Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Samurai Jack!

One of the worst things about living in Australia is that cartoons are looked at like a curiosity. So unless you have a passion for them no-one really gives a damn and everyone 'Normal' thinks your weird because cartoons are for babies.

What Fools They Are!!

Which makes me come to Samurai Jack, In 2002 I bought the 'Movie' DvD loved it!! and waited impatiently for the rest of the series. My friend had cartoon network back then and I bought a blank video tape so he could record it for me after I did a BIG favour for him and saved him a whole lot of money. Six years later I'm still waiting for the tape back!

But not all was lost a local tv station began screening the first and second series.... at 4am in the morning!! Like I said Cartoons are for babies and Needless to say I taped it. Anyway the Season DvD boxsets never came and unfortunately WarnerBros holds the rights to all the cartoon network stuff and doesn't see Australia as a big enough market to locally release their cartoon products here That includes ALL classic Hanna Barbera, Adult Swim and Cartoon Network. Unless of course they are some sort of compilation or to promote a movie like Batman Begins when they released Batman The Animated Series Season One and THATS IT so I had to buy the rest from ebay!!

So about 18 months ago a savior came in the form of Madman Entertainment. Madman was a local distributer of all things Anime you know that super deformed cutesy japanese animation stuff (Hey I admit to Liking some of it!). They saw a market for more mainstream cartoons, bought the rights to Cartoon Network shows and began releasing full seasons of Ben10, Cow & Chicken (my friend Martins favourite), The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Robot Chicken, Venture Bros and Harvey Birdman. Without them these shows would never see a release here EVER!.

So lets get back to Samurai Jack, Madman released the First Season as well as re-releasing the movie (which has now been discontinued) in 2007 And as always they do a spectacular job of securing all the extras that the US release sees. I was unable to pick up the boxset as I was on a self imposed Non Buying period until I did the trip to the US this year. But a couple of weeks ago I finally picked it up in Melbourne and began to watch and enjoyed it all over again. So I went to buy season two and.......... nothing no season two or three!! Oh No Not again I cried it had been a year since the first season had been released so it seemed that the others would not get released.

The Best thing about Madman is that you can talk to them they have forums and email contact address for various departments. So I emailed and asked if they were considering a release and YES they are MARCH 2009 sees the release of Season two I'm really happy about this.

Many have asked if my work has been inspired by Jack and the answer is yes and no. I am a huge Fan of Lynne Naylors who was a driving force of the design for the show and that as I see it is where my inspration comes from. I would have loved to have met Lynne Naylor this year at Comic Con but she was no where to be seen her work is so colourful and if there was a reicarncation of Mary Blair Lynne would be it. The book I am working on now is influenced by samurai jack as far as style is concerned.

So anyway the DvD is very nice, Madman did a great job of the transfer to the DVD. All the backgrounds and visuals are eyepopping candy and I really can't wait for the second and third seasons to finally see a release. If there was a show I would have like to have gone back in time and worked on as an artist this would have been it.

I got back from Melbourne over a week ago and was hard hit with a Flu again for the third time this year. So I've been eating soup (or is that sippin) for the last couple of days and trying to rest while still having to go and sort my daily awful life out. Arghh!! I do hope to be back to normal in a week or two until then I have put my book on hold as I really can't concentrate with the migraines I am having and I'm only about 4 pages into the book with a number of panels I have to redo because I decided to go in yet another direction with the story which seems to then totally change the arc but needs to be done or it will be a crap story. And believe me after reading the latest Hellboy I realised just how linear those things are and I want to be atleast thought provoking.

I finally saw the Clone Wars movie and well I have to admit to enjoying it. As far as being set in that Prequel Star Wars Universe it fit really well. Not to say its a great universe. But it was certainly entertaining for me. And I have been enjoying the new series too.

Most Haunted you know I love Paranormal Ghost shows and well I never understand these guys they are supposed to be investigators and they go to a haunted house and then run out the door as soon as they get scared and hear a noise I mean come on!! Whats the Point of investigating if you have the bladder of a 5 year old? Lock yourselves in the room and hopefully capture some proof on Film!!

2 comments:

  1. Matt, there's a channel in America called SciFi, you can pretty well guess what their programming consists of.
    They have a show called Ghost Hunters, where these professional paranormal investigators go to supposed haunted houses or buildings and investigate. Some of the stuff they see is pretty odd and unbelievable, but for the most part, they usually wind up sitting at a table and explaining to the people who think that their houses are haunted that they're idiots and are seeing natural phenomena through the eyes of an adult with the bladder of a 5 year old. I think you'd like it if you'd ever gotten a chance to see it.

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  2. Yeah I've seen it (thanks to the wonders of the internet) and again Nothing ever happens. I doubt very much that these people are still Plumbers either. They go out of there way to debunk it or just stand around and say 'hey I saw a ghost oh damn there was no camera on it at the time'. Why dont they wear those ulta light head cameras that fit on your ear? Then we see what they see ? Oh but then they wouldn't be able to fake it!

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