Transformers Prime

Cartoons are just great, aren't they? Esspecially right now when there are so many cool new ones. I want to talk about that in more detail later, but right now I'm going to share my thoughts on the newest Transformers series, Transformers Prime. And since I've updated around here, I can now add pictures to this blog a lot more easily, so this will be a lot more exciting to look at than just another wall of cyan text.

This new show is airing in the US on a new network called "The Hub", which Hasbro has a big stake in. Of course, that puts me and other International fans at a slight disadvantage when it comes to watching this stuff, but only a slight one. I'm not sure when the show will air in Canada but that doesn't really matter as I have now acquired and seen the 2 episodes that have aired in the States.

So far, so good.

Peter Cullen and Frank Welker reprise their classic roles as Optimus Prime and Megatron. Optimus sounds and acts much like one would expect, which is great but slightly predictable. Megaton, on the other hand, is a little different. It's still sounds like Welker, but he's not the same raspy voiced idiot from the original Transformers, he's a colder, more understated character. I like it. Also of note is Steve Blum's Starscream, which is also a lower sounding, darker portrayal of that character, and the great Jeffery Combs as Ratchet, who is quite a cranky doctor.

Although it's not a sequel to any other Transformers show, it's good to see Bulkhead back from Transformers Animated. I hope to see other characters from other versions of the franchise appear, not just the same old batch of G1 mainstays.

Cliffjumper is totally The Rock. Seriously. He's not around for very long but it was crazy hearing The Rock's voice coming out of a Transformers character, if you smell what I'm cooking.

When the show begins, the Transformers are already active on Earth and have been their for quite some time. I think this is a great idea as it adds potential for both exploration into the future and the past of this story down the road without bogging down the beginning moments with the same dry sequence of showing them wind up on Earth and choosing their alt-modes that several other Transformers series have started off with.

 The animation isn't mind blowing for a CG show but it's good enough. My copies of these episodes are not great so I can't judge too much. Some of the artistic choices in the show are a bit... unique, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. The look of the robots is sort of a combination between Animated and the movies. I know any time any new show comes out there are people who appear out of no wear just to say "I don't like the designs!" without really knowing what they are talking about , but those people are lame.

It's a really serious show thus far. I wonder how it will develop.  The visuals are dark, the music has got a kind of foreboding atmosphere, and the plot seems to be going in a surprising direction. Will it always be this grim?

What really struck me most about the show is that, in my opinion, the best character thus far is definitely Arcee. I'm very surprised about that, but it's welcomed all the same. She is a cool, blue, tough biker chick in this version, and she gets more attention in these first 2 episodes than even Bumblebee. She's also the one who hangs out with the lead human character so I'm assuming the spotlight will be on her quite a bit.  That's perfectly fine by me, and I think it's interesting that a girl character gets put into such a prominent spot in what is typically perceived as a "boy's" franchise. Times are changing for the better.

Anyway, when it comes to this stuff, I'm pretty easy to please most of the time. I have enjoyed and will even stick up for Transformers series that many loud (and obnoxious) members of the fandom absolutely hate. But it's still good to be able to say that I like what I've seen and I'll be looking forward to more.
 
Sayonara.

The Sickness

I've been so sick this past week, it's crazy. Coughing, sore throat, headaches, fever, runny nose... ugh.

In September, right after Fan Expo, I was sick for the first time in a long time. The symptoms were much the same I listed above, but seemed much worse compared to now. I was booked to teach a workshop to get potential new students interested in my comics and animation drawing programs, then I had to attend a wedding that weekend. It was tough but I managed to fight the illness back well enough and get through it all.

This time, the fighting just wasn't happening. Even though I would say the symptoms weren't as bad, they've lasted a long time and dragged on. I did my best to get well, keeping every intention to meet all my teaching obligations for the week, but there was no way. For the first time in the 12+ years I've been teaching, I missed a lesson due to illness. In fact, I missed all my lessons for the week. I don't know how the studio intends to make the time up, but I'll have to do what I'll have to do.

Still feeling like something is not quite right. I have to cough once and awhile and I've got some sort of mild dizziness. No one likes being sick, but it happens and I think I've certainly had my fill for a good long while.

And it particularly sucks now because just when I though I had everything cleared up and that I could start working on some new stuff around here, plans are forced to change due to circumstances out of my control. I don't like it but when merely sitting up straight becomes a chore, it's pretty hard to draw!

But I'll get better.

Sayonara.

Things that Happened.

So, hey, how about that website, huh? Sure is interesting. Would certainly be nice to know if anyone actually saw it.

Anyway, on to other business. Since I haven't done anything with the blog here in many months, I figure I'll go point by point on a few of the things that have happened this year.

I'm still teaching kids how to draw, working for the same company I started at a year ago. They like me so it's all good. In some ways it's old hat by now, but there are always interesting challenges. This past summer I worked every weekday for 2 weeks with a bunch of kids as young as 4. They were pretty hilarious and I think one of them was from outer space. There isn't much one can expect from kids that young, but they had fun and learned a thing or two, so mission accomplished. Now I'm teaching 5 classes a week with a wide variety of ages. 4 of them are the same beginners' class, which gets a little repetitive, but by the 4th class I get to be pretty good at it!

So, I guess Avatar was a pretty good movie. People seemed to like it. It ain't Star Wars but it's all right.

Iron Man 2 was also pretty good. Inception was quite amazing.

But the best movie I've seen all year, and perhaps of all my entire life, is Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. It was awesome, and totally unlike anything I've ever seen. I had only just read the books this year but gleefully devoured them before the film. I saw it twice in theaters and that was simply not enough for me. Luckily it's out on DVD and Blu-ray today and I bought it! The fact that this movie made hardly any money is a crime and proof that people are stupid.

Speaking of stupid, everyone's favorite Stupid Samurai made several more visits to this website during its state of dormancy. As usual, he sprayed his musk of hatred, lies, and bad spelling. He even brought a friend along to help (for all the good it did him). All in an attempt to... well, he's never been very good at making his points clear so who the hell knows what he was trying to do? You can check out the guestbook and read his angry failures in communication for yourself, but I must warn you, some of what he and his friend wrote is so abysmal that it may permanently damage your brain.

For conventions, Anime North was pretty cool. I did a lot of panels. TFCon was amazing, one of the best conventions I've ever been to. I drew a comic and Transformers voice actor David Kaye read it as part of the script reading. Totally amazing experience. FanExpo, on the other hand, pretty much sucked this year. It was overcrowded and disorganized.

Shows that I like right now are Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Sym-Bionic Titan, and Avengers. North American animation has stepped up to the plate and is delivering the goods in a major way. Hope these trends continue!

Games that I like are Super Mario Galaxy 2 and... well, that's pretty much it, really. I have a lot of games, and enjoy them, but the Super Mario Galaxy games top them all. Mama mia.

Oh, and I also did some drawings. More on that later.

That's all the updated things I've got in me to talk about right now. You are mostly caught up with the important stuff. Hit the comments if there's anything else you'd want to know. Somehow I am sure that your mind aches for this knowledge.

Sayonara.

Let's Get This Place in Order!

Hi there!

So, long time, huh? Yeah... about that. I had an excuse but I've honestly forgotten what it was. Something about Blogger.com changing something... something. Whatever. I couldn't update the blog for awhile without updating how the whole site worked. And if I was going to do that, then I might as well change everything else too, as I had been meaning to do that. But web-sitey stuff takes me a long time and I wasn't always all that motivated... so, here we are several months since the last blog post and several years since the last actual new content post.

We got new stuff though! There are plenty of new pieces of artwork that I've done over the past, uh, 3 years which I've never bothered to put here. Plus, I've reorganized things in a way that I think is not only more appealing but also should make it easier to update. I used to save a big bunch of content and upload it all at once as a big update few times a year, but got to be a big production and took so much time. Now it should be easier to update whenever I need to.

Some things have been removed to streamline things a bit. Some older artwork is gone, a few articles removed, and some other features are no longer there. I may or may not bring them back in time. Some things I just haven't gotten around to including yet, and others I wanted to get rid of. The music player is no longer accessible. It was just too much work. Not sure if I will bring it back. But other new things might be added too, someday. So there's that, I guess.

It's been awhile, but I have decided that I will be writing some new articles at some point. I have some ideas but let me know what you'd like to see around here.

The previous version of the site had different randomly selected images on the main page every time it was loaded. There were like 15 of them. For the new site there are... 2. Uhh, I'll make more later. Promise.

There is no more newsletter feature, because now there are other ways to keep up with what's new around here. You can follow the blog using the link on the right sidebar, for starters. Oh, and I still have that super-cool-even-though-nobody-uses-it message board!

Lastly, I've enabled comments here on the blog. You can write to me and respond to a post. I'll be sure to answer. You just have to have a registered account or something from Google or whatever. I don't know how it works here really. Just play nice with it.

That's it for now. Now that the hard part is done, things will be back to normal (relatively speaking) soon enough. I'll be back to posting my angsty thoughts on movies and drawings and other silly nonsense here shortly. In the meantime, you can follow me on Twitter because I am kind of a cool guy on there.

Sayonara.