Category: Uncategorized

The game changer

While it is still too soon to formally announce the details of Arkhaven’s plans for 2021, it isn’t too soon to answer those of you who have asked how you can support the latest offensive on the comics front, as it is going to be our biggest effort to date. It will also explain why we have not released any comics in any format over the latter half of 2020.

Here are some of the relevant points of information that may help you put things in context.

  • “After a long run on the Superman franchise there were only a few titles that Brian Bendis could work on that would be on a similar level. Justice League was one of those titles and that is exactly where we will see Bendis work next. As much as I would like to give Bendis a chance on Justice League his work since coming over to DC Comics has left a lot to be desired.”
  • Comic sales were 5.92 million copies at Diamond in March 2020, when shutdowns were beginning and when DC was still part of its offerings. It is off from the 8.82 million copies in October 2019… October 2020’s performance was based on only 373 new comics, versus 521 releases then. Marvel leads DC in units about 41{e61d147451bc60549e96d95b5c07be35845e0345eab7ed5d54cc3d49f812ab5c} to 30{e61d147451bc60549e96d95b5c07be35845e0345eab7ed5d54cc3d49f812ab5c}, but again reorders aren’t included for DC — and, of course, DC’s slate at 49 issues was much smaller than Marvel’s, at 77.
  • In March 2020, DC Comics solicited 62 new items, totalling 2,632 pages (though the amount of artwork generated is less, as this includes advertising and editorial pages) costing $281 made up of 49 $3.99 and 9 $4.99 titles. In March 2021, DC Comics has solicited 39 items totalling 1,896 pages, costing $221, made up of 16 $3.99 and 12 $4.99 titles.
  • Bleeding Cool revealed that a shocking number of writers and artists were learning of their terminations through the March solicitations, discovering that their books had been cut as part of DC’s effort to slash their line to just over 30 books.
  • In March 2021, Marvel solicited 66 new items, totalling 2,264 pages. In March 2020, Marvel solicited 99 new items totalling 3,408 pages.
  • It appears that the WarnerMedia layoff bloodbath, specifically at DC Comics, is set to keep the blood flowing well into the new year. Apparently the layoffs, which have already claimed the jobs of such long-time DC executives as now-former co-publisher Dan DiDio and now-former Editor-in-Chief Bob Harras, failed to trim enough fat, as Bleeding Cool reported over Christmas that a third wave of layoffs is coming in the New Year. No suspected names were mentioned, though at this point, one has to wonder how much more talent the company can afford to lose.

The ratio of actual artwork to solicited pagecount is around 67.5 percent. What Marvel solicits as a 32-page comic actually contains 20 pages of artwork, plus a cover. So, for the purposes of comparison, Marvel is now producing about 1,530 pages of comics and DC is producing around 1,281 pages per month. Since each page contains about 4.5 frames on average, and each hangul episode consists of around 30 frames, this means that Marvel produces an estimated 230 episodes per month, down from 331 per month in March 2020, and DC is now producing 192 episodes per month, down from 267 one year previous.

We can be extremely confident that these numbers will continue to decline, especially on the DC side, since a third round of layoffs have already been announced and 43 percent of their product line now consists of $4.99 comics, up from 16 percent the year before. It is obvious that DC is well into the familiar corporate death spiral; what is less obvious is that Marvel’s production decline is actually 5.6 percent steeper than DC’s.

And while we can’t announce firm numbers yet, thanks to the hard work by the Arkhaven team and our Brazilian partners, we are presently planning to provide between 100 and 120 episodes per month from day one of launch, which is presently scheduled for March. And yes, that means multiple new episodes every single day, seven days a week. Some of the material will be familiar to those who were on Webtoons, but a lot of it will be entirely new. These digital editions will supplement, not replace, our plans for print editions, as the cover to the right suggests. If you backed something, you will receive it, right down to the gold logos if applicable.

The launch titles will include, but are not limited to: Alt-Hero, Alt-Hero: Q, Chuck Dixon’s Avalon, A Throne of Bones, Shade, Quantum Mortis, Hypergamouse, Midnight’s War, Swan Knight’s Saga, Right Ho Jeeves, The Awakener, The Hammer of Freedom, The Legend of Boia, Go Monster Go, Cosmic Warrior, Clockwork Dancer, Flying Sparks, and Lieutenant Bravo.

The Arkhaven platform will be open, so independent creators will be welcomed and encouraged to participate in much the same manner as Webtoons Canvas. If you are an independent comics creator who wants to learn more about the platform, please feel free to get in touch. The Arkhaven subscriptions will be modified accordingly, but we have not yet determined the precise levels and benefits. We expect to do so later this month.

Transteria

That is the proper name for “gender dysphoria”, which in practical terms is little more than teenage girls being freaked out by womanhood by the Internet:

In January 2019, the Wall Street Journal ran my article, When Your Daughter Defies Biology.

I was flooded with emails from readers who had experienced with their own children the phenomenon I had described, or had witnessed its occurrence at their children’s schools – clusters of adolescents, suddenly discovering transgender identities together, begging for hormones, desperate for surgery.

Transgender activists attacked me online, so I offered them the opportunity to tell me their stories. 

I spoke to anyone who had something to offer on this issue. Their responses formed the basis of my book about the transgender craze.

I conducted nearly 200 interviews and spoke to more than four dozen families of adolescents, as well as transgender adults – those who present as women and those who present as men…. They have very little to do with the current trans epidemic plaguing teenage girls. 

Closer to the mark are the Salem witch trials of the 17th Century, the nervous disorders of the 18th Century, and anorexia nervosa, repressed memory, bulimia and the self-harm contagion in the 20th Century.

At the forefront of all this are adolescent girls. Their distress is real, but their self-diagnosis is flawed – more the result of encouragement and suggestion than psychological necessity.

Three decades ago, these girls might have hankered for liposuction. 

Two decades ago, they might have ‘discovered’ a repressed memory of childhood trauma or multiple personality disorder.

Today’s diagnostic craze isn’t demonic possession – it’s gender dysphoria. 

She’s right to a point. Because the source of the crazes, the spiritual driver that underlies the material aspects, is the same evil spirit of destruction that fuels abortion, professional careers, and every other form of female self-negation intended to prevent young women from becoming mothers. Because mothers are the key civilization; an attack on motherhood is an attack on society’s ability to sustain itself. 

And the reason Silicon Valley is so opposed to this author is because it is full of those who willingly serve that evil spirit.

The collapsing Hellmouth

The U.S. domestic box office was down 80 percent in 2020:

For the first time ever, China supplanted North America as the world’s top moviegoing market. Yet no country was spared as global box office revenue likely tumbled more than 72 percent, including a 70 percent dip in the Middle Kingdom.

Domestic movie tickets sold between Jan. 1 through Dec. 31 came generated an estimated $2.3 billion compared to $11.4 billion in 2019, according to Comscore estimates. That’s the lowest showing in at least 40 years. The dramatic fall-off was expected, considering that many cinemas have been closed for more than nine months in the U.S.

Globally, 2020 movie ticket sales are expected to come in between $11.5 billion and $12 billion, compared to 2019’s $42.5 billion.

What’s interesting is that no major studios have folded yet. One wonders how much longer they can hold on. The assumption is that people will come back once the theaters open again, but that assumption is not necessarily valid. When people’s habits change, they aren’t always amenable to changing back. Especially when the studios are showing no sign of improving their products. To the contrary, they’re actually getting worse:

Wonder Woman 1984’s scores on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes have fallen to the point that the DC film is now the worst-rated of the Extended Universe. IMDb, an Amazon site, gives it a star rating standing at 5.6 out of 10 with 90,653 user votes. That’s lower than Birds of Prey’s current score of 6.1 and Suicide Squad’s 6.0 score, formerly the lowest scoring DCEU film after over 596k user votes.

Snikker-snakk….

Senators standing strong against fraud

 U.S. Senators Cruz, Johnson, Lankford, Daines, Kennedy, Blackburn, Braun, Senators-Elect Lummis, Marshall, Hagerty, Tuberville released a joint statement today:

On January 6, it is incumbent on Congress to vote on whether to certify the 2020 election results. That vote is the lone constitutional power remaining to consider and force resolution of the multiple allegations of serious voter fraud.

At that quadrennial joint session, there is long precedent of Democratic Members of Congress raising objections to presidential election results, as they did in 1969, 2001, 2005, and 2017. And, in both 1969 and 2005, a Democratic Senator joined with a Democratic House Member in forcing votes in both houses on whether to accept the presidential electors being challenged.

The most direct precedent on this question arose in 1877, following serious allegations of fraud and illegal conduct in the Hayes-Tilden presidential race. Specifically, the elections in three states-Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina-were alleged to have been conducted illegally.

In 1877, Congress did not ignore those allegations, nor did the media simply dismiss those raising them as radicals trying to undermine democracy. Instead, Congress appointed an Electoral Commission-consisting of five Senators, five House Members, and five Supreme Court Justices-to consider and resolve the disputed returns.

We should follow that precedent. To wit, Congress should immediately appoint an Electoral Commission, with full investigatory and fact-finding authority, to conduct an emergency 10-day audit of the election returns in the disputed states. Once completed, individual states would evaluate the Commission’s findings and could convene a special legislative session to certify a change in their vote, if needed.

Accordingly, we intend to vote on January 6 to reject the electors from disputed states as not ‘regularly given’ and ‘lawfully certified’ (the statutory requisite), unless and until that emergency 10-day audit is completed.

Biden lost. And everyone in Washington knows it. 

That’s… oddly specific

Lin Woods calls for two Supreme Court resignations.

Chief Justice John Roberts & Justice Stephen Breyer should resign from their positions on the United States Supreme Court by Noon ET tomorrow, January 2, 2021.

Well, they have another 20 minutes or so, though I’m not holding my breath.

Reading List 2020

Five Stars

The Book of the Damned, Tanith Lee

1Q84, Haruki Murakami

Goblin Moon, Teresa Edgerton

Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh

In Search of Stupidity, Rick Merrick

Unrestricted Warfare, Qiao Lang and Wang Xiangsui

The Dark is Rising, Susan Cooper

Four Stars

The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Book of the Beast, Tanith Lee

The Book of the Dead, Tanith Lee

The Book of the Mad, Tanith Lee

Night’s Master, Tanith Lee

Death’s Master, Tanith Lee

Delusion’s Master, Tanith Lee

Red as Blood, Tanith Lee

The History of Florence, Niccolo Machiavelli

In Search of Stupidity, 3rd Edition, Rick Chapman

Karafuru, Eto Mori

From the Fatherland, With Love, Ryu Murakami

Popular Hits of the Showa Era, Ryu Murakami

Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami

Three Stars

Numero Zero, Umberto Eco

Starswarm, Jerry Pournelle

Red Dragon, Jerry Pournelle

Red Heroin, Jerry Pournelle

Hobgoblin Night, Teresa Edgerton

After Dark, Haruki Murakami

Digital Antiquarian 1966-1979

Digital Antiquarian 1980

Digital Antiquarian 1981

Digital Antiquarian 1982

Digital Antiquarian 1983

Digital Antiquarian 1984

Digital Antiquarian 1985

Digital Antiquarian 1986

Digital Antiquarian 1987

Digital Antiquarian 1988

Digital Antiquarian 1989

Digital Antiquarian 1990

Digital Antiquarian 1991

Digital Antiquarian 1992

Digital Antiquarian 1993

Semishigure, Fujisawa Shuhei

The Little House, Kyoko Nakajima

Tokyo Decadence, Ryu Murakami

Audition, Ryu Murakami

In the Miso Soup, Ryu Murakami

Prince of Shadows, Kai Wai Cheah

Coin Locker Babies, Ryu Murakami

Two Stars

In the Kings Service, Katherine Kurtz

Childe Morgan, Katherine Kurtz

One Star

Vampire Forensics, Mark Collins Jenkins

Blindsight, Peter Watts

Aku no Kyoten, Yusuke Kishi

The STORM Act

Somehow, I doubt the name of this act is a coincidence:

On Friday, January 1, 2021, the President signed into law:

S. 3418, the “Safeguarding Tomorrow through Ongoing Risk Mitigation Act” or the “STORM Act,” which authorizes the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide capitalization grants to States to establish revolving funds to provide hazard mitigation assistance to reduce risks from disasters and natural hazards.

Still, it’s not quite “My Fellow Americans….” Be patient. And even if you don’t trust the plan, trust the President.

Hellmouth 2.0

When conservatives began to abandon Twitter, the gatekeepers brought you Parler. When nationalism began to rise, the gatekeepers brought you Jordan Peterson. Now that Disney and Netflix have gone off the deep end and consumers are abandoning them, Ben Shapiro is going to make movies for conservatives:

Industries become more politically-driven each year. Our most influential industries — media, Hollywood, education, sports, and social media — have headed only in a leftward direction, causing the demand for alternatives to grow stronger.

The most untouched thus far has been Hollywood, which went as far Left in 2020 as Big Tech and news. Big Tech has Parler and Rumble. The media has Fox News, The Blaze, The Daily Caller, and Joe Rogan. Entertainment has thus far had no alternatives, but it soon will.

The Daily Wire is getting into the entertainment business in 2021, as company co-founder Ben Shapiro explained Friday. Shapiro and the Daily Wire are going to bring out edgy movies that he says won’t mock values. The company will produce TV shows, both comedies and dramas, that “don’t take advantage of your viewership to promote Leftist causes.” In other words, the exact opposite of the “Coming Soon” section on Netflix.

One way or another, the Prometheans are going to try to keep you on their hellish reservation. Isn’t it interesting that someone is going to pump tens of millions of dollars into Shapiro’s efforts despite the fact that he has absolutely no entertainment industry experience, credentials, or talent? And isn’t it telling that all of the existing alternatives are completely ignored?

Here is my prediction: Arkhaven is going to see multiple acquisition offers in 2021, in addition to various offers to invest in it, after the new site launches in the spring. This is exactly what happened to Castalia very early on. Of course, we made it clear that we had less than zero interest in being acquired. And what we’re introducing with Arkhaven will dwarf everything that we’ve previously done to date.

As for Rebel’s Run, the script is complete and approved, and casting is in progress. A second script for a comedy is already complete.

UPDATE: the Hellmouth 2.0 project could well be inadvertently comical. It’s not their first attempt, as the guy who made this trainwreck is at the center of the efforts.

As a true lover of film I must advise you to avoid this appalling effort. God knows how funding was approved. Seriously this is one cinematic experience which delivers zero dramatic tension and plods along until nothing happens again and again and again. The only connectivity is two scares which at least keep you awake. Possibly the worst film I have ever witnessed and the acting by the female lead is bordering on criminal intent. One blessing with modern technology you can fast forward and watch it on 12x and it will only last 25 minutes. And you won’t miss any of the plot. No idea how people find this at all interesting and some are giving it high marks!

Oh, I’m pretty sure we know how the funding was obtained… and why some were giving it high marks.

There is nothing good about the Hellmouth

 Even that which appears to be harmless is just a trap for the innocent unwary. CDAN reveals a blind item:

He would sucker you in with the shows and the wholesome image, but it was the movies that he showed his true vision. He was A+ list and was a director and a head of a studio and a behind the scenes performer. With his television shows, he made parents feel it was safe to take kids to see his movies, even when they seemed like they might be too much. There is a prequel streaming right now of one of his biggest visions. He made a movie decades ago that encompassed everything he believed and always thought if he could get kids to watch it, that he could somehow control them. The movie was essentially about mind control, rituals and blood sacrifice disguised as a children’s movie. He said he wanted to make those kinds of movies so kids would get used to those ideas and think of them as normal later in life. 

Jim Henson/Dark Crystal/Labyrinth

Don’t be fooled. Muppets, Sesame Street, Disney, Pixar, it’s all evil. 

 

A charade of success

AC highlights the fake success of the ticket-taking gatekeeper, Ben Shapiro:

At 17, Shapiro was the youngest syndicated columnist in the country, and was writing his first book. Nobody was going to listen to you at 17, let alone pay you to write stuff about politics. Any editor would have ignored you if you sought this out, even if you were a genius. His Infogalactic page shows nine books he has written, but not a one of you, autistic political fans, can even name one. Nobody bought them, but I will bet he took home millions, supposedly from the paltry slice a publisher offers an author. He founded the Daily Wire, which has 102 employees, and has $20 million revenue per year. I can’t even pay Lembro and Farce in popcorn. 

Understand, this is all illusion. Everything he has was laid on him from above, Epstein-style. I can recommend a product here in my main text, and my honest slice of the profit from the few, if any units sold from that, shunted to me for the endorsement, would not pay my hosting, even if multiplied up by the fake traffic numbers they give him with bots hitting his site. Almost everything you buy is habit. You know what you like, and you buy what you have always bought. Very, very rarely does somebody catch your attention,  on a little picture on the sidebar of a website of all things, show you something new, and convince you to go out and buy it. Advertising is a meme, but it is the best reason they could come up with for why people writing shit for free, who you only know because they are spammed everywhere by paid shills, would end up multimillionaires. It is a nice gig, I’m sure, so long as you don’t mind abandoning your kind, maybe getting killed at some point because it suits the narrative, and probably not getting to see your dogs in the afterlife.

He’s right. It takes a manufactured name brand and over 100 paid employees to produce 4x more traffic than this site, which has zero employees and zero advertising revenue. Internet advertising is, like political book sales, simply another means of funnelling money to those who do what their evil promethean masters tell them to do.

Note that neither AC nor I are even remotely bitter about Shapiro’s fake success. To the contrary, we are both contemptuous of it. If the whole world isn’t worth the price of your soul, then selling it for a little money, a little fame, a radio show, and your name on a few forgettable books is a dreadful bargain.