The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1858: My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic #4, February 2013

For information on stopping the spread of COVID-19, and on what to do if you are quarantined, have a look at the World Health Organization site.

Not going to lie, I had goosebumps at the end of this issue. The climax of this four-issue story manages to capture the magic of the television show in a palpable way. Though the previous four issues have been mostly humour, wrapped around the occasional action sequence, in the background there have been the main tenets of the series popping up, lessons of love or friendship or caring. But during the final battle with Queen Chrysalis, these tenets crystalize into Twilight's support from her friends, which translates directly into magical power.

At one point, Twilight, imbued with magical energies, says "We fight because we know about things worth fighting for! Love! Friendship! We have things that you can't hope to have!" For me, this is the main thrust of the series. The world right now is in a very difficult place, and you can see that it is dividing people into two groups. You have the ones who hoard supplies, or raise prices on essential items. These are the Queen Chrysalis people, the ones who will never know (well, hopefully one day they will) that there are greater, better things to fight for than possessions and wealth. The other group are the people who are trying to mitigate the spread of the disease, despite personal difficulty, and who are willing to help when the situation warrants it. Hopefully, when (if?) the worst of it passes us by, those will be the people who rise to the top and help us forge a new way forward.

Though, sadly, I won't be holding my breath for that to happen.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1857: My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic #3, January 2013

For information on stopping the spread of COVID-19, and on what to do if you are quarantined, have a look at the World Health Organization site.

Just a short one today. I'm tired and the isolation is getting to me. Perhaps the best joke in the series so far is just how tired of the Cutie Mark Crusaders Queen Chrysalis is getting. One almost imagines that if the ponies had just waited for a little bit longer, the changeling queen would have sent the talkative tweens back to Ponyville just to get a bit of peace and quiet. Has anyone ever told a story where the kidnappers return their hostage due to extreme annoyance?

They probably would just kill them, I guess. Which would make this comic much, much darker were it to happen.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1856: My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic #2, December 2012

For information on stopping the spread of COVID-19, and on what to do if you are quarantined, have a look at the World Health Organization site.

I think that for me, like most who grew up in the 1980s, the revival and incredible popularity of My Little Pony was a surprise. More surprising, perhaps, is the fact that said revival was an incredible wellspring of creativity and positivity that resonated with so many people, and not just in the demographic the show was ostensibly aimed toward. I count myself amongst those drawn in by these multi-coloured equines. One of the things that I most appreciate about the series, televisual or comic, is their focus on making the stories inclusive for all audience members. The pre-pubescent girls to whom the series is marketed likely have no idea who David Bowie is, or who Doctor Who is, yet the show and the comic are rife with references to them, and to numerous other pop culture moments and giants. Later issues of the series take their story titles (and premise-ish) from Fringe, which I think is one of the great television shows of all time.

I remember taking my child to see Monsters, Inc. when they were very young, and I was thoroughly impressed with the attention paid to entertaining the parents who inevitably were stuck in the theatre with all of these little children. This is obviously an economic move, in that if a parent knows they're likely to be entertained by a childrens' cartoon, they're more likely to take those children to see one at a movie theatre. But I think it also shows some respect toward those parents who utilize their disposable income to support an industry that had basically ignored them up to that point. And if post-secondary teaching has taught me anything, it's that children's media can be every bit as complex as any other media if the people producing it are thoughtful, and are invested in their work.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1855: My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic #1, November 2012

For information on stopping the spread of COVID-19, and on what to do if you are quarantined, have a look at the World Health Organization site.

I've always been a Fluttershy kind of guy. Something about her quiet and cheerful demeanor that masks a fierce rage beneath, often provoked by threats to ones friends and family, reminds me of someone.

It's my wife, BTW.

How's everyone doing with the isolation? I'm surprised, actually, at how hard I'm finding it. On the other hand, my job involved walking around all day and talking to people. This is a bit of a shift. Thank goodness for my incessant hoarding throughout my life that has prepared me with more stuff to do than I can possibly get done in one pandemic. At least I'll be ready for the next one.

Too soon?

Today's comic is a wonderful adaptation of a wonderful cartoon. Though I've not watched the entire series, the first couple of seasons were entertaining and moving, and both preached and practiced an ethos of friendship. The comic follows suit, and makes wonderful use of the medium of comics to expand our view into Ponyville and its environs.

Am I tempted to keep reading this series? Yes. Yes I am.

More to follow.