2017
http://blacknerdproblems.com/batgirl-18-review/
Writer: Hope Larson / Artist: Sami Barsi / DC Comics
Holiday specials are here as Batgirl #18 cameos Harley Quinn and sends Babs, Frankie, and Alysia on a Christmas adventure. Titled “White Elephant,” girls night out takes place at a bar that double booked their Gordon Clean Energy party with another one led by the opposite type of crowd – a company led by a bigoted, rich, entitled douche type. He’s our villain of the episode, even more so than Harley Quinn despite crashing the event to spread poison gas to everyone there. I’m hardly the holiday special type, but this one’s appropriately light, quick, and fun, and the chemistry between Babs and her friends help carry the issue.
The artwork is warm and has some beautifully drawn panels, and Sami Barsi is already my favorite artist on this series despite one panel where our 1% villain wears the least suit coat-looking suit coats of all time. Bradley Burr draped a shawl over his shoulder and called it good. We leaving bathrobe chic in 2017, fam. She’s laughing at you, not with you.
Babs, Frankie, and Alysia take turns solving a riddle that Harley left them to solve, and the three of them take their shots to answer the reason for the season. There’s a levity in the issue, so much that it feels that the life-or-death stakes aren’t real, that maybe none of them are even poisoned at all and Harley just wants to have some fun running them around town. Still, there are some boss panels throughout that weave heroic moments in between the comedy, which, in a holiday special, help keep our inner action fan satisfied.
In the end Harley leaves about as easily as she arrived, and Batgirl #18 wraps up as a holiday palate cleanser between arcs that flexes the muscle of Sami Barsi and color artist Jessica Kholinne. Batgirl, Alysia, Frankie, and Harley are all drawn well, from cocktail parties to rooftop selfies, and their close-knit friendship makes the issue worth the quick read.
7 out of 10
Reading Batgirl? Find BNP’s other reviews of the series here.
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The post Batgirl #18 Review appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.
Writer: Hope Larson / Artist: Sami Barsi / DC Comics
Holiday specials are here as Batgirl #18 cameos Harley Quinn and sends Babs, Frankie, and Alysia on a Christmas adventure. Titled “White Elephant,” girls night out takes place at a bar that double booked their Gordon Clean Energy party with another one led by the opposite type of crowd – a company led by a bigoted, rich, entitled douche type. He’s our villain of the episode, even more so than Harley Quinn despite crashing the event to spread poison gas to everyone there. I’m hardly the holiday special type, but this one’s appropriately light, quick, and fun, and the chemistry between Babs and her friends help carry the issue.
The artwork is warm and has some beautifully drawn panels, and Sami Barsi is already my favorite artist on this series despite one panel where our 1% villain wears the least suit coat-looking suit coats of all time. Bradley Burr draped a shawl over his shoulder and called it good. We leaving bathrobe chic in 2017, fam. She’s laughing at you, not with you.
Babs, Frankie, and Alysia take turns solving a riddle that Harley left them to solve, and the three of them take their shots to answer the reason for the season. There’s a levity in the issue, so much that it feels that the life-or-death stakes aren’t real, that maybe none of them are even poisoned at all and Harley just wants to have some fun running them around town. Still, there are some boss panels throughout that weave heroic moments in between the comedy, which, in a holiday special, help keep our inner action fan satisfied.
In the end Harley leaves about as easily as she arrived, and Batgirl #18 wraps up as a holiday palate cleanser between arcs that flexes the muscle of Sami Barsi and color artist Jessica Kholinne. Batgirl, Alysia, Frankie, and Harley are all drawn well, from cocktail parties to rooftop selfies, and their close-knit friendship makes the issue worth the quick read.
7 out of 10
Reading Batgirl? Find BNP’s other reviews of the series here.
Are you following Black Nerd Problems on Twitter, Facebook,Instagram, Tumblr, YouTube and Google+?
The post Batgirl #18 Review appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.
Are you looking for the perfect printable card to top off that perfect gift? I have a fabulous FREE PRINTABLE card for you. Just in time for holiday gift wrapping, I have collaborated with Cathe Holden of Inspired Barn to give YOU a gift! Please print out these adorable folk art-inspired printable cards and use them for all your holiday occasions (and beyond). And don’t forget to download the coordinating printable for the 2018 Printable Tea Towel Calendar!
About this collaboration:
In 2010, talented graphic designer Cathe Holden and I teamed up to create a printable tea towel calendar. She designed the printables, and I made the calendar and wrote the instructions, and then we provided the free printables to you! This year, we have a new design available — our all-new 2018 printable tea towel calendar, as well as this sweet card, that you can download, print, and make yourself for a special handmade touch.
Download the Printable Card Templates:
Download the files below to print out your own cards. Each printable will make two cards (just cut the printed sheet in half, then fold the cards to make them complete). They will fit in an A2 envelope.
To download, just click on the image to be taken to the file on Google Drive, where you can download it.
Red and Blue Printable Card Template
Green & Blue Printable Card Template
Card-Making Tips:
You really can just print this, cut it, fold it and go, but if you are looking to make your printed cards look nicer, I recommend a few products to get a top-of-the-line look. I used these products to make the cards you see in the photos in this post, and they are some of my favorite products that I can’t do without (disclosure: these are Amazon affiliate links):
1. HP Inkjet Brochure Paper
If you are using an inkjet printer, I hands-down recommend this HP brochure paper for gorgeous printing. It is smooth, heavy paper that can be printed on both sides, and it makes the ink shine. It’s great for paper projects like this one, or for printing anything that you want to make look extra pretty.
I should also disclose that I work with HP, and have received this product for free, but they did not ask me to promote it here. I just really love it and I highly recommend it.
2. Trimming and Scoring Board
If you make cards or paper crafts often, you should treat yourself to a Trimming and Scoring Board – it is a paper trimmer with a built-in board that has grooves in it so you can gently add a crease wherever you want to fold the paper. It also comes with a bone folder (which you use to make the score in the paper) that you can also use to make a clean, crisp fold. The paper trimmer is so handy for creating perfectly measured and cut lines — no more wiggly scissor lines!
Thank you for joining me at Dollar Store Crafts! I truly value everyone who is part of my community, and I would love to hear your feedback about this project or the site.
The post Free Printable Card: Folk Art Gift Notecards appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.
The porg invasion took way long before The Last Jedi even hit theaters, and has by now all but taken over our hearts and homes. But it isn’t just their unique (and adorable) look that has made us all fall so hard for the fuzzy little residents of Ahch-To; it’s also their distinct (also adorable) sound.
As it turns out, the porgs were one of the first things the sound department was asked to work on for the newest Star Wars movie. As co-sound supervisor Ren Klyce told Nerdist, all they had at the start was the script. “You read about this creature, but you don’t even know what it looks like,” he said. “We finally got to see some actual puppets and touch them and that was really great.”
When Klyce and co-sound supervisor Matthew Wood saw footage of porgs in action, they talked with Rian Johnson about what he wanted the creatures to sound like. Klyce explained, “He described what he wanted to feel emotionally from them; he wanted them to not be irritating or annoying. He wanted them to be sweet and soulful, and it just came down to starting to experiment with different sounds.”
Klyce said, “Obviously because it looks like a bird, the first thing you go for is, ‘Let’s try birds!'”
But no single variation of bird sound quite worked, so Klyce and Wood’s team collected numerous samples, starting close to home. “Where we work at Skywalker Ranch, George Lucas has a farm,” Klyce said. “He has a chicken coop, and he’s got goats, and he’s got all sorts of animals and horses—it’s an incredible place.”
He continued, “So, we went down to the chicken area with a microphone and recorded these chickens and got this crazy random file. It was a few minutes long. They were kind of running around and scratching and making banging noises and stuff. You have to be patient and listen, and you can start to hear these little nuances. Then it was about taking that sound, slowing it down, cutting out the bits and pieces you don’t like and kind of leaving all these little tiny jewels.”
They pitched and manipulated the chicken sounds to create some of the porgs’ audio range, but that wasn’t all. You know how people rent doves to be released at weddings? Klyce hired a “dove guy” so they could record his birds. He said, “They make this really beautiful sound: a ‘coo.’ And, again taking that sound and pitching it way down made it sound warmer and then taking it once it was pitched down, repeating it, and then running it through sort of an echo to make it sound like it was bouncing off the cliffs. That was one texture.”
The chicken and dove recordings can be heard as the porgs fly around Ahch-To or cuddle in their nests on the Millennium Falcon.
Of course, the team wanted an additional sound for the creatures when they would be more alert. For that, they turned to an artificial source. “There is a bird call in there, which is this little piece of metal that you put in your mouth,” Klyce said. “Our intern Nick Docter, who’s from Piedmont, [California], which is where … they have this annual bird calling contest that was on the Johnny Carson show back in the day.”
Klyce continued, “He’s actually from this town, and there’s all this pride about, ‘We do the best bird calls.’ And, so I thought we need [porgs] to sound pained and what would it do if it said ouch? He put this thing in his mouth and went, ‘Ow, ow,’ and makes this sort of weird little sound. So, it’s taking all these little bits and pieces and stitching them together to make the porg sound.”
Images: Lucasfilm/Disney
Amy Ratcliffe is an Associate Editor for Nerdist. She likes Star Wars a little. Follow her on Twitter.
Keep the porg love going with these stories!
- The Last Jedi‘s best porg moments.
- How to make porg cupcakes.
- All the best #porgnation tweets.