Thundarr Gangnam Style

Long time No see!

Here's my own Gangnam Style music video  I threw together from some old Thundarr VHS I had laying around, enjoy.





-Swinebread

Top Ten TV Cartoons (plus Three Honorable Mentions)

-Swinebread

Six Random Things About Me

Dean Wormer tagged me with a the "Six Random Things About Me" meme. see here

The Rules

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Six random things about me-

1) I have driven on the autobahn... it's not as fun as you might think... but there were some great views

2) While I was reading Mel Blanc's autobiography, That's Not All Folks, he died. I was kinda freaked out about reading autobiographies for awhile...

3) I have two vague memories of being in a baby crib... ...(when I was a baby, sheesh)

4) I rule at connect four.

5) I was never able to watch CBS when I was a kid because of bad reception so I missed that whole Dukes of Hazzard thing...

6) Thundarr has to be my all-time favorite Saturday Morning cartoon. Demon Dogs!

I know I'm supposed to tag six folks but I haven't been very good about commening on other folks blogs so I feel kinda weird about demanding a tag from anybody.

Broke the rules.... oh well.



-Swinebread

Coloring Kamandi

It was amazing how much I enjoyed Countdown Special: Kamandi, which reprints issues 1, 10, & 29 from the original Kamandi run in the 1970s. These post–apocalyptic classics were written and drawn by Jack “King” Kirby. I had never read Kamandi: That Last Boy on Earth before (although I wanted to) so it was a real treat. The premise of the story is that some undefined “Great Disaster” has remade the earth. Most Humans have devolved into animals while conversely animals (like tigers, apes and dogs) are intelligent, walk upright, and rule their own empires. The title character is the teenager Kamandi, who adventures across a shattered landscape with his mentor Dr. Canus, and the mutant Ben Boxer. It’s easy to see that Kamandi was heavily influenced by Planet of the Apes, and that it, in turn, informed both Gamma World and Thundarr (which Jack worked on BTW).

Being a post–apocalyptic enthusiast, it makes sense that I would find this enjoyable. I’m even tempted to pick up the new hardcover collections that DC is putting out, and I’ve never been tempted to do that previously. This title really works for me and I like Jack Kirby’s art and storytelling here much more so than his New Gods work. It’s nice to see DC embracing Kamandi again through republishing and by reintegrating him into new storylines. In fact, Kamandi and OMAC (his grandfather) are the only reasons that I’m even remotely interested in the Final Crisis event at all.

When I was reading my copy of Countdown Special: Kamandi, a question struck me: how would Japanese folks respond to the quintessential/classic art style of Jack Kirby? Their experience with comics and their aesthetic tastes are so different I just couldn’t imagine what they might think. Would they like his art? Would they hate it? Could they even relate to it? So I showed some pages to my SO. The exchange went something like this:

Me: “Hey, what do you think of that art in this comic?”
Her: “Hmmm… It’s very busy.”

I thought: “ah, Jack’s dynamic action is too much for her”

Me: “Yeah, this artist is known for his incredible action and powerful figure drawing.”

Her: “the Color is too much, it’s too busy. The background color changes in each panel. It’s distracting”

I thought: “Huh?”

Me: “Ah well, the artist didn’t have anything to do with the color. See, these are comics that originally came out in the ‘70s and…”

But she had lost interest in what I was talking about and went back to reading her book.

That did get me thinking. The bold use of color, which is so common in older comics, was just too visually overpowering for her. She really couldn’t focus on Jack’s art at all. I was kinda stunned but then I remembered that Japanese manga is a black and white medium. The "in-your-face" color had a strong negative impact on her. When for me, it was nearly incidental, particularly because it appeared in a reprint of Kamandi. I recognize that the colorist’s job is much more integrated into the artistic creation of comic books nowadays (computer technology has completely revolutionized the nature of color), but back when Kamandi was first published; it almost seems like an afterthought position. The intent of the coloring process in the days of yore must have been to keep the eyes interested by flashy uses of 4-color shades… whether they matched from panel to panel or not. Looking at the Kamadi pages was such a disharmonious experience for my SO; that the art style didn’t matter at all. For her, the application of color didn’t seem to be thoughtfully considered nor carefully applied. Very interesting. I easily separate Jack’s art from the hues that someone else decided upon, but my SO sees them as one thing. I often have to remind her that American comics are largely a collaborative medium. In the past, my SO has expressed that American comics are too wordy, and bogged down with unnecessary exposition that redundantly describes what’s already visually depicted, but this is the first time she has said anything about color. I guess I gotta’ show her something of Jack’s in black and white to really get her opinion on the his art style. That's sorta' weird for me...



-Swinebread

Goodbye Steve Gerber

Sadly, Steve Gerber has died. See Mark Evanier’s post here.

Most famous as the creator of Howard the Duck (the comic), Steve is fondly remembered by me for his work on The Defenders, The Guardians of the Galaxy, and the best cartoon of all time: Thundarr the Barbarian.

Thanks Steve for so many great times while growing up. You will be missed by this old fanboy…



-Swinebread

Woman’s Wasteland Month

For Women’s History Month I was toying with several different topics like my favorite female characters or stories of all time, but that theme is just way too big and overlaps too many other future topics. So, since I’ve been itching to talk about more post-apocalyptic stuff and as this blog is called Atomic Romance; I decided to list my favorite Female Wanders of the Wasteland. It was hard to whittle this down but here goes:

Princess Ariel (not the mermaid) is powerful sorceress that fights evil wizards in the Post-Apocalyptic cartoon: Thundarr the Barbarian. This show only lasted two seasons from 1980- 1982, but it is my favorite animated TV show of all time, and Ariel is one of the reasons why. You see, she’s the brains of a trio of adventures that wander the planet, freeing the world from tyranny. Her companions, Thundarr, and Ookla, are a little dense, so she gives them plenty of guidance. Ariel has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of earth’s past and great magic powers that have saved her group on more than one occasion. Also, she added some nice diversity to Saturday mornings, as she’s not white, but an Asian/Indian. The show was never specific about her origins not that it matters. Princess Ariel is smart, has magic powers, and roams a mutated world gone mad, what’s not to love about her. (note: I used the toy pic as there weren't any other good pics on the web)


Nadine Cross, a haunted survivor of a devastating superflu that swept the world and the maddened mate of Randall Flagg, in the Stand. I found her character the most compelling in Stephen King’s book and Laura San Giacomo nailed the character with her portrayal of Nadine Cross in the Stand mini-series. Once in a great while (i.e. almost never) I read something and the image in my mind matches with the TV/Film interpretation. Nadine Cross is one of those rare occurrences. It’s eerie but then Nadine’s reality is one of loss, terror, madness and death, so how could I not be drawn to her. Just look at the picture, man! Scary and alluring all in one.

Stilletta: A post-nuke, cyberpunk bitch with an assassin’s skill and dangerous looks. She appeared in the short-lived Hex comic from the 1980s, which was hugely popular in Japan and Europe. When the western hero Jonah Hex was hurled through time to a horrific post-apocalyptic future, he finally met a woman who was his equal in dealing death and one who could sooth his tortured soul. Stilletta fought all kinds of mutants, cyborgs and road warriors while looking hot as hell during the Hex series. She was at home wandering the desert or fighting in an urban landscape proving she was hardcore the whole time. I wish the Hex comic series had lasted longer than 18 issues so we'd have more Stilletta, as I’d choose her over any man to help me survive the wastelands.

Jessica 6 from Logan’s Run. Yeah, she made a big impact on me as a kid. Her world was a safe protected place where every desire is met. There is just one catch though; you only get to live to be 30. Despite having the good life in a disco dome, Jessica knew something was wrong. Idling the days away with pleasure in an environment that looks like a shopping mall until you get blown up is not any kind of real existence. I like to think of Jessica 6 as a comment on vapid consumer culture and the rebellion against it. Better to force one’s way out into the unknown and discover a collapsed world than live a short groovy existence of banality. Plus, I liked the fact that Jessica 6 had a realistic body, like someone I could actually meet and she wanted to have kids. See people were grown in test tubes in the Disco Dome; blah give me Jessica 6’s way.


Dr. Alison Mann from Y the Last Man. It’s tough for her being half-Japanese and half-Chinese, but then add being a lesbian and “bam” she’s out the door. So out the door that she runs away to the U.S. and changes her name from Ayuko Matsumori to Alison Mann just to piss off her Japanese father. But things go from bad to worse when all the men in the world die from a plague (except one) and Dr. Mann thinks its all her fault because of her failed experiments with self-cloning. She dedicates herself to the saving the human race and tries really hard to not let all the nookie around distract her from her mission. She fails at that but she’s only human. With the help of the Yorick, the last man, and Agent 355, Dr. Alison Mann may yet save the world. A woman who loves women is trying to bring back men. No matter our sexual orientation Dr. Mann knows we all need each other.


Nova from Planet of the Apes: This goes with the duh category, what fanboy wouldn’t get hot under the collar seeing the gorgeous Nova roaming the wastelands. But Nova is more than just a curvy cavewoman; she’s the proof that the human race is worth saving. Her capacity for love and affection demonstrates that while humans have devolved into near animals they could come back. Plus she isn’t totally out of it as she chooses the smartest guy around as her mate that being the astronaut Taylor from the past, and as Commander Oefelein has shown, those astronauts sure got the right stuff if you know what I mean. Bringing the human race back didn’t quite work out since everybody ends up getting blown up in Beneath the Planet of the Apes but Nova represents how sad that really was. What’s extra cool is I met Linda Harrison, the actress who played Nova, a few years ago at a comic book convention.


Mother Sarah: usually when I think post-apocalyptic, I think mad Max or some such. But Mother Sarah breaks the mold in Katsuhiro Otomo’s The Legend of Mother Sarah. The earth has been devastated by ecological collapse. Most Humans had been living in space stations above the planet until a terrorist attack forces humanity back to the surface. Mother Sarah journeys the wastes looking for her children, which she was separated from during the evacuation. She brings nurturing and tenderness to the harsh world she finds herself in, but she has more than enough strength to defend herself. Just think of The Legend of Mother Sarah as the opposite of Fist of the North Star.


Jet Girl from Tank Girl. When I was younger I would have said the crazy wild tank girl was the one that would light my fire but as the years have gone by I realized that Jet Girl is the real ticket. She’s smart, attractive, and has a jetfighter to blow away the bad guys. Tank Girl is the kinda chick you fool around with while Jet Girl is the kind girl you marry. Plus I think I like Naomi Watts looks better with dark hair.


Princess Nausicaä from Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. What can I say about this character from Studio Ghibli that hasn’t been said? She’s a great character from a great film. Princess Nausicaä lives in a post-apocalyptic world 1000 years after the great burn were most of the earth is enveloped in toxic fungi forests with horrid giant insects. As a thoughtful leader of her people she strives to tame the giant insects of the toxic forest and defend her home from aggressive neighbors, Nausicaä seems almost mythic in stature despite her youth and she is indeed inspired by two myths. One is the Japanese story of the "the princess who loved insects" and the other is the Bernard Evslin version of the odyssey's Nausicaa. The best thing is, if the animated movie doesn’t give you enough Princess Nausicaä, you can read her continued story in manga form, which was also created Miyazaki.

Rosa Winter: in a world were America’s economy has collapsed and the environment is in shambles, the United States finds itself geopolitically isolated for it’s past greed. Sergeant Rosa Winter, half Anglo half Mexican, navigates what’s left of her country while confronting Emanuel Santana, a Hopi Indian on a vision quest to kill the four monsters, and Rosa’s past lover. Rosa appeared throughout Timothy Truman’s Scout comic book series, which has recently been reprinted by Dynamite Entertainment. As an Army ranger she was my first visual experience of a woman in uniform trained for combat. Rosa also holds the distinction of being the first fully nude character that I ever saw in a comic book. It was presented in a flashback sequence when both her and Emanuel were young lovers and it was very tastefully done. The Scout comic blew my teenage mind and I realized that you could tell very adult stories in comics. I guess Rosa Winter was an important milestone on the road to manhood if you know what I mean.


Honorable Mention

Hannah Dundee: a pulp adventuress who fights dinosaurs in the Xenozoic Era

Axa: A porny heroine who finds her destiny outside the safely her domed city to become the ultimate barbarian woman of the wastelands

The Warrior Woman: She had no name but she kicked ass until she went down fighting in Mad Max 2: the Road Warrior

Helen from Waterworld, global warming never looked so dam good

Alice from Resident Evil: Looks like the third movie will give us that zombie apocalypse we’ve been looking for

Kidda proves she’s the best in The Blood of Heroes

Krysty Wroth: that Gaia worshiping redhead from the Deathlands books, which I haven’t read but I keep meaning to.

Tate from the Warrior series by Donald E. Mcquinn, tough as nails marine revived from suspended animation into a world reduced to tribalism.

Trinity: the best part of the Matrix, including the effects, plus she must really have superpowers to get real emotions out of Keanu Reeves



-Swinebread