Inoue

Saved this illustrator for last for 2 reasons:

1: He's tied for 1st place in terms of favorite artists.
2: I've been waiting since the beginning of summer for these next two volumes of the manga to get shipped out, and they should be on their way now.

The writer and illustrator's name is Takehiko Inoue. His style in both storytelling and art is one of the most realistic I've ever read, which tends to be really refreshing after reading about people who fly or shoot lasers out of their eyes. He's done a few different comic series, two of my favorites being Vagabond and REAL. The first one is a historical fiction series about Miyamoto Musashi, who you may or may not have heard about as the legendary Japanese swordsman. The second, REAL, is about several different characters with the main focus being basketball, but more specifically wheelchair basketball.

As I said, the stories are realistic, and by that I don't just mean people don't have superpowers. Both of them do a superb (yes, I used a $5 word in a school blog) job of depicting human nature. For instance, Musashi in Vagabond is supposed to be one of the most epic swordsmen of all time. According to Inoue's rendition though, a lot of the time he's a jerk. Like a hardcore, really selfish jerk. Musashi is so focused on being the best (and in those days that meant challenging people and surviving), that he's really not that good at all with socializing like a human being. As in a lot of series, there come times when he has an epiphany and is able to become a better person... only to seemingly revert to his usual abrasiveness a chapter or two later. This doesn't frustrate me as much as I think it should, because I know real people don't just change over night into a better version of themselves; it takes a lot of time and a lot of screwing up before we get there.

Now, how do you make wheelchair basketball interesting, you ask? The short version: read REAL. It's one of those series that, after a while, you forget who the main character was supposed to be because examines the lives of at least 3 or 4 real main characters and a bunch more "minor" ones. The thing is, while the plot may appear to be about wheelchair basketball, that's the more superficial driver of the story. You might say the entire series is about falling and getting back up, only to fall again and finding the courage, guts, determination, what have you, to get back up and do it again. A few years ago, I might have thought, "Wow, that's kind of ... depressing..." After buying the first 8 volumes, though, I can't stop reading it. And re-reading it (seriously, you don't want to know how many times).

Reboots

It's a term I think is becoming more and more common: the Spider-Man movies and comics, Superman, Batman... a lot of writers are "rebooting" several series with huge fan-bases. One thing I have found is that these have been occurring a lot right after some sort of huge even in each series; Spider-Man had not only died, but been reborn in a more "evolved" state, and there were so many negative reviews about the movies that a new director has come along and said he wants to start again from scratch.

Superman died a long time ago, relatively speaking. Whether or not there was a specific event that I missed that caused this restart, Superman Earth One begins the time-told origin of the Man of Steel all over again. Guess what. I don't like Superman. He is the universal cheat-code superhero.
Oh, bad guys with guns? Let's make him impervious to that.
Lazers? Nope, won't work.
Fights in space? He can, uh...hold his breath for a really, really long time.
And apparently he just doesn't do wrong. And normal human women fall off of buildings all over the place just because he's around and want him to catch them.
However, this is what's interesting: Earth One made me like Superman. The entire first half of the book is about him going around and basically applying to high-paying jobs by discretely using his powers (like blowing people away in football, discovering how to turn salt-water into a viable energy source, etc). Oh, and that red-headed Jimmy Olson actually has some guts, and almost dies while talking back to a giant alien robot. Basically, the story is much more realistic, and Superman isn't a completely annoying Boyscout figure.

Batman "died" about a year ago. Meanwhile, several things have happened: the old Robin took his place as Batman, and Batman's son took over the role of Robin (yes, Batman also recently discovered he had a son). On the other hand, Batman and Robin All-Star, as you've probably guessed, starts back not to when Batman was born, but when he, uh... ok, he basically kidnaps Dick Greyson, who becomes Robin. I personally loved this version, and thought it was hilarious and cool at the same time; Batman acts like a crazy person. My brother, who is a little more than a Batman "fan" or even "enthusiast", holds a pretty much opposite stance. My favorite phrase that keeps coming up (edited for school purposes) is "I'm the God#### Batman." Seriously.

 

CoD: Black Ops

Tonight at midnight, several video game merchants will be opening their doors to allow customers to stampede *ahem* I mean gracefully enter their stores to buy the new "Call of Duty: Black Ops" game. The series has been building momentum especially ever since the releases on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Apparently, according to a family member who just began working for Gamestop, this game currently holds the record for highest reserve-rate. For any game. Ever.

I realize that this blog is entitled "Comics and Cartoons", but there's a slight tie-in: this same family member has revealed that the Gamestop in Exton that hired him is having a huge release party, and adding fuel to the fire is the presence of the artist for the game's strategy-guide. Of course, as soon as one of my parents heard this, they went on about how that was yet another job opportunity for the people in our family who liked to draw.

See? It's flimsy, but it's a tie-in. Opportunity for a job as an artist. That, and the fact that I would love to be an artist for games.

Oh, and if you are a fan and still don't know this, the nazi-zombies should be back. So I have heard, anyway.

The Walking Dead

Well, you couldn't ask for a more theme-sensitively-appropriate time for a zombie TV series to begin: 10pm Halloween night, The Walking Dead series, based off of the comic book, premiered on AMC.

First off, I am not a huge fan of zombie movies. That being said, right off the bat The Walking Dead is different simply because it's not a movie, it's a full-out television series, meaning there's no cramming action, gore, and every other stereotype into a 2 hour span of time. There's enough room for an actual plot to develop.

One of the things you worry about, whether you're a Harry Potter, Twilight, Batman, or fan of whatever original literary or comic-book work, is "does the film adaptation follow the original closely enough?" Walking Dead is only one episode into the series, but it's surprising how closely they do follow the comic. In fact, the TV series added a little bit in terms of back-story and other artistic liberties, but I personally felt like it only made it even better. The original series was a good read because it had relatively sensible people in charge of the survivors of the zombie apocalypse.

I'm not sure what the standards are right now for what you're allowed to put on television, but I think this is one of those that pushes the envelope. There is a lot more story-driven content than your typical horror movie, but the makeup is a little on the realistic side. (On the other hand, I noticed that I never noticed a zombie actually putting a body-part or some other piece of gore in their mouth. Can't say that I blame the actors/actresses, but seriously?

Anyway, I never finished the comic books, so I better get back to them before the series gets too far along.
 

Webcomics

    While sitting around wondering what was new or interesting to me so I could write this blog, I realized that most of what I was talking about previously had to do with mainstream comics and cartoons. So far, I think I have failed to put a spotlight on something many times as in-demand: webcomics. There are a few I like to check back on every once and a while, like Questionable Content, Boxer Hockey, and Doctor McNinja. The funny thing is, though these and (as far as I've seen) most web-based comics are free, yet if the author / artist misses their weekly posting, I catch myself flipping out mentally that my neediness is not being met. Studying the borders of the websites, I begin wondering if these artists could possibly be supporting themselves, not with the comic itself, but with the merchandise that they are advertising to readers. It's also probably a good way to bolster your resume if you ever wanted to move into one of the "bigger" comic book niches, although it would probably be surprising if any of these artists would give up the strips that are their babies to move on to something where their names get lost behind the BATMAN or SPIDER-MAN titles.
    Also, one of the only things I would caution people against is that, since these are usually independently created/owned, it's up to the creator to decide what kind of content is in the comic strip. Therefore, it's not governed by the rules companies like DC and Marvel are. Just the creator's imagination.
   Basically, watch out, it might be harder to give them a "Parental Rating" than a movie or video-game.

Anyway, part 2 of the blog is only mentioning that The Walking Dead is being made into a TV show, and is beginning this Halloween. Yes, it's a zombie series (#1: Yes I said series. That's a first.), and judging by the comics which have changed my opinion on the cliche of any movie containing "zombie" in the name, it's going to be very cool. Maybe I'll write about it next week if it turns out to be awesome.

Comic Con 2010

"Hey, let's go to the Comic Con in New York tomorrow."
Thank you, little brother. 

Comic Con New York 2010 was... what's a word that has more punch than "awesome"? I use that too much. This was my first-ever Con, let's put it that way. Anyone who's gone probably remembers what that's like.

After standing in line for a while with my two brothers, then getting in another fast-moving line to get our passes, I was starting to get excited. I must have been half-asleep on the train of something, because I was just now starting to resist giggling like a little girl.
...
(You think I'm kidding.) 

The second I saw the entrance with the gigantic, IGN sponsored plasma screens hovering everywhere, I actually stopping thinking for an indeterminate amount of time. My brain tried to process just the first room and almost stopped completely. Saying it was like a kid in a candy store might be something you could compare it to. 

I could write a LOT on everything we got to do or see, but here are the main things:
-We met Jim Lee, I shook his hand and got him to sign my pass. (Jim Lee was the first artist in a while that brought me back into comics from DC. I liked his style of mixing realistic detail with comic stylization, if that makes sense)


-I got to look at artists' original pencil sketches that were going for, like, $300 each (Green Lantern double-page spread, anybody?)

-Saw gameplay of Marvel VS Capcom 3 and DC Universe Online, which if you haven't seen the trailers for...go. Now. Come back here later. GO.


-I got to meet 3 people I have seen art advertised for online on DeviantArt.com. THAT was awesome.
I would like to take a moment to thank everyone again who put so much work into the Con this year. Like I said, it was my first Comic Convention ever, and this one not only lived up to the hype, but exceeded it in a lot of ways for me. I just got done telling a co-worker that wished he could go that today made up for feeling like crap (I mean BAAAAD) for 8 hours at work yesterday, and all the work/college exhaustion this week. Therefore, I'm not just saying this to say it: THANK YOU.

Computer Generated Imagery

I came across a promotional video on YouTube the other day that was made to show off a new open source animation creator called Blender. I'm not even all that sure why I clicked on it. Maybe it was the word "dragon" in the tagline, maybe the thumbnail looked cool enough. Regardless, I was really surprised at the quality of the video. At 1080p,the movie Sintel looked about on-par with any Disney-Pixar movie that has recently come out. 

The animation was extremely fluid, and didn't look at all amateur. At least one complaint in the comment section was that the dialog was contrived and boring, but I think it actually wasn't bad at all; there just wasn't much of it. Seeing as how it was a 3D animation promotional video, I think it was meant to show off the quality of the animation's movement, not necessarily spectacular sound. Maybe one of the most surprising things was that after looking into the Blender website, I found out that the program is free.

The entire 15 minute movie short is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRsGyueVLvQ

I've always been a fan of both comics and cartoons, and I think that computer animation is something that is constantly getting better and better. Honestly, if I could go to graduate school for it, I don't think I would hesitate long before signing up. One significant change to computer animation is the use of real people (wearing some weird mapping-outfits) as models; if done well, it keeps movement from looking jagged and unnatural, and also helps add a lot of detail to facial expressions.

I don't think it's going to replace live-action filming too soon, but in terms of that niche of movies, shows, and video game animations, it's really exciting and kind of scary to see how CGI is starting to look less and less like a fabricated reality.

Cartoons these days...whippersnappers...

Is it just me, or have all the cartoons today begun completely catering to a generation with no attention span? Sometimes it's actually kind of funny, but I feel a little young to be saying "This cartoon's moving too fast..."

Turn on Cartoon Network, either in the middle of the day, or right after school. If you don't have a headache within a few minutes, you are under 17. Either that, or a brilliant multi-tasker.
My main question is: where does one go from here?  It seems like a difficult enough task to be so off the wall that you can keep the attention of a child these days, so how do we slow the craziness down?
Personally, the only cartoons I like to watch anymore that are technically meant for kids are things like The Misadventures of Flapjack, which I have heard through the grapevine that the show is now over or finishing. After its first season. The only reason I can think of would be that the show is too in-between innocent humor and adult humor, which was rumored to be the reason for a few other shows on Cartoon Network (ex. Invader Zim, which was more blatantly scary / borderline horrific sometimes).

What do you think? Are cartoons just following a trend that older generations find confounding, or is the average result these days cartoons that are destroying younger people's ability to focus? Or perhaps they will become super-multi-taskers?

Comic Book Immortality

Of course it's only after deciding I want my blog to be called Comics and Cartoons that I begin to wonder what exactly I'm going to talk about. There are the differences in style and content around the world, the importance of this kind of entertainment in such places, and what it might say about a time or place in which something was created. There is the relatively recent interest and publication in Graphic Novels, (arguably just bigger comic books) and the popular interest in American comics and Japanese manga.

One specific reoccurring theme in lots of American and Japanese comic books is that you can never seem to really kill the "good-guy." I know this seems random, but there's a list I've been keeping in the back of my mind of the differences and similarities between the two vastly popular styles. One of the major things that continues to endlessly, well, not end is the protagonist's ability to live on and persevere through anything. This is inspiring, really it is, but when the majority of the characters from DC comics have died at one time or another and come back again (and again, and again) it feels like there's really not much in the way of drama if as a superhero you know you get to pass "Go" every time.

In comic-book worlds that share superheroes (DC has all its characters living around the same world, or at least existence), there usually comes a time where one hero's problems begin to grow so large, it effects the entire fictional group. Recently, the rules of Green Lantern's world enveloped the superhero community. GL's entire plot revolves around his green Power Ring of Willpower that can create anything he imagines: a giant hammer, a plane...the list is almost literally endless. The thing is that, during this story arc, Black power rings are created that bring back the dead as what would almost seem like... ok, not really "seem," I guess it pretty much is just a zombie army.

This was the first series I had seen that not only acknowledged but emphasized the fact that many heroes these days technically shouldn't be around anymore. Superman, Aquaman, Green Lantern himself, and now sorta-kinda-Batman, among others, have all died at one time or another.

The same thing happens around the world: Japanese comic book and anime characters always seem to find a way back from the brink of death or beyond. If you want examples, start with Dragon Ball Z. You'll be there a while.

This might actually make a decent dissertation or some sort of academic research eventually, but for the time being I'll leave you with this question:  Is it better that heroes don't stay dead? Or should these stories become more realistic and actually allow important characters to really stay gone?