God.
(always a useful term, altho I've never met the bloke* 😂)
* Actually I kinda did 15yrs ago, but I had serotonin poisoning at the time
In fact, one of my takeaways from life is basically-- "some people would rather die than change their beliefs." Or simply bow to reality, in other cases.
The only influence German has now is the odd loanword, like Weltschmerz and Schadenfreude.
Hahahahaha! XD
Good luck, bro. (you're gonna NEED it)
Oh, wow... that's so cool.
I'm glad you disregarded the old village lady with her folkloric / wive's tale approach, and just let the animal be!
Indeed, there are some people around the world who thought they had some *special charm* upon venomous snakes, and... ...yeah, it turns out they DID NOT. Handling the snakes aggressively as they did, and their dumbasses wound up getting bitten. For lots of them, it was a rather permanent lesson.
I love this comic, because "never quit / never surrender" is one of the godamn stoopidest phrases in our culture.
How about: "Take a break, re-tool, gather yourself, ask yourself if this is what you really want, and if so, can our methodology and stress-relief be improved? Well then, well then!"
These are really well done for the most part. Very light-hearted, but rather devious: (Just for Laughs Gags)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyGz1AYQMhM&list=PLEB4EBCDDCF605225
I'd be interested in learning, because German is the biggest contributor to modern English along with French. Of course the split happened long, long ago, but still...
It would have to be a couple years though, after I (knock on wood) am done getting to about B2/C1 on French.
Good points. I remember that one can buy powdered tomato and a whole bunch of other useful powdered items on Amazon, etc. One can also buy that certain seasoning that makes movie-theatre popcorn taste so good.
and is bizarrely fascinated by castration.
Ah yes, as in Sang royal.
Yikes, I could have done without that part. :S
Reminder to self:
Double-check where we are with new Incal, MetaBarons and TechnoPriest material!
Okay, here's my recent discovery-- Vendredi sur Mer, i.e. Charline Mignot from Romandy, Schweiz: [NSFW] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhqUMFj51X0
And another one, crushing the down-low chill:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA2QHIrBgSs
EDIT: honestly, I reacted poorly to the initial downvotes, and I apologise for that. I guess a good chunk of people were turned off by Mignot's first video. Welp, it happens, altho assuming this is primarily a Euro-based audience, I find that a bit weird.
Which perhaps suggests that I'm wrong, and that this is more of an American Christian audience than I'd suspected... or something like that?
. 
The left one is what originally caught my eye a few months back. The way Juarez handles crumbling red cañon rock is truly a sight to behold.
So, Jon Juarez is a freelance artist out of San Sebastian, Spain.
. 
He's worked for Telefónica, Netflix, HBO, Bungi and Square Enix, and was production designer for the Scavengers' Reign TV series.
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And some links:
https://www.artstation.com/harriorrihar
https://lama.co/harriorrihar
Finnish graphic artist Jaakko Seppälä created this masterpiece about a decade ago, simulating ten famous cartoonists drawing the others' characters. Starting from the upper left and working down-and-right diagonally, we have:
WP has some basic info for him: (turn on translate)
https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaakko_Sepp%C3%A4l%C3%A4_(graafikko)
This wasn't my idea originally, but I had fun looking through last year's books, picking out my favorites, and putting together this list. It's arranged in descending order: (click the links for art samples)
Republic of the Skull T1 & T2 (Brugeas & Toulhoat) (Europe Comics)
The dashing Captain Sylla plies the Caribbean with his close-knit crew: The Marquis, a former slave who sports a powdered periwig; the clever, craggy-faced Dutch; the burly, bearded Lenoir; and first mate Olivier, given to gloom and considered a bringer of bad luck. This is likely because he spends his time composing log entries addressed to a fictive British "Commodore" who will someday capture them. But perhaps he is the only clear-eyed one among them: luckless outcasts of imperial navies, these pirates' days of freedom and fraternity are numbered, as the forces of law, order, and capital bear down on them. --Amazon
This was easily one of the finest Pirate-themed series I've read, with lots of historical culture and context that one doesn't always get. It featured nicely-efficient storytelling and lots of dramatic ups & downs, which built towards quite the plausible yet tragic ending. --Johnny
Fierce (Monde & Burniat) (Dargaud)
The legendary King Arthur is now an old drunkard who spends his days slouched on his throne. He owes his former glory to the magic sword the wizard Merlin forged for him in order to slay the hordes of demons who came to invade the kingdom of Pendragon. The enchanted weapon now suffers from a bad case of boredom, while Arthur's daughter, the Princess Ysabelle, is wondering how to flee the marriage her father has arranged with the vile Baron of Cumber. Both Ysabelle and the sword are determined to change their fate, and to do so they must become allies on a long journey. But the wide world can prove much harsher than life at the palace, and the sword's intentions may not be as noble as they seem... --NetGalley
This was a delicious, intelligent, deeply humorous tale in the style of Kerascoet, Hubert & Vehlmann, such as Beauty, A Man's Skin and The Court Charade --Johnny
Eigyr (Hamon & Colboc) (Europe Comics)
Fifth-century Great Britain. After centuries, the Romans have withdrawn from the island. Saxons have arrived from the European mainland, some of the native Britons have been Christianized, and others have maintained their pagan ways. The great wizard Merlin has fallen on the field of battle, and soon thereafter a prophecy—or a rumor—begins to circulate: Merlin will be reincarnated in a newborn. The hunt is on for the baby whose promised greatness would disrupt the power-grabbing plans of the different peoples. The pregnant Eigyr becomes the prey, and with the help of an archer and a priest, she must try to stay alive long enough to deliver destiny. --League of Comic Geeks
Altho this was a fairly grim, tragic tale, I found it thoroughly gripping, and a nicely realistic look at the early Arthurian period. --Johnny
Extraordinary, The T3 - Melek's Head (Ruppert & Mulot) (Europe Comics)
Orsay is determined to cure his mother's cancer using the strange powers that allow him to meld with the creatures known as whols. But the whols are in danger—banished from cities and slaughtered by uncaring humans, they risk disappearing from the Earth completely. To save them from extinction, and humankind from itself, Orsay will have to survive and learn from a terrible loss. He'll also have to stop Melek, a woman with whol powers in her head, from exacting revenge on those she sees as responsible for the whols' plight... --GoodReads
Tome three wraps up this wonderful, highly imaginative series, and unforunately ends the productive collaboration between Ruppert & Mulot. --Johnny
Fortune of the Winczlavs, The - Danitza, 1965 (Van Hamme & Berthet) (Dupuis)
This third book wraps up the miniseries, which traces the ancestors of Largo Winch back to 1848. It's drawn in a simple but lovely LC style, and as with seemingly everything Van Hamme puts pen to, one is rapidly engaged in the plot and swiftly on the edge of one's seat. It really is impressive to see how well the context is fleshed out across historical eras, and I reckon this is virtually a 'must-read' for any fans of the main series, Largo Winch. --Johnny
NeoForest T1 - Cocto Citadel (Duval & Scaffoni) (Europe Comics)
In a distant future lives a young woman named Blanche. She's the heiress of Cocto Citadel, a neofeudal city like those that arose after the end of the world... When Blanche and her father find themselves at the center of dramatic power struggles, it's in the heart of NeoForest, the Great Central Forest, that everything must be decided. --Amazon
I found this quite the promising beginning to a post-apoc series that takes place in a feudalistic, forested setting. Altho much of modern technology is evidently lost, there's still a level of science and even magical science present. Also of course, schemers out to assassinate Blanche and steal the throne away from her father. --Johnny
Coyote and the Snake, The (Xavier & Matz) (Europe Comics)
USA, 1970. Joe is driving his camper in the wide open spaces of the Wild West. He makes several acquaintances along the way: a small coyote, to start with, but also local thugs, F.B.I. agents, a U.S. Marshal, old friends who seem to be more or less trustworthy... But who is this good ol' Joe? Those who cross his path tend to see their life expectancy dangerously decrease... --EC site
This was a 'road trip movie' about a weary, aging Clint Eastwood-type who simply wants to settle down and put his past behind him. That, and make sure his daughter doesn't get mixed up in his old business. There's a certain spirit of discovery about road journeys that gets captured nicely here, overlaid with moments of danger and mortal disaster. Mainstream comics have been toying with this formula for years, but for me, this was just about the best example of its kind. --Johnny
Misfits Club for Girls, The - T4 Apolline(Beka & Mehu) (Europe Comics)
Apolline, Céleste, Chélonia and Sierra go to school together. These young girls have one thing in common: they are isolated, pushed aside by others, and sometimes harassed. One day, Chélonia decides to bring them together to make a proposal-- she would like to found the “misfits club” with them. Its purpose: to allow them to break their loneliness, become stronger, and 'exist more fully.' Their first objective is to convince Paloma to join them. A rebellious and lonely teenager, she's already exhausted several foster families. She now lives with Liselotte, a woman used to sheltering young people in difficulty. Will the four new friends be able to help her overcome her past? --GoodReads
I found this an unusually insightful and moving look in to troubled young women sparking against each other, mostly for the best. There were certainly stretches of pain and dysfunction, but they tended to get worked out eventually, almost in a therapeutic manner... but without the sappy heavy-handedness that such works can sometimes fall in to. --Johnny
Exile, The (Erik Kriek) (Living the Line)
After seven years of exile, battle-hardened Hallstein Thordsson returns home to Iceland, only to find that old wounds haven't healed. His stepmother Solveig and his half-brother Ottar are besieged by wood thieves, directed by her unwelcome suitor, Einar. The Exile's presence disrupts the delicate balance and threatens to tip all of Iceland into violence. A remarkable decades-spanning epic, Erik Kriek's The Exile is equal parts action “Western” and family drama, with a surprising story of violence and consequences at its core. Told in a naturalistic modern style but with tremendous fidelity to the historical period in which it is set, The Exile depicts the Viking age in all of its conflict, turmoil, and social structure, with every detail depicted vividly on the page.
Kriek's fascinating 'woodblock-style' is not to be missed, and I thought the story did a nice job examining the psychology of betrayal & revenge. --Johnny
Anno Domini 1000 by Thomas Gilbert (Europe Comics)
Brunehilde is a wolf-charmer. When her travels take her to a remote valley in southern France, she is horrified to discover famine, pestilence, and mass deforestation. Worse still, children are being found dead in the woods. For the villagers, the murders must be the work of a demon: a wild beast, a wolf. But for Brunehilde—a nomadic healer widely seen as a witch—nothing is less certain. She knows better than anyone that the real monster is Man. --Amazon
I really enjoy these historical fiction novels covering times that tend to get neglected by history and storytelling. Altho fairly light-hearted in tone for the most part, this was in fact a pretty grim look at the realities of the day, with a serial-killer murder mystery that reminded me of the Brother Cadfael Chronicles as well as Maria McCann's As Meat Loves Salt, some excellent but disturbing (non-comic) novels. --Johnny
Jardin Secret, Le T2 (Burnett & Begon) (Dargaud)
In a house full of sadness and secrets, can young, orphaned Mary find happiness?Mary Lennox, a spoiled, ill-tempered, and unhealthy child, comes to live with her reclusive uncle in Misselthwaite Manor on England’s Yorkshire moors after the death of her parents. There she meets a hearty housekeeper and her spirited brother, a dour gardener, a cheerful robin, and her wilful, hysterical, and sickly cousin, Master Colin, whose wails she hears echoing through the house at night.With the help of the robin, Mary finds the door to a secret garden, neglected and hidden for years. When she decides to restore the garden in secret, the story becomes a charming journey into the places of the heart, where faith restores health, flowers refresh the spirit, and the magic of the garden, coming to life anew, brings health to Colin and happiness to Mary. --Amazon
I love how a children's classic, one that I otherwise would probably miss, got brought in to BD form and wound up being something I wolfed right up. It's certainly an uplifting book on the whole, but with a certain Dickensian edge that greatly helped in keeping it real and relatable. --Johnny
Where's Wally? is a British series of children's puzzle books created by illustrator Martin Handford. The books consist of a series of detailed double-page spread illustrations depicting dozens or hundreds of people doing a variety of amusing things at a given location. Readers are challenged to find a character named Wally and his friends hidden throughout the pages. --WP
TBH, I only have a passing familiarity with this series. Certainly I like the LC-style art and premise, but I'm afraid my eyes are kind of weak for these kinds of puzzles. Still, as pure art pieces, I feel like the landscape-style scenes have some real charm, not unlike the super-cute animal tableaus of Richard Scarry.
Just for the record: I'm playing around with the title on purpose. As someone who's lived in the States since forever, I absolutely heard of "Waldo" long before "Wally." But maties-- is this not EGN+? 😜
2011's Where's Wally World Record event in Dublin, Ireland
In 1986, U. of Creative Arts in Kent graduate Handford was asked by art director David Bennett to develop a book of detailed crowd scenes inspired by Philippe Dupasquier's Busy Places series. Whilst the book was being prepared for the Bologna Book Fair, someone at Walker Books suggested the idea of adding a distinctive-looking character whom the reader could search for in the crowd scenes. After much thinking, Handford came up with the idea of "Wally", a world traveller and time travel aficionado who always dresses in red and white. Sometimes it would take him up to eight weeks to draw a two-page sketch of the elusive "Wally" and the characters surrounding him. The first Where's Wally? book was published in Sep '87.
As the series goes on, Wally becomes increasingly harder to find, reducing his size on the page and surrounding him by more characters. In the first book, Wally was on average one cm2 big. This was reduced to 0.80 cm2 in the second book, 0.33 cm2 in the third, and between 0.20 and 0.17 cm2 in the fourth through seventh books! He's also been surrounded by more & more characters, from 225 in the very first page to about 850 on the last book's first page.
- Odlaw appears nearly the same as Wally, except that his clothes are yellow and black-striped instead of red and white; his glasses have a blue tint to them; and he has a moustache. He also has a British accent in the television series. Although it is told that "his bad deeds are many," he is not depicted in the books doing anything particularly nasty. However, in the television series, he is frequently seen to be attempting to steal Wally's magical walking stick! 😤
- Odlulu is a villainous pre-teen female Anti-Wanderer who is a gender-bend version of Odlaw and despises the Wanderers in the new series. She is plotting to obtain the Wanderer keys and take control of the world. She sometimes help out Wally and Wenda for their quest, then turns everything back to normal after causing random chaos, somewhere.
Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed is a fairytale film by Lotte Reiniger. It is the oldest surviving animated feature film. The movie features a silhouette animation technique Reiniger invented that involved manipulated cutouts made from cardboard and thin sheets of lead, under a camera.
Here is what the thumbnail looks like animated.
The technique she used for the camera is similar to Wayang shadow puppets, though hers were animated frame by frame (at 24fps), not manipulated in live action. The original prints featured color tinting. Reiniger also used the first form of a multiplane camera in making the film, one of the most important devices in pre-digital animation. Work began in 1923, and the film was finished in 1926. --WP & Johnny
Here's a little trailer of short sequences:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_9L7r8NIBc
Having watched a bunch of early Fleischer, Disney and other cartoons, I was impressed by how unique this style is. While the movement is fairly simple (even crude at times), I found it refreshing how things moved independently of each other instead of being 'synced up and bouncing together' as with all those Disney & Fleischer shorts. Also, the silhouette animation style, while allowing very limited character detail, was somehow surprisingly modern in aesthetic IMO.
>>>HERE<<< is the whole 65 minute film, remastered in 4k and with a great, classical soundtrack. You'll get a much better taste of things than via the trailer, altho I don't blame you if you let it run in the background while you check your portable.
The story itself is based on elements from One Thousand and One Nights written by Hanna Diyab, including Aladdin, The Story of Prince Ahmed & the Fairy Perī-Bānū, and The Ebony Horse.
From the Thorgal universe, one of my very favorites in all of comics, featuring lovely, painted art, memorable characters, tense plotting, impressive world-building, and even an interesting historical look in to Viking customs and society.
Thorgal of course is the central character in the series, child of the stars adopted by Vikings. Wolfcub is his young daughter, who has the unique ability to communicate with, befriend, and even command animals to do her bidding.
For swords, sorcery & science fans, this is some must-read stuff, in which the characters are excruciatingly put through the wringer time and time again by the brilliant sadist of a writer, Jean Van Hamme (Largo Winch, XIII, Wayne Shelton, Lady S).
There's a pretty good fandom overview of the series HERE, and you can expect more Thorgal material to be shared here in future!
These appear to be raw covers, in which you can still see marginal annotations.
Claudio Villa, Angelo Stano, Bruno Brindisi, Corrado Roi, and Claudio Castellini are all artists who worked on this surreal, noirish, long-running Italian horror series.
I've read four of the 100-page books so far. An introduction, plus my thoughts are here.
These pieces were found at a nice Tumblr blog which covers BD, manga, and animation genres.
Sorry to bombard you with replies matey, but I forgot to mention that my dad was an MD (medical doctor), so I have a certain fond connection with the snake-staff. It reminds me of him, a lot!