This survey is pure silliness. If people insist they don’t vote based on a candidate having a dog or cat, then why bother with a survey like this? The candidates never get to spend much time at home, so even if the pet isn’t there just for show, they aren’t the ones taking care of it anyway. Obama isn’t about putting on a show. Whether or not he wears a flag lapel pin or has a dog is meaningless.
Year: 2008
Doug’s Anime Pick — Astro Boy
The granddaddy of Japanese animation is a boy. A robot boy. Astro Boy. I have great fondness for the original b&w Astro Boy TV series, and I’m happy that the complete run of the American version of the cartoons is available on two DVD box sets, Astro Boy: Ultra Collector’s Edition. That link goes to Amazon, but if you’re going to buy them go to the “Used & new” section and order from Shawnek. You’ll be glad you did.
Way back here, in the fall of ’06 I highlighted the 60’s humor magazine HELP! Some of cartoonist Robert Crumb’s first published works were in HELP!, including this drawing from his walking tour of Harlem.
If you’re familiar with the American version of Astro Boy’s theme song, here is the Japanese version of the original opening, along with an alternate Japanese intro and an outro before the credits were inserted.
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A new Astro Boy movie, with computer graphics, is in production and is scheduled for release next summer. My interest in Astro Boy is mostly limited to the original series, but I’m still hoping the movie comes out well.
Lifeless Lettering
Since Garry Trudeau returned from his break a couple of weeks ago it sure looks to me like Doonesbury has computer lettering. I really dislike computer lettering for comics. A quick online check shows others also noticing the change, but nothing definitive.
This is how the lettering looked in one of the Sunday strips that was reprinted in May…
…and this is a panel from today’s Doonesbury.
I’d say there’s no doubt that the switch has been made to computer lettering. Yuck!
After Charles Schulz’s right hand started to shake, he held it steady with his left hand when inking and lettering Peanuts. In fifty years he took no sabbaticals and there were no reprinted strips. I’m not saying all cartoonists should be held to such a standard, but Schulz certainly set the standard.
Lights in the Sky, TV in the Mirror
The fireworks show in Boston last night was like a 1964 Beatles concert — short and loud. It was a big 20-minute display, which seemed like the right length. We were watching from the Cambridge side of the Charles River, on Memorial Drive in front of M.I.T. The blimp belongs to Hood, one of the bigger dairies in the Boston area. For a minute it looked like the blimp was flying into the fireworks, but as you can see it was a safe distance away.
[flv:/Video/2008/JUL/Fireworks2008.flv 440 330]
Another interesting sight awaited us at the hotel, down the road near Harvard, where the bathroom mirror had a built-in LCD TV.
[flv:/Video/2008/JUL/TVMirror.flv 440 330]
Boston Bound
Happy 4th of July! (Although I suspect that if I were living here in Massachusetts during Colonial times I perhaps would have been a Loyalist.)
We’re going to watch the big fireworks show in Boston tonight, and because it starts so late, 10:30, we’ll be staying in town overnight. So there won’t be anything new here until tomorrow night.
Peanuts in Providence
We live not too far from Providence, RI, where the Providence Journal has added Peanuts to its comics page lineup. I used to feel that longtime cartoonists should retire and make way for new talent, but later I decided that the merit of a strip, whether new or old, should be the only determining factor.
It appears the managing editor didn’t intend that notice to be published immediately, because it’s dated Sunday. WordPress has an option to schedule the publishing of posts. I haven’t used it often, but I’ve been thinking about coming up with a series of posts on a single subject and scheduling them to appear automatically as sort of a weekly feature.
And out in Minnesota, one of the “150 Minnesota moments we’d just as soon forget” is the St. Paul Dispatch and Pioneer Press dropping Schulz’s first comic strip, Li’l Folks.
The Charles M. Schulz Museum has an excellent collection of the Li’l Folks panels called Charles M. Schulz : Li’l Beginnings. At that link you’ll find it under the Biographical section of books.
