January 2004 Archives

Yay!

Disney and Pixar: Splitsville. No extention on their five-picture deal, and Cars will be the last Pixar film distributed by Disney. Pixar will be an independent agent afterwards.

And this comes on the heels of Disney liquidating its Florida 2D animation studio. No more hand-drawn cartoons from Disney... and now, no more CG cartoons, neither.

Those laid-off animators, by the way, have reformed into Legacy Animation.

Mmm, subtle.

Mr. Eisner, your incompetence brings me joy. You've done everything but wipe your ass with the company, and I thank you for it.

I feel an animation silver age comin' on.

So... Modern Tales' Swapmeet site is up. It's basically a storefront for all the MT artists who want to peddle their very own crap, which is cool. I've got to get around to sticking all my junk on there, pretty soon.

But they also have a "Origianl Art" section.

Hm.

If I sold original art (not the comic pages, I still need those, but ink drawings and so forth), would any of you guys be interested in buying it? Let me know.

Trouble brewing.

Bump your own private Domestic Terror Alerts up to chartreuse, folks. Looks like there's a new bug going around.

Unless, you know, receiving "returned emails" that you never sent addressed to people who don't use your email account with attached DAT files is a normal thing for you.

Doctor: "Did you know you have a heart murmur?"

Spike: (!!!!) "No. I just thought my pulse was special."

HUUUUURRRRRRRRRR.

They get a little YMCA in near the end, too.

The robots involved are called QRIOs. pronounced "Curio." Think the next Aibo, but bipedal. And a few thousand dollars more expensive. The name's very appropriate.

There are more videos here, if you scroll down and click the text links below the pictures and the pink bar. The official site's here, and it's in English and has some much clearer film clips. Make sure to note that this thing can actually get back up when pushed over, and braces itself for the fall... although anyone who would push it over in the first place is sort of a dick, if you ask me.

The commerical currently airing in Japan for this thing is here.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't impressed. Hell, it can throw a baseball and everything. But I'll be even more impressed the day they make a QRIO that can catch one.

Yup. Dig the nav bar.

See those people? I like 'em. Yes I do. You should, too. Go visit.

I'll add other junk later, like links to comics and MT Blacklist and whatnot. But for now, spread the love. Most of 'em have had their shots, I promise.

Most.

...I've added a couple of new scribbles to the Sketchbook section in the past few days. Don't miss 'em.

Even while toting a gift certificate, Crate and Barrel manages to appall me. But at least I got a nice photograph out of it.

Interactive graffiti, found scribbled on the bench at the North/Clybourn stop along Chicago's red line. Note the answer provided. (Not by me.)

I'm hoping for a phone number, next. And a marriage. And children to ask mommy and daddy how they met.

So good I'm willing to ruin my layout for the next ten days to show you.

When you clicked it, it led to a catalog page on the Office Depot website featuring yellow pencils.

Luv.

WEHT.Net is one of those sites you just kinda knew had to exist somewhere, but never bothered to look for until Google dumped it in your lap one day.

WEHT... short for "Whatever happened to...?" advertises itself as a clearinghouse of up-to-date information on the once-famous and infamous. You be the judge.

The best part about the site is probably the way they list their entires. "That Chick who shot Andy Warhol" for Valerie Solanas (dead of emphysema and pneumonia in '88), "He Likes it! Hey, Mikey!" for the Life cereal commercial kid (now a radio advertising executive in NYC), and character names instead of real names for various actors... cuz hell, we don't remember 'em any other way.

They even have an category for "The Other Guys" (The Other Guy in The Eurythmics, The Other Guy in Wham!, The Bass Player in Nirvana, etc.) , which couldn't be more appropriate.

Give 'em a look, and decide for yourself who got the worst smackdown from the inexorable march of time. My vote, swayed by merciless irony, is with Gene Gene the Dancing Machine from The Gong Show.

He, uh, lost both legs to diabetes in 2001.

It's overtly political and statistically unpopular and bound to make everything awkward and uncomfortable! Yay!

In case you live under a rock, Scott does this thing called "The Morning Improv." He spends his mornings drawing comics based on titles submitted by the rabble, and they turn out really, really good. For a long time, my personal favorite was one called Somnivore, but he only just today finished up a serious contender to the throne: A Bucket Full O' Kittens.

What can I say? I was inspired.

Next up on the Improv: Who's Mind is it Anyway? Ooo. Although honestly, I was kinda rootin' for Hotel Infinity.

PS: There's a new Lucas and Odessa up today, in which Odessa makes her Bjork-iest face yet. Click the banner!

Your life would be a lot happier if it were just a little more... random.

Click. Porn. Click. Kitten. Click. Car crash. Click. Man with a penis full of bees. Click. Cosplayers. Click. Turducken. Click...

Good Lord, where to start.

Wiolawa Press is... unmedicated. I can't be sure of anything else, but it's definitely the work of a person who is given a pill every day and is not taking it.

According to Barbara (as the Leader of the Snake People calls her in their email exchanges), the world is threatened by the Snake Empire. She knows this, because when she applies Photoshop filters to the photographs of Snake Empire secret agents, the filters reveal the secret creatures that live under their skin, the fangs in their foreheads, and the anchor points where they've had their human faces attached.

Vladimir Putin... sorry, VAMP SNAKE PUTIN... is a snake. You can tell, because of the fangs in his forehead. Michael Jackson is a Satanist with animals in his hair and a stolen face, but a wannabe-snake, not the genuine article. Sniper kid sidekick Lee Malvo is actually MALVO MK_ULTRIFIED ( BEHEADED AND RE_ATTACHED HEAD ). And this has all got something to do with shapeshifting British politicians, but I don't share Barbie's stunning command of cheesy filters, so I guess I'll never understand what.

Also: Spaceships. Lots of 'em.

Barbara's forums are down due to "lizard harassment," but there's still plenty to see here. And while I can't exactly call it a good read, it's definitely, uh, engrossing.

Watch out for the cases of harlequin fetus on the main page, though. Or as Barb calls 'em, The Brazllian/Phillipines SARS (Serpent and Reptilian Syndrome) Babies. Pretty incredible.

Okay, folks. Here's the deal.

One of the gifts my husband and I received after our wedding was a DVD player and a three-month gift subscription to Netflix, which we plan on abusing the hell out of. Problem is, neither of us really knows what's out there as far as movies go. We don't watch television and we don't read movie websites, so we're not really up on anything current. And after adding Frida and Capturing the Friedmans to the queue, I'm pretty much tapped out.

So I'm asking for recommendations. Lay 'em on me. I don't gotta pay for 'em, so I'm pretty open about what I'll rent.

For a little direction, I like equal parts dramatic independents, atypical animation and complete fucking garbage. I've currently reserved Carnival of Souls, Kids, and the first season of The Anna Nicole Show, and that's not causing any cognative dissonance for me. I like interesting images and storylines, and I like simpering idiots making complete fools of themselves. Such is life.

Try to stay away from any Jan Svankmajer or Don Hertzfeldt stuff, because I've probably already seen it. And try to leave out anything where the male lead made more than twenty million dollars to deliver eight lines of dialog and then have a ninja fight, because I'll probably refuse to see it. Other than that, have at it!

...and that's why this week's Sparkneedle was a little late. It's up now, though. I'm sorry about that, the comic completely slipped my mind.

But hopefully, Lucas and Odessa will be on time this week. No promises.

In case you didn't know, I married Matt, my colorist. It took two minutes, cost ten dollars, and we both wore jeans. I'll spare you the tiresome details for now.

At least until we get the pictures developed, anyway.

So... about Templar.

For a while now, I've been sorta hinting at starting a third weekly comic, in addition to Lucas and Odessa and Sparkneedle. I mentioned that this comic would start getting posted when I had two month's worth of lead on it, which means when I had finished eight pages.

Just so you know, I haven't started slacking on that. I've finished the eight pages. Hell, I've finished twelve. But they're not going up yet. Here's why.

Like the other two comics, Templar's meant to be a pay comic, with the newest installment viewable for free. Things were stalled for a while, 'cuz I couldn't figure out a way to make that happen on Iron Circus. I can't code worth a damn. But now, I don't have to worry about that. As a Modern Tales family cartoonist, I get a complimentary pro account on Webcomics Nation. That makes me happy.

If everything goes according to plan, WN should be ready for primetime sometime in late January, and Templar should premiere soon afterwards. It'll get it's own lil' link up top there, and I'll probably buy a couple banner ads to promote the three comics. Exciting.

After that, we'll see where the wind takes me. Hopefully not off a cliff or anything.

Look. I killed an ice sculpture.

I had to. It was suffering.

Happy New Year. I promise something a little more coherent tomorrow.