30 Day Anime Challenge: Day Two

Day Two wants to know the favorite anime you’ve watched so far.  This… this is a toughie.  There are two series that are basically 1a and 1b, and a two more that are very, very close.  So I’m just gonna cop-out and speak the praises of all of them (get used to that, btw), since I’m not sure that any of them are particularly popular stateside.  I watched them all in the mid-to-late aughts, back when I had digital cable.  All but the one I’ll discuss first were up in the high numbers, the International Channel/AZN, Encore (mainly Encore Action), G4, and the like.  Feels good, man.

Yeah!

Anyway, first up is Coyote Ragtime Show.  I saw this one on the Anime Network On Demand back in the day, and as far as anime series go, it watches like a damn good popcorn flick.  It’s a short, fast-paced joyride that gets from point A to point B quickly and never feels the need to stop and sniff its own farts along the way.  If it helps, think of it as Outlaw Star‘s uncomplicated, fun-loving country cousin (with higher production values).

Abenobashi’s merry band of weirdos..

Moving on from analogies that are bizarre even by my standards, we have Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi.  This is another shorter series.  If I recall correctly, it kinda blows its own premise at the end, but it’s still a whole lotta dimension-hopping fun, looks nice, and has tons of heart (arguably the reason for the screw the rules ending).  You’ll be seeing this one again on down the line.

Tokyo Metropolitan Police Section 2, Division 2..

Now we’re at the ones that are 1a or 1b, depending on the day.  We’ll start with the entirety of the Patlabor series.  Love both the serious, darker movies and the lighter, goofier series, and you’ll be seeing it pop up with a fair amount of regularity over the course of my challenge.  Basically, it is the most realistic, down-to-earth mecha anime ever made.  The movies exist in their own continuity, and the plots go progressively more grandiose, as movie versions of things are wont to do, but they’re still more-or-less grounded in their version of reality.  Err, maybe not Wasted XIII.

Your Vandread pilots..

Finally, we’ll close it out with mecha space opera-ish harem adventure series Vandread.  Some elements of the series may call to mind (mainly old school) Battlestar Galactica.  Like all of my choices, this series is arguably here more for its heart and sense of fun than its brains.  Not that any of them are dumb, it’s just the the fun and heart are more important than any pretensions they might have.

To me, it’s important that one not lose their sense of humor or wonder to the inevitable cynicism being of an above average intelligence causes.  I guess that’s pretty much the unifying theme of my life, and my choices in entertainment tend to reflect that.

Thanks for stopping by!

See you Space Cowboy…

30 Day Anime Challenge: Day One

 

Day One wants to know what is the very first anime you watched.  To the best of my knowledge, that would be none other than the ultra-cheeseball classic, Speed Racer!

Here he comes..

It was so great and terrible and wonderful and parody-able and had one of the greatest theme songs ever made… Buuuut, I also didn’t know that was anime at the time.  The first anime I really recall knowing was anime would be G-Force.  Apparently it was pretty terrible, and not so much in the good Speed Racer way, but I was super into it when I was 9-10 years old.

These freakin’ guys..

Both have seen multiple revivals in various mediums over the years (G-Force was sort of one itself), some better than others, but for good or for ill, these incarnations of two venerable classics are where my anime roots lie.

Thanks for stopping by!

See you space cowboy…

 

30 Day Anime Challenge: Overview

Paul got me doing this fun thing on the twitters, even though I haven’t watched much anime in awhile.  So I thought I’d take it to the blog to elaborate on my choices, and just reminisce.  Here’s how it goes.

The Challenge is on..

I won’t do these posts every day, and I’ll try to sneak a few card, and art (if applicable), posts in there to mix things up a bit, but I’ll eventually cover the vast majority of the days here on the ol’ blog.  Look for Day One’s post over the weekend, and if you want sneak peaks, keep an eye on my twitter to see my choices in advance.

Thanks for stopping by, and feel free to leave your answers in the comments!  Maybe I’ll do a contest/giveaway at the end of this.

Oh oh, here we go! ♫

Stuff I’ve Been Working On

What’s this?  A new post?!  Yes, I’m still here.  And since they are the only thing I have handy (I was hoping to do a trade post here, but alas…), here are some pics of some sketch cards I’ve been working on recently.  Last Tuesday I penciled 19 in one day!  Most of them have been given some ink and a couple are colored now.  Check ’em, and the immediately preceding bunches, out!

The first 7 Doctors Who..

Was sorta trying to do like I did with the Jareth card I did as an art trade (that you will see in a bit), and not be hyperrealistic, but still instantly recognizable.  What do you think so far?

She-Hulk, Psylocke, Mia Yim (Pro Wrestler), Axe Cop (Webcomic Phenomenon), Optimus Prime, Vampirella, and 2 Jigens (Lupin III; it's a classic anime)

At first when I didn’t get on the Vampirella set I was just like whatevs, but the more I’ve thought about it, the more it’s bugged me.  I think I’m good enough for a major set like that now!  What say you?

Anyway, those were all the presentable ones from the 19 I did.  One just sucked, one was nekkid, one was pervy (but not nekkid), and one maybe doesn’t suck but I just don’t like how it turned out.  16-18 out of 19 in one sleep-deprived day is still a pretty good percentage though, methinks.  Now for the immediately preceding bunch.

Beth Phoenix, Vampirella again, Rogue, Ms. Marvel, Zatanna, Kratos (God of War video games), Static (w/ Kirby Krackle!), Fire & Ice

Ms. Marvel and Zatanna were done at the same time on an ill-fated ustream cast, then I did the rest a few days later.  Static is for my dad, his consolation prize for losing our bet on the Bears/Jets game back in December.  I won three sketch cards from him (that he still hasn’t gotten around to doing yet!), but offered one as a consolation.  He was a big fan of the Milestone line back in it’s day, and still has most of the early issues of all the (four?) original series laying around somewhere.

So yeah, not only does artistic ability of various forms run throughout both sides of my entire family tree, but geekery is big as well in at least the immediate.  Even my mom is becoming a fan of Castle and The Cape and has been a pretty serious casual gamer going all the way back to when she used to hog my original Game Boy to play Tetris and Dr. Mario (and be exponentially better than me at both) when I was but a youngling, lol.

Anyway, back to the cards!  These next bunches are from a gaggle of art trades from Facebook and some randoms from right after and precede the above by about three weeks or so I guess.  I think all 7 or 8 people involved have received their cards by now.  I’m pretty sure I’ve received all of mine anyway (another post for another glorious day).

Three Rogues, Akuma (Street Fighter), Sam Witwer (aka Starkiller, and I guess he's on the US Being Human), Gambit, Jareth (Labyrinth), Heath Ledger's Joker

Witwer was mostly just penciled and then colored over with marker.  Still not sure about how it came out, but it was gleefully accepted, although that may just be due to the shirtlessness of it all…

Tron, Witwer finished, Jareth finished, Storm, The Flash, Darth Maul

As you can see, Witwer got a darker background and Jareth got a couple touchups before I sent him along.  All that circuitry on Tron was just brutal, although it didn’t really take any longer than usual I guess.  It sorta reminds me of an anime bumper.  The other notable thing is that all the coloring on The Flash is done in colored pencil (as is Tron’s circuitry).  I’m actually quite pleased with how he turned out, considering how little thought and effort went into him initially, and accidentally using the wrong colored pencil at first because they aren’t clearly marked.

So yeah, there ya go.  I had one more scan, but there’s a card on it that might be close enough to NSFW to not post it right now.  Still, this is nearly my entire output from 2011 thusfar.  Save for licensed sets, I think I’m already getting close to what I did in 2010, lol.  And I’d like to think that most of it is worlds better than much of my previous work as well.

Incidentally, I have no idea what I’m actually going to do with most of these.  That first Rogue with the starry background, Tron, Gambit, Jareth, Akuma, Witwer, and Ledger Joker were traded and Static is for my dad, but not so sure about the rest.  I’d like to get the Beth Phoenix and Mia Yim cards autographed.  I have this idea, to do a bunch of sketch cards of real people and get them auto’d, then frame and display them when I have myself a mancave someday.  Everything else… I dunno.  I suppose I may make them available for sale or maybe even trade if anybody is interested in them.  Let me know and we can work something out.

Well, I guess that’s it for this massive sketch card post.  Seeya next time, y’all!

Until our next…

Quickie Sketch Card Post

 

Cal Ripken Jr. commission for VOTC..

D-Train w/ place for autograph..

Wonder Woman’s new costume..

Skyrocket from an upcoming project.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Alucard from the anime Hellsing that I finally got around to coloring..

Until our next…

Shoutouts #1

Just write something, it doesn’t matter what.  Maybe you won’t keep it, but you should at least write something every day.  So that is what I am trying to do now.  Quite honestly… I have no reason not to, and I should have been for a LONG time now.  No deep thoughts or intelligent talking points are coming to mind.  I’m just killing time because I’ve got nothing better to do right now.  So just write something.  I guess I can do a few shoutouts, say hey.

This shoutout right here goes to Patricia and Lucy from Dinged Corners– Thanks for the awesome lot of cards, I may have already sent out my end of the trade, if not for the fact that I’m still not sure what to send.  I don’t know how to quantify it, such a cool and random (heh, kinda like me) lot.  I’ll figure it out, get ’em up, and move ’em out.  Hopefully this will be soon.

This shoutout is for Bailey at The Nennth Inning– For somehow finally making me come back to my own blog.  I don’t know why, I’d been thinking about it for awhile, but you pushed me back over the top.  Maybe it just was seeing a cool new blog.  Whatever the reason, I’m back, and now y’all are stuck with me.  Ha!

Oh yeah, I should be able to get your cards sent out today.  They’ll at least get packed up and be ready for shipping on Monday, if nothing else.

This shoutout goes out to my Jacky Muffin– Are you okay?  I’ve been worried about you.  The way you left, it just… didn’t seem like you.  Whatever is goin’ on, please let me know.  Still my homepage, won’t be giving up or letting go until I know, and even then… I dunno.

This shoutout is meant for Ace– You f***ing douchebag.  Like it’s not already enough of a breach of trust to post an im convo online, but then to leave out parts to make the other person look bad.  Wtf is your damage, dude?

Finally we come to a shoutout meant for Derek– The cards still aren’t out man, but they will be soon.  I still haven’t seen those episodes of Gurren Lagann either.  How can I be any good when I can’t even manage that much, especially with all the prodding on the latter.

Hopefully this isn’t too much of a waste of space.  I had to say something, and this is the best I could come up with.  I guess if one of the above gets the message, than it’s cool right?  I’m still tired, so I might go back to sleep or something.  Getting up before the sun… is just not something I’m okay with.