Blade of the Immortal Theme Song

I just watched the first 5 episodes of the 2008 Blade of the Immortal anime, based on Hiroaki Samura’s maga. It’s not bad, with its one-eyed protagonist who happens to have some handy bloodworms inside him, making him essentially unkillable. However, it’s filled with the kind of thing I’ve seen before in samurai anime, namely vicious bad guys, lots of blood, and women who are sad and demure.

It also has a theme song that loses something from its original Japanese. Here’s the English translation of the opening theme, Red Rabbit, from The Pillow Book.

I’ll never be easily loved

Am I just too clumsy?

That girl who looks good in pink

Is that who you want?

Is red not good enough?

The rabbit with red eyes runs away

Even though I loved you so much

If I’m sad, I’m going to die

The rabbit that you like

Isn’t on the moon

It’s just a rabbit

Um…yeah, I don’t know what the original Japanese is like, but most of the songs I’ve seen in anime are focused on broad concepts and use the words, “love,” and “dream” a lot. Now, here’s the translation from the closing theme, called wants by GRAPEVINE.

Sadly, I awakened

Overflowing reality is just

More of the empty lies

To be honest, I have to get ready for the next one

The morning slides in from the window

Regardless of what I see, I remember

I remember the unchanging wind always

Just said this as it passed by

What’s needed for this endless journey?

Where should I go?

Awesome. That’s got to be the first time deceiving lunar rabbits have ever been in a song, unless there’s one on a Monty Python album or something.

September 24, 2011
Categories: Cartoons . Tags: . Author: Kris Bather . Comments: Leave a comment

Super ’70s and ’80s

I’ve been meaning to mention this for a while now, but essentially, author Marc Tyler Nobleman’s latest project is a great one, which focusus on some forgotten players in pop culture in the 1970s and 1980s. Here’w how he describes it.

To bridge the gap between my book Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman (which made the front page of USA Today) and my upcoming book on Batman/Bill Finger (2012), I found and interviewed 100 “lost” stars of superhero/cartoon entertainment of the ’70s and ’80s – from more than 40 Sea World water skiing superheroes to the pimp in Superman: The Movie to the original singer of the Scooby-Doo theme to the voice actors of the Wonder Twins. (Scroll down for the link and a list of the 10 subseries.)
The interviews are sometimes hilarious and often poignant; many of these people have not been interviewed before and had no idea they have fans. You will also see many previously unpublished “then and now” photos and rare documents and mementos from various private collections.
I am posting one interview per day between now and 10/12/11, with a few gaps for my blog’s “regularly scheduled content.”
10 subseries.
71 posts.
88 days.
100 interviews.
The 10 subseries (mark your calendar!):
Super Friends (1973-86)
28 interviews (15 voice actors, 7 writers, 2 animators, 4 other production staff)
launched 7/17/11
Sea World superheroes water ski show (1976-79)
45 interviews (37 skiers, 1 boat driver, 1 high diver, 2 announcers, 4 production staff)
launched 8/22/11
Superman: The Movie (1978)
3 interviews (all actors)
Legends of the Superheroes (1979)
5 interviews (3 actors, 1 deceased actor’s niece, 1 director/producer)
Batman and Robin Meet Dr. Danger (circa 1979)
2 interviews (both performers)
launches 9/26/11
Bugs Bunny Meets the Superheroes (1979-81)
6 interviews (all performers)
launches 9/27/11
The Plastic Man Comedy Show (1979-81; repackaged with live-action host in 1984)
2 interviews (1 actor, 1 director/producer)
launches 9/28/11
Superman (Ruby-Spears animated series, 1988)
1 interview (voice actor)
launches 10/2/11
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! (seasons 1-2: 1969-71)
7 interviews (2 voice actors, 2 theme song singers, 1 music producer, 1 songwriter’s widow, 1 songwriter’s son)
launches 10/4/11
And a wild card:
Mick Smiley (“Magic,” Ghostbusters, 1984)
1 interview
launches 10/12/11

The amount of research is very impressive and for those like me who grew up in those awesome 2 decades, this is a pretty intriguing project. In fact, I didn’t even know there was a Plastic Man cartoon, or that Bugs Bunny and his pals teamed up with a few DC Comics characters for stage show.

 

See? Great stuff, including interviews with the 2 actors who played Clark Kent before Christopher Reeve grew up in my fave film, Superman: The Movie, and a chat with the pimp who first comments on Superman’s outfit! ( “Say, Jim—whoa! That’s a bad out-fit! Whoo!”)

Check out Marc’s site right here.

September 24, 2011
Categories: Cartoons, New To Comics?, News . Tags: , , , . Author: Kris Bather . Comments: 2 Comments

Jim Henson’s A Tale of Sand Preview

And what a lively and generous preview it is. Below is the official lowdown and you can check out a 20 page preview at Archaia’s site.

 

ARCHAIA UNVEILS A 20-PAGE SNEAK PEEK OF ORIGINAL GRAPHIC NOVEL

‘TALE OF SAND’

 

BASED ON AN UNPRODUCED SCREENPLAY CO-WRITTEN BY JIM HENSON, THE PREVIEW IS TIMED TO COINCIDE WITH GOOGLE’S CELEBRATION OF HIS BIRTHDAY

 

In honor of what would have been the late Jim Henson’s 75th birthday, award-winning publisher Archaia Entertainment will debut the first 20 pages of the upcoming original graphic novel Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand, which is based on an unproduced screenplay written by Henson and longtime collaborator Jerry Juhl and visualized and illustrated by acclaimed artist Ramón Pérez, it was announced by Editor-in-Chief Stephen Christy today. The pages will appear exclusively on Archaia.com starting on Sept. 24th.

 

“We are so pleased to be able to share with Henson fans a glimpse inside this groundbreaking project,” said Christy. “Ramón Peréz has created a stunning visual translation of Jim Henson’s only unproduced feature-length screenplay, and we are honored to debut this exclusive preview of the forthcoming graphic novel in partnership with The Jim Henson Company and Google’s celebration of Jim’s birthday.”

 

Tale of Sand, a dark, existential feature-length screenplay that built off of ideas Jim Henson had been developing since he produced his Academy Award-nominated short film “Timepiece,” tells the story of a man who is kicked out of a dusty town in the middle of the desert, with no memory of who he is or where he came from. Relentlessly pursued by an unknown assailant, and with only a rucksack of odds-and-ends to his name, he embarks on a desperate race across an increasingly bizarre landscape with only one thing in mind: survival.

 

Archaia and The Jim Henson Company entered into a multi-year publishing partnership in 2009 for Archaia to publish comics and graphic novels based on classic franchises like Fraggle Rock, The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, as well as new, co-branded original properties.

 

Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand (hardcover, 152pp, $29.95, ISBN: 978-1-936393-09-1) is scheduled to debut in comic book shops and wherever books are sold in November 2011.


September 24, 2011
Categories: Comic Art, New To Comics? . Tags: , . Author: Kris Bather . Comments: Leave a comment

Extra Sequential Podcast #59-Donald Duck & DuckTales

55 mins. Don’t cry fowl, but we discuss the whacky and funny Fantagraphics collection of Carl Barks’ much loved 1940s Donald Duck stories, and compare them to BOOM! Studios’ current DuckTales…tales. Also, Ninja Turtles, Mythbusters and capitalism.

LISTEN TO IT BELOW, DOWNLOAD IT HERE OR ON iTUNES 

 

 

 

 

You can email us at kris (at)extrasequential(dot)com and befriend us on the NEW ES Facebook page.

2:53 NEWS

Amanda Waller gets retconned to a thin woman!

Marvel is no longer publishing any of French publisher’s Soleil’s great comics

Batman: Year One animated clip

 

John Dies at the End cast pics

9:43 THEME – DONALD DUCK AND DUCKTALES 

We tell you why creator Carl Barks is loved for his storytelling prowess and surprisingly funny and absurd humour in his Donald, Scrooge, etc tales and compare it with the modern equivalent in BOOM! Studio’s latest DuckTales mini-series.

You can get Fantagraphics’ Donald Duck in Lost in the Andes in November.

The 4 issues of BOOM!’s DuckTales series, Rightful Owners, are available now.

48: 02 A FEW QUICK THOUGHTS ON THE DC #1s WE’VE READ

 

September 23, 2011
Categories: Comics, New To Comics?, News, Podcast, Reviews . Tags: , , . Author: Kris Bather . Comments: Leave a comment

Free The Thing Prequel Comic

Here’s the lowdown from Dark Horse about their free digital comic, set in the time of Vikings, and tying in to The Thing remake film.

THE THING RETURNS TO DARK HORSE COMICS

WITH A FREE DIGITAL COMIC THAT SERVES AS A PREQUELTO THE NEW THRILLER IN THEATERS OCTOBER 14!

Dark Horse Comics is pleased to announce that it has created an exclusive digital comic to serve as a prequel to the thriller “The Thing,” in theaters October 14. Starting today, the comic will be released in three parts on September 21, September 28 and October 5 and is available FREE online at www.digital.darkhorse.com and via the free Dark Horse Comics mobile app (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id415378623). The Thing: The Northman Nightmare tells the origin story of pioneering Norsemen who discover a shape-shifting creature that is hiding in a desolate village with few human survivors.

In December 1991, Dark Horse Comics first published The Thing From Another World #1. In the style of Aliens, Predator and Terminator, Dark Horse Comics picked up where John Carpenter’s classic 1982 film left off. Now, 20 years later, Dark Horse shares a much earlier story about this creature from beneath the ice.

Taking us into frigid Greenland, the comic introduces us to a group of Norsemen who find themselves caught in a game of survival when they discover a terrifying creature. The shape-shifting monster has the ability to turn itself into a perfect replica of any living being. It can look just like you or me, but inside, it remains inhuman. And it hides somewhere in a desolate village with few human survivors, among them a strange group of women…

Said editor Scott Allie: “This property consistently generates much excitement from fans, which made it easy to round up an incredible team for this prequel comic. This is a sincere horror story by guys who know how to knock it out of the park.”

The Thing: The Northman Nightmare is written by Steve Niles (Criminal Macabre), with art by Patric Reynolds (Serenity), colors by Dave Stewart (Hellboy) and a cover by Menton3 (Silent Hill). The Thing: The Northman Nightmare comes to readers as a prequel to Universal Pictures’ upcoming prelude to John Carpenter’s classic 1982 film of the same name.

“Steve Niles and Dark Horse have done it again, truly an amazing book,” said Menton3. “I am extremely proud to be a small part of it.”

The first eight-page installment of The Thing: The Northman Nightmare can be downloaded digitally from the Dark Horse Digital Comics App or at www.digital.darkhorse.com today FOR FREE!

About “The Thing” film: Antarctica: an extraordinary continent of awesome beauty. It is also home to an isolated outpost known as Thule Station. There, a crew of international scientists has unearthed a remarkable discovery. But elation quickly turns to terrifying paranoia in the thriller “The Thing,” as the group of researchers encounters something inhuman that has the ability to turn itself into an exact replica of any living being.

“The Thing” serves as a prelude to John Carpenter’s classic 1982 film of the same name. Directed by Matthijs van Heijningen, the thriller is produced by Strike Entertainment’s Marc Abraham and Eric Newman (“Dawn of the Dead”). www.thethingmovie.net


September 22, 2011
Categories: Comics, New To Comics?, News . Tags: . Author: Kris Bather . Comments: Leave a comment

Batman: Year One’s Catwoman

Here’s the first look at how Catwoman will look in her short film on next month’s Batman: Year One animated film. Cool. She resembles her comic counterpart closley. Hopefully Anne Hathaway in next year’s The Dark Knight Rises will too. Official details below.

 

Warner Home Video to unveil Catwoman animated short, first Justice League: Doom footage at New York Comic Con

 

Warner Home Video, Warner Premiere, DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation proudly present an action-packed hour of first looks at DC Universe Animated Original Movies properties on Friday, October 14 from 3:00-4:00 p.m. at New York Comic Con.

 

Central to the panel will be the world premiere of the animated short Catwoman, starring Eliza Dushku (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dollhouse) as the voice of title character. The 15-minute short will be included on the release of Batman: Year One, which streets October 18 on Blu-ray, DVD, for Download and On Demand.

 

The panel will also include the very first footage to be seen from Justice League: Doom, the highly-anticipated next entry in the ongoing series of DC Universe Animated Original Movies.

 

The panelists, which include the ultimate voice of Batman, Kevin Conroy, DCU executive producer Bruce Timm and casting/dialogue director Andrea Romano, will offer a glimpse into the 2012 DC Universe Animated Original Movies slate, give away some exclusive prizes to inquisitive audience members, and quite possibly welcome a few surprise guests to the stage.

 

An autograph session with the panelists will immediately follow the panel.

 

September 21, 2011
Categories: Art, Cartoons, Movies, New To Comics?, News . Tags: , , . Author: Kris Bather . Comments: Leave a comment

Some Marvel Reads

It’s been a rather hectic week, but here’s a few quick mentions of some Marvel issues I’ve enjoyed over the last 2 weeks.

Spider Island: The Avengers is a great one-shot that doesn’t have Spidey have in it, but does feature Hawkeye, Jessica Jones and Ms. Marvel teaming up with Frog-Man, one of Marvel’s greatest D listers. Meanwhile Squirrel Girl is looking after Luke and Jessica Jones’ baby as she too (along with the rest of Manhattan) gains spider powers. Amongst the great action in the U.N as the Avengers fight Flag Smasher and his cronies, there’s some awesome humour. From Chris Yost and Mike McKone. Grab it as an entertaining respite from all the serious, epic action form Fear Itself.

Wolverine: Debt of Death is another one-shot, though blood and ninjas replace humour here. I’m not a huge Wolvie fan, but  David Lapham and David Aja are a great creative combo. Set in the ’60s (I think) Wolvie is about to leave Japan before he gets involved with Nick Fury, some Japanese cops, robo suits and the son of an old friend. Frankly, it’s awesome and is filled with great examples of action and timing, such as:

X-23 #14 follows Wolverine’s daughter/clone and thankfully has a “Previously…” page for irregular readers like me. Again, I only picked this up thanks to the creative team. In this case writer Marjorie Liu and artist Phil Noto. Part 2 of the Chaos Theory story arc, it made sense and has no action in it, but rather focuses on some very well crafted dialogue. Laura (that’s X-23) is hanging out with the Fantastic Four , or the Future Foundation as they’re known, in their swanky, hi-tech New York pad for most of the ish, and yakking about a mystery and getting to know each other a little more. It also features Gambit, looking the most normal he’s ever looked hanging out with Dr. Cecilia Reyes, who I haven’t seen in an X-Men comic since the ’90s. There’s some great tension between X-23 and the untrusting Thing, and Susan Storm’s caring nature comes to the fore. It all looks so clean and attractive, as Noto does so well.

Oh, and Punisher, and Black Panther are two of Marvel’s best series at the moment, which is a nice surprise.

September 21, 2011
Categories: Comic Art, Comics, Reviews . Tags: . Author: Kris Bather . Comments: Leave a comment

Grifter #1 Review

I haven’t really had time to post my quick thoughts on the new #1s from DC that I’ve bought this month, but I was looking forward to Grifter, as it’s being created by one of my favourite comics writers Nathan Edmondson (Olympus, The Light), with artist Cafu.

My entire review of the premiere issue can be read here at Broken Frontier. In short, it’s awesome.

September 20, 2011
Categories: Comics, New To Comics?, Reviews . Tags: . Author: Kris Bather . Comments: Leave a comment

Makeshift Miracle

Fanboys love a good teaser, and most of the publishers love sending them out and watching speculation rise. Writer Jim Zubkavich, the man behind some of Udon’s Street Fighter mini-series, and Image’s fantasy romp Skullkickers has sent a teaser image out.

My first thought, since it has a date stamped on it was, “I don’t recall seeing this in any of July’s solicitations.” Thankfully Zubkavich is more forthcoming on the related website. It turns out that…

The Makeshift Miracle was a graphic novel serialized online from September 2001 through to March 2003. This month is the 10th anniversary of the first chapter and we’ve got big plans for celebrating that milestone. Keep your eyes on our site for more teasers and add our RSS feed to your favourite reader.

Get ready… because on September 26th, the Miracle is back.

I will do that indeed.

September 19, 2011
Categories: Comics . Tags: , . Author: Kris Bather . Comments: Leave a comment

Billy Tucci’s A Child is Born

Creator of Shi, and superb artist Billy Tucci’s next project will be out just in time for Christmas, and like all his other work, it looks beautiful. You can read an interview at Newsarama with Tucci here in which he talks about A Child is Born, his Christian faith, and his exhaustive research for the book.

Check out the Facebook page for updates and you can order the 32 page, full colour comic now from your local comic shop. (It’s on page 226 of the current Previews catalogue).

September 18, 2011
Categories: Comic Art, Comics, New To Comics?, News . Tags: . Author: Kris Bather . Comments: Leave a comment

Extra Sequential Podcast #58-Star Wars

The first episode I’ve missed, due to some stomach bug thingy, but thankfully fellow Perth pop culture podcaster Luke Milton did an awesome job with Mladen. Here’s Mladen’s intro from the show.

Kris is frozen in Carbonite this week, so Mladen is joined by Luke Milton, Perth comic artist/photographer (that’s one of his photos below) and host of the “C-List” and “The Book Was Better” podcasts, to discuss Star Wars! The mythic stature vs the actual quality of the films, blu-ray deleted scenes and changes, the original and prequel trilogies, and the expanded universe and Star Wars Comics. Also: Lando Calrissian, Yaddle, and an awkward story about meeting Jake Lloyd. Your ears can’t repel podcasting of this magnitude!

 LISTEN TO IT BELOW, DOWNLOAD IT HERE OR ON iTUNES

You can email us at kris (at)extrasequential(dot)com and befriend us on the NEW ES Facebook page.

As for the comics we mention:

Star Wars: Infinities – The Star Wars version of Elseworlds/What If…

Star Wars Empire: The story of Biggs Darklighter

The Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn

Star Wars: Droids comics

Dark Empire

Star Wars Tales with Tony Millionaire and Peter Bagge

Archie Goodwin’s 1970s Star Wars comics

 

Thanks again to Luke. Hopefully we’ll get him on the show again sometime, and I’ll be back with Mladen next week to ramble on about comics stuff.

September 17, 2011
Categories: Comics, Movies . Tags: . Author: Kris Bather . Comments: Leave a comment

Spider-Man Costume Redesign Winners

Project Rooftop is a great site that occasionally runs costume contests on comics characters. Seeing as there’s a new Spider-Man in Miles Morales (in the Ultimate Universe, and the first issue of his series was released this week), now’s a good time for them to announce their winner of their latest contest. Below is the winning entry by Mike Dimayunga, and 2 of my faves (by Corey Lewis, and Rosy Higgins) of their many great entries in their Spider-Man: Webhead 2.0 contest.

Check them all out here.

September 16, 2011
Categories: Art, New To Comics? . Tags: . Author: Kris Bather . Comments: Leave a comment

Nathan Edmondson News

Writer of Olympus, and The Light from Image Comics has his hands on the old Wildstorm character, Grifter. I’m not a fan of the character, but I’m curious to see what Edmondson (and artist Cafu) does with him when it debuts this week. A preview of Grifter #1 is below, and you can hear an interview with Edmondson at iFanboy.

Catch previews of Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE #1, and Red Lanterns #1 (also both out this week) here. There’s also a teasing interview with Edmondson, and artist Mitch Gerads about his next few projects, including the pair’s December releasing series here.

Finally, here’s a preview of the much anticipated fifth issue of Who is Jake Ellis? from Edmondson and artist Tonci Zonjic. WIJE? #5 lands on September 21, and somehow this slipped by me, but WIJE? has been extended from a 5 ish mini to…something longer. Good news.

September 13, 2011
Categories: Comic Art, Comics, Interviews, New To Comics? . Tags: . Author: Kris Bather . Comments: 2 Comments

My Kings Comics Article

At Comic Book Resources is my article on the Kings Comics shop in Sydney. Greg Burgas does a column in which readers can put the spotlight on their LCS, and since I was in Sydney recently, and Kings is arguably Australia’s best known comics shop, I interviewed their manager Jim, and took lots of photos, and you can see the end result right here.

Next up will be my article on Comic Kingdom, not far from Kings in location, but certainly in…everything else.

 

September 12, 2011
Categories: Comics, New To Comics? . Tags: . Author: Kris Bather . Comments: Leave a comment

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