“According to E. Bennet Walsh, an Executive Producer of Kill Bill, Tarantino has formulated the plots for two sequels and may be heading back to China to film them. Part 3 would revolve around the revenge of two members of the Crazy 88s. Part 4 would focus on the daughters of Beatrix Kiddo and Vernita Green getting square, as was previously rumoured. Some even claim that the (previously unrevealed) daughters of Elle Driver and Gogo Yubari would also be featured.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 24, 2007 in Comic Books
Shown above is the some team members of Studio Kaiju at MoCCA 2007. Being a long time anime fan, the Kaiju crew caught my eye right away. Kaiju is an interesting group because not only are they doing their own posters, books and t-shirts but they also create these very silly but amazing live action performance videos. The videos looks like an odd mash of a WWF wrestling match and a Godzilla film:
Below is a poster created by Kaiju’s designer-at-large Vinnie Arnone. You can’t quite see all the details in the below image but the poster looked fantastic up close, it featured all of these amazing little charcter designs:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 24, 2007 in Comic Books
When I first got to MoCCA I was sort of blown away by everything around me, so I snapped the above photo (because the giant bunny got my attention). A while later I came back to find that the table in question belonged Rabid Rabbit, a collective of artists that met via the School of Visual Arts MFA program. The artist in the above photo is Ben X. Trinh, not shown in the photo to his right was S. Y. Choi who handed me the cute postcard seen below:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 24, 2007 in Comic Books
Artist Alex Cahill poses with a copy of Posion the Cure #1 at MoCCA 2007, not shown here is writer Jad Ziade the other half of the Rowdy Boiz who run New Radio Comics.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 24, 2007 in Comic Books
Above is the table of Manual Comics at MoCCA 2007, I’m not sure who the guy is on the left (my journalism skills are pretty lacking these days – sorry!) but the fellow on the right is illustrator Brian Musikoff (aka B Musikoff). Brian was very excited about their series Mauled! which features a special tragedy theme for each issue:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 24, 2007 in Comic Books
Seen above is the crew behind the Love Bound Train at MoCCA 2007. The first thing that caught my eye at their booth was they had an animation playing that featured the theme of finding love on the L train, I quickly asked asked if they lived in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (my current hometown) and of course the answer was yes. I just loved looking at all the cool creative stuff that was jammed on their table:
They’re still working on launching their full website, but they do have a shop open were you can buy all sorts of interesting goodies:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 24, 2007 in Comic Books
Shown above are some of the crew from the House of Twelve Comics at MoCCA 2007. Sadly I didn’t get the name of the guy on the left, but the other crew members seen here are (left to right) Miss Lasko-Gross, Jennifer Gonzalez, and Cheese Hasselberger (El Presidente of the house). Seen below is the cover of issue #3 by Miss Lasko-Gross:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 24, 2007 in Comic Books
E. J. Barnes is an illustrator from Amherst, Mass. as she was showing off copies of her noir inspired comics at MoCAA 2007. Below is a sample page from her book Confessions of an American Ling Master (which contains cool stuff like occult references, squalor and bad science):
… I’m impressed with E. J. because not only is she an illustrator/animator, but she also has a full degree in Chemistry!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 24, 2007 in Comic Books
Shown above is the crew from Calavera Comics at MoCCA 2007. I didn’t get a chance to look at their comics, but what blew me away was the wonderful graphic posters and t-shirts that they had on hand. They also have a cool blog worth visiting as well.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 24, 2007 in Comic Books
Shown above is Abby Denson, creator of Tough Love and Dolltopia at MoCCA 2007. I’ve known Abby since, well *cough* I won’t embarrass her here. Check out her website:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 23, 2007 in Comic Books
Shown above is a quick shot from the first day of MoCCA 2007 in New York City. If you’re in town Sunday and LOVE comics I’d suggest heading down to the Puck Building to check out the show. I only had a few hours to walk through the show today, but it was packed wall-to-wall with some amazing small press comics. But what made the show amazing is that’s it’s low enough enough so you can hang out and chat with the artists and see some upcoming talent.
Below is the cover from the MoCCA guidebook, on Sunday we’ll follow up with further coverage…
By the way the questions are pretty darn hard (some on a college level) so it may take you a few times to win. But if you manage to finish you get to win a wallpaper of Feilong himself! And if you love the online game you can also buy the original board game which goes much deeper (and has cute little plastic dragons to boot).
Shown below is some of the initial designs for the dragon character in the game which were illustrated by Gwen Singley (who’s one of the most talented illustrators that I’ve ever known):
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 23, 2007 in Animation
I love the illustrational look of the above animated mini-film made by brothers Greg and Myles McLeod. Here’s some background info on this animation-duo from their website:
“Greg and Myles have been writing and directing animations since 2000 and their work has appeared on BBC ONE, MTV, Nickelodeon USA, Channel 4, E4, Channel Frederator and nokiashorts.com. Their surname is pronounced MacCloud for those not versed in Norse-Scottish history…”
For cheap trills I always love picking up little packages in Japanese grocery stores, so the Pokemon cards-n-pubble gum package above caught my eye right away. I was quite impressed with the level of detail in the package, even the package containing the gum was entertaining to look at for me. Of course the gum itself was another story, I think that may have been the worst gum I’ve had in a long time (I guess you can’t have it all).
“As you probably already know the Transformers are coming to wage war across our puny planet. We recommend you choose your alliances now and make sure to hide those extra stashes of energon. And hey it couldn’t hurt to demonstrate your good faith by picking up some Transformers related apparel like these cool animated glowing T-Shirts. Each features the Autobot or Decepticon logo, lights up and animates. We suggest you purchase one of each just in case… you don’t want to be on the wrong side when transforming robots from Cybertron battle.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 21, 2007 in Comic Books
You’ve got chocolate in my peanut butter, so who not mix westerns with sci fi? I’m not crazy from what I’ve seen from this comic (I’ll admit it, the artwork looks soooo lame) but maybe this concept might not be so bad as a live action flick:
“DreamWorks and Universal Pictures will join to turn the graphic novel “Cowboys & Aliens” into a live action feature. Imagine partners Brian Grazer and Ron Howard will produce along with Platinum Studios chairman-CEO Scott Mitchell Rosenberg and Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. Ervin Rustemagic and Rich Marincic co-produce. Script will be written by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby.
The graphic novel mixes Western and science fiction genres. Set in 1800s Arizona, a skirmish between cowboys and Apaches is interrupted by the crash landing of a space ship. The alien commander plans to tame the Old West and enslave everyone, but the cowboys and Native Americans turn their six-guns against the alien invaders. Rosenberg, who ran Malibu Comics when “Men in Black” transferred from graphic novel to hit film, created the concept for “Cowboys & Aliens” and published the graphic novel in 2006.”
…take note Hollywood hopefuls, it’s looking like the best way to get your script made is to do a comic book first!
Hollwood Zombies is a new card collection from Topps which features well know celebs illustrated as the flesh-eating creatures we know them to be! I think my favorites are Paris Hellton, Leo DeCapitate, and Posh Slice. Hollywood is so much more fun when it’s undead…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 20, 2007 in Animation
When I first read about this I wasn’t too happy, I mean why try and re-make a classic? But getting to the end of the article I discovered that Peter Fernandez was going to be doing voice over work (he was the original Speed to me) I realized that maybe this might not be so bad afterall:
“Here he comes, here comes “Speed Racer,” back on the smallscreen. Lionsgate will announce today plans for its first animated series, a new version of the 1960s toon “Speed Racer.” Nickelodeon’s 24-hour cartoon channel, Nicktoons, is aboard to run the initial 26 episodes.
In the new franchise, young Speed Racer enters a racing academy for the fastest kids on Earth — and discovers that he’s the son of the legendary (and original series’) Speed Racer. He also finds out in the first few episodes that he has a brother — the new Racer X — whom he never knew existed.
Speed Racer wows the school with his Mach 6 (an updated version of the original show’s Mach 5) — the most advanced vehicle in the universe, which doesn’t run on gas. Speed and X team together to prevent villains from stealing the Mach 6 and to find out who’s behind the mysterious disappearance of their father. Other characters returning include original Speed Racer’s younger brother Spritle, now headmaster of the racing academy. And chimpanzee Chim-Chim is now a mechanical robot.
Peter Fernandez, who voiced Speed Racer in the dubbed American version of the original “Speed Racer,” is aboard to voice Spritle. Katsumoto and Rocknowski said the new version will stay as true to the original as possible, while allowing for updates like CG animation (including the cars and the background images) and more accurately synched voices.
Every three episodes of “Speed Racer” will operate together as a mini-movie but will also be divisible into a daily strip. “Speed Racer” first hit U.S. shores in 1967, one of the first Japanese anime-style franchises to make it here. The franchise was briefly revived twice in recent years, in 1993’s “The New Adventures of Speed Racer” and 2002’s “Speed Racer X.” Neither lasted long.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 20, 2007 in Comic Books
If you’re in Manhattan this weekend you should go to the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art’s Sixth Annual Arts Festival. $10 buys you a weekend pass for an event that’s features everything from Bill Sienkiewicz signing autographs to Nordic animation. No this isn’t some oversized overhyped event like you’d find in say San Diego, but this low key event is a real chance to hang out with professionals in a relaxed atmosphere. Well as relaxed as one can get in NYC anyway…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 20, 2007 in Animation
I was blown away by the above animation for the above music video “Machines” for the band Kiss Kiss. The video is directed and animated by Robert Schober (nicknamed roboshobo) and I love that fact that while it features 3D animation that the animation itself isn’t very slick and has a hipster illustrational look to it. And of course I’m always a big fan of oversized robots running about the place!
I was very impressed with the above package design the minute I spotted it at my local Japanese grocery store, matching the cartoon body to the chocolate face brings the character to life in a wonderful way (or a chocolate death in your mouth). The character featured on the chocolate treat is Anpanman, who I admit that I haven’t heard of before even though I’ve been following anime for too many years. So running to Wikipedia I found this interesting entry for Anpanman:
“Anpanman, written by Takashi Yanase, a Japanese writer of children’s stories, is one of the most popular anime cartoon series in Japan. It is produced by Nippon Television Network Corporation. Each animated cartoon is approximately 24 minutes long split into 2 episodes of approximately 12 minutes each. Yanase has been writing Anpanman since 1968. The television series called Soreike! Anpanman (それいけ！アンパンマン Go! Anpanman?) has been on the air in Japan since 1988. Yanase became inspired by the idea of Anpanman while struggling to survive as a soldier in World War II. He many times became faced with the prospect of starvation which made him dream about eating a bean-jam filled pastry called Anpan.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 19, 2007 in Videogames
Sphere is a very engaging Flash game from Japan, I’ve already wasted a bit of time playing it (but enjoyed every minute of it). A hints page can be found here.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 18, 2007 in Comic Books
Ted Naifeh illustrated the above cover for Death Jr. Volume Two published by Image Comics and I just love it because it has a candy-coated goth feeling to it without the usual dark colors that one associates with a Bauhaus t-shirt.
