One Last Bit Of June, Echoing Still...

Oops. Apparently today is July 1st in these parts. With all that time slipping i've been doing lately, i ran out of June without getting to one topic i wanted to be sure of posting. It was originally planned for Juneteenth, but got bumped by the post i did use, and then my peripatetic brain wandered away, thinking it had already been there. So i'm pushing July back by a day, and we're hopping back 56 years to June of 1964 and a comic that was legendarily rare but should have been widely distributed...

It may have been over half a century ago, but it still resonates today with our current struggles. Don't go looking for #s 1-4, this was the first comic book published as part of HARYOU's outreach programs.

The comic was years ahead of its time, illustrating a thick & wordy report - Youth In The Ghetto: A Study Of The Consequences Of Powerlessness - the way we'd see done later for things like the Iran/Contra Affair and the 9/11 Attack, making the information readily accessible to the general public.

I'm very curious about Sam Huger, the artist on this book. It appears to be the only comic he ever drew, at least under that name. I say 'at least under that name' because it's surprising well done for someone with no experience in the field. I'd very much like to know what else he did, comics or otherwise.

Without further comment from the old white dude, let's head on inside the covers...

(For all you Neil deGrasse Tyson fans, that's his Dad being named in the first panel.)

Hmm...
I was going to put the full report here, but i don't see a way to link it or store the file here on Blogger.
However, i did find a .pdf copy over at the Internet Archive. Here's the link, and hopefully it's still good by the time you got here.

page art by Sam Huger from Harlem Youth Report #5 (1964)

RMMV City Bling & T3C Ping

As noted, i've lately been buried deep in The Third Colony - my personal game project that i use to keep the ol' brain from rusting up solid. It's time for another peek at some of the ongoings, and another bit of free resource for RPG Maker MV (aka RMMV) users. Let's get to that first.

There's not a great deal of Modern Tilesets running around compared to all the fantasy sets, so i'll go ahead and dump some even though there's not a lot of it.

City Bling is what we're calling the current set, and it's not map tiles today - it's animation tiles. They're combined on a single sheet, so you can either cut and combine with your own bits, or use as-is. Don't fret, even though some read vertically and some read horizontally, the system knows the way to go. As long as you use them in the right places, of course. When using the 'bling' animated tiles, be sure to set the event properly, as shown here...

...Walking and Stepping keep the animation cycling constantly, and Direction Fix makes sure it doesn't change animations if activated by the player. This is for the spot anims only. Don't do that for the doors, switches, or cardboard box. Let the system handle them as normal.

On the left side of the sheet we've got:
Bathroom Doors with binary gender signs.
Switches - smaller than standard with multiple placement options.
Cardboard Box - smaller than standard for easier tucking and hiding.
Wall Light - smaller than standard with high/low placement positions.

At the top center of the sheet, there are 3 rows with Circle / Arc / Circle. That's a Hopper. Place in sequence, left to right, above a sign or entrance and it animates with the circle hopping back and forth.

Below that is the Stripper with a back & forth animation.

Below that, we have the Theatre Marquis with animating lights. In The Third Colony, Admin uses the very generic Video Centre name. I added a couple more options, Movie Rama and Stage House, allowing the halves to be mixed and matched. After i noticed the Stage Centre combo, i had to add a Center Stage option as well. 

While most businesses are too specifically named, i included the generic bar Drink Up! sign and a couple of OPEN signs, and MOM Media Inc i converted to 123 Media Inc.

In the bottom right we've got signs for the Whorehouse/Brothel and the XXX Sinema.

For those of you who use Tall Doors, i didn't forget you. Here they are in tall format:

 Meanwhile, back out on the Fringeworlds, there's been tons of work going on. Some of it even on the front end where we can see progress. Simple things, like there's finally a Player Character Choice screen -

I mentioned recently that we'd passed 100 characters living on PoD9 now. In addition to base character design, that means Walk Sprites (multiples to allow for work and off-duty clothing, plus options) and Portraits for emotive representation in dialogues. That means up to 16 for each (though PCs may get more), with an average of about a dozen. So, LOTS of little work going. As a sample for those who don't indulge in such things, here are a dozen characters, pulled nearly at random. (Obviously, topping the sheet with Kelly was a conscious choice)

Okay - some oddballs don't get as many portrait pics, as we can see from our F-ing Clown at the bottom. 

And, while there are video files used in the game, that's not what one sees if the player watches a 'Vid' in-game. Vids are representative, with just a few pics and text while time passes and buffs or debuffs are applied. Some have story scenes, like we've seen in promos for various shows. Others, like the educational vid Transmats And You, are merely hosted...

Like the 'vid' above, Doc ODD! is a product of SARLAC (Science:Advanced Research Laboratories/Atomic Commission). He was a genetic failure in the laboratories that didn't get flushed. The techs liked him and gave him a labcoat. Eventually, he got promoted from pet to mascot.

It's an Odd world, naturally. 

It's the kind of place where a superhero like the Golden Guardian can decide to open a bank instead...

...where the Registry (the agency supporting and overseeing superheroes) is headed by a figure known as Sister Mother... 

...and where cold refreshments are supplied by 'heroes' like MilkMan... 

Another convenient thing, for me, about T3C is that many of my old projects can be integrated into it. For example, the Rama Vid Club is running a special FringeWorx Film Fest, and has brought in Frag, a character from the series, as a special guest to promote it...

Fringeworx was a web series i did back in the mid-90s. The fleet at the top and the inset in the lower left of the poster above is from the original series, with Frag being played by my eldest son, IV. In game time, it's about 15 years after the show ended (as seen by the older Frag model), and the episode guide for the show has been reworked into a film series that'll run weekly throughout the year.

That would have been a massive amount of work for background texture in the game if the material didn't already exist. Lots of old work can form the media 'enjoyed' by the denizens of PoD9, and parts of old game projects can be reworked into pockets scattered throughout the mining colony. It's kind of like having a few decades of prep work done for the game - most convenient indeed.

BTW - the RVC has another series running, too. In this world, Ellis Chambers didn't disappear - he became a very popular animator whose legacy lives on in current film fests -

As it should be.

stuff by -3- (2020)

Our Flibbertigibbet Brummagem Snollygoster Fake President

As we all watch the fiasco of what happens when Fake President meets Real Crisis, a lot of us are running out of things to call the Twitter Twit. Sure, a lot of newer words like 'fucktard' might be more worthy than he is, but those really belong to the kids, don't they? What about us oldsters trapped in his clown horror show?

After all, you may have noticed that pretty much the only time i use his name is when referring to the Trump Flu. This isn't a "he who must not be named" kind of situation. It's most definitely a "it isn't worthy of a name" and is way too in love with it. Trump Flu is the one place he's earned his name, so i say let's let him have that one. 
That leaves us wondering how to refer to the critter*?

Might i offer a few classic suggestions?


FLIBBERTIGIBBET
A person who is regarded as silly, flighty, irresponsible. Especially one prone to excessive talking.

BRUMMAGEM
Something cheap and showy; especially used referring to cheap, gaudy jewelry.

SNOLLYGOSTER
Someone self-serving, especially a politician, whose actions are motivated by self-interest rather than higher principles.

Well, i suppose we should have some imagery in here, should we not?
Let's see...

How about a little tale i'd call "Mistakes Were Made" -

Apologies to Rowley, Prodes, and Quatermouse.

Now, if you'll pardon me, i'm off to indulge in a bit of my usual gadzookery* in other arenas...

page art from Animal Weirdness #1 by Geoff Rowley and Prodes, modification and ramble by -3- (1974, 2020)

===

*(If you want to argue that he's vegetable or mineral instead, i won't put up a tough fight)

**(GADZOOKERY
The use of archaic words or expressions.)

The Captain Was Heroic

As you may have noticed, i've been off in my own weird world for a bit. And not simply because this one is so overrun with fools and villains lately. I've been deep diving into The Third Colony and getting all sorts of scattered things done...  Added a lost cave network, expanding the cast (we've passed 100 characters in the world now), working on scene renders and scripts, creating a dynamic party system (no - not handling members of your party as you trek down into a dungeon - handling guests, clusters, and conversations at a social gathering).

Don't worry, i'm not doing another graphic dump from the game today. Much of the recent work either doesn't lend itself well to that sort of thing, or it needs to be in the back room. (Like the current scene in work with Pairadax and Pink Cherry 'pranking' Kelly during her initial physical examination for Registration.) I was just rambling on why i've been cut off from the outer time flow.

Today, let's wander on back to places we've been before - sorta. Call it an Old School Triple or something.

We haven't run any Flash Gordon parodies in a bit, and we're behind on our Fan Press coverage - so let's combine and visit a zine we haven't looked at previously: LOC - Fandom's Forum.

Actually, we're just going to look at a few comics from LOC today. We should definitely be back sometime soon to take a deeper gander at the text and the (Major!) players involved. But, for now, let's join Tom Linehan as he brings us Flush Going -

Hmm...
Fan Press. Flash Gordon Parody. That's two, but i said a Triple, so we need one more familiar bit. 

Okay, we'll stick with Tom and LOC and we'll add in more early fanzine work from Kurt Busiek as he and Tom team for Captain Heroic and Side-Kick -
 

...but it doesn't stop there!...
 

It promises to continue, but did it?
Frankly - I don't know. I'm missing the next issue (#7 if anyone's got it and wants to enlighten us, or, y'know -Kurt, if you wanna speak up...?) and it didn't appear after that point so far as i can determine.

However, if we jump back almost 40 years, we can find Captain Heroic on Boom Boom Brannigan's turf... 

Hey! There's an Old School Triple!
It all worked out, i guess.

page art by Tom Linehan and ??? from LOC #s 3, 4, & 6 and Prize Comics #46 (1944, 1981, 1982)