The December issue of the Mustang Post for the 2025-2026 is out now!
You can read the current issue here!
MUSTANG POST: 2025 DECEMBER ISSUE RELEASED!
Category Archives: Arts & Entertainment
MUSTANG POST: 2025 NOVEMBER ISSUE RELEASED!
Here’s the first issue of the Mustang Post for the 2025-2026 school year!
You can read the first issue of this school year here!
MUSTANG POST: 2025 MAY ISSUE RELEASED!
As this is my last issue with The Mustang Post I feel as though I need to spend this letter reflecting on my time here. For almost a quarter of my life I have been writing for The Mustang Post, during that time I wrote 17 articles, published 15 eMagazines, and recorded two podcasts. Among everything I have published, one piece stands out as my favorite, Cooking Up Contention.
Cooking Up Contention was made by Roland, Chad, and me during the 23-24 school year. It was born out of our teachers’ annoyance with our petty squabbles, with him eventually telling us to “just record yourselves arguing.” Which is what we did. The three of us turned our dumb talks into a script, and we loved it because it was an expansion of something we had fun doing.
Ultimately, that podcast sums up why I enjoyed my time here so much, Mr. Lang, our teacher, made an environment where anything you love can be written about.
You can read the last issue of this school year here!
Thank you for reading and goodbye,
From Logan Jacobs
MUSTANG POST: 2025 MARCH ISSUE RELEASED!
Hello again!
The Mustang Post has returned with another issue, while not as packed or as thematic as our last issue it surely will still provide quality articles for you to enjoy!
One of those quality articles is another valorant article, it’s similar to an older article I produced after the LOCK//IN event in 2023 but focuses more on story telling as compared to presenting facts.
I don’t have any major announcements for the Post in this letter so I’d like to end this letter by thanking you for reading!
You can read the newest release of the Mustang Post here!
Thank you for reading and best wishes,
From Logan Jacobs and the entire Editor Team
MUSTANG POST: 2025 VALENTINES DAY ISSUE RELEASED!
Happy Valentines Day!
For the first time ever the Post is doing a themed holiday issue! In the past we’ve dabbled in seasonal themed articles but never to this degree! Expect a full bouquets worth of Valentines day articles.
Alongside that you can expect some local articles for FM area! Again, we’ve dabbled in this idea here and there throughout the years but this will (hopefully) become a new trend here at the Post.
Finally, I’d like to introduce you to our new articles. Most articles will now be classified under overarching genres like “Fashion Cents” (fashion related articles) or “Game Changers” (sports related articles).
You shouldn’t see a major change to the contents of articles being produced at the Post but more a shift away from the chaos previously featured.
You can read the new issue here!
Thank you for reading and best wishes,
From Logan Jacobs and the entire Editor Team
Revamping VCT
Valorant, as mentioned in a previous article, is a 5v5 tactical shooter most similar to a blend of Counter-Strike and Overwatch gameplay. Valorant is balanced around precise gunplay and strategic decisions such as characters and map picks.
Valorant is ever growing, every few weeks a new patch is released with varying degrees of changes, these changes can range from minor bug fixes to adding new characters or maps.
Starting in early January, a Valorant Championship Tour, or VCT, starts. This tour involves four regional tournaments and three international tournaments all culminating in a final championship event in early fall.
Currently, 48 teams compete in VCT with 40 of them being franchised from the start. The other eight teams earned their spot to compete in the league through Challengers.
Challengers is a league that runs parallel to VCT with a spot for franchising on the line, each major region runs their own individual leagues with no international tournament at the end.
Alongside both Challengers and VCT is Game Changers, a league for marginalized genders, focusing on giving opportunities to those that may be discriminated against based on their gender. GC runs on an open qualifier system with the only requirement being that all players on a team must be of a marginalized gender.
Any GC team that qualifies for Champions will automatically be qualified for their local Challengers league, giving a direct pipeline from GC to VCT. This was one of the many changes announced by Riot Games during 2024 for the upcoming season.
The 2025 season also included an overhaul to the VCT schedule. The 2025 VCT season offers a denser schedule that places more importance on stage 2 compared to the 2024 season.
This season will also be longer, shortening the off season and in turn the amount of time spent not playing Valorant. The last major changes for the 2025 season were made to the Challengers system. Alongside changes to the points system, Challengers has received an upheaval to its old systems.
Challengers in the 2025 season will have a changed schedule and different point system based on the feedback received during the 2024 season. More importantly, two new types of teams will be competing alongside the old teams in Challengers, Academy and Game Changers teams.
Academy teams is a system in which already franchised teams will create another team to foster new players in a competitive environment, the drawback of this system is that these teams, no matter how well they do, cannot qualify for ascension.
Despite the 2025 season not having started, a few predictions can be made. For example, the denser VCT schedule will lead to a more volatile state of Valorant that will cause domination to be even harder to achieve. Another prediction is that a wave of formerly Game Changer’s players will come to the main VCT circuit after Florescent, the best Game Changer’s player ever, made the first leap during this off season.
The last major prediction is that the Academy team system will flop in Americas because despite the individual team’s success, the players will not be able to advance to VCT because of the highly competitive nature of America’s. However, Academy teams in APAC, EMEA, and China will flourish because of it will show off young talents that underperforming teams can pick up. Although none of these predictions could come true, the only way to find out is to watch.
MUSTANG POST: 2024 DECEMBER ISSUE RELEASED!
Season’s greetings!!
As the winter’s cold months approach us, our journalists have been working hard to get their first articles of the new school year published.
As the first few months of school are concentrated on refining punctuation and grammar, we intend on beefing up our future issues as the year goes on.
While December is the most wonderful time of the year, it is also the busiest time of the year. So, with that in mind, thank you for taking the time to enjoy our newest set of articles, and a warm welcome to any new viewers, as your support allows us to continue releasing new issues in the future months.
You can read the new issue here!
Thank you for reading and best wishes,
From Addison McCroskey and the entire Editor Team
MUSTANG POST: 2024 OCTOBER ISSUE RELEASED!
Welcome back! The Mustang Post has survived another year of the long harsh winter known as Summer. Now a new spring is blooming in the Fall, new articles, new students, and even more editing for myself.
Throughout this year we hope to have a steady flow of articles releasing periodically, unlike last year. We also hope to have a bigger focus on the release of individual articles instead of the eMagazine focused format that we went with last year.
Besides the changes mentioned above, no other sweeping changes have been made. Two thirds of our editorial team has departed over the long winter, but with that comes new editors joining the team.
Abby Smith will be joining as an Assistant Editor focusing on podcasts and sports. Addison McCrosky will also be joining as an Assistant Editor with a more general focus.
You can read the new issue here!
-Logan
Setting the Scene: Episode 4
THE CINEMA CHRONICLES
By Gabriel Sieling
Hosted by Gabriel Sieling
Official Transcript:
CHILDHOOD TRAMA/WHY CHILDHOOD CHARACTERS ARE BECOMING KILLERS
{RISK BEGINNING THEME}
Gabriel Sieling: Hello Everyone and welcome back to The Cinema Chronicles. I’m your host Gabriel, and today we will be talking about how Fan Favorite Childhood Characters are becoming Horror Movie Killers
SOUND EFFECT: Film Scroll
Question 1: What IP’S were affected?
Gabriel Sieling: You might be wondering what I am talking about? Well I’ll give you an explanation. Recently in the 2020’s, Fan Favorite Childhood Fictional Characters have been staring in their very own horror films such as “Winnie the Pooh”, “The Grinch”, “Bambi”, and everyone’s favorite “Mickey Mouse.” People have been using these characters and twisting their origin in order to make a buttload of low budget horror films.
SOUND EFFECT: Knife Slash
Gaabriel Sieling: Because the idea of your favorite childhood characters killing people sounds very funny. So, people like Rhys Frake-Waterfield (Creator of “Winnie-The-Pooh Blood and Honey” and “The Twisted Childhood Universe”), and Stevan LaMorte (Creator of “The Mean One”), are using these characters just for fun, while also making a quick cash grab on the side.
SOUND EFFECT: Film Scroll
Question 2: How are they legally able to do this?
Gabriel Sieling: You might be wondering how these creators are able to get away with using these characters? Shouldn’t Disney be suing them? Well, that’s just it, they cant. The reason people are able to use characters like Winnie the Pooh, and Mickey Mouse, is because they are now in something known as “The Public Domain.” The Public Domain is a law that states whenever IP expires after 100 years of its release, that IP is sent into the public domain. When said IP enters the Public Domain, then they are free to use by any creator and that IP now belongs to the public. So, is that it? Mickey Mouse is no longer owned by Disney.
SOUND EFFECT: Gasp
Gabriel Sieling: Well not so fast. Mickey Mouse is in the Public Domain sure, but only a specific version of Mickey Mouse. Specifically, Mickeys first ever appearance in the 1928 animated short “Steamboat Willie.” And that Mickey Mouse is Black and White. Whereas the current mickey with color we know today, didn’t appear on screen till the 1935 Animated short “The Band Concert.” So, that means the public is not allowed to use the current version of the mouse for another 8 to 9 years. People will only be allowed to use the Steamboat Willie version of the character, like they did in the mickey mouse horror films “Mickey’s Mouse Trap”, and the recently announced “Scream Boat.” But you might be realizing, I mentioned the grinch earlier in the episode, but the original How the Grinch stole Christmas children’s book came out in 1957, that IP will legally not be in the Public Domain for at least another 30 years or so. That leads me to another way people can legally use these characters for their horror movies. The grinch horror film released in 2022 titled “The Mean One” is classified as a “Parody Film.”
SOUND EFFECT: Boing
Gabriel Sieling: Hollywood is no stranger to Parody films, with films such as “Scary Movie”, “Shaun of the Dead”, “Vampires Suck” “The Bill and Silent Bob franchise”, and “The Starving Games”. These films are classified as parodies because they never directly address anything from the original material, they just adapt the film that they are basing the parody on. For example, in the mean one, they never directly address the monster as the grinch. They only address the mean one. Which is a reference to the classic grinch holiday tune.
SOUND EFFECT: You’re a mean on Mr. Grinch.
Gabriel Sieling: This makes it so that the film is safe from being sued as it is under The Parody Label.
SOUND EFFECT: Film Scroll
Question 3: Are there any restrictions?
Gabriel Sieling: So, you may be thinking that all of the stuff I mentioned is kind of an overpowered public right. But there are some restrictions that these creators have to follow. As said in a Video from the YouTube Channel “The Film Theorists”,
SOUND EFFECT: Welcome to film theory.
The head of the channel at the time “Matthew Patrick” revealed that the companies that own these IP’s have the ability to establish “Trademark’s.” What is the Difference between Copyrights and Trademarks you may ask? Well unlike Copyrights, Trademarks do not expire. Let’s take what MatPat used as an example of this, Superman.
SOUND EFFECT: Superman Theme
The Man of Steel’s first appearance was in “Action Comic #1.” And as of the time recording this, Superman’s copyright is set to expire in January of 2034. But if people want to use Superman for their own projects, they are going to have to get really creative with how they use the character. First off, people are only allowed to use the Superman that appeared in that issue, he has a black and red S on his chest, and the only powers he had were super strength, invulnerability, and the ability to leap tall buildings with a single bound. Therefore, Superman did not have the ability to fly, or shoot lasers out of his eyes. So that would mean that creators could not use his powers. And Second off, The Superman name and iconic logo are trademarked by DC Comics. Therefore, Creators can use the iconic S Symbol, or use the name Superman. They may have to get creative and bring out their hyphens and introduce Super-Man.
SOUND EFFECT: Laugh sound.
Gabriel Sieling: The point is, all of these characters are getting horror films, just because of the fact that they can, and that it’s legal. But still, in the end of the day, the people still care about the source material and use it to make a twisted take on our favorite characters……………except “Mickeys Mouse Trap” that can still burn in a fire. Anyway, be sure to check under your bed for any pooh bears tonight. My name is Gabriel, and this has been the Cinema Chronicles. Thank you.
{RISK ENDING THEME}
(END.)
Setting the Scene: Episode 3
THE CINEMA CHRONICLES
By Gabriel Sieling
Hosted by Gabriel Sieling
Official Transcript:
How The Spider-Verse Changed Modern Animation
{RISK BEGINNING THEME}
Gabriel Sieling: Hello Everyone and welcome back to The Cinema Chronicles. I’m your host Gabriel, and today we will be talking about how The Spider-Verse changed modern day animation.
SOUND EFFECT: Film Scroll
Question 1: What is “Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse?
Gabriel Sieling: For those who do not know, In December of 2018, Sony Pictures Animations released the first ever theatrically released Animated marvel film “Spider-Man into the Spider Verse.”
SOUND EFFECT: THWIP
Gabriel Sieling: Produced by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the film follows Brooklyn teenager Miles Morales,
SOUND EFFECT: Miles Morales Quote
Gabriel Sieling: as he suddenly develops mysterious powers that transform him into the one and only Spider-Man. When he meets Peter Parker, he soon realizes that there are many others who share his special, high-flying talents. Miles must now use his newfound skills to battle Wilson Fisk, AKA The Kingpin. A mad businessperson who has a device that can open portals to other universes and pull different versions of Spider-Man into miles universe.
SOUND EFFECT: glitch SFX.
Gabriel Sieling: This Film opened with incredible reviews, and even won the academy reward for best animated feature film.
SOUND EFFECT: wow.
SOUND EFFECT: cha ching.
Gabriel Sieling: And as you might of guess, the attention this animated film was getting made the other studios very aware.
SOUND EFFECT: film scroll.
Question 2: how did Spider-Verse change the world of animation?
Gabriel Sieling: Spider-Verse had an Animation Style unlike any other animated film before, with the animation specifically made to look like a comic book come to life. The animators wanted to try something different from the common Pixar esk 3D animation, trying innovative ideas such as switching the frames per second on a specific character, and making every character have a unique style and tone to separate hem from the other. This is what caused “Into the Spider Verse” along with its sequel, “Across the Spider Verse” to start a trend in modern animation by invoking its hero’s comic-book origins with Ben-Day dots and wild, hallucinogenic sequences. This made it so that major studios have grown less fearful of animation and encourage them to diverge from the norm. The film proved that audiences would not reject projects that look drastically different from the house styles of Pixar and DreamWorks. Films like “Teenage Mutant Ninga Turtles Mutant Mayhem,”
SOUND EFFECT: ninja slash.
“The Mitchell’s VS The Machines,”
SOUND EFFECT: robot sound.
“Puss in Boots the Last Wish”
SOUND EFFECT: fairy tale sparkle.
And “Nimona”
SOUND EFFECT: fire.
Gabriel Sieling: all have distinctive looks that are visually sensational without conforming to established playbooks. Like “TMNT Mutant Mayhems” approach to animation to make it look like it was drawn by a teenager, and “Puss in Boots the Last Wish’s” approach to make the animation look like each frame was pulled from a story book. If Spider Verse did not take the risk and tried to do something different with animation. Sure, not all new animated films take this approach such as animation studios like Pixar and Illumination. It does not affect the impact that these different animated films have on the audience.
Gabriel Sieling: If it were not for Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse, Animation would have never changed. The Spider-Verse films are classified as cinematic masterpieces. And with these films’ combination of great storytelling, animation, special effects, and heart, I believe they deserve that title. This just goes to show that technology is always evolving. And it is our choice if we evolve with it and try new things, or just stay in the past while everyone else moves on.
Thanks For Watching this episode of the Cinema Chronicles!
{RISK ENDING THEME}
(END.)
The Mustang Post 