Weekly Update - 5/22/24 (Patreon)

I'm in the process of finishing up the next chapter of Before The Storm, which was voted upon by the Voting Tier. I do love getting back into writing Sketch and the crew of The Praeteritus. They're one of my favorite stories to circle around to. That said, I want to get it right. So, expect it sometime tomorrow.

Lots to do over the next week and change, but I assure you, I'm working on writing as much as I can, while still telling quality stories.

There have been reports of some Patreon subscriptions failing to go through, but according to Patreon, that's all fixed now and everything should be working fine. If you were caught up in that, accept my apologies (although I had nothing to do with it).

It's weird seeing all the television shows wrapping up their seasons this week, having only done 10-episode seasons, but hopefully the writer's/actor's strikes weren't for nothing. If you didn't see the weird story about ChatGPT basically stealing Scarlet Johanson's voice without her permission, take a look. As someone who was in software development for a while, the problems with AI remain what they were when the boom started about a decade ago - nothing does what they promise it will, what it does do is full of flaws, and what limited things it puts out are built on the backs of people who didn't get paid for it.

That said, I finally caved and started watching the new X-Men '97 cartoon, and man, is it doing an amazing job of hitting the X-Men comic book highlights from, like, 1985-1999. I've been glad to see it's gotten a renewal for a second season. Let's hope the MCU gets close to nailing the tone like the cartoon has. That era of X-Men comics was sort of my heyday - Mutant Massacre, Fall of Mutants, Inferno, X-Tinction Agenda... while the storytelling could occasionally get a bit too big for the room, there was so much potential there and I hope to see some of that in the second season.

I'm also, like nearly everyone else on the planet, eager as hell for Deadpool & Wolverine, because Ryan Reynolds may not get everything right, but he's been an excellent gatekeeper for Deadpool, making sure the character only gets the irreverence he deserves.

And, of course, sometime this weekend I'll take in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. I remember I was a bit of a holdout for Fury Road, with my best friend telling me over and over again to ignore how good everyone else was telling me it was and to just trust him in how good it was. I remember it was like the last week Fury Road was going to be in theaters that I went and saw it, and goddamn, am I glad I did.

But man, other than that, does it look to be a dry summer. I'll probably go see Bad Boys: Ride Or Die, but am trying to keep my expectations low. (Hilariously enough, the biggest complaint I had about them making a fourth one was that we weren't going to have Joe Pantoliano in it, and they found a way around that according to the trailer.) The rest of what's coming this summer? A sequel to Twister? Blech. That Crow remake looks like hot garbage.

The Beetlejuice sequel damn well better be great...

Anyway, public releases - I forgot the EMCSA was off last week, so they'll have a double dose of my stuff this week, but here's what's coming.  5/25 - MG18, 6/1 - QTAA 6, CARP 7, 6/8 - Captains' Days 1, QT2:17, 6/15 - QTPT16, Neon Stonehenge 3, 6/22 - MG19, Pack 8.