When it comes to making money, we are often told that there are no shortcuts. You work hard at your 9-to-5, save money and grow your 401k with a little investing on the side. It is the route most people take, and you can’t blame them. It’s the safe route. 

Alternatively, you can start a business, and if you have a novel idea and the skills to outmatch your competition, you can earn big bucks as an entrepreneur. 

However, what about the more interesting ways? Did you know that many people have made not just fortunes but created reliable sources of income by learning how to gamble? 

That's right. Gambling isn’t all about luck. Media has portrayed gamblers as wrecks with no control over their money, but this isn’t entirely fair. Popular vloggers like Dale Philip quit their day job because they were able to make a steady income from playing cards.

After a almost a year of waiting, tumultuous production changes, and an iffy future for the leading actor, "The Flash" finally crosses the finish line last for the Justice League movies that made up what fans call "The Snyderverse." And for that wait, fans get a montage of great fan service scenes that will have them remembering what they've loved about the DC pantheon of heroes over the years.

Sadly, very fiew of those scenes involved the movie's main character, The Flash.

First and foremost: "The Flash" is a comedy with a few serious moments. It's bloated with bullet-time special effects and then doubles them when Barry (Ezra Miller) learns he can time travel.

A few days ago I watched a debate between Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump. They were crude, foul-mouthed, and insulted the viewers of the debate by name.

It was on Twitch, and it was all done through the power of AI speech generator, voice imitation, deep fake imagery, and iterative content responsiveness to input from comments in the chat. And it was all in real-time.

That's funny. Because the two men in question are public figures, each prone to ridicule, and as such the content was protected under parody laws.

Now imagine that the charcter on the screen is you -- or an idealized version of you, using a deep fake actor -- taking input from all the listening and video devices that surround you all day, devices you bought voluntarily with your own money, and modifying that input to make things just a little bit more dramatic. And imagine there's nothing you can do about it because it's all completely legal.

Becoming a tattoo artist can be an exciting prospect, but there are also several things that need to be well-considered before you start decorating someone's arm.

This piece is going to take a look at some top tips for new tattoo artists, so you can make sure you are ready to take the first step with your tattoo gun!

Let's get into it.

Hone Your Artistic Skills

Tattooing is an art form, and like any art, it requires a significant level of practice and skill. Before you start tattooing, make sure you have a solid foundation in drawing and design. Practice different styles, experiment with shading and line work, and develop your own unique artistic style. Just remember - the more you practice, the better you will become. Try not to get frustrated and keep going!

People play slots every day, but have you ever stopped to think about how they work and where they came from? The history of slots goes back further than you may think, and since their early days they have stayed on the cutting edge of technology to keep offering players plenty of fun, and jackpots.

To get the most from playing slots online or in brick-and-mortar arcades and casinos it helps if you know a little more about them, and how they work. This quick guide should set you up for some slot slaying, so you can pull the lever, hit hold or nudge, and maybe grab a jackpot or two for yourself.

The Genesis Of Slots

Tales of earthbound sprites have haunted the shadowy corners of cultures worldwide since time immemorial. The ancients wrote of them often: Odysseus encountering the apparition of his dead mother; the Witch of Endor invoking the wraith of Samuel; a visitation by a deceased husband in Virgil’s Aeneid; the disciples’ strident fear that Jesus was a ghost. Even one of the earliest known samples of written language—a Mesopotamian cuneiform tablet dating to 1500 B.C.—is itself an instruction manual for the exorcism of restless spirits.

Imagine Renfield is a deserting soldier and Dracula is... a disarming black cat that everyone adores.

That's the premise behind L.K. Ingino's series Fangs and Foul Play. When military deserter Richard Bluth stumbles upon a deserted house to hide out in for the night, he discovers the sole occupant of the house is a cat -- a talking, vampire cat. During Richard's sleep, Fang does what vampires do -- and turns Richard into his unwilling thrall whose new purpose is to find food for his new meowing master. Only it's not tuna that satisfies this one's hunger -- it's people!

Fortunately, the nearby village has a plethora of candidates who deserve a good exsanguination. Unfortunately, the one Fang has his little reflective eyes set on is Delilah Dansforth, who has become the object of Richard's affections.

The town is suspicious. The graveyard is getting full too quickly. And the army has come looking for Richard. And that's only the first two issues.

Getting a recording studio set up in 2023 can be a challenge. With the cost of living going up, the availability of studio spaces, and everything else going on in the world at the moment, it can be just another added stress to what should be an exciting experience.

That said, there are so many ways that you can still find some fun in making your studio a fantastic space that inspires artists and gets your production rolling. However, you need to plan carefully to ensure you go about it the right way. 

Getting new equipment

Getting a new recording studio means a lot of new equipment. This can be exciting, especially if you are currently just using the backroom in your flat to get recordings done. So, you should make sure that you are getting your hands on some great new tech and making sure that you are getting your money's worth out of your old. You should be ensuring that you are getting this stage right to get the most out of it later on.

According to figures from both the National Institute of Drug Abuse and the National Safety Council, there were more than 106,000 reported drug overdose fatalities in the United States in 2021, a 58% rise from only two years earlier. The overwhelming majority of these deaths (70,601) can be directly attributed to opioids, primarily heroin and its deadlier chemical cousin, fentanyl, and that statistic increases significantly when one factors in the suicides, homicides, and undetermined deaths related to the general drug trade.

It’s not often that a film has six people credited as screenwriters and directors. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is one such film. Considering how confusing the concept of the Marvel Multiverse can be, even for longtime Marvel Comics readers, maybe this should be the norm. Screenwriters Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Dave Callaham and directors Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson. Keeping track of dozens of Spider-People swinging through scenes and mixing and matching and occasionally, dramatically, mismatching dimensions would be a daunting task for anyone to undertake alone.

In the bustling realm of academia, using artificial intelligence (AI) technology for tasks like writing essays is no longer a futuristic dream; it’s today’s reality. Among the game-changing advancements in this field, OpenAI’s language model, ChatGPT, shines like a beacon, illuminating a path to success for students and professionals alike. Using ChatGPT to write an essay is akin to having a personal academic coach, ready to assist you at any hour of the day. It’s a transformative tool that blends cutting-edge technology and the art of writing, promising to simplify the daunting task of crafting a compelling essay.

If you've been collecting comics for more than a few weeks, you're already aware of the fashion of multiple covers for the same comic. These variants may come in a number of varieties, but a popular version is the eye-catching foil variant cover. 

In the May solicitation, comics retailers were sent some very unwelcome news regarding the foil variants for Incredible Hulk #181 Facsimile Editioin, Moon Knight: City of the Dead #1, and Star Wars: Dark Droids #1.

The solicitation for these July 2023 shipments stated, "Please be aware that Marvel's new Foil Variant Cover Program will bear different shorter discounts than normal, due to the significantly higher manufacturing costs for foil covers."

The release of SHAZAM: FURY OF THE GODS is a sign of good tidings for oncoming showrunner James Gunn -- because there's literally nowhere to go but up after this fiasco.

While the original comic book adventures of Captain Marvel (and Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel Junior, The Lieutenant Marvels, Uncle Marvel, and Hoppy the Marvel Bunny) had more than their fair share of comedy, this movie just makes them into a bad joke. The kids are not viewed as heroes but as incompetents. Zachary Levi's Captain Marvel acts more juvenile than does his young alter ego, Billy Batson (Asher Angel), exacerbating the already tiresome concept of a superhero movie trying to remake Tom Hanks' BIG.

Tales of vampires and their carnivorous ilk have spanned centuries and continents. The most commonly known legends in the Western world originate from Eastern Europe—the dreaded nosferatu of Slavic lore: a reanimated corpse, retaining its personality post-mortem, existent among the craven human herd, jealous of life and hungry for the blood pumping through our veins. From those benighted Transylvanian forests an archetype arose that has permeated every facet of popular culture, from books and movies, comics, video games, to the somber cemetery dirges of Gothic clubs and their related leather-and-lace fashions. The steely, hypnotic glare of Dracula and his varied progeny bewitches us as no other mythic monster has.

More and more people are starting to appreciate video games as an art form and as a hobby in its own right. It wasn’t too long ago that there was a certain stigma over those who played games, but times are certainly changing. We are even seeing video games make it to the main stages at events across the world. In fact, eSports, which is competitive gaming, is even played at the Olympics now!

Many people assume that shooters such as Call of Duty are the only types of video games out there, but that is not the case. If you’re looking to get involved with gaming, then the following game genres could appeal to you.

Strategy Games

On the storytelling family tree, suspense and horror are shoots of the same literary branch, attached to a common trunk and rooted in our primitive collective reptilian brain. That sense of disquieting tension one feels when watching Clarice Starling wade through the murky pitch darkness of Buffalo Bill’s death house plucks a chord deep within our psyche, reminding us of a time when our distant, primal ancestors braved untamed wilds on a daily basis.

The Archie Horror line has had its share of successes, translating the beloved all-ages teenagers into subversive fright-fest figures. Jughead The Hunger has our burger-bingeing boy become a werewolf. Vampironica sees our rich glamour girl reveal her immortal bloodsucking side. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina... well, Sabrina was always a witch, but the tales here were more deeply mired in demons and gore. It was an experiment that, I surmise, even surprised the publishers when it began with Afterlife with Archie -- a zombie tale that achieved remarkable success and yet somehow went remarkably unfinished despite the publisher expanding the line to other titles.

Photo by Daria Obymaha: https://www.pexels.com/photo/mother-and-daughter-on-grass-1683975/

A child's world can shatter during a custody dispute between family members. Legal battles such as this can be distressing for a child, especially those old enough to understand what is happening.

The American Psychological Association (APA) believes that parental conflict during judicial proceedings takes serious emotional damage to children caught in the middle. The effects often lead to higher school drop-out rates, mental health issues, and behavior problems that last into their adulthood.

A judge is responsible for deciding on the child's welfare, ensuring that all emotional wounds inflicted on children during the hearings get mended through the love and support of whichever parent gets custodial rights in this case.

RAID OF THE WHITE LEOPARD BOOK 1-
Is a 20 page black and white comic book (16 pages of story plus bonus material) about a band of Vikings who get caught in a storm and wash up on a mysterious island. This first issue contains two connected stories, bringing the tale together from opposing sides and meeting in the middle.

Written by Edwin Acevedo (The Ace) and drawn by Avery Butterworth (The Lost Pages), Raid of the White Leopard sports a cover from Donal Delay (Brutas the Badass) and colors by Allen Alonzo (The Lost Pages 2).

We sat down with Acevedo to talk about the story, how it came to be, and what directed him to use the Fund My Comic platform as the launch pad for this endeavor. That video, and the funding campaign, both follow.