There must be a cookie-cutter formula with CGI movies out there as of late. They all look alike. Astro Boy’s appearance in the 60’s was the building block of the Anime empire. The trailer is finally up and going and honestly I don’t know where it’s going. There is not that much pizazz going for it. Just like the "Roundabout" movie which employed American voices to empower sales. I don’t see much hope for Astro Boy in America. In Japan this movie will definitely make serious money on the back of nostalgia. Osamu Tezuka’s creation looks amazing as CGI and many other cartoon creations would also. The one thing that is missing is an interesting idea. These movies are always catering to the adults young at heart with grown-up humour clinging from infantile roots that don’t catch seed with both audiences. It’s only a first glimpse but skepticism is getting the best out of me right now.

Schulz and Peanuts CD: A Biography

The audio version of the newest book on Charles Schulz is very compelling to listen to. With the latest wave of controversy of this book from the likes of the New York Times that trickled down to the blog-sphere. I am still a firm believer in body language and when you listen to David Michaelis and see him in the above clip you can see he is enamored by his subject and his conviction for Charles Schulz. If this book is a can of worms, let it be because I can tell you of many people in the spotlight today who have a worse demeanor than him. Good grief, all this talk about Charles and his doom and gloom character fault, tell me we don’t have that in all of us. That is what made Peanuts a household strip, we all related to it, there was a piece of it in it for all of us. Every child can relate to all the characters in Peanuts and we still resonate the effects of that childhood even today. I welcome this biography it’s a self examination of all of us because we grew up with Charlie Brown and remember Lucy with "The psychiatrist is in" routine, consider Charles and yourself sitting on that stool and give her your nickel or should I say several nickels after you buy and read the book from David Michaelis.

The Tin Man is coming. Here is a brave new spin on the The Wizard of Oz by the Sc-Fi Channel. Richard Dreyfuss stars in this movie, funny thing he also had a movie called Tin Men with Danny DeVito 20 years ago.

Timing is everything. Young film students are creating great little CGI animated shorts on Youtube. Here is another perfect example of creative film making by students of the Sup’infograph in France.

Older cartoon strips are getting so much respect as of late. Comic strip original art is making some collectors a tidy sum of profit. These strips are great to look at.  If you don’t have the dough, companies like Fantagraphics and Drawn and Quarterly are religiously trying to restore the original strips at a fraction of the cost and all in chronological order with lavish bindings unlike those old paperbacks that reprinted these strips in the old days.

I honestly think DC Comics should get a ticket for their handling of the Flash franchise as of late. For the shame, bring back Barry Allen already. Barry was police chemist, I could see a series called "Flash:CSI", anything but what is being dished out as of late.

Happy 83rd birthday Gene Deitch, the man barely has any candle room on his cake but is still going strong. The above cartoon was produced by him called Munro an Academay Award winner in 1961. The story was written by Jules Feiffer from the book Passionella and Other Stories. Gene recently released with Fantagraphics his classic short lived comic strip Terr’ble Thompson about a boy who travels through time and meets historical figures.

This is a fun video that I had to post, it works on so many levels. It has that early Sesame Street feel to it. This was created in rotoscoped animation on a wacom tablet by Benjamin Arthur. See more>>

New Frontier is an exciting book series that chronicles the breeding ground of the DC universe of the inception of what the industry insiders call the Silver Age era of comics where the namesake heroes of the forties were given a revamp and complete new origins. From the likes of The Flash , Green Lantern, The Atom, Wonder Woman with radical new origins. Even Superman and Batman were tinkered ever slowly till the 50’s. These heroes are the ones we came to love and not the older version that are either or part of the current JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA, JSA is still the pillar of the DC universe but the 50 odd year versions are the still held dear to our hearts. DC now has animated the acclaimed New Frontiers and this preview boldly gives us closer look into the early friendships of our heroes. This award winning series was written & illustrated by Canada’s own Darwyn Cooke and is a powerful retelling of a fun time in comics and how comics should be written.

RV There Yet? A Cross-Country Cautionary Tale

It’s the silly season and what a better way to enjoy it with RV There Yet. There is an actual book based on this summer vaction venture. This is a fun project of a memoir by Julia Roberts, (not that one).