The ThunderCats original series will forever be near and dear to me as one of the first cartoon series I can claim to have fully watched. Originally broadcasted in 1985, the series is a creative mixture of the traditional heroic storytelling set in a fantastical sci-fi world with alien cat-like humans saving the day, known as the ThunderCats.

The Sword of Omens

Having to escape their dying home planet of Thundera and avoid the relentless attacks from the Mutants of Plun-Darr, the ThunderCats are the surviving nobility of the Thundereans who are tasked with protecting the Sword of Omens and Eye of Thundera. The eye being the source of the species amazing powers is embedded in the blade of the Sword of Omens, which can only be used by the Lord of the ThunderCats.

Due to the circumstances of the evacuation, this duty fall upon the young heir Lion-O who is barely old enough to understand the circumstances of their fleeing Thundera. He is accompanied by several other nobles including Jaga the Wise, analytical Tygra, incredibly fast Cheetara, Panthro the loyal warrior, the twins WilyKit and WilyKat, and Lion-O’s nursemaid/protector Snarf. To ensure the safety of the ThunderCats, Jaga tasks himself with piloting their ship to the nearest habitable planet, Third Earth. In doing so, he dies of old age while the rest of the ThunderCats survive through the journey with the almost totally anti-aging suspension capsules.

Base character references for the show (From Left to Right: Panthro, Tygra, Cheetara, Snarf, Lion-O [Adult form], Mumm-Ra the Everliving, WilyKit, WilyKat, Jaga, Mumm-Ra)

Each ThunderCat has a particular skill or related talent that provides benefits for their survival as the last of the Thundereans.

ThunderCats Jaga in Spirit form

Jaga has the knowledge of the history of Thundera and the skill of a veteran warrior, in addition to being one of the previous ThunderCat Lords. After his death he appears throughout the series as a ghostly guide for Lion-O to rely on in times of need.

Brass decided to stay grounded after her failure at electrical work. She decided to try her hand at cooking, recalling several TV shows she’d watched.

Brass went to the local chef’s college and found out there was an entrance exam. The exam consisted of several tests of knife skills such as julienne slicing carrots. After failing to even sharpen her knives properly, the instructor was blunt with Brass…

Her knife skills just didn’t make the cut.

Well, at least I took a stab at it, Brass thought as she left.

Story by Silk Cords of http://silkcordsblog.wordpress.com/. Check out her blog for saucy tales. Thanks for the funnies Silk!

It is heartening to see some have the courage to leave communities devoted to control and suppression. It is hard being ostracised, sometimes from family. Answers to the old questions are found in the Self through meditation disciplines which over several lives lead to Cosmic Consciousness.

I suppose I was lucky in being drawn into metaphysical knowledge answering the questions about Jesus and our future. It is not a recipe for happiness but gains a modicum of peace and satisfaction.

We are favoured in existence on this planet which has endured us for so many millions of years, and is special in the position in space making it desirable resulting in a number of conquests. To know of these allows a very different attitude to the earth and gratitude to those who saved us. Threats remain, but there is secret information of our establishing protection in space with help and ingenuity beyond orthodox science and rocketry.

But who wants to know? Due to the censorship of the media, and slavish adherence to religion there are few. But there is some disclosure on YouTube from unofficial sources, and books to make you wake up.

Original linkOriginal author: Peter Daley

I’m reading a lot of comic books right now and for the most part they’ve all been great. This year I am going to take a new step in a my writing career and attempt to write comics myself. I have always had a philosophy about the evolution of literacy that posits that literacy is evolving in ways that people a hundred years ago would have never conceived.The medium of comic books as means of storytelling in my opinion has and will always be on the bleeding edge of this evolution.

Back when I taught middle school I had some students that would only ever finish reading books if they were comic books or graphic novels. Lot’s of teachers thought that this was because these were the only books that these kids were capable of accessing in terms of reading mechanics. I would argue that these students understood literacy as the act of engaging with stories in the most stimulating and gratifying ways possible.

Latching onto stories takes more than great writing (whatever that is) readers must be able to connect to characters, be afraid for them, or hate them. It’s about rooting for the underdog and seeing yourself in decisions of the heroes and the villains. Good writing should make you question your sense of morality and your role as a thread in the fabric of humanity. Good comics serve as the modern day fables that help us to do exactly that.

The reason I am going to attempt to wade into the oversaturated market of commercial comic book writing is not because I think there aren’t great stories out there, in fact the market is flooded with great books that have been put together by ridiculously talented creative teams, but I want to offer another perspective of the same humanity that all comic writers are looking at.

Comics are windows that frame what it means to be human. Everyone’s vantage point is unique and everyone’s vantage point has the power to help shape the perspectives of others. More voices saying different things is always a good thing especially when we are talking about the things that impact us love, loss, fear, justice, despair, hope, identity, purpose…

Original linkOriginal author: R. A. Ingram

Often when we speak of “reinventing” characters, we have in mind the passing of an old character through many hands, with each hand just slightly tweaking the character to be more like how the new creator sees it. We see this constantly in superhero franchises, as decades-old figures are fitted to the desires of an aging or changing audience. This act is well reflected in Harold Bloom’s writings on poetic misprision, in which one creator finds inspiration from a previous creator, implementing already-used elements into the new writing.

Discussions like these generally involve the adaptations of fictional stories and characters. But, is it possible to apply some form of Bloom’s poetic misprision to the reinvention of real people, of historical figures?

The idea of reimagining historical figures as fictional characters is not unheard of, but when it’s done, they’re usually of characters of “legend”, with their own “lore”; Disney is likely the most famous for this, particularly with their reinvention of the historical figure of Mulan. I, on the other hand, would like to put forth a slightly more obscure story.

Bungo Stray Dogs is a serialized manga by Kafka Asagiri and Sango Harukawa, running from 2012 to present, following a Japanese detective agency. The characters, in proper action manga fashion, all have a special “skill” — some specialized magical ability. However, what might go over the heads of most of its unaware English readers is the nature of the character’s names and abilities.

Each character is an interpretation of a famous author or poet, and their skill is always a direct reference to one of that creator’s works. One of the series’ major characters, for example, shares his name with famous Japanese author Osamu Dazai, and his skill “No Longer Human” is a direct English translation of the title of Dazai’s semi-autobiography, Ningen Shikkaku. Most of the characters also retain traits of their namesakes, as Dazai shares his real counterparts’ affinity for suicide.

Wonder Woman Cover from the Gold Age

In the book The Anxiety of Influence, author Geoffrey Klock cites Harold Bloom in the idea that any literature, which gets rewritten or furthered by another author or producer, always ends in a misreading and misprision. These ideas of misprision and misreading refer to the suspected loss of original content to be replaced with the injection of one’s own perspectives and importance found within the original story line. Examples like these can often be found in many comic book series. Klock analyzes The Dark Knight Returns through the lense of Harold Bloom and expresses the variations of the story line which differ from the original story. This post will attempt to also do this through the lense of Wonder Woman.

The first writer of Wonder Woman was WIlliam Marston, pen name Charles Moulton. Under him Wonder Woman was a powerful Amazon princess with god like powers who chose to leave the veiled island of Themyscira to aid America in World War Two. She used her lasso of truth, and her ability to deflect bullets with her wrist cuffs to combat foreign spies. She also contains powers of the gods in the shape of strength, speed, intelligence, and agility. Her powers were her greatest attribute, and her finest quality. Her powers were the baseline for the entire series and the reason for her heroism. However, as the series furthered, and the second volume was produced, the next author had a little different idea for Princess Diana.

The second author and during the silver age was Robert Kanigher. His approach with Diana was to expose her heroic qualities which were not godly. After experiencing World War II, Diana realizes how much death, destruction and pain is on Earth, and chooses to give up her godly talents to pursue martial arts and fight evil powers regardless of whether she was equipped with her lasso of truth or not. Instead of fighting crime dressed as Wonder Woman she began to adapt Wonder Woman as a secret identity as she made her life as a clothing store owner to fit in with the rest of the earthlings.This showcases Diana as a hero on the basis of her morals rather than her powers. She sees a community in need, and feels the need to help regardless if it means losing her paradise island and powers. She is the true definition of a hero in both stories just represented in different ways. This is a large shift in story line after the change in authors,

This large shift in story line contributes to the findings of Harold Bloom and Geoffrey Klock as one witnesses a misreading and misprision of Wonder Woman through the change in authors between the gold and silver age.

Original linkOriginal author: Emily Eckart

I love brainstorming, in fact sometimes I cant separate when I am doing it and when not. I wonder what is the limit of diversifying. How many projects can one handle? What does it depend on?

how organised a person ishow easily he can be distractedhow much time he hashow much focused to a taskhow easily he can change his focushow much he want it?how much motivation he has?and many more..

Me I overdiversify, don’t do deep research when investing and always losing money.

You ?

Original linkOriginal author: Crypto for all

So here’s the thing… One character I have always been interested in is the Green Arrow. Did I find out about him through the popular TV show where he performs feats of athletic prowess like the salmon ladder pictured within this text? Yes. Yes, I did. However, I didn’t stay for the salmon ladder exercises, the allure for me was found in his brooding vigilante character armed with a bow and a purpose.

His depiction in the TV show is a person who has been hurt, but has become stronger because of it… like a callus. You learn about how he was shipwrecked on an island for 5 years and comes back to fix the city of Starling. He sets up shop and starts taking out wealthy people doing nefarious things to the good people in the city. His tactics of severe intimidation accompanied by his catch phrase: “You have failed this city,” are usually enough to make the wrong-doers repent and fix whatever they did wrong, but for those more hesitant, Oliver sort of… Does it for them, by what ever means necessary.

This was the Oliver Queen I knew until I sat in class and saw the cover of Green Lantern-Green Arrow, where my Oliver Queen was suddenly depicted as a blonde slightly older gentleman with a beard. To say I was shocked is an understatement. Naturally, I had to do some more digging on my favorite archer and where he came from and found out that not only did he start out leaping through windows and on top of buildings, but looked painfully like everyone’s stereotypical idea of Robin Hood. Green Arrow and Speedy seemed to be the classic heroes bursting into rooms as the bad guys gasp their names in horror.

However, the interesting thing about Green Arrow is that he has been rebooted many times over the years. He had an extensive run in 1988 where we see Oliver a bit more vulnerable than usual. He has self-doubt and confides in a loved on about his struggles, which is not so easily done by the Oliver Queen of 2012. The revised Oliver Queen as seen in Arrow is more reserved with his loved ones when he first gets back, he doesn’t openly share his feelings for a while and even then it usually isn’t voluntary.

However, the character that 2012 Oliver Queen represents makes sense for the new demographic that the content is being written for. When he was first written in 1944, the US had just gotten out of a war and the world was still shaken. At that time, the people wanted a simple hero, who would magically zoom onto rooftops, defeat the bad guys in one swoop and not say or emote anything much deeper than “Oh darn.” When Green Lantern-Green Arrow came out and revamped Green Arrow, the writers highlighted the dichotomy of Green Lantern, who always did things the right, legal way as opposed to Green Arrow who focused more on complexity of people and circumstances, leading him to be a vigilante in the eyes of the law. This pairing of characters has been seen in DC Comics with Superman and Batman, having a similar divide in how they went about getting justice.

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Original linkOriginal author: El Boxa

Photo: Film Frame/Marvel Studios -

I know what you’re thinking, oh I must be one of those uneducated rubes, who supports Thanos, just to trigger the libs, but you couldn’t be more wrong. I am not only a professor of Galactic Policy at the University of Chicago, but I have spent many years reading up on nihilistic theory, and overpopulation. I believe that my profession, and life experiences make me more than qualified to way in on the backlash against Emperor Thanos. Now, some of you have probably spent the last two years since half the population was killed, sulking, and tweeting hateful rhetoric about our ruler. But, if you’ll hear me out, I think you’ll see my point of view. Sure, I was sad when half the population was killed, but having followed Thanos for years, I knew that deep down he cared about this galaxy, and wanted the best for it. If you weren’t moved to tears by Thanos recent speech about how bad he felt about having to kill his own daughter, who he spent 20 years torturing, than you’re clearly blinded by your own political bias.

Now, as a professor I have of course been stigmatized for my beliefs, and have been called out by my students, and peers for supporting a man who committed mass genocide. However, I believe that they are seeing it all wrong, and that they are in fact the real villains. We all know that higher education has been violently taken over by leftists, and cultural marxists, and that they don’t speak for the masses, or what’s left of them. I have spent time with these people, I have travelled the universe speaking first hand with supporters of Thanos, and believe me, they are not all cruel, violent, sorcerers like the liberal media would have you believe. They are ordinary, blue blooded people, and aliens, just like those who used to make this galaxy great. Now, I know you’re all sad because your favorite celebrities, The Avengers, have told you to be, but I for one don’t get my politics from over paid celebrities. If the so called, tolerant left is still going to march and protest, and rally together to defeat Thanos, well, aren’t they just as violent as him? This may be hard for biased members of the media to believe, but there are good people on both sides, and the silent majority, does not appreciate the hateful attacks against a good family man like Thanos. If you’re still so blinded by the leftist media, that you can’t possibly understand why Thanos killed your loved ones out of the goodness of his heart, that’s one thing. But can’t we at least be civil?

Original linkOriginal author: Danny Neary

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Original linkOriginal author: El Boxa

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Original linkOriginal author: El Boxa

So full…yet so unfulfilled

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Original linkOriginal author: Kimmy Tao

В английском языке есть классное слово «celebrated». Оно переводится как «прославленный», но в нем есть какое-то тепло и очень радостные…

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Original linkOriginal author: Anastasia Gushchina

More Fun Comics #14 Cover Scan

We return to More Fun Comics, whilst remaining back in 1936, to check in on Doctor Mystic, who has returned to his former moniker of Doctor Occult. This issue can be found on Comic Book +. There’s not much in front of him. We can just flip over to page 10 and get this party started.

Koth, buddy, what did you do with your fez? You looked much better in it. The old prune juice face doesn’t do you any favors either. Might I suggest some lip balm? I bet that would do wonders for Spirit World chapped lips.

We’re also back to Leger and Reuths. Tsk tsk. National sure had one heck of a problem with crediting their people appropriately.

When last we saw Doc Oc, he and his pal, Zator, were not having a good time of it. Koth had ambushed them in the Spirit World and sicced the Nether Beasts on them when Zator expressed disinterest in his TED Talk. But wait, what’s this?

Koth’s Beasts? What? I thought they were just natural denizens of the Spirit, uhm… Supernatural World? The local predators and such? You know, basic ecology and stuff like that. Koth just encouraged them to attack, not that they needed much coaxing. The doctor probably has an “EAT ME” sign on his back what with the way things have been going.

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Original linkOriginal author: Sean Stephane Martin

Comic books and comic book elements can make anything better. You may have heard that Bill Maher isn’t a fan of comics books that’s okay, nobody’s perfect.

(Bill you can stop reading now, we can catch up later,)

Nothing captivates in quite the same way that comic books do. I’m excited to tell you why. If, as I suspect, you’re reading this because you already love comics, then this will give you some vocabulary to talk to the unwashed masses. If you are part of the unwashed masses, read on and be forever changed.

First, let’s take a moment to define the term.

“Comics are juxtaposed pictorial and other images in a deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or produce an aesthetic response in the viewer.”

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Original linkOriginal author: Guillaum Sans E

To seek out new civilizations.Yukio Kevin Iraha

Young Yukio Kevin Iraha drew cartoons as his pastime. Yukio Kevin Iraha’s art is one of a kind. Yukio Kevin Iraha strive to be creator of out of this world.

Original linkOriginal author: Yukio Kevin Iraha

To boldly go where no man has gone before.Yukio Kevin Iraha

Young Yukio Kevin Iraha drew cartoons as his pastime. Yukio Kevin Iraha’s art is one of a kind. Yukio Kevin Iraha strive to be creator of out of this world.

Original linkOriginal author: Yukio Kevin Iraha