Just had to play a round of Schnapsen, a game almost entirely built on luck and which I haven't played for about 5 years, against the drunk friend of my mother because they all got drunk for some reason or another and roped me in when I went to the kitchen to look what all the howling (yes, howling) was all about. Regardless, I won it quite easily because my opponent was bad, drunk and way too aggressive in his play-style.
Two opinions now think it's the battery, that the dome light being left on in the freezing cold finished it off. Attempts to jump start it with a generator failed. We need another car to jump it, but we don't have jumper cables. We're going to call a garage or AAA in the morning.
The indicator lights all came on, then began flickering, and then went dead.
Nothing else seems wrong with the car. Plus, it ran after hitting the pothole, and died after having its light left on all night. If another car can't jumpstart it, we may be in deeper trouble. What do you think?
Edit: It also made a strange, loud rattling/buzz sound when Natalie tried to start it. I have no idea what that could mean.
I'm thinking it's the battery, too. I had so many electrical problems with The Gran, which, due to electrical shorts, would die if you just left it in one place for too long. Also, the buzz sound sounds like the whine/chugcchugchug you get when the engine won't turn over. The only worry I have is that if the battery is indeed dead, you should get someone to take it out before it freezes. If a dead battery is in the cold for two long, it will freeze and become permanently damaged.
On an unrelated note, I was watching an Bleach dub on [AS] last night, and there was an spoken reference to Hokuto no Ken. Made my evening.
Weak. If you have to plagiarize something, can't you plagiarize something good?
Well, overall quality isn't usually the goal of Shonen Fighting shows. Cool fights are. 12-year olds with money to spend on manga and comics usually aren't interested in stuff like Akira unless they've been instructed to search that stuff out by a wise mentor.
Weak. If you have to plagiarize something, can't you plagiarize something good?
Say what you want about Bleach, but the artwork is impeccable. EDIT: Oh yeah, he was stealing the story, too. Carry on.
No, it's not. He's wasting a whole lot of space every single chapter with nothing but white areas and this has a direct impact on the flow and development of the story as well as the amount of plot that can be navigated through in any one chapter. His wasteful artwork is part of the reason that his story is crap because it simply doesn't move forward at an acceptable pace.
He's wasting a whole lot of space every single chapter with nothing but white areas
Interesting. Personally, I feel that his use of space as a design, compositional, and storytelling element is one of his strongest points. I'm not going to defend his writing, but his visual storytelling is incredible. If you don't have the patience for it, I don't know what to say. It's still a lot more story per month than you're going to get from any American comic.
Well, overall quality isn't usually the goal of Shonen Fighting shows. Cool fights are. 12-year olds with money to spend on manga and comics usually aren't interested in stuff like Akira unless they've been instructed to search that stuff out by a wise mentor.
While this is an overall true statement, there can be lines drawn on the levels of quality within the shonen genre and simply putting it down as "it's just shonen" does not help here. There are some very entertaining, well drawn and/or well told shonen fighting series out there that I believe to be worth reading for everybody looking for some lighthearted entertainment. Examples I would name would be One Piece, Hajime no Ippo and to some extent Astro Boy.
However, Bleach is just crap due to the lack of pace it has. The series is now in it's 9th year of serialization and they are still chasing the same bad guy with absolutely nothing resolved and basically no purpose or goal. There is no character development, no entertainment, no nothing and all of it wrapped tightly with a ton of Deus Ex Machina.
I admit that I do read Bleach scanlations when they come out. However, I do it pretty much for the same reason I read FSTDT: To give a frame as to how bad the rest of the world out there can be.
I'm not going to declare Shonen fighting the end all be all of manga. It is certainly not. However, there is room for shonen fighting series to be entertaining and interesting. Bleach is neither.
He's wasting a whole lot of space every single chapter with nothing but white areas
Interesting. Personally, I feel that his use of space as a design, compositional, and storytelling element is one of his strongest points. I'm not going to defend his writing, but his visual storytelling is incredible. If you don't have the patience for it, I don't know what to say. It's still a lot more story per month than you're going to get from any American comic.
I can agree that he has some artistic talent, but I do think he applies it to the entirely wrong medium. He may be good for something like cover illustrations, movie posters, single pieces of artwork, something like that. However for a sequential form of storytelling, on a weekly basis no less, his artwork is simply too wasteful to keep a nice pace that keeps the reader interested and moves the plot forward.
I don't read the Bleach manga anyway, I'm mainly in it for the anime, which also boasts Kubo's art. To each their own though; it's not like I spend a large amount of time on Bleach that I could spend on other things. I'd be interested in One Piece; I should probably check it out.
That being said, Bleach is by far not the FSTDT of manga. Not even close; the art alone is its redemption, and I'm with Funfetus on that.
However for a sequential form of storytelling, on a weekly basis no less, his artwork is simply too wasteful to keep a nice pace that keeps the reader interested and moves the plot forward.
You know what? BLAME! is the same way, and BLAME! is fucking awesome.
I can agree that he has some artistic talent, but I do think he applies it to the entirely wrong medium. He may be good for something like cover illustrations, movie posters, single pieces of artwork, something like that. However for a sequential form of storytelling, on a weekly basis no less, his artwork is simply too wasteful to keep a nice pace that keeps the reader interested and moves the plot forward.
Wow. I SO COMPLETELY disagree. Kubo Tite is one of my absolute favorites when it comes to comics storytelling, but nowhere close when it comes to pure illustration. I can understand why you think he's wasting too much space, but I think he's using that space to maximum effect precisely by leaving it open. Also, seriously, you're complaining about some open space in 20-30 pages/week? Maybe I'm more accepting because I grew up on 22 pages/month in American comics. Smartass translation: Manga fans are spoiled.
I can understand why you think he's wasting too much space, but I think he's using that space to maximum effect precisely by leaving it open.
In a manga that deals frequently with the ethereal, the material, and the contrast between the two, I feel like that art style is perfectly suited to the story he wants to tell.
Also, European comics has also been known to have giant landscape spreads with very little detail, even by masters (Tintin In Tibet's pages of snowy landscapes are a good example). It's not like open space hasn't been used creatively before.
Also, European comics has also been known to have giant landscape spreads with very little detail, even by masters
Yep. There's a tendency to equate detail with quality. Sometimes, detail is what's needed -- sometimes, openness is what's needed. Quality is in knowing which is which. Space is another part of your artistic vocabulary, and it has powerful potential in comics. Lesser artists (like me!) often try to compensate for a real or perceived lack of ability with lots of detail. It takes balls to leave it blank -- and skill, because the fewer lines there are, the more perfect every line needs to be. Here's a tongue-in-cheek quote I found somewhere online and saved:
Scientists report that fully 17% of the artistic details in the known universe are attributable to cowardice; there are artists who add detail to hedge their bets, believing that it is safer to draw lots of little lines than one big one.
My February is free to go to Hell. I have had roughly 5 days off since it began. I worked 11 straight opening shifts....making roughly a thousand dollars.
Then I had three days off, now I am working toward ten straight days. This weekend my convention tour begins. it needs to happen. Or fire will commence.
So, at work today, I was wandering through the imaging department and saw an x-ray tech walk away from their computer workstation with it still logged on. Me- Hey, you didn't log out. Them- So? I'll be back in five minutes. Me- This is an unsecured area, and someone might try to get information off the computer. Them- That's ridiculous. Me- Is it? I'm standing right here. Them- You're security, I can trust you. Me- Then you're an idiot. (walks away)
Wow. I SO COMPLETELY disagree. Kubo Tite is one of my absolute favorites when it comes to comics storytelling, but nowhere close when it comes to pure illustration. I can understand why you think he's wasting too much space, but I think he's using that space to maximum effect precisely by leaving it open. Also, seriously, you're complaining about some open space in 20-30 pages/week? Maybe I'm more accepting because I grew up on 22 pages/month in American comics. Smartass translation: Manga fans are spoiled.
I am not complaining about the empty space in every chapter. I'm complaining about the aggregate total of this empty space which prevents him to string together a decent pace.
An example. I do not regularly visit 4chan but when I was hanging out with the guys at Suimasen-Scans on their IRC channel they linked me once to a thread there where someone originally just posted two lines, somewhat conically running together without moving, over a white space about the format of a spread page. The thread then proceeded to apply some shading to the lines to make them fuzzy, put the word "Cero" in a huge exclamation bubble on the artwork and insert one or two random reactionary shots from various Bleach characters on the borders. Tada, it was completely indistinguishable from an legit Bleach illustration.
I guess we can agree to disagree.
I'd be interested in One Piece; I should probably check it out.
I know Scott definitely doesn't like One Piece. There is a bit to get through and it takes its time, but slowly but surely a big world unfolds itself in this manga and this is part why I like it. It is entertaining, funny and varied.
That being said, Bleach is by far not the FSTDT of manga. Not even close; the art alone is its redemption, and I'm with Funfetus on that.
I didn't say Bleach was the FSTDT of manga. What I said was that I read it for the same reason I read FSTDT. I am not saying Bleach is super-awful, the worst thing of humanity the way FSTDT shows us, but it's just crap and the reason I read it is that it is crap and reminds me how much better other things in fact are. If it would take longer than 2 minutes a week I spend on Bleach, I probably wouldn't read it at all.
However for a sequential form of storytelling, on a weekly basis no less, his artwork is simply too wasteful to keep a nice pace that keeps the reader interested and moves the plot forward.
You know what? BLAME! is the same way, and BLAME! is fucking awesome.
There are quite a few series operating in that manner. Slam Dunk would be one. Gantz would be another. I used to read those but I gave up because they are just keep being stuck at any one thing without anything really interesting happening and without the plot advancing at all. They are things like Bleach, which you may read on a weekly basis because you can get it for free and it doesn't take a lot of time, but it's not really worth spending any money on it.
I have yet to read Blame. I've been recommended it from a few other people as well.
I'm complaining about the aggregate total of this empty space which prevents him to string together a decent pace.
What you may not be realizing is that empty space doesn't actually take that long to draw, so it isn't contributing much to the time it takes to get these things out.
So, at work today, I was wandering through the imaging department and saw an x-ray tech walk away from their computer workstation with it still logged on. Me- Hey, you didn't log out. Them- So? I'll be back in five minutes. Me- This is an unsecured area, and someone might try to get information off the computer. Them- That's ridiculous. Me- Is it? I'm standing right here. Them- You're security, I can trust you. Me- Then you're an idiot. (walks away)
Users need to be instructed how to "lock" their computer.
What you may not be realizing is that empty space doesn't actually take that long to draw, so it isn't contributing much to the time it takes to get these things out.
No. I do realize that and I vastly respect the amount of time that goes into pushing out a weekly product. However, it is hard to consider this as such a difficult or impeding thing when comparing it to other weekly manga series which have not the kinds of problems I perceive in Bleach despite having a higher art-density (for the lack of a better word).
He likes the idea, the characters, and the setting, but not the drawn out fights.
QFT. The fights are ponderous, which is a surprising accomplishment considering the nature of the fights. The show spends the most time on the least interesting aspect of the world.
If someone cut together an edit that just skipped the middle 95% of every fight, I'd probably watch the show.
Why watch it? Shonen fighting shows are always drawing things out eternally, but that is not because of the source material, it is because it is trying to stretch 20 pages of manga into 20 minutes of video and the sale of the product and keeping it going continuously prevents them from doing something better or compressing it. This is the case with every shonen fighting series based on a still ongoing series of manga and unfortunately One Piece is no exception.
Just read the manga online somewhere. There you give a quick glance over the fights and just skip to the next page.
However, it is hard to consider this as such a difficult or impeding thing when comparing it to other weekly manga series which have not the kinds of problems I perceive in Bleach despite having a higher art-density (for the lack of a better word).
It's difficult to compare any two comics fairly without knowing all the factors. How many assistants are these guys using? Does Naruto or One Piece have more assistants than Bleach? How much are they tasked with? I've read Kubo saying that he draws all the figures in Bleach himself. Does Kubo just spend more time getting the figure drawing right than the artists of those other manga do? It sure looks like it. Either way, I think the space is more a matter of aesthetic choice than a matter of efficiency (If you want to see some serious I-just-didn't-want-to-draw-it whitespace, check out Dogs -- beautiful figure drawing, but it could stand a background here and there), and I'll always take beautifully composed pages over crammed and cluttered ones, even if it means a scene has to stretch out a few more pages. That just means more beautiful pages in the end, after all.
Comments
On an unrelated note, I was watching an Bleach dub on [AS] last night, and there was an spoken reference to Hokuto no Ken. Made my evening. Well, overall quality isn't usually the goal of Shonen Fighting shows. Cool fights are. 12-year olds with money to spend on manga and comics usually aren't interested in stuff like Akira unless they've been instructed to search that stuff out by a wise mentor.
EDIT: Oh yeah, he was stealing the story, too. Carry on.
However, Bleach is just crap due to the lack of pace it has. The series is now in it's 9th year of serialization and they are still chasing the same bad guy with absolutely nothing resolved and basically no purpose or goal. There is no character development, no entertainment, no nothing and all of it wrapped tightly with a ton of Deus Ex Machina.
I admit that I do read Bleach scanlations when they come out. However, I do it pretty much for the same reason I read FSTDT: To give a frame as to how bad the rest of the world out there can be.
I'm not going to declare Shonen fighting the end all be all of manga. It is certainly not. However, there is room for shonen fighting series to be entertaining and interesting. Bleach is neither.
That being said, Bleach is by far not the FSTDT of manga. Not even close; the art alone is its redemption, and I'm with Funfetus on that. You know what? BLAME! is the same way, and BLAME! is fucking awesome.
Also, European comics has also been known to have giant landscape spreads with very little detail, even by masters (Tintin In Tibet's pages of snowy landscapes are a good example). It's not like open space hasn't been used creatively before.
Then I had three days off, now I am working toward ten straight days. This weekend my convention tour begins. it needs to happen. Or fire will commence.
Me- Hey, you didn't log out.
Them- So? I'll be back in five minutes.
Me- This is an unsecured area, and someone might try to get information off the computer.
Them- That's ridiculous.
Me- Is it? I'm standing right here.
Them- You're security, I can trust you.
Me- Then you're an idiot. (walks away)
An example. I do not regularly visit 4chan but when I was hanging out with the guys at Suimasen-Scans on their IRC channel they linked me once to a thread there where someone originally just posted two lines, somewhat conically running together without moving, over a white space about the format of a spread page. The thread then proceeded to apply some shading to the lines to make them fuzzy, put the word "Cero" in a huge exclamation bubble on the artwork and insert one or two random reactionary shots from various Bleach characters on the borders. Tada, it was completely indistinguishable from an legit Bleach illustration.
I guess we can agree to disagree.
I know Scott definitely doesn't like One Piece. There is a bit to get through and it takes its time, but slowly but surely a big world unfolds itself in this manga and this is part why I like it. It is entertaining, funny and varied.
I didn't say Bleach was the FSTDT of manga. What I said was that I read it for the same reason I read FSTDT. I am not saying Bleach is super-awful, the worst thing of humanity the way FSTDT shows us, but it's just crap and the reason I read it is that it is crap and reminds me how much better other things in fact are. If it would take longer than 2 minutes a week I spend on Bleach, I probably wouldn't read it at all. There are quite a few series operating in that manner. Slam Dunk would be one. Gantz would be another. I used to read those but I gave up because they are just keep being stuck at any one thing without anything really interesting happening and without the plot advancing at all. They are things like Bleach, which you may read on a weekly basis because you can get it for free and it doesn't take a lot of time, but it's not really worth spending any money on it.
I have yet to read Blame. I've been recommended it from a few other people as well.
If someone cut together an edit that just skipped the middle 95% of every fight, I'd probably watch the show.
Just read the manga online somewhere. There you give a quick glance over the fights and just skip to the next page.
Anyway, thanks for the discussion, I'm done.