Category Archives: Animation Analysis

When The Shill Hits The Fan

Before I begin, I want you to understand that I have no reason to lie to you. I don’t care about alienating the companies I’ll be attacking in the following article because they have nothing to offer me.

The comic book industry I dreamed about being part of since I was a boy is dead. It’s never coming back. It will never recover.

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Filed under Animation Analysis, Bad Influences, Comix Classic & Current, Don't Know Don't Care, Idiot's Delight, Magazine Rack, Nostalgic Obsessions, Robot Toy Fetish, Worst Of All

In Bad Shape©

Howdy, pardners! Watch me jump this gun!

I can’t keep it a secret any longer. I’m in Bad Shape! Seriously Bad Shape!

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Filed under Animation Analysis, Bad Influences, Comix Classic & Current, Girls of BIUL, Idiot's Delight, Magazine Rack, Site Stuff

Of Arms And The Man

Ten years ago, one of the greatest moments of my life happened. It seems almost like a dream now.

I made a movie and it showed at the Plaza in the city. For one night; April 1st, 2009. People paid to see it and everything, on the great big screen, yet.

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Filed under Animation Analysis, Bad Influences, Comix Classic & Current, Girls of BIUL, Idiot's Delight, Late To The Party, Movies You Missed, Podcastery, Saturday Movie Matinee

Our Man Stan

1990 trading card with original 1977 painting by Arnold Sawyer.

Our universe will never again see a personality like Stan Lee. For the most part, that’s not a good thing. But one must understand and accept that Stan’s career was very much of its time. What he became in his final years was a calculated maneuver, the bookend of a carefully managed and marketed existence. I say that not out of judgment, but out of respect, however begrudging that respect might occasionally be.  More than perhaps anyone else, Stan Lee was comic books.

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Filed under Animation Analysis, Comix Classic & Current, Faint Signals, Magazine Rack, Nostalgic Obsessions, Robot Toy Fetish

For No Reason, Here’s Apu

I often defend the things I love in life because of how much I have learned from them. From cartoon characters, I have learned a great many things. For instance, I have learned that there exist people in this world whose hearts are so cold and devoid of joy, they seek only to extinguish that joy in others, no matter the cost.

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Filed under Animation Analysis, Don't Know Don't Care, Nostalgic Obsessions, Thousand Listen Club, Worst Of All

Belabor Day

For the first time in eight years, a new collection of Bands I Useta Like strips is available!

Here’s why you’ll want one of your own:

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Filed under Animation Analysis, Comix Classic & Current, Girls of BIUL, Magazine Rack, Site Stuff

Journey

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Filed under Animation Analysis, Bad Influences, Comix Classic & Current, Faint Signals, Movies You Missed, Nostalgic Obsessions, Saturday Movie Matinee, Thousand Listen Club

The Tragedy of Cy-Kill

Mistake #1: No weapon accessories.

Unless you were alive and paying attention in the 1980s, you probably didn’t know that Transformers weren’t the first toys in America that changed into vehicles. “GoBots” were.

Transformers came from Rhode Island’s Hasbro, in 1984. GoBots came from Tonka, makers of fine metal toy trucks, in 1983. That may be why Hasbro did everything right, from the start- they saw what Tonka had already done wrong. And oh boy… Tonka did just about everything wrong.

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Filed under Animation Analysis, Bad Influences, Faint Signals, Idiot's Delight, Nostalgic Obsessions, Robot Toy Fetish, Worst Of All

Terminal and Malignant Fancer

Believe it or not, I still watch and enjoy The Simpsons. Just not on Sundays when it’s new.

I wait however long is necessary until it’s on YouTube, and I watch it then. Alone. Often years after it aired. Why?

Because there’s no other way to judge it fairly. It’s ruined in its proper time slot.

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Filed under Animation Analysis, Bad Influences, Don't Know Don't Care, Girls of BIUL, Idiot's Delight, Late To The Party, Worst Of All

Bands I Useta Like: The Unofficial Soundtrack, Vol. I & II

Imagine if you will, a world parallel to our own, identical in many ways, disparate in others. Long story short, in this mirror universe, Bands I Useta Like was optioned by a major independent film studio, and made into a hit movie. It combined animation and live action, and because the producers had deep pockets, licensing songs for a decent soundtrack wasn’t a problem.

Whether I allowed the film to be produced at all was contingent upon the quality of the music choices. If they balked at a crucial song, or refused to include it, I would walk off the project. Which I did, and they replaced me on-screen with a real actor. Like I said, the movie was a hit.

The 2-disc soundtrack sold out of stores overnight. Even though it came packed in that shitty double jewel-box, which just winds up broken, on the floor of a car.

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Filed under Animation Analysis, Bad Influences, Comix Classic & Current, Don't Know Don't Care, Faint Signals, Movies You Missed, Thousand Listen Club