Eric has been Simpsonized! Here he is, visiting the school he would have attended if he lived in Springfield.
Category: Cartooning
Girl-God Raises the Yamato
An episode of the previously-blogged anime Kamichu took us rather by surprise. Girl-god Yurie’s spirit form travels to the bottom of the Pacific ocean to raise the spirit of the Japanese battleship Yamato, for an elderly man who left the crew before the ship’s sinking in 1945. I’ve spliced a few scenes together.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/JUL07/KamichuYamato.flv 425 240]
What surprised us was how the episode rejoices in the legend of the ship — the largest ever built — without political overtones or, for that matter, ever mentioning WWII. The PBS program NOVA has a good section about the Yamato on its Web site. The old man in the cartoon who rhapsodizes about sailing on the Yamato says he was born in 1920, so either he’s supposed to be well into his 80’s, or the show takes place some time ago.
Indiana Jones and the Comic-Con
If you follow Mark Evanier’s NewsFromME site, you can’t miss the fact that he’s at the San Diego Comic-Con. The cable TV station G4 had a show from the con, and I was hoping Evanier would be featured, but I didn’t see him. They did, however, have this…
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/JUL07/ComicCon.flv 400 300]
Mort Walker’s The Best of Times
Here’s something I didn’t know. For the past year cartoonist Mort Walker (or, more likely, his son) has been publishing a magazine of cartoons, ads, and household hints, called The Best of Times. The formatting of the page at that link is a bit messed up, but clicking on the pictures works to bring up PDF copies of the issues.
When Walker isn’t in Florida he lives in Wilton, Connecticut, next to Norwalk, where I grew up. In fact, I used to ride my bike through Wilton, on my way to buy comic books. My two regular stops were in the same shopping center — a stationary store, and a drug store. Click the picture to see a map of my bike route. I made that trip many, many times between the spring of 1966 and the fall of 1968, weather permitting. Two miles exactly. I don’t believe Hillcrest was there 40 years ago. If it had been I probably wouldn’t have taken it anyway, as I preferred to avoid Route 7, which was a very busy and fast stretch of road. When I was older, living in Massachusetts, it was painful to realize that in Fairfield County I had been surrounded by many of the cartoonists and illustrators who I idolized.
Superman in “A Game of Moonball”
In a blog post that was lost in what I’ll call The Great Database Disaster, I made a comment that I’m not ready to buy an HDTV set. I haven’t even decided yet if I want a direct-view set or a front projection unit. Note: I said FRONT and not rear projection. For example, this little gem looks interesting, but oh that sticker shock! A more reasonable choice would be this model.
For now, it’s an academic question, because it’ll be a year or two before I do anything, and the gear will be completely changed by then anyway. But why would I be considering a projector, rather than, say, a plasma or direct-view LCD? Because when I was a kid I had one of these…
…which was my #1 favorite childhood toy. This is the Kenner Super Show. The picture came from an eBay auction I just won. To a great extent, this blog is nothing more than me playing with an updated Super Show. In acknowledgment of this, I will present my favorite slide that I enjoyed projecting on the wall. It’s Superman and Lois Lane, in “A Game of Moonball.”
I have two comments about this 7-panel comic strip that I used to think to myself, whenever looking at it over 40 years ago, shining on the wall.
- The red and yellow are reversed on Superman’s “S” emblem
- Superman seems to almost be acting as if Lois knows his secret identity.
What I didn’t wonder back then, but I am now, is who did the art? It’s fairly apparent that Curt Swan did the pencils, but I’m not sure of who inked them. At the moment I’m inclined to say Stan Kaye.
Eric’s Anime Pick — Ergo Proxy
Besides giant robot battles, another fave Anime theme is the hot female agent/assassin who begins to suspect she isn’t working for the good guys. (See previous post about Kurau.) Ergo Proxy is another example along these lines. So far we’ve watched it through episode 4. The series has some subtly stylized, if dark and monochromatic, artwork and an attention-holding narrative.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/JUL07/ErgoProxy.flv 425 240]
The theme song played over the closing credits, “Paranoid Android,” is by Radiohead, a band I featured here. The song heard during the opening is by Monral.