Headlines, Early October 2024

1 week ago 5

Comics

Atari Force #9 cover

Mike Sterling loves Atari Force. So do I. He says:

Fun sci-fi adventure expertly illustrated by José Luis García-López at the peak of his form, with the back half drawn by the also excellent Eduardo Barreto. Gerry Conway wrote most issues, and it’s a fast paced and creative comic that unfortunately was saddled with a title that likely kept folks away. Oh, and the lettering by Bob Lappan is a revelation as well.

Someone in the comments calls it, correctly, “DC’s most under-appreciated comic ever.” As for which Marvel comic should be reprinted, that’s super easy: The Hound of the Baskervilles story from Marvel Preview #5-6. Written by Doug Moench, art by Val Mayerik (inked by Tony DeZuniga on half of the second issue), making for a beautifully moody, cinematic retelling.

Media

Our TV shows are disappearing in acts of “digital demolition“. “[W]e’re living through an age of mass deletion, a moment when entertainment and media corporations see themselves not as custodians of valuable cultural history, once freely available, but as ruthless maximisers of profit…. we can thank WBD’s chief, David Zaslav, a man who personifies a generation of entertainment executives who don’t particularly seem to like movies or television.”

I remember when, to find a little known show (as I needed for my grad school TV class), I had to ask on Usenet and a stranger sent me a videotape. Are we returning to those bad old days? If a studio decides to destroy a streaming show to take a tax write-off, and it was never put on DVD, perhaps. Then there’s the format problem; to archive digital content, you need not only the files but the display software and the correct machine to run it on. It’s complicated. Save what you love.

General Life

Prime is adding more ads because, without any way to record streaming programs, there’s no counter-pressure or competition to prevent companies from making their products worse.

Mutant tomato alert! Someone in Wisconsin grew the world’s largest tomato. It’s ugly and not designed for eating, just record-setting: “you have to have the right seeds to grow a tomato like this one, which they call ‘mega blossoms,’ or multiple blossoms that are fused together.”

Why people leave Trump rallies early. Because he’s boring? No, because he’s late and runs too long. The real question should be: Why is this the reporting instead of his criminal acts?

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