This secret project is very different from the other secret project. All I’ll say about that one is it involves TV. This one involves comic books, and it relates to the header I just put up. I’ll put it here too, for later when the header has changed.
I don’t know yet when this happen. It involves D.F. Rogers, and Paul Howley it involves you too, so write and I’ll tell you what’s up (no, you don’t have to do anything, it’s about something you did ten years ago).
Comic book fans have been full of talk about the Watchmen movie for quite a while. Time.com just put out an article about the Watchmen preview at the Comic-Con in San Diego, going on right now.
This sort of coverage represents a validation, approval and acceptance of comics that was unimaginable to me as a kid. The catch is, today’s comic books hold no interest for me, in part because I felt when the Watchmen series came out it was the final word on the super hero genre. Writer Alan Moore had succeeded in extracting everything there was to be said about costumed heroes.
The best place to see the Watchmen trailer is the official site, but I’ll post it here for convenience, if you want to avoid all of the Flash animation that’s typical of movie sites.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2008/JUL/Watchmen.flv 640 272]
Overall, it looks very promising, but the Vietnam scenes have a fake appearance, and Dr. Manhattan isn’t quite as convincing as he should be. Rorschach’s voice is too similar to Christian Bale’s Batman. But all of this can be fixed in post-production. I’m also a bit concerned that if the big climax in the story isn’t handled just right, it will be unintentionally humorous. We’ll know in March.
I’ve never been to the Comic-Con in San Diego, but they don’t need me there because it’s the biggest fanboy (and girl) convention anywhere. The fun includes everything from Charlie Brown to Star Wars, and Mark Evanier will be there, of course. If I were attending, on Friday I’d have to run from his panel with EC artist/writer/editor Al Feldstein over to this one:
4:45-5:45 It’s a Great Comic-Con, Charlie Brown — Together for the first time at Comic-Con, Warner Home Video, United Media and the Schulz Estate bring you a Peanuts voice cast reunion in celebration of several great holiday DVD releases this September and October. Featuring Chris DeFaria (Peppermint Patty), Gabrielle DeFaria Ritter (Pigpen), Lisa DeFaria (Peppermint Patty), Sally Dryer (Violet and Lucy), Robin Kohn Glazer (Lucy), Jason Mendelson, Hilary Momberger (Sally), executive producer Lee Mendelson, and Jeannie Schulz, the wife of Charles M. Schulz.
Wow! I’d love to be there. An hour devoted to celebrating the fun of Peanuts, and an opportunity to say hi to Jeannie Schulz and Lee Mendelson.
A couple of posts ago I shook my head in dismay because it seems Doonesbury now has computer lettering, and I expressed my admiration for Charles Schulz having lettered his comic strips by hand even when his hand was shaking. Schulz’s lettering, instantly recognizable, had a lot of style, as seen in this single panel from the book Schulz’s Youth, a must-have collection for Schulz fans of cartoons that he did for the Church of God. Take note of the “CMS” signature.
I can relate to this cartoon, having gone through a very religious period in my own youth. I remember how, as a member of Campus Crusade for Christ, we were warned against the “liberal” members of the Intervarsity group from another school. We occasionally got together for fellowship meetings and to pool our resources for retreats. It seems silly to me now, but even between groups such as ours there were denominations. This is my semi-sneaky way of introducing an upcoming post about somebody I knew in college named Paul Howley.
P.S. Hey, guess what? Take a close look at the enlarged view of that scanned cartoon. I think that’s computer lettering! I’ll check with Nat Gertler, who did the editing and layout.
P.P.S. I asked Nat if the original captions were typeset, and here is his reply.
The cartoons were indeed originally published with typeset captions, with some variation in the font. Since obviously Schulz did not typeset them himself, I didn’t feel the need to keep that aspect of the original edition (and resetting them allowed me some flexibility, like putting the text to the side in some captions rather than beneath, helping things fit the squarish book better.) And while the set type looked fine on the cartoons in their original context (in the midst of a page of typeset articles), I thought that using a font based on Schulz’s hand lettering would be more comfortable visually. (You’ll note that the lettering has the shake in it, despite the cartoons being before Schulz’s health troubles.)
Having said that, there is one cartoon there that has genuine Schulz hand-lettering: page 165. Some of the places this cartoon has been reused have reset it in type; I was glad to have the source with the hand lettering.
–Nat
Thanks, Nat! Here’s the cartoon he refers to…
Another book Nat did that I highly recommend is It’s Only A Game, a collection of comic strips done by Schulz and the late Jim Sasseville, who also assisted on some of the Peanuts comic books.
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.
[flv:/Video/2008/JUL/AstroBoy.flv 448 336]
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.
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.
