Showing posts with label Toons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Toons. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Defenders of the Earth and Huck Finn


My buddy Karl just sent me this link and caused me to almost have a Nerdgasm. 
Defenders of the Earth  the complete series. 
Have any of you guys seen this series? 
I'm a big fan of the Phantom, but I must admit I'm not too familiar with this series.  One more thing to buy.


On a related note I scored a DVD with the old TV series "The New Adventures of Huck Finn"
Unless you're a "baby boomer" like me you wont remember it.  Hell I can barely remember it. but I remember wanting to go to the cartoon land they were trapped in. I think I also had my first "fanboy" crush on the girl who played Becky. Oh, and "Injun Joe" (Ted Cassidy) scared me so much I almost spilled my bowl of Quisp while watching it.









Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Have you guys seen this?

This was totally off my radar. Looks cool though. Once again I have no idea what the hell is being said but the pictures look cool. I'll leave it up y'all to research further. My Google-Fu is weak today.


Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Yo Joe!



Tip O'the hat to Chris S.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Help a brother out - Vote for Hutt

When I began my Internet journey one of the first groups of people I met were a gang of GI Joe collectors on a list called "Action Heroes". One of the members was Hutt Wigley. It's been over ten years but many of us from that old list are still hanging out together. Hutt has taken his passion for action figures and has combined it with the wizardry of stop motion animation. This contest he's entered has a grand prize of $25,000 and the film gets shopped around to industry folks. This is a great opportunity for Hutt to get some exposure and make some connections in addition to funding for more equipment and future products. Here is a message from Hutt.:

Back in February of 2008, a local (Boise, ID) Hip-Hop artist, called QS the Soul Brother, asked me to create an animated music video for one of his songs. After listening to his catalog of music, I selected the song “Let’s Do It” which QS collaborated on with a rapper named Tone. I created action figure versions of the two musical artists and, using stop-motion animation, placed them in a sort of Indiana Jones-esque pulp adventure setting. Working an average of 6 hours a day, the video took exactly 3 months to complete.



Watch more cool animation and creative cartoons at aniBoom

The music video was shown at the GI JoeFest Stop-Motion Animation Film Festival, and won the 4th place Audience Choice award.

I also entered the video in the annual contest on aniBoom.com which ends December 2nd, 2008. To vote for it and leave comments, go here: http://www.aniboom.com/video/283351/Lets-Do-It/

Thanks for checking it out!

-Hutt Wigley



So there you go folks. Once again a fellow geek needs our help. please check out the video and vote for it. Yes, you do have to register with them to vote but it takes like 2 minutes- and this could be a life changing event for Hutt if he was to win. If you collect comics, action figures or play RPG's you know you have taken some shit from people who think those things are childish, here's a chance to toss it back at them and help a brother out in the process. the animation looks fun but it's a lot of work. Let's help reward hutt's dedication to his hobby.
Thanks.

Vote here.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Virtual gaming with Cartoon Action Hour: season 2



My regular gaming group came to a sudden unexpected end tonight. So to fill the void I'm going to use this opportunity to explore Cartoon Action Hour: season 2
Ive got several players from the Midnights Lair Message board signed on. It looks like we are going to try some virtual tabletop gaming via Skype and Screen Monkey.

here is the premise so far:

The characters are part of a global organization known as the World Science Agency, a private organization that recruits Scientists from all countries and conducts research and investigates all manner of scientific phenomena. The bulk of the organization is research oriented and they have facilities throughout the world. The elite of the organization belong to The Special Missions Bureau
Each member is a expert in at least one scientific field. the scientists are divided into teams that of 4-6 members and are sent to investigate any scientific issues that may have global impact. Each team is given the code name of a famous scientist (i.e. Team Galileo, Team Edison, Team Del Rio, Team Jung, etc.)

Because of the active and often dangerous circumstances the teams find themselves in, members are required to be physically as well as mentally fit. Many have military training or extensive field work experience. The Special missions "Boot camp" is in Guyana and has former members of the American Rangers, British SAS, and Russian Spetsnatz amongst its cadre.


Here is the "feel" i'm aiming for:

Friday, October 31, 2008

Free Comic book creator

Off and on for a few years I've played around with a piece of software known as Comic book creator. the software is good for guys like me who just kinda tinker around and post the occasional comic. When it comes to the guys who know what the hell they are doing It seems that the software lags in several areas. Here is one I did a few years back:



A version of their software is know apparently available online for free. The price is right so go check it out.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

"We now return to: Cartoon Action Hour!"

A few years ago I ran into a game called Cartoon Action Hour (CAH), put out by a small outfit called Spectrum Games




The game was all about playing in the world of Saturday morning cartoons. Especially the serialized cartoons of the 80’s He-Man, The Thundercats, Thundarr the Barbarian, The Go-Bots, GI Joe:Real American Hero, etc. Unfortunately I was in a place where gaming was not happening anywhere. I still bought it, read it, and loved it.

I even bought a couple of great supplements for it , one called Darkness Unleashed which was about a GI Joe type mission force that battled a cabal of monstrous and undead villains, very reminiscent of Nick Pollota’s excellent Bureau 13 stories.


And another called Star Warriors . It has an amazing cover that just totally reminds me of a "Guardians of the Galaxy" comic from my youth. How cool would THAT campaign be to play?


Truth be told, the character generation rules were a bit clunky, but the premise was totally original and fresh at the time. Unfortunately CAH ended up on my special shelf of cool games that I’ll probably never get a chance to play.

End of story.

Until now…
I just got a heads up that the author of CAH, Cynthia Celeste Miller is ready to unveil Cartoon Action Hour: Season 2




It promises, among other things, a simplified Character creation system, a brand new system of Traits and streamlined combat more in tune with, well…Toons.

I often see messages on various gaming forums asking for recommendations for a good starter game for kids. Well folks, this just may be the one. The focus and the genre sure is the right one. I guess we’ll just have to await its release and see how it plays. This baby is a must have for me, as my minions are now of an age where gaming is a cool thing to do with daddy!

I contacted Cynthia and she has given me permission to publish her company email here at the Lair so that you can obtain your own PDF preview of CAH2. You can reach her at:


cynthia.spectrumgames@gmail.com



Drop her a note. And make sure you let her know the Evil DM sent ya!

Friday, July 04, 2008

Happy Birthday USA!


First off Happy 4th of July!

We ain't perfect, but there is no other place I'd rather live.


Writing

When discussing the D20 OGL I always said "Now days any idiot with a computer and a pirated copy of Adobe Acrobat can call himself a game publisher".

Yesterday I became that idiot.


I'm still all giddy about Evil DM Productions being granted a License to produce material for Savage Worlds. Now the work begins.


In addition to Legends of Steel I have several other projects to port over to the Savage Worlds system. Yesterday I managed to get in a few hours of writing. It wasn't solid, focused uninterrupted writing, it was more of the kind where you are constantly dealing with "Daddy, Nick wont play with me."
"Daddy what are you doing?"
"Daddy I'm bored."

I guess the answer would be to write when every one else is asleep. But that's when I want to sleep too. I know there are a few writers who visit here- how the hell do you guys balance things?


Gaming

Last night while writing I got to thinking about a couple of gaming combos that would be real cool.

A while back I mentioned mixing Savage Worlds with the TV series Jack of all Trades. Last night I was thinking about using Savage Worlds for spy/pulp/low powered supers campaign using the world of the Black Coat.

The Black Coat is a title from Ape Entertainment. The Black Coat is a colonial version of the Shadow / Zorro/ and the Phantom. Very cool premise.

I think Rob Rogers made mention of colonial era supers in his Devil's Cape universe as well.





I'm thinking this might also work with Precise Intermedia's Colonial Record or Colonial Gothic from Rogue games.

Another thought that occured to me is taking the Venture Bros. Cartoon and adapting it with Toon from Steve Jackson games. I haven't played Toon in years. Venture Bros. is damn funny and with the right GM a Toon version of the Venture Bros. would be hilarious!





OK back to work.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

The State of the Lair and more (a S.W.O.T analysis)


This picture has nothing to do with the topic on this post, I just think it's cool.

The SWOT analysis gimmick that I use in World of Broadsword is a favorite of most purchasers I’ve talked to. So I figured I’d do a SWOT of myself, the Lair and EDM Productions.

Strengths
The Lair is popular and has a decent following. I attribute this to keeping it light, trying to be informative, and of course posting hot chicks on a regular basis.
If you stumble upon the Lair during a Google search you either move on or you stick around. A lot of you have stuck around, which is very cool-so thanks.

World of Broadsword (WoB) has proven to be a success/ I’ve released a product that people like and I can be proud of.

The popularity of both the Lair and WoB has given me quite a boost of self confidence. I crossed that invisible line from a talker to a doer. As my buddy Karl put it “I’m just glad to see on of my slacker gaming buddies get off their ass and do something with the hobby.”


Weaknesses
The Lair takes up a bit of time. Even though the content isn’t text heavy I find myself falling behind from time to time. The returns on my effort have lessened in my eyes in comparison to those of actually creating a product and having people enjoy it.

EDM Productions is new and I don’t have a lot of content out there to dazzle people with.
My website is extremely amateur. It gets the job done for now, but it’s far from the professional snazzy looking website I know it could be, if all the stuff in my head was out there for people to see.

I’m a chronic procrastinator (case in point: Legends of Steel). I’m also one of those guys who are always regarded as very intelligent, but lazy. I’ve always been full of unrealized potential. To quote every teacher I’ve had from kinder to college- “Jeff is such a bright young man. It’s a shame he doesn’t apply himself.”


Opportunities
The Lair has given me a great deal of exposure in our little corner of the geek multiverse. I have made friends and networked with folks I would have never met in day to day life. For good or ill my name is out there and I have a sliver of presence.

World of Broadsword has proven that if I try I can put some interesting thoughts on paper. I have been approached on several fronts to do reviews, articles and more supplements similar to WoB. No screenplays or movie deals, but it’s a start!

This may sound weird but I currently have an ailment that is keeping me off work for a couple of weeks, nothing life threatening thank God, but still I have a regimen of medications and tests that I have to attend to and the doctor doesn’t want me working during that time (Hey, who am I to argue with a doctor?). So for the next few weeks I’m home. While I’m here I have the perfect opportunity to get some serious writing done.
I’m always bitching about not having enough time for Legends of Steel or some of the other projects I’ve had on slow cook for the longest time. So here is an opportunity to get some shit done.


Threats
The internets- that thing I enjoy so much- THAT is the biggest threat to my success with all of these ventures. Sure, posting a link to a new pulp game or putting up a picture of some dream girl in a thong doesn’t take a lot of time, but the time spent surfing to find that thong girl pic is what takes up time. A few clicks here and there start to add up, minutes become hours and then I look at the clock and it’s time to get to the doctor or pick up the kids. And I realize I just pissed away the whole morning cruising the gaming message boards, reading about the same old debates, the same old “tell me of ---gaming system”, or whether 4th edition will suck or not. This has happened to me before and I know it will again.


It’s a discipline thing. I have got to try to break that cycle of failure. I’ve just had the tiniest taste of how cool it is to have something published and thought well of.
That’s some heady nectar my friend.
So posting at the Lair is going to be scarce for a while, my presence on the boards is going to be severely curtailed. It’s not about being “burned out” or hating the hobby. I just want to be one of those guys who actually does something more than say “you know, one of these days…”

I have a cache of stuff saved up so I'll still be posting, and when I do have something to write about I will. But I'm going to be refocusing for a bit, so if it gets slow around here you all know why.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Pulp Thursday



Turok son of stone DVD
The classic Dell comic character who had a brief resurgence at the end of the 20th century is headed to DVD. The trailer looks cool. With all the dinosaurs chomping people in half , it’s probably safe to say this one ain’t for the kiddies.





Dark Kingdom
Image comics came out with the Death Dealer comic a few months ago. Now we have Dark Kingdom set to hit the shelves in April. So far, it looks like Image is gonna do the whole Molly Hatchet catalogue.




Red Nails
There may never be a Red Nails animated DVD, but by the Gods there will be a complete audio version available for download!






Italian pulp
The Acrobatic flea gave me the heads up on this one.
I have no idea what this site is saying, but I had a great time checking it out.
Here is the skinny on it:
La Domenica del Corriere (”Sunday Courier”) was Sunday insert for Corriere della Sera, an Italian newspaper that ran for 90 years, from 1899 to 1989. For most of that time the section featured a full-page illustration on its cover each week.
These were often dramatic gouache or watercolor illustrations, almost in a pulp-illustration vein, but they presumably illustrated actual news stories (think of all of the notable and dramatic events that occurred during that period of time).
There is a site devoted to them at www.illustrated-history.org/, containing an archive of the illustrations and a bit of the history.
There is a search function on the home page that allows you to search by region (Per luoghi), by artist (Per autore) or event (Ricerca avanzata), with attendant drop-down menus.
It appears that there is a concentration on two artists in particular, Walter Molino (above left) and Achillies Beltrame (above right), whose work is sought after by collectors. Searching for these two may be a good place to start. Once you are on a page with a featured illustration, clicking on that image provides a pop-up with a wonderfully large reproduction of the painting. (I’ve included a full-size crop from a small section of each illustration above.) You can also informally browse from an illustration page to other pages by incrementing or decrementing the database number at the end of the URL in your browser’s address field.
Some of the illustrations are less interesting than others and there is some repetition of subject as they looked for sensational topics to illustrate (lots of train wrecks and other disasters), but some of these images are just wonderful and make the trouble of searching and browsing worth your while.
This is intended to be more of an illustrated history than an appreciation of the artists, but it serves as both. You can take a fascinating stroll through the early to mid 20th Century and view some wonderful pulp-style illustrations in the process.
I also found a blog on a site devoted to the paper, Blog del Club Domenica del Corriere, also in Italian, that features the illustrations, but doesn’t dwell on them exclusively.





Gold Monkey
Now I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up…It’s just a rumor…But, “Tales of the Gold Monkey” could finally be headed for DVD!

And that is your Pulp Thursday Report!

Friday, September 21, 2007

Friday Funny



It really is you know...

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Sunday Funnies


I saw this in a recent issue of Knights of the Dinnertable Magazine. I'm reading the archives right now. Who knew being evil could be so much fun? Check it out.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Constant Payne - 2001 Pilot

This is one cool Toon. Action-Pulp flavor in the vein of Jonny Quest. Too bad it never got past the pilot.



Here is the website with more info.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Stop the Presses!


This just in...

"DUNGEONS & DRAGONS" The complete series
All 27 episodes to be released on a 5 disc DVD set on December 5th.

Press release

Amazon has it on pre-order.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Dave the Barbarian


Usually I'm too busy rushing around in the morning to do more than hear the headlines and weather. This morning however, I had a few extra minutes and found myself watching cartoons with my kids they were watching a show on the Disney channel called Dave the Barbarian. Being the Sword & Sorcery fan boy that I am I got quite a kick out of it. The show had the type of humor that was reminiscent of the old underdog series, many of the gags worked more for adults than for the kids. I think I just found something new to fit in during my morning regimen, plus I get a few more minutes with my boys so it’s all good.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Red Nails



It looks like the Conan animated movie is moving forward. It’s looking good so far. They are doing an adaptation of Robert E Howard’s story “Red Nails”.

This is the style of art I would love to have for my Legends of Steel Game.

Check out the Link.