The guys at beatdownboogie have created a brilliant short film merging elements of Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns and The Legend of Zelda. The costumes, scenery and cinematography are all top notch. Special mention must also be made for the soundtrack which is inspired by the great Ennio Morricone and particularly his work on For a Few Dollars More.
Check it out below!
One is the manga that brought Japanese animation to the masses and is considered a bonafide classic, the other the longest running comedy series of all time with some of the most iconic characters of all time- combine them both and you have Bartkira.
Artist Ryan Humphrey had the idea of merging the worlds of The Simpsons to that of Akira, however what started off as an internet meme has grown into a collaborative project of over 100 artists who are recreating the 2000 page Otomo epic in Matt Groening's image. The first 3 graphic novels have been complete and are available to read for free. Also recently there has been a Bartkira trailer created and whilst it is a bit shaky in places the fact that this is a collaborative fan-made passion project is really heartening to hear.
Animation in the 80's was great, especially for someone like me who grew up on shows like Mysterious Cities of Gold, Ulysses 31, Dogtanian and Around the World in 80 Days with Willie Fogg. I have a rose tinted view of past cartoons and I am obviously not alone in feeling this as Wesley Louis has created an incredibly well-animated opening sequence that stylistically recalls the style of animation that was created from Japan, China and South Korea, much to the ignorance of the Western pubic.
The bad tracking and white noise associated with old video tapes from the 80's is perfectly used to make it seem like an actual show from the 80's or early 90's, it reminds me mostly of Bucky O'Hare.
In Wesley's own words:
Wesley Louis drew 'Super Turbo Atomic Ninja Rabbit' as a comic when he was 13. It was time to realise the dreams of a geeky kid by animating the intro to the best TV-series that never was. 'Super Turbo Atomic Ninja Rabbit' A love letter to Saturday morning cartoons from the 80’s and 90’s.
To check out the video click below and for the HD clean version without the white noise and bad tracking click on the video link below that. Enjoy!
Akira Yamaoka, the composer of Silent Hill franchise amongst many other games, is going to be in the UK performing live pieces from his scores. This is Yamaoka's first live performance in the UK and this is a very exciting event for a number of reasons, including the fact that P.T, the next planned installment in the Silent Hill franchise has been cancelled and that Konami is pretty much closing shop on AAA titles, focusing on cheaper mobile gaming and Pachinko. This may be the only chance you get to see a true hero of gaming music in action. Tickets go live on Friday 11th September and performances will be across the UK from the 29th Oct to 3rd November. I'm hoping to get a piece of the action and will be by my computer awaiting to buy tickets, make sure you are too!
Silent Hill 2 had an amazing storyline, enhanced by the brilliant music.
The British Museum is one of my favourite place s in the world; not only is it a magnificent building but it houses some of the worlds greatest treasures. I go there every month at least for a couple of hours to take in the wonders of the ancient world. However the British Museum has teamed up with some manga artists to create a new free exhibition called Manga Now; the displays feature newly commissioned and recent pieces by Chiba Tetsuya, Hoshino Yukinobu and Nakamura Hikaru. Out of these the only artist I know is Hoshino Yukinobu from his masterpiece 2001 Nights. I loved the 10 part space opera and look forward to seeing some of his more recent work. I am also excited to see the work the other two artists have produced and maybe discovering new artists to follow, always a boon! The exhibition is on from now until 15th November 2015. I'm going this weekend to see it and will post some pics and give a report on the exhibition.
My collection of 2001 Nights, from the original 1990 run- a real collectors item!
I like me a mashup; taking lots of examples of one media type and fusing it to create something quite new and original from the old. Antonio Maria Da Silva (AMDSFilms to his friends) has taken this idea and run with it to create the ultimate film mashup of iconic film characters. In his own words:
There is a place where all fictional characters meet. . . Outside of time, Outside of all logic, This place is known as HELL'S CLUB, But this club is not safe
TERMINATOR VERSUS TONY MONTANA VERSUS TOM CRUISE VERSUS CARLITO BRIGANTE VERSUS BLADE VERSUS JOHN TRAVOLTA VERSUS AL PACINO VERSUS PINHEAD VERSUS THE MASK VERSUS ROBOCOP VERSUS DARTH VADER VERSUS MICHAEL JACKSON.
This is one awesome edit and deserves to be seen by as many people as possible. Spread the word!
Frozen is a wonderful children's film that has seen the song 'Let It Go' become a phenomenon around the world. However the Jake Vale Show, inspired by Jimmy Kimmel's Unnecessary Censorship has turned it slightly vulgar. The result is hilarious and shows how much a bit of censorship can make the most innocent things sound dirty. Enjoy!
Ahhh Japan, famed for it's amazing electronics and quirky sense of humour as highlighted in films like Lost In Translation. Ahhh Metal Gear Solid, famed for it's incredible gameplay and bad-s#*t crazy storytelling. Now combine them both for a Japanese TV commercial for the game and you get something truly special. As of yet to subtitles have not been provided but you'll get the gist of the advert when you see it.... it is something truly unique.
Merfish loves Pokemon and he loves GTA V, in fact he says so in the description of his amazing video:
Today I turn 23 years old, and for 17 of those years I have devoted my life to Pokémon. It's one of the few video game series that matches GTA in my heart, so surely a combination of the two would be something special, at least for me. So this is my birthday gift to myself that I wish to share with all of you.
So watch the video below and give some love to the guy, it's a brilliant vid!
College Humor have created another hilarious video, this time the target is the JRPGs. We all know that there are stereotypes and stock characters in certain JRPGs but seeing it distilled like this is funny. Check it out!
I love Dorkly, their video game inspired short animations are hilarious and this one is just perfect. Enjoy!
Double Fine were an early Kickstarter success story, easily securing the funding to make a new Point and Click adventure game. Now the video footage of the process they went through to plan and create the game is available for everyone to watch, a must for budding game developers and creators everywhere!
There are millions of Studio Ghibli fans out there and the works of Hayao Miyazaki strike a particular cord with many. There are many fan tributes out there but this one is something truly special. I won't spoil it for you but the creator, Dono, should be extremely proud of his work.
Marvel is onto a winner with Ant-Man performing admirably in the cinemas across the world. But what if it was directed by the wonderfully eccentric director Werner Herzog? How would the film change? Well question no more as a YouTube user, Patrick H Willems, has created a trailer answering this exact question. Now watch and think of what could have been!
There are a lot of fanmade animations online but this is one of the best I have seen. We've all been on rupee hunts as Link right? Smashing jars, cutting grass and trashing peoples homes to get enough money to buy stuff. Well, see what happens when Link races for rupees to buy a shield!
I've recently fallen for the work of Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie through The Wicked + The Divine, a comic series which explores the idea that a pantheon of 12 Gods return every 90 years and live like Rock Gods, but they only live for 2 years. The series has won many nominations for Eisners and was named the Best Comic at the British Comic Awards 2015 .
The pair previously worked on Phonogram and are signing and promoting volume three. I haven't read Phonogram yet but hope to pick it up whilst I'm getting my The Wicked + The Divine trades and comic signed.
Come along if you're a fan! I'll be there and will share pics of my signed swag here.
Toyoi Yuuta, publishing under his pseudonym 1041uuu, have created wonderful 8-bit GIFs which depict life Japan. His wonderful animations offer an insight into modern day Japan, showing its routines in an endless loop. Check out his site below and appreciate his beautiful work.
Kickstarter has revolutionised the way funding works for a large variety of projects; for once people power stands for something. However not all Kickstarter projects are successful and Kickended is an archive of those projects which failed to gain any backers- that's $0. It is interesting as schadenfreude but also more importantly it is a record of unrealised projects, dreams and aims. Have a look through, some of the projects are out there interesting and some are just plain gosh-awful!
After 13 years Fables, the multi award winning Vertigo series, comes to an end. Mark Buckingham, the artist of the series since the beginning was at Orbital Comics in London signing the graphic novels and comics. It was a pleasure to meet him, he was an affable and chatty guy.
Having read the last graphic novel I can say that it is a fitting end to the long running series and has many emotional beats that bring a closure to proceedings. It is sad to see the series end but with Buckingham moving onto Miracleman with Neil Gaiman it won't be too long until we see his sumptuous art again.
...And they all lived happily ever after
This is my signed final graphic novel.
It was wonderful to chat to Bill Willingham.
Double Fine's devs Let's Plays are great fun, showing a deeper level understanding of coding, programming and level design. Their recent video on 'The Lion King' is great and fun as there is an appearance by Louis Castle, a Westwood developer, who actually worked on the game being played.
