Mark O. Stack

Hagai Palevsky (he/him) @dialhforhagai.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 10, 2024 at 00:06 UTC

doctor says “treatment is simple. think.” descartes bursts into tears. says “but, doctor, I AM”

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Mark O. Stack @markwwc.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 10, 2024 at 03:29 UTC

It's so grim to have made these deep time bookends to the movies that are basically the same thing happening AGAIN and AGAIN except civilization appears to be shrinking and regressing at the very end. But it's also kinda beautiful in an elegiac way.

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Mark O. Stack @markwwc.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 10, 2024 at 03:18 UTC

A good ol' bildungsroman where, according to Marcia's theory of Identity Development, young persons really do move back and forth across stages as they age and enter new arenas of life

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Mark O. Stack @markwwc.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 10, 2024 at 02:56 UTC

Listen, no one loves the Yuuzhan Vong more than me. If they're gonna insist on actually making another movie, Daisy Ridley should swing a lightsaber at them.

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Mark O. Stack @markwwc.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 10, 2024 at 02:47 UTC

I'm currently reading Knights of the Old Republic and some Legacy, books made after Lucas' final movie, and it's just kinda interesting the way these two concurrent series about the past and the future do represent a coherent continuum of themes and archetypes.

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Mark O. Stack @markwwc.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 10, 2024 at 02:46 UTC

It's cruel that Kennedy was made to draw Dark Empire and not the Thrawn Trilogy.

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Mark O. Stack @markwwc.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 10, 2024 at 02:40 UTC

The epic collections are pretty great value propositions, so I've been reading a lot of Star Wars comics from the "dead canon" eras post-trilogies. The things getting made when it seemed like there wouldn't be more movies got pretty weird but did attempt a holistic vision of what the franchise was.

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Mark O. Stack @markwwc.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 09, 2024 at 05:19 UTC

I don't think those "Grand Design" comics are very good, but there's a sick part of me that would love to write one of those but for all of canon Star Wars. Each page could be done in the style of a tapestry or illuminated manuscript. And it could be called "Le Morte d'Skywalker."

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Mark O. Stack @markwwc.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 09, 2024 at 05:19 UTC

I don't think those "Grand Design" comics are very good, but there's a sick part of me that would love to write one of those but for all of canon Star Wars. Each page could be done in the style of a tapestry or illuminated manuscript. And it could be called "Le Morte d'Skywalker."

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Mark O. Stack @markwwc.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 09, 2024 at 05:12 UTC

This is why I listen to that one arrangement of Bjork's Hyperballad all the time

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Mark O. Stack @markwwc.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 09, 2024 at 04:39 UTC

It was definitely a bummer compared to 2023 Emerald City I exhibited at where AA really did have a great balance of comics with prints/keychains/etc with even more small press stuff in its own robust section.

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Mark O. Stack @markwwc.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 09, 2024 at 04:38 UTC

A vast majority of folks with tables either didn't make or bring comics, and the space was much smaller than the shows I had enjoyed years previously. Totally get that people are trying to make money, but as an attendee I was really disappointed to find such a dearth of indie comics.

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Mark O. Stack @markwwc.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 09, 2024 at 04:35 UTC

WonderCon 2024 is the first time I've ever gone to a comics convention and not even spent half of my budget I had set aside to buy comics. Artist Alley was just devoid of indie comics. I picked up some stuff I was pretty stoked on, but it was such a shadow of years past.

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Mark O. Stack @markwwc.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 09, 2024 at 03:00 UTC

Every now and then, it's good to stop and ask yourself "am I getting a little too weird about this?" and then make some adjustments as necessary

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Mark O. Stack @markwwc.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 09, 2024 at 02:58 UTC

Dog what the fuck

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Mark O. Stack @markwwc.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 20:32 UTC

This all worked when there were rings/levels of canon. When they started trying to turn the new EU into one coherent canon with equal weight and interaction between the new stuff and the old stuff (by leveraging still living or CGI-ing actors), they actually undid something load-bearing.

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Mark O. Stack @markwwc.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 20:31 UTC

That's my whole issue with the entire attempt to integrate the extra-canonical characters into things. The reason I don't ask "where's Ahsoka during the trilogy?" is because she's from a cartoon primarily for children made after all that.

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Mark O. Stack @markwwc.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 20:25 UTC

Yeah, that's what burned me off, too! I recommend the Darth Vader - Dark Lord of the Sith series since it's only four paperbacks long and does some good (and, yes, funny) stuff with Anakin and Sheev immediately after Sith.

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Mark O. Stack @markwwc.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 20:23 UTC

It's actually alarming to me that there isn't a YA-focused Aphra TV show in development. It just makes sense! She should at least be in the next season of Ahsoka in a similar role as Hondo plays in Clone Wars and Rebels.

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Mark O. Stack @markwwc.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 20:22 UTC

The Vader series set right after Revenge of the Sith where he's just maiming those loser Inquisitors is just alarmingly funny. Making Darth Vader into a workplace comedy about EVIL was a stroke of genius.

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Mark O. Stack @markwwc.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 20:21 UTC

My main relationship to all these comics is that they definitely don't count when I'm watching the six real movies but they are often a worthy addition and better than most of the Disney film/TV apocrypha.

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Mark O. Stack @markwwc.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 20:19 UTC

I think Vader is the only one of those two that consistently works for me. The main Star Wars title has just never felt right to me because the adventures are too grand (from my perspective) for what happens between movies. Interesting stuff can happen for Vader outside of the movies, though.

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Mark O. Stack @markwwc.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 20:17 UTC

It's very funny to read a comic where Qira from the Han Solo movie duels Darth Vader and then hangs out with the the Knights of Ren because the only one of these characters that really counts is Darth Vader and they gotta find a way to make him put these jokers over without losing face.

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Mark O. Stack @markwwc.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 20:16 UTC

There are only a few characters from the movies that CAN get meaningful development (Boba Fett because he's so minor, Vader because he's so internal) in these comics, so it's way better when Luke/Leia/Han are gone. And then it all ends up playing with the toys from the Disney movies to suture them.

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Mark O. Stack @markwwc.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 20:13 UTC

While I was sick, I ended up reading hella Marvel Star Wars comics. These things got way better as they went along! I kinda lost interest when it was mostly revisiting the iconic characters and filling gaps between movie/canon appearances, but they really figured out how to make the line work.

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Mark O. Stack @markwwc.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 20:06 UTC

To get there, you gotta walk at A Quieter Pace

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Mark O. Stack @markwwc.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 20:02 UTC

The spin-off to A Quiet Place should have been called Be Quiet Place

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Mark O. Stack @markwwc.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 19:48 UTC

There are few movies that I would say have genuinely evil vibes, but Roman Polanski's MacBeth is one of them and it's unfortunately one of the better Shakespeare adaptations and a deeply haunted artifact.

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Mark O. Stack @markwwc.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 19:45 UTC

A nice counterweight to Melkor's whole deal!

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Mark O. Stack @markwwc.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 19:44 UTC

Rise and grind, with Bokku and his hustle culture fitspo videos

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Mark O. Stack @markwwc.bsky.social [ View ] Jul 08, 2024 at 19:42 UTC

I lost a ton of weight while being very sick, so today is all about eating a lot of delicious food on takeout.

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