Author: artofthecartoon

Ricardo Montalban (1920 – 2009)

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montalban  On January 14, 2009, the world lost a fine actor and one of the most recognizable voices ever.

We will never see a Fantasy Island, Mr. Roarke or the wrath of Khan Noonien Singh ever again.

In terms of cartoons, his voice gave life to Armando Gutierrez from Freakazoid, Vartkes from Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, El Encantador from Dora the Explorer, Senor Senior Sr. from Kim Possible, and his last great voice work, the Cow from Family Guy.

At least he will live on, in cartoons, as I know there are voice actors out there who will forever copy his signature voice. 

RIP Ricardo Montalban

Fox hunts down ‘Cowboy Bebop’

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I’ll be doing a Cowboy Bebop post sometime next week, but in the meantime…

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Keanu Reeves set to star as Spike Spiegel

By Borys Kit

Jan 15, 2009, 05:45 PM ET

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Getty Images photo
Twentieth Century Fox is bringing the Japanese anime TV series “Cowboy Bebop” to the big screen, with Keanu Reeves attached to star as a bounty hunter traveling through space in 2071. 

One of the big titles in anime, “Bebop” is set in a time where “astral gates” make interstellar travel possible. Humanity, decimated by a lunar explosion resulting from a gate accident, spread out across the solar system, as did crime, which gave rise to the use of bounty hunters.

Reeves would play Spike Spiegel, a bounty hunter and former member of a crime syndicate. Spiegel, along with Jet Black, a fellow bounty hunter and former cop, are the two pilots of the spaceship Bebop.

Peter Craig is writing the script.

The show, which first aired on Tokyo TV and satcaster Wowow during the late 1990s, was strongly influenced by American music, even featuring action sequences — both space battles and mano a mano — timed to U.S. melodies.

Reeves’ association with the project leaked in the summer when Fox and 3 Arts Entertainment began the process of acquiring the rights from Sunrise Studios.

Erwin Stoff, Reeves’ longtime manager, is producing through 3 Arts. Joshua Long will serve as executive producer.

Sunrise president Kenji Uchida, the TV series’ director of animation, Shinichiro Watanabe, and series writer Keiko Nobumoto will serve as associate producers. Series producer Masahiko Minami will serve as production consultant.

“Bebop” marks a return to Fox for the CAA-repped Reeves, who starred in the studio’s December release “The Day the Earth Stood Still.”

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All I have to say is:

NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Credit: Thanks to the homie, Angela Taniguchi, for the forward!

Photography in Siena: Student Exhibition at Seattle University

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photograhy-in-siena

Thanks to homie, Joysha Fajardo, I decided to hit up Seattle University and check out Photography in Siena: Student Exhibition. You  probably get the gist from the title, but yeah, photography students went to Europe, and this exhibition were some of the dope pictures that they took. 

Now you may be wondering ,”This is the art of the cartoon blog, what does this have to do with cartoons?”

Answer: Everything. 

Whenever doing anything “art”, there is always inspiration. And I dare you to go see this and NOT be inspired. Looking at each of the students’ work, thoughts on a way of how to use these photos as backgrounds, reference pics, or even concept settings for my future animated sequences came rushing in. So yeah…

What does this have to do with cartoons?

Everything…

Plus, when my animation class starts to post up our attempts at animated art, I hope someone is looking on and is just as inspired as I was when looking at these photography students’ pieces.

Exhibit runs through Feb. 6/ Seattle University, Kinsey Gallery, Casey Bldg./ Gallery Hours M-F 10AM – Noon, 1 – 4PM

Check out the homie, Joysha Fajardo’s dope photos for this exhibition (sorry, I couldn’t post pics, I feel bad taking pics at that exhibition).

Review: Spider-Man #583 (aka the Obama issue)

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obamaspidey

  Intro: I went to the Comic Den today, the local Renton comic book shop, to pick up a copy of Spider-Man #583. One for myself, and 3-5 copies for Thaswassup DJ Daps1. I usually head to Pike Place or the U-District for my comic fixes, but I knew that this issue would be popular, so I figured Renton would be the better stop. I was WRONG! 

As soon as pull onto the street where the store is located I see a huge crowd of dudes (Yup no women there). It took me about an extra 5 minutes to find parking, and once I got inside, No luck. Folks were already pre-ordering for the re-issue next week. 

I browsed about the store for an extra 10 – 15 minutes to see if there is anything else I wanted. (I was really looking to pick up the I Kill Giants mini-series). No such luck again. So I decide to place my name on the pre-order list. 

Not sure why (maybe because I’m so cute and charismatic), but the owner of the store says Merry Christmas and hands me the last copy of Spider-Man #583. 

I texted Daps, and said he could have this copy if he wants. But you know I had to read it first…

Spider-Man #583/ Mark Waid & Zeb Wells, writers/ Barry Kitson & Todd Nauk, pencils/ John Romita Sr., cover

Warning: minor spoilers ahead…

First off, the whole book is not about Spidey meeting Obama. In fact, the whole Obama story is just a bonus near the end of the book.It’s only about 5 pages. I’ll get to that in a second. 

The meat of the book is a story by Mark Waid called Platonic, which details the story of how Betty Brant tries to hook Peter Parker (aka Spider-Man) up with a girlfriend. I haven’t been keeping up with the Spider-Man series lately and I’m not sure what storyline Spider-Man is in right now, but this was definitely a filler story. I found this surprising as I am a big fan of Mark Waid as a writer. Waid’s stories are usually grander in scale, Kingdom Come is still one my favorite stories (I’m planning to review Kingdom Come in the future), but Platonic was a throw-away one-shot. If anything, Waid did successfully capture the closeness and friendship of Betty Brant and Peter Parker (maybe that’s all he was trying to accomplish).

The art of the other hand, in my opinion, did not help the story one bit. I’m not too familiar with Barry Kitson’s art, but from this issue I have to say I am not a fan. Kitson used way too many medium shots, there were no dynamic shots, and the impact shots he tried weren’t very impactful in my eyes. If I had to use an analogy, I would say his character designs were like Archie characters with a little more detail. Since this was a light-hearted “find a date for Peter” story, maybe that’s why they were designed like that. Unfortunately, my fondness goes out to the ultra-detailed, too many muscles, 90s style of art, so there we go.

Onto the main event. Spidey Meets the President! is the bonus one-shot by Zeb Wells at the end of this issue. Even though it is only 5 pages, it does what it set out to do, which is to make Spider-Man and Obama meet. The story is very simple, I won’t spoil anything really, it is Obama’s inauguration day, before he gets sworn in there’s trouble. Luckily Peter Parker was sent to take pictures so Spider-Man happens to show up and save the day. Obama says thanks, etc..

Art is by Todd Nauck, not familiar with his work either, but it worked for me on this simple story. I mean it kinda of looks like Obama. 

All in all, Marvel did the business thing and cashed in on the Obama craze. It was a little tacked-on but oh well. I’m looking forward to the Obama/ Hope presidency. 

BTW: The 1st print of the Spider-Man #583 does NOT have Obama on the cover. It looks like this:

spiderman583

The 2nd print has got Obama on it, and I pre-ordered 3 of those bad boys!!!

The Dark Knight NES (8-bit) video game

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Today’s video games have beautiful graphics. The PS3 and xbox 360 are ridiculous. And the Wii, even though discredited and disowned by many “hardcore” gamers, still has stunning graphics and animations in my opinion. 

But honestly, a lot is lost when games start relying too much on graphics alone. Case and point, the above video is a fan-made trailer of The Dark Knight video game if made in the style of 8-bit Nintendo. Yes, full CG graphics would have looked waaay better, or they could have just used clips from the acutal Dark Knight movie. But you know what, I wouldn’t want to play that game, I want to play the 8-bit game. In the video above, I find myself trying to press the start button that is not there. 

The point is, you had to use your imagination more when 8-bit was the thing. It was more abstract, and as a gamer I appreciated that about NES games. Sometimes flashy graphics just get in the way of video games. 

To conclude, SOMEBODY PLEASE MAKE THIS GAME!!! Bring back the NES, I mean it worked for Mega Man…

Transformers: “Generation 1”

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1984 – 1987

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So many cartoons, so many memories, so many moments, so many inspirations that turned a tiny spark of creativity into the huge bon fire that has helped me choose the path that I am on today. How do I choose which one to kick off this blog?

Obviously, if you took a look at the title, you know exactly where I plan to start. But first here were some of the other contenders:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Voltron, 90’s style X-Men (aka Jim Lee style), Bugs Bunny, Batman: The Animated Series, He-Man, Thundercats, Chuck Jones, Jack Kirby, Whilce Portacio, Super Mario Bros, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

This was just a small sampling. I have a good 10 pages of topics (movies, people, comics, tv, etc…) that I hope to write about in the future. But I chose to start off with the old school Transformers, the original, Generation 1 or G1 as some fans like to call it.

Looking back, the animation of this show was not the best, the stories were somewhat forgettable, the human characters were…bleh… Many critics called it a 30-minute commercial and you could really tell the toy came first. So why did I choose Transformers to begin this blog?

 To answer that, I go to July of 2007. A group of over 50+ people (Mostly Seattle Southsiders, myself included) came together and filled up the entire back row and then some of Lincoln Square Cinemas, which is the most bourgeois theater I have been to, to watch the live action Transformers movie. This was all organized with an email chain that ran some 120+ messages. 

 transformersmovie2007

Nostalgia and memories of the original Transformers was the foundation of how this group of people came together. This same fondness is what has kept the Transformers franchise alive and thriving, with what seems like hundreds of Transformers spin-offs, toys, comics, and reboots, some 25 years after the original cartoon. It’s one of the few animated series I know of that has crossed generations.  To this day, I know plenty of aunties and uncles, and parents that call any large toy or cartoon robot a “transformer”.

It’s easy to admit now, but yes, Transformers: Generation 1 really was a weekly 30-minute commercial for toys. I know I had my share of them and there are plenty of folks who collect them. But for many, Transformers: Generation 1 is like a time machine that takes them back in time to their childhood. It doesn’t matter that the animation wasn’t tight, or stories weren’t well told, or characters weren’t all that deep. All that mattered was that they were entertained, they were happy, and they were inspired.

 That’s why 50+ people, some who hardly knew anyone in the group, organized via email to fill up the entire back row and then some of Lincoln Square Cinemas.

 That is the true Art of Transformers: Generation 1

That and cars and planes turning into robots was pretty tight as well =)