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Duncan, I would accept a cameo as a Nort infantrymen getting his brains blown out as acceptable recumpense for the 2 hours I wasted watching WARCRAFT.

I feel it's only fair now.

Got COVID.


Uuurrggghhh. I'm glad I'm vaccinated up because if this is what it feels like with a readied immune system I dread how insufferable it would have been without.
My dietary palette shall be of a liquid persuasion for the time being, I fear.

[DOROHEDORO]

DOROHEDORO

Keywords: Surrealism, Comedy, Cooking, 'A Wizard Did It'

Creator: Q Hayashida

Publisher: Viz Media

No. of Issues: 23 Volumes
Date of Publication: 2000 - 2018
Last read: 2020



& BONUS (!)

DAI DARK

Keywords: Space Opera, Comedy, Absurdist, 'I Have no Balls, and I Must Scream'

Creator: Q Hayashida

Publisher: Seven Seas

No. of Issues: 7 Volumes (Ongoing)
Date of Publication: 2019 - Present
Last read: 2024



Aaahh, lets just get the remaining manga I wanted to talk about out of the way for the people who don't care about this sort of thing, next time I plan to cover something...a little closer to home.

We set our scene in the dismal realm of the 'Hole', a purgatorial underworld of a sorts that exists on the flipside of the world of Sorcerers. Living in squalid conditions, the humans of Hole are frequently beset by marauding hordes of talking sewer cockroaches and daily uprisings of the undead, if they're lucky, lest the organized crime syndicates ran  by the unscrupulous sorcerers' abduct them for the illicit organ black market. It's in reaction to these threats that local amnesiac, herpetologically challenged thug caiman and dumpling chef Nikaido begin a campaign of vigilante justice. This decision sends them down a harrowing path of drug running for a sorcerer overlord known only as "En", the cutthroat world of competitive meat pie baking, and spiralling into the pits of hell itself.

DOROHEDORO is very much the passion project of Hayashidas career, spanning the lions share of her ongoing tenure in the industry. Much like Araki previously, she clearly has a a deep affinity for the metaphysical playroom she has created and will revel in the opportunity to do whatever she wants with it. What I described above? Thats the introductory arc, to get into some of the delirious stuff of later arcs would be a spoiler and a disservice. Yet throughout all the craziness, and the bloodshed and vulgarity, it manages the seeming impossible in a world populated by characters that are truly larger than life, and wears its heart on its sleeve all throughout. There are moments of genuine humanity and love that have not left me since my first readthrough a few years back



The art progression in DOROHEDORO is a delight, never short of engrossing I can only describe Hayashidas evolution on an aesthetic and dynamic level as something akin to early Bisley in the stages of the story, before gestating into something wholly her own beast, at times frankly only being comparable to the wood cuttings of Dores Divine Comedy. At times dripping in a sort of grimy decadency, at others slick and visceral, always fluid and dynamic. One of those occasions where watching the growth of a singular creative voice is just as rewarding as the story being told itself.

Where to Find it: At the time of writing all 23 volumes have been translated and are in print from the usual suspects each at a reasonable price.

BONUS!

While I was at it, I thought i'd briefly plug Hayashida's follow-up, currently ongoing dark fantasy series DAI DARK. It is, similarly, wonderful. Following a rag-tag band of terrorists and misfits called 'The Four Little Shits' in a dog-eat-dog dystopic cosmos where the currency is weighed in the value of your own soul, boiled down into 'bones'. On the run, and constantly with their backs up against the wall, even near invulnerable demiurges can't catch a break to eat some spaghetti and meatballs under capitalism.
Very early days for this one, but I'm enjoying it very much! Check in in...erm, 2037 when it's wrapped up for my full thoughts!
Likewise can be found in all the usual places.



[All images Copyright of Q Hayashida.]

we do eat a fair amount of meat, but not out of choice.

Start eating other people. Think of it as an environmental move — you're removing all their future carbon emissions from climate change equation, whilst also reducing your own by avoiding farmed animals in your diet.

If you like the idea, I have a list of people you could start with...

'Issei Sagawa has entered the group chat'

I know 'Eat the Rich' has rather been co-opted ineffectual libertarianism but if we where to go back to the grass roots of the sentiment I'd be down...

THE SETTLERS (2023)

May not scratch the itch for those looking for a thorough breed Chilean acid western (though the shadow of Brazils Glauber Rocha looms throughout the film) but it wears those influences on its sleeve while offering the sort of prestige 'chic' you'd come to expect from a MUBI production. It's a harrowing affair, that largely seemed content wallowing in that misery until that final, brilliant sequence 'At The End of the Earth' took this from an exercise in colonial melancholy to something far more primal. A magnetic last half hour to this one.

THE IRON CLAW (2023)

Fucking insufferable! House of Gucci levels of collective incompetents yet way, way less funny. It's made all the more interminable by the fact everyone playing it so straight, Aaron Dean Eisenberg at least was buying into the schtick and went full ham with both Ric Flairs on-and-off stage personas, this is wrestling camp it up a little!
By the time we reached the Harold and Maude-esque caravan of suicide (not a spoiler it's in the fucking trailer, shut up) I was completely checked out and started revisiting the finale to Ultraman Blazar in my mind. It's a good show, check it out. Looked at my phone (never a good sign when my patience is tested to such a degree) mortified to see there was another hour and change left! This must be how it feels to function in a hyperbolic time chamber.

It's also sobering to read the biomass estimates that people have started working on, and seeing how battle alone account for over a third of mammal biomass, and livestock overall for close to two thirds. Wild mammals? 4%. And yet even making UK farms slightly more hospitable to endangered wildlife (along with using land in a mixed fashion, eg for solar) met with pushback from, again, all the usual suspects.

It's a staggering and worrisome, I have a cousin who worked out on a cattle ranch in northern Australia for a 6 month tenure. Came back a vegan, as you mention the sheer scale of the biomass used for beef production has a far greater impact than simply the methane emissions.
I'm largely steering towards a pescatarian diet myself going forwards, fisheries and wild catches have their own share of the burden to bare but it does at least feel like a step in the right direction.

I'll give you that it's a warranted assumption in that I posted the video on my own channel to exclusively link here, so I know how many views it's had and when.

I said I wouldn't contribute to this farce again because I frankly do have better things to be doing right now but this is too perfect not for me to illustrate two key points here.

1) Thats not how the view counter works. If you imbed a video into a post, as you did, and it is viewed, as I did, YT has no way of knowing the video has been viewed. You have to actually visit the URL itself. Thats before we even factor in how jank YTs view counter is, it's been known to ignore views by users utilising certain adblockers for a start. Hardly a optimal for the reasons you seemed intent on.
2) And far more importantly, who the hell does that? Really, who does this? Who posts a copy of a video widely available on the same platform for this self confessed reason? Solely to eventually pull the 'Ha! Caught You!' card even likely (I hope) knowing the above factor I just outlined. This really and truly does feed into what Funt has been saying about your blatant tendency to manipulate the conversation each, and every, time. I truly wish I understood why you insist upon doing this mate, really I do, and that comes from a place a genuine affection. You used to be tight, bit odd but then join the club, but as the last 5 or so years have dragged on your troubling tendencies just continue to multiply. It's quite upsetting, actually.

If you want to add a fallacy to your arsenal, Mark, try 'Unwarranted Assumption".
It seems to be one you're quite familiar with deploying, as per above.

I watched the video. Hell I recall watching it when it originally aired, circa 2017/18 I believe. I would have to check. It does naught to dispel any qualms expressed above about her rational, nor address her financial conflict of interest as a Trump campaign employee.

Gah! I fell for the chum again, back to the hidden messages folder with you.

This is honestly why I blocked Sharky months ago. I got tired of the same old patented 'Chum-and-Switch'. Shark posts some vague X take, or outright platforms fringe (typically conservative/republican backed) shill quacks, doubles down, back peddles to make it seem like he was ALWAYS advocating for a more nuanced, yet broader Y take while peppering his speech with irritating culture war speak, plays the victim, posts some AI toss.

It's exhausting, if you wanted to say the media downplays the importance of biochemical emissions and pollutants and the by-products of capitalist 1st world nations being dumped on the 3rd world is an abomination that needs addressing on a systemic level, just say it, everyone here agrees with you if that really IS what you where trying to get at in the first instance and I severely have my doubts. You don't have to consistently and selectively take this nauseating tactic of playing the benevolent esoteric. You aren't 'just asking questions', my guy, you're playing devils advocate. And the devil requires no advocate. Its exhausting. Supremely exhausting.

'Breath'

And with that being said, mean global base temperature rises at a rate of 1.5C, forest fires are ravaging Chile as we speak. But sure, lets continue to insists that 'science is dogma'.

Money will do that to people, or when the conviction to accrue it becomes more compelling than desire to do actual good.

Be nice if we can get a lot of those early phonebooks reissued, I appreciate there isn't the demand for deluxe, rescanned and retouched editions of Bad Company, Ace Trucking, or Meltdown Man (among others) that there may be for Stronty or Nemesis so those big phonebooks where kind of perfect for what they needed to do.

Erm, well my guess would be it's Major Molcher, in the dining room, with the candle stick.

[Delicious in Dungeon]

Just started watching Delicious in Dungeon a fun anime about a team of adventurers who to save money decide to eat the monster they kill

Oh this is delightful! I honestly have little patience for high fantasy as a whole and D&D has never been on my radar, but give me a somewhat-slice-of-life series about four bumkins trying to work out how to find nutrition in living armour and I'm down.

I'll chime in for the defence of more contemporary Bad Company, its good stuff all around!
I've never read the '02 run so likely one to miss out on, eh? Pity the phonebook is out of print, one I never got around to and one I hope to see get a reprint.

Another nice write up Colin!

Can't wait for the Mercy Heights mid-credit scene...