Saturday Morning Cartoons

Bikinis & Berettas

As anyone who has ever looked at my sidebar can attest, I've been a fan of Kevin Dart's work for quite some time. In addition to doing everything from illustrating 20,000 Leagues under The Sea to doing promo art for a No Doubt tour, Dart has created a series of posters for movies-that-never-were (but damn well should have been). Movies like Cannibal Girls of The Forbidden Island, The Secret Agent Girls of Danger Cove, and The Deadly Bikini Girls of Shark Island. The prize flower of Dart's garden, however, is Yuki 7, a sultry Japanese superspy who makes Erin Esurance look like Velma from Scooby Doo. According to Dart's posters, Yuki was played by Kimiko Suzuki in such films as To Catch A Temptress, Danger Is A Female, and Roman Rendezvous.

To promote the release of Seductive Espionage: The World of Yuki 7, Dart recruited young French creative director Stephane Coedel to animate his graphics into a theatrical trailer for the 1964 Yuki 7 movie A Kiss From Tokyo. Coedel's animation really does Dart's work justice. The grain is perfect. The action, especially the old school car chase, is great. And Cyrille Marchesseau has the whole John Barry/Lailo Schrifin/Hoyt Curtin vibe down-pat. The video perfectly captures Kevin's retro spy-fi.

"A Kiss From Tokyo" Theatrical trailer from Stephane coedel on Vimeo.

Quiz Thing

Your result for Which fantasy writer are you?...

Michael Moorcock (b. 1939)

19 High-Brow, 13 Violent, -3 Experimental and 21 Cynical!

Congratulations! You are High-Brow, Violent, Traditional and Cynical! These concepts are defined below.

Michael Moorcock is one of the most influential fantasy writers of all times, his impact rivalling that of Tolkien's. Perhaps China Miéville described it best when he said: "I think we are all post-Moorcock." Apart from being the editor of New Worlds twice in the 60s and 70s, thereby being instrumental in bringing on the so-called "new wave" of science fiction which changed all fantastic literature forever, Moorcock's own work has been an inspiration to more recent writers. He is also known for not hiding or blunting his views on fiction which he regards as inferior, a trait which has lead him to apply harsh criticism on authors such as J R R Tolkien, C S Lewis an H P Lovecraft.

His most popular work are the Elric books. Elric was originally conceived as a sort of critical comment to or even parody of R E Howard's Conan, but the character and his world soon grew to form a tragic and somewhat fatalistic drama. Elric's world is, in turn, only a small part of the huge Multiverse, a set of stories from all sorts of worlds (including our own) which is forever locked in a struggle between the two powers of Law and Chaos. Whenever one of these powers is threatening to become too powerful, an incarnation of the Eternal Champion, a group of warriors possessing the same spirit, is forced to fight to maintain the delicate balance between the two. Moorcock has worked several of his heroes into this cycle of books, including Hawkmoon, Corum and, of course, Elric.

Moorcock's stories are often stories about warriors, however reluctant they may be, and are usually explicitly violent, even if the purpose of all the hacking and slashing is to free humans and other beings from oppression and, ultimately, fear. There is little happiness, though, for those who are forced to do the fighting and all they can hope for is a short time of respite, sometimes in the town of Tanelorn, the only place in the multiverse that the eternal struggle between Law and Chaos can't reach.

It should also be mentioned that, even though Moorcock has done quite some experimenting in his days, it can't be ignored that a major part of his books are traditional adventure stories that become more than that by their inclusion into a grand vision. A little ironically , perhaps, for an author who has criticized the "world-building school" of fantasy, Moorcock achieves much of his popularity through building, if not a world, a world vision.

You are also a lot like China Miéville

If you want something more gentle, try Ursula K le Guin

If you'd like a challenge, try your exact opposite, Katharine Kerr

Your score

This is how to interpret your score: Your attitudes have been measured on four different scales, called 1) High-Brow vs. Low-Brow, 2) Violent vs. Peaceful, 3) Experimental vs. Traditional and 4) Cynical vs. Romantic. Imagine that when you were born, you were in a state of innocence, a tabula rasa who would have scored zero on each scale. Since then, a number of circumstances (including genetic, cultural and environmental factors) have pushed you towards either end of these scales. If you're at 45 or -45 you would be almost entirely cynical, low-brow or whatever. The closer to zero you are, the less extreme your attitude. However, you should always be more of either (eg more romantic than cynical). Please note that even though High-Brow, Violent, Experimental and Cynical have positive numbers (1 through 45) and their opposites negative numbers (-1 through -45), this doesn't mean that either quality is better. All attitudes have their positive and negative sides, as explained below.

High-Brow vs. Low-Brow

You received 19 points, making you more High-Brow than Low-Brow. Being high-browed in this context refers to being more fascinated with the sort of art that critics and scholars tend to favour, rather than the best-selling kind. At their best, high-brows are cultured, able to appreciate the finer nuances of literature and not content with simplifications. At their worst they are, well, snobs.

Violent vs. Peaceful

You received 13 points, making you more Violent than Peaceful. Please note that violent in this context does not mean that you, personally, are prone to violence. This scale is a measurement of a) if you are tolerant to violence in fiction and b) whether you see violence as a means that can be used to achieve a good end. If you are, and you do, then you are violent as defined here. At their best, violent people are the heroes who don't hesitate to stop the villain threatening innocents by means of a good kick. At their worst, they are the villains themselves.

Experimental vs. Traditional

You received -3 points, making you more Traditional than Experimental. Your position on this scale indicates if you're more likely to seek out the new and unexpected or if you are more comfortable with the familiar, especially in regards to culture. Note that traditional as defined here does not equal conservative, in the political sense. At their best, traditional people don't change winning concepts, favouring storytelling over empty poses. At their worst, they are somewhat narrow-minded.

Cynical vs. Romantic

You received 21 points, making you more Cynical than Romantic. Your position on this scale indicates if you are more likely to be wary, suspicious and skeptical to people around you and the world at large, or if you are more likely to believe in grand schemes, happy endings and the basic goodness of humankind. It is by far the most vaguely defined scale, which is why you'll find the sentence "you are also a lot like x" above. If you feel that your position on this scale is wrong, then you are probably more like author x. At their best, cynical people are able to see through lies and spot crucial flaws in plans and schemes. At their worst, they are overly negative, bringing everybody else down.

Author image by Catriona Sparks from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Michael_Moorcock.jpg Click for license info.

Take Which fantasy writer are you? at HelloQuizzy

Christian X-chatology

Christian X-atology
richochet h/t cleireac

Thanks to Br'er Cleireac's picking up the torch of the RNT (Random New Table) from Berin Kinsman (unclebear.com), I ran across Comic Book Resources May 22, 2009 interview with X-Force creator and former Levi's 501 spokesmodel Rob Liefeld. The focus of the interview is Liefeld's project with his pastor Phil Hotsenpiller: Image Comics Armageddon Now. From what I've seen, it's Cable meets Left Behind. I hope that while Righteous Rob has maintained his ability to cut his ink with anabolic steroids, he has has lost his ability to abandon projects in midstream and to miss seemingly every deadline on those projects he does follow through on.

[ watch ]

In the video, he mentions a series of bizarre "end times" films that he compares with old grindhouse flicks. I remember seeing one of these when I was a kid: A Thief in The Night -- which is available in its entirety courtesy of blip.tv.

Dispatches from Dying Earth

h/t Hill Cantons

The Dying Earth. If those three words bring to mind an Al Gore-inspired apocalyptic vision, then read no further. However, upon hearing those words, you hear "angel trumpets and devil trombones," then read further, my friend. I bring great tidings.

Neil Gaiman, Glen Cook, and a host of other literary luminaries have contributed stories set in (or should that be on?) Jack Vance's Dying Earth. Edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois, Songs of the Dying Earth has some wonderful illustrations courtesy of Tom Kidd.

The 526 signed-by-Jack-Vance copies have already been swept up by my greedy fellow Cugelphiles. Were it not for the fact that this blog's entire readership could fit comfortably in the old '72 Beetle I had in high school, I would probably be hesitant to post this announcement lest the other 1474 copies be swept up before I can stake my claim on a copy.

...and The Meme Raths Outgrabe

D&D Home Page - What Monster Are You? - D&D Compendium

Artrocity

I'm a chronic doodler. Put me at a table without a book or a keyboard, and I can't help myself. Inspired by my reborn interest in gaming, this doodle features a Telmarine-inspired human, a kraken (a PC race which is basically a human with a cuttlefish for a head), and a jambiya-fightin' monkey (inspired by Monkey of the Red Pagoda and the knife-fighting monkey craze.