Refurbished our character profile for Harvey #Comics' Pat Parker, War Nurse. She was a strange, early #1940s sort-of- #superheroine in the UK. Her feature grievously lacked direction, but that means more ways to use her in your stories. Pictures, #TTRPG stats, biography, skills, etc. - our usual.

Tomorrow will be the tenth day of my raging WoW bender, so after that it'll be time to resume work. I can't vanish for a full month, the readers would riot. 😼 As it turns out, pausing a WoW acount pauses the billing, *not* the game time. So I'll work part-time for the remaining 3 weeks.

Shawn Colvin also did an atmospheric, delicate acoustic cover of it. But one that doesn't need any sax. youtu.be/54F1A5BgUww

Refurbished our character profile for David Llewellyn Jones, the protag of the 25-year-old #videogame Project:IGI. Veteran commando, special operator, and intrusion expert. Always a useful archetype, that. Pictures, #TTRPG stats, weapons, hacking equipment, biography, skills, etc. - our usual.

Still on my WoW break like an obsessive maniac. I'm sick anyway, so being off-duty ain't no big loss. Two robust character concepts nailed down, three more emerging, and more likely on the way. Though presenting Warcraft material in a clear, accessible way is often a smidgen challenging.

Refreshed our small character profile for DC #Comics' Indian shape-changing super-heroine Aruna. Small because she only appeared once 😿 Checked @planetx.bsky.social's Book of Pride for possible Super Sekrit Data From DC, but alas - no such thing. Pics, #TTRPG stats, bio, powers, #Batgirl story...

Ok, it’s Saturday here, so you know what that means! For the rest of the weekend my DMs are open to new comics creators looking for advice or feedback on writing, art, or the industry at large! If that isn’t you, please share anyway, you never know who might have a question!

it's 2007. you're scrolling your favorite rss feeds in google reader. the internet ad market has led to a boom in mid-sized blogs that can employ tens of writers and editors in a relatively niche subject. you don't know it, but this is the last time journalism will be any good.

Lightly dusted one one our FAQs that explain our methods about character writeups. Since I needed to change its publication date. It's a bit inside baseball. But some folks love these discussions. And we need to lay out methodology somewhere, 'cause we ain't floppy handwavey louts.

Added a monster profile for the Blob, from the 1958 then 1972 classic #horror movies. It became one of the archetypal alien menaces. Photos, #TTRPG stats, capabilities, chronicled contacts, behaviour (it just blobs), etc..

Migraine's been kicking my arse. So I've sunk €13 into one month of World of Warcraft, playing it as comfort food and only doing open world solo levelling stuff. (I hadn't played since 2012). Goal is to play it obsessively enough that I'm forced to take an actual break, not like the previous...

Refurbished the character profile for Marvel #Comics' 1950s Great Video. "Atomic Age" villain who fought Marvel Boy during the 1950s so yes, technically it wasn't Marvel yet. He has radioactive x-ray vision ! Pictures, #TTRPG stats, biography, powers, quotes, etc. - our usual.

If nothing else, do it for War Nurse.

Re. RPS freelance, I now have a budget for irregular (maybe 6-12 pieces a year) 2000-3000 wordish, more granular and specific reporting and investigative criticism that broaches a new topic or addresses a gap in knowledge regarding something familiar.

This bit of art reconstruction would have worked better if I could remember how elbows work. Elbows. Such mystery.

Refurbished our FAQ about doing searches on writeups dot org. Yes, I know, it's not terribly exciting. But so many people just don't search for anything these days. IIt just doesn't occur to them. Also, we have spiffy taxonomical search tools ! Girls totally dig taxonomical search tools !

Added a character profile for Kunimitsu I and 2, from the Tekken video game. Lithe and fast ninja, and the daughter seems to be a much more popular pick than her mother was during the 1990s. Fox spirit theme. Pictures, #TTRPG stats, biography, skills, etc..

I'm currently working with illustrations I made in early 2016, which remain OK. But once I start dealing with profiles whose illustrations were done earlier than May, 2015... ... everything has to be redone from scratch. 😿

Refurbished our character profile for Marvel #Comics' Shinobi Shaw during the 1990s and 2000s. Mutant nepo failson, and unusually lamentable as #XMen foes go. Though I guess that under the right circumstances... Pictures, #TTRPG stats, powers, biography, quotes, characterisation, bath attacks...

Added two armour types to our #TTRPG document about low-tech, heavy body armour. First is a heavy bronze plate panoply, based on the famous Mycenaean breastplate and attachments found at Dendra. Second is fur-reinforced armour, based on both historical and video game examples. Scary and warm !

One day I will develop a secret, advanced technique allowing me to harness the focused totality of my psychic power - so I can write the word "version" right on the first try. Oh, and "affliction". Which is a bother when doing M&M stats.

Refurbished our character profile for Victor Bergman, played by Barry Morse during the 1st season of the #Space1999 sci-fi TV show of the late #1970s. Scientific genius behind some big inventions in this setting, such as energy pistols and spaceships. Photos, #TTRPG stats, biography, skills, etc.

People mock writers who procrastinate before writing something demanding. But I have hand-washed most keycaps on my keyboard while trying to focus. Whereas these people prolly have dirty, dirty keys.

Added a new profile for a throwing weapon to, amazingly enough, our #TTRPG document profiling throwing weapons. This time around it's the throwing mace. These were used by the Byzantine military, particularly the cataphracts. Everybody salutes the cataphracts, please.

Refurbished our profile for DC #Comics' Detective Patricia Powell. Obscure #Batman supporting character, love interest, ace detective, and an early (1964) depiction of a policewoman in comics. And then... nothing. Pictures, #TTRPG stats, biography, skills, historical context, etc. - our usual.

Refurbished our profile for Commander Koenig, Martin Landau's character in the #Space1999 sci-fi TV series of yore. Something of a TV dad and great leader figure. Pictures, #TTRPG stats, biography, some context, Moonbase Alpha personal equipment, etc..

(Revising my WoW draft to avoid the Deluge Of Fantasy Names that comes with this territory).

Spending the afternoon and evening to level a WoW character to 20 (the free plan) whilst taking notes and doing photography. So it's actually fairly fast and shouldn't impact my schedule too much. However, playing a vidja game robbed me of my chance to realise that this is not, in fact, a Sunday.

FWIW I still use ancient, hoary website www.height-weight-chart.com/heightweight... when I have to estimate vitals along a realistic (i.e., not super-hero-comic-book-ish) scale. It loads a mite slow, but it's quite convenient.

After carefully considering that : 1/ I've lost nearly 10 days to health issues. 2/ I have a shitload of deadlines for writing new articles to cleanly exhaust our publication backlog at long last. I have decided to write up my old Troll druid World of Warcraft PC, thus solving nothing. So smart ! 🙃

Hey friends, lots of comicsgate / anti-trans / general bad actor types joining bluesky over the past 24 hours, seemingly to harass anyone supporting gretchen felker-martin. keep an eye on your new follows and block on sight

Windows 11 offers a remarkably stable GUI as long as you do not conduct operations involving files.

I almost certainly took extensive notes during my 2004-2010 WoW career. And I supposedly have all of my documents ever archived. Supposedly. But empirically, it looks like these notes did the "tears in the rain" thing. 😿

I feel it is my responsibility as your mainstream comic book friend to further explain that what dc is doing to Gretchen is unprecedented They haven’t only cancelled the series, they are refunding the comics that are already created and recalling the issue that is already sold.

Refurbished our second character profile for Marvel #Comics' Gregor Shapanka, as Blizzard. Convenient, cool-looking cold-based #IronMan villain that was underused and killed off. But he has a successor, so that's OK. Pictures, #TTRPG stats, equipment, biography, characterisation, quotes, n'at.

We have two character profiles about Marvel #Comics' obscure super-villain Gregor Shapanka. He's primarily an #IronMan enemy. The first covers his two distinct appearances as "Jack Frost". Pictures, #TTRPG stats, powers (cold stuff, unsurprisingly), biography, inventions, quotes, characterisation.

Had to create a new #github account, couldn't get past the interminable Google verification mini-game that I can't physically read. Because irony, I wanted to log in to report an #a11y issue with the Zen browser. Why is everything so stupid ?

Currently testing whether I should stay on Floorp or switch to Zen. If this sentence made no sense whatsoever, there's still hope for you. You might make it in one piece. Leave us behind, we'll delay them as along as we can.

Refurbished the character profile for DC #Comics' Man Who Quit The Human Race. Bizarre 1964 #Batman sci-fi enemy. Giant psionic mutant... LIKE YER MUM. Pictures, #TTRPG stats, biography, powers, storyline, characterisation, etc. - our usual.

My productivity has been shite for a week or so, due to health issues. So, apologies for the lower-than-planned output. I expect to start recovering soon. But the deadlines for all the material I'm supposed to write ASAP haven't shifted. So this'll also impact the site refurbishment, uh, velocity.

on a practical note, gretchen is now out about $1400 a month (DC’s opening page rate is still $70 for writers, yeah?) so please go buy her books (MANHUNT, CUCKOO, and BLACK FLAME) and—very important!—leave short, *glowing* reviews about them online to help with the algorithm

Starting to refurbish our #Space1999 character profiles, from a classic 1970s #scifi show. Ladies first so we'll start with Dr. Helena Bain, expert space physician on the Moon, played by Barbara Bain. Photos, #TTRPG stats, skills, biography, gear, charaterisation, plan of Moonbase Alpha, etc..

Refurbished the last remaining profile from the 2015 Halloween #TTRPG character creation contest. The Invisible Knight, a pulps-like 1930s archaeologist now living in the present after a few days spent within a magic city. He fights crime ! With magic weapons !

Refurbished our character profile for #WildStorm #Comics' Brutus. He's a generic strongman baddie with the generic MERCs baddie team. And added #MutantsAndMasterminds stats. Since he's convenient. As a generic baddie. Pictures, #TTRPG stats, powers, biography, characterisation, etc. - our usual.

Refurbished our character profile for the earliest (1963-64) career of Marvel #Comics' #IronMan (Tony Stark). It stops just as he switches to the first Golden Avenger power armour. Because researching that will be a beast. Pictures, #TTRPG stats, biography, inventions, context, characterisation...

Me: "Hey, I wonder if this kind of upscaler could help with embigenning this small 1970s photo..." (Stares at resulting AI-"improved" faces). AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH (breathe) AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH

This is hugely important: If you use the Atlantic's author search tool, a TON of comics don't come up because they don't have creators listed. I just found like all my comics work looking directly and it sucks. So, make sure you're very thorough in your search.

... and this is the point where I accept I'll never have time to play Genshin Impact again (didn't touch it for more than a year,). And reluctantly unsub from the two YT channels I had left about it. Lovely game, but every gaming minute must be useful for writeups 😿.

Yep, we have *another* stop-motion-ish giant monster from an older movie from our contributor Ethan. This time it's Reptilicus, an odd pair of 1961 Danish-American #kaiju films. Sort of like a giant snake, but highly regenerative and from dozens of millions of years ago. #TTRPG stats, photos, etc.

Refurbished our character profile for Hellslayer, from the 1990s #WildStorm #comics from Image. Unremarkable super-mercenary with a gun. But sometimes that's what you need. Pictures, #TTRPG stats (DCH and M&M), ordnance, powers (or not), biography, characterisation, etc. - our usual.