Month: July 2004


  • “Squirt, Weeboy” at the Pearl River Mart
    (Broadway, NYC)

    We tried several cafes on Avenue A but the ‘free wifi’ kept dropping out. So here we are in Starbucks (St Marks Place) after four solid hours of walking, checking our email and taking the oppotunity to update this blog.

    It’s super warm and incredibly humid here in the Big Apple. And if our feet hated us during the San Diego Comic-Con, they really want to kill us now! Here is a photo album which will be added to over the next few days. Some quick highlights so far:

    • Walking around SoHo and down Broadway. So much to see.
    • Kid Robot store! It’s about 1 block away from where we’re staying!
    • Pearl River Mart is an awesome ‘chinese’ emporium on Broadway. Lots of cheap stuff.
    • Lunch at Kelley and Ping with Andrew. We love this place!
    • Dinner at Otto Pizzeria with Andrew and Shirley
    • Hanging out around East Village and St Marks Place
    • Meeting Alice Cahn (Cartoon Network/Time Warner Building)
    • Buying stuff from Toy Tokyo
    • Breakdancers in Union Square (will post videoclip later!). *Joel, you would have loved this!

    In the next 3 days (omg! only 3 days?) -

    • Dinner with John tomorrow in TriBeCa
    • Wandering around Brooklyn
    • Coney Island
    • Harlem
    • and mucho mas!

  • *updated

    We’re leaving for New York tomorrow morning … what do you know, suddenly we find ourselves with a bunch of design tasks to take care of with deadlines next week! Looks like we’ll be busy on the 5-hour flight. Must remember to pack the wacom tablet too… Can we force ourselves to be disciplined in the city that never sleeps?

    Some good stuff via Comic-Con:

    Chris Reccardi’s book (bought at Comic-Con) is fantastic. Lots of character sketches and storyboard thumbnails from Samurai Jack, Ren & Stimpy etc. Inspirational stuff!

    Last night we watched Alex Woo’s Rex Steele Nazi Smasher (DVD). Painful to watch because you can feel all the WORK that went into this very ambitious short film. It looks stunning. All the best to Woohoo Pictures!

    Also check out McCarty Photoworks – Brian McCarty, whom I met at the StrangeCo booth (wearing a lucha libre t-shirt) specializes in toy photography and is also editor of WYWS magazine.

    The panel below is from Rafael Navarro’s latest issue of Sonambulo: ”Mexican Stand-Off part 1″ 

    More later!

    OK, some last minute links:

    So, we’ll be arriving in NYC tomorrow (Wed) night around 9pm – we can’t wait

  • ¡Mucha Lucha! at the Con

    First up, THANK YOU to everyone who showed up for the ML panel and movie screening this afternoon! Many apologies if you came for the panel at 1.15pm and we weren’t there. The schedule was changed at the very last minute so the panel/Q&A happened at 12.00pm BEFORE the screening.

    We talked briefly about the inspiration behind ¡Mucha Lucha! – our love for Mexican wrestling aka Lucha Libre and introduced the ‘Return of El Malefico’ movie. It was so refreshing for us to answer questions from kids who watch the series. This is the first time that Eddie and I have actually received direct feedback from kids about ML (And not from behind a glass panel at a focus-testing session!) It was also great to talk to the parents (one of whom was a huge El Santo fan )

    Comic-Con thoughts - by Eddie

    Wow, where to start?  It was an awesome amount of creativity crammed into the one space – I’m sure they could have felt the positive rays eminating from San Diego, in deep space!

    Highlights?  Finally putting some faces to names I’ve been hearing for years (Scary Girl designer Nathan, the supremely talented Lynne Naylor, Animation Magazine’s publisher – the legendary Rita Street), discovering some great art I didn’t know existed (e.g., Howard M. Shum and Joey Mason’s Gun Fu),and getting some great ¡Mucha Lucha! feedback from people out there on the floor. 

    Actually the BIGGEST thrill was the Q&A we did with the kids at the ¡Mucha Lucha! screening.  Hearing a round of applause every time we mentioned ‘Blue Demon’ or ‘El Santo’ by name was very cool.  And at the end of the screening, a little girl in full Batgirl costume (who was a huge ML fan!  Come on, WB – where are the Buena Girl costumes?!?) had us pose with her for a picture, which was taken by her mom!

    Apart from Rafael’s Sonambulo booth (new issue ‘Mexican Stand-Off’ out now!), where Christa and Keith were showcasing ‘Hoodtown’, there wasn’t a big Lucha Libre presence.  It was good though, to see Kaiju Big Battel there in all their monstruous glory!

    Some Important Numbers:

    2 – Number of people spotted in Klingon outfits
    3 – Number of people in Spiderman outfits
    4 – Number of people in Batman outfits
    3 – Number of people in Wonder Woman outfits
    400 (or so it seemed) – Number of people dressed as Star Wars Stormtroopers
    8 - Amount of dollars they charged for a burger
    4 – Amount of Kaiju Big Battel T-shirts we bought
    2 – How many of our friends turned up to support us at the ¡Mucha Lucha! screening (thank you Jon M. Gibson and Ricky Garduno!)

    Overall, a great three days.  We’ll be running on the Comic-Con’s creative fumes for the next few months.  Memo to all our Animation colleagues in Australia; get yourself over to San Diego for next year’s con.  Trust me, you won’t regret it.  As well as making some great personal contacts, we also met some inspiring people that we hope we’ll be working with sometime soon. 

    Now for some photos…


    rows and rows and rows…

    This morning as we got out of our hotel elevator, a guy in a full Jesus costume glided by, complete with a glowing neon halo attached to the top of his head. It was a very surreal moment. With all the sci-fi/fantasy/superhero costumes around, you don’t expect to see Jesus. Regrettably, there wasn’t time to pull out the camera…

    Anyhow, HERE are some photos we’ll remember the weekend by!

  • I’m posting this from the hotel room (using dial-up because I can’t get broadband to work).. just a quick note to say that it has been very fun, inspiring, physically exhausting and what an amazing experience of  Geekdom. We have bought DVDs, artist sketchbooks, figurines, comics and picked up tons of postcards and flyers. Just got back from the masquerade-costume contest tonight, where audience reactions to people dressed as LOTR/Star Wars/Final Fantasy/Unidentifiable Anime characters, have been almost as fascinating (read: cringey) as the performances themselves. All good fun!


    If you are reading this and are at Comic-Con tomorrow (Sunday), please feel free to come and say hi. After the Mucha Lucha DVD-movie screening (12pm), we’ll be on a panel in room 5AB. The panel goes from 1.15 – 1.30pm. Hope to see you there!


    I will post photos tomorrow night when back home on a DSL connection.


    P.S. Who won the costume contest? (We couldn’t stay till the end)

  • “The Magnificent Three” - Voice record

    We had a star-studded cast at today’s voice recording session – this being the final episode of ML Season 3.


    Blue Demon Jr.

    Blue Demon Jr. couldn’t make it into L.A. so he was patched in live from Mexico City, doing his lines in Spanish and English while Collette directed and Helen Hernandez, the show’s Cultural Consultant, interpreted. Mr Demon has an awesome deep voice and was a such ‘natural’ once he got over his initial nervousness (which we thought was kinda sweet). I wish he could’ve made it here in person but it was still a blast to hear him so loud and clear – he was practically in the same room. (I kept visualizing him shirtless as we listened to his voice). Blue Demon Jr. was really excited to be a part of the show and that made us all excited.


    Los Justice Enforcers!
    (Cheetah Bonita, Blue Demon Jr, and Dr Terrorrifico)

    At one point in the script,  he asked: “Who wrote this story?”  Ricky Garduno, we all replied. (one of ML’s best storyboard artists). Blue Demon Jr. chuckled: ”No manches, Ricky”. If only Ricky was here! he’s in San Diego right now.

    So Helen invited him to join us at the Imagen Awards next month which coincides with his next L.A. visit.Who knows? Fingers crossed!

    After Blue Demon Jr, was Freddy Rodriguez whom some of you may remember, also performed on the ML DVD movie: The Return of Malefico, which premieres this Sunday 12.00 at the Comic-con. Freddy voiced three characters in this episode and was very cool.

    … Followed by Benito Martinez as Lone Star and Frankie Estain. Tony Mora (ML Flash artist) being  The Shield’s biggest fan ever, came into the recording room and had his picture taken with his hero. 


    Benito & Tony

    Next Thursday is the second part of this voice record session with more celebrities. WBA was very close to signing up this celebrity for the role of the main villain (he was enthusiastic too!) but … oh well. Shit happens. Now we have Blue Demon Jr and the three Mascaritas Vs. this Mexican celebrity, who was also the voice of El Custodio in a ”Our Founder” (Season 1). And dammit, we will be in NYC! Not that that’s a bad thing…

    We’re off to San Diego bright and early tomorrow morning and there’s tons of last minute stuff to take care of tonight… I’m bringing the laptop and if there’s a free wifi spot somewhere I might post something. If not, then it’s hasta domingo! Have a good weekend everyone!

  •  Luna Córnea: Lucha Libre edition


    Huracan Ramirez vs Elephant

    Our Luna Córnea 27 book arrived today (via eBay) and there are some trully magnificent photos in this chunky, glossy 325-page volume. It’s 98% Spanish but that doesn’t matter. The images are priceless. There’s a poignant photo of the late Blue Demon in his casket, Los Villanos with mum and dad, arty b/w shots of exoticos, luchadoras, midgets, close-up ring action and more. (bad scan quality, sorry)


    Los Villanos with Mama

    If anyone is interested in buying a copy of the book, the publisher is the Centro de la Imagen, Mexico and their email address is ventas_ci@correo.conaculta.gob.mx

    By the way, we just learnt that ¡Mucha Lucha! has premiered on free-to-air TV in Mexico. It’s showing on Thursdays - Televisa Channel 5 (thanks, Oscar!)

    Links received this week:

    “Brother Can You Spare a Job?” is an animated, 7 minute, anti-Bush cartoon. (from Tom Neely)

    *update – If that was too depressing, try Jib Jab’s “This Land”! (thanks, Jared!)

    www.nofta.org (from Suze) - It’s too late, isn’t it?

    You Can’t Do That On Television! (NY Times) Don’t get us started on censorship behind the scenes! While we continue to recieve BS&P notes about the color of donut jelly, this week’s most ridiculous note has to be…

    P. 44 The vampires’ cries should not sound overly pained.

    MEMO TO SELF: New York

  • Preparing for Comic-Con

    The Comic-Con schedule is up!  Here are highlights from the ASIFA website. This being our very first ever Comic-Con, we are very excited although still not quite sure what to expect. Everyone has warned us that it will be an overwhelming experience, and according to Jerry Beck  - there will be 80,000 people there. Whoa – Eighty thousand!  That’s a lot of people. Can’t wait to see the costumes


    From ML episode: The Collector

    So, there have been some changes to our schedule and our stay in San Diego will be extended until Sunday. We will be appearing on a ¡Mucha Lucha! panel on Sunday with Joel Kuwahara (Producer) and possibly Ron Hughart (Director of the DTV movie). 

    So far, here are our picks (with overlaps):

    *UPDATED July 17th – thanks to AMID’s Con Plans, just realised we missed some good ones!

     Friday 23rd. Schedule 

    1:00-2:00 Spotlight on Sid Jacobson (Harvey Comics) Room 3
    3:00-4:30 Cartoon Network Studios—sneak peek Room 6AB
    3:00-4:00 TOKYOPOP with Lupin III creator Monkey Punch Room 2 *
    4:00-5:00 Bob Clampett— Rare film footage. Room 8
    4:30-6:00 Warner Bros. Animation All Action Panel Room 6AB
    5:00-6:00 Sketch to Sale-Topics covered will include creating a pitch document, using agents, and getting a pitch meeting. If you want to pitch to WBA, this could be a useful one to go to, as Christoper Keenan (Senior VP of WB Animation Creative Affairs) will be on the panel. OR
    5.00-6.00     Gary Baseman  Room 7B
    5.20-6.00 Rex Steele Nazi Smasher screening     Room 4
    6:00-7:00 Tom Sito: The Animation Strikes Room 7B *
    7.00- Warner Bros Animation Party (by invitation)

     Saturday 24th Schedule

    12:00-1:30 Quick Draw! Cartoon Improv—Room  6AB OR .
    12.00-1:30     .. 50 Years of Gigantor Room 2
    1.00-2.00 Nickelodeon’s AVATAR: The last Airbender *
    1:30-3:00 Cartoon Voices Room  6AB The talented Dee Bradley Baker does some funny voices on ML season 3.
    2:30-3:30 Disney/Pixar: The Incredibles Room 20
    3:00-4:00 SubCultures: Toy Revolution Room 3 OR …
    3.00-4.00     ASIFA: State of the Animation Industry Room 6CDEF
    4:00-5:00 Kaiju Big Battel Room 6CDEF 
    4:30-6:00 Hollywood, Comics and Black Culture Room 9 *
    5:30-7:00 Cartoon Network: Adult Swim Room 6AB
    6:00-7:00 Developing an Animated Property Room  2  Jorge, Gabe, Jon Gibson and Dave Wasson are on this panel.
    8:30-10:00 Worst Cartoons Ever! (2004 Edition) Room 6AB
    10:00-11:30 Bill Plympton: Hair High Room 6AB
    11:30-1:30 Spike and Mike’s Room 6AB

    Sunday 25th is Kiddies’ Day.


    12:00–1:30 Warner Bros. Animation and Warner Home Video present ¡Mucha Lucha!: The Return of Malèfico. After the screening of this movie, creators/producers Eddie Mort and Lili Chin and producer Joel Kuwahara will be available for a Q&A session. Room 5AB

    3:30-4:30 Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! Room 5AB Ciro’s new show for Jetix/Disney We hope there’s a preview.

    Also on our list:

    So, a question to other Comic-con visitors, how do you prepare for this mega event? Do you bring lots of cash? Where else do you hang out in San Diego?

    New York, New York!


    view from the Empire State Building (2000)

    Ou friends, Andrew and Shirley have so kindly invited us to stay at their place in NYC and we couldn’t refuse. We’ve been wanting to do this forever – to be in a real urban city where you can walk around everywhere. We love New York. Leaving on Wednesday after Comic-Con…

    Related Link: Photos of New York in the 70s.

    Our apartment building is getting noisier. The little old lady who lives in the apartment behind us has the tv on all night. She must have some sort of ‘silence-phobia’ because she turns the volume up before she goes to bed. From upstairs we hear footsteps, banging, and miscellaneous unidentified sounds which also seem to start around midnight. Outside in the trees, a bird starts chirping cheerily.

    “It’s the insomniac bird again” says Eddie. This happens without fail, every single night. The bird chirps all through the night and shuts up in the morning.

    On top of all this, our upstairs neighbours have started using their airconditioner… which is situated directly above our bed, causing our whole bedroom to hummmmmmmmmmm while we try to sleep. We’re not sure what to do, not wanting to complain …  I mean, if we had an airconditioning system we’d have it on too. It has been so hot and sticky this summer … (must buy a fan)

    So there’s all this noise and we find ourselves staying up even later every night such that when we crash, we’re so tired we don’t hear a thing.

    Other links:

    Duprez Dolores – illustrations
    Must-see Los Angeles (blogging.la) – Taking note of the comments!
    Japanese Geek Status Heirarchy (via boing boing)
    Comfortstand – free music

     


  • La Park (aka La Parka) 
    by Eddie & Lili

    Some La Parka links: La Parka bio; Church of La Parka; La Parka gallery

    Spirou


    the original Spirou by Andre Franquin

    Via The Cartoonist – a very old Spirou comic in Swedish. Like Tin Tin, Spirou was a famous icon of Belgian comics. There were many different versions of Spirou by different artists; Eddie has a Spirou comic book by Chaland. 

    Eddie: Spirou was one of those classic comic characters that never really made it big outside of Belgium – although Disney took some elements for their Marsupilami series.  Hmmm…maybe sometimes it’s good that some things are left undiscovered by Hollywood.  Apparently Speilberg has the rights to a film version of Tin Tin…when I wake up screaming some nights, this is why.

    Back to Spirou…I’m a HUGE aficionado of Belgian comics.  Spirou is just one series in a long line of great Belgian bande dessinees, that includes ‘Blondin & Cirage’, and the ‘Bob Fish/Freddy Lombard series by the awesomely gifted Yves Chaland.  Tin Tin may be Belgian’s most known character, but believe me – there are hundreds of other great characters in the comic shops of Brussels. 

    Related link: The Comic Strip Museum in Brussels (we were there a couple of years ago. Awesome.)

  • Back from the beach


    photos taken in the morning when still overcast

    6.00pm – Back from the picturesque Laguna Beach .We are both sunburnt and lethargic … I so wanted to check out Laguna’s famous Pageant of the Masters  - where performers dress up and reenact famous classical paintings for 2 hours (sounded so bizarre I felt I had to see it to believe it) but the show was sold out, much to Eddie’s relief. Maybe next summer Tonight we’ll be lounging at home instead with refreshing vodka drinks and more Looney Tunes…

  • We picked up a couple of DVDs at Amoeba Music today, one of which was the Looney Tunes Golden Collection. We were watching Disc 1 of 4 tonight… Wow. The bonus features/documentaries are a real treat. It’s so great that you can also choose to watch most of these cartoon shorts without the dialogue track (music only).

    To think that  99% of these classic cartoony gags would be too politically-incorrect for a 21st century Warner Bros cartoon. We can’t have guns or weapons these days. No heavy physical contact or injuries to the head; no driving without seatbelts(and that includes mini clown cars!); no sharp objects like knives, axes or even scissors (!) like in Rabbit of Seville… Hey, we can’t even show red jelly in a donut, or man-boobs, or fake boobs, or broken glass, or…well you get the idea.

    Volume 2 of the Looney Tunes collection will released later this year and the list of shorts here looks awesome. The Three Little Bops! Michigan J. Frog! We’ll be getting this one for sure! I hope there’s a Volume 3 too…

    Off to Laguna Beach tomorrow morning! Guess it’s time for bed…