Over the 10+ years I’ve been teaching kids how to draw, I’ve encountered some real funny characters, as in both the kind of characters kids draw and the kids themselves. I’ve got so many funny stories but this one from last evening takes the cake.

I was teaching a class comprised of a young group of kids, and their drawing abilities are kind of all over the place, as is their ability to pay attention.

On this night, one student stood out. I’m not sure how old he is but he must be quite young. He’s far from being the best artist I’ve seen, but his enthusiasm for the material is through the roof. He knows all the super heroes and just loves this stuff. He usually shows up on the weekends, though he hasn’t been to every lesson and so he came to this class to catch up. It’s been a lot of fun having him around, but this class in particular was hilarious.

The lesson was about drawing characters with different ages. The assignment was to draw 3 or 4 characters, each one with a different age. Well, my little friend here took it a couple steps further and started adding more and more extra stuff, creating a huge storyline as he continued to draw. I’ve seen this from kids before. The more they draw, the bigger and longer the story gets, even through everything is on one picture.

His picture started with a drawing of a Grandpa, two kids, and a tall skinny guy. These were pretty much just vaguely humanoid scribbles, but at least they were of different sizes, so he got that part right. Things got really exciting when he revealed that the tall guy was wearing an eye patch. I thought that was interesting because, from a character design standpoint, that is something that creates visual interest from the audience. So I asked him if he had a story about why he was wearing this eye patch. He said it was because the kids in the drawing had thrown rocks at the guy’s face.

So I asked if the guy just happened to have been carrying the eye patch with him this whole time, since he would only be wearing it after getting hit. I was told that he needed to keep an eye patch with him because of his boxing. Makes sense to me! He also added both peace signs and a skull and crossbones to the guy’s shirt, though I convinced him not to add another eye patch on the other eye. Perhaps he was a pirate hippie?

Things took a grim yet amusing turn when it was decided that his confrontation should take place in a graveyard. So he started drawing tombstones and told me that the rocks that the kids were throwing came from breaking the tombstones with a hammer. I did not ask where the hammer came from, but apparently this whole graveyard attack was masterminded by the Grandpa, who was getting the kids to fight for him.

In fact, this was no simple attack. As the story continued to develop, I was informed that Grandpa and the tall guy were having a war! They were at war with each other! Perhaps I should have asked what started the war, but instead I informed him that wars were usually held between entire countries, not just a few people. So he said “This guy is from England, this guy is from Britain, and this guy is from Africa… I mean Canada!” I told him that Canada and England never went to war, we just wanted independence and said goodbye. So he asked me “But how do you know how to say goodbye in England?” So I said that it was “Cheerio!”

At this point I am laughing too much to make any suggestions, and the kid is just having a blast with it. The story continued with more and more things added to it, with new twists and turns, including a tombstone for a mouse that got involved for some such reason. Everything he drew he would either explain it to me or just speak aloud what was happening next. None of this was at all a part of the activity I had instructed everyone to work on, but at least he was drawing and enjoying it, which is the most important thing when dealing with the young ones.

As class was about to wrap up, we were talking about our plans for the holiday break. I was asked what I was going to do, and always feeding the fire, I came up with something ridiculous to say. So I said “I’m going to…” and just before I was about to say “…get into a big fight!“, this kid, with the most sincere and believable tone of voice I’ve ever heard, honestly finished my sentence for me by saying “…beat up a lot of wrestlers?” I laughed so hard and told him yes, that is in fact exactly what I would be doing.

You just can’t make this stuff up, folks. This one kid’s drawing in this one class was almost as good as Axe Cop. Some kids can be taught all day and night and they just won’t take to it, but this little fellow was right in his element. The quality of his artwork didn’t really matter. This crazy, imagination-expanding, creativity developing stuff is what teaching kids how to draw is really all about.

Sayonara.

Cartoons are just great, aren’t they? Esspecially right now when there are so many cool new ones. I want to talk about that in more detail later, but right now I’m going to share my thoughts on the newest Transformers series, Transformers Prime. And since I’ve updated around here, I can now add pictures to this blog a lot more easily, so this will be a lot more exciting to look at than just another wall of cyan text.

This new show is airing in the US on a new network called “The Hub“, which Hasbro has a big stake in. Of course, that puts me and other International fans at a slight disadvantage when it comes to watching this stuff, but only a slight one. I’m not sure when the show will air in Canada but that doesn’t really matter as I have now acquired and seen the 2 episodes that have aired in the States.

So far, so good.

Peter Cullen and Frank Welker reprise their classic roles as Optimus Prime and Megatron. Optimus sounds and acts much like one would expect, which is great but slightly predictable. Megaton, on the other hand, is a little different. It’s still sounds like Welker, but he’s not the same raspy voiced idiot from the original Transformers, he’s a colder, more understated character. I like it. Also of note is Steve Blum‘s Starscream, which is also a lower sounding, darker portrayal of that character, and the great Jeffery Combs as Ratchet, who is quite a cranky doctor.

Although it’s not a sequel to any other Transformers show, it’s good to see Bulkhead back from Transformers Animated. I hope to see other characters from other versions of the franchise appear, not just the same old batch of G1 mainstays.

Cliffjumper is totally The Rock. Seriously. He’s not around for very long but it was crazy hearing The Rock’s voice coming out of a Transformers character, if you smell what I’m cooking.

When the show begins, the Transformers are already active on Earth and have been their for quite some time. I think this is a great idea as it adds potential for both exploration into the future and the past of this story down the road without bogging down the beginning moments with the same dry sequence of showing them wind up on Earth and choosing their alt-modes that several other Transformers series have started off with.

 The animation isn’t mind blowing for a CG show but it’s good enough. My copies of these episodes are not great so I can’t judge too much. Some of the artistic choices in the show are a bit… unique, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it. The look of the robots is sort of a combination between Animated and the movies. I know any time any new show comes out there are people who appear out of no wear just to say “I don’t like the designs!” without really knowing what they are talking about , but those people are lame.

It’s a really serious show thus far. I wonder how it will develop.  The visuals are dark, the music has got a kind of foreboding atmosphere, and the plot seems to be going in a surprising direction. Will it always be this grim?

What really struck me most about the show is that, in my opinion, the best character thus far is definitely Arcee. I’m very surprised about that, but it’s welcomed all the same. She is a cool, blue, tough biker chick in this version, and she gets more attention in these first 2 episodes than even Bumblebee. She’s also the one who hangs out with the lead human character so I’m assuming the spotlight will be on her quite a bit.  That’s perfectly fine by me, and I think it’s interesting that a girl character gets put into such a prominent spot in what is typically perceived as a “boy’s” franchise. Times are changing for the better.

Anyway, when it comes to this stuff, I’m pretty easy to please most of the time. I have enjoyed and will even stick up for Transformers series that many loud (and obnoxious) members of the fandom absolutely hate. But it’s still good to be able to say that I like what I’ve seen and I’ll be looking forward to more.
 
Sayonara.

Am I? Am I really?

I think so. There’s new stuff here. More changes yet to come as I continue to tweak things, but for the most part… I think I’m done.

Sayonara.

Happy holidays, folks. Hope everything’s good with you all. I’m not usually the kind of guy to get into the Christmas spirit, and, well, this year is no different. I’m just a humbug sort of bloke, I suppose. But this year is especially so. I’ve been trying to finalize the character roster of the long-awaited Anime Injustice Gang, and thus I have surrounded myself in evil. I’m reading everything I can about villains in trying to pick the best lineup of evil characters, as I want to at least make a decent attempt at finishing the artwork before the year ends. After taking suggestions and researching for months, I think I’m about ready to finally make it happen.

My first term at the art academy I’ve been teaching at is finished, and quite successfully. I’m very happy there and they seem very happy with me. The results have been quite impressive in how much some of the students have improved. It looks like I’ll be working there more in the winter.

Amazingly enough, I got a nice holiday message from everyone’s favorite racist sociopath, The Stupid Samurai! He wished me a, well, less than Merry Christmas (in less then jolly terms that I will not share here) and chose to take the time to brag that he has been busy having a life. The details of this supposed life go unmentioned, so I am only left to assume what this alleged life may entail. Clearly it can not possibly be that fulfilling, as he seems to have plenty of time and pent up energy to spend writing messages rife with poorly thought-out insults and inexcusable spelling mistakes to someone he doesn’t even like (where as I, on the other hand, simply enjoy keeping a weblog when I get the chance).

I would like to remind the aptly named Stupid Samurai that The Anti-Ninjatron Clan is still awaiting his contribution, and that this would be a much better, more effective way to express his message of hatred. It does not need to be a holiday or special occasion for “The Shogun of Simpletons” to accept my invitation, and I wish to clarify that if he really believes what he says, he will sign up to the board with a valid e-mail address and post. So, unless he is a coward, he will do that. But, hey, he’s one of those rare individuals that has a life! We’ll be lucky if we ever hear from him again!

That’s it for now. See you next year. Probably.

Seeing 20 minutes of this special Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie event at FanExpo this past summer and waiting until this weekend to finally see the whole thing was absolute torture. Waiting for someone to finally upload it to the Internet was probably even worse. But watching it today (twice even) made it all worthwhile.

Epic. Turtles Forever was awesome. It was so awesome.

It’s hard to find the words to describe what this means. It may very well have been the greatest gift ever given to a fandom. I’m serious. What other fandom has ever gotten something like this that was pulled off so well?

(Semi-Spoilerish from here on. Proceed with Caution!)

The 1987 Turtles looked just like they had stepped off the old cartoon. The voices weren’t there, but I knew that going in. The goofiness and silliness of the ’87 Turtles show was played up in a major way, more so than the show really was, but they prove themselves in the end. Donatello really steals the whole movie.

So many references and call-backs, it was just a total blast to watch. Then, the original comic book Turtles appear and it becomes the biggest piece of fan service of all time. Lines of dialogue lifted straight from that first issue, repurposed for this new story as if they were always meant to be that way.

I want to talk more but I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet. If you were a child of the 80’s, or just wish you were, you must see this.

Now that Viacom has purchased the rights to the TMNT, Turtles Forever truly marks the end of an era. When I first heard the news regarding the buyout, I was shocked. But after watching this, I feel really good about the whole thing. The era has ended by going back through 25 years of history and returning to the source. You just can’t ask for anything better than that. Now I can earnestly look forward to what comes next.

But I will say this. When the Turtles find out about the multiverse of different versions of themselves, the ’87 turtles yell “Awesome!“. Well, they’re right, it is awesome. It is awesome that these characters have so many different interpretations and revisions, and that they’ve entertained fans all over the world for a quarter of a century. Be they from comics, cartoons, video games, movies, and whatever else Nickelodeon will wind up doing with them, Ninja Turtles are awesome. And they will be, FOREVER!

Cowabunga.

I mean…

Sayonara.