Posted by Guest Author on May 18, 2008 in Animation
In this exclusive series our guest author Tim Eldred picks the top ten crown jewels of anime:
As a guy who started watching anime in 1980, I was lucky enough to catch the virus when the medium was in a creative upswing the likes of which simply hasn’t been seen since. Of course, there was great stuff before that, but never in quite so much abundance. The early 80s in particular were chock full of shows that had the power to make me (A) cry like a baby or (B) leap out of my chair like a sports fan. And any show that could do both became a crown jewel in my eyes. They haven’t all been officially exported yet, which means a lot of people still have an opportunity to experience them for the first time. Here’s number 7 on my top ten list:
Giant Gorg
Among the pantheon of superstars who were responsible for all the best anime of the early 1980s was a phenomenal artist who works just as hard today as he ever did: Yasuhiko Yoshikazu. He rose through the ranks of character designers in the 1970s, contributing to Yamato, Combattler V, and ultimately Mobile Suit Gundam to explode into American consciousness with the phenomenal Crusher Joe feature film. As the director, Yas supervised the production so closely that in the end it was as if he’d drawn every frame in his signature style, which is a gorgeous combination of effortless organics and rock-solid mechanics. Crusher Joe was a triumph of design and story. And Giant Gorg was its successor.
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 18, 2008 in Videogames
You blew it Charlie! I think a good sign of game design is when it’s as much fun to loose as to win — and Operation which was designed by John Spinello for Milton Bradley is a good example of this principle. Spinello designed a prototype of the game in 1962 when he was an industrial design student, the game featured a “Death Valley” motif. Operation hit the shelves in 1965 and is still on sale today over 40 years later.
Posted by Guest Author on May 17, 2008 in Animation
In this exclusive series our guest author Tim Eldred picks the top ten crown jewels of anime:
As a guy who started watching anime in 1980, I was lucky enough to catch the virus when the medium was in a creative upswing the likes of which simply hasn’t been seen since. Of course, there was great stuff before that, but never in quite so much abundance. The early 80s in particular were chock full of shows that had the power to make me (A) cry like a baby or (B) leap out of my chair like a sports fan. And any show that could do both became a crown jewel in my eyes. They haven’t all been officially exported yet, which means a lot of people still have an opportunity to experience them for the first time. Here’s number 6 on my top ten list:
Fist of the North Star
You don’t have to see much of this series to find your tolerance level. It takes a really long time to watch (well over 100 episodes), a lot of the animation is bare-bones at best, the drama is so far over the top you can see right up its dress, and entire episodes can roll by with practically nothing accomplished. So what earns it a spot on my top ten list? Style, man. Pure, shredding, murderous, unapologetic STYLE.
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 17, 2008 in Comic Books
Living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and being slightly dyslexic I misread the title of this sketch as “Hipster Monsters” — the title is in fact “Hip Monsters” and the artwork is by Grant Gilliland who is also known as TheGrossUncle (also check out parseitup.com).
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 17, 2008 in Science
I’ve been geeking out tonight listening to a great podcast by Dr. Moira Gunn where she interviews theoretical physicist and author Michio Kaku. They talk about the science side of everything from the transporter from Star Trek to time travel.
Posted by Guest Author on May 16, 2008 in Animation
In this exclusive series our guest author Tim Eldred picks the top ten crown jewels of anime:
As a guy who started watching anime in 1980, I was lucky enough to catch the virus when the medium was in a creative upswing the likes of which simply hasn’t been seen since. Of course, there was great stuff before that, but never in quite so much abundance. The early 80s in particular were chock full of shows that had the power to make me (A) cry like a baby or (B) leap out of my chair like a sports fan. And any show that could do both became a crown jewel in my eyes. They haven’t all been officially exported yet, which means a lot of people still have an opportunity to experience them for the first time. Here’s number 5 on my top ten list:
Galaxy Drifter Vifam
1983 was a banner year for SF anime on Japanese TV. The best writers were producing their best stuff at this time, and despite the preponderence of seemingly endless dynasties of giant robots every story had new turf to stake out. Vifam was a shining jewel in this crown, artfully combining said robots with a group of 13 children (who pretty much summed up the target demographic of the time) who are forced to grow up fast after their entire planet is swarmed by an alien enemy and strands them on a spaceship in the middle of hostile territory. If that sounds a little like Battlestar Galactica or maybe even Infinite Ryvius, that’s because it is. But the resemblance ends there.
Dark Horse will be publishing a collection of the works of Eric Joyner in early October. Joyner who is an illustrator and a fine artist takes his favorite objects like Japanese tin toys and yummy donuts and places them into whimsical painterly scenes of surrealistic bliss:
“In the years following World War II the major export from Japan wasn’t electronic equipment, but toys, specifically tin toys. Crafted in the shapes of submarines, planes, trains, cars, and horses, one of the most popular motifs was toy robots. Constructed in virtually every shape imaginable from the 1940s throughout the 1960s, they ranged in appearance from horror to science fiction characters. Capturing this period in history became a passion for painter Eric Joyner and in Robots and Donuts he celebrates this forgotten era with images marrying the metal creations with images plucked from his imagination. And, almost always, with donuts.”
Posted by Guest Author on May 15, 2008 in Animation
In this exclusive series our guest author Tim Eldred picks the top ten crown jewels of anime:
As a guy who started watching anime in 1980, I was lucky enough to catch the virus when the medium was in a creative upswing the likes of which simply hasn’t been seen since. Of course, there was great stuff before that, but never in quite so much abundance. The early 80s in particular were chock full of shows that had the power to make me (A) cry like a baby or (B) leap out of my chair like a sports fan. And any show that could do both became a crown jewel in my eyes. They haven’t all been officially exported yet, which means a lot of people still have an opportunity to experience them for the first time. Here’s number 4 on my top ten list:
Blue Meteor SPT Layzner Sometimes translated as Blue Comet SPT Layzner
If dark, complex, emotional stories are where it’s at for you, this one has it all. Created by Ryosuke Takahashi (who struck gold earlier with Armored Trooper Votoms), it’s a hard-edged SF action series about a robot pilot named Eiji Aska, who gets stuck between a rock and hard place when he breaks with his own army to prevent them from invading the Earth.
The first Earth people he approaches with this story, a group of refugees who narrowly escape an attack on their Mars colony, aren’t sure what to make of this (and neither is anyone else for that matter). As time goes on, Eiji wins the hearts and minds of a select few, but the opposition stacked against him is not only enormous — it’s personal.
“A Doctor Who fan is embroiled in a row with the BBC after she published knitting patterns for the sci-fi drama’s monsters on the internet. The patterns of Ood and Adipose were removed from her website after the BBC’s commercial arm complained that they breached its trademark. But the woman said the corporation was “making an example of her”. BBC Worldwide said it acted because finished figures were being sold by others on auction website eBay. It also denied threatening legal action and said it had offered to consider marketing the designs itself.”
“Now, Beavis & Butt-Head might be getting ready to do it all over again — and wait until you hear what they’re gonna look like. “I feel like it’s something I can come back to and do,” creator Mike Judge told us when he stopped by our studios to promote “The Animation Show,” an eye-popping theatrical/DVD cartoon extravaganza that has occasionally featured the dimwitted duo.”
…Oddly enough I wouldn’t mind seeing a Daria live action film.
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 15, 2008 in Comic Books
I first came across the work of Tony Millionaire (Scott Richardson) in the 90s while following his comic strip Maakies in the New York Press newspaper here in NYC. His work harkens back a great deal to old school comics like Krazy Kat and Popeye. So I was very pleased to hear that Dark Horse will be publishing a collection of his work in late October which should be an ideal Christmas gift for any comix fanboy:
“Prepare to set sail on a drunken fever-dream of dollies, apes, and exotic mysteries that once seen can never be UN-seen! The Art of Tony Millionaire collects illustrations, comics, stories, photographs, and anecdotes from the man once referred to as “Beefy McManus” by the late rock star, “Rocky Stardomes!” — the one and only Tony Millionaire! THRILL to never-before seen illustrations that have made women gasp and grown men gasp, too! PARTAKE in the beautiful genius of the only cartoonist in the history of mankind to have won five Eisner Awards, three Harvey Awards and an Ignatz! He also won Best Marksman at summer camp when he was twelve, but lost the art competition at High School to a girl who drew a lovely ear of corn!”
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 15, 2008 in Animation
I don’t know why but this sort of thing always makes me so happy! This fan video is a mash up of scenes from Rozen Maiden featuring the character Suiseiseki.
Posted by Guest Author on May 14, 2008 in Animation
In this exclusive series our guest author Tim Eldred picks the top ten crown jewels of anime:
As a guy who started watching anime in 1980, I was lucky enough to catch the virus when the medium was in a creative upswing the likes of which simply hasn’t been seen since. Of course, there was great stuff before that, but never in quite so much abundance. The early 80s in particular were chock full of shows that had the power to make me (A) cry like a baby or (B) leap out of my chair like a sports fan. And any show that could do both became a crown jewel in my eyes. They haven’t all been officially exported yet, which means a lot of people still have an opportunity to experience them for the first time. Here’s number 3 on my top ten list:
Mobile Suit Gundam
If you’re having trouble sorting out one Gundam anime from another, you’re not alone. If you’ve heard that Gundam is a legendary saga that everyone has to see, you heard right‹but it’s not the current stuff (the latest being a TV series called Gundam Double O) that earned it this reputation. If you want to cut to the bone, you need to go all the way back to 1979 for the original no-extra-title-added Mobile Suit Gundam. It’s inescapably clunky and rough around the edges, a low-budget show even by those early standards, which was prematurely cancelled but went on to become a theatrical blockbuster.
As usual I was stumped again this year shopping for a family member who loves dogs, but as I was strolling through Books Kinokuniya which is a Japanese book store here in New York I came across some great goodies for canine fanboys and fangurls of all ages. Shown above is are some playful paper clips which are by Midori who has a wide line of interesting stationery products.
Below is an amazing little gift book that I discovered which was packed with dog photos and Japanese brush typography. The name of the book is いぬだもの (単行本) which translates to “Dog’s Book” and is available at Amazon Japan. There’s also a second book in the series which is titled いぬだもの 2 (2) (単行本) which translates to “Dog to be 2” and can also be found at Amazon Japan:
Posted by Guest Author on May 13, 2008 in Animation
In this exclusive series our guest author Tim Eldred picks the top ten crown jewels of anime:
As a guy who started watching anime in 1980, I was lucky enough to catch the virus when the medium was in a creative upswing the likes of which simply hasn’t been seen since. Of course, there was great stuff before that, but never in quite so much abundance. The early 80s in particular were chock full of shows that had the power to make me (A) cry like a baby or (B) leap out of my chair like a sports fan. And any show that could do both became a crown jewel in my eyes. They haven’t all been officially exported yet, which means a lot of people still have an opportunity to experience them for the first time. Here’s number 2 on my top ten list:
Armored Trooper Votoms
You gotta hand it to a series that starts out riffing on a movie you really like and then blows way past it into completely new territory. For me, the movie was Blade Runner (1982) and when I saw the first few episodes of Votoms I thought, cool‹a Japanese take on one of my faves! And then Votoms kept going?and going?and GOING. By the time it got all the way to its finale in episode 52 it had left Blade Runner far behind and found its own path to become something wholly original that has never been equaled, though some well-meaning imitators have tried.
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 13, 2008 in Comic Books
Shown above is the Batmanesque inspired painting Duo again (2008) by fine artistRichard Mullins. What I like about his work is that in addition to be inspired by pop art subjects, his style of painting and bold use of vivid colors reminds me a great deal of the Fauvism of Henri Matisse. Below are some additional examples of his work that caught my eye:
Posted by Guest Author on May 12, 2008 in Animation
In this exclusive series our guest author Tim Eldred picks the top ten crown jewels of anime:
As a guy who started watching anime in 1980, I was lucky enough to catch the virus when the medium was in a creative upswing the likes of which simply hasn’t been seen since. Of course, there was great stuff before that, but never in quite so much abundance. The early 80s in particular were chock full of shows that had the power to make me (A) cry like a baby or (B) leap out of my chair like a sports fan. And any show that could do both became a crown jewel in my eyes. They haven’t all been officially exported yet, which means a lot of people still have an opportunity to experience them for the first time. Here’s number 1 on my top ten list:
Space Battleship Yamato
How does one objectively describe an anime saga that changed one’s life? You can’t, so there’s no point in trying. Space Battleship Yamato is simply the greatest of them all. The proof of this is that you didn’t even have to see it for it to change your life. If you became an anime fan after the year 1977, you have Yamato to thank. That was the year the first movie hit theatres in Japan with the same impact that Star Wars had here. (It was a compilation of the inaugural 1974 TV series, but that’s beside the point.) It was the first ever ‘anime boom’ and everything that’s come out of Japan since then has been an echo of it.
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 12, 2008 in Star Trek
In 1967 Gold Key started publishing a series of Star Trek comic books. What I love about these early ones is that the designs look very and mod, not what you’d expect to see on the cover of a comic book. The use of colors is very psychedelic and they incorporate design elements which are reminiscent of op art and Andy Warhol. Shown above is issue 01-00 from 1967, below are issues 03-00 from 1968 and 04-00 from 1969.
