Misc. Cool


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Top 5: Sappy Spider-Man Comics

  By Ju-osh M. • February 14, 2015 , ,

99Spider-Man has always had girl troubles. From his first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15 to whatever movie Marvel is releasing this year, the wisecracking web-head has rarely been lucky when it comes to love. Oh, sure, he’s had girlfriends. He’s even been married. But each and every affair inevitably ended in disaster. Death, dumping, a Marvel mandated mind-wipe — the deeper the love, the more messed-up the break-up. But does Spider-Man allow any of that to dim his dream of true love? Hells no. Skip ahead a few issues, and a new gal walks through Spidey’s door (or flies past his window…or punches him in the face while fleeing the scene of a crime…) and his lower half’s spider-sense starts tingling once more. Oh, comics. Ah, l’amour!

Listed below are my five favorite Spider-Man love stories. Some are silly, some are somber. All of ‘em are all-caps ROMANTIC.

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The Nazis Vs. Mickey Mouse

  By Ju-osh M. • February 13, 2015 ,

222“Young people, where is your sense of self? Mickey Mouse is the shabbiest, most miserable ideal ever invented. Mickey Mouse is a recipe for mental enfeeblement. Healthy instinct should tell every decent girl and decent boy that those filthy, dirt-caked vermin, the greatest carriers of bacteria in the animal kingdom, cannot be made into an ideal animal type. [...] Down with Mickey Mouse, and up with the swastika!”

Nazi propaganda circa 1931, via the wildly fascinating A Mickey Mouse Reader

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Happy Lincoln’s Birthday

  By Ju-osh M. • February 12, 2015 ,

216No, seriously. Able Abe not only played a humongous part in freeing the slaves, he also invented the musty-smelling log toys at your grandparents’ house, inspired Walt Disney’s first terminator and played a pitch-perfect cameo in the animated adaptation of Mike Mignola’s Amazing Screw-On Head. For those keeping track at home, that’s TWO high-points in the history of animation! And the slaves!

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Animation Essentials: Designing Shapes

  By Ju-osh M. • February 9, 2015 ,

gkaeShiyoon Kim, a character designer at Disney Feature Animation, has released an old style guide that he and Glen Keane created for the animators on Tangled. The guide provides some great tips for studying and designing shapes, and features illustrations from Keane and quotes from Bill Moore — Chouinard’s legendary design professor!

Click through to get edumacated.

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Oscar Noms Reimagined As Animated Pics

  By Ju-osh M. • February 3, 2015 ,

10RIPT Apparel has unveiled their 2nd annual ‘RIPTcademy Award’ posters, and they’re even better than last year’s. There are twenty designs in all, most of them replacing the human cast with luminaries from the animation world. Looking over the collection, I’ve gotta admit — I think I’d prefer the fake versions to their critically acclaimed inspirations! Click here to purchase and/or view.

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Here’s Some Fun, Non-Cannon Star Wars Mythology: Chewbacca Is The Sasquatch

  By Ju-osh M. • January 29, 2015 ,

98“TIL that in Star Wars Tales #19 Han Solo travels through time and crashes on Earth. Han is killed in an attack by Natives, but Chewbacca lives and becomes the Sasquatch. 126 years later, Indiana Jones is tracking down the Sasquatch only to find the crashed Millennium Falcon and the body of Han Solo.” - Skweres88

The comic being referred to is Into the Great Unknown by W. Haden Blackman and Sean Murphy, and it’s a delight. Click here to read.

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Great Concepts Never Go Out Of Style

  By Ju-osh M. • January 25, 2015 ,

4Alka-Seltzer ad by MAD Magazine alumn Wally Wood (1967).

French poster for Pixar’s Inside Out by Stacey Aoyama (2014).

A special thanks to Jim Korkis at Cartoon Research for the Alka-Seltzer ad. In a recent ‘Animation Anecdotes‘ post, Korkis gathered together a bunch of deliciously demented storyboards Wood drew for an animated version of this ad. To check those out, click here.

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A Closer Look At King Candy’s Walk Cycle

  By Ju-osh M. • January 23, 2015 ,

tumblr_mhkc6gs7mz1qejutxo1_400“Okay, I don’t normally do this, but let me just say something about [...] the sheer amount of detail they put into [King Candy's] walk-cycle in correlation to the character. [N]otice how his legs go straight out to the sides of him while he twirls his feet - like the wheels of the cars he has been programmed to drive. Not only that, but the lull in his walk is exactly like spinning your tires while breaking (or revving one’s engine), which happens at the start of every cart-racing game. Also, his hand [...] ‘changes gears’ [...] before his shooing gesture, before returning to the unseen ‘gear-shift.’ [King Candy] embodies both his car and racing games in general.” - Noxaldia

Wow! That’s a fascinating theory. Makes sense, too. What do y’all think?

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Charting The Voice Actors

  By Ju-osh M. • January 22, 2015 ,

44Jishai Evers has created voice-cast charts for The Simpsons and South Park. It’s incredible to see the number of characters handled by some of these folks. Dan Castellaneta does 26 voices. Trey Parker? 32! It’s a testament to these casts’ talent that not only is each character’s voice funny, they’re instantly identifiable. Click through for the full-size charts. Continue reading

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Scooby Doo, Where Are You…Now?

  By Ju-osh M. • January 21, 2015 ,

12It’s been 38 years since Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? went off the air. Curious as to the cartoon cast’s current whereabouts, the internet sleuths at BuzzFeed hopped in their mystery machine and tracked ‘em down. Shown above are some recent pics of the 50-something-year-old ‘meddling kids.’ If you think these are good, wait’ll you read the gang’s present day ‘fun facts.’ They’re AMAZING.

Click here to catch up.

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Flipping Out Over Flip Books

  By Ju-osh M. • January 21, 2015 ,

1Collector’s Weekly has a beautifully illustrated piece about vintage flip books. Covering a wide swath of time (the late 1800s to today), the article presents a concise, contextual history for flip books. It’s neat to see the role that flip books played in the development of not just animation, but also cinema in general. Take that, Academy!

Anyone who has ever scribbled a rocket ship blasting off in the margin of their math book should check this article out. Click here to read.

Related: Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Nine Old Men: The Flipbooks

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R.I.P. Pokemon Gym

  By Ju-osh M. • January 15, 2015 ,

2The Pokemon Gym has left Tacoma, WA just as mysteriously as it appeared. Rumor has it that the Gym was an all-ages music venue created by some local college students for a senior project. Just who were these students and what grade did they get? No one knows for sure. What we DO know is that the Gym was ALSO an illegal squat, one that the local authorities shut down tout de suite. Still, that lovely blue and yellow paint-job remained for a few years after, providing smiles galore across the internet. Until now. Yes, the Pokemon Gym is gone, its exterior repainted a drab, muddy brown. Who painted it and for what reason? It doesn’t f*cking matter. It’s like Robert Frost used to say, “Nothing gold and blue can stay.” (Info, pics)

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Cartoons: 1, Sh*tty Childhood: 0

  By Ju-osh M. • January 13, 2015 ,

th_rrWant to hear an inspirational podcast that will make you laugh AND cry? The newest episode of The Champs Podcast features an extremely emotional interview with comedian Tiffany Haddish. In it, Haddish tells the heartbreaking story of her insane upbringing and the secret, cartoon-inspired source of strength that enabled her to survive it and become a successful stand-up comedian.

There’s one part, in particular, that gave me goosebumps. If you’ve got a minute, I’d like to share it with you… Continue reading

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Are These Two Penguins Related?

  By Ju-osh M. • January 9, 2015 ,

11I just finished reading former Disney story artist Homer Brightman’s autobiography, Life In The Mouse House. It’s an incredibly candid book, full of uncensored anecdotes about the early days at Disney’s — some of ‘em heartbreaking, some of ‘em hilarious.

One thing confused me, though. Towards the end of the book, Brightman is said to have co-created the character Chilly Willy with Paul J. Smith in 1953. The book says that Chilly Willy was inspired by Pablo the Penguin, star of The Three Caballeros‘ short The Cold Blooded Penguin (1944) — a short which Brightman co-directed. Since I’d never heard this before, I went online to try and find out more. Only when I did, the credit for Chilly Willy’s creation goes solely to Smith. Which is correct?

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HANNA BARBARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

  By Ju-osh M. • January 4, 2015 , ,

2122This marvelous mash-up comes courtesy of Jay Fosgitt, the artist on such comic books as Bodie Troll and My Little Pony: Friends Forever. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I do believe we’re looking at the Guardians of the Galaxy versions of Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm (circa The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show), Mutley, Captain Caveman and Grape Ape. Pretty clever — and cute!

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The Night Marilyn Monroe Met Mr. Magoo

  By Ju-osh M. • January 2, 2015 ,

mm_mm“Jim was in the 1952 film Don’t Bother to Knock with Marilyn Monroe. He came home one night during the filming and told me that Miss Monroe in her most seductive breathy voice asked him to meet her in her dressing room. His curiosity got the better of him and he went. Once there, she exclaimed like an excited child, ‘Do Mr. Magoo!’ And Jim did.”

- Henny Backus, wife of Jim Backus, the voice of Mr. Magoo (Via: A.S.)

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Animation Essentials:
Character Vs. Personality

  By Ju-osh M. • December 2, 2014 ,

2Comedy for Animators has put up a nice post explaining the difference between personality and character. Animation students, in particular, would do well to check it out. In an industry that uses the term ‘character animation’ almost as often as ‘outsourcing’ and ‘imminent layoffs,’ it’s important to understand the true meaning of the phrase. Click here to read.