Tezuka and Astro Boy as a stamp

This has been a good year for English-language Osama Tezuka fans. Vertical is printing his Black Jack series in beautiful editions. DMP published Tezuka’s experimental manga, Swallowing the Earth. Frederick Schodt is touring the country with his lecture on the life and legacy of Tezuka. Two new books about the life and works of Tezuka were published this year too, God of Comics and The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga.

To cap it all off, the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art is hosting a month long celebration of Tezuka’s animated works, Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga, Father of Anime. This past weekend marked the inauguration of the event, which I was fortunate enough to attend.

Introducing Astro Boy

The weekend began with a lecture by Frederick Schodt at 7:00 PM on Friday, November 13, entitled “Introducing Astro Boy”. This was similar to the lecture he gave at Otakon. Tezuka, born in 1928, is called the God of Manga in Japan, and some are also referring to him as the Father of Anime. He attended medical school and actually received his license, but he never practiced. He liked to joke that one of his medical professors told him it was a good thing for his patients that he became a manga artist.

Frederick Schodt

Obviously, manga existed before Tezuka. However, Tezuka heavily influenced post-World War II manga by introducing new visual styles and storytelling techniques. Tezuka was himself influenced by Disney and the Fleischer brothers. He brought the cinematic style he saw in their cartoons to manga and made popular a more decompressed style of storytelling. Tezuka also helped introduce sophisticated themes into children’s manga.

Astro Boy made his first appearance in a short side story titled Captain Atom. There was such a positive response to the story, Tezuka’s editor convinced him to make Captain Atom a star of his own series. Tezuka completely retooled the character and the story. When the robot boy reappeared he had a new name to signal his new beginning, The Mighty Atom (Astro Boy to American audiences). The series was immediately a success. Astro Boy went on to become a symbol of science and technology in Japan. He is still a much beloved character today

In 1957, a kamishibai based on Astro Boy was made. In 1959, a short-lived live-action Astro Boy TV show was created. (Fred said this is so bad, it’s good.) Finally, in 1962, Tezuka had enough money to form his own animation company, Mushi Productions. In January 1963, the Astro Boy animated TV show premiered. It was the first half-hour weekly animated series on Japanese TV. Astro Boy became a national phenomenon. The whole family would gather around the TV set to watch the show. Executives from NBC saw the show and licensed it for syndication in the US, where Astro Boy premiered in select areas in September 1963.

Following the lecture, there were four episodes of the original Astro Boy anime series aired, all directed by Tezuka, including the first and last episodes of the series. Afterward, there was a short Q&A session. Fred said that Tezuka was embarrassed by the original Astro Boy series, because of the crude animation. However, you can see a noticeable improvement in the animation between the first episode and the last.

The Film Is Alive

Saturday’s schedule began at 2:00 PM with a short documentary entitled The Film Is Alive. This was a 45-minute film that examined Tezuka’s career as an animator, starting with his first experimental film in 1962 and ending with his last film, another experimental short, made before his death in 1989. This was an amazing documentary that revealed a dimension to Tezuka that I never knew existed.

Tezuka was responsible for several animated TV shows, feature-length films, and short experimental movies. Tezuka loved animation and wanted Japanese animation to be better known globally. He became an ambassador for anime by attending animation festivals around the world and getting international animation festivals hosted in Japan. His passion was experimentation. He loved exploring what was possible with animation both visually and from a storytelling perspective, using various styles and techniques. The one constant in all his animation was that was all hand-drawn. He didn’t like computer animation.

L to R: Natsu Onoda Power, Ada Palmer, Helen McCarthy, Frederick Schodt, moderator (sorry forget to write the name down.)

After the film, there was a panel discussion driven by questions from the audience. The four panelists were:

• Natsu Onoda Power, visiting professor at Georgetown University and author of God of Comics: Osamu Tezuka and the Creation of Post-World War II Manga
• Ada Palmer, professor at Texas A&M and founder of the website Tezuka in English. She has an essay on Tezuka in the forthcoming Anime and Philosophy, edited by Josef Steiff and Tristan D. Tamplin
• Helen McCarthy, author of The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga
• Frederick Schodt, author of The Astro Boy Essays: Osamu Tezuka, Mighty Atom, and the Manga/Anime Revolution

Initially, they began by discussing Tezuka’s influence. It turns out that his influence extends beyond just manga and anime. His works were, and continue to be, the inspiration for many scientists and doctors pursuing the careers they currently have. Several prominent roboticists in Japan have admitted they still dream of building Astro Boy.

Like everyone else of his generation, World War II was the defining event of Tezuka’s life. It shaped his desire to promote the positive, productive uses of technology over the destructive applications he had experienced. It also influenced his feminism. He saw Japanese women having to take on traditionally male roles and jobs during the war while the men were fighting abroad. (Helen says seeing his mother in these roles was the inspiration for the character Princess Knight.) The realities of war fueled his pacifism. And his experiences with American soldiers during the occupation helped shape his belief in racial equality.

Tezuka often said that manga was his wife and anime was his mistress. Tezuka could spend lavishly on experimental animation projects. Fred said that because he was so open to play with the form of animation, his animated works are often uneven and undisciplined. Ada pointed out that Tezuka approached animation like a clinical researcher. He was always testing new ideas and probing to explore limitations. He didn’t have any boundaries to what he was willing to try.

Tezuka’s star system probably grew out of his love for theater and early Hollywood movies. Growing up, his father would import movies and cartoons from America. His mother often took him to plays at the Takarazuka Theater. Tezuka created a stock group of characters that appeared throughout his manga, like actors assuming roles in a play or movie. This allowed him to create new series much more quickly, since all the character designs were finished.

Marine Express

Sunday also began with a film at 2:00 PM. This time it was a made-for-TV animated movie, Marine Express (1979) written by Tezuka himself and produced by Tezuka Productions. The Marine Express is an underwater train that runs from Los Angeles to Tokyo. Private detective Ban Shunsaku has been hired by the chief engineer to investigate his suspicions about illegal activities involving the train’s maiden voyage. However, Shunsaku arrives to find the chief engineer dead. He later spots the killer boarding the Marine Express and follows him onto the train. What follows is a murder mystery combined with a crime thriller mixed with a disaster film that morphs into a time travel adventure with invading space aliens. It’s a wild ride for both the train passengers and the viewing audience. Featured is most of the ensemble from Tezuka’s star system.

Following the film was a brief discussion by Helen McCarthy and Frederick Schodt. Helen loved the film, calling it sheer silliness. Fred said the film is the ultimate in-joke for Tezuka fans. He said it is a great foreshadowing of postmodern deconstructional storytelling. Amazingly, Tezuka insisted on drawing every key frame involving Black Jack. This was a film that the entire family could enjoy, as parents and children talk about the characters and which series they remember each one from.

Thoughts on the Weekend

My only disappointment the entire weekend was with the audience size. On Friday night, there were about 160 people in attendance. Saturday, the audience had dropped to a mere 80. Sunday, the number plummeted to a dismal 40 people. I was embarrassed that such great guests spoke to such a meager crowd. I know that the anime festival held during last year’s Cherry Blossom Festival packed the 300-seat theater. I don’t know why this event failed to draw a similar audience. Hopefully, the rest of the Tezuka events will attract a larger crowd.

Overall, it was a wonderful weekend that showed me new depths to the man Tezuka and his works. I now have an even more profound respect and appreciate for Tezuka. I didn’t have any idea about his experimental animation films. All the guests were magnificent and I would like to see Otakon, New York Anime Festival, Anime Boston, and the other East Coast conventions book them to speak. Tezuka really is Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Walt Disney, and Max Fleischer all rolled up into one person. He is such a formative force in manga and anime that all fans of both media need to be familiar with Tezuka and his works. Hopefully, events like the Smithsonian’s Tezuka Film Retrospective will be a start to make that happen.

Tomorrow at 7:30 PM Eastern, the Defenders guest-star on The Super Hero Squad Show. This reworking of Marvel superhero characters for kids airs on the Cartoon Network. Here’s the plot description:

Baron Mordo transforms Iron Man into the evil “Iron Menace”, a deadly threat who overcomes both the Lethal Legion and the Squad! But when Silver Surfer and Hulk team with Dr. Strange and Valkyrie to form “The Defenders,” the forces of good will “Hero Up!” like never before! Gossip Girl alumni Michelle Trachtenberg reprises her role as Valkyrie in this exciting new episode of the most action-packed, family friendly series in the universe!

I haven’t seen any of this animated series, but I have a soft spot in my heart for the misfits that made up the Defenders. It’s the only long-running Marvel series I’ve read every single issue of. (I know, it was a wacky choice, but it worked for me.) The Super Hero Squad seems like it would be fun, only they don’t seem to have any female team members. Bummer.

Do any readers watch it? What’s it like?

Castle: The Complete First Season
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So since the Complete First Season DVD set has been on deep discount this week ($17 bucks or so compared to a list price of $40), we decided to buy it. The set has some entertaining-sounding featurettes, bloopers, and commentaries, which we enjoy.

Our first try was from Amazon.com. We have the free shipping plan, so that was easy — wouldn’t even have to leave the house! Unfortunately, someone at Amazon put the DVD set into a cardboard mailer with no additional padding, so by the time it arrived, the hinged insert in the case was broken apart, and one of the discs had come loose and was scratched.

Disappointing, but not tragic. Amazon paid to send it back and give a refund; they even have an automated process for such things. (Methinks they have a lot of shipping damage claims, especially recently.) We decided not to play mail roulette again and went to buy the set at Best Buy, who had it at the same price. (Amazon has since dropped their price another dollar, but I’m trying not to sweat the small stuff.)

All this is kind of pointless, except that I noted something interesting. This is what the set from Best Buy looked like inside:

The Amazon set, on the other hand, didn’t have a disc on the left side. Instead, there was one disc on the right and the hinged plastic insert that contained the other two discs back-to-back. Why would there be two separate versions? And why would Amazon have the one that seems more susceptible to shipping damage, given their business model?

The storyboard

The start of image generation

Modeling the set

More animation

Add clothing

Additional shading

Additional effects

Final lighting

Update: Here’s some more Up-related art, process work involving graphic design and illustration for the film.

The Lizard Prince Book 1
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As explained in the author’s notes, this book is Asuka Izumi’s first collection, so it follows a typical pattern: The first chapter works as a stand-alone story establishing the premise. That’s so if the concept isn’t popular or picked up, then there’s still a satisfactory ending. But this series was popular enough to get four more chapters (and a second book, which concludes the short series). There’s also an early, different story by the same author included in this volume. (The author later created Ballad of a Shinigami, already published in the US.)

The premise here is daffy. Tomboy Princess Canary has an arranged marriage with neighboring Prince Heath, who’s an indulged dolt of a playboy. Heath has a talking lizard who magically switches bodies with him to meet Canary, after which the two fall in love. Turns out, after various twists and turns, that the lizard is really Heath’s long-lost brother Sienna. (All the characters are named after colors, with eyes the same shade as their names. And I hate to spoil the twist, except I can’t talk about the rest of the book without doing so, and it’s revealed on the back cover.)

The characters are classically attractive, except for the lizard, who is little more than a doodle, a Pac-Man head on a tail. The rest of the cast is beautifully drawn for denizens of some faraway kingdom who act surprisingly modern. And I like Canary’s personality, even if her name is dippy. She’s strong, she does what she thinks is right regardless of what other think, and she’s observant and insightful — a true princess. Sienna, on the other hand, is a bit more goofy and insecure, which is part of his charm. Together, they’re a great pair.

In the following stories, the author takes on several different genres, so there’s always something new to explore. Chapter 2 is a slapstick comedy, with Sienna’s lizard form sending people screaming as he tries to do good deeds. It also extends the lizard-boy concept into something that works for a series.

The third chapter is a mistaken identity mystery, with an impostor pretending to be Prince Sienna who has to be investigated and unmasked. Next, the two go to a South Seas island where they visit a haunted house and resolve a ghost’s trauma. Of course, there’s the mandatory “possession that reveals emotion” scene as well. The last chapter is the weirdest of all — the two characters are given a baby to take care of for five days as a way to practice parenting. The baby’s adorable to watch, though.

The variety may seem scattered to some, but I liked the way the characters worked together in different situations. It became more like a supernatural TV series, with a different premise every episode, than a fantasy romance. What really won me over was the opening to chapter four. Like every chapter, the premise is briefly explained, but this time, the captions get a little snarky, to which the lizard responds, “oh, leave me alone.” Poor little guy.

(The publisher provided a review copy.)

Now, this is a nice offer if you want to upgrade. But financially…

This selection was based solely on “movies I’d like to watch”, and the prices were shown on Amazon at the time I was writing this. The column labeled “Do Math” is the cost to buy the Blu-Ray outright minus the used DVD price (assuming you sold it to someone else).

So in some cases you’re better off just buying a replacement and selling off your DVD, especially if it’s a catalog title on discount. The $10 trade-ins are discs in more demand, apparently, or not as old. I was surprised to see how much some Blu-Ray prices have fallen! As always, do some research before you take the deal. If the numbers work out for you, it’s a nice gesture on the part of the studio. Plus, they get some used DVDs out of the market.

Writer/editor/publisher Robin Bougie learns that Cinema Sewer, his comic/magazine hybrid about porn, cinema, and porn cinema, was recently torrented en masse. … The creator intended for his art and writing to be experienced with the smell of paper and the smudge of ink. Uploading scans not only infringed upon Bougie’s rights as a publisher, but the very act of moving print to digital usurped his creative control as an artist.

Yet when I followed the link to Bougie’s angry post, I saw this:

On the one hand, downloading rare out-of-print movies that no one can get otherwise seems to be a perfect use of the technology. And music downloading makes a whole hell of of sense. Bands make all of their money from touring so giving the music away and getting lots of new fans is brilliant marketing.

But what the f**k do I get out of someone else giving away everything I do? Nothing. It’s not “free advertising” for my next big tour or something.

That seems like a pretty big contradiction. The maker of that “rare out-of-print movie”, if they’re not currently working on a new film, similarly doesn’t get any “free advertising” benefit. So if you’re going to bitch and moan about people giving your stuff away — although the issues torrented include some that are out of print, just like the movies he mentions, and he has since had the torrent removed — maybe you shouldn’t say in the same post that you think it’s fine to do the same thing in other media.

Also, when someone suggests that maybe Bougie could put out some digital material to satisfy the apparent demand, he says he wants his work only in print. To many modern readers, that’s the equivalent of saying “I only want my music heard on record albums” — whether that’s what you want or not, customers are going to take your content where they want it, in a format that satisfies them.

Bougie later softens his stance to admit that if the torrent had only been out of print issues, he wouldn’t have had that much of a problem with it. Also, after some small-band musicians point out that they’re also being harmed by downloading, he apologizes for that comparison in his post.

Comic creator Alex Robinson also comments:

Eventually I told myself that as someone who has copied plenty of CDs from the library I couldn’t really take the moral high ground. I also realized that my book was several years old and a little on the expensive side so maybe there was something to the “free advertising” angle in this case. Still, it does seem an ominous sign of things to come.

In short, I think many people’s opinion on the subject boils down to this: Getting stuff I want for free? Cool. People getting something I’m involved in for free instead of paying me? Sucks.

That’s selfish human nature, but it would be nice if people thought through this a little more before getting outraged in public.

Update: (11/19/2009) This is one of those rare yet wonderful online discussions where people actually talk through things and come to better understanding of each other’s viewpoint, as can be seen in the comment thread at Bougie’s original post. Unfortunately, the torrent site admins aren’t nearly as mature. They’re now trying to encourage people to spread the download because they got mad at Bougie expressing his opinion.

And Jason Marcy is a really cool dude. You should check out his comic.

The Comics Journal #300
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This announcement got widespread coverage, since it sounded like there were plenty of good, meaty articles to read. I saw it mentioned on many news sites (for example).

However, by the time I decided to check out the pieces — I waited because I knew I’d want to spend some time on the site — the announcement had changed.

Update: Well that didn’t take long. All apologies — we’re withdrawing the whole concept.

I’m afraid that on Gary Groth’s instructions the experiment in online marketing has been cancelled. Sorry.

Not only does that resemble a bait-and-switch scheme (”hey, that content we said was free? Psych! You’ve gotta pay to see it!”), although I’m sure that wasn’t the intent, now all those links on all those sites promoting the idea are broken. All users see is a message that says “Subscribers’ Area You are not authorized to view this resource. You need to login.” Visitors to the home page see this message: “(All apologies for the earlier “enthusiasm” on the website.)”

I’m guessing that various people who stood to make money from selling the issue, including retailers, complained. The lesson here is that you’ve got to be sure of what you’re doing before you make an announcement of that sort, since you risk turning a great promotional idea into a bad taste in customers’ mouths.

Update: (11/19/09) The latest Journalista explains:

We pulled TCJ #300 offline largely due to retailer concerns over not having been given adequate warning about said plans before ordering the issue. It was a fair point, and one that we hadn’t properly considered. The issue will again be made available online in late December, after retailers have been given time to sell the print edition.

Sounds like a great compromise and a good kickoff to their continuing online plans.

Detective Toyama is sent to pretend to teach a fifth-grade class because their former teacher mysteriously killed herself. He’s supposed to find out what happened while protecting the children. That’s the part that gets forgotten, until the very last few pages. Presumably, it will be followed up in the next book, due out in March.

Deka Kyoshi Book 1
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Bullied student Makoto sees what are first thought to be demons. Toyama is the only person who believes in and helps him, and Makoto’s the only one who knows Toyama’s a cop, so the two bond. Makoto’s visions later turn out to be symbols of the conflict to be resolved; he sees other people’s stress as visual metaphors.

While he’s supposed to be the authority figure, in practice, Toyama winds up being a goofy, oversized plot device, since Makoto is the one who drives resolution but he can’t take certain actions because of his age. The stories are really about how mean kids can be to each other. The results are simple morality tales, correcting injustice and resetting order in predictable, comforting ways. It’s like a much kinder, gentler Hell Girl.

One girl is made fun of for her height and early development, for example, so she appears as a rag doll (symbolizing her still-young mind and desire to return to a simpler time) bursting at the seams (representing her discomfort and pain at her growth). Other stories teach a kid not to shoplift manga and help a wristcutter stop injuring herself and repair her broken family. The final one is a school ghost story, running around campus after hours. That one takes a slightly different tack, turning Makoto’s disadvantages into strengths in a setting where the normal students are discomfited.

The characters are alternately cute or creepy, as needed. The style is old-fashioned (for manga), clean and with distinctive character designs. I was confused by the rating — it’s marked “Teen Plus”, which is suggested for 16 and up, but they’re likely to be bored by the lack of real drama. Perhaps the rating is due to the creepy demonic images, combined with the story about wrist-cutting.

An online preview is available at the publisher’s website. (The publisher provided a review copy.)

Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei Book 4
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by Koji Kumeta, Del Rey Manga, $10.99 US, due out November 24

I have given up trying to make sense of all the Japanese references in this series. Although there are plenty of endnotes, I’d rather just focus on the clean graphic design of the art and the humor based around stupid things people do. I don’t need to know the name of a Tokyo baseball player to find, for example, an over-organization fetish funny, especially when it makes a house wind up looking like a 3-D game of Tetris.

I’m pleasantly surprised that Kumeta can make humor out of the pain one feels at being left out of a party, while the misery of holidays is a familiar subject given a very different twist with an unusual reason for the suffering. Cutting students slack no matter what they do is a tendency shared between cultures, and the virtue and benefit of silence is thought-provoking. There is one story that makes no sense without the explanation, which is based on manzai comedy, but I just considered it an exercise in surreality, so it fit right in with the rest of the book. Other chapters focus on concepts already familiar to Americans, like cooling-off contract periods or getting a second opinion.

I’m still enjoying reading this odd series, enough to continue.

Gakuen Prince Book 3
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Gakuen Prince Book 3

by Jun Yuzuki, Del Rey Manga, $10.99 US

This series, on the other hand, I quit with no regrets. I wasn’t appalled by the concept, as shown in the first book, as others were (with justification). I just didn’t care enough to continue, and flipping through this third book didn’t show me anything to change my mind. I’d also clearly missed something important in the second volume, since this entry opens with everyone talking about whatever it was, but I wasn’t interested enough to puzzle it out.

One sample was slightly amusing, but continuing this bit of perversion just seems tawdry. I have more entertaining things to read. This now feels like a waste of time.

Kitchen Princess:
Search for the Angel Cake
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Kitchen Princess: Search for the Angel Cake

by Miyuki Kobayashi, art by Natsumi Ando, Del Rey, $9.99 US

This new story is a novel using characters from the manga series by the same creators. Each of the four sections of the book ends with a new recipe, and each section has about four illustrations. I don’t think the characters and situation — recreating a cake beloved in memory — are strong enough to support the story without more art, myself, but perhaps that’s my preference for manga over prose text. Others may find the flipped responsibility, having the writing partner carry more of the work, a valuable comparison to the other way around they’re already familiar with.

(The publisher provided review copies.)

Like Richard Curtis’ other feature as writer/director, Love Actually, it’s a sprawling story with a variety of goofy character bits, an ensemble comedy composed of vignettes. I was also reminded of Almost Famous, with its story of a boy coming of age thanks to the transformative power of rock. Pirate Radio is set in England in 1966, with tons of great rock’n'roll music (then called pop), none of which the BBC would play. So ships anchored off the coast, outside of the legal limit, would broadcast what the people wanted to hear. (One of the best-known was Radio Caroline.)

The cast is amazing — you’ve probably seen ads featuring Philip Seymour Hoffman as one of the DJs, but another is played by Nick Frost (previously best known as Simon Pegg’s buddy in Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead). Additional cast members include Chris O’Dowd and Katherine Parkinson, both from The IT Crowd. My favorite, of course, was Bill Nighy as Quentin, who in addition to his performance is astounding-looking in 60s mod suits, especially when he dances. (Given the time period and setting, it shouldn’t be surprising to hear that the women are Mom, cook, and lust objects. But at least the clothes they wear are cool.) I was also surprised to see that the coolest of all DJs, a supposed sex machine, was played by Rhys Ifans, whom I best remember from the Curtis-penned Notting Hill as the gross roommate Spike. That’s versatility!

Philip Seymour Hoffman and Nick Frost are DJs

Now, typical of Curtis, the end favors optimism and unrealistic happy results over plausibility, but I don’t mind that much. I did leave wishing I’d seen the three-hour version (or however long it would have been with the footage they cut from the UK version put back in along with whatever other deleted scenes — something to wait for the DVD on, I guess). I felt like I could have learned more about some of the characters, and there were intriguing bits hinted at (like Jack Davenport’s interaction with his boss Kenneth Branagh’s daughter) that were never followed up on. That’s another Curtis touch, overstuffed, messy sprawl, but in a way I enjoy.

Rhys Ifans as King of the DJs

I’m telling you, theaters are missing out by not selling merchandise in their lobbies. I would have gladly purchased, upon departure, the DVD and the CD soundtrack. (Plus a couple of books on the subject, although there doesn’t appear to be a definitive history yet.) A vending machine would make extra money with minimal staff costs. And the DVD is already out in the UK, because the movie came out there in April. I have no idea why they’d rather sell messy snacks, with all the cleaning costs, than tangible mementos.

Bill Nighy and cast party

Sadly, while researching options, we discovered that there are two soundtrack versions. The British version has four more tracks than the American one, although the four missing songs (”Crimson & Clover”, “The Letter”, “Hang on Sloopy”, and Skeeter Davis’ “End of the World”) are fairly common. Personally, I think the UK one also has a better cover, but I like seeing more of the cast without the overly literal pirate metaphor.

If you’re looking for a wonderfully entertaining movie, check out Pirate Radio. Highly recommended.

I love my husband, because he just handed me this CD collection, We Love the Pirates, featuring rare music and hits from the era interspersed with jingles from Radio London, another of the pirate stations. Apparently, it’s now out of print and goes for $50 or more. For a cheaper take on the era, try The Who Sell Out, an homage to the broadcast style with commercial parodies and actual jingles.

Four-Eyed Prince Book 1
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[1] This sounds more complicated than it is. Sachiko’s mother bailed when she was an infant. She was raised by her dad, who recently passed away. This is explained in only two panels.

This story is full of “only in fantasy stories” elements, and none of these concepts are explored in any depth, but if you can suspend your disbelief, it’s not a bad read. Light and silly, true, but full of good-hearted escapism. The characters keep getting thrown together through suspicious plot devices: a couples contest, a prize vacation trip to a hot spring, etc.

The idea that someone looks completely different without their glasses, so much so that they’re unrecognizable, is unbelievable but a staple of romance fiction. The book is full of teen girl fantasies like that: What would it be like to live under the same roof as the guy I have a crush on? What if that shy guy at school had a “secret life” as a stud who would single me out from the crowd for his attention and take care of me? And so on.

Given the focus of the premise, it shouldn’t surprise you to know that the art is full of huge glistening eyes. Sachiko is the typical “find the optimism in anything!” manga young lady, inspiring those around her to love and protect her. Akihiko puts up with her because she’s the only one who sees the real him under his two personas. For a first manga romance, perhaps for a young teen reader graduating up to love stories, I don’t think this is that bad a choice.

There’s an unrelated backup story in which a girl has to clean a rich boy’s house, which leads to her getting a makeover and him giving up his player ways for her. See? Total female fantasy. (The publisher provided a review copy.)

Nothing Better 2: Into the Wild
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Or order direct from the artist

I’d missed reading about odd-couple college roommates Katt (art student and questioning atheist) and Jane (religious but seeking, uncertain about her future and beliefs). Both remind me of me, at different periods in my life. I want to know more about what they’re learning and how they’re growing.

It’s also refreshing to see comics tackle the question of faith without taking a dogmatic position on it. I love the way that they each learn from and advise each other, in different situations.

In a more typical portrayal, the assumption would be that Jane needs to loosen up and learn to be more like Katt, who’s more comfortable with boys and more of a free-thinking, drinking, typical college student. But here, we open with Katt realizing that she needs help from Jane. Although they both enjoy their biology class, Katt may be reaching the limit of what she can learn on her own using her typical study habits. Moreover, Katt’s temporary hookup has blown her off, and Jane has some sensible things to say about how you should start interacting with a boy if you want a relationship instead of just sex.

I appreciate the way that, although much of the book is driven by conversations among the two and their various friends, Tyler Page keeps the pages active by having them talk as they walk between classes or visit the cafeteria or engage in other typical college activities. He’s not afraid of backgrounds or costume design or populating his panels with supporting characters, as you can well see in the Halloween party that kicks off this book.

A costume dance is a great excuse to try out some different behavior and maybe meet someone. All the relationships (mostly defined by who’s interested in whom, nothing more yet) get swizzled around as some of the cast overindulge and some try something new. The question of sex — how much to make out, how it changes relationships, how you feel after — is the big theme of this volume.

Tyler’s willing to have his characters tackle major issues, but he approaches everything in a light-handed fashion. Obviously, these debates and decisions are important to their participants, and they ring true to the reader, but most with a sense of age and perspective will realize that it all wasn’t as significant, as all-encompassing as students make it to be at the time. His touches of humor are realistic as well, and they make this story well-rounded and even more true to life.

This volume sort of reverses the roles of the roommates. Jane is the one hanging out with boys. Katt is second-guessing herself, unsure of her choices and feeling like she’s lonely and missing out. That gives the reader a different view of the two girls, giving them more dimension. I also liked seeing more group interaction with the friends they (and we) have come to know.

With a series like this one, run free on the web and self-published when there’s enough material to do so, you always wonder if a new book will be the last you see of a much-liked series. I fervently hope that’s not the case (and I have no reason to think it would be), but even if this is the only book of the series you read, you’ll find it satisfying. I want to see a lot more of these characters, though, and I hope nice-guy artist Darby finally gets a happy ending!

Up (Blu-Ray)
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As is typical of their recent releases, they’re strongly pushing the Blu-Ray edition, which comes with four discs: the standard DVD movie with extras, the digital copy disc (why? does anyone use these?), and two Blu-Ray discs. Unfortunately for me, since I still see no reason to “upgrade” formats, the standard DVD with extras is no longer comparable in features to the Blu-Ray. This is an incredibly disappointing decision. The more studios try to force customer “choice” to what benefits them, the less likely I am to succumb, and I don’t appreciate being treated like a second-class customer because I’m not willing to shell out more money for new equipment when what I have works just fine for me.

Then there’s the DRM-restricted “extra” that makes the standard version a “two-disc deluxe edition”. The second disc is nothing but the digital copy. I’m not interested, because I don’t want to watch a movie of great visual scope on a postage-stamp-sized screen. Thus, I got the two-disc pack. Because although you would think the single disc would be the same as the DVD in the two-disc pack, it lacks the director commentary and possibly the travel featurette. How confused does Disney want customers to be? Of course, you can’t be sure of this in the store, because Disney doesn’t list full contents on the back cover, leaving that phrase “and more” to cover who knows what.

Given that many places are discounting the Blu-Ray version below the price of the special DVD edition — a choice I don’t understand, since I thought the point of pushing Blu-Ray was to make up for declining DVD revenue — I really resent having to pay for a “digital copy” disc I didn’t want anyway. It used to be an extra bonus, something free to make it easy for those who wanted to watch the movie on the go, but now it looks like I’m having to pay more for a useless plastic disc.

Up (Two-Disc DVD)
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Anyway, if one of the Amazon reviewers is correct, the first Blu-Ray has the same extras as the DVD:

• The six-minute “Partly Cloudy” cartoon that ran with the movie in theaters, about a bad-luck stork and his cloud dispatcher.
• A new original five-minute cartoon, “Dug’s Special Mission”, in which the beloved pup tries to help his pack capture the bird in his usual clumsy fashion. It leads into the movie scene in which Dug meets Carl and Russell.
• “Adventure Is Out There”, 22 minutes, showing the crew traveling the amazing real-life locations that inspired Paradise Falls.
• “Alternate Scene: The Many Endings of Muntz” — Five minutes about possible different ends for the bad guy.

The second Blu-Ray has all of the making-of material unavailable to DVD customers, showing interviews and sketches about the character designs for Carl, Russell, bird Kevin, the house, the balloons, and the dogs. Plus there’s a game and an alternate version of the opening married life sequence.

While I consider this movie the best Pixar has ever made, a beautiful meditation on loss and how to find new purpose in life, in terms of the DVD packaging, all I can say is “buyer beware”. They’re not interested in making it easy for you to watch what you want the way you want it. Let me make this clear, just in case Disney happens to be listening: withholding features from my preferred DVD format will not make me buy into Blu-Ray. It will instead make me stop buying your DVDs. In my reviews, I would rather talk about how great the movie is and the insight the special features gave me into the creation of such a wonderful film, instead of having to wade through all this format crap just to figure out what I should buy. I wish Disney would support that.

So here’s why you should watch Up: Pixar is known for making very good funny movies, but Up makes it clear that they’re just as interested in other deep emotions. It was a huge dramatic gamble that they pull off in expert fashion. The idea of an old man and a Boy Scout taking a flying house to a South American jungle, rescuing a near-extinct species, and defeating a corrupt hero and his band of talking dogs sounds like a bad joke, but it’s a movie that will show you great insight into the human spirit and its sense of wonder.

I’m sure this piece sounds angry, but it’s really frustration. I don’t understand why Disney is being so heavy-handed about all this, given their core audiences. A lot of families don’t have the money to upgrade right now, and do kids really care what format they watch?

The Manga Artist’s Workbook
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The book is bound with a top spiral, and the content — repackaged from Hart’s Manga for the Beginner: Everything You Need to Start Drawing Right Away — is presented in such a way that the reader is encouraged to try the lessons immediately. The wrap-around cover keeps everything neat and together. The whole thing was designed by Melissa Chang, who deserves a lot of praise.

When the workbook is open, the lesson is on the top page, with room to draw on the bottom page. The reader is asked to copy or trace or embellish partially started images as a way of getting them drawing and putting the instruction into practice.

The material of the lessons focuses on creating stereotypical manga characters — teen girl head from various perspectives, for example, and several pages on big, sparkling eyes — and the reader isn’t going to learn to draw until they fill up a few more sketchbooks all on their own, although there are a few blank pages included here for more free-form exploration. But as a starting point, this is a really neat idea, having samples, tracing paper, and sketch paper all bound into one.

(The publisher provided a review copy.)

Maria Holic Book 1

Maria Holic Book 1
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by Minari Endou; adapted by Clint Brickham; Tokyopop, $10.99 US

Kanako Miyamae is a high school sophomore transferring to Ame No Kisaki, an all-girl missionary school. Kanako is a lesbian, but she isn’t comfortable enough with her sexuality to be tell others her orientation. She transferred with romantic visions of meeting her soulmate. While there is no shortage of attractive girls, Kanako is discovering that a pretty face doesn’t mean a beautiful soul.

Maria Holic is meant to be a farce, a broad stroke comedy that satirizes the tropes found in shojo and yuri manga. However, it reads like a bigot openly mocking people who aren’t ‘normal’. Lesbians, transvestites, tomboys, and such are all targets of ridicule.

Not surprisingly, all the characters in this book are one-dimensional. When you’re mocking someone, there’s no need to understand them or cast them in a sympathetic light. Kanako walks around ogling her classmates and falling in love based on the most superficial reasons. Her classmates don’t figure out she’s a lesbian simply because it’s not convenient to the plot. It’s certainly not from a lack of clues.

The artwork is the only likable part of the book. It’s competent. The character designs are nice. The page layouts are well-done. It does have a feature that I don’t think I’ve seen before in manga: panels of just word balloons. There aren’t many, but it’s still unusual.

Maria Holic is odious. I had to force myself to finish the last quarter of the book. Turning each page seemed to become more of a chore the closer I got to the end. Avoid this book and its condescension. Comedy shouldn’t make the reader feel tainted and disgusted. Comedy is meant to uplift us.

Samurai Harem: Asu No Yoichi Book 2

Samurai Harem: Asu No Yoichi Book 2
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by Yu Minamoto; adapted by Hope Donovan; Tokyopop, $12.99 US

Yoichi Karasuma spent the first seventeen years of his life in a remote mountain dojo learning swordsmanship from his father. Now he is living with the Ikaruga sisters at their family dojo, where he is learning how to be a member of modern society. The hardest part is behaving properly around women. Two attractive female assassins show up to kill Yoichi. Yet another obstacle as he’s trying to just fit in.

The setup is derivative of Ranma ½ and Love Hina, which is indicative of the general lack of imagination found in Samurai Harem. The series is a harem comedy that focuses on the creepy aspects of the genre without any attempts to include the charming counterbalancing elements.

The best example of the disturbing nature of Samurai Harem is how the fan service specializes in crotch shots. Not panty shots, but in between the legs, focusing on the pubic region of girls and women. Just when you think the book might be showing some character development or emotional warmth, there is a crotch shot with a sound effect coming from the girl’s genitalia. The series is shameless in its tastelessness.

The artwork is very well-done. Minamoto is a master of cheesecake drawings. The loving details given to the female character designs and fashions only make the series that much more lecherous. Such talent should be used to illustrate a good romantic comedy, not banal fan service.

Only fans of unapologetic T&A manga will enjoy this series. The plot is rice paper thin. The characters are one-dimensional. Readers are advised to steer clear of Samurai Harem.

Zone-00 Book 1

Zone-00 Book 1
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by Kiyo Qjo; adapted by Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane; Tokyopop, $10.99 US

Ango Shima is an exorcist who has just moved to Tokyo. He is aided by his two assistants: Sharaku, also his butler, and Hanabusa, his maid. It turns out his very odd classmate, Saburo Kujo, is a leader of the Tokyo creatures (demons). Ango has come to destroy all the creatures but discovers he must team up with them to hunt down a common enemy. Someone has created Zone-00, a drug that turns humans into mock creatures.

Zone-00 is a mess, starting with the artwork. The panels are busy and often crowded. Qjo is trying to make the art feel energetic, but instead it’s chaotic. The page layouts suffer the same clutter problems. All the characters have unruly hair that like kudzu appears everywhere. The book is eye-straining to read.

Unfortunately, neither the characters nor plot are any improvement over the art. None of the cast is interesting. Everyone seems to spend a lot of time in inane conversation. They all want to prove how cool and sophisticated they are. However, it all comes across as silly and pretentious.

The plot moves at a glacial pace. They spend more time at bath houses and beaches then actually tracking down the drug dealers and manufacturers. For someone committed to the destruction of all creatures, Ango gets chummy quickly with his sworn enemy.

Zone-00 is victim to its own excesses. The art and storytelling need to be streamlined. Lost in all the muddle appears to be the makings of an interesting story. However, potential for a better story isn’t sufficient reason to recommend this series. Readers should skip Zone-00 in favor of a manga that is more focused.

Momogumi Plus Senki Book 1

Momogumi Plus Senki Book 1
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by Eri Sakondo; adapted by Rachel Brown; Tokyopop, $10.99 US

Yuuki Momozono is cursed with Disaster Attraction Disorder. This means that calamity haunts everything he does. He has just found out that he is the reincarnation of Momotaro (Peach Boy) from the famous Japanese folktale and inherited a demon curse from his previous life. He must break the curse causing his misfortunes before his eighteenth birthday or he will die. The school he has begun to attend is filled with students who are also reincarnations of various folk figures. There among his schoolmates is the chance to free himself of the curse.

Momogumi Plus Senki is an enjoyable light read. Sakondo has created a likable cast of central characters with Yuuki and his three companions: Sawa, Masahiko, and Yukishiro. Yuuki’s friends are all good-natured and readily accept their past lives without any conflict. Yuuki himself starts out as a depressed person, but the warmth and optimism of his new companions quickly win him over.

Part of the charm of this series is its sense of humor. Sakondo doesn’t allow any of the characters to take themselves too seriously. Sankondo also has fun with the personality of the cast. Masahiko is the reincarnation of Momotaro’s dog. He has the loyalty and affection of a puppy. He can let his canine enthusiasm get the better of him sometimes.

I also like how amenable the other students are to Yuuki’s bad luck. They know when he gets called on to answer questions, baseballs are bound to come soaring through the windows. So all the students sitting next to the windows have umbrellas to protect themselves from flying glass.

The art is well-done in this series. Sankondo does a good job conveying emotion. The action sequences are quick and lively. The humor has a nice subtle quality to it. The art complements the storytelling perfectly.

Momogumi Plus Senki is not a must read by any stretch of the imagination. However, it is a pleasant, upbeat series. It can serve as a break from heavier fare or just a good distraction. The way Sakondo plays with Japanese folktales makes me want to go read the originals. Readers already familiar with the folktales might enjoy seeing Sakondo’s fun twist on them.

(The publisher provided review copies of all books.)

I started looking at the various manga blogs and websites for recommendations. The majority of which were written by women. Understandably the recommendations leaned towards female interests which left me frustrated in trying to find titles that suited my interests. I suddenly understood what it is like for women new to comics having men recommend things to them. It quickly becomes confusing and overwhelming.

I think you can maybe take the idea “a woman recommended this, so it’s geared to female interests” a little too far — I know female manga readers who love books that are supposedly aimed at males (based on the original Japanese publishing plan) — but I do think that risks being true at this site. I mostly read “girly” manga, because that’s what I enjoy, but that’s why I am so glad to have Ed Sizemore’s contributions, to balance me out and provide a more well-rounded view of the format.

And for Mr. Doom, if you’re looking to step from superheroes into manga, you might start with Rurouni Kenshin, a historical samurai story with lots of people with exaggerated abilities. Or Wolverine: Prodigal Son, a manga take on the superhero character.

I was very pleased to see another go-round of Warner’s Saturday Morning Cartoons compilations. They make very interesting samplers of what was happening in kid-vid in both the 1960s and 1970s, so they’re prime fare for baby boomers like me. Although you have to keep in mind that it’s not a complete snapshot of the era. Due to licensing restrictions (or possibly availability), the selections are pretty much limited to properties that Warner currently controls, represented here by the Hanna Barbera, Warner Bros., and MGM cartoon libraries.

Actually, I was both pleased and somewhat disappointed. Although there is a lot of good stuff on the sets, most of it is just additional episodes of the same series that were on Volume 1. And some of the better series from the first discs have been replaced with somewhat lesser series. So let’s break it down, beginning with…

1960s: Volume 2

Saturday Morning Cartoons:
1960s Volume 2
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Following up on some of the great series that were included on Volume 1, this new set has more

• Quick Draw McDraw (2 episodes. Yay!)
• Porky Pig Show (1 episode. Yay!)
• Atom Ant (1 episode. Yay!)
• Peter Potamus (1 episode, OK)
• The Jetsons (1 episode, not a great one)
• Magilla Gorilla (1 episode, OK)

In addition, there are a couple more Warner Bros. compilations (The Bugs Bunny Show and The Road Runner Show), both extremely popular, but both kinda redundant here as Warner has done a really good job of compiling Bugs Bunny and friends elsewhere on DVD (except for no collector set this year — hope they get back on track for next year). It is, however, really great to see and hear the original opening sequences and theme songs for the shows — especially that quirky only-of-its-era Road Runner song (“Road Runner goes Beep Beep!” and “That coyote is really a crazy clown!”). Some of the original between-cartoon bumpers are also shown, which is a nice touch. Later, both shows were combined into the mega-length Bugs Bunny Road Runner Show (see the 1970s Volume 2 collection, although it actually began in 1968).

Also on this set is The Tom & Jerry Show, making its first appearance in these compilations, and best known for appearing on Sunday mornings, although the show began on Saturdays in 1965 before moving to Sundays in 1967, remaining there until 1972. While it is great to see it represented here (especially with some of the Chuck Jones bumpers included), the Tom and Jerry cartoons have been endlessly repackaged by Warners for the last several years.

There are some new things here — although I have to admit that as a kid I seldom watched any of them, as I was watching something else on some other stations (in those long-ago days before recording VCRs and DVDs or time-shifting DVRs).

Kid Stuff

Space Kidettes/Young Samson and Goliath never actually appeared on Saturday morning — at least in this configuration. Young Samson did — solo — for one season beginning in 1967, before being pared with Space Kidettes in syndication. Young Samson is best described as a a cross between Marvel Comics’ Roy Thomas-revised version of Captain Marvel (a young teen transforms into a great hero by slamming his magic wristbands together) and later animated series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Young Samson turned into the adult superhero version of the biblical Samson, and his dog Goliath transformed into a super-powered lion. (Oddly, they were never shown turning back into their original forms in the cartoon.) Yeah, it was kinda dumb.

Space Kidettes appeared on Saturday morning in 1966, also for one season only. (Young Samson took over its time slot the following year). Space Kidettes was a very cute series featuring four very young kids (Scooter, Snoopy, Jennie, and Count Down) and their dog Pup Star who lived in outer space (seemingly without parents) and hung out in their space clubhouse. Unfortunately they were constantly menaced by the evil but inept Captain Spacehook and his equally inept henchman Static (both of whom inexplicably had British accents). Nothing in this series was ever explained, as it was primarily aimed at very young kids. In fact, its pairing with Young Samson in syndication was also a mystery as the two series had absolutely nothing in common, other than both being produced by Hanna Barbera, and both are largely forgotten today.

Forgotten Critters

Speaking of forgotten Hanna Barbera characters, a whole bunch of them all appeared on something which is called here The Wally Gator Show but was really titled The Hanna Barbera New Cartoon Series. This series also never actually appeared on Saturday Mornings (at least on the networks) but appeared in syndication (frequently cut up into its component parts) beginning in 1962. It consisted of three separate cartoons: Wally Gator (voiced by the great Daws Butler doing an Ed Wynn impersonation) is an alligator who normally lives in the City Zoo, but he loves to escape and have adventures on the outside. Mr Twiddle (Don Messick) is Wally’s frequently exasperated zookeeper. This concept was later expanded for Help! It’s the Hair Bear Bunch! (see the 1970s Volume 2).

Wally Gator	Touché Turtle and Dum Dum	Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har-Har

Touché Turtle and Dum Dum were a pair of swashbuckling heroes who were constantly saving various members of royalty in distress. Touché (voiced by Bill Thomson) was brave and dashing, Dum Dum (Alan Reed) was dumb. (Duh.) Elements of this cartoon were better used in subsequent cartoons, including Ricochet Rabbit (the comedic pairing) and Yippee, Yappie, and Yahooie (funny swordsmen). Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har-Har was one of Hanna Barbera’s funniest teams, with Lippy (Daws Butler) constantly attempting get-rich-quick schemes which inevitably backfired on Hardy (a deadpan Mel Blanc). Hardy was one of HB’s funniest characters — a laughing hyena who never laughed. Hardy instead seemed to be in constant agony, as well as being an eternal pessimist. Hardy could always be counted on to moan “Oh me, oh my, oh dear” at least a dozen times in each cartoon. He was a much-loved role model for me (along with Daffy Duck and Eeyore).

All of these characters later infrequently appeared in other HB “gang” shows like Yogi’s Gang. Wally was a regular on Laff-A-Lympics, and the original cartoons occasionally pop up on Boomerang — unfortunately as unscheduled “time-fillers” between shows. A DVD set of these cartoons was originally announced in 2006 but was later canceled due to the poor condition of the master prints. Too bad — that would have been a nice set and a great way to see these undeservingly forgotten characters.

Short People

The Adventures of Gullivar is another largely forgotten Hanna Barbera production, which originally aired between 1968 and 1970, and was later syndicated as a part of the various Banana Splits syndicated packages. Young Gullivar and his dog Tagg (There’s always a dog. Are you not paying attention?) are shipwrecked on a mysterious island, which is home to the kingdom of Lilliput (sound familiar yet?). It’s a pretty straight — and unfortunately ordinary — adventure show, although the Lilliputian people are done in a slightly lighter style than the other characters. (They remind me of the much-later HB Smurfs, as there’s only one girl, unfortunately named Flirtatia.) Only 17 episodes were produced, the first of which is presented here. Like lots of other kids, I was watching Wacky Races when this originally aired.

Rounding out the 1960s Volume 2 collection is Completely Bananas: The Magilla Gorilla Show, a five-minute documentary only useful for pointing out two things: That Magillia (and Peter Potamus) were really the end of an era of animal character shows for HB (as shows like Space Ghost and Herculoids were waiting in the wings) and that pet store owner Mr. Peebles was probably related to The Jetson’s Mr. Spacely and Wally Gator’s Mr. Twiddle, due to their remarkably similar appearances. Oh, and Mark Evanier claims that Magilla’s theme song was one of HB’s best, to which I agree, even if the song cleverly mentions the show’s original sponsor — Ideal Toys.

Into the 1970s

Saturday Morning Cartoons:
1970s Volume 2
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Volume Two of the 1970s is a bit more problematic, since it unaccountably features three programs that actually debuted in the 1960s as well as including additional episodes of stuff we’ve already seen, like Yogi’s Gang, The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan, The Adventures of Batman (from Volume 1), and The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour (as previously mentioned, it debuted in 1968).

Grumpy Genie

Also premiering in the 1960s was Shazzan! which debuted in the fall of 1967 and is more closely associated with other HB shows like Space Ghost and Herculoids, mostly because the show was created and designed by the legendary Alex Toth. Although this is not one of his better shows (except for his designs), as the premise is quite mockable — as demonstrated in the set’s The Power of Shazzan five-minute documentary. Here many of the show’s staff, as well as animation historians, discuss the lame premise of an all-powerful genie controlled by two young kids who find a mysterious chest with the two halves of a magic ring which only works when the two halves are combined (like when the latter-day Wonder Twins’ powers only activate when they touch). Further, the rings transport the kids to a parallel universe based on the land of the Arabian Nights, and they can only return home when they deliver the ring to its rightful owner. (This never happens.)

Shazzan is a remarkably cranky and petulant genie, which is probably no surprise since he has to put up with the whims of these annoying kids as well as the flying camel Kaboobie, who “talks” like a proto-Scooby Doo (not surprisingly, both are voiced by Don Messick, HB’s “Dean of Dogs”). The documentary guys also spend a fair amount of time mocking the poor animation and the shortcuts taken (Kaboobie only ever flies from left to right — or the exact opposite when the cells are flopped). As well as being pretty bad, Shazzan was also pretty violent (the genie doled out some righteous punishment), at least for Saturday morning, and it is frequently cited as one of the shows that stoked the fires of many of the parents’ groups that ultimately neutered Saturday morning cartoons for decades. This violence was later outrageously parodied in an episode of Robert Smigel’s Saturday TV Funhouse, originally broadcast on Saturday Night Live in 2005 and included on the SNL: Best of TV Funhouse DVD.

The Banana Splits: The Kings of Pop

Also debuting — in 1968 — was The Banana Splits Adventure Hour. This is the gem of this collection, as the first episode is shown complete (including some fabulous Kellogg’s commercials starring the Splits) in its original one-hour format. So you also get the first episodes of the animated Arabian Knights and The Three Musketeers, as well as the first episode of the live-action serial Danger Island, starring Jan Michael Vincent, directed by Richard Donner, and introducing “Uh-oh, Chongo!” into the lexicon. (A third cartoon series, Micro Ventures, also appeared, but true to its name, only four episodes were ever produced). Frankly, the cartoons were pretty bland HB adventure-type toons. Danger Island was silly fun, but it never seemed like the series was ever run in order (maybe I was watching them in reruns). Or, perhaps, I was just infatuated with the stars of the show.

The Banana Splits (Fleagle, Snooper, Bingo, and Snorky) were live action — basically four guys in cartoon-like animal suits (designed by Sid and Marty Krofft before they got to do their own memorable kid-vid shows), who ran around (and frequently into each other) and performed the worst jokes in the world, usually at a level below the best knock-knock jokes you can think of. Their arch-enemies were the Sour Grapes Bunch, a largely unseen rival “gang” who would send threatening notes to the Splits via one of the Sour Grapes messenger girls. There were apparently five different young girls (all named “Charlie”) who would dance into the Splits clubhouse wearing minidresses and go-go boots and generally intimidate the Splits before handing off the message. The Splits would frequently respond to the challenge, exiting the clubhouse to go to battle and reappear moments later, comically beaten-up in some way.

Drooper also had a major problem with taking out the trash (the trash fought back) or delivering advice in his “Dear Drooper” sequences. Occasionally, a Mariachi band (a real band of young girls named The Dilly Sisters) would turn up at their door to play the “Mexican Hat Dance” or some other ditty. This section of the show was largely inspired by Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, with silly humor and “blackout” style gags. Eventually, the Splits also added a “Gag Wall,” just like the one used in Laugh-In.

But the real reason I was hooked on the Splits was that they were a Monkees-like bubblegum band (their show also being a major influence on the Splits). The Splits’ music was quite good bubblegum. Although it was produced by largely anonymous studio guys, they were great studio guys, like Al Kooper, Gene Pitney, and Joey Levine. One song, “Doin’ The Banana Split”, was an early R&B composition by the great Barry White. The theme song, “The Tra La La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana)” was released as a single and actually charted on Billboard’s Top 100. (For 1 week at #96, but hey! Do you see Scooby Doo on the Billboard charts? Noooooo!) They also released an album in 1969, now highly collectible.

Most of us kids got our Splits from the cardboard records on the backs of Kellogg’s cereal or real vinyl EPs that you would send in Kellogg’s box tops for. (I waited by my mailbox for that package from Battle Creek, Michigan for weeks!) Best of all, the TV show offered up proto-rock videos of the Splits performing. Many of these were just the Splits cavorting or running around at amusement parks or driving their cool “Banana-mobiles,” but a few of them were kid-friendly psychedelia at its very best. The Banana Splits were goofy and dumb, but they also were very groovy, man.

Back to the 70s

Help! It’s the Hair Bear Bunch! debuted in 1971 as a pretty simple show with a pretty simple premise: Three fun-loving bears — Hair, Bubi, and Square — are always trying to escape from the zoo to have fun. They are opposed by constantly annoyed zookeeper Peevly and his completely inept assistant Botch. The big gimmick of the show was the bears had an invisible motorcycle that was conveniently never explained. Fun, but slight.

The New Adventures of Gilligan was the scary harbinger of Saturday morning shows to come (like shows based on Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, Mork and Mindy, and even SCTV’s Ed Grimley). It was produced by Filmation and featured all of the original cast voices except for Tina Louise (who wanted nothing to do with anything Gilligan) and Dawn Wells (who was unavailable). Because it was Filmation, everybody had to learn something in each episode. Oh, and because it was Saturday morning, Gilligan had a pet monkey, named Snubby, which is what you should do to this very awful show, which originally aired starting in 1974.

Fodder for Adult Swim

Premiering in 1972, Sealab 2020 was a very forward-thinking series, produced by Hanna Barbera. As you can probably tell from the title, it dealt with an underwater research base and many fairly new-at-the-time environmental themes. Unfortunately, it was prematurely canceled (probably because it was boring), leaving three completed episodes unaired. It’s probably best known today as being the basis for the proto-Adult Swim series Sealab 2021, where stock footage from the original series was re-used and re-voiced in a mocking way, similar to its companion series Harvey Birdman. Sealab 2021 aired on Cartoon Network from 2000 to 20005 for a total of 52 episodes — 36 more than the original series.

Valley of the Dinosaurs debuted in 1974 (on the same day — and the exact same time — as the similarly themed Land of the Lost). Obviously, Land of the Lost won that particular battle, becoming a cult classic with 43 episodes and three seasons opposed to Dinosaurs’ two seasons of 16 episodes. But Valley of the Dinosaurs had a couple of interesting things going for it, not the least of which is a relatively large number of females in the cast — a rarity in kid-vid in this era. The premise is simple (and told in the opening sequence): The Butler family (Mom Kim, Dad John, teen daughter Katie, young son Greg, and (of course) dog Digger) have a rafting accident on the Amazon river and are sucked into an underground cavern which opens into a prehistoric valley. There they are befriended by the caveman family (Gorak, his wife Gara, teen son Lok, and young daughter Tana). Interestingly, young Greg is voiced by Jackie Earle Haley, better known today for playing Rorschach in the Watchmen film.

Big, Small, and Dumb

1975’s Tom & Jerry/Grape Ape Show saw the famous cat and mouse team back in the hands of their creators Hanna and Barbera teamed with the dumb Grape Ape. This was the period where the rules against violence were at their most stringent for Saturday morning cartoons, and since violence was the main element of the classic Tom & Jerry cartoons, there were obviously some changes that needed to be made. Thus, this was the beginning of the infamous “red tie” version of the cat and mouse, as Jerry (now wearing a red bow tie) and Tom became pals that went on adventures together. Luckily, the characters were so strong that this didn’t destroy them, but it was just not the same, especially for those of us that grew up with the classic orchestrated violence of the original cartoons. Shockingly , the Grape Ape was a large (40 feet tall) purple gorilla who mostly said his own name a lot and palled around with normal-sized dog Beegle Beagle (pronounced “Beegley Beagley” by Grape Ape) when they weren’t sitting around discussing quantum mechanics. As the Ramones said: D-M-U-B! Yet another 16-episode series from HB.

I bet you can’t guess what Inch High Private Eye was all about! That’s all you need to know, really, other than it was yet another HB show, debuting in 1973 and ending the following year with only 13 episodes. After watching this I wished that Atom Ant would come along and beat up Inch.

Thus we come to the end of the Volume Twos of Saturday Morning Cartoons. If I had to vote for the shows I would most like to see in their own DVD sets out of this batch of shows (assuming that they can find all the pieces), they would be Quick Draw McGraw, Atom Ant (mostly for Hillbilly Bears!), The Wally Gator Show (especially Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har Har, if they could only do one), The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan, Yogi’s Gang (for the novelty of it — although I’d rather see Laff-A-Lympics), and the Banana Splits (even if I could only get the live action Splits and maybe Danger Island). And of course I want more Bugs Bunny and the classic Warner characters cartoons! I’d also love to see more of the Saturday Morning Cartoon series, although I think they’re starting to run out of decent 70s shows that are controlled by Warner (as shown by their sneaking in some 60s shows this time around).

Time to go out and play! (The studio provided review copies.)

Scarecrow and Mrs. King:
The Complete First Season
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Meanwhile, Warner Archive has a bunch of new-to-DVD 80s and 90s films at 25% off, which makes them under $15. I’m tempted by Under the Rainbow, and after seeing it too often on cable as a kid, I kind of want to see an unedited So Fine. Rob Lowe’s in Oxford Blues, and I know some readers will want Penn & Teller Get Killed.

But the most exciting news for me this week is the announcement that Scarecrow and Mrs. King is coming to DVD in March. List price is $40 for 21 episodes on five discs. Kate Jackson was a single mother who got caught up in capers with Bruce Boxleitner as the spy code-named Scarecrow. I adored this show for its combination of spy adventure and hints of romance. What a nice hit of nostalgia.