Incredibles 2

Tuesday June 19, 2018 • Howard Tayler

Before I begin my review, a public service announcement: Incredibles 2 may trigger seizures in sufferers of photosensitive epilepsy¹, and may in other ways afflict anyone who is sensitive to flashing lights. Seriously. There’s a fight scene in a room full of patterned strobes, and in the darkened theater there will be no steady-state light source to provide refuge for your eyes. The scene is only a small slice of the movie but it’s enough to absolutely ruin your day if flashing lights can hurt you.

And now, the review: I really enjoyed Incredibles 2, but it petered out for me toward the end. My very favorite super-powered engagement took place mid-movie, and while there were plenty of cool heroic bits later, none of them lived up to that level of awesome.

Still, it’s a fun film. It suffers mostly in comparison to Incredibles, which is to my mind the best Fantastic Four film we’ve ever had (in the same way that Galaxy Quest is the best Star Trek film we’ve ever had².) Incredibles 2 doesn’t clear my Threshold of Awesome, but I definitely want to see it again. In my own home, where I can fast-foward through the flashing lights, because they triggered a brief migraine, and I already get enough of those.

¹ I’m not a medical professional, nor an expert in epilepsy, but that scene hurt *me* and I’m just a guy who sometimes gets migraines. The picture on the Epilepsy Foundation’s page? Imagine that, strobing, only without the helpful yellow bits.
² “How can it be, if it’s not ACTUALLY a Star Trek film?” Hence the comparison. It’s kind of nuanced. 

Introducing KNAVES, For Which I’m Writing An Introduction

Wednesday June 13, 2018 • Howard Tayler

I’m writing, right now¹, an introduction for Knaves, an anthology of anti-heroic villainy, tales of comeuppance and come-hither, which is in its last 24 hours on Kickstarter.

As of this writing it’s a few hundred dollars short of funding², so if you want to read it (and having read a few of the manuscripts I believe you DO want to read it) you should go say so with some money.

¹Technically “right now” I’m writing a blog post, but the moment I finish I’m diving back into that introduction.
² (UPDATED: the project has funded, and I’ve finished writing the introduction. I didn’t wait for funding to finish working, but I don’t know which order those things happened in because I was too busy writing.)

June 6th: “Five Billion Years, Four Panels”

Wednesday June 6, 2018 • Howard Tayler

I posted the inks for the June 6th, 2018 Schlock Mercenary installment over at the Schlock Mercenary Patreon a few weeks ago.

Last week I posted the colors, sans dialog, as a work-in-progress treat for patrons.

One such patron (who in this case happens to also be a long-time friend) asked for a wallpaper. The image didn’t really lend itself to that, and about two minutes after I posted that it couldn’t really be done I figured out a nice way to do it.

Schlock Mercenary Patreon supporters get things like this from time to time. At the $2.50/month level they also browse the archives a week at a time, and with no ads. If you’d like to browse with similar ease, and get those same digital goodies, head on over and join up!