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MoKat

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Posts posted by MoKat

    Super Sonic Sisters

    in AoStH Corner

    Posted

    On 6/8/2023 at 10:42 PM, Mike Arcade said:

    It was to be titled Super Sonic Sisters, and OHH BOY it is trippy as all get out.

    Featuring the high school girl duo and reporter twin sisters (the cousins of The Blue Blur), Monica and Isabelle, who live on a meteor in space to expose anything Robotnik does while trying to take over the Universe-

    This show sounds completely insane. o_o

    Perhaps it was a good thing that show never made it into production.🤨 Sounds like they came up with the premise by tossing The Odd Couple and Galaxy High into a blender with a dash of hedgehog :D

    • Haha 1

    Capes n' Comics: Comic Books Discussion

    in Media Miscellania

    Posted

    I liked his restaurant analogy there ^.^

    3 hours ago, Mike Arcade said:

    Marvel for some reason designed their main canon universe as 616. I don’t know why either.

    I used to know why :P

    Let's see what I can dig up...

    How the Marvel Universe became "Earth-616" and grew into an entire Multiverse [GamesRadar]

    Quote

    The roots of Marvel's Multiverse go back to the earliest days of Marvel Comics itself, in the '60s. Though it wouldn't be formally named till later, the core Marvel Universe's first brush with another reality happened all the way back in 1962's Strange Tales #103, in which Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four is transported to an alt-universe called the Fifth Dimension, later designated Earth-1612 of the Multiverse.

    After that, 1963's Fantastic Four #10 sent Doctor Doom to the microscopic realm of Sub-Atomica. And that same year in Fantastic Four #19, the team found themselves sent back through time to face Rama-Tut, a time-traveling villain later revealed as one of the many identities of Kang the Conqueror, progressing the idea even further by showing the so-called 'Other-Earth' where Kang resides. Again, 'Other-Earth' was later incorporated fully into the Multiverse under the numeric designation Earth-6311.

    Then, 1964's Strange Tales #126 ramped the concept of Marvel's alt-realities up again by sending Doctor Strange into the Dark Dimension, home of his arch-foe the dread Dormammu - an alternate world full of non-euclidean geometry, and incomprehensible cyclopean architecture rendered to psychedelic perfection by artist Steve Ditko. 

    From there, Reed Richards led the Fantastic Four to pioneer Multiverse travel again in 1968's Fantastic Four Annual #6, in which he built the first machine designed to travel between realities, taking his family into the Negative Zone, an antimatter universe full of deadly horrors. 

    Quote

    The numbering of the Marvel Multiverse has a separate, somewhat mysterious origin all its own, which starts in what may as well have been another reality for Marvel Comics at the time - the UK.

    In the '60s, '70s, and into the '80s, most Marvel Comics were not directly imported to the UK and other overseas markets on a one-to-one basis. Instead, overseas publishers would license Marvel's stories for republication, sometimes localizing, re-editing, or collecting the stories in different ways than US fans got them. Over time, Marvel UK became something of its own separate side-branch of the Marvel Universe, with its own unique characters and titles that were tied to their US equivalents, but who very rarely crossed over in their early years.

    Numerous British and UK-based creators who went on to become top names in the mainstream industry got their start working with US publishers through Marvel UK before branching out across the pond - including none other than Alan Moore, co-creator of Watchmen, known for his knack for breaking down, rebuilding, and redefining superhero concepts through a more nuanced lens.

    In fact, it was partially Moore who named the Marvel Universe 'Earth-616,' in 1983's Daredevils #7 (a Marvel UK anthology title that had no relation to the singular blind hero Daredevil) in a story featuring Captain Britain, who had been established as just one of multiple heroes guarding their home realities across the Multiverse as part of the Captain Britain Corps.

    However, there's a bit of mystery and controversy around how the Earth-616 designation first made it into Captain Britain, and why that particular number was chosen. Alan Davis, the story's artist, claims it was David Thorpe, Moore's predecessor as Captain Britain writer, who first coined the term, though Moore maintains he came up with it himself.

    According to Moore, the number 616 was chosen at random to avoid using the terms 'Earth-One' or 'Earth-Two,' as used by DC. However, there are alternative ideas about how the worlds of Marvel's Multiverse get their numbers. A common belief is that the number 616 was chosen to honor the year and month of Fantastic Four #1's 1961 debut, which launched the Marvel Universe - and indeed some of Marvel's numbered worlds get their designations from this formula. 

    ScreenRant say pretty much the same thing - Why Marvel's Universe is Called '616' in The Comics

    Quote

    The question of when and how Marvel's 'prime' reality earned the designation '616' is easy to answer, even if the motivations behind it have been the subject off disagreement. The term first appeared in the pages of The Daredevils #7 (1983), a UK comic series featuring multiple heroes, led by Marvel's own UK superhero Captain Britain. To keep a long story short, the Captain (Brian Braddock) gets caught up in an interdimensional court case over the destruction of a reality. Braddock soon finds he is just one of an endless number of parallel reality variations making up a larger Captain Britain Corps. To distinguish Brian from the others, he is referred to as "Captain Britain of Earth 616."

    The short story titled "Rough Justice" is credited to writer Alan Moore and artist Alan Davis, so it should be easy to find out who had the idea of assigning a number to Marvel's original reality. When Davis was credited for the assigning of the number, he claimed it was the work of prior Captain Britain writer Dave Thorpe. The number? Davis said it reflected Thorpe's cynical views on superhero stories, giving their universe a variation of The Mark of The Beast ('666'). However, since Thorpe is on the record as a fan of superhero comics, Alan Moore seems a simple candidate. The best explanation tied to the mind behind Watchmen and The Killing Joke is that the number is a random one--but intended to subvert the DC books at the time, which suggested their original universe was 'Earth-One' as opposed to a truly random example.

    Funny that you said "unlike DC"; it seems to be a subversion of DC's Earth-One.

    • Like 1

    IDW Sonic Comic: Reveal, Pre-Release, & General News

    in IDW Sonic

    Posted

    6 hours ago, Mike Arcade said:

    while these reports for IDW aren’t new, them losing the license for The Transformers is certainly a big blow that’s concerning to say the least.

    Agreed; that was one of their biggest properties.

    Transformers and GI Joe comics have left IDW [GamesRadar]

    Quote

    IDW Publishing's long-standing license to publish comic books based on the Hasbro toy line franchises G.I. Joe and Transformers seems to have ended, with longtime IDW editor David Mariotte tweeting a farewell to the Transformers franchise on his personal Twitter account on the occasion of the publication of the last IDW Transformers issue. 

    Quote

    IDW published Transformers comics starting in 2005, and G.I. Joe comics starting in 2008. The original announcement of the change came through The Hollywood Reporter, who reported in December 2021 that Robert Kirkman's Skybound imprint of Image Comics was in talks to pick up the license.

    "At the end of 2022, IDW will bid a fond farewell to the publication of G.I. Joe and Transformers comic books and graphic novels. We’re exceedingly proud of our stewardship of these titles — 17 years with the Robots in Disguise and 14 years with A Real American Hero — and thank the legion of fans for their unwavering support, month in and month out," read a statement from IDW provided to THR at the time of the initial announcement. "We're also eternally grateful to every one of the talented creators who helped bring these characters to four-color life through our comics."

    IDW published one final major G.I. Joe story for 2022 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the release of the revamped GI Joe: A Real American Hero toy line, which revised the original GI Joe soldier toy into the concept of a fighting force made up of unique and distinct characters, with equally colorful enemies to match.

    They still have the "Saturday Morning Adventures" series, but that explains why G.I. Joe is no longer part of it. I see that they added TMNT to SMA recently.

    I also noticed that Hasbro was rather tight-lipped about who might pick up the comic licenses for Transformers & G.I. Joe :

    Hasbro Speaks About The Future Of Transformers And G.I. Joe Comic Book License

    Has anybody heard anything new? Everything I dug up earlier is from last year.

     

    Lawsuits Against Movies

    in Movies

    Posted

    This is over deception about their streaming service, but Disney is still a "movie company" ;)

    Disney Hit With Investor Suit Over Alleged “Cost-Shifting Scheme” In Streaming Division [Hollywood Reporter]

    Quote

    Disney’s lofty subscriber growth and profitability targets for its streaming service have drawn a lawsuit from investors who claim that the entertainment giant misled them about the extent of its losses.

    A suit filed on May 12 in California federal court accuses Disney of engaging in a fraudulent scheme designed to hide Disney+ costs and make forecasts that it would be profitable by 2024 believable. It takes aim at ousted CEO Bob Chapek’s alleged “cost-shifting scheme” to first air certain shows meant to be Disney+ originals on legacy TV networks to conceal the platform “suffering decelerating subscriber growth, losses, and cost overruns,” the suit says.

    The suit details Disney’s pivot to prioritizing streaming amid the pandemic. While most of the company’s businesses suffered as its theme parks, resorts and cruise lines were shuttered and movie theaters were forced to close, subscriptions to Disney+ rapidly took off. Against this backdrop, Chapek decided to “go all in” on the platform, announcing a major reorganization of the company’s media and entertainment operations. Under the new reorg, distribution and commercialization activities were centralized into the Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution (DMED) arm, which essentially became responsible for the monetization of all content globally. Investors say that the reorganization represented a “dramatic departure from Disney’s historical reporting structure and was hugely controversial within the Company because it took power away from creative content-focused executives and centralized it in a new reporting group” led by Chapek lieutenant Kareem Daniel, who alongside his mentor, “exerted near complete control over the company’s strategic decisions around content,” according to the complaint.

    From December 2020 to November 2022, Chapek and Daniel repeatedly misled investors about the success of Disney+ by concealing the true costs of the platform and the difficulty of maintaining robust subscriber growth in addition to claiming that it was on track to achieve profitability with 230 to 260 million paid global subscribers by the end of 2024, the suit claims. This includes an allegedly fraudulent plan to debut certain shows that were supposed to be Disney+ originals, including The Mysterious Benedict Society and Doogie Kameāloha, M.D., on its TV networks, like the Disney channel.

    “By doing so, a significant portion of the marketing and production costs of the shows were shifted away from Disney+ and on to the legacy platform,” reads the complaint.

    👏*applauds the investors & their lawsuit*

    Disney needs to be called out more on their shenanigans 🧐

    IDW Sonic Comic: Reveal, Pre-Release, & General News

    in IDW Sonic

    Posted

    Well, this doesn't bode well for IDW...

    IDW to Slash Workforce by 39%, Delist from NYSE [Publishers Weekly]

    Quote
     
    Apr 28, 2023
     
     

     

    IDW Media will lay off 39% of its staff and delist from the New York Stock Exchange in what the company called "cost-cutting measures" taken in "response to operational challenges."

     

    Among the staff affected by layoffs are the entire marketing and PR departments and half of the editorial department, including publisher Nachie Marsham, who has served in the role since September 2020. In all, 28 employees are being let go and IDW has budgeted $900,000 to cover severance costs.

    IDW has also announced several changes to senior management in light of the staff reduction and NYSE delisting. CEO Allan Grafman will be replaced by Davidi Jonas, who most recently served as IDW's chief strategy officer, and is the son of IDW chairman Howard Jonas. Grafman had served as CEO since August 2022. Additionally, CFO Brooke Feinstein has been let go, and Amber Huerta, previously senior v-p of people and organizational development, has been promoted to COO.

    IDW operates in two groups—its publishing division, which publishes comic books and graphic novels and includes the Top Shelf imprint, and its entertainment division, which produces and distributes multimedia content based on the publishing group’s original book content. In the fiscal year ended October 31, 2022, the company posted sales of $36.1million, an 11% increase over fiscal 2021, and its net loss shrunk to $700,000, from $5.4 million in fiscal 2021. The publishing division generates the majority of the company's revenue, with sales of $25.8 million in fiscal 2022 compared to $10.3 million for the entertainment group.

    CBR reporting:

    IDW Hit With Layoffs, Removes Itself From the New York Stock Exchange [Comic Book Resources]

    Quote

    IDW Publishing, one of the largest direct market comic book companies in the United States, is undergoing some major cost-cutting, eliminating over a third of its workforce, while also de-listing its publicly traded stock from the stock exchange.

    The company is also making changes at the leadership roles of the company, with its current CEO, Allan Grafman, being replaced by David Jonas (son of the IDW's principal owner, Howard Jonas). The company's CFO, Brooke Feinstein, is out, while Amber Huerta is IDW's new COO. The company's Publisher, Nachie Marsham, is also out, while IDW publishing editorial has been cut in half and the marketing and PR department is essentially gone.

    Quote

    IDW Publishing's comic book revenues took a loss in the first quarter of 2023, after turning a profit in the final quarter of 2022 (its book store sales have increased while its direct market sales have taken a big hit). The biggest change at the company, though, was that Locke and Key went off the air at Netflix. As a result, IDW Entertainment went from bringing in over $4 million from comic book adaptations in 2022 to essentially nothing at the moment. IDW Entertainment continues to try to adapt more of its comic book properties into television and film projects, but is clearly struggling with that approach at the moment.

     

    TV-based/Episodic Anime

    in Television

    Posted

    I just saw this...

    Meowth’s voice actor is retiring from the Pokémon anime due to cancer [Polygon]

    Quote

    James Carter Cathcart, the English-language voice actor for James and Meowth and others in the Pokémon anime series, is retiring from his roles after 25 years due to cancer. His work on the show will conclude at the end of season 25 of the show, called Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series, his wife Martha Jacobi said on Monday.

    Cathcart was first diagnosed with cancer in late January. Per his wife’s description, the cancer started at the base of his tongue and later spread to both sides of his tongue and lymph glands in his neck. On April 17, Jacobi said on CaringBridge that his tumors did not respond to the chemotherapy as anticipated and that more aggressive treatment was needed. Additionally, he would be ending his work on the show.

    “Jimmy has decided to retire from script adapting and voice dubbing for Pokémon USA, effective at the conclusion of Season 25. He has been with the series since the 1st episode, so it is a timely decision as the series transitions to new characters and story lines,” Jacobi said on CaringBridge.

    Cathcart’s voice is a familiar comfort to many who grew up watching the Pokémon series. He has played the recurring roles of two members of Team Rocket, the flamboyant James and the special-speaking Meowth since the series started in addition to characters like Professor Oak and other Pokémon. Although he played the role of two of the series' “bad guys,” both James and Meowth are fixtures of the franchise and have grown into beloved characters as fans watched their antics over the years.

     

    • Sad 2

    Brawlers & Fighters: The Knockout Genre

    in Video Gaming Discussions

    Posted

    I was curious enough to see how a Street Fighter RPG would work, so I installed it & played through the first part. I'm enjoying it so far, but we'll see how long it keeps my attention ;)

    I selected Ken as my starter and drew Cammy, Dan, Abel, & Sakura. I still have Poison (freebie u get in chapter 1) in my line-up because of her AoE damage and combo potential. Auto-battle is a nice feature and is competent enough to win battles while I figure out the nuances of the combo system.

    I just discovered that Mech Zangeif is a thing, btw 😅

     

    • Like 1

    Five Nights at Threaddy's

    in Video Gaming Discussions

    Posted

    Sheeprampage reports on some new shenanigans & speculates on what they mean.

    HUGE RUIN Update Reveals THIS... (Five Nights At Freddy's: Security Breach News)

    Is it an April Fool's prank or will something actually happen on the 13th?

    {Edit: One commenter clarifies in this post...}

    Quote

    Just to clear it up for people: The April 6th and April 13th dates for the Security Breach tv site are legit, those were discovered well before April 1st. However, I believe that the 20 minute cartoon listing was discovered on April 1st, so that might not be true.

    Also

    Quote

    April 6th is when the camera was actually supposed to be shown, the first episode is on April 13th, the second date

     

    Brawlers & Fighters: The Knockout Genre

    in Video Gaming Discussions

    Posted

    Street Fighter II Pocky Edition! The **NEW** SF2 Game With a Special Challenge!! GTV 144 Season 8 EP1

    Quote

    Partial transcript

    Beginning on November 29th, 2022, Japanese snack maker, Glico teamed up with Capcom to release Street Fighter II Pocky K.O. Edition! A special limited edition of the stuff went on sale with special Street Fighter II packaging, featuring Ryu and Chun-Li on the box! As an aside the Chun-Li boxes feature the “thin” version of Pocky, because, a right and proper woman has to watch her figure!

    Street Fighter II Pocky K.O. Edition was created to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the entire Street Fighter series and takes its inspiration from the limited time “Pocky Challenge” from 2019 found in Street Fighter V. Wait V? What happened to Street Fighter IV? Or III? I only remember re-re-re-re-releases of Street Fighter II over and over again!

    The Back of the box tells you all you need to know. Scan the QR code or just type in pocky-ko-game.glico.com and you’ll go right the game! You will need a secret password to gain access, which is featured on the inside of the box.

    You should probably go track down a box of Street Fighter II Pocky for yourself to get the code. Because after all, you want to support Capcom, and not just get a free ride, right?

    I’ll share the password, but just keep it between us, OK?

    The challenge will end in June, btw.

    • Like 1

    New Games/Video Gaming News

    in Video Gaming Discussions

    Posted

    I didn't want this to get buried by the other cybersecurity news that hit recently, so I'm putting it here; since it's about Riot Games, this topic is a better fit anyway.

    Riot Games hacked, delays game patches after security breach [Bleeping Computer]

    Quote

    Riot Games, the video game developer and publisher behind League of Legends and Valorant, says it will delay game patches after its development environment was compromised last week.

    The LA-based game publisher disclosed the incident in a Twitter thread on Friday night and promised to keep customers up-to-date with whatever an ongoing investigation discovers.

    "Earlier this week, systems in our development environment were compromised via a social engineering attack," the company said.

    "We don't have all the answers right now, but we wanted to communicate early and let you know there is no indication that player data or personal information was obtained."

    Riot Games also added that the breach directly impacted its ability to publish patches for its games.

    "Unfortunately, this has temporarily affected our ability to release content. While our teams are working hard on a fix, we expect this to impact our upcoming patch cadence across multiple games," Riot Games said.

     

    Capes n' Comics: Comic Books Discussion

    in Media Miscellania

    Posted

    10 minutes ago, Mike Arcade said:

    Funny thing is, they DID do that! It was called Spider-Girl and featured just that, Peter's daughter as the new spider themed hero. Much like Spider-Man 2099, that ended up spawning a whole line of titles under the MC2 banner.

    That's right; thanks for reminding me! The MC2 banner didn't last long though. 🙃 I enjoyed J2, in which Cain Marko's son was the Juggernaut. Wild Thing had some goos issues, but overall it didn't really appeal much to me.

    12 minutes ago, Mike Arcade said:

    They've banked so hard on marketing a Multiverse they tend to forget how to write an actual consistent world.

    Exactly.

    • Like 1

    Things about Saturday Morning Cartoons you remember

    in Television

    Posted

    I remember watching this when it was on TV...

    ‘Excuuuuse me, Princess!’: An oral history of The Legend of Zelda cartoon [Polygon]

    Quote

    The world knows The Legend of Zelda’s Link as the brave hero of Hyrule — a young warrior of few words. Link is a master with his bow and an excellent swordsman. But back in 1989, when The Legend of Zelda cartoon first aired, all Link wanted was a smooch. A kiss from Zelda, to be exact — but he’s not exactly picky, and unlike the laconic hero of the games, he would not shut up about it. The hero of Hyrule is still tasked with defending the Triforce of Wisdom from Ganon’s grasp on the TV show, but that’s secondary to his insistence on a little kiss. The show’s bizarre portrayal of Link — especially his constant begging of “Excuse me, Princess!” — has made The Legend of Zelda cartoon a hilarious head-scratcher to this day.

    Back in 1989, The Legend of Zelda aired in 15-minute episodes every Friday during The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, a mix of live-action and animated segments based on Nintendo games. Once a week, The Legend of Zelda replaced the Super Mario Bros. show, which featured animated segments of Mario and Luigi but, more memorably, the wacky, iconic live-action performances of WWF wrestler Lou Albano as Mario and The Jeffersons’ Danny Wells as Luigi, who welcomed fans of the show with the catchphrase, “Hey there, paisanos.”

     

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