The Nuts and Bolts of Writing

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This is episode 1 of our "Golden Age Superman" series, which you can see here. 

Recently, after watching The Batman 2022 and making a reaction/review video of it last week (see below for links), Tete and I thought more about Superman and why a lot of his movies aren't that well done. From her perspective, anyways. She thinks - and I would agree with her - that Superman's character has been changed since the Golden Age of his series, which was in the 1930s and 40s.   

After WWII, his character got increasingly sanitized and was turned into another version of Captain America, so to speak, sort of a role model for young boys to teach them about responsibility.  

In these next few podcast episodes, we'll be exploring how and why Tete doesn't like Silver Age Superman stories and why she prefers Golden Age in general.  

Questions:  

1. When were you first exposed to Golden Age comics? 

2. When did you first get exposed to Silver Age? What did you think of those?  

3. What is the least appealing thing about Silver Age? Is it how the villains are? Did it feel like a Saturday morning cartoon?  

4. Who was the least appealing villain in Silver Age? 

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Links:

Our podcast, "The Nuts and Bolts of Writing" on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvd4C7fSOawTalthFUirt-iRNtxKPANfW

Our podcast on Anchor: https://anchor.fm/fortunus-games

My live reaction and review of The Batman (2022): https://youtu.be/rji-ME1OCOE

Tete's Review of The Batman (2022) - filmed before I watched it so I was just interviewing her: https://youtu.be/zFjGbYthVhw

Watch on YouTube.

@tete.depunk and I celebrate the first anniversary of @helevorn_bor's "Lucky Wolf"!  For a limited time only,  @R. N. Roveleh  is selling the hard copy of "Lucky Wolf" for only 7 USD. 

Check out this post for more information.

Watch on YouTube.

Read the full transcript here. 

Check out all of my Fortunus Games tarot cards here. 

This week's card from the Fortunus Games tarot deck is the Eight of Cups featuring Zhuel from Tete.Depunk's fantasy novel, “Scale, Blood, and Bone,” which you can read here. 

“Scale, Blood, and Bone” is an AU fantasy reinterpretation of some of the events of my graphic novel, “The Book of Joel.”  

In this card, Zhuel is stepping away from the life he had growing up as his mother's son, as a prince. After the dramatic scene where his mother, Rukhel, had caught him practicing forbidden dark magic, he had whisked himself and Malka away from the palace.  

I chose Eight of Cups for this scene because the Eight of Cups symbolizes a time for transformation, of stepping away from something that no longer satisfies you. Zhuel stepped away from being under his mother's thumb, since it no longer appealed to him. He was sick of being controlled and wanted more power and respect. He no longer wanted to be that quiet, stuttering child who was weaker than everyone else.

Watch on YouTube.

Tete and I review "The Batman" (2022) starring Robert Pattinson and Zoe Kravitz.  

Video starts at 0:23.  

We cover the following questions:  

1) What were your expectations for this movie? Did the movie meet them? 1:41 

2) What was your favorite part of the movie? 9:00 

3) Is Pattinson's Batman your favorite Batman? Which was your least favorite Batman? 11:31

4) How did you find Batman's relationship with Catwoman in this movie? 14:08 

5) What did you think of the villains in this film? 22:37 

6) What did you think of the cinematography? 26:50 

7) How was the score like? 29:41 

8) What's your rating? 31:51 

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Links:  

Our podcast, "The Nuts and Bolts of Writing" on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvd4C7fSOawTalthFUirt-iRNtxKPANfW 

Our podcast on Anchor: https://anchor.fm/fortunus-games 

My live reaction and review of The Batman (2022): https://youtu.be/rji-ME1OCOE 

Tete's Review of The Batman (2022) - filmed before I watched it so I was just interviewing her: https://youtu.be/zFjGbYthVhw 

My graphic novel series, "The Book of Joel": https://tapas.io/series/The-Book-of-Joel/info

Watch on YouTube.

Full transcript here. 

My other Fortunus Games tarot deck cards.

This week's card from the Fortunus Games tarot deck is the Seven of Cups featuring  Benjamin Cox from my graphic novel, “Sam in New York”! 

As a Dispensationalist non-denominational Protestant Christian, Ben is deeply interested in the Book of Revelation. He wonders about the end of days and thinks about the symbolism (as well as the literalism, since Dispensationalists tend towards literal interpretations of the Bible) in the Book of Revelation quite a lot, so I decided to turn the seven cups in this card into the seven bowls of God's wrath in the Book of Revelation.

The Seven of Cups represents dreams and the Book of Revelation was said to have been revealed to John through a dream. Also, Ben dreams a lot about Biblical prophecies, since he spends a lot of time studying them.

Watch on YouTube.

Malka from my graphic novel, "The Book of Joel," is an ENFJ-A (assertive) - interestingly, the same type as Tete's Andrei. That was unexpected...  

Read more about this personality type here. 

Read "The Book of Joel" here. 

Read Malka's character profile here.

Watch on YouTube.

Read the full transcript here.

This week's card from the Fortunus Games tarot deck is the Six of Cups featuring Malka Spitzer and Joel Farber from my graphic novel, “The Book of Joel”!

Six of Cups features Joel and Malka as children looking at each other. Joel is giving her flowers in a cup as Malka looks at him with admiration and respect.

Six of Cups represents harmony, co-operation, and love as well as childhood memories. Joel and Malka have plenty of good childhood memories to look back upon. Although they weren't very close as children, they enjoyed each other's company. We'll see more of this the further we go in my graphic novels, "The Book of Joel" and "Sam in New York,” where these two also appear.

Watch on YouTube.

@tete.depunk takes a personality quiz for her character, Tamara Geladze, one of the main characters of "70 Fierce Years."  

Read "70 Fierce Years" (the novel preview) here.

Read the full transcript here.

This week's card from the Fortunus Games tarot deck is the Five of Cups featuring  Zhuel from Tete.Depunk’s fantasy novel, “Scale, Blood, and Bone,” which you can read on Tapas.  “Scale, Blood, and Bone” is an AU fantasy reinterpretation of some of the events of my graphic novel, “The Book of Joel.”

The Five of Cups shows Zhuel looking down at three cups that have been knocked over. These cups symbolize his failures and disappointments. There are two upright cups behind him, however, that represent new opportunities. Unfortunately, Zhuel's not paying attention to them because he's so fixated on his failures and his own tortured mental landscape.

In other words, this card is Zhuel in a nutshell. Joel, too, since Zhuel's basically an alternative version of Joel, who's the protagonist of my graphic novel on Tapas, "The Book of Joel." Both Zhuel and Joel are fixated on their internal feelings and subjectivity and have difficulty untangling their thoughts. This is one of the reasons why they overthink and stop themselves from bonding with others.

Behind Zhuel are a river and a castle, symbolizing the security and peacefulness he could obtain if he left his pessimism behind. If only he crossed the river, he wouldn’t have to dwell on the disappointments in his life!

Watch on YouTube.

@tete.depunk takes a personality quiz for her character, Andrei Novokshonov, the protagonist of "70 Fierce Years."  

Read "70 Fierce Years" (the novel preview) here.