Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 30, 2009 in Comic Books
You’d think that Sky Pirates of Neo Terra #1 would be terrible as it has every reason to fail: You’ve got a comic book based on a Nintendo DS game and then you add a Canadian trying to draw in a Japanese manga style. However the talented Camilla D’Errico is up to the task and does an amazing job: Her draftsmanship is deliciously detailed and her layouts are powerful. The coloring job by Simon Bork adds a nice vivid quality to the story by Josh Wagner. Looking at the first pages of this book reminds me a bit of the original Appleseed manga (アップルシ-ド) by Masamune Shirow, yet Camilla has her own unique look which is well worth checking out: Read more…
The main selling point of the Coffee Prides Motion is that unlike a Japanese maid café not only can you read a manga while drinking your coffee but that you can actually draw a manga too. This first café in the cyber city district of Zhongguancun (which is in Beijing, China) is that there are classes on how to draw cartoons. The building which houses the café also sells all sorts of anime goodies as well: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 24, 2009 in Comic Books
Weekly Shōnen Sunday (週刊少年サンデ) has been published every week since 1959 (although one should note that it actually comes out on Wednesday during the week, not Sunday). Looking back on their 50 years one of the high points of their history was the year 1983 when their circulation grew by leaps and bounds due to the fresh quality of the manga for that era: So to celebrate this they’ve released the book Shonen Sunday 1983 which gives you taste of the manga from that era. Read more…
I came across this recent manga themed advert for the Nissan Cube and was blown away — I really love how the design of this spot picks up on the conventions of Japanese comics from the black and white characters to the use of zip-a-tone patterns.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 6, 2009 in Comic Books
Back in the day the gold standard of computer programming books were the O’Reilly books which featured distinctive woodcuts of various animals on the covers — well look out O’Reilly because a publisher in Japan has introduced a series of of mangas on an entire range of geek topics! If you don’t speak Japanese No Starch Press is starting to translate this line of mangas into English. The first title in the series which is already out is The Manga Guide to Databases. Here’s the description from the publisher:
“Princess Ruruna is stressed out. With the king and queen away, she has to manage the Kingdom of Kod’s humongous fruit-selling empire. Overseas departments, scads of inventory, conflicting prices, and so many customers! It’s all such a confusing mess. But a mysterious book and a helpful fairy promise to solve her organizational problems—with the practical magic of databases.”
Going through my Flickr stream I came across an image titled Name That Anime Slot Machine so of course I knew I had an interesting challenge ahead of me! The slot machine was spotted in an Ohio antique mall —the only real clue I had was that it was based on a baseball manga or anime series. Now while there are tons of baseball manga (and all sorts of sports manga in Japan) I realized that it had to be from a show popular enough to merit an anime series. Read more…
Good news!According to filmschoolrejects.com it seems that Will Smith has stated that the American version of Oldboy won’t be based on the Korean film but instead based on the original manga. This will come as good news to fanboys that were worried that Steven Spielberg (or any American company) wouldn’t be able to capture the graphic nature of the original Korean film.
Oldboy (올드보이) was a popular 2003 revenge film from Korea which was based on a Japanese manga by the same (オールド・ボーイ) written by Nobuaki Minegishi and Garon Tsuchiya which ran from 1996 until 1998. Now normally I’m 100% against Hollywood remakes, but in this case I’ll make an exception. I think if Spielberg tackles Oldboy that it might popularize and open the door for more Asian cinema to come to the United States. And if he can get a popular actor like Will Smith involved that would be a real cherry on top:
“Steven Spielberg and Will Smith are in early discussions to collaborate on a remake of Chan Wook-park’s “Oldboy.” DreamWorks is in the process of securing the remake rights, and the new pic will be distributed by Universal. In the 2003 Korean original, a man gets kidnapped and held in a shabby cell for 15 years without explanation. Suddenly, he’s released and given money, a cell phone and clothes and is set on a path to discover who destroyed his life so he can take revenge.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 23, 2008 in Animation
The Right Stuf is releasing the classic 1980 anime film Toward the Terra on DVD just in time for Christmas. Back in the day as a 80s fanboy this was one of my favorite flicks, and it still holds up well today judging by the trailer above. Firstly the story line is A+ if your any sort of science fiction fanatic as the plot is very similar to A.E. van Vogt’s famous novel SLAN. Next you have the look of the film which holds up very well some 28 years later!
