I just played with #chatGPT for a few minutes. It's very easy to trick! I asked yet for the "seven" forms of panel transition in #ScottMcCloud's #UnderstandingComics. Here's the problem, there are only six. Instead of correcting me, it made one up.

I think a lot about how I grew up in fortuitous windows of #syndication.

First up was #CaptainScarlet (and the Mysterons),* the lesser-known cousin of #Thunderbirds by the Andersons. First aired 1967–68, syndicated on the BBC in the 1990s and dubbed into #HeritageLanguage(s) including Hindi!

I definitely got my first taste of mid-century modern furniture and fashion, a love for Chicago's corn-cob brutalist #MarinaCity, the suspicion of oligopolies, grand narratives of terrorism and cowboy heroism, and the early lesson of 'good doesn't always win' and there are serious consequences and collateral damage inflicted on ordinary people in war. While the main character being immortal turns into 'suicide mission of the week', and there's a lot of dated stereotypes, there's a lot of ground that's covered as a kids show that you probably couldn't get away with now. (The fear in the music still gives me chills).

My favourite takeaway is how it uses mixed media. Live-action effects (like fire and the signature two ring lights) on #puppet-sets. Real objects like clocks. Every 'hand-based' interaction uses filmed hands (#ScottMcCloud describes a similar effect in #UnderstandingComics using naturalism to achieve intimacy). And the credits use an animation style that tells the stories they didn't tell. I love how it all works together as a unit.

*Yes, those Mysterons and that track covered and reimagined by #Portishead.
(This might turn into a series of toots? If so this is 1/n.)