April Highlights

Very Productive Month

These past 30 days have been nothing if not eventful. Some days I got really lucky.

I’ze say, wif howz much blue youz wear. And it’z juzz b’in some few pain boyz grot.

So yeah, I’m now employed. Gonna have to wait before I’m gained. But at least now I don’t have to worry about money too much.

Extra Attention on Other Apps

I’ve been revisiting other apps that I’ve put off for a while. Jump Plus and Webtoon. I’ve been having a good time getting back into stories and series that I enjoy. Even went back and finished a few of them. But also found there are things that just aren’t gonna click with me.

Kagurabachi for example has great art and a bunch of quirky characters that make the stoic lead stand out. But sometimes it gets hard to get that sense of emotional weight or momentum. Compared to the more recent War of the Adults that pushed into making this post (with help from #Killstagram):

This one got a bit personal as I was writing the drafts about my own experiences with social anxiety. But now that I’m getting more exposure than limiting myself to GlobalComix, I can feel myself expressing more thoughts than I had before.

Or maybe that was exposure to things like patterns people like to get into like this:

Not that GlobalComix hasn’t broadened my horizons because stuff featured on there brought this on:

No, GlobalComix isn’t doing crypto! It’s just featuring series that debuted through that. Is that kneejerk reaction what made more subscribers want to open this?

Because I feel that’s why stuff like this post made interest:

Yet it’s my more consistent review posts that get the most views. This one got the most out of them all:

If there’s a reason, it’s because there’s a lot enthusiasm with Mad Cave. Despite Nakama Press’ still going through its baby steps. Or maybe it’s cuz I covered a request from something real but packs a punch without making it a docudrama.

Beyond The Page Preview:

Still under construction, but I’ve been writing something that will either be a guidebook or a thesis:

The United States, United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Italy, Japan, and South Korea all have major influence in comic books. What do they all have in common? Honestly, that’s hard to say.

…

Besides, Belgium couldn’t be any more different compared to the other countries.

…

If I had to guess, comics seem to be tied to visual communication for the most amount of people on a budget. Most of these are tied to the printing press, magazines, the internet, social media, apps, and more. This means that accessibility is a huge factor; more importantly, artistic quality and thematic diversity influences their presence across media as exports.

Wire Fence Followup Status:

Still working on the next draft. Now that I got a job, I just need to wait for my laymen of an editor. Cause like I said earlier, accessibility means making sure everybody can understand.

I just worry about where I’m gonna get the money to put it to pictures. But one problem at a time.

Finishing What I’ve Got

Part of that also means slowing down and try to appreciate what I already have. It’s just that video games are taking up more of that time.

And youz spent most of dat gettin’ krumped by Boss Grimskull’s boyz! Cuz you knowz deyz is tuffer than doze

Yeah Warhammer: Space Marine 1 was definitely a reminder that I still go for action games when there’s a more linear focus. In more open worlds, exploration keeps my interest. Not the respawn fights to get there though, that gets old when I need to get somewhere.

Cuz youze can’t get sum good wheelz, or jump high into the sky and fall wif style. Unlike dat rounded ‘umie who can fall like dey’s can fly. Or pick up gits and tozz ‘em around like da grotz dey is. Whyz ya try not to do dat wif da ‘umies who don’ fight? Walkin’ around all borin’ like? Dat should be somefin excitin’ for ‘em.

Thankfully, the style and characterizations of Gravity Rush 2 reminds me that for all of the scenes of sensory overload. And to answer the Ork, I know it’s dumb to try to move parallel to the rhythm of NPCs, they’re basically benign bacteria. But nothing feels right when I interrupt someone’s day when I try to cut them off. Even if they’re imaginary. I don’t think I’m ever going to enjoy those bystander parts of GTA or its clones.

Knowin’ youze iz stoopid, doesn’t make yaz lezz stoopid! And zog help me, if youze ain’t tuff enuff to do da t’ings dat make deze open…world…act…in…Big Space Krump Tripz lezz boring, ize’ll fill your shak wif so much vroom juice, youze’ll go to your moon!

So anyway, the game on my radar right now is Paper Lily Chapter 1. After playing the prologue, I was really excited to get to know this game. Couldn’t be anymore satisfied. The lead character is a character who I empathize with a lot. Just the opening scene felt very relatable if exaggerated to what I tried to do in my life by getting out and trying to socialize. Only to find places that I can’t get into the rhythm of.

The gameplay is nothing to sneeze at either. There’s a lot of stuff like remembering to do things in certain orders and paying close enough attention. If Soulsbournes can be properly thought of as Methodical Action games, this is a Methodical Adventure game. Where despite the atmosphere that will scare your pants off, the gameplay is fair. You just gotta pay attention and follow safeties until you’re down to your only options to move forward.

Would like to play Doom Eternal after this though. Never finished the original XBox game and now I can play it on Steam. Something to enjoy before Dark Ages.

Finally, sum real proper ‘n speedy krumpin’!

As for comics, I did finally finish reading Edlund’s original The tick stories. That’s what helped make another post. Now I’m on Paul the Samurai and I’m a little concerned there. This is a rawer Edlund that hasn’t found a way to keep pace at times.

Den toss it and go to da next one ya git! Oh I’m sorry, youze ‘r alred’y haff-footin’ it wif stuff on timerz. Itz like youze iz carryin’ deadweit! No wonder you alwayz slow yerself down!

Loyalty Woes

With FCBD this weekend, I can double my trip to pickup the Bad Idea I preordered…

(Sigh)…Really wish I didn’t have to drive an hour-and-a-half to that store. But any store that was part of FCBD last year anywhere closer to where I live isn’t part of the program anymore.

Da zog doez dat meen?

Closed down probably.

I wish I could just mail order stuff through the website, but I can’t do that with Bad Idea because of some mental gymnastic hurdles.

U wat?

Look the whole is like dada. The more I try to explain the logic, the dumber it’s going to sound.

Youz iz a stoopid ‘umie…alred’y knew dat.

What ChatGPT Helped Search For

One thing I spent a lot of my free time on is developing ideas through ChatGPT. Like grounding some brain gel I came up with to protect some character’s heads from concussions without making it hand-wavy.

Then there’s how characters with the real out-there superpowers would not look anything like human and would need avatars to move around in. And even then those human avatars would be altered to handle those intense powers.

Even something like hydrokinesis at its most powerful isn’t anything like people would think. But I only found out by asking this AI how that compares to the pyrokinesis of Fire Force.

If that wasn’t enough, I made ideas in conjunction to the rabbit hole that was Goji Center. Not challengers to fight Indominus Rex 2.0. But just what kind of hybrid creatures that can feasibly combine the best features of species could survive anything thrown at it. And I gotta say, they’re Lovecraftian.

I’ve also asked ChatGPT how I could rework old public domain ideas into something interesting. Like the very first Superwoman as a series of gags. Or the worst superhero origin into something spectacular.

Of course there’s also comparing things from around the globe to each other. From how the Springman is some kind of phenomena, to genre fiction both mainstream and niche as well as what imports get the biggest footholds. Like how Japan enjoys Call of Cthulhu more than D&D thanks to playthroughs before they even existed and cultural preferences of dealing with failure.

Comparing martial arts from its parents happened too. Greek vs. Modern Boxing, N’Golo vs. Capoeira.