Matters arising

If you haven't seen this playful 2022 documentary about a Scottish case from the '90s involving a truly bizarre deception, don't Google, just view-gle!

Same, worse, better, same

Is the Japanese poster for "The Last Starfighter" superior to the US original? That's a matter of opinion. It's certainly excellent in its way; focusing more on the aliens and spaceships than the unlikely human hero. Is the working title of the fillum - "Centauri's Recruit" - vastly inferior? Objectively, yes.

RS1 and I managed to meet up for an unprecedented second day of card slinging. We held our own "Spider-Man" prerelease, then "TMNT" prerelease, then "Secrets Of Strixhaven" prerelease, then a final showdown utilising decks constructed from all of those card pools combined. We each won two best-of-three matches, which was the right result, IMO. What a shame it'll be 2027 before we get to play junk-fuelled, geek-talkin', high-stakes*, kitchen-table "MTG" again.

*Nah, not really.

Living ghosts

COMIC COVER OF THE WEEK

By Ryan Sook. The backgrounding of Bats is novel. Nice neon light. And who wouldn't rather perv on Selina?

SONG OF THE WEEK

"Vanlii" by Bayanjargal (Mongolia). I could listen to this sophisticated trad-dance fusion 50 times in a row.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYiyVfsDFqo

Commended >>> Instrumental "The Ents Are Walking" by Progrizon (Oz).

BEER OF THE WEEK

Pleasantly grassy, hints of citrus, clean finish. Wish they weren't all drunk and gone - stupid four-packs.

Moon-shuttle conductor

If you are now or ever have been a hardcore console RPG-er, especially the type who tries to "break the game", you will appreciate this anime. I powered through the 25 episodes of Season 1 this week, in readiness for when S2 drops on Monday.

Yesterday, I spent all day playing sealed "Magic: The Gathering" against RS1. Three matches. First using six booster packs each (40-card decks), then adding a further five (50-card decks), then adding another four packs each (60-card decks). He was victorious, winning 2/3 matches and 4/7 games. But the real victory was...er...maybe the surprising number of expensive cards we opened, then immediately slipped into sleeves, ready for trading to my FLGS. Ideally, they will finance a booster box for next year :-)

No-lifing our hobbies

As a death-metal art project: 9/10.

As a practical, comprehensive rulebook: 3/10 (and that's being generous).

For shaking up the TTRPG scene: 7.5/10.

My desire to ever play it: 0/10.

Boris & Natasha

Gets bogged down a couple of times, when covering gaming crackdowns in US government workplaces and the struggle to make competitive "Minesweeper" fair after the discovery of a massively exploitable flaw, but once the editor's tractor pulls him out of the sand, the author is off on another interesting topic. No regrets on my part. Oh, and it was inspired by a Spectrum game!

Let's go, Ura!

Kickstarted an X-rated comic-gamebook by an Italian publisher. The physical tome hasn't arrived yet, but they sent through a .PDF of that....

...along with a regular comic (my censoring below) and sketchbook, plus wallpapers.

Filthy fun, the lot of it. They tried to do something innovative with the gamebook, where Connie speaks to you, the reader, and awards lovehearts to help you progress. It's ultimately a very simple quest, though.

Do I regret backing the project? Nope. Connie is cute and there's a ton of variety in the artwork - saucy "camera angles" galore.

VAR - checking for possible red card

COMIC COVERS OF THE WEEK

The judges have declared it a dead heat between Rick Veitch's trippy depiction of Swampy adrift in time(?) and Zatanna rocking out with her stockings out, courtesy of Adam Hughes. Tnioj srenniw!

SONGS OF THE WEEK

* The country-fied cover of Bomfunk MCs' "Freestyler" by Steve'N'Seagulls (Finland).

* Punk ripper "The Stupidest Animal In The Zoo" by The King Blues (UK).

* "Time For The Needy", more indie-rock gold from Egoism (Australia).

* "Sigui" by Malian-French songstress Fatoumata Diawara. Entrancing. 

* "The Touch" [Reformatted Edition] by Knights Of Unicron feat. Stan Bush (US).

* The beautiful cover of Jaurim's "Twenty-Five, Twenty-One" by Roy Kim (Korea). Only a world-class voice would dare.

* "Junk And Pong" by Asmi (Japan). Appealing sung-spoken pop.

Addster's pick >>> "Twenty-Five, Twenty-One".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8SUXEw5LW4

TWO THUMBS UP

I think I said enough about the previous two volumes... This is just as brilliant, slightly funnier and a tad subversive (e.g. the midichlorians reference). Luke shines. Ironically, in translating the trilogy into antiquated, "difficult" verse, Doescher elucidates the motivations at its heart.

ONE THUMB UP

When next you visit the Delphi Oracle, please ask her why I spent cash money on this. Because I don't know. Ah, well, it's read now. Lovely food shots and a few inspiring ingredients/useful techniques, which is the minimum you want from any cookbook. Outsiders might baulk at lines like, "If they can find them, drow prefer matsutake, though shiitake or maitake will do in a pinch," in a description of a mushroom broth favoured by the dark elves. Let's face it, "Heroes' Feast" isn't aimed at those folks. For us "D&D"-ers, the higgledy-piggledy collection of snacks, soups, meat or veg mains, desserts, cocktails, etc. makes perfect sense when the recipes are grouped by fantasy races and linked to fabulous locations.

Golden joypads

Prime newie "Ghost War" is missing only three things: believability, logic and a single original idea. I gotta get my eyeballs on a French or Korean movie soon, 'cos I honestly don't enjoy shooting these barrel fish. Miller acts circles around the others, even if the defining characteristic of her MI6 operative is that she smokes (at least they make a joke about that towards the end). The music isn't bad. The ol' rogue-element-within-our-ranks plotline is just so lazy and boring; a waste of time. Do some effing research and come up with a topical scenario! Or is it a case of the makers being scared to offend any particular country for fear of losing viewers? Then they should use a fictional analogue like DC Comics does - Bialya, Markovia, etc. - while sticking to themes which are relatable.