SykoGrafix: Art - Stuff - Ninja Insanity

Assemble!

2012-05-12T00:10:00.001-04:00

The word on the street is pretty much out, but I'm not going to let that stop me from putting my two cents in and saying that The Avengers movie is awesome.

Think back to what it must have been like when The Avengers comic was a brand new thing. Comic books were pretty much the height to fantastical fiction, capable of telling stories and showing images that movies and television could never come close to replicating at the time. Movies like that would be unfathomable. There are all of these different characters, each with their own histories, and you could pick your favorite. Then Avengers comes out and a whole bunch of them are on a team together and that has got to be just the coolest thing ever.

Now think back to a little over 10 years ago. Movies like X-Men and Spider-man have come out, captured people's imaginations, and done very well, kicking off a string of films inspired by comic book characters. Now, movie making has advanced to the point where so many of these cool comic book concepts that never could have been realized before have become real films. Most of them are pretty good, or are entertaining at least, but a few missed the mark in the storytelling department. Still, with the way these characters were being licensed to different studios, it seemed unlikely that there would be a movie crossover featuring many different heroes like Avengers. And even if that eve did happen, if you consider that a number of other movies had a hard time dealing with just one super hero character, would a movie featuring 6 or 7 even be any good?

Well, somehow, here we are. Not only is The Avengers is a real movie, they actually pulled it off and made it good. It is so good in just about every possible way, from the biggest action scenes to the smallest moments of character development. They did it. They actually did it. For everything working against it, I don't think it can be overstated just how good this movie really is. It's an incredible feat.

Much has been said about what it is that makes this film so great, with the level of humor being one of the main draws. While I agree with that, it's not enough to say that it's a funny movie. All the humor actually served a purpose: it informed the audience. All the humor, be it clever and witty or simple slapstick, told something about who the character is and where they come from. It wasn't just entertainment on a base level, it was actually engaging! And because so much of the humor was grounded in who these characters are, it rewarded the audience for paying attention.

In the time since Hollywood really started pumping out these big comic book movies, there have been a number of them that made a lot of money but aren't really remembered as being all that good. The Transformers movies are a good example. I like those movies fine, but they are what they are, entertainment and not much more. Avengers, on the other hand, is everything you'd ever want in a big Hollywood super hero blockbuster, but it's also a really good movie! And both audiences and critics seem to be on the same page on this one as everybody seems to love it. So I have to wonder... is this going to change things? Is The Avengers going to raise the stakes and make people demand better quality? Money talks, and Avengers is a huge financial hit, so I think that message may be getting out there.

Personally, I think it would be great for Hollywood and the movie going audience if The Avengers made more money than Avatar and became the #1 film of all time. That's a tall order but I'd say it certainly deserves it.

That artwork at the top was a fun, quick drawing I made earlier in the year. I'll have it up on the site properly soon enough, along with a few other things. But hopefully I'll get to see Avengers 11 more times first. Now who's up for some shawarma?

Sayonara.

Blue Misery

2012-05-02T21:36:00.000-04:00

I've been using two computers for the past few years. One mainly for general use and another for art. I was using my art computer to draw with my Cintiq on Easter Weekend, and I started to notice the cursor stutter. The computer would freeze for a second or two and then start back up again. This basically made digital drawing impossible. But it didn't matter if I was drawing, or using a mouse, or typing on the keyboard, it would always happen. Something was causing the computer to just lock up for a moment. I did my best to try and figure it out by looking in the Event Viewer for errors. It seemed like the problem was centralized around a driver issue, but attempts to clear that up resulted in yet more problems. I witnessed more instances of the Blue Screen of Death than I had ever seen since Windows 98. Eventually, the whole thing became unbootable.

I used a live Linux boot disk called BootMed to try and fix things, but nothing worked. I figured there was only one way around this, and that was to start from scratch. So I used BootMed again to access my hard drive and back everything up, which happened with no problem. Then I formatted the hard drive and reinstalled Windows. Now just try to imagine my frustration when it started locking up again as if I had done nothing.

One big problem in dealing with this stuff is when these errors happen, there could be any number of possible solutions. There is usually some kind of error message or code and when you Google that you get a million results with different solutions, plus a ton of schemey sites trying to get you to pay for some generic solution. It's next to impossible to uncover an applicable fix.

If reinstalling Windows didn't work, then it must have been a hardware issue. I was unplugging components left and right. My best guess was that the motherboard was to blame. I decided that whatever the fix was, it must be beyond my capabilities to repair, and that it may be time to look into some replacement parts. But I didn't give up entirely. I found a few old hard drives in some unused computers lying around, so I plugged one in in to the offending machine, installed Windows onto that, and everything worked fine.

What?! It was the hard drive all along?! Sheesh! Not that I'm complaining but if the hard drive went bad then how come I had no problems backing up?

While all this is happening, I took the opportunity to reformat and reinstall on my other computer as well, which went very smoothly. That's an old piece of junk but now it's working better than ever. Talk about polar opposites.

Anyway, after a month of dealing with this nonsense, I'm back in business again, such as it is. Hopefully I can get a little more usage out of these computers before I need to upgrade and/or the zombies show up.

Sayonara.

Alien Turtles

2012-03-28T19:52:00.000-04:00

Art by Jim Lawson

It's been known for a while now that Paramount is planning a new Ninja Turtles movie, and that Michael Bay's company would be producing. Now things are gearing up and we're getting closer to it becoming a reality, so little bits of news have dripped out recently. The whole Internet has gone bonkers over a brief speech that Michael Bay gave at a press even where he said that the Turtles would be "from an alien race". People are spreading their nerd rage all over the place saying how Michael Bay is changing the origins, that he's going to ruin Turtles like he did with Transformers, and other such nonsense.

It's pretty clear, to me at least, that this is being blown way out of proportion and most of these complaints are totally unwarranted. But beyond that, I have to wonder how many of these complaining people have actually read the original TMNT comics? How many of them are actually, you know, fans? I'd wager to say that the majority of these people have not done so, and are, for the most part, only familiar with the original cartoon. You know, the one that changed the origins, changed the characters and added new ones, and changed the entire tone of the story. So it's funny to me that these people are complaining when they really don't know what they are talking about. These aren't TMNT fans, they're just people who watched a popular cartoon when they were kids.

At any rate, when I first heard the "alien" news, I was puzzled for a moment, but I figured that perhaps this is a roundabout way of explaining that the ooze which mutated the Turtles was created by aliens, because that's how the story is supposed to go! That was the story from the original comics, and those aspects of the story have never been used in a movie yet. The director of this new film, Jonathan Liebesman (Michael Bay is not directing this film, another fact some idiots have missed), has basically come out and said that the canister of ooze originates from aliens. So, there it is! I'm sure there are other details that can't be revealed yet and others that are still being worked out, but it all seems plain as day to me. And yet the alien talk continues.

Finally, as far as the comment that Transformers have been ruined and Turtles will be as well, give me a break. Transformers is more popular now than it ever has been. Those Micheal Bay movies might not be to everyone's taste, but if they were so bad, and if everyone thinks that they are so bad, then why did they make so much money? Why did they keep making money? I understand that just because something is popular, that doesn't make is any good, but box office numbers don't lie, and the numbers we're talking about are way too big to outright dismiss. And even if you don't like those movies, we've still got an awesome cartoon on TV, we've got plenty of incredible toys on the shelves and more on the way, and there is still an active fandom that continues to grow. Plus, all of the old stuff you love is still there and hasn't changed a bit, and nothing that happens in the future will ever change that. All of these points are going to apply to TMNT as well when the new Nickelodeon stuff is released by the end of the year.

But, hey, maybe I am wrong. Maybe this new movie will be all about racist exploding alien turtles. In that case, what would the outcome be? I suppose it would be so bad that it will offend everyone, make no money, and force the cartoon and toy line to be cancelled out of shame. Then, all of your childhood memories will be tainted, and everything that had previously made TMNT so great in the first place will be retroactively erased from history. Though, I suppose if you let all that bad stuff happen then you weren't actually that big of a fan in the first place, so no big loss for you, right?

I'm hoping for a good movie as much as the next person, and I know that whatever happens will result in more visibility to the franchise, which is ultimately a good thing. But I'll still be hanging on to all on my cool stuff and good memories, so even if there is a bad movie, it won't change much for me.

Sayonara.

Ganbare Japan!!!

2012-03-11T15:49:00.000-04:00

One year ago, Japan was struck with a series of natural disasters, but in the wake of these terrible events, a powerful spirit of perseverance and support has emerged. This artwork is my small tribute to that great inspirational spirit.

GANBARE!!! by *ninjatron on deviantART

I wanted to draw something that focused on the unbreakable will and positive outlook that has been exhibited in the months since the disasters. Two of the anime world's most popular and positive characters, Goku and Astro Boy, give the thumbs up to show that inspirational, never give up, can-do attitude.

I have a few other art pieces on my deviantArt account that aren't up here on SykoGrafix yet, but will be eventually. As I mentioned before, at the moment I'm working heavily on something else that I think will be very exciting.

Sayonara.

Creator Owned Day

2012-03-01T16:43:00.002-05:00

Hey, how about this? Two blog posts in 2 days! I haven't had that much to talk about recently, though I am keeping myself busy with a very interesting project, plus some other developments that I'll talk about when/if they firm up. But for now I'm taking time out to participate in a great event.

March 1st is Creator Owned day, where artists make new drawings of their created characters and post them on their blogs to share with everyone. This is to bring interest to brand new concepts outside of the the famous characters owned by large corporations.

So, with that in mind, here's a new quick digital color sketch of the SykoGrafix.com mascot, Cyan.

It has been awhile since I've drawn Cyan or the other SykoGirls. I do have some new artwork of them, but I left it alone and haven't finished it yet. I will get to that eventually, and post some of the other artwork of Cyan, Magenta, and Amber that used to be on the site before I redesigned it.

Now, I very well could have created a new character today, but the truth is, I'm actually already creating new characters almost every day! I've got a special plan in mind for all of them, so watch this space for more info when the time comes.

Be sure to draw your own characters, share it on the web, and post to Twitter with the hashtag #CreatorOwnedDay.

Sayonara.

Prime Merchandise

2012-02-29T18:51:00.000-05:00

The Transformers Prime animated series has been on for more than a year, now into its second season, and has been without toys for pretty much that entire time. It's only recently that stuff is coming out based on the show. So the demand has been growing for a good long time. Hasbro had planned a Toys R Us exclusive "First Edition" toy line that was to act as a prelude for the main line, and that was released here in Canada but wound up being cancelled in the US, So these First Edition items have become highly sought after and very difficult to obtain without paying crazy amounts of money. Of course, all this stuff was released after I moved away from any nearby Toys R Us stores, so I'm pretty much out of luck.

But I was able to acquire this:

Here is the Transformers Prime Entertainment Pack. Contains smaller, Deluxe Sized figures of Optimus Prime and Megatron along with 3 mini-figures of the kids and an episode of the show on DVD. Pretty good package to kick off the Prime line.

The robot figures are pretty cool for smaller versions of these characters. They are both fairly complex for their size. Megatron is probably the winner of the bunch just in terms of accuracy to his animated appearance and over all cool factor. Even as a smaller toy, he looks evil and intimidating.

Optimus isn't bad, but his arms are too long, making the overall proportions look a bit awkward unless you try to hide it with a creative pose. Getting both Optimus and Megatron in one package is a pretty good deal all around. I like that Megatron is a little taller than Optimus.

Jack, Miko, and Raf are a really cool surprise, since, aside from the movie lines, we've never really had human characters included at all with actual Transforming toys in the entire history of the brand. They're just simple figures that can't move their arms or legs or anything, but it's a great unexpected addition to the package.

The DVD I don't really care about because the whole first season will be out on Blu Ray soon.

Transforming them wasn't as simple as one might expect from smaller toys in a two-pack. There were some small fiddly bits that had to be pegged in just right. Pretty straight forward once I got the hang of it, though there was one oddity. The instructions completely miss the final step with Megatron's conversion to his spaceship mode. It didn't show how to deploy the wings. When I first noticed the difference between what the instructions tell you to do and the picture of the vehicle mode printed on the box, I thought maybe something was removed from the toy. But no, it's all there. You just have to figure it out for yourself.

The kids can't transform because they are just puny humans.

It's good getting both of these two together so you can pose them like in the season one finale. Pew pew pew!

I really want the larger First Edition Optimus and Bulkhead, but it's pretty unlikely I'll be able to get them easily as those two especially have become hot ticket items. Maybe some day I'll pay the price but for now I'm happy representing the Prime series with this package, even if it is the only Prime merchandise I get for awhile.

In fact, all my Transformers are still packed away after moving so, honestly, I'm just happy to have anything!

Sayonara.

What's up with Anime?

2012-01-05T21:23:00.002-05:00

Well, 2012 has certainly kicked off with something of an inauspicious start for Anime fans after the word came down that Bandai Entertainment is ceasing production of new releases. Ouch! I know that the anime and manga business has been hit with some hard times in recent years, but the company that handles Gundam, the most popular anime franchise of all time, can't make it work, you know something just ain't right.

Much has been made of the anime industry's current problems, with several companies having disappeared here in North America and news of the market shrinking in Japan with animators having to scrape by with low pay. It's a real bummer to take in all of this, and I guess everybody has their own idea about what the problems are and what the solutions should be.

Piracy gets mentioned a lot as a prime cause of the industry's woes, and rightly so. Downloading unlicensed fansubs is one thing, but stealing DVD rips is something else all together. There is no excuse for that, and it points to a significant portion of anime fans as being whiny brats with entitlement complexes. I've downloaded my fair share of fansubs, but if there is something I like that gets licensed, I'll buy it. You just have to pay to get the things you like. It's only fair. And it does not make sense when anime convention attendance numbers keep increasing while the business itself is in decline. Of course, piracy is going to exist no matter what, but when the majority of anime fans are young, tech-savvy, and have grown into the fandom being used to the notion where getting anything you want for free is completely normal, than the problem piracy becomes a lot worse, as anime is a relatively niche market when compared to Hollywood movies and such.

People like to say that digital distribution is the way to go, but I am not so convinced. It's a great thing, and probably the best solution available right now. I like to use a site like Crunchyroll to sample a show, to watch something that isn't available on R1 DVD, or just to pass the time. But to me, watching a streaming video, even a free and legal one, is no substitute to actually buying a real physical piece of media that you can own. The idea of DVDs and Blu Rays going away doesn't sit well with me, as I don't like the idea of paying money for products that I can't actually touch. Beyond that, though, there are still people who just don't know anything about the legal ways to watch anime, and there is still a lot of confusion between them and illegal sites that don't give anything back to the original creators. It's all the same product so the average teenaged anime fan isn't going to care as long as they get what they want.

These are all important things to talk about, but I think the real problems and the real solutions are a lot deeper than all of this. I know first hand from working with kids and teenagers in my drawing classes that there are a lot of young people who are interested in anime, but very few of them come in with a good understanding of what anime really is and how to watch it. You can stream all the anime you want on the Internet, but if these kids don't know anything about it, and they aren't given a reason to care, than they're not going to watch it, they're not going to buy it, and they're not going to grow up to be fans who are ready to move on to more sophisticated titles. But they are out there, they are hungry to learn more, they can be marketed to, and they can help to expand the fan base. To get them to this point, you can't expect them to just start buying single volume DVDs with a few episodes of a show they've never heard of, or even to buy box sets with any frequency, nor can we expect them to know the ins and outs of navigating various websites, with some of them being good and others being evil. The anime business can't just concentrate on the audience it has now, especially if that audience is only interested in piracy. They have to reach new people and make this business grow.

They have to put more anime on TV!

For these kids, if it's not on TV at the times when they are watching TV, it simply does not exist!

Of course, getting anime on TV opens up other problems. With the big TV networks being what they are today, there is little reason for them to air something produced in Japan and released by a licensed company that they would have to share money with when they could create something new and keep all they money themselves. Naruto was a big hit for Cartoon Network in the US, but they made more money off of Ben 10, simply because they own it. They got all the money from airing the show, plus all the money from merchandising, and that means shows like Naruto aren't that special anymore. So that very notion creates a rather narrow avenue for anime on TV.

The other problem is, unfortunately, with the anime being produced in Japan right now. There are always lots of new shows, but things are kind of creatively stagnant. The really interesting shows are few and far between, the artwork isn't as detailed, and there just isn't as much "must watch" stuff out there. The birth rate in Japan is down, which means less shows being produced for kids, which means less kids growing up to be anime fans in Japan, and also means less suitable kids' shows ready to be translated for global distribution. Then you factor in how little anime artists are paid, and the rise of video games as an industry that attracts creative people to work in, and it's really no wonder things are the way they are. As the market shrinks in Japan, much of the anime that is produced is geared towards the remaining hardcore fans, and so this material isn't always appealing, significant, or even culturally palatable by fans elsewhere around the world.

To put it all into some kind of context, I watched both K-ON and Lucky Star via fansubs, two of the bigger recent hits in the fandom. While they are certainly enjoyable shows, and I can see why they'd have their fans, they didn't really captivate me enough to want to buy them right away. I wouldn't want to pay more than $20-$25 for the entire series for either of them, and I wouldn't expect anyone else to want to pay much more than the cost of a season set of a typical Hollywood produced sitcom on DVD. Yet these were huge licenses that probably cost a lot of money to bring over from Japan due to their popularity there, plus the cost to dub, subtitle, package, and market. So these shows were expected to sell very well, with the primary business model being to release a few episodes at a time through single volume releases which cost as much or more than an average movie, targeted almost exclusively to an audience that most likely already has all the episodes on their hard drives and watched them months ago. And the people who haven't seen these shows already probably don't even know what they are because they're not on TV, and the only way to find out inevitably involves resorting to piracy. Oh, and the content of these shows basically amounts to a bunch of girls hanging out and doing silly things without any major plot development. Do we see a problem here?

So, what can be done about all this? Can anime be saved? I hope so. I have my own ideas on what can be done, which I may share later, but as big of a fan as I am, I am still just outsider looking in and I don't know the realities of being in business. But as a fan, I want to see anime get bigger, get better, have more fans, cover more topics, with more interesting stories, and be readily available to more people, because I want more stuff to watch too. I want everybody else to know what I already know: that anime is an awesome form of art. But it's a business as well, and that business is just not going to continue much longer if it can't be profitable. Catering solely to an audience that would rather steal is not going to make that happen. The snake has got to stop eating its own tail!

Anyway, thanks to holiday sales and eBay, I've been buying a lot of cheap anime recently, so I've got a whole pile of legitimate R1 DVDs to watch. In the meantime, I'd like to know what you think, so please post your thoughts in the comments below.

Sayonara.

Phoning it in.

2011-12-17T01:45:00.004-05:00

I am composing this blog from my brand new phone. I have the just released Samsung Galaxy Nexus. This phone runs the android operating system and is pretty much be the nicest phone on the market right now. I am new to all this but I'm getting the hang of it and enjoying it so far.

People have been asking me if this phone is better than an iPhone. I really have no idea as I have zero interest in owning an iPhone or any other Apple products, so I can't speak to that. I know that Android does not have as robust of a selection of apps as the iPhone, but i am finding plenty of cool things to do with it, and I'm learning more and more everyday about what these devices are capable of.

I've tried a number of games so far. Some of them are trash, but there are a few gems. There are even some video game emulators. I wouldn't necessarily want to replace a true gaming handheld with a phone like this, but it's interesting to toy around with at any rate.

I definitely prefer this phone to the BlackBerries I was using before. The screen is bigger, it's faster, and there's just more to do with it. While I don't want to become one of those jerks who can't seem to pull themselves away from their phones, I do sort of get it in a weird way. These gizmos can do so many cool things, it seems wrong to not use them when you're just sitting idle and not doing anything else. Of course, this is new, so I'm sure, in time, the novelty will wear off.

Speaking of novelty, one feature that is proving to be frustrating, if not amusing, is the speech recognition. Much of this post was made by me speaking into the phone, so it has taken some extra finessing by hand to get the words to actually be what I want. Trying to use the word "robust" earlier gave "I love robots" and "I haz wii boss" as the resulting text output. Both of those things are true, but not what I was talking about. Not really the time saving feature I was hoping it would be, but at least it has been worth a few laughs.

The only real serious downside is that the battery seems to deplete quickly during heavy use. I've heard rumors of a larger optional battery being made available some time soon, so I hope that comes to pass.

All in all, I am really liking this whole smartphone scene. I would like to say that this is going to make me a much more productive person, and that might be the case someday. Right now though, I like it because I can play Angry Birds.

Sayonara.

Changes.

2011-11-24T19:20:00.000-05:00

I feel like I have a lot to say but I'm not really sure where to start. At any rate, things have changed in a big way so I'll just get right to the point.

I have moved. I no longer live in the Toronto area. Now I'm much further away, in a cold, desolate wasteland.

OK, it's not actually that bad. It's fine. Though it is cold most of the time, and it's not really the bustling vibrant cultural hub that Toronto is.

I really miss Toronto, and I feel like I didn't really take as much advantage of living so close to the big city as I should have. Before the day of the move, I went downtown and hit up as many cool spots as I could. It wasn't enough. I am especially going to miss going to conventions and seeing my people.

I didn't really want to move, but I'm here for now, and that will have to do until the time comes when I can make something else happen. I don't want to sound like I'm not going to enjoy being where I currently am, because I'm sure I will, but I don't want to be here for very long.

I had to leave my job, so for what seems like the first time in more than 10 years I am not teaching drawing to kids. Hey, if I am not a teacher anymore, I guess that means that "Stupid Samurai" loser and those other idiots got their wish! It's only because I moved, not because I suck. The studio I worked for really liked me and we will be staying in touch. I had some really amazing experiences there, and some great students who have become so much better than I was at their age, and I will miss it. For time being though, I think I am finished with teaching and will be looking into doing other things.

The moving process has been very busy and stressful. I'm looking forward to it being done, but there is still much left to do before I can really say that I've settled in. Because of everything else going on, I haven't really drawn anything in ages, and I'm itching to get back into it somehow. As fulfilling as it was teaching kids how to draw for so long, I think it's time to focus on my own work instead. I still need to gain more focus, but I definitely want to try new styles and draw new stuff. I want to be more creative and more productive. So, perhaps in this regard, the move will be a fresh start that will turn out for the better.

But, someday, I will return to Toronto. One way or another, I will be back. Then, the ground will tremble, the skies will blacken, and the sun will change to an electric blue. That is when everything will be as it should.

Sayonara.

I Have a Lot of Toys to Open.

2011-10-12T22:48:00.001-04:00

I assure you all, I am not one of those "Mint in Package" toy collectors. But when I thought I was going to move a few years ago, I packed my collection away and stopped opening anything new I bought due to the uncertainty at the time. That seemed like a good idea, but the move did not go through and I kept collecting like that anyway so it kind of spiraled into, well, this:

What you see here are 99 unopened Deluxe class Transformers figures. They're all mine. And that's not all. I have several more Transformers still in their packaged prisons that you can see on my Photobucket Account.

I was always one of those open toy advocates, so how exactly did this happen? I don't really know how to explain it, but I have to say that it's actually been a lot of fun to collect and display these boxed toys. I've really enjoyed it for some reason. Having these on my shelves in my office made for a cool set up. There's just something cool about seeing them all together, buying more and trying to find room for them, and the excitement of getting new acquisitions in the mail from assorted lines with different packaging. It doesn't make any sense when you consider what sets Transformers apart from other toy lines, but for some reason it grew on me (and clearly my collection grew with it). It's kind of like having a toy store in your own house, except that there's only one of everything.

There are things going all the way back to the Energon line (2004) here but these were all acquired within the past 3 years, so I haven't been hoarding them for that long. In fact, much of this is just from the past year or two, and a lot of this was purchased for below retail prices.

Now, as it turns out, I am moving in a few weeks so I will have to open most of this stuff just to save space. I figured it would be cool to take some photos of everything before I dug in. It's going to be like Christmas morning every day for awhile.

So what should I open first?

Sayonara.

Alpocalypto

2011-10-09T16:19:00.001-04:00

This past summer I saw Weird Al Yankovic live in concert. I've been a fan for years and this was the second time I saw his show (You can read about my first Al concert experience here and here). The first time was great, but this year's concert totally blew my expectations away. It was kind of epic. Kind of really epic. He performed much of his newest album, some of his best loved classics, and a few great surprises too.

Unfortunately, the pictures I took on my phone didn't really turn out all that clear, but that doesn't really matter because there was something special about this particular stop in his tour. Al picked Toronto to be the location for his concert DVD, so the whole thing was filmed. This Alpocalypse Tour was released last week on DVD and Blu Ray. It ROCKS!

Other than the work of Weird Al, I'm not really a musically inclined person, but it's still really cool to have a lasting memento of an amazing concert that I can now watch again any time I want. And it's not just any random concert out of the dozens he must have performed during the tour, but the actual one that I attended!

One thing that stands out to me now that I've seen the video just how much he is giving to his audience while on stage. Al is a funny guy who sings funny songs, but you could just see on his face how important it was to put on a great show. He really laid it all out there to put on a show that no one would ever forget. And now I won't ever have to forget because I own it on Blu Ray. The picture is so clear, you can see his sweat and everything.

Of course, as I watched, the thing I was really looking for was myself in the audience. I might be in there somewhere, but alas, at first glance it appears that I may have been just out of camera range. I just can't turn this ninja thing off.

It was just awesome that Al chose Toronto to be the place where he'd film his concert, and I'm so glad I got to be there when it happened. If you weren't there, then watching the DVD or Blu Ray is the next best thing, and I can pretty much guarantee that you'll love it.

Sayonara.

Need to be Blogging,

2011-09-30T23:38:00.001-04:00

I've been wanting to post here for awhile, but haven't really felt motivated until now. Figure I should just post something before the month ends, even if it's just nonsense.

I've been busy with teaching, having a couple drawing classes and several computer illustration classes. My time teaching will be wrapping up soon, but I will still have a lot to plan for once I'm finished. So I just don't have much time to draw personal stuff. What is really slowing me down, though, is this string of headaches. I suppose I am susceptible to changes in air pressure and I've really gotten hammered by that this month. Sometimes it's not so much that I'm too busy but that I am too tired from my brain getting pounded to do much.

I just made these grilled cheese sandwiches though, and they really hit the spot. I feel better now.

Other than sandwiches, some big changes are underway. I'll talk more about that stuff later.

Sayonara.

Fan Expo Follow Up

2011-09-05T03:27:00.000-04:00

Overall, FanExpo was pretty good this year. Everything ran fairly smoothly and there were no major problems. It was honestly not that special, coming from a guy who has been going to this convention and several others for over a decade, as it just didn't have that "can't miss" memorable moment for me, and thus was a bit "by the numbers" in some respects. However, after last year's disaster, it was just good to go and not see things devolve further into a complete failure this time around.

It was good that the show has expanded into 4 days, and that made the first 2 days really chill and less frenetic than these sorts of shows often tend to be. I appreciated that, but I just wish there was a bit more to do at any given time.

Anyway, I don't really do the big convention reports anymore as they just take up too much time, but I've got a few pictures that I took with my phone that I can share here.

This dead Abin Sur stood out right away. I wanted to buy it.

Giants Kreon Optimus and Bumblebee at the Hasbro booth. I was talking to the ladies working there, telling them that I love Hasbro and asking how I can work for Hasbro. The only real answer I got was "Luck".

Paper Mario and Peach cosplay, such as it is. Really it was more like Corrugated Plastic Mario.

Transformers Devastator on the left and Arcee on the right surround an impressive cosplay of 70's anime super robot Raideen!

I absolutely had to take a picture of this cosplayer dressed as Noriko from Gunbuster, as that is one of my all time favorite series. You just don't see Gunbuster cosplay very often.

Droid girls! C3P0 is big sister, and thus forced little sister to be R2D2. Very creative abstract take on these characters.

Definitely one of the better TMNT costumes I've seen, along with Teen Wolf or something.

Wish I could have taken a few more pictures but, as you can see, the camera on my phone is not the best so I didn't put a priority on it. You can see a few other things I was Tweeting about over the weekend and some of thus stuff I bought on my TwitPic page.

I did go to a few panels. Saw some artists, Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz, and Freddy Kruger himself Robert Englund. All worthy events, but again, wish there was more. At any rate, I didn't die from either boredom or misadventure so it's all good.

I wanted to talk about this a lot earlier but I became preoccupied after yet another hard drive died for no reason at all. This one was an external drive I bought only a few months ago to act as a backup after the last hard drive died. This made me incredibly angry, and the universe has yet to suffer the extremes of my wrath.

Sayonara.

Another FanExpo

2011-08-25T01:43:00.000-04:00

This has been a really lazy month. I haven't been up to much and I just didn't really feel like changing that. Oh well. I accomplished a lot of chilling out, so I guess that's something.

It's time again for FanExpo, the huge annual Comic Book/Sci Fi/Anime/Horror/Gaming/Internet Loser convention in Toronto. This year has expanded into 4 days, and I'll be there the entire time for some reason. Last year, the smaller venue coupled with the huge turnout made the whole thing rather disastrous. At one point I left the show to go grab a bite and had to wait in a gigantic line just to get back in, so I just went back home. I am hoping that the year things will be managed much better, but the organizers have a lot to prove.

Seems like the bigger the show gets, the less I care overall. But, who knows, maybe it'll be fun? We'll see.

I'll be posting on Twitter about whatever interesting things cross my path throughout the convention, so follow me for all the hilarity. It may end up being more entertaining than going to the show itself!

Sayonara.

TFcon was Awesome.

2011-08-07T22:45:00.000-04:00

Well, I said that TFcon was going to be awesome, and sure enough, it certainly was. The weekend was full of fun times and good friends, united by our love of Transformers. It was also exhausting though, which is why I'm only getting to talk about it a week later.

I don't have too many pictures, and the ones I do have are just from my phone's camera, but at least I can give you a small glimpse of what the show was like.

Reproductions of Barricade and '77 Bumblebee were there.

Here's a video I found on YouTube featuring a portion of the script reading from the comic I drew. There are some unintentionally funny moments.

Transformers Costumes are becoming a bigger deal with each new year. These two were really impressive.

Speaking of dressing up, I rocked my cyan necktie and captained my team in the annual Faction Feud trivia contest. We all wore ties and bandannas, calling ourselves the Ninja Consultants (like Sixshot in the Headmasters anime). Our visual style won the crowd and served us well, but we were defeated in the final round, losing only by one answer. In spite of tasting the bitterness of defeat, it was a lot of fun and I vow that the Ninja Consultants will return for our revenge next year.

Later that night, at the hotel bar and restaurant, we were all treated to an impromptu concert by actor Garry Chalk, who in addition to being Optimus Primal, is also quite the musician. Truly a magic moment and you just had to be there to really experience what it was like. Luckily, we do have video.

I make a brief appearance in this video, still in Ninja Consultant attire. Thanks to Guber for uploading this and several other TFcon 2011 videos (though some of them have saucy language, so you probably shouldn't watch any of those).

And here is all the cool stuff I bought at the show. I took home 3 Leaders, 3 Ultras, 3 Voyagers, and 12 Deluxes. I brought a lot of money, plus I sold a few things, including all my art prints, but did not spend it all. Perhaps I should have. However, there's a sale at Toys R Us on right now, so have bought some more stuff since.

In all, it was another amazing convention. This show has constantly delivered year after year, getting better and better each time. This time around we were at a new hotel, and there was some concern over how it would be in a different venue, but the place was great and all the hotel staff were incredibly nice.

My sincere thanks to everyone who was involved in making TFcon a success this year. And I would also like to thank everybody who complimented my work on the comic. It means a lot for me to contribute to the show in some small way and to know that my hard work is enjoyed by everyone else.

Now the only thing left to say is that TFcon 2012 is going to rock!

Sayonara.

Time for TFcon!

2011-07-28T17:18:00.001-04:00

It has been a long time!

I was super busy this month working on the prelude comic for the TFcon 2011 script reading. 8 pages of full color artwork! Really worked hard to get it all done in time, and now it's out there for everyone to read. Check it out!

Here is the final page, without text. I will have a limited number of prints of this image for sale at the show.

TFcon 2011: Primal Perception by ~ninjatron on deviant ART

Voice actors Paul Eiding (Perceptor) and Garry Chalk (Optimus Primal) will be there for the show, and will be performing the comic as well as what happens next in the story. The other characters will be played by people from the audience.

Hope you dig the comic. I really ran myself into the ground on this one. Even still, there is so much more that could have been done with it.

Looking forward to the show! It's going to be awesome!

Sayonara.

Summer Smackdown

2011-07-01T23:55:00.001-04:00

Hey, so today was Canada Day. Canada is pretty awesome. Except when we're having stupid pointless Hockey riots. Which is all the time. So... yeah.

I'm finished with teaching for a little while. The last term had its ups and downs. The digital illustration class went well enough for the first time with the group of teenaged students, but the younger group just didn't really get it. Too much to remember, too much information to take in all at once. It was tough! So, some tweaking will be necessary for next time. Will likely start teaching some summer classes shortly.

Right now, I am busy working on the annual prelude comic for TFcon. Really looking forward to another year of this fantastic convention, and I think people are really going to like the comic this year. There is a lot of work to do, but I've got most of the month left to do it, and I'm planning on knocking it out of the park.

X-Men First Class was a really good movie. I was quite impressed at how good it really was. The buzz going into it was not very enthusiastic coming from the usual batch of angry nerds, but the final product just goes to show how little those people really know.

Will be seeing Transformers: Dark of the Moon soon. I somehow wound up already buying a lot of the toys. Hopefully I'll like the movie enough to justify all the other merchandise I'll probably buy!

I forgot to mention last time that I put some new artwork up on my deviantART page. So you should totally check that out, yo.

Sayonara.

Green Lantern

2011-06-18T14:22:00.001-04:00

So, hey, yesterday was my birthday. Somehow, Warner Bros. knew this and decided to release the Green Lantern movie. I saw it last night.

Now, I had already heard some really negative buzz on this movie and went into it a little worried. Would this movie actually suck? Suck on my birthday, no less? But I gave it a chance.

Honestly, I don't get where all the hate is coming from. It was not that bad! It was actually ok! I watched the whole thing wondering where the haters started hating, and I never saw anything worth getting enraged about.

By no means was it a perfect film. There were some pacing issues and a lot of it seemed to go by rather fast when I would have rather it spent the time to establish what was happening a little more. But, so what? I was still entertained. It was a fairly good adaptation of the Green Lantern story, and it was cool seeing all the other characters like Sinestro and Kilowog in a big film like this.

Was it as good as Thor? Maybe not. Thor was really good. But I'd say Green Lantern was almost as good, and it's a fair comparison since both movies are super hero origin stories with lots of cosmic spacey stuff.

So really, from my perspective, I just don't get why the critics seem to hate this movie so much.

Oh, wait, yes I do get it. Critics are jerks and stupid and also dumb.

Anyway, Green Lantern was alright so my birthday was good.

Sayonara.

Star Wars: Ninjatron Edition

2011-06-02T21:49:00.000-04:00

I created my own Star Wars! It's really cool. Check it out.

You can make your own Star Wars intro too with the Star Wars Crawl Creator. It might not be as awesome as mine, but I would like to see it.

Sayonara.

New Art and Anime North

2011-05-25T02:49:00.001-04:00

So here is some new artwork. They are traditional illustrations using my watercolor and colored pencil technique that were done for a class I've been teaching. Check out Haruhi Suzumiya and Leonardo.

Anime North is this weekend in Toronto, and as much as I would like to say that I'll be there the whole time, I'm too busy teaching to make that happen. That's the problem with being as awesome as me, no one can fill in for you. So I'll only be there on Sunday. I will be on the Transformers Panel at 12pm, so come on over and say hello if you're going to be there.

Sayonara.

The End of the World

2011-05-20T16:21:00.000-04:00

So, apparently, the world is fated to end very soon. The apocalypse is scheduled to begin this Saturday. This is interesting, and I must say that I'm kind of looking forward to it. As I allow my vast imagination to comprehend the scale of this vague disaster, I have become very currious about what will actually happen. So I have a few questions that I'd like to see answered when it all goes down.

Will there be Nukes?
If so, will Godzilla approve of the Nukes?
Will there be Zombies?
If there will not be Zombies, why not? Are they too busy?
When Jesus appears, will he have a jetpack like I've always imagined he would?
Will we still have to go to work/school/dental appointments?
Will Santa Claus be safe, or will he be the first to fall?
If we don't die right away, will we just mutate into hideous creatures? (Hope so)
How does the Bulk Barn factor into post-apocalyptic society?
Will this be a true test of the durability of Twinkies?

Above all, it is my hope that, somehow, the end of human civilization will eventually result in the return of dinosaurs. That would be totally cool and, to me, would make it all worth while just knowing that dinosaurs got their second chance.

Anyway, it's been a good run and I have no regrets.

Actually, no. That was a complete lie. I'm not ready for the apocalypse yet! It hasn't been a good run at all! There are still a billion things I want to do! I'm too awesome to die!

Sayonara.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

2011-05-03T03:52:00.001-04:00

Well, it's not a big secret if you're following me on Twitter, but for those of you who missed it, I shaved my head again.

2006 was the last time I shaved my head. I liked it like that so I don't really have a good reason as to why I stopped and let it grow long. I think I just wanted to try and be a normal person for awhile. So much for that! For a short while I was maintaining it and getting my hair cut regularly, but eventually just gave that up and let it grow.

It had gotten pretty long over the years and I knew the time was coming to do something with it. I wanted to get a passport photo done and knew that I wasn't going to keep the long hair forever. Besides that, I felt that it was time to return to what I considered my true self. The long hair was cool, but I always knew it was temporary. In my mind I was really a bald bandanna badass.

So, last week, right before Easter, my pony tail was cut off to be donated to people who make wigs for cancer patients. I wanted to make sure that I waited for my hair to be long enough to donate before I cut it all off. The asymmetrical mess that was left behind got clipped down as far as I could. It was like cutting through barbed wire with a kitchen knife. So, for the first time ever, I busted out the shaving cream and sliced it all right down to the skin. It's been several days now so it's starting to really grow back, but I will be keeping it at least down to peach-fuzz as often as possible.

The one thing that I can say about the difference between going from having long hair to having no hair is that the back of my neck feels really cold most of the time. I've got my bandanna keeping me warm up top but there is definitely something missing in the back. The other major difference is that I had to get rid of my awesome Go Nagai sideburns. I think bald guys with long sideburns look stupid, so they had to go. Hopefully my Koji Kabuto-esque burning justice didn't go with them.

At any rate, bald Ninjatron is back. Commence with the quaking with fear!

Sayonara.

New Art: Transformers, Robot Cat Girls, and Batman

2011-04-10T23:59:00.001-04:00

Finally some new stuff! Check out these 3 new additions to my illustration gallery. Please give them a look and tell me what you think.

It has been a busy time recently. I've been hard at work for the past few months putting together something special for the studio I work at. But all my hard work studio is about to pay off. I'm finally going to start teaching a digital art program. It's something I've wanted to do for ages and now it's going to happen. I'll be talking about it more later.

Sayonara.

BlackBurried

2011-03-30T22:19:00.002-04:00

I have joined the new millennium and have started to use a BlackBerry.

It is green. It's a GreenBerry.

Green wasn't my idea. This is something of a hand me down. I've had it for awhile now and it worked fine as a phone, but now I've got it set up with e-mail, maps, games, Twitter, Yelp, and so on. I don't want to become one of those tools who is always got their face buried in their BlackBerry, but it has become quite handy in recent weeks.

My favorite thing, though, is the simple "Memo Pad" application. Of course, I can use it to wright little notes to myself to remind me of things I need to get done, but I've mostly been using it to keep track of how insane I am. I created a list called "Secret Ideas" and whenever a strange thought occurs to me, I type it out so that I have it saved forever. Most of these thoughts are about monsters, robots, and weird characters. Some are very specific, others are quite vague, and the list has gotten quite large. Here are a select few the bizarre things I've come up with.

Turkey robot
Walrus God
Garlic creature
Skatebording pizza robot
Robot space squid
Ham super hero
Kid in ghost costume piloting robot
Doom Clown
Octopus police
Gorilla in Gorilla-mech
Banana in Banana-mech
Computer cake

Just think, these multi-million dollar gems could have been lost forever had I not been able to quickly jot them down on my BlackBerry. I don't know how or why these ideas occur to me, but for whatever reason, they do. Now I can save them and do something with them.

This is a lot more fun than playing BrickBreaker or whatever.

Old Time Gamer

2011-02-27T19:48:00.000-05:00

In cleaning out a closet last week I had to pull out this cardboard box full of video game magazines from the early-to-mid 1990's.

The box is packed to the brim with these magazines. It's so incredibly heavy that it can barely be moved except by slowly pushing it along the floor. Lifting it would cause the bottom of the box to give out.

I didn't really go though the contents very thoroughly but I know that there are mainly issues of Gamepro and Nintendo Power with a few assorted issues of Electronic Gaming Monthly, Die Hard Game Fan and others, covering the 18-bit era of the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis and moving towards the original Playstation and Nintendo 64.

When I was buying magazines like this regularly, I would end up spending maybe $20 a month on them. In retrospect, this was kind of foolish. That money could have added up to enough to buy more games. I guess one could justify it by using the magazine reviews to pick out which games were worth buying, but considering that most of the games I bought in those days were the big hits that were well known and guaranteed to be good, I don't know if that excuse would hold up.

I see now that that these magazines did do for me though, and that was to introduce me to the concept of a video game culture. It was cool as a gamer back then to know things that others didn't, to have your own language, to find out what was going on in Japan, and to be on top of what was new and what was yet to come. Buying a game magazine was like buying a ticket into that still burgeoning culture. Reading each new issue was like taking the next step into an ever expanding world. That meant a lot to me at the time.

Nowadays most gamers would get their info from the Internet, and magazines like this aren't as important or popular as they once were. I suppose it's just as well. When I first got the internet at home, video game sites were the first web pages I visited. And I suppose shortly after that is when I stopped buying game magazines monthly.

Even though I was cleaning out a closet, I just couldn't see myself getting rid of this box. Too many memories. These magazines are a relic of a nearly forgotten age. I doubt they'd ever be worth any money, but as cultural artifacts they still might have some value. It's funny to think of video games, often thought of as being the new kid on the block of technology and entertainment, having this ancient history to it, but here we are.

Seeing this box not only brings to mind how times have changed, but also how I've changed. Back then I just had to know about all the newest stuff, but the last time I visited a video game website to check up on the latest news was weeks ago. Despite all the advancements in technology, the game industry these days just isn't as compelling to me now. I don't play as much and when I do buy new games, it's usually after the price lowers. Perhaps I pine for a return towards the games of my youth. But, when it's all said and done, I'm just mostly going to be interested in the really good ones, just like back in the old days.

Sayonara.