We Are, We Are On A Cruise ...

How many years has it been since I first watched the early episodes of One Piece? At least five, maybe six -- during one of the godawful anime club all-nighters at one of my fellow club members' homes. I don't think I even started with the first episode; I think it was in the middle of the very episode I just got done watching.

Heck, it's been long enough since I started reading the manga that I didn't even remember the first story, in which rubber boy Monkey D. Luffy knocks down the first of many tyrannical, power-drunk monsters in his journey to become the King of the Pirates. First on the list is the oh-so-obviously-named Captain Morgan, a power-mad Marine holding the town near his base in his thrall. A few punches from Luffy and a few slashes from Zoro, though, and the town is free; honestly, it doesn't look like they killed him, just proved that he wasn't as big a deal as he seemed. His ego shattered, does he weep? Does he forlornly return to Marine headquarters, a broken mess of a man? I really don't know. Maybe creator Eichiro Oda explained it somewhere, but I don't absorb One Piece errata the way I do Transformers or Robotech. I just enjoy the show and the manga it's based on.

I've been watching the show on the recently released first DVD box from FUNimation; because it's easier for casual, glancing-over-my-shoulder viewing and because the TV I'm watching it on is a little fuzzy, I've been watching the English dub, which is all-in-all pretty solid. I'm digging the English version of the opening theme; the end theme seems a little off to me, but it's OK. Three nights of viewing, three episodes down; Luffy and Zoro still haven't even met Nami, who is still just humming away in a subplot, namelessly laced through the episodes, but clearly on a collision course with the two boys. (And given their straightforward goals and carefree attitudes, the word "boys" fits 'em to a T.)

It's a ball just lazily loping from episode to episode, unwinding with a half hour of mindless shonen fun every evening. Honestly, I can't see myself pulling another marathon of an anime series any time in the near future -- haven't the energy, haven't the drive, haven't the care. One Piece, I know where it's going (more or less) and I'm just enjoying the ride.

Though we'll see how I'm feeling when that set of Gurren Lagann shows up on my doorstep in the next few days. Maybe that will break me from my lackadaisical haze.

It's coming tomorrow.

Two pages left to chapter two of Scwonkey Dog after this. The pages have slowed down in their rate of production and release, matching the slower atmosphere of the last few pages here. Not that it's anything intentional, but, y'know ... it's what's happened. The tangible issue two will be ready for the summer, and I still think I'll have three ready to roll later on in the summer. I plan on working my butt off on that next chapter once May rolls around and I've got another, ah, quick bit under my belt.

I'll also be drawing up a limited run poster (mostly for the kids here I'll be leaving behind when I flee little ol' P-burg, but I plan on having some left over for other folks) probably over the weekend. Probably just a character line-up piece, but I sketched it up and thought it looked nice. I'll show it off when I get it done.

I had no idea.

When I was a kid, I devoured pretty much everything on the local library's graphic novel shelf -- my strongest memories include the First Comics Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles collections, Byrne's Man of Steel, The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told, Batman: Digital Justice (of all things), The Rocketeer, and the translated manga excerpts in the back of Schodt's Manga, Manga! The World of Japanese Comics -- though I never read much of the text of the book, given that I was in grade school when I was sitting up there among the slim pickings. When I went back to see what was there just a few months ago, I found a copy of The Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told -- the old thick one, not the slim recent one -- that seemed to have been there for quite some time even though I don't remember it, but that was about it, though I understand in the young adult section they have a copy of the loathsome Loeb/Turner Superman/Batman Supergirl storyline.

So it was surprising to see in today's link list at Journalista that the local library is getting about $4,000 to expand their graphic novel selection. It is very, very strange to see the name of the local newspaper in Journalista of all places; it is very, very sad that I would not have known about this if not for Journalista. This is how completely out of touch with everything I am at this point.

Leonard Rakyl has a drink for you.

Slowly but surely, page #40 of SCWONKEY DOG is coming along. See it here on Monday.

Why Can't Some Terrible People Just Go Away?

So I guess there's a big convention going on this weekend in L.A., and so that means there's some kinda comic book news coming out of it. This time 'round, we found out some things about who's running the X-Men going forward, which I'm kind of interested in, because a few weeks ago I picked up the latest issue of Uncanny X-Men for the first time since ... oh, the Civil War crossover, when Chris Claremont and Chris Bachalo were the creative team? Two, maybe three years ago?

The good news: Matt Fraction (Casanova, Punisher War Journal) is joining Uncanny X-Men as co-writer alongside current series writer Ed Brubaker, with whom he also co-writes The Immortal Iron Fist. Also, Terry Dodson (Wonder Woman, Marvel Knights Spider-Man) will be one of the regular series artists.

The bad news: Greg Land (X-Men: Phoenix - Endsong, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Ultimate Power) is going to be the other regular series artist. Behold his hideous cover for Uncanny X-Men #500:



I leave it to the Greg Land experts to point out where he's used all the base materials appearing on this cover before -- oh, here, someone's already done it -- but just like Land's involvement in the first issue of the almost-weekly Amazing Spider-Man was the nail in that coffin, so this makes me think, nope, I don't think I'll be reading Uncanny for much longer. Hell, the more I look at that cover -- and especially a wonderful little piece like this -- the less likely I think I am to even buy #500.

Here's another blogger who also explicitly demonstrates that Greg Land is doing nothing with his art that a person with a collection of Greg Land-drawn comics couldn't do, and to some extent echoes my own progression in my distaste for Land's art. And like everyone keeps saying, why Land gave innocent li'l Pixie (flying girl, far left hand side) a bad case of pornface is something I'd rather not think about too deeply. Though now that I think about it, I'm probably giving it more thought than Land did ...

On the other hand, Ellis/Bianchi Astonishing X-Men begins in July, so there's that to look forward to.

Found on the YouTube

The second Japanese X-Men opening theme. I'd seen the first before -- it's easy enough to find if you want to see it yourself -- but I think this one's cooler and the song's so much better.



Speaking of Japanese opens for American shows -- here's three Japanese opening themes for the 2003 Ninja Turtles series. Unlike X-Men there's really no unique footage -- not much, at any rate -- but mostly they do a good job showcasing some of the cooler shots from the series and the U.S. opens. The first one sounds a lot like one of the Naruto opening themes; the third one is a pretty decent rap song with a lot of English language lines in it.

WHOA.

Geez, Evan, maybe we're missing the boat by penciling in San Diego for next year ...