Write it off as shameless promotion for the upcoming third movie in the Bill & Ted franchise if you want but I doubt the graduating class at the real San Dimas High School (yeah, I didn’t know it was real either) cares. With the quarantine shutting down most graduating events the school decided to do it virtually through webcams, tablets, and smartphones, and were surprised that Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter were able to actually attend. I guess it’s easier to make an appearance if you don’t have to fly out there. Too bad there’s no video because I would have loved to see the reaction from the graduates.
Anime purists hate Carl Macek for turning Super Dimension Fortress Macross into the odyssey that is Robotech. As I talked about in the Video Review of Clash Of The Bionoids and plan to also bring up if I ever get to make the Video Review of Robotech II: The Sentinels pilot movie you have to remember the time this show came out. There was no anime media fandom like there is today. At best there were fans of Godzilla movies or Kurosawa films but Japanese animation wouldn’t really become popular in the US until the “Japanimation” boom of the 1980s, and even then it took two more tries for anime to get the solid following it has today. And shows like Robotech paved the way for that. With too few episodes for a proper weekday series and too many for a weekend series Macek and producers Harmony Gold grabbed two more shows, the unrelated Super Dimension Calvary Southern Cross and totally unconnected Genesis Climber Mospedia, and tried to put them together not as an anthology but as a connected timeline bound together by the same giant transforming robotic vehicle technology and the mysterious element called Protoculture that made it possible. You can not fault Macek and his team for a lack of creativity because they were very creative.
However, slamming three shows together like this leaves a few problems, like not being able to reuse characters. Other Macross series either hadn’t used any of the old characters or hadn’t come out yet. (Macross II didn’t even come out until the 90s and the only other options they had was the re-imagining Do You Remember Love, which became Bionoids instead of a Robotech movie, and some music video collection called Flash Back 2012.) Trying to explain their absence without killing beloved character off-screen meant having to explain what happened to the heroes of the First War when the Robotech Masters and Invid arrived as well as things like Dana’s vision, where Scott Bernard’s team came from, and so on. Robotech II: The Sentinels was intended to be that explanation but plans fell through and it didn’t happen. The story was continued in novels by Jack McKinney as well as comics published originally by Malibu Comics imprint Eternity Comics and later by Academy Comics, Ltd.
It was during the Academy Comics run, in the August 1995 issues of all their titles at the time, that Todd Hill made a four page interview with Carl Macek, discussing what was planned both for The Sentinels and in the future. Since I just reviewed the issue of The Sentinels it appears in this felt like the appropriate place to post and discuss the information learned. Hopefully the watermarks don’t distract…nature of the game on the internet…but I won’t be discussing every answer. You can see them all for yourselves. However a few comments in particular did get my attention.
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The Regis auditions to be the Sorceress in the next Masters of The Universe production.
Robotech II: The Sentinels book 3 #20
Academy Comics, Ltd. (August, 1995)
“Destination: Earth”
WRITER/ARTIST: Jason Waltrip
LETTERER: Sue Dorne
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Director Matt Reeves posted the above tweet, showing a model of the new Batmobile from his take on Batman, which will be resuming soon after the Covid-19 freeze. I’ve seen comparisons to KITT from Knight Rider but I don’t think this would even work with Team Knight Rider. At the very least it’s an improvement over the version we saw previously. The rocket jet being a staple of Batmobiles at least since the Adam West series I’m not surprised it’s there but the back end does seem like an easy target. I’m still happy we’ve gotten back to cars instead of another tank. /Film has some more info on the car, the model designer, and the movie.
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Yeah, I’m not even trying to hide it today. Sorry folks, but it was a busy day and I didn’t want to go without posting something.
So you’ve either decided to become a video game animator or you were just curious of what goes into animating a video game. Or you’re still shut in the house and being that bored. Either way I’m here to help…by posting a video from someone who knows what he’s talking about.
Dan Floyd, creator and original host of Extra Credits as well as the man behind gameplay channel Play Frame and game animation examination channel New Frame Plus, has worked for Pixar but he knows plenty of game animators and in this video he gives you some good advice of what you need to learn to have a chance of getting into the industry. At least I think it’s good. My level of animation skill is “made eyes blink, made a TARDIS turn (I think I lost those gifs), and made one of those sign people walk forward from a limo with flashing lights”. Just the same I hope you find this interesting and I’ll try to post an actual commentary or something tomorrow. Enjoy while I take a nap. Like I said, it’s been a long day.
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Soon everyone knew about Miles’ secret piano skills.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine #21
Malibu Comics (April, 1995)
“Fadeout!”
WRITER: Dan Mishkin
PENCILER: Rob Davis
INKER: Bruce McCorkindale
COLOR DESIGNER: Moose Baumann
INTERIOR COLOR: Foodhammeri & Nathan Potvin
LETTERER: Mike Delepine
ASSISTANT EDITOR: Clarissa Manansala
EDITOR: Mark Paniccia
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Catch more What Culture Comics on their YouTube channel.
Yes, keep telling me how Superman is overpowered. Although as for Bane…
That’s Superman disguised as Batman. Long story involving Brainiac capturing Bruce Wayne. So that’s actually nine if we’re counting alternate universes. (He brought in Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow. It counts.)
