My old 16-page comic where Frasier meets Columbo can be read on my website: joechouinard.com/columbo

Every superhero is a metaphor that fights other metaphors of the same clade

The Flash is a physics, who fights other physics (mirrors, aerodynamics, cold). Superman is a god, who fights other gods. That’s so good, but Batman is a fear who fights other fears. That’s always the easiest match to sell.

The Star Trek Battle Manual by Lou Zocchi from 1972, later withdrawn for legal reasons, would become the basis for the long-running Star Fleet Battles tabletop wargame.

Space Patrol, a sci-fi tabletop roleplaying game published by Lou Zocchi's GameScience in 1977, heavily influenced by Star Trek.

RIP Lou Zocchi, master of weird dice & creator of the d100 Zocchihedron; also a key figure in #StarTrek games history, writer of the 1st (unlicensed) ST tabletop wargame that evolved into Star Fleet Battles + publisher of Space Patrol, arguably the roleplaying game that set the tone for ST RPGs. 🖖

Extremely normal and fine for a company to put this in a public statement

Bloody hell that is a unvarnished white supremacist techno fascist imperialist manifesto. It gross & deeply concerning that Palantir is so deeply embedded in not just the US gov't but also spreading to other countries through contracts such as with the NHS in the UK.

reject AI.
embrace the Banaknight

There was literally a pangolin that flew combat sorties with the CIA in a dirty war in Laos that then died after drinking too much gin, so there’s at least one pangolin whose record is morally ambiguous

A flatscreen display on a "smart" water fountain, demanding to be reconnected to the internet.

In 1999, I was playing a decker in Shadowrun, and tried to distract a guard by hacking a water fountain to overflow, and my GM said "why would a water fountain be on the network? That's fucking stupid. No you can't try."

Well it's 2026 and I just want you to know, Phil, that I FUCKING CALLED IT!

It’s profoundly ignorant to suggest that the Pope should be fighting crime on behalf of the Catholic Church. Anyone who was remotely familiar with Roman Catholicism would know that that’s what Daredevil is for

Around 20% of hospital beds in the US are in Christianist facilities, most Catholic, that have happily been denying reproductive health care and gender-affirming care for decades AND enjoying a nonprofit status. Most people don't realize the stranglehold the church has until it's too late.

Thrilled to announce 13 Omens, an upcoming horror TTRPG from Paizo! <3

as a known horror fan, please understand how hard it has been to keep quiet about this!!!

Image: A small, angry boy stands in front of his parents. They are in modern clothes, but he is dressed as a regency gentleman with top hat, breeches, cane etc. He says "No title, no estates, and less than a thousand a year! How am I ever to find a wife!" Caption: Noah's parents realise that he has been drawn into the manorsphere.

My latest books cartoon for @theguardian.com #manosphere

Publishers’ AI battle hits Internet Archive SF organization losing access to some news content

“We are collateral damage.” - Mark Graham, Wayback Machine

When preservation is caught in the crossfire, it’s not just libraries that lose—it’s the public’s access to history, knowledge, and truth.

The web shouldn’t disappear behind closed doors.
➡️ www.sfexaminer.com/news/technol...

He apparently loves leaf blowers lol...
#dogs

One of my mom's first jobs was working in a bank.

Her father had to open an account for her, she could not open her own account. At the bank she worked at, which was paying her.

It really is one of the best superhero comics ever made.

Meanwhile, my school district is one of thousands rolling out ChatGPT for educators first and eventually for students, even as half the Internet is blocked on their Chromebooks.

They claim it will be safe!

The evidence: Sam Altman hissed “Trust me, bro” through blood-stained teeth

I still find it odd how people want their money backed by gold to make it more 'real' when gold gets, like, 90% of its value from the same place paper money does: people agreeing it can be traded for goods and services.

(There's prettier metals and using gold for wiring isn't *that* valuable.)

Thank you @lotuscarp.bsky.social for pointing out my mistake. Tang dynasty started the paper money trend, Song dynasty expanded it. Still hundreds of years before anyone else got the memo.

"Magataotao" on Twitter writes: "I am Catholic. This👇is not my Pope." Attached is a video of the Pope saying that we should search for peace and reject war. A community note under their tweet says: "You are not a Catholic if you do not accept the Pope, but rather a schismatic. Canon 751: “Schism is the refusal of submission to the Supreme Pontiff,” ie. the Pope. https://www.vatican.va/archive/cod-iuris-canonici/eng/documents/cic_lib3-cann747-755_en.html"

first in my bloodline to see someone get excommunicated by a community note

We thought we were living in a cyberpunk dystopia but this is actually straight from Warhammer 40K. The machine spirit must be appeased using the proper rituals. Blessings affixed with purity seals will keep the cogitator functioning.

i firmly believe that kennedy wants preventable diseases to rip through american communities since, in his warped mind, those who survive without vaccines will have proven themselves “healthy.”

People make fun of government agencies for still being on Flickr but photos produced by the government are copyright-free and I have yet to see a better photo-centric platform for delivering higher resolution photos that anyone can easily download.

a spacecraft landing is literally like ALL THE SCIENCES AT ONCE

textile strength is important and wind and water are important and what kind of metal they used on the outside and the trajectory of re-entry and the distribution of weight and mass inside the thing and atmospheric conditions and

Every single one of the astronauts who went to the moon and back on Artemis II was educated at a public school.

Thinking of the teachers who poured into Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen tonight. You helped send a kid to the moon!

🌕 💛

The company is pinning a resurgence on games it’s been developing with Walt Disney Co., which agreed to invest $1.5 billion in Epic two years ago. Epic is on track to launch the first game in its new Disney partnership in November, according to four current and former employees. It will be a shooting game along the lines of Embark Studios’ hit Arc Raiders, but with Disney characters battling enemies until they can reach an extraction point, according to the people. So far, internal reviewers have expressed concerns that the game mechanics are not very original, but some of the employees are optimistic that Epic will get it right by the launch date.

"Epic is making a Disney extraction shooter" has booted my brain into emergency BIOS mode

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

We could all be this hopeful, grateful, and inspired more often. We just all have to choose to be. We all just have to look to the stars. #Artemis

Incredible that human beings figured out how to do this. How cool. What if we only did cool stuff

A "wartime" poster that says: "Using Generative AI? You're Prompting with Hitler! GenAI is a Fascist Project! Try using your brain instead! Don't surrender your creativity to the Tech Billionaires' control!"

I missed this from @phineas.bsky.social when it originally came out but it sure feels relevant at the moment.

Also, you can buy this as a print from the artist here:

www.inprnt.com/gallery/phin...