The always-great cartooning blog Drawn! brought to my attention a recent music video which portrays our own 44th President of the United States Barack Obama as a superhero.

And here’s a link to the full video. This video was created by JibJab studios, and premiered at the recent White House Radio & Television Correspondents Dinner.

Topless Robot has found the new trailer of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender online:

Love it? Hate it? Think he looks like the Dancing Baby from Ally McBeal? Share your thoughts!

While this story may have to do with Pixar’s new film Up, they’re more like the Incredibles for doing this.

The Orange County Register has written a story about how the computer-animation giant isn’t above helping out on a person-to-person basis.

When 10-year-old Colby Curtin was on her deathbed, after fighting a rare form of vascular cancer, Pixar employees brought a DVD copy of Up, which she wanted to see before she died.

“When I watched it, I had really no idea about the content of the theme of the movie,” said Colby’s mother, Lisa Curtin. “I just know that word ‘Up’ and all of the balloons and I swear to you, for me it meant that (Colby) was going to go up. Up to heaven.”

Colby passed away only hours after seeing the film. But it’s good to know that with all that money, Pixar still hasn’t forgotten what has made it big: having a heart.

Warner Home Video sat down with Bruce Timm to discuss Green Lantern: First Flight, a new full-length animated feature that is scheduled for release on July 28.

QUESTION: There was no downtime for you and director Lauren Montgomery between Wonder Woman and Green Lantern: First Flight. How did you two make that quick transition, and what kept it fresh for you?

BRUCE TIMM: Lauren did such a great job on Wonder Woman, she was immediately my first choice for Green Lantern.  I thought she might be a little burned out after the massive Wonder Woman project, but to my immense relief and gratefulness, she was eager to do it.

All that said, Lauren definitely needed to take a little bit of a break in terms of character design and I wasn’t about to step up to that role, either.  The tricky thing about Green Lantern is that we wanted to have a unique style sensibility.  We’ve done quite a bit with the Green Lantern and characters on the Justice League, including the entire Green Lantern Corps, and we certainly didn’t want to go back and reuse any of those designs. Another really talented young artist named Jose Lopez, who had worked with Mike Goguen and Jeff Matsuda on the recent The Batman series, was brought to our attention. I looked at his portfolio and I thought, “Wow, this guy is really cool.”

Jose has a completely different design sensibility than I’m accustomed to working with.  He’s a little bit anime-flavored, but not specifically anime.  We brought him in to do some designs on Green Lantern, and he ended up being pretty much our entire character design department.  He designed not just Green Lantern and most of the major characters but zillions of background aliens. Jose brought a really unique visual sensibility to the movie.

(more…)

The following is a new animated video by Takashi Murakami for Louis Vuitton. Besides the LV logomania, the cartoon is rife with interesting visual references, from Yellow Submarine and Alice in Wonderland to Doctor Who, Pulp Fiction and C.S. Lewis.

The scenario: a meet cute involving a girl who goes back in time to the 1897 workroom of 14-year-old Gaston Louis Vuitton. How the events in this video affect the timestream is unclear–clearly this calls for a sequel.

Probably the coolest thing you’ll see on the web today right here. Sorry to apoil the internet for you the rest of the day, but this is just too cool:

In honor of Gundam’s 30th Anniversary, they’ve built a life size model. Unfortunately, this means a war between Earth and the Space Colonies is bound to happen soon, so any teenagers out there in Tokyo should get ready to stumble upon this behemoth and have some natural intuition on how to use it. Everyone else, just drool at the awesome, and click through the link above for more pictures of this bad boy.

[via Twitter]

It’s raining and I’m going to bed early to be refreshed for tomorrow at MoCCA and what’s sure to be an epic evening, so I have links for you.

Because it’s Scalped week, and because I have relocated away from my beloved Brave New Worlds comics in Philly and my friend there with whom I chat each week about how amazing that book is, I suggest you read Jason Aaron’s Scalped Secrets over at Standard Attrition. You will like them. And if you don’t, it’s probably because you have not taken my advice to read Scalped yet, and thus there is no hope for you.

Speaking of Standard Attrition, Joshua Dysart is the newest member of the coolest club on the ‘net. Go tell him hello and tell him you’re enjoying Unknown Soldier. (What, you’re not reading THAT, either? Do you people never listen to me?)

Via Kieron Gillen, a bit of meta news: the comic that’s sort of like a fanzine has its own fanzine. That’s right, Phonogram vs. The Fans will be out for San Diego Comic Con. Someone pick me up a copy, will you? The cover art is by Phonogram‘s own Jamie McKelvie, and it’s gorgeous.

Molly Crabapple is in Inked magazine, talking comics, art and tattoos, and looking fabulous.

Comics Worth Reading reviews You Have Killed Me, by Jamie S. Rich and Joelle Jones, and makes me want to read it. (Though she hurts the film noir fan in me a little bit by snarking on the plot of The Big Sleep, one of the true classics of the genre…but y’all don’t want to hear me go off on Bogie ‘n’ Bacall, do you?)

Splash Page has more previews of 9, an animated film that looks breathtaking.

All right, my pretties, it’s time for me to curl up with the dog and watch some Angel. Enjoy!

Michael Madsen, best known for his work in films like Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill, and Free Willy, lent an ear to Warner Home Video about his upcoming role as Kilowog in Green Lantern: First Flight. In the interview below, the genre favorite talked about voice acting, sibling rivalry with his sister Virginia, and the true meaning of the word “poozer.” The animated feature is due out July 28, 2009.

QUESTION: What did you see in Kilowog and how did you try to portray those characteristics?

MICHAEL MADSEN: I liked the idea that Kilowog was forceful, yet has a gentle nature. I’m often thought of as playing villainous characters in movies. Everyone forgets that I was the father in Free Willy – they only like to remember that I cut off a policeman’s ear in Reservoir Dogs. There’s me in the middle somewhere and I think that’s kind of like Kilowog, He’s dangerous, yet he has a heart. That’s what attracted me to the part.

Also, I was quite humbled by being asked to play Kilowog in the first place. I don’t often get asked to voice animated characters, and I’ve always wanted to do something like that – it’s great fun for me.

QUESTION: Do you have a real-life human character that you possibly inspired your portrayal of Kilowog?

MICHAEL MADSEN: I guess, perhaps, I thought of my father. My father a very forceful man, a bit of a brute, and stubborn. Yet I remember when my first son was born and my father met me at the airport, and I let him hold the boy. I saw a little tear come down from his eye. It was one of the only times I ever saw him break emotionally – and I knew there was something in there.

QUESTION: Kilowog uses the word “poozer” frequently in describing other individuals in a variety of situations. Can you define that word by Kilowog’s standards?

MICHAEL MADSEN: I’ve heard that it’s closely associated with somewhat of a bungler or a misfit or someone who’s annoying … to put it mildly (laughs).

QUESTION: Was there anything particularly special or enticing about playing Kilowog?

(more…)

A writer who has become synonymous with the DCAU, Alan Burnett, spoke with Warner Home Video about his take on Green Lantern: First Flight. The film is due out July 28, 2009.

QUESTION: What made Alan Burnett the perfect choice to write Green Lantern: First Flight?

ALAN BURNETT: They had been going through some ideas for Green Lantern stories and none of them were quite working out and I came up with this notion that I thought would be interesting.  So, I just pitched it to them in one line. “Have you ever done Green Lantern as Training Day?” with the idea of the Denzel Washington role being Sinestro.  They said, “That sounds pretty good – start writing.” And that’s how it began.

QUESTION: So this is a police story?

ALAN BURNETT: We’re treating all the sectors of the universe as precincts and there’s, I believe, about 3,600 Green Lanterns – one for every precinct. Hal Jordan covers our section. The story is essentially Hal Jordan’s first day on the beat as a cop and he’s partnered with Sinestro. He’s seeing the universe for the first time, and we get to look at the universe through his eyes. It’s a bizarre place, but it’s also pretty recognizable.

(more…)

Juliet Landau (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, as well as the voice of Tala on Justice League Unlimited) spoke to Warner Home Video about her role in Green Lantern: First Flight. Landau will be the voice of Labella, a flirtatious alien with ties to both Sinestro and Hal Jordan. Green Lantern: First Flight is due out July 28.

QUESTION: What is the enticement of voiceover for animation?

JULIET LANDAU: It is so much fun! You get to sit with a bunch of actors and play. Really play! There’s no hair and make-up, no primping – just absolute, uninhibited creativity. That’s the real joy of acting. And it doesn’t get any better than working with Bruce Timm and Andrea Romano.

QUESTION: Do you have a preference for the type of characters you play?

JULIET LANDAU: I like playing all different kinds of characters. Each one is it’s own little puzzle. Aliens are fun because you have a lot of freedom. The voice of Labella just came to me when I read the pages in a kind of organic in a way. I immediately felt like she had to sound the way I played her. When I came in for looping (pick up sound work) Andrea Romano described my Labella sound as “honey-voiced.” I think that really captures it.

(more…)

Lauren Montgomery, director of Green Lantern: First Flight spoke with Warner Home Video about her upcoming animated project with Hal Jordan. The film is due July 28, 2009.

QUESTION: Will Green Lantern: First Flight be in the well-known design of Bruce Timm, or be more of the Lauren Montgomery vision from Wonder Woman?

LAUREN MONTGOMERY We’re actually having a lot of fun trying different artistic styles on different movies – Bruce felt his style has been done enough, and I just had my turn – plus I knew there were many other character designers who are infinitely better at designing aliens that I am. We were lucky to get Jose Lopez to create the characters for Green Lantern. I think he even took a pay cut from his last job to do Green Lantern, but this project really allows him to let his animation go wild. You’ve never seen anything like some of his designs for this film. His take on the familiar characters is fairly true to form, but he’s designed – literally – an entire universe of completely new characters in the different Green Lanterns, aliens and background characters. There are a lot of awesome, fantastical creatures.  Like me, Jose is trained in animation instead of comics, so his style really lends itself to being animated – and everything he’s done has looked spectacular. I think it’s really looking different from anything we’ve ever done.

QUESTION: Did Jose ever over-step any boundaries and need to be reined in?

LAUREN MONTGOMERY Actually, his first designs were a little too stylized. For the main characters, the designs were a little too streamlined – we had to make Sinestro more like the comics. But once he got that figured out, he really went crazy. It was exciting to see him come in with these characters. Even his Weaponer designer is far different than what we’ve seen before, but DC was okay with it. So we just let him run wild.

(more…)

Victor Garber (Milk, Titanic) spoke with Warner Home Video regarding his turn as the voice of Sinestro in the upcoming DC animated feature, Green Lantern: First Flight, which is scheduled for release on July 28.

QUESTION: How did you settle on the voice of Sinestro?

VICTOR GARBER: The challenge of bringing this character to life was to find exactly the right tone. My tendency would be to make it a little too colorful, but Andrea (Romano) and Bruce (Timm) gave
direction that was very specifically to modulate it and find the right tone. It was interesting because with animation, it’s all voice – at the recording stage of the process, you don’t even really know what it’s going to look like. But when I read the script, I had sort of an idea of the sound of Sinestro, because it was very specifically written – and very well written – so you could understand the sense of humor and irony in this character. I appreciated that.

QUESTION: How does Sinestro compare to other characters you’ve played before?

VICTOR GARBER: Having played the the ultimate villain as the Devil many years ago in Damn Yankees!, I found Sinestro was just kind of a modification of that character. The thing about villains is that they all think they’re doing the right thing, and Sinestro believes that what he’s doing is for the better, that it’s going to improve the universe. The scariest part about a villain is that you know, at any cost, human life or super-powered life, they will do whatever it takes to achieve their goal. They believe in their cause, and Sinestro fits that mold. (more…)

PAWTUCKET, RI – April 15, 2009 – Hasbro announced today that G.I. Joe: Resolute, an adult fan oriented animated mini-series, will be broadcast via Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim on television as well as online.  Based on the classic G.I. JOE brand, Hasbro created 60 minutes of total content for this new story which will be presented as 11 episodes.

Beginning on April 17, fans will be able to see the first five minutes of the brand new, stand-alone animated mini-series on AdultSwim.com.  These episodes are broken down to ten 5-minute episodes and one 10-minute finale.  Following the first episode on April 17, subsequent installments will be posted on the Adult Swim website leading up to a full presentation of the entire series.   This finale will be broadcast on Adult Swim April 25 at midnight.  This televised event will not only feature all episodes seen online, but will be the first time fans can watch the final 10 minutes of the G.I. Joe: Resolute saga.  All episodes, including the finale, will be available to view online after this airing.

Intended for the adult fan that grew up with the brand in the 80’s, G.I. Joe: Resolute received standing ovations at both the G.I. JOE Convention, “JoeCon,” and San Diego Comic-Con in 2008 where sample clips were previewed.  Since then, fans have eagerly been awaiting the announcement of air-dates for the series.

“In a very exciting year for the G.I. JOE brand, we’re thrilled to be able to bring the G.I. Joe: Resolute animated series to the adult G.I. JOE fan,” said Michael Verrecchia, Director of G.I. JOE Entertainment Marketing.  “Adult Swim is the perfect broadcast platform to deliver the series, which features a more sophisticated animation style and story than prior animation.”

Hasbro developed the animation with executive producer Sam Register as well as a powerhouse creative team at Titmouse Studios including Joaquim Dos Santos, a veteran animation director, who worked closely with award-winning comic writer Warren Ellis, who penned the entire series. This highly regarded team brings an edgy, intense feel to the series, which will feature the most popular characters in the G.I. JOE vs. COBRA canon.  Iconic characters such Duke, Snake Eyes, Scarlett and Roadblock will do battle with Cobra Commander, Destro, Baroness and Storm Shadow.

Fans can learn more about G.I. Joe: Resolute by visiting www.gijoeresolute.com

The Mothership reported today about the latest news regarding the official summer release date of Green Lantern: First Flight on blu-ray and DVD.

Yahoo! Movies now has the first trailer for the animated film, I think it bodes well for the 2010 live-action film.

UPDATE:

Our home base at Newsarama has since added the First Flight trailer.

So Troy passed this article on to me about artist Rufus Seder and his Lifetiles murals, which appear to animate as viewers walk past. The article actually doesn’t do the story justice–it’s something you have to see to really understand. Luckily, there’s video.

The tiles were inspired by Seder’s children’s books, which use a similar technique to make the pictures move on the pages.

If the technology you see in Lifetiles looks familiar, you might have caught something similar at a local bookstore. The popular children’s books “Gallop!” and “Swing!” were also written and illustrated by Seder. With a technique he calls scanimation, pictures in the books come alive as you flip the page.

It’s a kids’ favorite that quite a few parents enjoy, too, based on sales numbers. “Swing!” and “Gallop!” are currently on The New York Times bestseller list.

Seder originally used scanimation in greeting cards he sold at trade shows around the country. Then Workman Publishing came calling, asking Seder to develop a book based on the eye-catching technique.

That’s when Seder caught lightning in a bottle. After several decades as a somewhat unknown artist, he found himself flying to China to teach the scanimation technique to book makers. Just a few years later, there are over 2 million copies of “Gallop!” in print in more than 13 languages.

The similarities to motion comics aren’t many, but they’re there. Static images made to move a bit, with simple techniques? It’s pretty cool, either way.

South Park tackled the comic book superhero genre with mixed results on their March 18th episode. Simultaneously taking digs at The Dark Knight, The Spirit, and the up-to-the-minute Watchmen, the concept of a city’s masked hero fighting injustice with an Atlas-like sense of self-importance was mocked rather well despite a rather unsatisfying ending.

Click the link to get the episode in full, and swing back by here to let us know what you thought of “The Coon.”

Do you like Snood? Do you like Iron Man? Are you excited about the upcoming Iron Man animated series? Do you like free web based games? Do you think I could write this entire post using nothing but questions? If you answered yes to all of those questions, you were wrong. If you answered yes to all but the final one, Marvel has a fun little treat in store for you, by the name of Iron Man Armored Popper.

The game, surprisingly, has nothing to do with popping corn for Rhodey and Pepper. Instead, it’s a matching game, where you fire one of the icons at the ones above you, the goal being to match 3 or more and remove all of them from the screen. If it sound familiar, well, that’s because there’ve been about 30,000 of this type of game out there. This is the first one thats linked with ‘ole (er… young…) Shellhead, though, and it’s free, so the price is right; it does also increase Marvel’s already massive web presence. Sure it’s on the Marvel Kids site, but fun is allowed to be had by all ages, so give it a click, and brag about your high score here.

Tintin in 2011. It sounds like one of the boy reporter’s biggest adventures. That’s when we can expect the first in a trilogy of movies by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson of the landmark comics character by the Belgian cartoonist, Hergé. It’s a project that’s been in the works for years but it is finally off the ground.

The claim is that only now has the technology caught up with what’s required to properly bring this comic to the screen. Don’t tell Windsor McCay that. Apparently, “performance capture” special effects is so complex that it is utterly indescribable, at least for those with the most to lose from not finding the words.

Washington City Paper Drops Syndicated Comics. All of them. This is the alt-weekly, which one would hope would be maintaining its interest in alternative and creative viewpoints like those brought by comics.

I hate to brag, but one of my local alt-weeklies here in Philly has a cover story about comics this week, and it’s a good one, gorgeously illustrated with art from Duane Swierczynski’s run on The Punisher. Swierczynski himself was the former editor of the other Philly alt-weekly, the City Paper, and the article is excellent even if, like me, you’re not a regular Punisher reader.

Swierczynski is as big as a Budweiser Clydesdale but not quite as pretty. And while he could crush your skull like an eggshell with his mighty fists, he almost certainly won’t. He lives with his wife, 6-year-old-son and 5-year-old daughter in a perfectly normal house in a perfectly respectable part of Northeast Philadelphia. His first job every morning is to make his kids breakfast (Coco Puffs, Special K and/or yogurt and frozen pancakes).

Finally, in case you thought I was just stuck on alt-weeklies, my friend just showed me this trailer and it kind of made my mind explode. So of course I had to post it here for you.

This title may be a bit confusing, but I assure you, there is a point.

When hitting the Black Panther panel with my awesome colleague Sarah Jaffe, Black Panther writer Reginald Hudlin gave us a preview of the Black Panther animated series for BET. (While you won’t the see the trailer I saw, there’s another one right here.)

While I know that Hudlin said this was a rough cut, I left the panel feeling more than a little conflicted about the series. The voice actors seemed enthused about their experience, and having top-tier talent like Djimon Hounsou (from Gladiator and Blood Diamond) on-board really lends a sense of legitimacy to the show. It’s clear that Hudlin and BET care about this show.

But the animation really took me aback. With Marvel coming out with slick animation like Hulk Vs. and Next Avengers, seeing this choppy style didn’t feel like an artistic choice — it felt as though BET couldn’t decide whether to commit to static John Romita Jr. art or traditional animation.

The preview stuck with me for the rest of the day, nagging at me. There was clearly something deeper here than my own personal aesthetic sensibilities at play — but it didn’t hit me until I passed by the DC Comics booth.

The Black Panther’s weaknesses as a cartoon would be its strengths in another medium. This may be what animation does wrong, but it has everything that would make a motion comic right.

Motion comics, as seen by Brian Michael Bendis and Mr. Sequential, are a new beast in this rapidly diversifying media world. It’s too soon to say whether or not they will stick around, but they incorporate comics, animation, voice acting, special effects–even music. It’s a book-on-tape meets TV trailer, all based on the foundations of the comics we love so much. But as seen above, there are so many different elements of the motion comic that can be neglected or forgotten that the whole enterprise can crash and burn.

Not so with the Black Panther. The animation might be clunky, but it is due to an unyielding dedication to the source material — in this case, John Romita Jr.’s art. But at the same time, there is a vibrancy to the sound — watching the trailer, you could see Hounsou really getting into his role. The enthusiasm was contagious, and everyone in the room was hooked — whether they liked it or not — when they heard the voice of Stan Lee as a villainous general. So I’m thinking that maybe this is just the wrong venue: Black Panther may not be everything I’d hoped for in a cartoon, but it could be the next big thing as a motion comic.