Maintainance Report

Meanwhile, lurking in a dark alley...

While the main system and i are down in the dark, i'm in the right state of mind to be doing drudge work. Some less visible happenings are going on currently.

A while back, Google/Blogger decided to freshen things up a bit. One of the decisions they made at that time was to change the default size on displayed text. It flipped from Normal to Smallest. So folks viewing old posts would see the small credits at the bottom of the post at twice the size of the actual post. Some readers may recall when i was trying to sort out what had happened. Eventually i realized that normal wasn't Normal, and i've hand set the text to normal size since that point. But that left hundreds of posts at the tiny text size.

So, i've been going through and setting each post by hand. We've caught up to the end of 2017, with the exception of one post from the King Kirby 100. Blogger will not allow me to edit that post unless i delete part. So, it stays tiny.

Only another 500 posts or so to go...

Commenters will notice that there is now a verification delay before your remarks appear. Unfortunately, a rabid seeker of child porn has issues, and so we're filtering to keep you readers from having to step in it.

So, what's the pic at the top? I wanted to include an image, as is my wont, but only have access to a scattering of old material at the moment. I believe i ran a Pulp Fiction Cover previously for Urban Zombie Tales. That's the painting without the text.
And, in case i'm misremembering, here's the texted version -

art by -3- (2014)

Children In Charge

Just in case anybody had any respect left for the office of the President, a pathetic child's Rocky fantasy was posted this past week. And he didn't even have the decency to use the one where the Russian beats Rocky around for the source of the pic.

Well, i got the desktop system running for an hour, and here's what i think of the sad silly postings.
I captioned one, and left the other blank for you to caption.

Can we PLEASE get some adults back into the mix?

Yes, feel free to circulate them since you know i don't do that social stuff.

Rocky Trump Trump As Rocky Deluded Trump Fantasy Fat Boy Rocky Fat Trump Delusional Donald Infant President Trump Fat Baby

Pacific Northwest Hermit Visual Reference

As you may have guessed, main system still down. Or down again, to be more accurate. It's gone through a couple fixes, and it seemed to be good - ran for a couple of hours doing everything from test renders to games and vids without any issus.

But 5 minutes after i tried to resume work, the system went dark again. The Universe really hates the idea of me producing new artwork. It's been doing a damn fine job of preventing it for the last few years.

New components will hopefully arrive in a week. In the meanwhile, i believe i'll be putting another system into service soon. My oldest son is currently on long haul trucking runs with his lovely lady, so his desktop box sits unused.

The question becomes, will my hardware curse transfer over if his system goes into service here? Oh, the suspense...

Meanwhile, the previous post on the History murdering villain Paul Termann to the contrary, i do prefer to include at least one image with every post. With that in mind, here's a bit of chicken scratching from a few years back - a fairly up-to-date and accurate visual guide to the Pacific Northwest Hermit Artist in the wild. 

Just in case you spot it wandering outside the cave...

chicken scratchings by -3- (2016)

Paul Termann - A Name That Should Live In Infamy

On December 13th of 1981, on the yacht Apollonia sailing in the Caribbean, two week's of sullen resentment came to a murderous peak. Paul Termann decided to hijack the yacht at gunpoint and declared that Herbert Klein, the owner, had 10 minutes to live. Klein attempted to rescue the party aboard the Apollonia, but only managed to wound Termann, who shot and killed Klein's girlfriend, Gabriele Humpert, and wounded a man named Munsch working on the boat. 
Termann then hunted down Klein and finally murdered him.
He was caught, sentenced to life imprisonment in 1982, but released 20 years later. If you want to know more about what happened, try reading Off The Deep End: A History Of Madness At Sea by Nic Compton. 
 
Not so much a "Live In Infamy" kind of guy - more like a villain from a Travis McGee novel. Likely to be forgotten over time as just another crazy asshole with a gun.

However, that was just his origin story. The birth and source of his True Villainy.

You see, Paul Termann is ashamed to be a convicted double-murderer, so he decided to murder history to hide his crimes. The German high court has ruled that he, and others like him, can force their crimes to be scrubbed from news and historic records so they won't be reminded of their shame.

They call it the Right To Be Forgotten.


Let's call it what it is - the Right To Edit History For Personal Convenience.

No wonder the UK wants out of the EU. They can hear George Orwell's anguished screams echoing through the ground. What was once considered Orwellian Nightmare is now a Personal Right in the EU. Not just governments, but any criminal can now erase the past.

In more normal times if a law was passed allowing criminals to hide their crimes, we'd point out the horrible possibility of murderers using it to cover up their crimes and hide their past from the potential victims around them. And, perhaps even more disturbingly, erase all memory of their victims in the process.

But that's where we're starting from these days.

So, how soon can we expect it to be used to cover up war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity carried out by governments and corporations?

Remember - in our twisted laws, corporations - entities founded to escape personal responsibility - are considered human beings, entitled to the same rights and protections. But, as noted, without being bound by all the same responsibilities. They already routinely get away with murder, now they're being handed a tool to wipe it from the public memory.

It's hard to decide if this ruling is epicly stupid or actively evil.

Either way, it certainly leaves me wondering what those who made the ruling must want erased from their pasts?

Or was it simply a matter of being bought by those who want to use the law?

Sorry - no joke today.

Just the joke that Paul Termann played on Truth.

Missing Things

Yes, i know we were supposed to be back with Lily & Jane by now. Things have been a little Odd - i believe the expression is "as per frickin' usual"

Computer problems continue to be of the WTF nature. Those spontaneous crashes that were happening even though the system was doing nothing at the time? It seems that the system was just getting bored. As long as i leave a video or something running at all times, the crashes stopped and have not returned.
No, it has nothing to do with screen savers or power management or anything - it's just the kind of makes-no-damn-sense problems that are standard with my systems, and my life in general.

I've also been distracted by fun cartoons like 'Mazing Man!...

...and the Creature Commandos... 

You folks enjoyed those old toons, right?

Also, it seems to be November now.

That means i missed little things like, my birthday, Halloween, doctor's appointments, and my youngest son getting married -

-but, really - we'll be back with more of Lily Renée's run on Jane Martin right soon.

RPG Maker MV Again

While technically featuring nudity and inherent adult situations, it feels rather ridiculous to put this in the Adult Content back room of the blog. 

What we have here is a sprite template sheet for RPG Maker MV aka RMMV. You see, This City that i've been playing with now has a Hellfire Club, and some extra props were needed for background characters. So here we have Male & Female Walk Templates for both Yoked and Cuffed, along with a Ball Gag sprite that can be overlaid to fit either gender. (Contrary to popular opinion, i view gender as biological and completely separate from sexuality and personal identity. So the game world has only 4 genders - Male, Female, Both, Neither. (yeah, there are aliens and cybernetic lifeforms, so it gets broad while being narrow))

Appropriate leather outfits and such haven't been taken past the single frame design stage at this point. If i remember, i'll post outfits at a later point, after completion. For now, you'll just have to drop in what you've got. There are also Hadaka versions, but who uses those, right? (Well, after the Lactacid incident...)

Obviously, the Character Generator will not be able to adapt to the restrained walk frames, so outfits and character heads will need to be overlaid manually.

Meanwhile, for those who are thinking "Hmmm....   Hellfire Club! We need X-Men!"- Fret not.
You can grab them, along with a whole host of other Marvel heroes for your game, from Galactic God's collection. That includes pretty much all of the MCU and the Marvel Netflix shows, as well. And GG makes battlers, too, for those who use the in-game fight systems for RMMV.

crap by -3- for RMMV Users & This City (2019)

It's Greek To Me, Too!

Mind still not cooperating, so let's follow it again to a bit more from the playing around i've been doing with RPG Maker MV. We've got a random collection of tiles here, both indoor and outdoor dumped together on one sheet. Anyone wanting to use them will have to cut them apart and drop them in to their own sets. (A handy grid is provided at bottom for sorting, just drop the transparent .png with the tiles on top of it in your favorite image editor.)

So - what's here? Obviously some artwork for the walls at the upper left, along with and assortment of simple wood frames down at the bottom. Most out there are rather ornate, taking up too much space at times. These are basic Dollar Tree frames. To the right of the paintings, middle sections for the standard 2-tile couch so they may be extended to 3, 4, or more tiles wide. Those two horizontal bars following are fence tops. Set them on top of wall tiles, tag them for overlay (star); be sure place them after placing the ground behind the fence. Nice when you don't want that massive wall top. The vertical bars just beneath are shadows for giving depth to building walls and such where the system doesn't place any. A blue dumpster. Bookcase alterations - the standard, moved up a half register for better placement against walls, and with some variety tiles to mix things up in libraries and such.
Below those, we've got a mix of custom signs and generic wall hangings. A camera on a tripod, some blank signs, vertical stairs down...
There's a ticket window down by the Help Wanted/Now Hiring signs. Ropes & barricades - white for boxing, red for Events.
Those are notices that can be overlaid beneath the corkboard. And down by the business signs, a basic newspaper dispenser for the free daily news. (It says FREE on the top)

And just above the red velvet ropes, you might note that one of the wooden signs is not blank. It sits outside the Sorority House in the game. (Kekko Kamen needs a University to patrol, y'know) The Sorority in question is taken from my old web comic, so let's go there to read the little sign on the tiles -

(Apologies to Mme Theuriau for putting words in her mouth)

(Actually, only a few on the council and the original founders - not the general membership.)

And there's that grid mentioned above. It's the same size as the tile image, just no need to display it larger here.

stuff by -3- from experiMental Theatre and This City (2019)

RMMV Kekko

Brain in useless cycle. Won't go where i want, and it's a struggle to string words in sequence. But trying not to let blog go dark because it's being a frellnik. Again.

So... let's go different odd place today.

Familiar with RPG Maker MV? (AKA RMMV)

It's a simple interface engine for building games. Better than might seem at first, but another more talky time.

Pertinent bit - sometimes play around building a little city to keep mind distracted. Now have superheroes patrolling rooftops.
University District protected by Kekko Kamen.

My game doesn't use built-in RMMV battle mechanics, so i only use basic walk sprites.

But - if anyone wants Kekko Kamen walk sprites to freely use in their games - here ya go:

(Yes, this is a transparent PNG file, ready to use)

It's sized and laid out for RPG Maker MV, but feel free to mod for other versions or systems. No credits necessary, i'm just modding base game art there.

I use manga and anime shots for talk portraits. I like it better that way.

sprites by -3- for RPG Maker MV (2019)

On To The Answers!

Okay - those reading in the now have had a week to work out our second birthday crossword puzzle. (To our future visitors - Hello! Sorry, but you'll have to determine your own waiting period before checking the solutions.)

To offer a bit of spoiler space for those who do not wish to accidentally see the answers before perusing the puzzle, here are the two original works that were combined to create the background image.

Thought -

Don't Leave Your Mind Alone In The Dark -
 

More than enough space. 
On to the answers!

Yes, i'll explain any particularly perplexing obtuse answers at request.

stuff by -3- (2011-2019)

Intentionally Spouting Silly Nonsense

Well, it seems i've accidentally started a tradition. 

Today marks two years since this blog started babbling into the void. (A week of looking backward makes more sense now, huh?) Between breakdowns of computer, net, and brain, there have been more than a few months of down time along the way; but we're actually running quite a bit ahead. Over the last 712 days we've had 827 posts, including this one. Good thing i get obsessive at times, eh?

I was trying to decide how to mark the occasion and eventually settled on another crossword puzzle. After all, we haven't done one of those since the Kirby centennial, right?

Um...  wrong. As i went to post this into the queue, i found the July 20th Xword from last year's anniversary. So, i guess that's the way we celebrate now?
Good thing i decided not to go with the logo art again for this puzzle.

Last year's puzzle featured things that occurred on the 20th of July throughout the years. This year, we're sticking with just The Voice Of ODD! Some of the clues are straightforward, some are rather obtuse. But, all puzzle answers can be found in the last two year's worth of postings.

Across

 2 - What emits from cave hermits.
 7 - 30 Down's obvious pseudonym. 
10 - They introduced Da Frantic Four to the Bestest League of America.
12 - Ellis keeps Holly in ___.
13 - Back In The _ _ _ _.
15 - She do that HooDoo that i view; so swell.
16 - The ___ Voice Of ODD!
17 - Lucille wasn't the only Ball.
18 - He followed me home from the Philippines.
20 - He's Koppy's Wacky friend.
22 - Bunny's Hippie was ___.
26 - Subtract one letter from a long running cable channel to get an old fave newspaper.
27 - He drew the first model sheets for (Disney Princess) Satana.
28 - At 15 posts, he's not one of our Briefer topics.
31 - Where i keep a bunch of cartoon critters.
33 - They introduced Da Frantic Four to the Bestest League of America.
37 - One of my favorite children's magazines.
38 - Zappa's friend.
42 - He gave Tom & Huck a Robot Duck.
43 - America's Foremost Hero!
44 - Chitra Katha.
45 - Wherein one might find Fun & Fact stored.
46 - Ron Jeremy wore Crocs when he played ___.
47 - Jr. and Penny visited there on a Whizz Bang.

 

Down

 1 - He has the most posts (and clues).
 2 - He drew the first comic story of (Disney Princess) Satana.
 3 - She was the first Fly girl.
 4 - My favorie EC.
 5 - Chitra Katha 
 6 - The ___ ___ 100. 
 8 - She was the first Fly Girl. 
 9 - When i'm intentionally spouting silly nonsense. 
11 - Cassidy's passing left the world less ___. 
14 - He Dreams. 
19 - He's got a magic book. 
21 - My favorite Chinese movie star. 
23 - Two-Gun's name. 
24 - It was Reborn from The Monster Times. 
25 - My favorite Post. 
29 - Been done by it. 
30 - His identity was secret for over a century, until 2005. 
32 - She was M before Bond existed. 
34 - His face kicked things off. 
35 - Coye's Odd things. 
36 - Captain Thunder's 'middle' name. 
39 - "Part Wise-man, part Wise-ass." 
40 - They're the band that has played here most frequently. 
41 - Superman appeared on the cover of this Marvel magazine.

puzzle by -3-, of course (2019)

Reality And Unreality Have No Clear Distinction In Our Present Circumstances

While i've been off, there's been some truly odd happenings out there. I usually tend towards things further in the past, but -

Even more odd than T-Rump palling with Canya SeeMe for a new stop on the Putting The Ass In Class tour. The "weirdest team in comics" got a tv series that deeply embraces that weird and brings it to live action in ways i could never have hoped for. And with a delightful attitude, too...

(Yeah, i blurred the caption to be nice for the censors. Oops - i mean redactors. I forget that we censor the word censor these days.)

Yeah, that's Cyborg on the right along with our core team, Robotman, Negative Man, Elastigirl, and Crazy Jane. Those names might not ever be actually used on the show, other than Crazy Jane. They're not heroes, excepting Cyborg. They're just Cliff Steele, Larry Trainor, Rita Farr and Jane (Kay and company) - misfits, not heroes.

3 months older than the X-Men, outcast freaks gathered together by a rich genius in a wheelchair to protect a world that shuns and fears them. They're the

Unsurprisingly, the show leans heavily on the Grant Morrison / Richard Case years. What is surprising is how much crosses over from the comics. And they've also dived deep into the Arnold Drake / Bob Haney / Giordano Bruno Premiani years. Things are definitely remixed a bit, changed both to cross mediums and for cohesion - They've only got 15 episodes in season one and over a half century of comic history to work with. Even longer on the show, actually. Rita has her transformative origin in the 1950s. Larry in the '60s, Cliff in the '80s, and Kay/Jane in the '90s, with the primary timeline being in this century. Things get changed, but in ways that work to serve the characters.

Cliff Steele is our entry character. His rebuild and awakening after the crash is how we meet the characters of the show. He's the newest member of Caulder's menagerie. Though he may have had his accident before Crazy Jane's transformation, it took years to rebuild and get him up and running.

Rita Farr, who generally was given the least character development in the old comics, has the most changes. Those changes work to make her more of a misfit - oddly to make her fit better on the team.

Larry Trainor is Negative Man, not Rebis - the gender fluid construct merging the male Trainor with the female Dr. Poole and the negative energy being binding them. Maybe later, but Rebis is a bit much to introduce in the limited framework of a single season. Instead, they found a different non-binary angle for his sexuality.

Jane, amazingly, is the least modified of the four. There's no mention of the Gene Bomb from the alien Invasion! mini-series which triggered the metagene, activating powers in all 64 of her personalities, but that's hardly surprising. Not only do we meet several of her well known personae, including some one might not expect, like Sun Daddy...

...and Silver Tongue, whose words form in the air, allowing her to use them as weapons...

 That's one of those things that works so easily in comics (since the words are already there anyway) but was rather surprising, but fun, to see on vid.

And, yes - we do go into the Underground...

Besides the core team, you know who else shows up on the series?

Danny The Street!

If you haven't read the old comics, Danny The Street is just what he sounds like - a Street named Danny. Of course, he's not a 'normal' street. Aside from being sentient, he's also mobile - able to shift his location around the planet at will. Also, he's a transvestite...

Yeah, the Bureau Of Abnormality wants him bad.

Among others, we also get Flex Mentallo and the white space between the panels...

Did you ever think we'd see Animal/Vegetable/Mineral-Man, even in a minor role?

And big Cheers for casting Curtis Armstrong as Brother Ezekiel! (yes, he's a cockroach)

The most off-model character is Mr. Nobody, but that makes sense unless you wanted a fully CGI intentionally-unreal-looking character. Instead, the ever cool Alan Tudyk winds up looking like this...

 ...it works well for the concept, if not for the descriptor "looks like you're always seeing him out of the corner of your eye" that's used once or twice in the comics. But, the comic version(s) didn't really fit that notion either.

And they even touch on the other versions/incarnations of the Doom Patrol. Here, for example, we see the Chief with Celsius, Mento, and Lodestone...

There's a great deal more - even mentions of The Brain and Mssr. Mallah.

The show takes its time, digging into each of the characters and building their world over the first 13 episodes with a big 2-ep final confrontation. And, yeah - it forgoes the typical conclusion to find a more appropriately odd ending to the tale.

Will there be a second season?
The show was quite well received, but the DCU streaming service itself might not last long. Now everybody is launching new streaming services to grab a slice of the pie (forgetting that what made streaming so popular in the first place was being able to go to one source for shows), and Warner Brothers wants in. They own DC and are likely to decide to kill DCU so they can make their service the home for the characters.

Only time will tell, but we got one true bit of Odd and perhaps more will follow. Maybe we'll get to see the Scissormen if there's a next time! (How does one represent the hole in reality after the scissormen have cut someone out of it? It's a lot easier on a white page, eh?) Maybe we'll even get to see the Brotherhood Of DADA (we got the Brotherhood Of DA this time, so maybe not)

We can hope.

screens from Doom Patrol season one (2019)

panel art by Richard Case and Scott Hanna for Doom Patrol #21 (1989)

NOTE: Post edited, but only to add bold face to names.