April 2025…
As the years go by and the time that seems to stand still make my face grow long and weathered… I find a new series, another season, or an old story that I finally get to watch, read… absorb… fill me with that same child like wonder that pull at the heart strings of the mind’s eye. When I think this life has little left to offer, I am happy that these artists, writers, story tellers, and passionate souls dip into the nectar of imagination and bring me back to a feeling of wholeness in this very large world. I will always be grateful for all those that share in this world and give back a little glimpse of what makes us who we are. And for those of us that consume and feel that we have nothing to offer, I am proud to say that you are wrong. To embrace that vision and be here with those creators, are roles we take in the grander play in that time we share together. The audience, the performer and you are always important, and together create the community of humanity. I am always humbled by all of you. Keep it real and Stay Strong.
Old Man Ydoc
June, 2025…
Advanced Cumbies and Comics
Long ago… (Here we go again…) A fire blazes in the stone hearth with laughter and conversation murmuring throughout the aging friendly inn. A serving girl dances around you carrying frothing mugs of ale towards the destination of an old oaken table with a large surly man boasting about how large the wolf was that wreaked havoc on the local sheep population, that is, until he single handedly felled the beast. A skeptical audience cracks, as one declares the wolf to be a rather large vicious mouse that results into an eruption at the table of jovial laughing and jests. Smells of fragrant meats and breads waft through the room luring you towards a table for a well-earned meal… but at the table you drift towards, an old man in robes sits before you with a worn leather satchel resting in the middle of the table. As the man gazes up at you, without opening his mouth a commanding whimsical voice resonates in your mind, “I have been expecting you…”
As in most table top fantasy adventures, ages ago…
When you could walk into a convenience store, in a spinning rack….
Sitting among the candy and gum, displayed in the checkout lane at a grocery store….
Hiding in the magazine section at the local drug store…
Yes, even wedged into a local newspaper stand, (now I am really dating myself)…
And… you could pick up a comic book! Heck you could pick up a paperback, science fiction magazine, hobby book… something cool… remember “Cracked”? What happened to Alfred E. Neuman!?!
Now, I am not gonna go down this one and drone on about the “Fall of the Comic Industry”, (going down a rabbit hole of corporate changeovers, mismanagement, buy outs, catering to demanding share holders and profit margins….)
Nope, this time I am gonna actually applaud the work of a comic company… and scold them!
I like coffee, more specifically I like cheap drinkable hot coffee… Enter the convenience store Cumberland Farms. I like this chain store, it is the closest thing to a middle America, have everything and not be a creepy horror film late night scare dare of a bleery eye’d hangover mistake. USUALLY, you can go in there at any time you want, (most are open late / 24 hours), go in, get what you need, get out, there are stools to sit, (if Keno and “scratchies” are your thing), hot food, cold food, random (convenience) items you didn’t know you needed, AND it even has its loyal, but usually friendly cast of characters, from the fairly retained workers to the “townie” regulars… a micro community… like an old tavern from ages long forgotten…
Here I go walking into the shop to get my coffee, look up from the haze of my own thought filled brain to find a stand… a comic stand… filled with DC Comics!!!
WTF!?! I had to do a double take, I thought I was dreaming.
Nope, really comics, Superman, Batman, JLA… DC Comics… Whoa!
As imagined, I am a glass half full kind of a person. Initially my amazement was indeed warranted., but, as I picked up the book, examined the cover, and turned it over, my amazement turned to skepticism, albeit milder enthusiasm. On the back was an ad for DC’s new online “comic store” to sign up and have DC Comics brought to you, on your choice of viewing device.
Wonderful!
Not a chance to breathe new life into the comic book medium, not a chance to push a hundred + year old hobby, past-time, and artistry with incredible storytelling to new audiences… instead an ad. A giant ploy to sell ANOTHER “pay for” service and get into your wallet. Yet one more missed opportunity to TAKE ADVANTAGE of what you already have (Warner Brothers – Disney too!), and offer free digital content in your already established streaming services and make your service stand out, a bit more, and give a break to would-be viewers and drive a (possible) market to the print and cinematic future scape.
Thanks!
Later, as I was long gone from the convenience store and yet again lost in thought, I looked up online to see if I was delusional. Out there I found a posting… Another person whom was excited and even took pictures. Comment read. “WOW! DC Comics!… at half price!”
So…
Apparently, DC Comics cover price is $5.99, because people are “happy” to find reprinted first issues at $3.00 each…
Don’t get me wrong, I really am happy that DC swung at the fast ball, but then again, I thought we were talking about comics and not sports…
(I hope I don’t roll a one!)
Good luck on your quest, and enjoy a comic book!
- Old Man Ydoc
August, 2025…
Money, Money, money?
So, I would say I consume a lot of art. I watch anime, I read manga and comic books, I view major motion pictures, I play video games, I listen to music, I even try to read a book here and there…
Really a plain statement, a standardized message like talking to a stranger about the weather, nothing really shocking here… until you consider where most of this comes from.
I would like to say, I wander down to my local record store, peruse through the vinyl and chat with a local artist before buying their newest CD…
I would like to say, I caught the latest anime on Toonami and have been watching daily, stopping everything at that time slot when it comes on…
I would like to say I went to the theater and met up with friends for a viewing of the latest cinematic “masterpiece” that we then proceeded to tear apart and over analyze at the local coffee shop afterwards…
Heck, I would even like to say, I got the latest video game magazine in the mail and planned on buying into the hype and shell out the nearly $100 for a clearly ill promoted game that is just gonna go down 50% a few months after release…
Don’t get me wrong… free is great. The internet in its current form, is basically either the coolest free library out there or the greatest cultural equalizer of all time. But at what cost?
A typical anime costs about $100,000 or more an episode to make. Comic book distribution have driven books to almost $7.00 cover prices. Physical copies are a niche’ medium for music, with radio decaying year after year – not to mention those stadium tickets reaching over $100 for the “nose bleed” section - mostly a “finder’s fee” to the middle man… video games… well, Curt Schilling could tell you how that is going….
The real shame here isn’t the internet or even you or me, it’s the one thing that we all have no control over… Time.
It used to be the great golden wings of advertisement that would grease the wheels of progress for the television networks, the book publisher, the radio waves, even the word of mouth… Now, all that safety net is cast to the social media platforms and search engines that drive a robust internet ecology and cast a long shadow of what once was and may never be.
I wouldn’t care, change is change.
But, how can an anime with a $100,000 an episode budget go into production, with no where to go but a pirated website? How can a video game that cost millions to develop and thousands of hours to program wind up on a network’s “free monthly game”, Now a days a musician may hit a single for a bit, but also have previously released 10 “albums” worth of work scattered on a platform of “pick and choose” your online mix tape, that pays pennies per download.
Artistry is really at a cross roads crisis for monetization sustainability.
Once again, I wouldn’t care, change is change…
But, now factor in AI, factor in the “evil empire”, the “Shadow Run” organization free for all. Next time you hear the announcement of yet one more “remake”, or the reprinting of yet another printing – (one of 12 variant covers?), the absorption of another video game studio, or even the former musician turned coffee barista… whoops, coffee shops are disappearing too, how about laborer? Fast food worker?
Change is change.
Our current lack of individual artistry or the current gains of AI and corporation are at the inability for societies to monetize social and cultural creativeness and spread the wealth from the producer to the artist… But, how can this equation exist without a producer.
Free is great, it gets “out there” and spreads like the winds of change, blowing fateful merciless embers into the parched lands, churning a wild fire of viral viewership… until pretty soon someone “shares” a video, sound bite, or image of something that you just submitted to your editor that same morning… Why bother ever paying for something!
Until that thing no longer exists…
Worse yet, the desire to ever even dream.
I hope robots dream.
- Old Man Ydoc
October, 2025…
So… Diablo 4…
I want to mention that I am an avid player of Diablo… I know that this tells a lot about a person, video games have that… effect. You play a type of game and that game can act like a cover for a person, “you can’t judge a book by its cover”, but when your cover is an exhausted gothic Renaissance dressed girl holding a demon imprisoned artifact, bathed in a hallowed silhouette with black energy oozing out… it is kind of telling… Having said that… here we go…
I don’t know how to explain this, but some will instantly understand, when I said I “play” Diablo, I should specify, I “punch in” to Diablo regularly.
Now hold on, I am having “fun” logging into Diablo and choosing my avatar, a Spirit Born wiry martial artist (monk) of Sanctuary, (that I had to additionally purchase through an in game addon), Slight the story mode, (as I have already toiled through the exquisitely narrated Deckard Caine esque nostalgic backbone angle of angel and demon turmoil only of a new generation in the fourth chapter of a LONG awaited saga), jump right into the thick of the near open world fantasy role playing epic masterpiece, (that, at times, is close to an controversial too dark / too light Diablo 3 world), and begin to… well… farm equipment, boss battle, dungeon crawl, skill build… umm… okay, so here is where the “punching in” part comes in…
And that’s as far as I am going to go. This one has actually nothing to do with Diablo specifically. It really is not to blame for anything. It’s a good game. Fantastic in fact.
Lots of options, social openings, challenges with tiered difficulty, interesting mechanics, dismantled chapter into open fantasy world server… and most importantly… it is another chapter in the story of Sanctuary. Really, what more could a fan ask for?
This one is really about how to support a game, series, MMORPG…. Idea.
How?
If you micro transact the crap out of a game, you get complaints. You cosmetic the crap out of a game you lose your players. You “square soft” a merchandising machine, you almost go under. Asking for donations is like running a NPR station. If you have exclusive in-game tiered service or dare I say “loot” lottery, you get labeled.
Things aren’t free, but how do you support, in good faith, and get “what you paid for”, for better or for worse?
That’s what this one is really about.
I play Diablo. In the grand scheme of things, not much has changed since I powered up my WIN95 Gateway CPU and fought a dial up symphony to a little place called Sanctuary.
I feel like I could say the same for when I would climb on a Chocobo in the 11th installment of an epic legend.
I feel like I could say the same when I would log into Run and Escape from certain death in pixilated genius of a JAGEX family game.
I feel like I could say the same for the Quest of the Avatar into Exodos to find my way through ones and zeros to Ultimate Online Role Playing craftwork.
I feel like I could say the same for hundreds of lost worlds, epic stories, and more importantly, the ballads of more than one lost hero or heroine forgotten in an ocean of memory bits through torrent seas of servers that even the Internet Archive could never touch…
But my brain could never forget, that time I was there, when we were there, when everyone pulled together, saved the realm, and let a new day dawn….
Keep gaming and support your passion!
- Old Man Ydoc