Batman: The Caped Crusader Review

I've been able to watch the entirety of the new Batman: The Caped Crusader show on Amazon Prime. The show brings Bruce Timm back to the animated Batman--thought also apparently features J.J. Abrams, Matt Reeves, and Ed Brubacker and executive producers. 

Originally, the show was presented maybe as an update or maybe even continuation of Batman: The Animated Series and was to stream on Warner Bros' Max service, but neither of those things wound up being the case. Rather, BTCC ends as a kind of second take on some of the ideas behind BTAS, but also it has been updated for a 2024 audience.

Timm has said aesthetically he wanted to "blend the atmospherics of Universal horror movies and the drama of Warner Bros. gangster movies and the action of Republic serials and mix it all together with a lot of film noir on top." BTAS took place in a retro- decopunk 1990s, but BTCC seems more placed in a more of a relatively more grounded, alternate 1940s. There is much less high tech (no computers or bat-gadgets) and alas no police airships, but SWAT gear and psychiatric facilities seem unaccountably modern. Indeed, Arkham looks perhaps as modern on the inside as we've ever seen it. The racism and sexism of the 40s is understandably discarded in deference to modern sensibilities, and we get a multiethnic main cast (more so than the modern comics!).

This is a more "adult" perhaps, certainly grittier take. The Gotham Police department is corrupt, not unlike it was presented in Batman: Year One. I'm fine with this approach in that respect, but a focus on "realism" and noir means the villains are less flamboyant, and most seem likely "done in one," not recurrent menaces. While this adds some greater poignancy in some cases (the tragedy of Harvey Dent, for one), I don't know that it's worth the tradeoff. 

In general, the cast is very good. Hamish Linklater may not quite deliver the goods as Batman/Bruce Wayne as well as the late, great Kevin Conroy, but he does a much better Batman voice than the majority of the live action portrayals. Everyone acquits themselves well, but I think Minnie Driver wasn't the right choice for the Penguin.

At the end of the day, I definitely think it was worth seeing, and I do hope it gets a second season, but I liked some aspects of BTAS better. High points here are the re-imaging of Harley Quinn and the character arc for Bruce Wayne/Batman who is clearly early in his career.

Classic TV Flashback: Gigantor (1964)

Gigantor
Debut: U.S. syndication 1964? 1966?

Created by Mitsuteru Yokoyama, Peter Fernandez
Starring (English dub): Billie Lou Watt, Ray Owens, Gilbert Mack, Sonia Owens
Synopsis: When terrorists, criminals, and aliens threaten, the virtually indestructible robot, Gigantor, is there to combat them, under the control (for some reason) of 12 year-old Jimmy Sparks.

Trey: According to Wikipedia, Gigantor is the English translation of a 1963 anime adaptation of Tetsujin 28-go, a 1956 manga by Mitsuteru Yokoyama. It debuted on US television in January 1966 in syndication (Interestingly, IMDB disagrees and says it debuted in 1964). A direct translation of its Japanese name would be “Iron Man No. 28” but since Marvel had recently come out with a character named Iron Man, No. 28 became Gigantor.

The series did not exactly receive glowing reviews. Again according to Wikipedia, It was playing at 7:00 p.m. on New York's WPIX-TV when a review in Variety called it a "loud, violent, tasteless and cheerless cartoon" which was "strictly in the...babysitter class." The reviewer at least noted that it was popular; "Ratings so far are reportedly good, but strictly pity the tikes and their misguided folks."

Like Speed Racer and other anime, the names and places were changed for the English dub and the violence was toned down.

We watched Seasons 2, episodes 1 & 2 on Freevee on Amazon Prime. The first concerns the wealthy baddie whose name I can’t recall funding the evil Dr. Envee’s work to create a duplicate Gigantor under their control. The second is about that same bad guy trying to get the nation of Keenymeanie to produce an army of budget Gigantors from the plans from last episode in their war with the nation of Snork.

Jason, how did you find Gigantor?

Jason: I watched the first episode early Saturday morning, hoping to coax myself into a mindset receptive to an early 60's animated series for small children. I stopped short of pouring myself a bowl of mid-century breakfast cereal, which may have been a mistake, as the sugar rush could have helped sustain my interest and attention. As it happened, any initial goodwill eroded rapidly!

I thought the first episode was aggressively dull, boiling down to a contest of remote-control skills in the battle of the twin Gigantors. Distinguished only by their paint jobs (not ideal for black and white television!), their conflict looked like a visual representation of the battle between the writers and their creative powers. Or perhaps between the original creators and the translators. In either case, there were no winners.

The second episode, "The Ten Thousand Gigantors," promised more of the same (ten thousand times more!), but to my surprise, was much more engaging. It seemed like much more effort went into every aspect of this production. The animation seemed livelier, character designs more consistent, and more of them. The war between Snork and the Keenymeanies actually seemed to have stakes! Your thoughts?

Trey: I agree regarding the dullness of the first episode. I think it's mostly the tension and excitement free chase that takes up about half its allotted time that does it in, though. I was actually amused by the battle between the two Gigantors as their potbellies made me think of two sumo wrestlers going at it, and one's with humorously stove-pipe arms and legs, at that. There's a Tick Tock of Oz quality to the Gigantor design that gives it a bit of charm.

The second episode was better, but the whole enterprise is brought down by the really limited animation and character designs. The designs just aren't stylized, they seem amateurish at times. Much more dynamic and interesting is the American series I had mused might have been inspired by this (and this article at CBR suggests it was): Frankenstein Jr. 

Scooby Doo Meets Kiss vs Gods and Monsters

This weekend was a very animated themed one for me as I was able to catch up on some cartoon movies/shows I had missed recently. Here's what I saw:

 

 Friday night, I had the good fortune of watching Over The Garden Wall with my friend and sometimes FBU contributor, Trey Causey.

I had never heard of this  10 episode Cartoon Network series (it is fairly new) but I was given the choice of watching it or the new DC direct to video feature Justice League: Gods and Monsters. I don't quite recall what it was that Trey said that convinced me to give Over The Garden Wall (OTGW) a try, but I would describe the series as a beautiful mash up of the old Merrie Melodies cartoons with a Southern Gothic mystery. 

The main story focuses on two boys Wirt and his younger brother Greg who are lost in a mysterious woods. As they try to find a way home, they encounter a number of creepy scenarios, that evoke the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Mark Twain. The animation is breathtaking and the music perfectly captures the old Merrie Melodies feel. 

Currently the only way to watch the series is on DVD, and while I don't buy many DVDs these days, this is one I could see buying. I just watched it Friday, but I already want to see it again.

Later in the weekend, I decided I also wanted to give Justice League: Gods & Monsters a try, so I rented it from Amazon.

If you missed out on the hubbub of this movie when it came out last July (as I did), here's a quick synopsis from Wikipedia:

In an alternate universe, the Justice League is a brutal force that maintains order on Earth. This universe has its own versions of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman:

• This universe's version of Superman is Hernan Guerra. He is the son of General Zod who was rocketed to Earth as a child and raised by a family of honorable and hardworking Mexican migrant farmers. Having to go through the troubles that illegal immigrants have in the United States leads him to become short tempered and withdrawn from humanity.

• Batman is Dr. Kirk Langstrom, a scientist who, after graduating college, has inadvertently transformed himself into a form of pseudo-vampire in an attempt to cure his cancer, feeding on criminals to satisfy his hunger after his hunger begins to eat away at his humanity.

• Wonder Woman is Bekka, a New God and the widow of Darkseid's son Orion who fled Apokolips for Earth using a mother box-sword after the New God Highfather killed her husband in a massacre of the Apokolips royal family.

I can say without a doubt, that my Friday choice of Over the Garden Wall, was the best decision. Gods & Monsters wasn't bad as these sort of things go, but the very nature of the movie (introducing 3 new characters complete with the backstories) didn't give the writers Bruce Timm and Alan Burnett a lot of room to build much more than a conventional (and somewhat predictable) plot. I found myself bored in a lot of places which led me to wonder what exactly was the purpose of this movie. This is what, the third? the fourth? animated version of a darker DC Universe, so it's hard not to get a been there/done that vibe from the movie.

The Justice Lords from the Justice League animated series

Overall, this strikes me as a movie for only the most ardent DC Universe fans. It's definitely not something you would spring on someone just getting into comics...or an old school fan who might not enjoy their super-heroics with so much neck-snapping and sword gouging. 

Watching it, I wondered how the DC Direct To Video movies were doing. You may recall I did a post two years ago examining the track record of the DC DTV features wherein I notice a downward trend. Well, here's what the trend looks like now:

At the time of my first analysis, I thought that Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox would do as good as Justice League: Doom (I was wrong about that. Only Son of Batman has come close to matching Justice League: Doom.) As it is, the home media sales are continuing to drop off pretty steeply. Part of that could be a lot of people simply watch the movies on home streaming services like Amazon (or Netflix eventually) as I did. It's also possible that comic fans simply don't feel compelled to buy these movies when they first come out as they did years ago.

Whatever the reason, I don't see us getting a Legion of Super-heroes DTV feature anytime soon. :(

Anyway, the last animated movie I saw this weekend was Scooby Doo and Kiss" Rock and Roll Mystery.

Before I go into my review, let me say, I'm a big Scooby Doo fan with a LOT of thoughts about the show. As such, I'm working on big article for a future post. But for today, I'm going to try and restrain myself and just focus on this lone feature.

This is another movie I was on the fence about watching. Yes, I like Scooby Doo. Yes, I was a big Kiss fan back in the day. So, you would think I'd be all over this thing, right? Not so much. Part of me viewed it with the same suspicion I had for the old Scooby Doo Movies. (Yeah, it was cool when Batman and Robin showed up, but the one with Cass Elliot was sort of hard to sit through.)

 As it turns out, this movie sort of encompasses that whole good/bad experience. Parts are funny and play it pretty straight with the whole Scooby Doo formula (which is a good thing in this case.) There are some nice bits with Daphne having a crush on Paul Stanley that totally remind me of the 1970's Scooby Doo movies. And the voice acting is good if not a bit strange. Where else are you going to find Darius Rucker (of Hootie and the Blowfish) in the same movie as Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes (Jay and Silent Bob.)

What really brings the movie down is the parts where the movie wants to delve into the Kiss as Superheroes idea that was started with Kiss Meets The Phantom of the Park and the old Marvel Magazines. That aspect is okay at first, but the movie builds on it until it overwhelms the story. And what they ultimately do with the idea is sort of disappointing as well.

Overall, of the recent Scooby Doo animated efforts, I still prefer the two season Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated series which came out in 2010.

Anyway, next week is my anniversary, so I will be taking next weekend off with no new post. Have a great week!

- Jim

Flashback Universe and Its Amazing Friends

Face front, true believers!  Kick back like Dennis Marks in the screencap below and enjoy a fantastic foray into the Flashback Universe!

In case you don't recognize the name, Marks was the producer on Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends and its lesser-remembered sister show Friendless Spider-Man.  (O.K., that show was called just Spider-Man.)  As such, he's featured alongside writer Christy Marx, animator Larry Houston, and Stan Lee in this rarely seen 1981 documentary about the making of Amazing Friends, called Spider-Man on the Move.  According to Dan "Peter Parker" Gilvezan's Facebook fans, this was a joint production of KDKA in Pittsburgh and KPIX in San Francisco — which may be why I'd never seen it until recently.  (Did it air only in those markets?)

Sadly, it's not included on the series DVD* nor available to stream, but we can enjoy it online via the magic of YouTube.  Watch for Frank Welker discussing the process of working out what Ms. Lion should sound like.  That alone is worth your time.



Intermission! Grab some popcorn and a Coke.



Did you catch Marks explaining the creation of Firestar for the series at 5:25 in the first part?  The story he tells, about the show originally being planned around a trio of Spider-Man, Iceman, and the Human Torch, has been repeated often through the years.  It's perfectly plausible, and the version I had heard was that the Torch was absent from 1978's The New Fantastic Four cartoon* (you know, with H.E.R.B.I.E.) because his licensing was tied up in the even-then-in-development Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.  That story was usually told to debunk the notion the Human Torch had been removed from the FF cartoon out of fear of kids settling themselves on fire — the same story Marks tells here about Amazing Friends!

Which got me wondering:  Did Marks's story from this very documentary special, rarely seen as it is, create the perennial kids-setting-themselves-on-fire myth?  Did it backwash from here to the earlier FF cartoon?

Apparently not.

Let's loop back and close off some rumor threads.

As it turns out, the Human Torch character was not tied up in the development of the Spider-Man/Torch/Iceman show that would later become Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.  According to Mark Evanier, whose business cards may as well read "who would know," the Torch was licensed out to Universal for a live-action TV movie that never came to fruition.  (If it had, it would have been a sibling to the Doctor Strange and Captain America telefilms starring Peter Hooten and Reb Brown, which also came out of the deal.)

Brian Cronin, of CBR's Comic Book Legends Revealed, speculates that the Torch license still lay with Universal when Amazing Friends was in development.  Given that the Strange and Cap films aired in 1978 and '79, Amazing Friends started airing in '81, and animation takes a fair while to develop for television, this seems reasonable.  (Then again, the first bit of poppycock I shared with you "seems reasonable," so take that with a grain of salt.)

He makes being on fire look so cool!

In that case, the Human Torch was likely never a serious contender for the third slot in the Spider-Friends — except perhaps during the very early concept stage, before anyone checked the availability of the characters against existing licensing agreements.  It's not impossible that Marvel, working almost in-house with a studio they had bought and turned into Marvel Productions, could have made the novice mistake of incubating a series without checking the licenses.  But even that seems unlikely — grain of salt in the "seems," remember — because the earliest concept art for the show, by John Romita for the pitch to NBC, shows Firestar (then "Heatwave") in the line-up, with no mention of the Torch.

It's also worth noting that Marvel Productions, before being bought by Marvel and given that name, had been DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, the studio that produced The New Fantastic Four back in '78.

So where did that story about kids setting themselves on fire to emulate the Human Torch come from?  Dunno.  I was excited to watch Spider-Man on the Move and hear it from Dennis Marks himself.  I thought I'd found the point where it entered the culture, but, by all accounts, Marks was repeating a story he'd heard somewhere, one that had already made the rounds about The New Fantastic Four.

Wherever it comes from, it's a proper urban legend, complete with gruesome imagery of child immolation.  It's liable to survive in some form or other.

Decades before we'd heard of creepypasta, John Byrne mined the legend's seediness and silliness in Fantastic Four #285, which reads like a cross between an ABC after-school special, Amazing Spider-Man #50, and a Jim Wynorski melodrama.  More recently, The Super Hero Squad Show enjoyed one of its high points lampooning both the rumor and its status as inside-baseball trivia in a H.E.R.B.I.E.-centric episode.

Any day now, I expect to hear Marvel let Fox hang onto the Fantastic Four movie license in order to keep their distance from any Human Torch-related incidents.

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* Getcher Region 2 DVD players here, America!

The Mystery of Apache Chief

Today, I'm reaching out to readers of this blog concerning a question about one of the four non-DC superheroes Hanna Barbera created for the The All New Super Friends Hour in in 1977.

I am of course talking about Black Vulcan, Apache Chief, Samurai and El Dorado (pictured below with Rima who was actually a DC character and the Wonder Twins)


Here's my theory - I think HB want to to give the show a more multicultural feel and here's how I think it went down. HB asked DC if they had any superheroes who weren't white Anglo Saxons, whereupon DC replied with Black Lightning, Red Tornado, Martian Manhunter and someone else. 
 

And while those characters are indeed non-white guys, Hanna Barbera wasn't satisfied with that selection, so someone inhouse was given the task of creating new superheroes for the show. The best candidates were creative producers Ken Spears and Joe Ruby though Jeffrey Scott, writer of the show at the time was unable to confirm this as of 2011. We do know Alex Toth designed the look and feel of the characters.


The Black Lightning/Black Vulcan connection is a pretty much a given as we DO know that Black Lightning was in the original discussion, but was tabled due to a dispute between DC and Black Lightning creator Tony Isabella.

My theory that Martian Manhunter and Red Tornado were the inspirations for Samurai and El Dorado is pretty much based on the similarities in powers.

Samurai was a human tornado like Red Tornado.



El Dorado (whose powers were ambiguous and never really defined in the show) was shown several times using powers shared by the Martian Manhunter (superhuman strength, telepathy.) And where the Martian Manhunter uses phasing, El Dorado similarily uses teleportation.



Even El Dorado's costume, with its open torso design is similar to Martian Manhunter's costume.


My question today is: Who was the inspiration for Apache Chief?



There were a couple of Native American Superheroes in the DC Universe at the time who could be likely candidates...

Super Chief


and Scalphunter



Though neither of them have powers similar to Apache Chief (not necessarily evidence that they weren't the inspirations, but it does seem like a break in the MO.)

My best guess is that AC was some sort of amalgamation of both characters. His name uses the Chief title but his costume design is closer to Scalphunter's.

Oddly, the back and forth on more multicultural heroes may have paved the way for another Native American character in the DC Universe: Dawnstar. 



Her first appearance was in April 1977. Given that the prior year, talk of Hanna Barbera wanting more multicultural heroes may have been buzzing around the office, it is possible that Paul Levitz and Mike Grell were encouraged (either creatively or editorially) to create a new Native American character.

I also find it interesting that her yellow and white character design so closely resembles the original proposed yellow and white Apache Chief color scheme.

If anyone out there has anymore details about the origins of these characters, I would love to hear from you.

- Jim

How are comic book Animated movies doing?

July 30th will see the release of the latest DC Direct to Disc Animated feature: Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox. This movie is based off of the recent DC event written by Geoff Johns in which the Flash finds himself in an alternate timeline having to unravel a mystery with the help of some familiar, but different, friends.

I've known about this movie for a while (whereas other DC animations tend to catch me by surprise) and I'm looking forward to this one. The storyline has a jaunty pacing and a certain Elseworlds/What If feel about it that I think will lend itself well to a movie adaptation (whereas some of the DC animated features feel a bit long to me.)

Thinking about the buzz I've seen on this movie on the internet got me to wondering how is the DCU Animated series doing sales wise. Since the sales numbers are readily available from various sources, I was able to whip up a graph of my findings showing units sold for each feature:

 Some thoughts:
The first thing that jumped out at me was it looks like the features are rapidly declining in popularity - aside from a few upticks (Justice League: Doom, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 1)


Why has there not been another Wonder Woman movie? The first one actually outsold the first Batman, Green Lantern and Justice League movies, so you would think it would be a no brainer to produce another one.

Why did New Frontier sell so poorly? Was because it wasn't more directly marketed as a Justice League movie? (It seems to be titled as such, but I can't remember how it appeared in places like Best Buy when it was released.)

Of course I had to do the same thing for the Marvel Animation movies (which are fewer in number)

Here are the dollar figures for DC:

Title	Gross
Superman: Doomsday	$9,455,120
Justice League: The New Frontier	$5,242,952
Batman: Gotham Knight	$8,072,890
Wonder Woman	$7,561,719
Green Lantern: First Flight	$6,260,099
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies	$8,470,749
Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths	$5,405,463
Batman: Under the Red Hood	$7,131,753
Superman/Batman: Apocalypse	$6,309,241
DC Showcase Original Shorts Collection	$4,034,257
All-Star Superman	$4,660,716
Green Lantern: Emerald Knights	$2,741,247
Batman: Year One	$2,763,042
Justice League: Doom	$4,073,754
Superman vs. The Elite	$1,279,222
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns – Part 1	$2,650,510
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns – Part 2	$1,467,026
Superman: Unbound	$1,000,984

And for Marvel:

Ultimate Avengers	$6,713,941
Ultimate Avengers 2	$7,866,932
The Invincible Iron Man	$5,255,593
Doctor Strange	$3,930,566
Next Avengers	$3,765,837
Hulk Vs	$7,523,162
Planet Hulk	$5,579,067
Thor: Tales of Asgard	$2,300,286

Looking at the last number on both charts, I have to wonder if Thor: Tales of Asgard or Superman: Unbound broke even. I enjoyed a lot of the movies on both lists, but I perfectly understand why the Marvel line petered out based on the sales of T:ToA.

I think the Flashpoint Paradox is going to do a good bit better than Superman: Unbound. I would beg it for at least as good as Justice League: Doom ($4 million).

After that, I have heard that the plans are to adapt the first arc of the Geoff Johns/Jim Lee  Justice League. As that is fresh in the mind of readers at the moment, it might do pretty well too.

After that, I don't know what would sale well. Sinestro Corps Wars perhaps?

What would you like to see as the next comic book animated feature?

- Jim

Pierre Reviews Young Justice

Editor's Note: For those of you just tuning in, Pierre is the co-creator of the Flashback Universe and a seasoned Animator for many studios in Canada. Currently, he is working around the clock on an animation project (name?) but he occasionally finds time to post his thoughts about other animated series/movies he's seen. Today, he gives us his thoughts on Young Justice. - Jim

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What do I think about Young Justice?

I will start by saying that I LOVE that show. I was a little disappointed when I first heard about it. I was hoping for more of a classic Teen Titans series inspired by the Perez/Wolfman series. Some announcements were made at some point of a direct to DVD movie with the classic Titans, but alas like too often it is the case in animation, the project never saw the light of day.


Anyway, I watched the pilot when it aired and realized this was sort of a weird mix of Peter David’s Young Justice with random Teen Titans stuff thrown in. I LOVED it.

For starters, the animation in general is pretty strong. They had a few weaker shows, but even the weaker shows were pretty strong compared to, let’s say, the Avengers cartoon. And the funny thing is that the design work is pretty busy. They have some very detailed designs, but seem to have found some strong animation studios that do top notch work.
And the characters are fun.

I know that some are annoyed over Miss Martian and her "Hello Meggan" line, but I like her. Heck I have a bit of a crush on her, but don't tell Superboy. ;)



The characters act for the most part like the characters we read about in the DCU comics. Sure this has an Elseworld feel to it sometimes, but it is a lot closer to the classic DCU then the DCnU can ever hope to be.

Superman looks and acts like the classic Superman. The same with Batman.



Or Captain Marvel. You read that right. Not Shazam, Captain Marvel. Damn how that character is great in that show. And they made him great without turning him dark and grim and gritty. Can you believe that??



So overall, the characters are similar to their classic DCU counterpart.
But the best part has to be the stories.

We read about these characters countless times, and we saw a lot of stories with these characters. Either in the comic pages, or the Bruce Timm animated universe. But still they manage to keep the stories fresh and interesting, even when they adapt a story that we already read in the comics, they manage to make it fresh and surprising.

Like the rise and fall of Speedy/Arsenal for example, they make what was a stinker of a story in the comic, into a great story in the show. So not only do they seem to have a strong animation team, but they seem to have a strong writing team as well.



I hope this show will stick around for many seasons because it is wayyyyy too good of a show. Sadly it is always iffy whether a broadcaster will renew a series for a new season or not. A good example of that is the Batman Beyond TV show. It was a show with critical acclaim and good ratings. Sadly it still was cancelled. Why?

No one was buying the toys.



There was no interest in the Batman Beyond toys and merchandising. Who will buy the action figure of Bat-Fake (to quote the Joker), when you can buy the action figure of the REAL Batman. So in that case, no toy sales, no show.
Let us hope that the Young Justice show does not suffer from a similar fate.
Guess we will have to wait and see.

Until next time,

- Pierre

Pierre Reviews The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes

Today FBU Co-Creator and Animator Extraordinaire Pierre makes a rare appearance in order to give us a his review of the Avengers cartoon on Disney XD. - Jim

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And there came a day when Earth's mightiest heroes found themselves united against a common threat. On that day, the Avengers were born.... to fight the foes no single super-hero could withstand.

That small paragraph sums up perfectly who the Avengers are. When I first saw some clips for "Earth's Mightiest Heroes... The Avengers".... all I could think of was of how poor the animation was.


There are many reasons behind that. The style used was not very streamlined for animation... and the character designs are wayyyy too busy to be animated easily. It must have been an Herculean task to do the animation for that show. Sadly... the producers shot themselves in the foot from day one with some poor decisions that made the animator's job next to impossible.

So I had no interest to watch the show. But I caught the first episode one night and decided to watch it. And despite all the flaws, despite all the poor decisions, I liked it. The broadcasters did a very smart move, the first episode they aired was supposed to be the sixth episode in the series. The first episode from what I understand was meant to feature only Iron-man. Then the second one was meant for Thor. Then Hulk. Then Cap. And finally after 5 episodes more or less of solo adventures, we would get the Avengers. So we would have had to wait 6 episodes before getting to see Earth's mightiest heroes.

But that meant risking disappointing those who wanted to see the Avengers. Not the solo adventures of Iron-man, or the solo adventures of Thor. If you want to do that, make a solo Iron-man series, or a solo Thor series.
But then again, I can pretty much tell you what the producers were thinking. At the time they made the Avengers cartoon, the Iron-man movie had been a hit (not sure if we had Iron-man 2 yet at that point). So the Iron-man movie being a hit, they figured that starting the Avengers cartoon with a solo episode starring Iron-man would have meant instant success. Yes producers can be funny that way sometimes.

 But luckily the Broadcasters had a much better idea. The broadcasters did a very smart thing and started with a bang. They started with an episode starring all the Avengers, or at least most of them and then after that they gave us the episodes that focused on the individual members.

You see, once the broadcasters buy a show, once they have the episodes, they can pretty much do what they want with them. They can decide in which order the episodes play on TV. Heck they can even decide to put the episodes on a shelf in some warehouse and NEVER play them on TV. They paid for the episodes, so they can pretty much do as they like with the show. In can be more complicated then that in some cases, but to keep things simple, the Broadcaster can pretty much do what they want with the show.

And in the case of the Avengers they have decided to start the series with the sixth episode that was already showing most of the team, and I have to agree with the Broadcasters. I believe that it was a mistake not to start with most of the Avengers roster in the first episode.

How do I know in what order the episodes were meant to be played as?? The director of Walter & Tandoori gave me the first season of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, The Avengers on Blu-Ray. So that is how I know the original intent of the producers.

Of course, I could be mistaken and it could all be in my head only. But I have been working in animation for quite some time now, and I pretty much know how producers and broadcasters think by now. So I like to believe that I can make a lot more than just a guess, but a HECK of an educated guess by now. But you never know for certain, I could be mistaken.
Oh well.

So if the animation is so bad, why did I like this show?? Because it did feature a more classic version of the Avengers then the movie did.  In the cartoon version, Hawkeye is the Hawkeye that I love. Iron-man seems more like the movie version, but Thor feels like Thor. Cap looks and act like Cap. And heck we get a lot of classic Avengers villains.

Any show that gives us the Kirby version of Arnim Zola is okay in my book. ;)


So most of the characters look and act like the comic version used to. Some elements from the movies did creep into the show like the Iron-man/Tony Stark from the movies, or the black Nick Fury. But it is mostly minor stuff. So the fun characters and engaging stories quickly made me forget the poor animation. I would not suggest this show to everyone. I would suggest this show to any classic Avengers fan.

Although I did try to suggest the show to some guys at the studio who love silver age comics, but they could not get over the poor animation. Guess they were not as forgiving as me. ;)

Sadly it seems that the second season of the series will be its last. Disney plans to replace it with a new Avengers show from what I hear. No surprise there, that was to be expected. I guess we will have to wait and see if the new show will be an improvement or not.

We will see.

Until next time.

- Pierre

Moving Comics

I postponed today's post a bit so that I could post this update I got this mornging from Flashback Co-creator, Pierre Villeneuve!. - Jim

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Hi guys, a question pops up  once in a while.... "What is Pierre doing?". As much as I love making comics.... the lion's share of my income comes from my working in animation. Until very recently... I was working on a series called Walter & Tandoori.


But I just moved onto another project called Ben's City.


Remember how Jim had mentioned about 2 years ago how I had received a promotion??? The promotion at the time was to be the Storyboard Supervisor on the first season of Ben's City. I had been doing storyboards corrections for a few seasons of Arthur and for a season for a show called Caillou.... and then I was offered the job of Storyboard Supervisor.

I had lots of fun working on that first season of Ben's City.... so when I was offered to work on a second season of that show.... I could not say no. Although I was torn.... I had fun working on Walter & Tandoori.... but I was dying to be Storyboard Supervisor once more. I loved that job. It's a lot of work. There are always tons of problems to solve. And you are constantly making decisions for the production.

But that job gives quite an adrenalin rush that is more addictive then crack. ;) Guess I was more then due for my next "hit". ;) Although I was offered to supervise the storyboards on a feature film.... I had to pass up on that one. The timing was not right for me to switch project then. I had to take care of some personal stuff (like finding a new apartment for example)... so I would not have been able to focus as much as I should have on a job such as a Storyboard Supervisor at the time. Also I was not sure who we could get to replace me on Walter.

My little heart was torn apart at the time because it seemed like a really nice project.... but I liked working on "Walter" and the timing was wrong. Also some of the people on "Walter" were more then colleagues... through the years of crossing paths in the same animation studios... many became good friends.

You have to understand that on some productions... we will work 40hrs, 60 hrs, heck sometimes 80hrs per week together. We will often spend more time together then we will with our own families. Heck sometimes we will spend more time together then some will spend with their boyfriends or with their wives. So leaving Walter meant also leaving some of my friends behind. Which is always sad.


But I got to see some of my other friends on Ben's City that I had not seen in a while. And odds are.... I will see my friends from "Walter" in another studio or on another production before long. We may even plan some sort of get together once in a while. We shall see. But it won't be the same as working together every day. As for finding a new apartment... I finally found something that will suit my needs. But I had to move just as I was starting on my new project. So it was a bumpy ride to get started as I was packing/moving/unpacking.

Although the moving part is now behind me... I have still about half a dozen boxes left to unpack. And once I will be done unpacking... I will still have the "fun" of sorting all of my comics. I had 5 bookshelves of comics. I am saying "had" because we broke one bookshelf while moving. And I have decided not to get a new bookshelf. Moving 5 bookshelves of comics is not fun.... not fun at all. So I used my broken bookshelf as an opportunity to trim down my comic collection a bit. I had already trimmed some of the fat before the move... but not enough. I had gotten rid of some comics that I had already replaced in digital format.... but somehow that I still kept in print as well.

But now with one bookshelf missing.... I will trim the fat one step further and get rid of those comics that I NEVER read again. I have some comics like Preacher or Sandman that I read once.... and although I liked them series when I read them at the time..... I have never felt the need.... the urge to read them once more. I have flipped through them quickly once in a while.... but as for reading them a second time??? No. Never.


These are comics that I am glad that I read them.... but that after reading them once...  have no intention of ever reading them ever again. So those will be the next to go. I have read the Dark Phoenix Saga, or the Search for Galactus, or the Demon in a bottle, or Avengers Forever, or the Korvak Saga, or other comics that I fail to mention way too many time. Loved them comics. Loved every second spent reading them.


Although... odds are.... At some point in time.... I will get rid of all my floppies/singles issues and I might only keep my Omnibi/Absolute Editions.

We shall see.
Until next time.
- Pierre

Superman/Batman: Apocalypse

I have become a sucker for them direct to DVD movies that DC has been putting out. Since New Frontier, excepted for the Wonder Woman one... I got all of them movies. Of the whole bunch... the Spectre short has to be the very best of them all. Damn that was good.Since DC have been including them short movies... I am sorry to say that the short movies are usually the best part of the Blu-Ray. The Spectre one was AWESOME!!! I did not care much for the Jonah Hex one... but the Green Arrow one included in the Superman/Batman: Apocalypse Blu-Ray is pretty good.



I cringed at some of the design work... I could not help but think that thanks to his "armor" (shoulder pad) Green Arrow was "well protected" :).... but other then that .... it was a fun little story that was well told and pretty well animated.

As for the main feature...

It was not bad.... but it was not good either. It was very.... "meh" in my book.

There was a really cool sequence with Wonder Woman, Big Barda and the Female Furies. The best action sequence... heck the best sequence in the whole film. But the sequence with Darkseid in the end was dragged on for too long.

Not only did it make it seem like Darkseid's Omega Beams are week/useless... but also it paled comparing to some of the awesome work that was done in their previous JLU tv series. Especially the last episode of the JLU tv series and the showdown between Superman and Darkseid in that last episode. Damn that was good.

But the sequence in Superman Batman??? Not even close to being as good. It felt like seeing a very lesser version of a very awesome sequence that we had already seen before. And the design work in general was iffy at best.... it was a strange mixture of JLU... Crisis on 2 Earths... with a pinch pf Michael Turner thrown in to tie the project to the comic that is being adapted. You could tell that the artists had a tought time... especially with Superman.



He was pretty inconsistent through the whole thing. He sometimes was Turner-esque... and sometimes more like the design they used for the Crisis on 2 Earths project. And sometimes an odd mixture between the two. And take a close look at the "S" shield.... it was very funky in some scenes.



And the same is true with most of the design work. It's as if there was a tug of war on the production... half the people wanting to make the designs like Turner's artwork... and the  other half wanting the designs like the ones from the Crisis on 2 Earths movie. And it fell somewhere in between.

(Editor's Note: I thought they did a nice job with Big Barda. )




For the story... not having read the comic... I don't know if the weak parts in the story come from the comic or from the movie itself.   Batman and Wonder Woman trying to kidnap Supergirl?? Really?? Could they not simply ask to take her to Paradise Island for training?? And what if they had been successful kidnapping her?? How would they have kept her there???... by force??? How would they have kept Superman from looking for her or from getting her back?? Made no bit of sense.




I was also dissapointed with the extras. As I mentioned... I bought the Blu-Ray version... and some Superman episodes were included in the extras of the Blu-Ray... but of very piss poor quality. The line work is so pixelated that it makes the episodes pretty much unwatchable on my HD TV.

So is Superman/Batman: Apocalypse worth it??
In one word....
No.
You can have the Green Arrow short in the DC Showcase Superman/Shazam Blu-Ray. Get that instead.

Until next time.
-Pierre

It Started With A Chair

I needed a new drawing chair (or is it an animation chair?). My previous chair that I bought when I first started college all the way back in 1987 died on me quite some time ago.

Although I was using a temporary solution... I finally got around to getting myself a new chair some time ago.

But also when I got my new chair... I decided to also get a desk/table for my computer/printer/etc.


And that was only the beginning.

My TV died as well... although not as old as my chair... I still had my TV since 1997.

So I got a new TV for fairly cheap... but then... my DVDs looked like crap now on my new HD TV. Although I had bought a fairly good DVD player and it still worked fine (a Sony five disks DVD player)... the picture quality of my DVD player on my new TV was crap.

And I was told by pretty much everyone that there was no point in getting a Blue-Ray player. If I really needed a Blue-Ray player... the logical thing would be to get a PlayStation 3. It would not only play DVD/Blue-Ray movies... but also it could be used to play games as well.

So I did what seemed like the logical thing and got the PS3.

And once I did... I learned what an HDMI cable was. And I learned that my Laptop HAS an HDMI outlet.

So I not only got an HDMI cable for my PS3... but for my Laptop as well.

I was toying with the idea of getting a second computer screen for my laptop. I have been working with 2 computer screens at the studio for the past year... and I can tell you that it is not easy to get back to using only one screen after that.
But now with my HDMI cable... I have something even better then a second computer screen. I now have a 40 INCHES COMPUTER SCREEN!!!

I now feel like Kirk or Picard... not only with my chair... but with my HUGE screen as well (OK maybe not that huge.... but my place is not that big.... so a 60 inches TV would have been wayyy too unreasonable).

So now... playing games is quite a different experience... but watching movies as well.

But best of all... I can use it to read comics as well.


Heck even DC’s Absolute edition comics are no match for reading comics on a screen this size.

And then I realised something even more cooler then reading comics.

I realised that I could read Flashback Universe comics on my TV. Or simply look at my artwork on a BIG “canvas”.


Damn... that is quite a feeling... it is very difficult to describe.

I had set up one of my rooms at home as a studio with my drawing table and all my references (comics/books/etc). But now I had to rethink my setup because I wanted to hook-up my Laptop to my TV... and I also wanted my computer next to my drawing table to be able to work more efficiently.

So instead... I set-up my studio in my living room now... giving me something that I never expected... my very own library.

I mean I knew that I had lots of books/comics... but now I have a room dedicated to nothing other than my comics/books/etc.  As I said... my very own library.





Strange to see how all the dominoes fell into place like that. One thing leading to the other.

Although I still need to sort out all my comics/books... but there is no rush... I got plenty of time to get around to doing that.     

So I thought that now might be a perfect time to share with you guys what my work space looks like... and also the ton of DVDs... Books... CDs... and yes... even comics that I own. This will give you an idea as to the amount of comics and other references that I own.

It might give you an idea why for the past few years... I have been trying to downsize my collection... and put as much of it on CDs and DVDs in order to save some room.  

Let me tell you.... when it is moving day... it is a LOT of comics to pack/transport/and unpack.

Not fun.... not fun at all.

Hope you guys have enjoyed this little visit into the “Dragon’s Lair”.

Until next time.
Pierre-