Ish 5 of We’re Taking Everyone Down With Us has a nice back and forth during a game of chess. That takes my board-games-in-comics collection to 4 (see previous in retweet thread) Great work by @ashcanpress.com , Landini, Wordie, and Otsmane-Elhaou . Fun spy/sci fi story, glad I pulled it.

Great first issue of Event Horizon by @cjward.bsky.social , @tristansbones.bsky.social et al. They’ve - so far! - successfully navigated the treacherous waters of a prequel to one of my favorite movies. Keep up the good work~ It’s already different than I imagined.

I found an article Scouting in Popular Culture and added a few comics: @mattkindt.bsky.social Jenkins’ “Black Badge”; @peposed.bsky.social Casalanguida ‘ “Scout’s Honor”; and Christmas’ “Gamerville”. Enjoyed each. Any other Scout related comics out there? en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoutin...

The graphic novel Tongues by Anders Nilsen is fabulous. Highly recommend. Art, dialogue, concept, location, story, layout, characters, design: everything is unique, challenging. I marveled 150, 200 pages and then the story clicked for me. Brilliant. Heavy.

I think somewhere, I posted that John Muir and Gifford Pinchot were staying in separate hotels in Seattle at a pivotal moment. Trying to find that I stumbled on this fantastic dissertation. I’m thanked in the acknowledgments. Alaskan Sled Dog, 1870-1970 digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcont...

I strongly recommend reading John Muir: To the Heart of Solitude. CBY has been telling us that this is a great comic. I just finished it. Gorgeous art, and really captures the differences of America’s forests. Lomig captures the life and ideals of John Muir wonderfully.

Here’s another board game in a comic book~ Benjamin ish 2 by Winters and Leomacs via @oni-press.bsky.social The pieces look like Sorry, and the linearity of the death spiral reminds me of Walk the Plank or Life. Highly recommend Benjamin btw My board game comic collection now stands at 3!

I loved this new “Manga Lending Library” column by @hecuba.bsky.social in @comicsjournal.bsky.social 311. Happy to find TCJ on my comic shop shelf. New purchase for me. Kamen Rider itself is out of print already but I got that through B+N. Great! 🪲🤿🏍️

I noticed this particular edit in Google Maps has suddenly been getting crazy views. It looks like the optometrist was bought out by or now franchises Menicon Miru, a global contact chain. Maybe they’re paying for views? So now I’ve edited the name again and it will start from zero~~

I wrote this. If you like Seattle, cities, walking, or Scouting you might give it a look. Ambling the route of Seattle’s second Scout hike (1910), CD to Fauntleroy. ba-kground.com/the-second-s... No ads or anything.

The Assorted Crisis Events books are stellar. My LCS is next to my No Kings rallying point, so I emptied my box while I was there. In ACE 3 @denizcamp.bsky.social asks “What if the AppleTV show Dark Matter dealt with transdimensional immigration issues?”

I was about ready to tut-tut Google Maps for this placement of "South Seattle" right on top of Beacon Hill next to the VA. Over on the left I've put an X where the old South Seattle School was, down in the neighborhood that got trapped in industry. But as you'll see in a sec, I was wrong!

“the newspapers.. erupted with sensational headlines and stories about a riot in the camp at Tule Lake. My landlord.. had been.. in the camp.. and had witnessed only a peaceful demonstration.” - Louise Crowley witnessed these same lies 80 years ago. ddr.densho.org/media/ddr-de...

I signed up for Cruel Universe vol 2 and Catacomb of Terror (July title, but navigation difficulties). And ordered a John Muir bio GN. Also looking forward to Benjamin and They Choose Violence in a couple weeks. Really recommend anthology Vanishing Point. Ish 1 was great.

Memorial Day weekend Scout service events took me to Evergreen Washelli and Lakeview. This year I found the graves of Seattle’s first Eagle Scout (Aldus Hoopman) at EW and first Japanese American Eagle Scout (Chet Sakura) at Lakeview.

Did some street cleaning today with some coworkers. Been doing it for a year now.

Song of a Blackbird by @vanlieshoutstudio.bsky.social is incredibly beautiful and moving. And, unfortunately, timely. I can’t recommend it highly enough. It’s why I pick up books after recommendations that I don’t remember. There can be a few duds and then something incredible like this.

#OTD in 1943, Senator Tom Stewart of Tennessee calls for stripping Japanese Americans of their citizenship and placing them all in camps. Stewart claimed, "They cannot and never will be honest," before adding, "They are unworthy of the rights of citizens." 🗃 #skystorians

This reminds me - in one of my post-apocalyptic dreams, we discovered that at any given moment there are exponentially more pairs of women’s underwear in the supply chain than men’s underwear. At the tail end of civilization we were all wearing women’s underwear. Haven’t explored if it’s true.

A few hours left. I got: - Space is the Place - Legions of Boom - Revolutionary Feminists - Japanoise - Kannani & Document of Flames

Reading through Parker vol 2, there’s this scene with the boss playing Monopoly during a sleepover with his bodyguards. The cards are changed to reflect his backstory. Any other board games as comic plot devices out there? (Thanks @jonpaulmaki.com definitely enjoying this!)

This is what happens when the translator of Cat+Gamer also writes X-Men titles. Cat claws go “SNIKT”~ Hat tip to you @zackdavisson.com

If you love reenactments, here’s how to walk Seattle’s first Boy Scout hike from Sept 10, 1910. I’ve wanted to write this for a couple of years.

If we don’t get a full Finders/Keepers series from @definitelyvita.bsky.social @skyepatridge.bsky.social &co, can we at least get the board game? Its use as a narrative device to fast forward the comic book plot is really interesting. Maybe we’ll get a card game like Incan Gold in issue 2.

This scene in Assorted Crisis Events really describes living in America this year. Lucky for Ashley she was walking past a movie production that time… I think it’s a long runway from writing it until me reading the book, so kudos to @denizcamp.bsky.social @ericxyz.bsky.social &co on prescience

Yesterday I met a friend at Ballard Comm Center and walked to the Arboretum, recreating the first Boy Scout hike in Seattle in 1910. I boiled water for lunch at the CC after arriving by bus: two pouches of oshiruko (red bean soup) in thermos; filet of katsuo “for sports”, and kitsune udon. 8 miles.

Walt Woodward is remembered for his editorials in the Bainbridge Review opposing imprisonment of Japanese Americans in 1942. I stumbled on this early article, for journalism merit badge. In June 1927 Cedar Chips, the Seattle Scouting newsletter. He edited the July issue.

PODCAST: in which I vent, not just about the Pike Place Market backing out of the Day of Remembrance, but more broadly about the need for schools, libraries, and public agencies to resist pressure to erase history and the experience of people of color. VIA SOUNDCLOUD: soundcloud.com/cascadeofhis...

We reflect today on the signing of Executive Order 9066 in 1942, which led to the forced removal and incarceration of 125,000+ Japanese Americans. As we honor the #DayofRemembrance, we recognize that the work of preserving and sharing history has never been more urgent. densho.org/catalyst/the...

Honored to join NVC today at the Wa State House floor for Day of Remembrance. Scouts from Troop 252 carried the NVC, state, and US flag, and read the pledge of allegiance at the start. tvw.org/video/house-...

I've already made updates. I received a complete history of Troop 252 up through 1998. It's clearly too much, so for now I just updated the Scoutmaster list and a couple Silver Beaver profiles. Maybe we should create a History page for the troop on seattlebetsuin.org ?

It took me a month to write this intro to Seattle's Japanese American and Chinese American Scout troops from 1920 to now. There's so much more to tell! If you know someone who was in one of these troops, or maybe their parent or sibling, or a leader, point me their way~

Today I'm trying to dig up info about Roy Uenishi. He was from Seattle and became a Star rank Boy Scout at the Minidoka prison camp in 1943. His sister, much later spoke about "the fragility of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights" and felt every bears responsibility to prevent a repeat.

I really love The Legend of Auntie Po. It planted the seed of an idea in me… What if Paul Bunyan is a yokai? What if Japanese laborers brought him in the 1880s as they came to America to fill jobs after Chinese immigration became illegal? I’d like that @zackdavisson.com tale.

The Power Fantasy was every @phoenixcomics.bsky.social staff Pick of the Week. Me too. I think it’s fundamentally a study of Spider-Man/Stan Lee’s quote: “With great power there must also come great responsibility.” Responsibility to whom? Or what?

"I ask that the protection afforded by the Bill of Rights in our Constitution not be allowed to be abridged by Executive Order (or any other order) again." George I Fujimoto, 1981 I stumbled on this researching JA Scout troops in Seattle. He was in Troop 51, summer camp at Parsons in 1935.

If you’re in Koenji (Higashi-Koenji), stop by a great, tiny jazz cafe: @kissaseikatsu.bsky.social . I used to live nearby and I feel like I’m back there each time he posts open/close notes to Bluesky. When you look him up on Google Maps in English, you’ll see my words.

Someone already noticed and posted about this elsewhere, so I guess it's time to announce that I've been spending the past three years working on a comprehensive history of manga that traces the development of comics in Japan from the introduction of pantomime cartoons to smartphone apps. Pls buy?

Peace, understanding, and compassion are possible. In 1951, the people of Seattle raised money to buy playgrounds for Hiroshima, Japan. It did not undo the atomic bombing, but it was one step forward. Some are still in use today. I wrote about it, an ad-free read.

I walked past two guys on the edge of my neighborhood on the way home, talking. “They show you one face and after awhile they show you another face,” said one. “Yeah yeah yeah they’re two faced,” the other replied. I knew it was time to pull out issue 2 of Two Face by @cjward.bsky.social

I made a LEGO tribute to a comic book story about the 442nd. The story was in Frontline Combat in the 1950s, it's a semi-autobiographical tale of letterer Ben Oda's experience in World War Two. And I wrote this article about my tribute.

I've been pulling my grandfather's slides off Flickr. Here's the last of 12 posts of 130 Kodachrome slides of Moscow in 1969.

Two summers ago I found Paul Bunyan’s Stump. I’m not the first, but not much has been said about it. I want you to know about him and it and us so I wrote it down. Please enjoy. ba-kground.com/paul-bunyans...

Here's my follow-up describing my walk on the Tamagawa Aqueduct from Shinjuku. It's a free read on my ad-free website. Share with a friend who likes walking, history, urban design, or Japan. ba-kground.com/tamagawa-aqu...

I wrote this essay about Aoi Bridge, a spot in southwest Shinjuku. It's a prelude to a walk of the Tamagawa Aqueduct to Sasazuka which I'll post tomorrow. (Please share with a friend so it's not just AI training data.) ba-kground.com/aoi-bridge-t...

This is a great feature on Japanese curry. The bits at 16:30 and longer at 21:10 explain the rise of “retort pouch” microwavable ready-to-eat curry. It’s heavy to bring back to the US and to carry on the trail, but I love this genre of meals for backpacking. youtu.be/dvjyLxyfAoM?...

I love that SeaTac has a mascot! Should be called a “yuru chara” tho instead of stuffy “brand ambassador”. Be like Bellevue, honest about stealing a great civic idea from Japan. Here’s hoping Seattle’s yuru chara will be Squatch. www.portseattle.org/news/seas-ma...

I'm going to try a @gregpak.bsky.social 30 minute #WritingSprint . Mostly so that I don't stay up too late again. I'm working on a free-read history hike article about walking the Tamagawa Aqueduct in Shinjuku, Japan. 🥾🗾 I'll probably post things in 🧵 and feel free to correct me.

I'm working on a free-read article about a walk I took in Tokyo. I came upon this 1935 map in the Rumsey collection. It clearly illustrates the problem they already had in Shinjuku: 5 lines connecting at 4 separate stations. Marked up snippet here. Is it 13 lines now? 11 stations? 100s of exits.

Not sure what I’ll do here yet other than read about comics. I left the blue bird back before the name changed. There I wrote mostly about Seattle history. - I’m worried I look like a scam account so posting this for now.