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Spike

80's cartoons character design

Submitted by Pepius on February 18, 2004 - 11:49

Well, I opened this thread to talk a bit about just that, character designs from those nostalgia-filled saturday morning cartoons from the eighties, when more or less mos of us (I assume) were kids. I'm referring to not only the character looks, but its personality too. (I'd prefer to leave the voice out since it's kinda pointless when most of the people have known that stuff dubbed in its own language)

Ok, I'll start with some:

Transformers (the original series)
- StarScream: well, he was a backstabbing bastard, (even more in the comic), and had cool wings and arm lasers. The only down for me was his color scheme, I always liked the purple jet more.
- SoundWave: nothing special by itself, he had the uber-cool cassete tape robots, though (Ravage, Buzzsaw, Ratbat, and so on), which meant kudos for him
- Megatron: pure evil + badass cannon = coolness! I didn't like his wimpy pistol form, though, and more black would have added extra coolness
- Optimus Prime: maybe excessively righteous, but we kids adored him! (he also was a badass fighter for being such a pacifist). Is convoy transforming issues are a mistery yet today (o^.-)o
-Dinobots: Big. Brute. Kicked arses all the time. Plus, they tranformed into dinosaurs and had special "powers"

Dungeons and Dragons
- Venger: da coolnez!!oneone! He was evil, huge, menacing, had wings, magic powers, the uber-stallion (actually a nightmare, I know, clam down), and that big sigle horn. Cool I tell you, Cool!
- Shadow: not much to say about it, but a winged shadow is always cool, even more with those red eyes...
- Tiamat: 5 heads, period (Her main one looked kinda goofy, though)
- Hank: he had the coolest costume and weapon of the lot, and was the team hero. In one episode, he threw a light arrow even WITHOUT his bow (kamehameha anyone?)
- Dungeon Master: ¡Pujoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool! XD (Ok, spanish joke, he looked just like a spaniard politician. Look for "Pujol" in google and you'll see).

C.O.P.S:
- BulletProof (or some shit like that, I'm detranslating): he was the coolness even without doing anything, with the glasses, the coat, and the "being a cyborg" stuff.
- The baddies: they were goofy but cool, (you wouldn't grow tired of them even if they seemed to be only 6 criminals in the whole city) and the guys were huge! (Turbo 2-tones must have been Zangief cousin or something)

Inspector Gadget
- Gadget: guess why? the mini-copter and the extensible limbs were the best, and the car was cool too. I also like his coat
- Doctor Mad (or something like that): he was cool even if he only showed one (spiked, metal) hand! that must count for something! His cat was dead funny, too

I could go on for a while, but I'd like to hear other opinions first, so tell me! (please?)

I Hate You All by Dalton Wemble

February 7, 2004 - 19:00 | Dalton Wemple

Gaming Comics: Child's Play!

The scuttlebutt is, last month there was quite a tizzy in these august pages over a few reviews of some sub-simian nerdlaff generators called "Gaming Comics." I, sequestered in the Cave of Bitterness, came in rather late – after the Big Crash – but was told by the breathless wonders that inhabit this site that some not-entirely-positive reviews of the not-remotely-good comics Cornhole-Arrgh-Delight and Litigious Gamerz drew thousands of ireful comments from their so-called "fan community."

Webcomics Are From Uranus: Stop Drawing 80s Fashions!

January 25, 2004 - 22:00 | Meaghan Quinn

I skipped the 80s growing up. This was surprisingly easy, as I was born in 1980 and didn't get much of a pop culture knowledge base until I was 13 or so. That, a lack of anything but cartoons and reruns on my TV diet, an abuse of my parents' music and choice in movies, and an obsessive streak that had me trying to read every book in the library, kept me from experiencing much outside of things done before I was born.

So it is without any nostalgia or bias against this decade that I beg you, comics artists, to stop drawing 80s fashions!

Ko Fight Club by Russ Williams, reviewed by Xaviar Xerexes

January 19, 2004 - 00:00 | Xaviar Xerexes

Russ Williams' Ko Fight Club is a constantly evolving webcomic that samples a wide and extremely diverse set of topics for its subject matter. Williams describes Ko Fight Club as "eclectic comics about Go, board games, the Bench, Watchmen, Fight Club, Shakespeare, Esperanto, and Toki Pona." 'Eclectic' does not do justice to the range of topics and styles found in this webcomic.

Thursday Morning Blogging

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on January 8, 2004 - 12:57

Scott McCloud mentioned the Comixpedia face-lift.  Generally I think we got a lot of overall positive feedback o­n the site from readers but not a lot (meaning almost nil) of notice from the emerging blog-o-sphere:comics.  I suppose this blog, in part, is a way to try and interact more with this cool new conversation o­n the medium taking place o­n the web.  Scott also mentioned girl-a-matic cartoonist Spike just got married.  Unlike Ms. Spears let's hope Spike stays happily married for more than 24 hours.Pathetic Geek Stories leaves the o­nion and sets off o­n its own little website.  These are of that young and cringe-worthy genre of diary comics.  Still they can be quite good in a sort of Barry-esque way.Four Color Hell the comics blog with the coolest name, limps back to life.  Johnny Barcardi just joined the group effort, so that should be worth watching.  I'm a poor judge of many comics blogs though and I'll tell you why.  I, like almost every other American male who had at least a certain threshold of geek-factor, went through a comic book phase.  Read Marvel, DC.  Luckily got ahold of American Flagg, so that was cool.  But than got bored of the soap-opera-ness of the Marvel and DC books and stopped.I got into comics again from webcomics.  And have enjoyed many of the fine quality comics o­n the Internet since.  It has even led me back to reading comics in books (no, not superhero books and no I don't venture into comic book stores anymore).  So I feel sort of up to speed o­n what I like and at least a passing familarity with what's good right now.  I have no familiarity with what's bad or mediocre.  And I don't care.  I also have (outside of that brief period where I read comic books) zero familiarity with the history of comic books.  And you know what, I don't care.It's history folks.  Let's just treat comics like any other subset of written fiction for a moment, okay.  I'm a reader - I like to read.  So I'd be happy to read the greats of the past and I've read a few of those comics (Watchmen, of course, who hasn't.  Several collected editions of Peanuts are well-worn).  But 90 percent of the past of the comic book industry gives all outward appearance of being crap and I just have little interest in discussing it.  Same goes with the present.  X-Cousins?  Superman Red?  Ultimate New Fantastic Four? Make up as many titles as you want DC and Marvel.  Unless it's actually compelling as a story - a stand-alone story - I'm not interested.  I recognize that many others don't require this - it not o­nly explains many DC and Marvel comic book lines but also the continued success of the Tom Clancy factory-of-monkeys-typing line of books.

2003: Year in Review From the Mouth of Your Fave Webtoonists, by Kelly J Cooper

December 8, 2003 - 00:06 | Kelly J. Cooper

2003 was a pretty scary year. Whether you agree with it or not, war is a pretty terrifying thing. We lost another space shuttle, another crew, and – in a bad case of déjà vu – followed a flurry of finger-pointing in the aftermath.

Cover Artist Wish List

Submitted by dunk on October 31, 2003 - 17:44

I certainly have my own must have artists for future issues of comixpedia, but who would you like to see?

What Shaenon K. Garrity is Reading

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 2, 2003 - 01:08

I'm Shaenon. I draw Narbonic and write a bunch of other webcomics.

What I'm reading right now:

The Right Number by Scott McCloud;
American Elf by James Kochalka;
The Magic Whistle by Sam Henderson;
Lucas and Odessa by Spike; and
Digger by Ursula Vernon.

I Hate You All by Dalton Wemble

September 21, 2003 - 22:58 | Dalton Wemple

A Farewell to Paws

Okay, I was going to get into this big thing about the point of this column, and politely explain that how it's just great that all webcomics creators are supportive and friendly and sloppy kisses all around but that the medium's ability to self-criticize is completely eroded by everyone's reluctance to piss anyone else off...but screw it.
But that would take an awful long time, so here's the deal:

Webcomics can, on occasion, be a good read.

Most of the time, though, reading webcomics is like being locked in a coffin with a rabid, amphetamine-crazed monkey in possession of (a) a taser and (b) the total and unerring knowledge that your groin is responsible for every ill that has ever befallen any member of the monkey nation. Ever.

Go West Young Fan Boy and Fan Girl

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on July 15, 2003 - 13:59

Why should you head to San Diego for Comicon this month (July 17-20th)? Because there will be a huge number of great creators there to meet, including:

R Stevens and the Dumbrella Gang ("i'll be there with a bunch of other cartoonists [Sam Brown, Jeff Rowland, John Allison, R Stevens, Jon Rosenberg and Andrew Bell] we have a double endcap over near the bayside cafe & small press area. (#1148)")

Clint Hollingsworth of Wandering Ones will be at the Keenspot. So will Maritza Campos of CRFH!!!

Scott R. Kurtz and Frank Cho (sharing a booth somewhere near the Image booth)

At the GirlAMatic.com/RumbleGirls.com table will be Spike, Jason Thompson, Shaenon Garrity and Lea.

And lots more info in a helpful Comicon thread here.