Fanimated

Finding New Comics and Artists- Ben Templesmith

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 16:35:00 +0000

I don’t buy a lot of comic books. Don’t get me wrong; I’m a big fan, but I have limited funds, limited space, limited time, and when it comes right down to it, I’m really picky. My monthly list is pretty small. Probably just a dozen or so titles each month, and the list changes as creators leave books or take on new titles. I am more loyal to writers and creators than I am to titles. My small list means that some weeks I have very little or nothing to buy, some weeks there is nothing on my list and that’s when I’m most likely to buy a DVD or new video game. My small list also means I miss a lot of great talent. But the lean Wednesdays also mean that I’m more likely to discover something new. This week, Ulitimate Spider-Man was the only thing I knew for sure I wanted to buy. But it doesn’t seem right to just spend $ 2.99 in the comic shop, so I started looking around at the indie titles that had come out and Ben Templesmith’s new book, Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse from IDW caught my eye.

I had heard of Templesmith. I knew about 30 Days of Night. And he also created Singularity 7 and has done work on Silent Hill and Buffy, but I had missed most of this. As of now though, I’m now a converted fan. When I went to pay for the issue, the LCS guy seemed pretty excited and started chatting me up on Templesmith and pulled a copy of Wormwood issue #0 for me as well as his thin but lush artbook Tommyrot. Looking through the dark images I was reminded of Bill Sienkiewicz's crazy line work as well as Ashley Woods' coloring and style. Just a wonderfully unconventional comics style that’s right up my alley. The LCS guy told me he owned a signed limited print of one of the pieces in the book. Lucky guy.

So after getting home and reading both issues, it turns out Templesmith can write too. The artbook left me expecting a twisted and dark horror story. Twisted is right, but Wormwood has a great deadpan sense of humor that totally caught me off guard. The horror in the book is always checked by the comedy. The gore and the macabre don’t bother Wormwood (or the reader) at all. He’s already dead, so what’s he got to worry about? In one scene, when his robotic drinking buddy Mr. Pendulum (who can’t actually drink) blows off Wormwood’s head to kill the creature that is attempting to control his body, Wormwood simply asks for staples to re-attach his noggin.

After two issues, we have been given little hints as to what kind of world Wormwood inhabits, who he and his companions are and what they are up to. There are zombie strippers, strippers with with tatoos that come to life, demons, portals into hell, and beer! I look forward to future issues as the story unveils more of Templesmith’s wonderfully bizarre creations.

New Animated Spiderman Coming to DVD

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 15:35:00 +0000

Sony has just announced Culver Entertainment, a company focused on developing and producing drama, comedy and animated series exclusively for DVD and international distribution.

The title of this post says exactly why we should care: first up is everyone's favorite webslinger, Spider-Man!

The first project under the Culver Entertainment banner will be a new animated Spider-Man series. The first 13 half-hour episodes of the show are expected to be released next year.

Direct to DVD seems sort of like the precurser to purely digital distribution, the transition phase before people get used to the idea of not actually owning anything but binary code. Of course we wouldn't own the code, we'd just own a license to playback the code for our personal use, at least that's what the studios will tell us. DRM types claim that's all we own now when we buy a DVD or a CD . . . anyway, before I rant . . .

I can find no word on who is attached to this project. I enjoyed the MTV's series from 2003. Brian Bendis, current Ulitmate Spider-Man scribe, as well as writer for about half of Marvel's other titles, wrote the pilot and was co-executive producer for that run, and if they come up with something on par, I'll be happy.

Local Boy Makes Good- Editorial Cartoon Winner Announced

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 18:18:00 +0000

The local rag just announced the results of their editorial cartoon contest.

I’m not usually a big political cartoon fan. Like most other mainstream media they seem to fit neatly into one of the 2 political parties, and I’m just not a 2 party kind of guy. But I am often struck by the impact a single framed cartoon can have. While they don't always inspire worldwide rioting, they do often go for the gut. I admire that as well as the skill to compress all you have to say in a single image, something I can relate to being a photographer by avocation.

Anyway, the above winnning image by William Warren is timely, thought provoking and a good example of how to make a strong impact with few words and a skillfully designed cartoon.

William, according to his website, is a native Atlantan attending Wake Forest in his junior year. The AJC award is not his first contest win. In April he placed first in the John Locher Memorial Cartoon Contest, the top contest for college newspaper editorial cartoonists.

Congrats to William. You smooth chinned youngsters are killing me.

More Toons on iTunes

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 19:14:00 +0000

Did someone say they wanted [adult swim] on their iPod?

Hot on the heels of last week's addition of the Jetsons and Flintstones, iTunes has just added Cartoon Network and Adult Swim to their lineup. Available for download now are Johnny Bravo and Squirrel Boy from CN and Aqua Teen Hunger Force, The Venture Bros and Sealab 2021 from Adult Swim.

This content just became available today and there's not much rhyme or reason to what's there. There are four Venture Brothers episodes from the current season, Season 3 of Sealab , and Season 4 of Aquateen. I hope to see more. I want my Space Ghost! And I hope it doesn't interfere with Adult Swim's FIX schedule.

More on the addition here.

DVD Tuesday

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 17:32:00 +0000

A whole big bunch of animation is being released on DVD today, almost all of it anime. Meanwhile, the made in the US of A standout is Beavis & Butt-head - The Mike Judge Collection, Vol. 3, 42 episodes hand-picked by Mike Judge including the original, uncut Beavis & Butt-head short Frog Baseball!

Beavis and Butt-head are hardly remembered for their artistic use of animation, but on the heels of The Simpsons and Ren & Stimpy, Mike Judge’s “dumb, crude, ugly, thoughtless, sexist self-destructive fools” (from the disclaimer that ran before the show) helped to bring animation to an older audience. It was suddenly cool for college aged kids and adults to watch cartoons. It is hard to imagine Southpark without there first having been Beavis and Butt-head. It is hard to imagine adult swim without first having these cartoons, and it is hard to imagine popular culture with out “Fire, Fire, Fire” “Buttmunch” and the Beavis’ laugh in our lexicon.

Below is a clip from Radio Sweethearts, one of the episodes on the new collection.

When I think of Beavis and Butt-head, I still think of music videos, and the insightful commentary given by the two music aficionados. Included in this collection are:

Stakka Bo: Here We Go
Crowbar: Existence Is Punishment
Salt 'n' Pepa (Featuring En Vogue): Whatta Man
Poison: I Want Action
2 Unlimited: Get Ready for This
Tripping Daisy: I Got a Girl
Jesus Lizard: Glamorous
Sonic Youth: Dirty Boots
Soundgarden: Spoonman
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion: Dang
PJ Harvey: Down by the Water
Alice Cooper: Teenage Frankenstein
Toadies: Possum Kingdom
Rollins Band: Liar
Paul Broucek: Hollywood Halloween

Like South Park today, Beavis and Butt-head were criticized for being vulgar, stupid, brain rotting and generally offensive to everyone. While puritanical and humorless detractors pinned all our social ills on shows like these, Beavis and Butthead were subversively poking fun at the very pop culture they were a part of and exposing the social ills in their own hilarious way. This collection is for those who prefer the latter approach.

Also out today is V for Vendetta, not animated of course, but based on Alan Moore’s graphic novel of the same name. Moore accused Vendetta's screen writers the Wachowski brothers of making egregious changes to his story and had his name withdrawn from the project. Mixed reviews from people I trust kept me out of the theater for this one, but I’ll check it out from Netflix.

And as mentioned, tons and tons of anime is released today and one of the most interesting looking of the bunch is Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 11: Becoming the Stone

Exploding Amphibians

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 16:10:00 +0000

Frog Pop

No, this has nothing to do with Saturday's post regarding Disney's latest project announcement.

This is a YouTube clip I found that shows you don't need CG to tell a good story or pull off a good gag. You don't even have to animate like Tex Avery. Sometimes simple really works.

I love how spare but amusing this is. The sound effects work great, and the music is wonderfully old school, as is the whole short. I have no background information about this little film. I did find this blog. Perhaps if it is the same Jeremy Spears, he will fill us in a bit.

Has anyone actually called that 1-800 number?

UPDATE

Looks like Jeremy just updated his blog, and it is indeed the same guy. Frog Pop was made when he was just 16 and led to his first storyboard job. Way to go Jeremy!

Get the rest of the story here.

Disney 2D Redux

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 15:01:00 +0000

image Sel
Lasseter Kisses the Frog Princess: Hand Drawn Returns to Disney

While the “age old pixels vs. pencils” battle raged hotly this week, Disney seems to have laid down its arms. Disney this week announced that John Lasseter has given the go ahead to a hand-drawn feature film, The Frog Princess.

As Comingsoon.net writes:

The film is being developed by writer-directors Ron Clements and John Musker (Treasure Planet, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid), who recently rejoined the studio after Ed Catmull and John Lasseter became WDFA president and chief creative officer, respectively, following the Pixar acquisition. Lasseter has given the go-ahead for the project to be made in 2-D should it get the green light. He has previously said he would like to see Disney use 2-D visuals for the right projects.

The pixels vs. pencils debate often devolves into what sounds like fan boys arguing about Marvel vs. DC, or Playstation vs. Xbox. As, I’ve said, I like all forms of animation, but when Disney abandoned 2D animation after Home on the Range, it really did seem to spell doom for 2D, so this is great news. With the combination of some Pixar minds and Disney’s long 2D history, it could be a great revival for hand-drawn animation, but after seeing Cars, the first project of the Pixar/Disney mating, I’m wondering if the reverse may happen, and Disney just sucks the life out of the project. My hope is that the Frog Princess team has the equivalent of the lockeroom bulletin board and prominently posts some of the inane quotes from this past week as motivation to prove the ignorant wrong.

Saturday Morning Toon Avalanche

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 00:14:00 +0000

The Digital Bits, my very favorite DVD news site, is reporting that in addition to the recently released Flash Gordon, and Masters of the Universe, BCI Eclipse will be releasing a ton of DVD goodness. DVD producer Andy Mangles told the Bits that he is working on the following:

Blackstar: The Complete Series and Space Sentinels & The Freedom Force: The Complete Series (both 8/22), Defenders of the Earth: Volume One (10/10), Groovie Goolies: The Saturday "Mourning" Collection, A Snow White Christmas and Journey Back to OZ: Special Edition (10/24), She-Ra: Princess of Power - Season One, Volume One, Ark II: The Complete Series, Ghost Busters: The Animated Series - Volume One and Dungeons & Dragons: The Complete Series (11/7), Mission Magic: The Complete Series and The New Adventures of He-Man: Volume One (late 2006), Space Academy: The Complete Series, The Cat Pack: Waldo Kitty & Fraidy Cat - Volume One, Prince Valiant: The Complete Series - Volume Two, She-Ra: Princess of Power - Season One, Volume Two, Defenders of the Earth: Volume Two, Zorro & The Lone Ranger: Volume One and The Legend of Bravestarr: Special Edition (early 2007), Ghost Busters: The Animated Series - Volume Two, Snow White: Happily Ever After - Special Edition, The New Adventures of He-Man: Volume Two and Jason of Star Command: The Complete Series (Spring 2007) and She-Ra: Princess of Power - Season Two, Hero High: The Complete Series, The Legend of Bravestarr: The Series - Volume One, The Ghost Busters: The Complete Series (live action), Zorro & The Lone Ranger: Volume Two, Fabulous Funnies: The Complete Series, The Legend of Bravestarr: The Series - Volume Two and The Secrets of Isis: The Complete Series (Summer 2007).

Phew. Looking at that list makes me tired. Mangles is one busy man.

iTunes gets iToons

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 14:42:00 +0000

Great news for animation fans who like their toons on the go. Episodes of the Hanna-Barbera classics, The Flintstones and their space-age counterparts, The Jetsons are now available on iTunes.

Personally I still haven’t gotten used to the idea of watching video on a 2.5 inch screen with just 320x240 resolution, but as we get nearer to what will certainly be improved resolution in future generations of iPods, I’m glad that the studios are willing to make more content available.

Of these two offerings, over time I’ve become a bigger fan of the Jetsons than the Flintstones. Flying cars and robots are just way cooler than foot powered cars and purple dinosaurs. And it hasn’t been ruined for me with a live action version, at least not yet. Plus Judy is kind of a babe.

Both the Jetsons and the Flintstones were primetime shows. The Flintstones was by far the most successful of the two running for 6 seasons from 1960 to 1966. The Jestons first aired in 1962 and ran 24 episodes over 2 years. It was later revived in the 80’s, but we’ll just ignore that. On iTunes you can get all 24 of the original Jetsons episodes and the 28 episodes of Season 1 of the Flintstones.

DVD Tuesday

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 20:40:00 +0000

There is plenty of cartoon goodness on DVD this week. Warner Brothers brings out a pair if releases that really do belong together, Animaniacs Vol I and Pinky and the Brain volume I. Animaniacs features 25 episodes on 5 discs and Pinky contains 22 episodes on 4 discs. These 90’s classics of animation are a long time coming to DVD. Volume 2 of both is scheduled for December.

And for fans of existential cyberpunk anime there is Ghost in the Shell - Stand Alone Complex, Season 2 (Vol. 6). Being existentially minded and a fan of cyberpunk, and since I think adult swim picks the best of the best of anime, I should probably check this out.

In Your Face

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 21:03:00 +0000

Monster House in 3D

The latest release in what seems to be a glut of animated films hitting the multiplex this summer is Monster House. I’ve been looking forward to it ever since I saw the preview prior to Over the Hedge.

With my better half out of town with the baby this weekend, it didn’t take much arm twisting to get my two oldest in the car for a hike across several counties to where Monster House was showing in 3D.

Reviews have generally positive, and there are plenty of places on line to find opinions. My succinct review of the film, as given to my 7 year old who said she preferred tales of princesses and dragons: It is a princess and dragon story. DJ and Chowder are the knights, Jenny is the princess and the house is the dragon. There are adventures, battles, and everyone lives happily ever after. It’s an enjoyable modern day fairy tale/ kids horror movie.

Of course most stories are a kind of princess and dragon story, but I’ll leave that to comparative lit types. The thing I wanted to write about is the film’s use of new 3D technology.

Monster House uses a new kind of digital 3d, developed by Real D. Real D develops 3-D visualization technologies not just for movies but for science, marketing and industry as well. The first Real D film was Disney’s Chicken Little. For Monster House, Real D worked with another 150 theaters to add the digital projectors and equipment necessary for the 3D experience.

If 3D makes you think of flimsy red and blue lensed glasses, Vincent Price and headaches induced by out of synch projectors, then you are stuck in the 50’s. This is the 21st Century and digital rules. Instead of gimmicky old movies and National Geographic inserts, think more of an ultra clear motion picture version of a viewmaster.

With Real D you get a plastic pair of glasses that make you look like Elvis Costello. The lenses appear slightly tinted but are not colored. They felt comfortable enough even though I was wearing my prescription glasses as well. The only previews were for the upcoming Real D releases: Disney’s Meet the Robinsons and a 3D version of Nightmare before Christmas. The latter seems ready made for this technology and looked really stunning in the 3D previews.

If you are going to see Monster House, do look for a Real D theater near you. It was shot for this experience, every frame optimized for the effect, and the movie is definitely made better with the added visual effects of leaves flying at you, jagged wooden planks chomping at you, giant holes opening at your feet, and a general sense of real spaciousness and depth.

With the ongoing decline in ticket sales, it is not surprising to see 3D making a comeback. In the face of HDTV, High Def DVD formats, and home theaters boasting 120 inch screens (or bigger), Everyone from Spielberg to Lucas are looking for ways to get your butt back in the multiplex seat. Monster House in 3D left me on the edge of mine.

Cloning Clyde

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 20:59:00 +0000

Are Video Games Art?

With technology becoming more powerful everyday, the definition of "animation" has come to embrace a number of art forms. Animation is not just hand drawn cells anymore. CG of course has practically wiped that art form out from mainstream consciousness. CG has also taken over where stop motion used to be used. Now, many people propbbaly think of computers when they think of animation.

I know there are purists out there, but I like CG. I hope hand drawn art never ever goes away, but CG , when done well, is it an art form in its own right. There are lots of talented CG artists out there getting recognized for their work in film, but I wonder if anyone ever thinks of video games as an animated art form.

Where gameplay is always the first hallmark of a good game, character design and animation can raise a game a bar or two above the competition. This week's release of Ninja Bee's Cloning Clyde on Xbox Live Arcade pays homage to the connection between animation, comic books, and video games, and boasts some really fun character design, cartoon like animation, and oh yeah, fun and at times hilarious gameplay.

Cloning Clyde begins with a comic book like layout that tells the story of how Clyde, out to make a quick $20, takes part in an experiment in a lab. Of course all heck breaks loose, the experiment goes awry, and dozens and dozens of Clydes soon fill the lab. The evil geniuses behind the experiment lock down the lab to hide their Snafu. Clyde must escape, and being a bit sentimental, he hopes not only to rescue himself but all his cloned selves too. So begins the side scrolling adventure wherein Clyde fights chickens, machines, collects his cloned action figure, Killer Kenn, rides sheep and kicks chickens just because it is fun.

I was really drawn to the humor and the character of Cloning Clyde. It goes down with games like Earthworm Jim, Psychonauts, and Sam and Max among others that have strong ties to comics and cartoons. Cloning Clyde is a real treat for Xbox 360 owners, and I hope these types of games continue coming to Live and to store shelves for all consoles as well.

Check out some screenshots here.

New Comic Wednesdays

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 23:43:00 +0000

Hate to say I told you so . . .

But I told you so. Not that I think fans need convincing, but as if to provide concrete evidence to my first post claiming that animation and sequential art go hand in hand, I serendipitously found Afterworks on the “new this week” shelf at my local comic shop. This anthology from Image features “the best of the best in the animation industry.” The back cover says the stories range from “fantastic to extremely personal.”

Afterworks is a collaboration of artists working under the name e-ville press, a bunch of guys who have impressive animation cred and now all work at Pixar.

Flipping through the most visually striking story is Simon Dunsdon’s The Champion. Dunsdon has worked on models for film, did a turn at Skywalker Ranch on Star Wars Episodes I&II and is currently a technical advisor at Pixar. Nice resume, dude!

My envy glowed greener after reading The Champion. Some should have so much (talent) while others should have so few. Alas, we mere mortals are in for a treat. Our hero looks like a cross between The Phantom and Mr. Incredible and populates a world that look a lot like a Fliescher Superman Cartoon or Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow but with a hard noir edge

After a brief prologue, the story begins like all good stories, in medias res, in the middle of things. Like Sky Captain it is hard to place ourselves. We are in a dystopian steam-punk kind of world., part future, part past,. There is a wonderful mock-up of The Champion appearing on the cover of Amazing Science Tales. The cover says it is July, but no year is given.

So what do we know? A young girls is on the run. Her father has been taken away, presumably by the airlords, the terror from the skies that threatens the populous. But the father leaves a cryptic note : The writer will help you find him, and soon his daughter is in the offices of a shaken Henry Nowlan, creator of forgotten pulp hero, The Champion.

Who are the airlords? Who is the Champion? Is he real? And what is the connection between the players? The conclusion of the story offers some answers but leaves a number of mysteries. A couple of frames were downright confusing, so I was glad to see the "to be continued" at the end of the story.

I really like where Dunsdon is taking this. His art has a wonderful stylized feel and the pulp feel is something I’ve always enjoyed. As a bonus there are 4 pinups of The Champion drawn by Dunsdon’s "proper artist" [his words] friends. These are all great to look at, but Dunsdon’s work proves he deserves to stand along side them.

DVD Tuesday

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 19:50:00 +0000

Animation fans have a few new things to look for on the DVD shelves today. First up is everyone’s favorite Chihuahua and Cat, Ren and Stimpy appearing in The Lost Episodes. These aren’t the Nickelodeon versions of the furry little guys. The Lost Episodes is Ren and Stimpy unleashed, grown up and gone wild. The episodes represent John Kricfalusi’s vision of his creations free from corporate control and without the stipulation of being made “bad on purpose.”

The content here, naked girls, vomit, the “first on screen live animated birth” may or may not be your cup of antioxidant fair-trade beverage, but from what I’ve seen, the character design and animation are stellar as ever.

It is just too bad that Kricfalusi is pretty much right: there is a lot of intentionally bad (or at least intentionally mediocre) garbage being pumped out over our cable boxes and satellite dishes, and [adult swim] aside, apparently there is no room for fresh artist controlled animation. Ren and Stimpy was my first foray into the toon world outside of Saturday morning kiddy fare. They are still a favorite.

Speaking of Saturday Mornings, today also sees the release of The New Adventures of Flash Gordon.

First airing in 1979, this series was the first time the interplanetary adventurer was animated. The 4 disc collection contains the entire series which ran for 2 years on NBC.

To be honest, I’m not sure what I was doing when this series was on. I was the perfect age for it, but I missed it completely. Maybe I was playing with my original Star Wars action figures which would be fitting since without Flash Gordon there might not be a Star Wars.

I’ll have to check this out. Apparently the show is very true to Alex Raymond’s original vision and there are some cool extras including interviews and animated storyboards.

The only clip I could find (not from the DVD): Habla Espanol?

Next, there is Queer Duck: The Movie.

This DVD is an extension of the 1999 Showtime animated series created by Mike Reiss who also brought us The Critic and wrote a number of The Simpsons episodes. You can watch the entire series online before jumping into this. The art direction is Hello Kitty cute and the animation is just poor, but given Reiss’ resume, it promises some laughs.

Finally, worth a look from Japan are Astro Boy - Greatest Astro Adventures and Ultraman: Series One, Vol. 1

The Secret Cartoon Life of Animators

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 02:03:00 +0000

Animation World Magazine has an article up today detailing the "secret lives" of some of the best known animators of today and of the golden age. It seems that many animators either got their start or supplemented their animation jobs by working in comics, comic strips or book illustration.

Many legendary people in the animation industry over the decades have produced memorable work and garnered a secret paycheck by working in some of these varied markets. Many of those treasures are still waiting to be uncovered. The tradition of animators working in other media continues today and provides fans with additional stories and artwork to treasure from these masters of animation.

I am thrilled to see this article. It cements my decision to cover not just animation on this blog, but comics and comic strips as well. I am a fan of all of these art forms. They all fall from the same tree.

Animation Legend Glen Keane also
illustrated a series of
children's books.