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A good day to remember

Shot and Chaser is an emotional webcomic about a photographer and a storm chaser during the covid19 pandemic (first 5 pages mildly nsfw). From E.K. Weaver, creator of the also-excellent TJ and Amal (previously). Shot and Chaser is a return to the theme of two gay men in a car having feelings, with beautiful skies.

Shot and Chaser the webcomic is on hiatus until after the print edition is released on June 1st 2027, but the 210 pages on the website make up a complete first arc. Sweet Abilene is a Shot and Chaser adult prequel/side story available in print, or in pdf for pocket money.
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A Zack Snyder DC Universe might not have been such a bad thing, after all

After Joss Whedon’s arrival, back in the news with comments from Ben Affleck, the franchise lost a sense of earnest passion that could have sustained a weary DCEU

Nine years after superhero epic Justice League arrived in cinemas, there ought to be very little left to say about how it all went wrong. Zack Snyder shot the film, Joss Whedon substantially rewrote and reshot it, and audiences eventually got to see both men’s versions. Any debate over their relative merits long ago disappeared. Whedon is pretty much cancelled; Snyder has reinvented himself as the writer-director of extremely average ersatz Star Wars movies for Netflix, and an entirely new DC universe is under way that has very little to do with either of them.

To a greater or lesser extent, the world has moved on. But Ben Affleck’s latest comments raise an uncomfortable question about whether Snyder’s departure was ever presented honestly. Speaking to Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Affleck, who played Batman, described the Justice League reshoots as the lowest point of his career, but reserved his strongest criticism for the circumstances of Snyder’s departure. The director stepped away in May 2017, two months after his daughter Autumn killed herself, aged 20, with the public explanation that he needed to be with his family. Affleck, however, alleged that studio Warner Bros had used the tragedy to justify replacing him. “The way in which that was, I thought, used as an excuse was one of the shittiest things I’ve ever seen,” Affleck said. “It was so gross.”

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© Photograph: Warner Bros./Allstar

© Photograph: Warner Bros./Allstar

© Photograph: Warner Bros./Allstar

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‘A tipping point of ickiness’: Welsh star Tom Rhys Harries on playing eyelid-snipping DC supervillain Clayface

He cut his teeth playing rock stars and pretty posh boys. Speaking from his LA home, the actor talks about landing his first blockbuster lead in the grisly DC horror. Will it be too shocking for comic book fans?

Exactly 13 years ago this month, Tom Rhys Harries was hanging by his ankles from a meat hook every night. Playing a teenage rock’n’roll idol abducted by gangsters in a revival of Jez Butterworth’s Mojo, Harries was fresh out of drama school and the only unknown in a cast led by Ben Whishaw and Rupert Grint. The Guardian’s Michael Billington likened him to “an embryonic Elvis”.

Now the 36-year-old Cardiff-born actor has the title role in Clayface, a violent DC Comics supervillain blockbuster set in Batman’s stomping ground, Gotham City. This puts him in the company of fellow Brits in the comic-book universe, such as Tom Holland (Spider-Man), Robert Pattinson (Batman) and David Jonsson, recently announced as the new Black Panther. “I felt ready to do this,” says Harries. “Had I been younger, I’d have been suffocated by the insecurity of wanting to do a good job but not having that quiet trust in getting there.”

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© Photograph: Austin Hargrave

© Photograph: Austin Hargrave

© Photograph: Austin Hargrave

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Introvert with a head injury, trapped at a party

Thinking out Loud is an ongoing webcomic by Leo O'Connell (aka RailRoadlion). Santiago hates parties, but he's been dragged along by his roommate Jamie. Worth reading if only to see what it does with speech bubbles. Thinking Out Loud is updated a chapter at a time and chapter 3 has just gone up.

Leo's other major webcomics project is Starchild - about a marooned space pirate. It's on hiatus at 4 chapters and has beautifully voluminous art. This series of amazing pokemon marker drawings by Leo doesn't have anything to do with webcomics but come on just look at them.
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