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Jean Grey (Dark Phoenix) in Fortnite

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X-Men #4 - “Nightmare on 86th Street” (2021)

written by Gerry Duggan art by Javier Pina & Erick Arciniega

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Jean and Ororo in X-Men (2019) Issue #21

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Do you have an account where you just post art anywhere? I'd love to see more of your work but it's a bit hard to find.

Keep your head up, King. Have a good one.

I googled myself when I was starting the eBay stuff. Under "People also ask", the first question is "What happened to Maxwell Atoms?" Cheezus. Not exactly what you want to see when you're looking for work. What happened was: I've produced TV Animation for 20 years pretty much exclusively. I produce shows I'm not allowed to talk about until they come out. I sell shows that I'm not allowed to talk about unless they get made. I've sold a number of shows to various studios over the last ten years, but none have made it through the inevitable regime change. Hence, publicly, it seems like I haven't done anything at all for ages. That's why I'm now planning to develop something "in public view". On YouTube or Twitch or wherever. It should result in a lot more artwork that I can actually share and talk about. Drawing and writing have always been "sacred" to me. In that they're how I process the world around me. I need peace and quiet to do my best, and I don't know if that meshes well with a bunch of people watching me and asking me questions. But I'm confident that I can figure something out when I start putting some effort behind it.

Right now... I'm waiting for my current gig to finish Chernobyling, and I'm posting a bunch of the Billy & Mandy stuff I'm selling on eBay (and stuff I'm not) on Instagram.

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My Dune Review (No Spoilers)

So… Some of you may know that I really like the Dune series of books. And (despite my cynicism) I was looking forward to the new movie. Maybe too much. I really like Denis Villeneuve’s direction. I may even like the new Blade Runner more than the old one. It’s a dangerous precedent, as far as expectations go.

So I watched it with a friend the other night. She fell asleep almost instantly (she’s a teacher so I’m used to it), but I kept watching. And it is a slow burn. Dune was so influential on so many other stories that have been written since that I wondered if even I wouldn’t be bored by it.

But… hot damn it’s good. I loved it from stem to stern.

The highest praise I can give is that it reminded me of how awesome the books are. And that might not sound like the greatest praise, but I think that translates to: “This is a great approximation of a book that most people will never take the time to read.” And I think you should read it. Because it’s great. But I also get it. We don’t all have the time to curl up for weeks on end with one of the best sci-fi epics ever written. This movie is absolutely a fair approximation.

Is it perfect? No. I can pick anything apart if I put my mind to it. But in this case, I really don’t want to. Before this, I was definitely in the “It may well be unfilmable” camp. I’ve always excused David Lynch’s decision to use overlapping narrators because how the hell else do you translate a book that takes primarily in the minds of other people who can read other people’s minds!?

Turns out… you do your job as a filmmaker and you show. You don’t tell.

There are definitely a couple of lines that felt a bit forced to me, but this film doesn’t pander to anyone. It just is. It flows over and around the narrative like spice. It perfectly captures Luke Skywalker’s Dune-inspired journey without cutting out the absolutely bat-shit bonkers reality that I imagine you’d experience while connecting with the sorts of mysterious, prescient forces capable of starting intergalactic religions.

This turned out to be a much longer post than I intended. I was going to stop at “just go see it”, but here we are. But do go see it, because I need several sequels.

The cast is fantastic. I wasn’t too hot on Jason Momoa as Duncan Idaho, but by the end I wanted more from him as well. You’ll definitely have a lot to talk about with your friends afterward regarding the stellar visuals and the things that happen (and the things that don’t happen, for that matter).

Hell. The studio blew two of the greatest reveals in the trailer and I was still thrilled by both of them. Just do it! ✓™

What’s in the box?

Joy.

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In primitive times, people would scrape rods made of graphite and wood across mashed and bleached wood pulp in order to produce images. Some of these images can seem incredibly lifelike.

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Skarr Hands

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In primitive times, people would scrape rods made of graphite and wood across mashed and bleached wood pulp in order to produce images. Some of these images can seem incredibly lifelike.

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I don’t know how much any of the stuff I’m putting on eBay is actually worth, but I think I’m getting to the “juicy” stuff now. Lots of one-of-a-kind animation art. It’s not necessarily gorgeous, but it’s how the sausage used to be made. There’s not a lot of hand-crafted stuff in the business anymore. https://www.ebay.com/sch/gr1mb0t/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=

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How goth are/were you? Are you into any bands like Bauhaus, sisters of mercy, and the banshees? How about industrial like ministry and skinny puppy?

My Gothometer rating is a solid 7.2, and I read as "Alien 3" on a Giger Counter. Could be better. Could be a helluva lot worse.

I actually like all of those bands. I was very much into goth music, industrial, and punk (especially British O.G.) in my high school/college days. But I've never really been into "being" anything in particular. I just sort of want to be what I want to be on a given day. I was also a bit of a contrarian and did things like wear bright red zoot suits to goth clubs. But I didn't have a brain in my head...

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Naked Skeletons

So I’ve got all of this Billy & Mandy stuff in these drawers in the Dead Meat Room. Just collecting cobwebs.

I also have a giant, rotten hole in my roof and a current lack of employment opportunities.

So I’ve decided to sell off all of this old stuff. I’m going to do it on eBay during the month of October. Because spooky.

There’ll be some background paintings, title cards, limited merch, and items that were only offered to people who worked at CN. But most of it will be my own development or production drawings from the series.

There are a lot of important holidays coming up, and maybe someone in your life is looking for the perfect Samhain gift. Could this be it!?

It’d help me out, and honestly I’d rather this stuff end up in the hands of fans. What, am I gonna hang it on my own walls!? That’s a weird way to eat cornflakes.

More info coming soon…

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Regarding the last question about BnM not having a proper series finale, isn’t there also something about the networks wanting to be able to rerun shows out of order for as long as they see fit?

Also, I was wondering if Mandy might be autistic based on some of her personality traits (her cynical attitude, her lack of any real interest in playing with Billy, etc).

Yes and no. Turn-of-the-Century, the mandate was that we could have NO inter-episode continuity. Characters could not grow or change because the network wanted to be able to air episodes in any order. This immediately flew in the face of my plans to have slow character growth for certain characters. I knew (for instance) that I wanted Nergal Jr. to be born, and that before I got to that point, I'd have to introduce Nergal and get him together with Billy's Aunt. Fortunately, thanks to the Prophecy that said the show would be cancelled, we didn't have a lot of oversight. And eventually because (I think) we were able to have these little nuggets of character development, we retained and grew our audience and stopped getting cancelled.

I've always said, "The real horror movie is growing up." That was what Underfist was about, and that would've been a theme in "Billy & Mandy Destroy Us All" too. B&M was drawn from my childhood, and this would've been a look at my adulthood through that younger lens.

Part of my journey since Cartoon Network has been trying to rebuild what I had there. Or trying to find another way to satisfy my creative urges. And ultimately, failing that, finally getting diagnosed with Aspergers/ASD in an attempt to figure out why I am the way I am. So yeah. Mandy's probably on the spectrum. As are Billy & Grim. Mandy is the cold, rational way I learned to view the world in order to survive. Billy is the fun and joyous inner-world where I like to spend my time. And Grim is the moral mediator between the two. It's really Id, Ego, and Superego to some degree. I haven't thought about that in a long time, but that was purposeful. Everyone had something fun to do, but "Destroy Us All" was Mandy's story. And mine by proxy.

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Billy e Mandy #BnMHBO #BillyandMandy . #TimmyTurner #FairlyddParents

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#BnMHBO Mandy

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oi casado 

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#BnMHBO #HossDelgado #BillyAndMandy #Billyemandy #grim #FredFredBurger #Underfist

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