL by using the material that IS in the OGL. However, they are limited in using some terms because they are too descriptive rather than functional, therefore falling under a creative expression. Like in previous editions, each level of a character class had its own title. Like Thieves in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition went from 1st level Rogue to 2nd level Footpad to 3rd level Cutpurse and so on. Those cannot be reproduced, but most other aspects of level advancement can.

The OGL solved the problem by giving clear guidance on what could and could not be used. Meaning Wizards of the Coast didn't have to worry about a dozen different versions of the 5th Edition of the D20 System popping up under different names -- completely bypassing their core rulebooks -- because it was unnecessary.

So I don't think Wizards of the Coast plans to announce a complete unilateral revoking of the OGL v1.0a nor never intended to do so. I think the plan was to introduce the royalty-based license first, using access to their walled garden as the benefit, then eventually switch entirely to the new license for Sixth Edition a few years down the line.

So What IS So Bad About the License?

The Unreal Engine license from Epic is a godsend for independent developers. The number of patents, copyrights, sublicenses, and so on involved in a video game engine make it necessary to obtain a license. A license with no up-front cost that only charges royalties after a certain level of gross sales is AMAZING for small developers because they can start working on a game and take risks because of lowered start-up costs of obtaining a license. It also means that, if the game isn't a big hit, the company isn't still on the hook for royalty payments off the paltry sum they make in sales.

None of that is the case in tabletop roleplaying games.

All this license does is allow Wizards of the Coast to start skimming profits off of other companies. If a creator's product makes more than $750,000 in gross sales, they have to start paying royalties on amounts over that. So say my Kickstarter takes off and funds for $800,000, I only owe royalties on $50,000 not the full $800,000.

However, part of the license makes clear that ALL FUNDS RAISED through a Kickstarter have the license applied. The thing is that most of the TTRPG Kickstarters that make over $750,000 do so through selling things other than the game product itself. Miniatures, sculptures, t-shirts, art books, personalized videos, creators running the game for backers, stuff like that which are products that ARE NOT licensed under the OGL. They don't include any material from the game so are not OGL material. BUT under this license, Wizards of the Coast gets to skim money off of those unrelated products.

On top of that, the license includes a sweetheart deal for Kickstarter. If you use Kickstarter to crowdfund your game, you only have to pay 20% royalties rather than the normal 25%. This comes on the heels of multiple competitors to Kickstarter gaining traction, such as BackerKit and GameFound. This is anti-competitive behavior.

Finally, if you don't pay royalties on time, you have to pay interest. Okay, sure...but the rate is 1.5% PER MONTH. That is a 19.56% per year interest rate which would be shitty for a credit card, let alone just for late fees on a royalty payment. If you screw up and underpay by 10% or more (easy to do when there's two royalty rates for different outlets between Kickstarter and all other sales), you're responsible for paying the costs of Wizards of the Coast auditing the account to determine the amount. How much these costs will be is not stated.

The OGL v1.1 also changes how material is used. While the OGL always had a share-a-like aspect to it so that, if you created an awesome class or feat or whatever, Wizards of the Coast could use it as well in their products...so could anyone else. For example, if I made a really cool Pirate class in my OGL book, you could use that Pirate class in your own book. Under the OGL v1.1, this is no longer the case. The flow of content is one-way ONLY to Wizards of the Coast. THEY can use any material created under the OGL, but no one else can.

This specific clause also causes problems for companies making licensed work. For example, Cubicle 7 released an OGL 5th Edition version of their Doctor Who roleplaying game, while Free League Publishing came out with a 5e Lord of the Rings RPG. Because of this clause in the license, those products would be impossible to make because Cubicle 7 doesn't own Doctor Who. The BBC does. Free League doesn't own Lord of the Rings, the Tolkien Estate does (technically, Embracer Group bought them, but that's a whole other mess). Cubicle 7 and Free League does not have the right to give Wizards of the Coast access to that intellectual property, but the OGL v1.1 REQUIRES that they do so.

OGL games using licensed properties have been a staple of the OGL since it came out. In the 3rd Ed era, there were D20 System RPGs for Babylon 5, Farscape, Warcraft, Stargate SG-1, Conan the Barbarian, and a lot more. It was a good way for smaller companies to grab licenses that weren't used and make a big splash as well as to allow customers access to games set in their favorite fictional settings without hoping Wizards of the Coast would show interest (as they did, making D20 versions of Wheel of Time, Star Wars, and a few other licensed properties during this era).

Further, there's a clause that allows Wizards of the Coast the right to revoke the OGL at their discretion. This is framed as allowing them to revoke the OGL from anyone publishing offensive material that's racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, etc. but that is NOT spelled out in the legally-binding section of the document. Meaning that if someone at Wizards of the Coast doesn't like something a creator has posted on social media, they can pull the license. This clause also eliminates all rights to challenge this: You cannot sue and there is no arbitration. Wizards of the Coast decides what material is and is not offensive.

And even if it WAS enforced as stated, there have been recent controversies with "ethics clauses" like this being enforced against women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+ people, disabled people, and other marginalized groups describing the bigotry, prejudice, and oppression they suffer under claims it violates the terms of the license. I'm not saying Wizards of the Coast WOULD do that, but at the same time, they don't have the best track record in these matters...

Then there's a new Indemnity clause. This means that if a creator publishes something under the OGL that gets them sued, Wizards of the Coast can decide the creator isn't defending the lawsuit well enough, take it over, and then bill the creator for all legal fees. It would be a rare situation (someone would have to work hard to get a claim that would involve the OGL itself in court), but the fact that Wizards reserves the right to take over a lawsuit and stick the creator with the bill isn't a good thing.

Then there's the "Other Products" section that expressly forbids the use of the OGL in the creation of any product other than a tabletop roleplaying game product. The comments section (the "not legally binding" bit) clarifies a list of products this covers including "videos, virtual tabletops or VTT campaigns, computer games, novels, apps, graphics novels, music, songs, dances, and pantomimes."

Of all of these, the only ones in which the OGL would even remotely apply would be virtual tabletops, apps, and computer games. And even that would be very specific cases where they recreate game rules from D&D. A novel doesn't include game rules. A video doesn't include game rules. A song doesn't include game rules. NONE of this stuff requires using the OGL in the first place so I have no idea why any of this is included (or rather, excluded) unless there are some further legal shenanigans planned for the future that affects Twitch, YouTube, and TikTok.

So yeah, this license is a garbage fire that's not good for creators and not good for the long-term health of Dungeons & Dragons as a game. Even if I don't believe that Wizards of the Coast plans to eliminate the OGL v1.0a and destroy a large portion of the tabletop roleplaying industry in the process, I do think their plan is detrimental to the hobby and reflects long-term plans for further anti-competitive behavior.

What Happens Now?

As of right now (early afternoon in North America on January 11, 2023), we're still waiting on an official statement from Wizards of the Coast. Until they make some official move, everyone in the industry is in a bit of a holding pattern or making plans for the worst.

For the vast majority of Dungeons & Dragons players, none of this means anything. There are millions of people who just play their regular game, use material from the core books, and that's it. They don't follow the industry, they likely don't even know that dedicated tabletop game stores exist let alone ever been to their local store because they bought their books from Amazon or Barnes & Noble and their dice from Target or Dollar General. They've never been on DriveThruRPG, aren't aware Pathfinder exists, and have put exactly as much consideration into following Wizards of the Coast accounts on social media as they have in following Starbucks.

However, the online tabletop RPG community has made a LOT of noise about this. Like I said earlier, more mainstream outlets have picked up this story. Hashtags related to it have been trending off and on all week on Twitter. People like @wilwheaton and Gail Simone are talking about the controversy. Some of these players, who make up the vast majority of the customer base for Dungeons & Dragons, might get curious. They won't understand what the OGL is or why it matters, but they'll come away with the impression that Wizards of the Coast did something that hurt small publishers and people don't like it.

Whatever happens, keep your friendly game designers in mind. Even the ones working for Wizards of the Coast. Many publishers have serious questions about their ability to continue as a business, and many creators are facing stress and burnout seeking off-ramps out of tabletop RPGs. Some other independent creators and their fans are taking the opportunity to be assholes by gloating over the situation, something which helps nobody. Designers who work for Wizards are being harassed even though this is very obviously a corporate-level decision that the people writing the game have absolutely no control over.

In short, the future is uncertain and it costs nothing to be kind to the people suffering right now.

Edit for a Post-Script: I've seen a post floating around Tumblr about this situation that tries to play off this situation as Good Ackshually because the OGL always involved signing away rights to gain access to something you already had. I want to reiterate a point I made above: "You can't copyright game mechanics" is far more complicated than a simple statement. Even the post itself explains all the legal pitfalls with that assumption by pointing out issues of mingling and other ways rules can be protected under copyright law. What the OGL did was allow independent creators with no budget - which is every single tabletop roleplaying game company outside of WotC, Paizo, and maybe a handful of others owned by large companies like Edge Studios (Azmodee/Embracer Group), White Wolf (Paradox Interactive), and a few others and even THOSE are tiny subsidiaries in a larger corporate umbrella. Pretty much every other roleplaying game company on the planet is under 10 total employees (often just one or two) and a bunch of freelancers.

This industry does not have the capital to hire a lawyer every time they want to release a new product to ensure the IP doesn't violate the law. The OGL allows those companies a clear framework to publish compatible material with the game system used by at LEAST 80% of the customer base of the industry without fear of legal threats. This is the difference between theory and practice. In theory, publishing without a license is better but in practice, it's a money sink and legal minefield. And telling publishers and professionals who have been working under the license for two decades now they should be thankful the entire industry is under threat of being upended is condescending at best.

Edit Part 2: I knew I'd forget some things that are terrible about the OGL v1.1

First, there are now two licenses, a Commercial and a Non-Commercial one. I still haven't figured out the purpose since it's the same license only the Commercial one has all the bits about royalties. It seems redundant because if someone's not making money, they wouldn't meet the threshold for reporting gross sales anyway since they don't make money.

Anyway, to the actual issue I forgot: Information gathering!

You have to register every single product you release under the OGL v1.1 with Wizards of the Coast. You must describe the product, state where you will offer it for sale, what price you will charge, provide contact information, and "filling out a form" (they don't state what other information will be on this form). There are no restrictions whatsoever placed on how Wizards of the Coast can use this information. Even the most benign version of how this information can be used is anti-competitive as it would give Wizards of the Coast free market research - if all products have to be registered but only products that make $50,000 in gross sales must have their sales reported, then Wizards of the Coast knows what products are selling and which ones are not.

The RPG industry has horrible market research information. There are only a handful of places to track what people are actually buying or playing. Few companies release sales information. All you can do is check Kickstarter yourself for what products are crowdfunding well, use ICv2's reporting which is limited to physical sales only at participating hobby game stores in North America (leaving out any store that doesn't participate, mass market outlets like Amazon, direct sales through a publisher's website, digital or print-on-demand sales from DriveThruRPG, etc.), and quarterly user reports from virtal tabletops Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds. That's ALL we have to judge where the market is. Having access to that kind of information would give Wizards of the Coast an even larger edge in the RPG market, which they already dominate.

And that's the benign reading. For example, there are no restrictions in the OGL v1.1 against selling that information to third parties. Granted, the European Union would have some things to say about that. Also, remember that the OGL v1.1 flows one-way. Wizards of the Coast can republish anything they like with no compensation or even credit provided to the previous author. If they see a particular product is selling well, they can just republish it themselves.

Edit 3: Wizards of the Coast FINALLY released a statement and...fuck me, I did NOT expect them to give up on the royalties. I figured that was the primary motivation for the license update. They're also changing the terms to make clear that Wizards of the Coast does not have the ability to publish material from third-parties (that part of the license was meant to protect them in case of convergent design, where somebody's third-party published adventure or sourcebook coincidentally has the same elements as a new sourcebook or one of the new big-budget TV/film/video game projects and just overreached according to the statement).

They still don't address the actual "open" part of the open license that would allow third-party publishers to share their material with other third-party publishers. There have also stated that content already released under the OGL v1.0a will not be affected by the change to a new OGL license (rumors are they're changing it from "OGL v1.1" to "OGL v2.0" but that's not in the statement), but have NOT stated whether they believe they have the right to unilaterally prevent anyone from continuing to use the OGL v1.0a if they do not agree to the new OGL. Both of these are major concerns with the new license.

However, we DO have a good update: Paizo is spearheading a new open license called the Open RPG Creative License or the ORC License. You can read about it in the link, but the primary points are that Paizo will NOT own this license nor will anyone else who makes money publishing RPGs - it will be managed by a non-profit to ensure that no company in the future can exact unilateral changes that affect the entire industry. The license will be perpetual and irrevocable. So far, major TTRPG companies participating include Paizo (Pathfinder, Starfinder), Chaosium (Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest), Kobold Press (prolific 5e OGL publisher), Green Ronin (Dragon Age, The Expanse, Modern AGE), Atlas Games (Ars Magica, Over the Edge), Legendary Games (third-party OGL publisher of 5e, Pathfinder, Starfinder, and Savage Worlds), Pinnacle Entertainment Group (Savage Worlds, Deadlands), Rogue Genius Games (Owen K.C. Stephens' company), and I don't know how many others since the announcement was made.

We won't know for sure how this will shake out for the industry until the terms of the new OGL and the terms of the ORC License are made public, but either way, a trust has been broken as a multibillion dollar corporation came after small publishers trying to scrape together enough to make any money at all off their games, and the industry won't forget that easily.

EDIT FINALE

It's now January 29, 2023, and there's been a huge update that should close out this entire saga.

A couple weeks ago, Wizards of the Coast released a draft of the OGL v1.2 along with a survey for public feedback. The new version dropped the royalties entirely along with any claims of ownership to content created under the license and the registration requirements. It did keep the "morality clause" that was vaguely worded and overly broad allowing them to revoke the license from any company producing a product they considered "harmful", "obscene", or "illegal" without defining those terms. Meaning they could revoke the license from a company if LGBTQ+ content is deemed as "obscene" (which has happened before with licensed D&D content), or "illegal" if it includes queer content in some countries or "Critical Race Theory" in some American states, or "harmful" as "this is harmful to our profits because it's selling too well". The new version of the OGL also maintained that the OGL v1.0a would be "de-authorized".

The other attempt to placate critics was releasing 58 pages of the SRD 5.1 (the document that outlines what parts of the rules for Dungeons & Dragons were considered Open Gaming Content under the OGL v1.0a) would be released under a Creative Commons license. The pages included rules for combat, ability checks, monster abilities, and a few other aspects of the game but would NOT include races/species, classes, backgrounds, spells, magic items, or monster stat blocks. Basically, these 58 pages were functionally useless on their own as they referenced rules that were not included in the CC-licensed content. It would be impossible to create adventures (no monsters or treasure) or sourcebooks (no classes, races/species, or spells) under this license, which makes up the vast majority of third-party OGL content for 5e. I should also note the SRD 5.1 is over 400 pages long, meaning they released just over 10% of the already-stripped-down rules.

The survey went out about a week ago and, on Thursday, D&D Beyond announced on Twitter the results were pretty obvious the OGL v1.2 wasn't helping matters. And on Friday, January 27, the company announced that the survey would be closed early (it was originally scheduled to run until February 7) because between 85% to over 90% of people participating responded negatively to the questions posed in the survey. In response, Wizards of the Coast stated:

The Open Gaming License v1.0a would be left in place completely untouched as it has been since 2000.

The SRD 5.1 would be released under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.

This is not a "we will do it at some point in the future pinkie swear" thing. As of that posting, the SRD 5.1 is now available under the Creative Commons license.

So the situation is resolved. Not only did Wizards of the Coast back down from their plans, they released more of the game to the public than was originally released.

This won't stop Wizards of the Coast from trying something similar in the future, but they'll have to do it with an entirely new and incompatible edition of the game. Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition is now freed as the rules are permanently and irrevocably part of the Creative Commons with no legal method for Wizards of the Coast to take it back.

#dnd #dungeons & dragons #d&d #rpg #rpgs #roleplaying #roleplaying games #ttrpg #ttrpgs #tabletop rpgs #tabletop roleplaying #ogl #open gaming license #wizards of the coast #wotc #tsr

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popculturebuffet · 1 month ago

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HCG: Garfield His 9 Lives Retrospective: The Book (Patreon Review for Emma Fici)

Happy Halloween all you happy people! Yes at long last and after lots of work on these title images i'ts time to talk about Garfield His 9 Lives in this three part retrospective. And yes there's a third one. I'm doing this during spooky season for a few reasons: I already covered garifield's halloween adventure, the lab cat segments in all three versions and primal self in the book are horror and the exploration of diffrent identities garfields had just felt right for a season about putting on costume and being something or someone else for a night.

For those who haven't heard of it Garfield His 9 Lives was a 1984 graphic novel, with two prose pieces, anthology. It has a very simple, brilliant concept: Garfield reflecting on his 9 lives, with each having it's own style ranging from realistic to sketchy to pretty standard stuff for garfield and each story being a different tone. While about a third of the stories are pretty standard for garfield, if putting him in cave settings and space for two of them for some added flair, the bulk do whatever the hell they want: we've got a full on noir story with realistic cats, a stephen king feeling horror story, a sci fi horror escape from a testing lab, a goofy modern fable with vikings, a sugary sweet children's fairy tail and even an out and out three stooges homage.

9 Lives is a great book, and well worth picking up or reading on the internet archive (which is down at the time of this article). It's a gloriously creative concept and I wish garfield was allowed to experiment more like this. What makes it even more specail, besides getting i'ts own tv special we'll talk about next time is that Jim Davis wrote 2/3 of the book himself, likely still collabing with is artists with only Babes and Bullets, The Garden, and Space Cat not being written by Davis. It shows off an incredible creative flexibility you wouldn't expect from someone whose always come off extremley corprate in how he built his strip, with said strip all but confirmed to be ghostwritten these days. It's a strange, unique bolt of creative lightning.

This retrospective will cover this and the other two versions: The 1988 Special adapting some segments (with Babes and Bullets getting it's own special in 89 i've already covered) and switching out a few. There was also a third take on this concept at the end of Boom's 2010's Garfield Comic Book that i'll be capping off this trilogy which isn't as well known and I hadn't read till getting ready for this trilogy. So if all this sounds intresting then join me under the cut as we see that when you've got 9 lives baby you've got 9 ways to loose

As a heads up all of these photos are taken from my phone as Internet Archive is down as i'm writing this and I had no other way to get scans.

Written by Jim Davis, illustrated by Paws, Inc. staff

Yup your seeing this right the book begins with a short bit portraying Jim Davis as God

Yeah.. that's how this book begins. The special uses a similar gag, we'll get to that next time but in the book paws inc itself is used for the creation myth of cats.. including whoever this lady is in a bill lives sweater

This is a refrence to comic strip Bloom County, which had previously killed off one of i'ts biggest stars bill the cat. Bill was created as the most unmarkatable version of garfield imaginable

Naturally as it tends to when you write a strip that's a haven for snarky dorks, Bill became a success and the strip rolled with it: he's been a movie star, dead, a three time presidential canditate, an evanlecial preacher, a rockstar, Donald Trump, the consort of presidential cat Socks Clinton, a brainwashed pawn of Micheal Eisner, and many, many more I don't have time to get into. He was also in Bloom County's revivial revealed to be Garfield's actual son

Fun fact I pulled that from one of my own posts, a review of a wish for wings that work. I will refrence the fact garfield is a deadbeat dad any time I get the chance. The best part about this joke is it's entirely in character for Garfield to be a horrible parent. Though I bet arelene at least acknowledges her kid.

Anyways I just love this nod as it shows Jim didn't take the mockery of Garfield being merchandised to hell personally and it's a cute nod.

Everyone complains when God Emperor Jim Davis decrees cats get 9 lives when everyone else gets one. He has a good reason for it though.

It's that that makes the joke work, this weird wonderful image of Jim Davis as a cat god man cat. It's a cute opener that gets us into our proper 9 lives, each introduced by garfield himself and I like how each bit does inform a bit about his personality.

Written by Jim Davis; illustrated by Davis, Mike Fentz, and Larry Fentz

Our first segment takes us back to Caveman times, and is drawn by Mike Fentz and Larry Fentz. The Fentz' worked at Paws Inc, working in the liscensing division doing airbrushed art for story books, comics and what not and thus do a bulk of the art here. They do a great job perfectly aping jim's style with the watercolors and air brush giving them an extra pop, a nice break from the flat coloring most comic strips get.

Cave Cat on it's own.. is fine. I'm not a fan of caveman times set stories, or ones where characters get stranded in a lost world type place. I love a good dinosaur, dinosaurs are the best, but cavemen...

It's exactly what you'd expect from "Garfield in Cavemen times" minus Jon being his cave owner. Which is something I do like and carries throughout the book and the special: While we see Odie twice as a bookened, here as Big Bob a giant dinosaur that kills cave cat with the worlds first and last frap tree playing fetch, we don't see a reincarnated Jon. It allows the lives to breathe and be there own thing. Jon isn't getting reincarnated through time and Odie's two counterparts can be chalked up to "genetic ancestor" and "coincidence". I wouldn't mind using counterparts entirely, but I do like trying to do something diffrent, break out of the mold and see what garfiled would be like divorced from his supporting cast and life.

Cave Cat exists, it has one or two good gags, and that's about all I have. Next

written by Jim Davis and Mike Fentz; illustrated by Fentz

The vikings is fucking weird and I love that. So one of Garfield's past lives was a viking, just like Ralph Wiggum, and got frozen in present day. The vikings try to pillage, get beaten down by modern society, get normal jobs and it's .. honestly kinda funny. And i'ts even funnier seeing them break out of their mundane lives and disappear into the mists after Garfield The Orange finds their sacred otter. It's not among my faviorites here, but as I write about it I can't help but admire it's weird style, realistic beautifully drawn characters, and bonkers nature. Does it make sense as a reincarnation? not really. Is it fun... yes.

written by Ron Tuthill, illustrated by Kevin Campbell

I can't find much on Ron Tuthill but Babes and Bullets is a pretty solid short detective story that sneaks in some great jokes while it's ad it from the name Sam Spayed itself, to the obligtory thug roughing him up being his landlord. If any of that sounds familiar, you too have clearly seen the full animated special, which I reviewed previously and might still be my faviorite garfield thing. The story is about the same: A widow with instant chemistry with Sam shows up, he solves the mystery of her husbands death and his secretary turns out to have been in love with the victim but innocent. A lot of the jokes, plot beats and what not are the same and I was shocked on this read by just.. how much was done beat for beat and how much it fit, having enough goofy stuff for garfield but still feeling like a decent detective story, if one where you don't get all the clues as you go which blows but I get it being hard to do that. This is the longest story in the collection but it's still fairly short.

There are a few changes from the special: the big one is that everyone in this version.. is a cat, a realistically drawn one at that.

I"m also proud to say this is the first corpse in garfield history! Hooray! But yeah for the specail everyone else is a human for some reason likely because they didnt' want everyone to be garfield sized. The realistic part is likely budget as it was likely faster to do the garfield house style than this. This style is also mildly offputting. Later furry detective work blacksad got the ballance down better between human and animal, being realistic but not so much it's weird.

The other is that it's a battle for a reverened position here rather than academia. The change.. dosen't affect the story for the most part with only the ending, the culprit praying for forgivness, having a touch more impact in this version. All in all a pretty good time.

written by Jim Davis; illustrated by Davis, Mike Fentz, and Larry Fentz

The Exterminators is fun and one of my faviorites. I'll rank all of these at the end, but this is a highlight.

The Exterminators is a Three Stooges parody, and while I've never watched the Three Stooges, I still get the gist enough: Three idiots, one smarter than the others, do slapstick. It's simple, it works and it fits Jim Davis penchant for slapstick like a glove. I adore the opening

And there client lady in general is a LOT of fun, from this scene to her "oh boy here we go" reaction to the exterminators to her reaction when garfield waves around a shot gun

This.. this is a true gift. Garfield's first corpse and now his first shotgun. Shotgunfield.

The ending is also fun as the cats argue over who has to eat the mouse, only for them to make the client eat it.. and she realizes mice tastes pretty good and adorably goes off with her new best pals. It's a weirdly heartwarming ending to this delightful slapstick nonsense.

written by Jim Davis; illustrated by Gary Barker and Larry Fentz

This ones' a bit of a tonal shift, notable not only for making it to the specail with only one bit of censorship but for being a Stephen King kind of horror/sci fi goverment conspiracy story. I mean he dosen't do them often but you get that vibe. A cat is tested on and tries to escape disection. It's simple, harrowing and beautifully drawn

As you can guess this is the part that didn't make it to air and I feel makes it more effective. The twist ending, that the experiments turn the poor cat into a dog who easily evades protectoin is fatnastic. I'ts short, harrowing , has lots of nice shading to really set the grim tone of this one. It's excellent stuff and i'm shocked they went with something like this for this anthology. And in any other garfield product it'd easily be the most experimental, unsettling thing here, while still being pretty mild.. but well... you likely know what's coming. Before that though

written and illustrated by Dave Kühn

The Garden is a trippy , 3d modeled surreal fairy tail.. sandwitched inbetween two of the darkest stories in garfield history. Why Jim Davis decided to put it here I have no idea and it's instead put between the more jokey "King Cat" and "Court Musician" in the special, where it fits a lot better. It's a silly goofy fairy tale about a little girl named chloe who has a great design, I love the big scarf and bigger hat, her Orange Kitten who never grew up, and the surreal wonderland her uncle todd built. It's a cutesy story and not entriely for me, but I admire it's story book sense of wonder, unqiue visual style and it's ending where after being warned to not open a box on a checkered toadstool they get real close.. thend on't, deciding Uncle Todd's trust is more important. There's no big dark twist like you'd think, Uncle Todd didn't make this world using the blood of the fraggles and the bones of the care bears. It's just a cute story about a child and her best friend who happens to be garfield.

written by Jim Davis; illustrated by Jim Clements, Gary Barker, and Larry Fentz

So we're finally here: Primal Self. The only one of these 9 lives people talk about often. Which makes sense I mean... the ending of this one is horrifying, shocking and well done horror. It works well yet still feels horrifically jarring in a Garfield collection which previously had him as Moe or palling around with a child in a fantasy world. I'ts not entirely out of step but I can see how seeing garfield like this

Is going to be a lot. Primal Self is awesome though.. a tense simple horror story about a cat being confronted by the spirit of it's primal instincts, the domesticated meets the horrifying reality of nature.

The results.. are not pretty

That last shot is just chilling.. this poor animal about to kill it's person simply because some horrifying primal.. force awakened something dark and terrible inside it. It's a well done bit of horror. Is it the best fit for this book... probably not. But on it's own merits i'ts excellent and chilling, with a scratchy unfomortable yet raelistic style that fits the horrifying tone.

written by Jim Davis; illustrated by Gary Barker and Valette Hildebrand; color by Doc Davis

I love this: it makes perfect sense that in a book about garfield.. his own current life would pop up and I like that Davis used the format to tell a story that would be possible in the comic strip but take months of panels up.

So we get what's essnetially Garfield: Year One. We see his origins being born in the back of an itallian restraunt hinted at by the arc with his mom, as well as WHY they were seprated: he would've eaten everything otherwise and they share a fairly tender goodbye.

He then ends up in the pet shop where we meet my faviorite one off garfield character old eli

It used to be that lady what attacked Garfield, Jon, Odie and Some Guy when they were all stuck in a curtain

but come on.. how can you not want to take him home and bury him. He's a sweetheart. He's the snoopy's awkward teenage nephew of Garfield Characters and like Snoopy's Awkard Teenage Nephew he'll never be far from my heart

Thankfully Jon walks in to take garifled home, and Garfield clinging to his face gets Jon to accept his new cat overlord. Here they retcon Odie's origin to streamline it instead of being brought in by Jon's best friend Lyman who either was killed by garfield's clearly insastiable blood lust and kept in the basement or went off into the wilderness to take photos of wild life depending on who you ask.

He trains his new brother well, and we get Odie saving garfield from an ice cream truck which makes Garfiled greatful.. but not so greatful he won't spin it for his grandkits a decade later.

Garfield is a charming segment that's got some great jokes, a solid story and a nice bit of worldbuilding. I'll even take the lyman erasure as it's telling only 5 years into the strip he was already being erased from history. I mean it's so easy to do you can just take out that first panel and that that about sums up Odie's origins and Garfield's thoughts on his new pal.

written and illustrated by Jim Clements

Our finale.. is kind of a weak one to go out on. Garfield's in space and deals with a lite vgersion of red dwarf. We get a good gag or two: his defenses are a cat paw.. that's literally declawed, his computer is a computrized odie, and the vending machine dosen't even work. With this one , like Cave Cat in hindsight but more on that next time, the special version doing this but better soured me on it. It's not bad , it's nciely drawn and I really like the ending

But said ending dosen't quite feel like a proper climax for the anthology the way the ending of the film version is. STill it's not horrible or anythign it's just kinda... there.

RANKING

Since a certain someone will ask me to do this if I don't and because it'll be fun, i'll be ranking the stories for each version, then for the final BOOM studio version ranking the stories from all three versions in one big pile.

Primal Self: The short run time, sheer brutality and gorgeous art put it up top.

The Exterminators: it's wacky good fun with a great guest character and garfield with a shotgun.

Lab Animal: Tense and gorgeously drawn. An easy pick.

In the Beginning: A cute way to start the book

Babes and Bullets: A solid detective story, the adaptatoin simply does it better

The Vikings: Didn't think this one would be so high but it's just goofy fun

The Garden: Nothing I hate, just not really for me.

Garfield: I like it a lot it's just the other stuffs a touch more creative

Cave Cat: I'M NOT GOOD WITH PREHISTORIC STUFF OKAY?

Space Cat: A bit of a whimper to end on

So with that we can close the book.. and turn on the tv as next time I look at garfield's OTHER 9 lives, seeing what they replaced, what they changed about the segments they kept, and why this specail is so damn well loved. Spoilers: I'ts because i'ts really good. Thanks for reading.

#garfield his 9 lives #garfield #comics #jim davis #odie #jon arbuckle #halloween #the 80s #babes and bullets

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haggishlyhagging · 1 year ago

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Jul - Dec 2023 Reading List:

Bernard, Jessie. The Future of Marriage. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982.

Budapest, Zsuzsanna Emese. The Holy Book of Women’s Mysteries. San Francisco: Weiser, 2007.

Cady Stanton, Elizabeth, “The Destructive Male.” 1868. http://edchange.org/multicultural/speeches/stanton_destructive_male.html

Chollet, Mona. In Defense of Witches: The Legacy of the Witch Hunts and Why Women are Still on Trial. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2022.

Christ, Carol P. Rebirth of the Goddess: Finding Meaning in Feminist Spirituality. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1997.

Cloninger, Sally J. “A Rhetorical Analysis of Feminist Agitation.” The University of Michigan Papers in Women’s Studies 1, no. 1 (February 1974): 44-50. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/mfs/acp0359.0001.001/46:4

Daly, Mary. Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women’s Liberation. Boston: Beacon Press, 1973.

Dworkin, Andrea. Right-Wing Women. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1983.

Echols, Alice. Daring to Be Bad: Radical Feminism in America: 1967-75. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989.

Eisler, Riane. The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future. New York: HarperCollins, 1987.

Faludi, Susan. Backlash: the Undeclared War Against American Women. New York : Crown Publishers, Inc., 1991.

Frymer-Kensky, Tikva. In the Wake of the Goddesses: Women, Culture, and the Biblical Transformation of Pagan Myth. New York: The Free Press, 1992.

Griffin, Susan. Pornography and Silence: Culture’s Revenge Against Nature. New York: Harper & Row, 1981.

Harding, M. Esther. Woman’s Mysteries: Ancient and Modern. Boston: Shambhala, 1990.

Janega, Eleanor. The Once and Future Sex: Going Medieval on Women’s Roles in Society. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2023.

Johnson, Sonia. From Housewife to Heretic. Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday, 1981.

Jones, Ann. Women Who Kill. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1980.

Jones, Beverly and Judith Brown. “Toward a Female Liberation Movement.” Jul 1968. https://www.redstockings.org/index.php/main/classics-of-1968

Judd, Elizabeth. “Women Before the Conquest: A Study of Women in Anglo-Saxon England.” The University of Michigan Papers in Women’s Studies 1, no. 1 (February 1974): 127–49. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/mfs/acp0359.0001.001/129:8

Koedt, Anne. “The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm.” 1970. https://www.cwluherstory.org/classic-feminist-writings-articles/myth-of-the-vaginal-orgasm#

New York Radical Women, Notes From the First Year (June 1968). https://www.redstockings.org/index.php/main/classics-of-1968

Raworth, Kate. Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st Century Economist. White River Junction: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2017.

Reed, Evelyn. “The Myth of Women’s Inferiority.” The Myth of Women’s Inferiority by Evelyn Reed 1954. Accessed July 9, 2023. https://www.marxists.org/archive/reed-evelyn/1954/myth-inferiority.htm.

Spender, Dale. There’s Always Been a Women’s Movement This Century. London: Pandora Press, 1983.

Starhawk. The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1999.

Women’s Majority Union, Lilith (Dec 1968). https://www.redstockings.org/index.php/main/classics-of-1968

Zeisler, Andi. We Were Feminists Once: From Riot Grrrl to CoverGirl®, the Buying and Selling of a Political Movement. New York: BBS PublicAffairs, 2016.

#personal reading list

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batmannotes · 2 years ago

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MAX FLEISCHER’S SUPERMAN 1941-1943

Warner Bros. Discovery has scrupulously remastered Max Fleischer’s 17 animated Superman shorts from the original 35mm source elements. Now available on Blu-ray, this set is more than worth its asking price. If you've never seen the animated series you're in for a treat. Think of old classic Disney animation meets the Super Friends. The animation is smooth looking and is pure eye candy for the viewer. I've heard many complaints about the DNR scrubbing too much of the film grain away, for me though, the overall presentation here is nothing short of excellent ... even though not perfect.

Warner Bros. took the 16-bit scan of Fleischer’s original 35mm successive exposure negative. Staying true to the original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.37-to-1, the highest quality raw image was then scanned and then entered into the recombine process – utilizing special proprietary software to merge the successive exposure Technicolor negatives into a single RGB color image.

The set comes in with above average sound and extras (listed below).

EPISODES (AND PREMIERE DATE):

Superman (Mad Scientist) – 9/26/1941

The Mechanical Monsters – 11/28/1941

Billion Dollar Limited – 1/9/1942

Arctic Giant – 2/27/1942

The Bulleteers – 3/27/1942

The Magnetic Telescope – 4/24/1942

Electric Earthquake – 5/15/1942

Volcano – 7/10/1942

Terror on the Midway – 8/28/1942

The Japoteurs – 9/18/1942

Showdown – 10/16/1942

The Eleventh Hour – 11/20/1942

Destruction, Inc. – 12/25/1942

The Mummy Strikes – 2/19/1943

Jungle Drums – 3/26/1943

Underground World – 6/18/1943

Secret Agent – 7/30/1943

SPECIAL FEATURES INCLUDE:

New Featurette – Superman: Speeding Toward Tomorrow – Superman’s exploits in the Fleischer series modernized the monomyth of the Greek godlike hero and expanded and romanticized the prevalent themes of sci-fi and fantasy. It was this combination of heartfelt storytelling, relatable heroes and amazing visuals that has endeared the Fleischer series to fans as one of the greatest superhero stories of all time. This featurette explores the visual storytelling as the lavish animation, with special attention paid to all the atomic age technology, pushes science fiction closer to becoming a powerful social and pop culture force.

Featurette – First Flight: The Fleischer Superman Series – The Origins and Influence of This Groundbreaking Cartoon Series – A gathering of contemporary animators, comic book & animation historians, and legendary Fleischer artists examine these beloved shorts, focusing on the animation and the breakthrough techniques that created it, as well as studying the title character’s place in history.

Featurette – The Man, the Myth, Superman: Exploring the Tradition of Superman Heroes on the Page and Screen – A fascinating study of Superman-esque characters throughout history – in ancient myth, literature and film – that bring forth imaginative, super-human qualities, captivating audiences and enduring the test of time.

Order on Amazon. Direct link here.

#batman #superman #review

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wondyvillains · 2 years ago

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Top 10 Wonder Woman Villain Moments of 2022

Trying something a little bit different this year... let's look at the top 10 moments of the year featuring Wonder Woman's Villains!

Medusa's Redemption - Medusa is one of Wonder Woman's deadliest adversaries, so many of us weren't too surprised when she emerged as a major threat on Themyscira in the pages of NUBIA & THE AMAZONS. What did surprise us was Nubia using her mythical spear to purify Medusa of her reptilian curse. Similar to Paula von Gunther in the 1940s, Medusa was ultimately invited to join the Amazons and continues to remain on Themyscira despite her past deeds. Compassion and rehabilitation have always been major themes for the Wonderverse, so it was truly a delight to see Nubia redeem Medusa this year.

The Villainy of Our Fears - One of the first supervillain teams to ever appear in comics is Villainy Inc., a group of Wonder Woman's archenemies who first appeared way back in 1948. While there has been a modern incarnation led by Queen Clea, the team hadn't been used for decades until 2022. Doctor Psycho takes command of the newest incarnation which is comprised of some… questionable members. While many of us would have loved to see the classic 8 members return, it's great to see the Villainy Inc. name live on.

Feral - While Greg Rucka has established quite possibly the best version of Cheetah in her 79 year history, subsequent writers have fallen back into the habit of treating Cheetah pretty poorly. However, the current comics by Becky Cloonan and Michael W. Conrad are showcasing Cheetah as a powerhouse and a reluctant ally for Wonder Woman. While it remains to be seen where her character is going, seeing her interact with Steve, Etta, and Siggy on a regular basis has been very entertaining, to say the least.

Dolos, the Duke of Deception - The Duke of Deception was a major archenemy from the 1940s to the 1960s, but modern Wonder Woman stories have pushed the Duke to the wayside in favor of other villains like Deimos and Phobos. 2022 saw the Duke's return, with a major addition to his mythos: he is now Dolos, a figure from Greek myths and the embodiment of trickery and deceit. Fans have long speculated that the Duke and Dolos were one in the same, but it's great to see it confirmed in the comics.

The Men of Historia - If you haven't read WONDER WOMAN HISTORIA, you don't know what you're missing. The male Olympian Gods are outraged when Athena, Aphrodite, Hestia, Demeter, Artemis, and Hecate create the Amazons. Zeus, Ares, Poseidon, and several others appear as the antagonists in some of the most beautiful pieces of art ever put to page.

Dark Crisis - Several of Wonder Woman's rogues gallery appear throughout this major event. Ares is one of the first recruited into Darkseid's Dark Army, though he is later joined by Cheetah, Giganta, and Angle Man. While none of the Wondyvillains get too much spotlight, it's great to see some representation even if they're all possessed by the Great Darkness.

Giganta vs. Nubia - We're still waiting for a big, iconic Giganta story, but for now, we'll take this fun romp from DC PRIDE 2022 SPECIAL. In this segment of the anthology special, Giganta joins the Babes of Bodyslam, a group of female wrestlers, as part of her parole. This ultimately leads to a clash with Nubia, a breakout Wonder Woman character in her own right.

Trial of the Amazons - The first big major event featuring Wonder Woman since War of the Gods (because Amazons Attack should always be ignored), Trial of the Amazons is a decent story that unfortunately doesn't feature any classic Wonder Woman villains in a major capacity. While Chaos serves as the major antagonist, we do get an Echidna appearance as well as Altuum the Survivor, a new villain introduced for 2022.

Hell Hath No Flurry - Blue Snowman's had quite a year in 2021, but we haven't seen much of them in 2022 beyond this chapter of SENSATIONAL WONDER WOMAN SPECIAL #1. Byrna has been gender-bending since the 1940s, and it's fitting that they'd be the antagonist of a story about a young boy who dresses as Wonder Woman.

Gigantaur - 2022's JURASSIC LEAGUE was… a choice. Fans weren't sure what to expect… but the series ended up being quite a fun ride. Featured in the series is a dinosaur version of Giganta who serves as arch-nemesis of Wonderdon (Wonder Woman as a triceratops). Ares also makes a brief appearance.

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lonesilverw0lf · 5 months ago

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The bullying and attacks haven’t gone anywhere OP. And it’s only been made easier and more widespread since the advent of easy internet. I was a 90s baby, and I’ve been picked on for liking dinosaurs. Dinosaurs! That is nowhere close to regular geek culture of comics and anime. One angle that I haven’t seen mentioned yet in regards to modern bullying is from the top down.

Have you seen the hack activists invading geek culture to make it for their ‘standards’ or lack thereof? The absolute desecration of Star Wars? The disrespect called Rings of Power? Trying to force progressivism into 40K with femstodes? The corruption of many historical myths and legends, or just history overall? And when called out on it, those people cry victim much like normal bullies do?

These new bullies can’t stand the idea that we geeks like something that they don’t and are happy with what we have. They’re jealous of us, because we aren’t as miserable as they are. So they infiltrate a fan space and corrupt it from the inside. They openly insult/belittle/mock/gaslight/manipulate/etc. us real fans when we won’t bend over and eat up whatever crap they’ve dumped out. Kathleen Kennedy(Star Wars), Mindy Kaling(Velma), Jodie Whittaker(female Dr. Who), Lauren Hissrich(Witcher), Andre Nemec(live action Cowboy Bebop), Patrick McKay with JD Payne(Rings of Power), whoever the hell was in charge for things like the Marvels and Madam Web, all these clowns and more knew exactly what they were doing when they created their pieces of corporate trollfiction. There isn’t a single original or artistic thought behind their facade, nor an ounce of integrity to be found.

Game journalists, companies like Sweet Baby Inc, even a lot of so called film critics also try to bully people who don’t fall in line. Look at how much ‘controversy’ happened over Stellar Blade because the lead is a beautiful woman instead of a fugly they/them. Or when the devs at Arrowhead decided they weren’t going to put in any pride capes into their game. How about Black Myth Sun Wukong when the devs refused to pay the $7million extortion.

Everything I’ve listed has only been some of the bullying I’ve witnessed. Yah, no. Bullying geeks hasn’t gone anywhere, it’s just taken a different form.

The funniest part about unlikeable geek men is they really are fully convinced people don’t like them because of their hobbies. They cannot even begin to process the idea that comics and D&D and shit have in fact always been kinda cool and their personslities might just be repulsive. The combined unwavering ego/persecution complex is… unreal.

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xeerak1 · 9 days ago

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Citations

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Malinovskiy, Boris Nikolaevich. "Memoirs of Boris Nikolaevich Malinovskiy." iRemember, www.iremember.ru/memoirs/artilleristi/malinovskiy-boris-nikolaevich/. Accessed 18 Nov. 2024.

"Destroy Fascist Tanks with the Antitank Rifle." Soviet History, Michigan State University, soviethistory.msu.edu/1943-2/battle-of-kursk/battle-of-kursk-texts/destroy-fascist-tanks-with-the-antitank-rifle/. Accessed 18 Nov. 2024.

Glantz, David M. The Soviet-German War 1941-1945: Myths and Realities. U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, 1995, www.armyupress.army.mil/Portals/7/combat-studies-institute/csi-books/glantz2.pdf. Accessed 18 Nov. 2024.

"World War II’s Eastern Front: Operation Barbarossa." Digital Public Library of America, dp.la/primary-source-sets/world-war-ii-s-eastern-front-operation-barbarossa/sources/1697. Accessed 18 Nov. 2024.

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Fine, Egor. "The History of the Soviet Union." LiveJournal, egorfine.livejournal.com/464589.html. Accessed 18 Nov. 2024.

Christopher Newport University. "Primary Sources: Germany - East and West." CNU LibGuides, cnu.libguides.com/psgermany/pseastandwestgermany. Accessed 18 Nov. 2024.

John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. "The Cold War in Berlin." John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/jfk-in-history/the-cold-war-in-berlin. Accessed 18 Nov. 2024.

Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Berlin Wall." Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/topic/Berlin-Wall. Accessed 18 Nov. 2024.

Berlin.de. "Checkpoint Charlie." Berlin.de, www.berlin.de/mauer/en/sites/former-checkpoints/friedrichstrasse-checkpoint-charlie/. Accessed 18 Nov. 2024.

Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Checkpoint Charlie." Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/topic/Checkpoint-Charlie. Accessed 18 Nov. 2024.

Berlin.de. "The Wall in Numbers." Berlin.de, www.berlin.de/mauer/en/history/construction-of-the-berlin-wall/the-wall-in-numbers/. Accessed 18 Nov. 2024.

Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Battle of Berlin." Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/topic/Battle-of-Berlin. Accessed 18 Nov. 2024.

Eyewitness to History. "The Battle for Berlin." Eyewitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/berlin.htm. Accessed 18 Nov. 2024.

History.com Editors. "How Long Was the Berlin Wall?" History.com, A&E Television Networks, 13 Nov. 2019, www.history.com/news/how-long-was-the-berlin-wall. Accessed 18 Nov. 2024.

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helloranker · 3 months ago

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fictionyoubelieve · 1 year ago

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So the overall point is valid: LO indulges in a lot of the tropes common to this fantasy romance genre that can have some problematic implications when examined more closely. As you note, the fantasy of being taken care of (often in the form of a wealthy and powerful suitor who falls for you and spirits you away to a cushier life) is incredibly popular. A lot of the appeal of LO is how well it caters to this fantasy, as well as the eye candy aspect of putting Persephone and her ample bosom into a variety of fashionable outfits.

If it's not your cup of tea, or it's not something you can enjoy unless the narrative also sufficiently addresses the consequences, that's perfectly understandable! But your specific criticisms don't really hold water, and a lot of the examples you provided misrepresent what's actually happening in the comic. I'm going to go through them as briefly as I can (which, as it turns out, is not very).

to be taken care of, in settings which are founded in capitalist societies (everyone groans at my shit), begs the obvious question: where is the money coming from?

I simply don't think this needs to be addressed in any significant depth! It doesn't add anything to the escapist fantasy, and going out of the way to address it would just distract from that. The peers here are, like, Hallmark Christmas movies, "chick lit" romance novels, and certain subsets of fanfic. There's a handsome guy, he makes lots of money as CEO of SmartWebTech Inc., and that's sufficient. You are judging it by the standard of a more expansive fantasy story, where worldbuilding is big part of the draw, and that's just not a reasonable thing to expect from it (from the standpoint of a general critique--of course you're allowed to have personal preferences).

it is the way that it is invoked within this comic specifically that bothers me; it demonstrates a terminal thread of thoughtlessness that threatens to unravel the entire setting, premise and moral ambiguity of what is being presented as a desirable fantasy

You suggest here that the details are handwaved due to thoughtlessness, but there's plenty of evidence that they are instead being deliberately glossed over in order to properly indulge in the fantasy--which makes sense, as that's the shrewd thing to do when you're trying to create a massively popular webtoon like LO. I'll expand on this when we get to your specific examples.

the anti-feminist overtones are their own kettle of fish

It's not the focus of your post, so I won't get into it either, but suffice to say that relative to similar stories in this genre, LO does pretty decently. There are loads of female characters, they have personalities and agency, they are relatable and written with empathy even when they behave badly.

the insertion of modern capitalism into the comic has necessitated the creation of an underclass to serve the gods (the focus of the comic). as a result, the comic has repeatedly needed to justify the abuse, exploitation and acts of dominance over the subjugated class in order for the main cast to remain sympathetic. the author is incapable of envisioning a world that does not operate on disparity, in spite of the immutable fact that the gods are the sole arbiters of seemingly infinite creation.

Pretty sure the Underworld being depicted as more or less the same as the one we live in is a deliberate choice to serve the escapism, rather than lack of imagination on the author's part. You don't read a modern AU of an ancient myth because you're looking for innovative worldbuilding: the point is that it doesn't need to be explained, so the story can focus on other things.

(The juxtaposition of modern trappings with ancient myth is also a source of humor that the creator draws on a lot, e.g. by having Minthe temp as a booth babe.)

As for "justify[ing] the abuse, exploitation and acts of dominance over the subjugated class," I'll get into that with your examples. Again, a lot of the implicit or less direct stuff is glossed over to serve the fantasy, but where it does come into the story, it's certainly not portrayed in a strictly positive light.

Finally, "the gods are the sole arbiters of seemingly infinite creation" is outright wrong. This is the Greek pantheon. These gods are not omnipotent. They are just people with magical superpowers, and they don't even have unchecked use of those because they are constantly fighting with and undermining each other. And in myth, there's a hierarchy of titans, gods, half-gods, nymphs etc., right down to regular humans at the bottom. So representing Olympians as the 1%--just like us in some ways, yet in others worlds apart, operating within their own elite bubble--is completely consistent from a thematic and worldbuilding perspective.

her introduction is about as subtle as a brick: she serves as the evil whore foil to persephone’s virgin perfection

She's the foil and the "wrong girl," but she's not evil. She has her own arc and is portrayed with empathy, even though she's the villain of some scenes. I would agree that it comes off more sex-negative than I'd like; it's not quite villainizing her for being a slut, but with Minthe and a couple other characters, it does kind of suggest that being a (female) slut is fundamentally unfulfilling and manipulative. Not great!

However, there's also nuance. There are a couple other significant story beats that pick apart the veneration of virginity (which would be hard to ignore completely in an adaptation of Greek myth!), and the main couple have explicit conversations about sex that acknowledge promiscuity as neutral rather than negative or positive.

his brother zeus who sexually harasses her during her shift. lol uh. or comes as close as he can without becoming objectively villainous instead of “rakish”.

This feels like a pretty glaring misreading to me! Zeus is, in fact, the villain of some major arcs! He is supposed to come off as an asshole, here and elsewhere, and not sympathetic or charming--partially to contrast with Hades and make him look better in comparison.

if gods can poof and fly (as its been implied some or all of them can), what in the hell is the purpose of the luxury vehicle on olympus?

Because the gods, like humans, are materialistic and enjoy the trappings of luxury. Presumably the car is flashier and/or more comfortable. This is pretty explicit at several points:

(panels from episode 122 on webtoon)

hades and persephone arrive at his own department store so that she can have a restorative shopping montage. she learns a heart-warming lesson about how its okay to be rich

This is mostly the luxury fantasy thing again. It's not really portraying it as a good thing, as the worker class are clearly distressed by it, and often resentful:

(panels from episode 143 on webtoon)

...but it's also done in a very over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek kind of way, leaning into how ridiculous it is. This is the glossing-over I mentioned above. Again, if you feel like the main characters are unlikeable assholes for just kind of accepting this when they ostensibly have power to change it, that would be very reasonable!

the part where persephone gets big and accidentally steps on (real, human, ancient greek) people and has to go on the lam

To be fair, this is a bit easier to forgive in a universe where there is an afterlife, and part of Persephone's story is figuring out how to make it right as best she can.

Another acknowledgement of how it's messed up, as well as explanation for why it "require[d] a tribunal and a trial of her peers":

(panels from episode 146 on webtoon)

And the Hades thing in particular, with harrassing the two women, is very much called out as him behaving unacceptably! (The "you little runt" scene is over-the-top goofy, again kind of handwaving and not meant to be taken that seriously, but the second one is serious.) He lets his anger get the best of him, and can't get what he wants until he calms down and treats the person like an equal rather than someone he can order around. It's supposed to be humbling and character-building.

(panel from episode 123 on webtoon)

...no? I mean, she probably enjoys it, but it's mainly aiming for popular appeal--it's about what the creator thinks the audience wants, rather than just what she wants herself. And it's been quite successful by that metric!

an audience who then lapped it up without questioning what, specifically, was appealing about this and why

Why do you assume that people could only consume this uncritically? I'd assume that most of the readers relate to the comic's working class characters, and are consciously indulging in the escapist fantasy of being part of the upper class for a change. That doesn't mean they're complacent or uncaring.

who fills the pot holes in “lore olympus”?

the thing about criticism is this: you can absolutely think “too hard” about something intended to be light fare and the delicate balancing act of art criticism is about threading various needles to avoid as many retorts as possible accusing you of opening discussions in bad faith. one of the many ways to obliterate trust in your critical audience is to become so derisively nitpicky that your attempts to draw attention to the pre-existing holes in the setting or the structure of the story will look like petty sabotage. i recognize this is the risk im taking when i get set off by the existence of sports luxury vehicles within a fictional universe created entirely to cater to a specific sexual appetite. indeed, there is no type of pedantry more obnoxious than the sexual pedant.

BUT.

the work doesnt exist in a vacuum. if we’re going to be honest about the work’s intent (or, how the work’s intent explicitly reads to the audience), part of the fantasy is to be completely taken care of. i mean, who among us hasn’t dreamed of this, at least briefly. it’s one of the most fundamental of all human desires. but to be taken care of, in settings which are founded in capitalist societies (everyone groans at my shit), begs the obvious question: where is the money coming from?

author’s note so everyone knows im not insane (hahahaha): i’m not here to argue the virtues of communism over capitalism or imply that depicting capitalism favorably in your comic is a moral failing. it is not capitalism itself that i have a problem with (…in artistic depictions), it is the way that it is invoked within this comic specifically that bothers me; it demonstrates a terminal thread of thoughtlessness that threatens to unravel the entire setting, premise and moral ambiguity of what is being presented as a desirable fantasy. this element is the catalyst that sparks the degradation of the taboo into the unconscionable.

look i’ll be up front: my primary motivation is that this comic sucks and im a hater. the anti-feminist overtones are their own kettle of fish but the runner up contender for most concerning (oooueerrrg, everyone is groaning again) element is the complete lack of class consciousness. look, i mean concerning in the sense of “why has none of this gone recognized by, like, anyone?” every time i show someone a real LO panel they react like i’m went out of my way to fuck with them in an ultra specific way. it has completely recreated the feeling of being the only person in my friend group watching riverdale, if riverdale were the crown jewel of the WB.

to strip the pretension from the phrase “class consciousness” and put it in plain text: the insertion of modern capitalism into the comic has necessitated the creation of an underclass to serve the gods (the focus of the comic). as a result, the comic has repeatedly needed to justify the abuse, exploitation and acts of dominance over the subjugated class in order for the main cast to remain sympathetic. the author is incapable of envisioning a world that does not operate on disparity, in spite of the immutable fact that the gods are the sole arbiters of seemingly infinite creation.

and i’m capable of comprehending that there are times when a work has grotesquely unlikable asshole protagonists on purpose. it could be argued that the fickle behaviors of the gods is SUPPOSED to be detestable and there are obviously times where that is the intended audience read. but this is not “succession” and the entirety of the work does not indicate that it is trying to create quiet commentary by inviting the audience to draw their own conclusions on the characters by simply presenting them with the truth of their actions and deeds. additionally, if the romantic hero also engages in that behavior and it’s unremarked on or encouraged by the author or the heroine, what is the intended audience read?

regardless, all this to say: i do not want to alter the content of the comic, but to verbalize how it reads to me as an audience member. the purpose of criticism is to demonstrate and encourage reflection and to help refine one’s own perceptions.

okay. right. the cars.

this is minthe. i could write 100000 more words about the treatment of her by the comic and, by extension, the author. her introduction is about as subtle as a brick: she serves as the evil whore foil to persephone’s virgin perfection. her introduction as hades’ randomly abusive, hyper-sexual, and cruel younger girlfriend is contrasted with persephone’s naivete, chastity, and sweetness. shes literally smoking a cigar and wearing lingerie. somehow she is not the hero.

like i said, there’s a lot to unpack with her but i need to stay on target. minthe is a nymph, one of many “beast races” (for lack of a better term) that populate olympus and fulfill menial tasks and jobs. for example, this guy runs a modeling agency.

a modeling agency that include car shows. or…dealerships. its not really clear. anyway: she is introduced to hades in a flashback through his brother zeus who sexually harasses her during her shift.

lol uh. or comes as close as he can without becoming objectively villainous instead of “rakish”. as a result, what plays out is all VERY schoolyard behavior.

he executes a 0/10 prank that still kills for some reason.

and then it happens. “it” isn’t a singular event limited to just the example im about to give. “it” is the complete undercutting of the dramatic and logical tension within the story and “it” happens with alarming frequency as the comic introduces more and more modern elements. each additional luxury vehicle or department story or cell phone comes with the artist being forced to depict the people (or in this case, beast races) providing those services. the author cannot imagine a world where luxury is not predicted on service or a product, even or especially when the existence of the service or product does not make sense.

back to “it”…hades poofs away:

if gods can poof and fly (as its been implied some or all of them can), what in the hell is the purpose of the luxury vehicle on olympus? the beast races are sure as shit not buying them as they are explicitly the working class in every single one of their appearances. what does it run on? who pumps the gas? who services the cars? the streets of olympus have been paved so that cars can be driven so this would suggest the city’s infrastructure was centered around the use of vehicles. does he hire someone to drive him around in it, despite the fact that he can teleport? he and persephone clearly use it to get around even though she can fly. these cars are so successful despite having an extremely limited number of buyers, they make enough money to hire booth babes all day explicitly so they can be sexually harassed by the men (of a superior magic immortal race) buying the cars.

why does an entire seemingly unnecessary industry exist within the confines of the universe?

all of the above questions are overthinking a basic logistical problem with the setting for anyone with a moral center: in order to be served, one must have servants. the entirety of the universe in LO is constructed around not a modern re-imagining of the ancient myth, but instead a lazy and depressing hodge-podge of various products and physical items the author places great value on as status items in the real world. and, sadly, this is not as a bit within the universe. this isn’t setting up any message other than the central one of the comic: love and worth can be quantified with a dollar amount.

hades’ department store (staffed entirely by beast races who are delighted and eager to serve their master) offers a purse that two beast race women drool over, only to be informed:

this scene has a direct and obvious purpose: through it, we establish that hades’ store caters to the ultra-ultra-rich. this is a level of rich that is unobtainable to anyone except the pantheon of gods, whose unique abilities maintain the fabric of reality and thus set the terms for the world they unilaterally control. at best, minthe, a nymph, experiences a fraction of this wealth when sugaring for hades. on the other hand, persephone is the heiress to a cereal empire (who is eating the….?………you know what dont even get me started on that whole thing) so she is all but assured to be independently wealthy even if she was temporarily without funds during certain events of the comic.

back to the purse: hades and persephone arrive at his own department store so that she can have a restorative shopping montage. she learns a heart-warming lesson about how its okay to be rich in what i think is one of the most gratuitous and absolute dog-brained moments of the entire fucking comic, thus far, including the part where persephone gets big and accidentally steps on (real, human, ancient greek) people and has to go on the lam. her accidental manslaughters evidently require a tribunal and a trial of her peers, which is odd when contrasted with the justice meted out on the beast races indiscriminately and unilaterally by individual gods who act as judge, jury, and executioner.

granted these are not the nice gods (i can think of an event with demeter, persephone’s confusingly controlling mother, specifically, as seen above), but there’s an echo of this behavior when hades bullies two beast race women into divulging information about persephone. in one example, a woman purchases a hair comb from a pawn shop, ignorant that it was a gift from hades and persephone is the one who pawned it for emergency funds. when hades shakes her down and demands where she stole the comb from, she directs him to the pawn shop and he just…takes it. to give it to persephone again. whether or not she was made whole or is even okay with this is completely inconsequential to the author but left me, the reader, in a total lurch. the complete disregard for addressing this within the narrative is less shocking when taken into total account with everything else ive been talking about.

the sequence in which hades takes her on a shopping spree to both improve her mood and express his love was too grotesque for me on every conceivable level. it is not just the shockingly antiquated “women b shoppin!” stereotype presented as a healing process, but the open and shameless conflation of money and love, net worth and self-worth. what possible message could come from this except to reinforce that within the fictional universe of LO, it is the place of the lesser to fawn over what persephone is ultimately entitled to. it is her birthright as the protagonist/self insert and as a literal goddess who determines the creation of food…and nymphs. the underclass. the gods are responsible for the creation of their servants.

the industries exist because they are 1:1 representations of or conductive to what the author considers to be a desirable luxurious fantasy. i do not think there is a more complex reason than that, as that is the reason why the entire comic exists: as a personal love letter to the author’s tastes and desires. and frankly, that’s the point of comics. ALL comic artists should succumb to this desire. what continues to vex and haunt me however is the complete lack of reflection occurring despite the author putting these elements together and presenting them for an audience who then lapped it up without questioning what, specifically, was appealing about this and why. it is by sheer accident that these elements combine together to paint an unflattering picture of a culture that has created artificial disparity for no apparent reason than personal gratification.

my question, is this:

who fills the pot holes on the roads built exclusively so that the gods can drive their luxury cars? why do they do it? to get hades some pussy????

#extremely long don't bother #open in new tab if you must

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madstars-festival · 3 months ago

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Announcing the Lineup for the MAD STARS 2024 #Inspire&Innovation Main Conference💕

[#Inspire&Innovation, creativity and innovation delivered by global marketing experts]

Not long remains until the MAD STARS 2024.

MAD STARS 2024 is just around the corner.

MAD STARS 2024 will take place over three days from 21 August and feature a conference held in partnership with renowned global marketing experts.

Here are the seven main conference speakers on the #Inspire&Innovation topic!

<6 rules for building future-ready brands>

Wayne Deakin

Global Principal & Creative / Wolff Olins

In the modern era where technology is rapidly evolving and impossible to predict, Consumers seek social connection through a variety of digital technologies.

As illustrated by the concept of the Metaverse, people are becoming more accustomed to reinterpreting traditional physical boundaries and forming new identities in the digital world.

Wayne Deakin, Global Principal & Creative at the brand consulting firm Wolff Olins, seeks to propose a direction for the future amid this rapidly evolving reality.

“The industry is still working off a lot of outdated myths, formulas and playbooks, and this is holding \brands back in today’s ‘digital first’ world,” he says.

“We need to break with convention and adopt an approach that appears more ‘open and modern’ to consumers.”

Discover Wayne Deakin’s six principles

For creating brands of the future at this conference!

<Don’t Bring the Donuts and Other Tips on how to Rise the Ranks as a Woman in Advertising>

Jordan Doucette

Chief Creative Officer / Dentsu Creative Canada

As CCO and President of global advertising agency Dentsu Creative Canada, Jordan Doucette is an advertising industry leader who uses creative thinking as the basis for guiding business.

She is also renowned for pursuing the entrepreneurial spirit among women in the industry, having taken part in the Google Women Will conference.

At this conference, Doucette will offer useful tips on everything from ways to look after yourself to leadership, empathy and the importance of mentoring and its role.

Doucette’s experience as a successful female entrepreneur in the advertising industry will serve as an inspiration for everyone, including women, so we hope to see you there!

Mariko Fukuoka

Creative Director / DENTSU INC.

When it comes to moving consumers, it’s often more about instinct and emotion than problem-solving.

This is why marketing that touches the emotions is so powerful.

Mariko Fukuoka, Creative Director at DENTSU INC, has carried out several successful campaigns that tugged at the heartstrings of consumers. This year she unveiled another campaign that has drawn global attention – My Japan Railway.

This campaign delved into the heart of Japanese stamp collecting culture By enabling people to reinterpret the unique features of train stations, produce stamps and collect them through a digital app.

My Japan Railway has won awards at famous global advertising festivals and been lauded as the perfect campaign for celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Japan Railway Group.

Are you not curious about Fukuoka’s branding method that appeals to the heart?

Adlin Rosli

Our LEGO Agency, Creative Manager

Adlin Rosli, Creative Manager at Our LEGO Agency, Is searching for ways to engage in sincere communication with fans of the brand.

One of his most noteworthy campaigns is LEGO White Noise.

Based on the idea that Lego is not just a children’s toy but also a product that can help to set the minds of adult fans at ease, the agency produced the sound of Lego bricks as an audio track.

The campaign was a wild success, being streamed 700,000 times and reaching 8.5 million impressions on social media in its first month.

By taking an approach that understood the hearts of adult fans suffering from stress, this campaign breathed new life into the ‘Adults Welcome’ brand proposal.

Care to join us to gain insight into the fandom marketing and brand marketing expertise that Rosli has to share?

The conference will also feature the production secrets behind some of last year’s MAD STARS Grand Prix of the Year winners!

Carl Franklin Urgino

Head of Art / Leo Burnett Manila

Up to 43 million, or 95.8% of internet users in the Philippines enjoy playing video games. Promoting brands through them has the potential to produce amazing results.

Carl Urgino is the Art Director at global advertising agency Leo Burnett Manila.

To plan a McDelivery marketing campaign that would earn a favorable reception from gamers.

He started by analyzing the world of gamers.

As a result, Urgino learned that 1. A lot of the food found in games is similar to that of McDonald’s and 2. Gamers enjoy sharing their games on social media.

Leo Burnett Manila found a revolutionary way to communicate with gamers through the Unbranded Menu campaign in which gamers searched for and shared food items that resembled McDonald’s products and then had their findings turned into real McDonald’s items.

The agency leveraged the symbolism of McDonald’s food to the maximum While avoiding direct ads that interfere with gameplay.

This campaign had a 35% impact on McDelivery sales.

At the conference, Urgino will reveal how he ‘hacked’ the world of gaming to promote McDelivery.

Masatoshi Usami

Senior Creative Director / TBWA⧵HAKUHODO

TBWA⧵HAKUHODO is an advertising firm that views encouraging people to solve the numerous complex problems facing society as an offshoot of innovative marketing.

TBWA⧵HAKUHODO is an advertising firm that views encouraging society to solve the numerous complex facing problems as an offshoot of innovative marketing.

Their innovation has manifested through several projects.

One of them is TBWA⧵HAKUHODO’s ‘SHELLMET.’

With a view to disposing of the clam shell waste resulting from Japanese scallop consumption, TBWA⧵HAKUHODO devised a project that turned the shells into helmets.

This solved an environmental problem in a unique way and served as an example of an eco-friendly solution.

The ‘SHELLMET’ campaign that turned discarded clam shells into a sustainable resource

received high praise from Artwell Nwaila, Google’s Head of Creative Sub-Saharan Africa and one of last year’s judge, who called it “a great example of putting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into action through a practical idea.”

Join us to be part of TBWA⧵HAKUHODO’s efforts to solve complex problems in modern society!

Fernando Machado

Garnett Station Partners, Operating Partner

Marketing industry legend Fernando Machado is a global marketer who nurtures brands and drives business growth.

He presents an important principle of marketing that never changes even under a multitude of pressures.

When asked in an interview about the current strongest tool in marketing, Machado stressed ideas as the most important marketing fundamental.

“I think that always searching for surprising and cool ideas is the most important thing. Everything else is secondary. People sometimes ask me about how to handle things such as media diversification, AI, VR or AR. Of course these things are important, but we start from the idea, and that idea drives everything else”

Don’t miss out on hearing Machado’s thoughts about combining AI and human abilities and his expertise in how to make this happen!

We’ve now covered the key points of the main conference, which promises to offer inspiration and innovation.

With famous marketing experts from around the world set to share revolutionary case studies and creative ideas, we hope to see you at the upcoming MAD STARS 2024 conference.

Explore the 2024 speakers https://bit.ly/3VvHKjZ

#madstars2024 #awards #digital #creative #conference #Speakers #Festival

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