Happy Valentine's Day! - 2014

Before the end of last year (December 30), I suggested that the "Dipper and Wendy" fanart I posted would make a great Valentine's Day doodle.  And after a busy day, that's just what I did today (in FireAlpaca).  :)

Here's the original for posterity:

Have a happy one!

Keep Warm! (Alternate Version)

I thought my readers deserved a warmer version of my Lily Merriweather Winter cartoon, so I worked on that today (February 13), on tablet in FireAlpaca.  Let's face it, this is the cozy life everyone wants to have during a cold, Winter day.  :)

Keep warm!

It snowed heavily last night!  Right now, my neighborhood is covered in snow.  Yes, it's been cold here!  This is how Lily Merriweather feels right now!  Nonetheless, we're keeping warm.  Done last night on tablet in FireAlpaca.

Happy 85th Anniversary, Tintin & Popeye!

Done tonight (January 10) on tablet in Photoshop!  I wanted to do this, and almost missed out on doing this (because of a surprise visit from my brother Peter).  For their 85th Anniversary (a week apart), here's Elzie Crisler Segar's Popeye, holding Georges Prosper Remi ("Hergé")'s Tintin (who's trying to keep his balance on Popeye's palm while holding his dog Milou/Snowy).  :)

Happy Birthday, Loren!

Finished on January 7th, just barely in time for midnight, I wanted to do this sooner, as I was caught up with so many things (both frustrating and exciting), but here it is, a birthday drawing for friend/fellow tokusatsu fan Loren "Butch" Portillo!  Hope you had a great one, Loren.  :)

First art of 2014!

Here's my first artwork for 2014!  On tablet in FireAlpaca.  Here's to a great New Year, and 60 more years.  ;)

Last of 2013

Done on tablet in FireAlpaca in a very short time (hence the expressionist background).  Have a great one.

Next-to-last doodles of 2013!

Didn't I promise you more artwork by year's end?  (After these, I'll have one last doodle for tonight, per tradition; last one for the year, first one of the new year.)  All of these were done on tablet in FireAlpaca.

 First up, a Lily Merriweather drawing for the 5th Anniversary of my Grandma's passing (December 28):

Next, a cute illustration of Dipper and Wendy from Gravity Falls (started on the night of the 29th, finished just on the late-night hours of the 30th), just because.  (And this could make a great early Valentine!)

And for all you comic-book superhero fans, these two (both finished tonight) will interest you: First up is my own interpretation of what a Japanese Superman would look like!  I used Ultra Seven as a model (feeling that Seven is the Japanese Superman, as I related many times before).

And, of course, my own interpretation of what a Japanese Batman would look like!  For Batman, I used the character I always thought was the Japanese Batman, Moonlight Mask (Gekko Kamen), which Latinos out there may remember as Capitan Centella!

Next one to come before midnight...  :)

Fire Alpaca Tests

Upon the suggestion of a family friend (after she got her own tablet this past Christmas), I've been very impressed with the free drawing software from Japan, FireAlpaca!  It's a lot of fun to use.  It's a simpler version of Photoshop, but I'm impressed with the selection of brushes, which superbly works like their real-world tools (pen, pencil, watercolor, etc.).  I've done a couple of tests in FireAlpaca on my tablet, and I love them.

First, Lily Merriweather, done December 26:

And Rekira, done on December 27:

More to come by year's end!

GRAVITY FALLS - THE THIEF AND THE COBBLER

Here's one of the first Gravity Falls fanarts I planned on (despite the delay mentioned two posts ago): a mash-up with one of my favorite animated films, Richard Williams' The Thief and the Cobbler!

The pencils were done on November 1st, and inked/colored on tablet in Flash, assembled in Photoshop, and signed in Flash - the result was finished right at the end of November 7th.

The cast of characters depicted above are:

Tack the Cobbler: Dipper Pines
The Thief: Lil' Gideon Gleeful
Princess Yum-Yum: Wendy Corduroy
King Nod: Stan Pines (Grunkle Stan)
Zigzag: Robbie V.
Roofless: Soos
Mad and Holy Witch: Mabel Pines
The Mighty One-Eye: Bill Cipher

More to come!

59 Years of Godzilla

Happy 59th Anniversary to my all-time favorite character, Godzilla.  The most versatile movie monster ever created, in the course of 28 Japanese-produced films by Toho Company, Ltd., he has evolved from a poetic avatar of nuclear destruction to a reluctant antihero, an anthropomorphic superhero, a tragic force of nature, and even a specter of war.  This monster has played many roles through the years, and people either appreciate them all or have a favorite.  And this is what made Godzilla a timeless, enduring character.  It is also hoped that the upcoming film by Legendary Pictures (to be released next year) will capture all of his best qualities.

In tribute, I did this quick illustration on tablet in Photoshop this morning.  Enjoy!

GRAVITY FALLS Fanart

Happy Halloween!

I apologize for being rather disorganized here.  And I'm really frustrated, as I wanted to spend all of October doing the following, but I got sick with the cold for most of the month (still have coughs and partial laryngitis as I write this), and it really cramped up my schedule, so I was very disappointed, because I really wanted to surprise you all.  But I might as well turn up what I have, and rest assured, I would love to do more with this stuff later on.  :)

As some of you are quite aware, I've become a huge fan of the animated series, Alex Hirsch's Gravity Falls, which premiered on the Disney Channel over a year ago.  A really funny, wild, poignant, haunting, and sometimes dark series, with a great set of main characters: 12-year old twins Dipper (the protagonist) and Mabel (his goofy sidekick), who stay with their great uncle Grunkle Stan (the owner of the Mystery Shack, located in the titular town in central Oregon) for Summer vacation, and Stan's young workers Soos (a goofy man-child) and Wendy (a 15-year old girl and Dipper's secret crush).  Dipper & Mabel's stay in Gravity Falls turns out to be not-so-normal, with all sorts of supernatural phenomena permeating the town.  Dipper's guide to the phenomena is a mysterious book he found, labeled "3" on the cover.  There are secret messages hidden throughout the series, written in secret codes (including the Caesarian code; three letters back), and these hidden details have become a popular facet with fans of the show.  With Season 1 having ended (I will not spoil the season finale; it has to be seen to be appreciated), Season 2 (which is now in the works) promises to be more exciting and really ominous!  (Creator Hirsch intends for the entire series to take place over the course of an entire Summer vacation; he aimed for 3 seasons, but production on the series proved to be really difficult and challenging, so as it stands, Hirsch is trimming it down to 2 seasons, and a movie to close the series.  That said, I can hardly wait!  But I have to...)

So I was inspired to do full color fanart of the series, but was sidetracked by my above dilemma (and you'll notice huge time gaps, as a consequence).  I'll get to that soon enough, so I'll post what I did so far: my own personal model sheet exercise/design studies.  By default, I used series director/character designer Joe Pitt's designs/model sheets for reference.  I had little to work with on some designs, so I improvised by using screenshots from the series.

Here's Dipper, done on October 1st:

Mabel, done on October 5th:

This was after my first two weeks with the cold (the first week was the worst).  Wendy (done on October 21th) was a bit tricky at first, so aside from the model sheet I worked with, I looked at various screenshots to get a better grasp of the variations in her design.

The same deal with Grunkle Stan (done on October 25th), whose physique was even trickier than his expressions!

I'll get to doing Soos, eventually.  Otherwise, look for more Gravity Falls stuff from me soon!  I've had a lot of fun learning to draw these characters.

Happy Birthday, Katie!

Some time during my birthday yesterday, I whipped up this little birthday present for talented cartoonist/animator Katie Rice, whose birthday is a day after mine!  For a quick drawing, this was a lot of fun to do.  Done on tablet in Flash.

Here is Bessie Higgenbottom and her pet dog Happy (from The Mighty B!, which Katie storyboarded for in Season 2) and Skadi and her long-suffering slave-pet Diseasoid (from Katie's webcomic Skadi, which she co-created with Luke Cormican) switching places.  Yes, I always got this impression from both character sets!

Hope you have a great one, Katie.  :)

Happy Independence Day! - 2013

Done tonight on tablet in Flash.  Hope you have a happy (and safe) one.  :)

CG Rekira - 2013 Version (Quadrupedal)

I've been working really hard for weeks on this new version.

Some of you are familiar with the CGI Rekira short I did back in 2008 as a capstone project for ITT Technical Institute.  (I briefly talk about it in my introduction post.)

Concurrent to the Rekira comic project, I started work on a new CGI Rekira model a couple of months back, and after trial and error, created one such improved model!

This is the quadruped version.  Done on 3DSMax (and adjusted in ZBrush), just like the old 2008 model.  (Rekira is a quadruped by default, with the unlimited ability to stand upright.)  Whereas the old model had a rig for the jaw and two rigs for each ear, this one now uses facial morph targets for mouth movements (it's really tricky), and just one rig for each ear.  Oh, I did the texture on tablet in Photoshop.  (Yeah, drawing in all that fur is really tiring!)  I'll eventually be doing a biped version to go with this one (I definitely want to keep the head, at least, and maybe the body/tail), as you'll notice that my attempts at putting this model in an upright position turned out rather awkward!  (And rigging certain parts was painfully difficult as it was.)

As you can tell, I will be doing more Rekira CG animated shorts in the future!

Paramount/Famous Studios Spirou (Happy 75th Anniversary!)

I couldn't help but imagine something like this!  Happy 75th Anniversary, Spirou.  :)

This was drawn today in Flash (over an animation project I did for fun), and signed in Photoshop.

Happy 75th Anniversary, Superman & Spirou!

Two of the most famous comic-book characters in the world, born just 3 days apart, and what better way to celebrate than have both appear together!  :)

Here is the first traditional American costumed superhero, Superman (created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster), carrying with him one of French Belgium's most beloved bande dessinée (French term for comic-book or comic-strip) characters, the adventurous bellboy Spirou (created by Robert "Rob-Vel" Velter)!  The characters debuted on Action Comics #1 (National Allied Publications, now DC Comics; April 18, 1938) and Le Journal de Spirou #1 (Dupuis Publishing; April 21, 1938), respectively.  I started on this on the evening of April 17, finished after midnight (April 18), just in time for Superman's Anniversary.  Done on tablet in Photoshop, and in a slightly higher resolution than what I've worked with lately!

BTW, I apologize if Superman looks disproportionate.  (It's difficult to draw from scratch with my Bamboo tablet!)  LOL!  Still, this is the first time in years that I drew the traditional Superman, and I like how it came out, in spite of the flaws.  (And this is the first time I actually drew Spirou!)

Happy St. Patrick's Day, and Happy 40th Anniversary, GODZILLA VS. MEGALON!

As I'm one third Irish (I'm also German and Puerto Rican, BTW), I've always wanted to do a St. Patrick's Day-themed doodle!  But at the same time, 40 years ago today, one of my all-time favorite films was released in Japan: Godzilla Vs. Megalon (Toho; 1973)!  Besides being my personal favorite Godzilla film, it was also the first film I was ever taken to see in theaters.

So why not do a crossover art?  Here's Lily Merriweather, dressed in green, and wearing a 4-leaf clover brooch in place of her regular flower brooch.  She's riding piggyback on Dengeking, as Rekira watches in interest.  This is basically a reenactment of the closing scene of the aforementioned film.  :)

The line at the right, incidentally, says, "Don't cry, we'll try harder, too!"  (My translation of the closing sentence, "Naku na, bokura mo ganbarou!", in "With Godzilla And Jet Jaguar, Punch, Punch, Punch!" - the closing theme song for Godzilla Vs. Megalon, sung by my all-time favorite Japanese singer, Masato Shimon.)

This makes a good companion piece to the one I did last year!

 

Lily Merriweather Design/Wardrobe - 2013

I've done more experimenting with Lily Merriweather in the last few weeks, and came up with this "CalArts-style" version (a style chiefly used by Disney and Pixar-trained students), which I have played with on occasion.

And yes, I plan to have Lily in both wardrobes depicted, depending on the weather.  I kept the striped dress I had her in last time, but decided to put her in something more stylish for Fall/Winter wear, so I went with a sort-of 1980s look!  I added glasses to one of the Lilys as a test, to see how she would look with glasses on (something else I played with from time to time).  I did the figure on tablet in Photoshop.  I simply had two sets of clothes/accessories that I could easily toggle, and pasted two types of figures onto this comparison picture.

 

This is very close to what I want for the final design.  As a matter of fact, my earliest drawings of Lily used a style very similar to this!  :)

Mysti-Girl's Valentine!

Yes, you can tell I've been reading the Escher Girls art blog!  I swore I would never have my female characters drawn in such poses... unless it was done as a joke!  So doing it in that manner has crossed my mind.  :)

And I thought that Valentine's Day would be a good choice on which to present this drawing, featuring Verena/Mysti-Girl from Rekira, which I did this morning (February 14 - Valentine's Day) on tablet in Photoshop!

Have a good one!

Ryusei Works Logo - 2013!

At last, here's a still from the updated Ryusei Works "RyuseiScope" logo for 2013!  Animated in Flash, and completed on the 6th.  The background is from a picture I took while I was on vacation in the Outer Banks on New Year's Day of 2012.  It was a sunset, but I so wanted a beautiful picture of a sunrise or sunset for the "sunrise" in my logo.  Expect to see this logo in future videos!

Pen Ward-style Dynamic Heralds - Last Part!

Just made these tonight (January 19th) in a few hours!  The last three of the Pendleton Ward-style Dynamic Heralds, all done on tablet in Flash.  First up:

Isaiah Vanterpool (Herald 3: Steel Hammer)

Theresa Lin (Herald 4: Therma-Gal)

Brian Copcutt (Herald 5: Aquati-Kid)

I enjoyed doing these, and may do more someday!  :)

More Pen Ward-style Dynamic Heralds!

I finished two new Pen Ward-style Dynamic Heralds!  Here's Heralds 1 and 2 (Captain Vertex and Mysti-Girl, respectively).

 

Done tonight on tablet in Flash.  More to follow!

Dynamic Heralds - Pen Ward Style!

I've been very amused and impressed by the cartoon series Adventure Time (Frederator/Cartoon Network; 2010) and the new Bravest Warriors (Cartoon Hangover; 2012), both created by the very talented Pendleton "Pen" Ward, who conceived both as pilots years before!  The shows have such a cute and funny style to them.  So I was eventually inspired to do my own Super Sentai-style superhero team, the Dynamic Heralds (from Rekira) in the same style as that of Ward's, as a kind of "thank you" to him.  :)

I have plans of doing more drawings of the Heralds in this style soon.

This was done on tablet in Flash.

Happy New Year! 2013 (and Anniversary Announcement)

Yep, it all started this coming Christmas 25 years ago, with a Fisher-Price PXL-2000 Camcorder, and a lifelong dream.  :)

So I'm sure to work on some exciting stuff this year, in celebration of this event.  I hope you all have a wonderful year as well!

Just finished a quick art piece for New Year's Eve!  On tablet in Photoshop.  The pic will say the rest.  :)

The Great Conjunction Date!

Just a little something I quickly whipped up on Flash tonight for fun.  I did this in celebration of tomorrow's date!  I was compelled to, as stuff like this has fascinated me for the longest time.  :)

Honeybee Taffy & Candy Canes

I went to see Wreck-It Ralph (Disney; 2012) on November 23, and needless to say, I loved it!  (Ditto the animated short, Paperman, which preceded it.)  It was a 10:25 PM private 3D showing for me, my big brother Peter, Tony, Stephen, and my nephews Angel and Gabriel!  (When we left the theater, it was dim and creepy, as the theater was about to close, and everyone was leaving, but it was a pretty cool contrast to the movie we came out of.)  All four of the main characters (Wreck-It Ralph, Vanellope Von Schweetz, Fix-It Felix, and Sergeant Calhoun) are great, and they all manage to steal their own show (rather than let some marketable character steal the show from the main character).

I thought Vanellope (voiced by comedienne Sarah Silverman) was adorable!  At some point, I strongly contemplated doing a fan art of her meeting The Mighty B!'s Bessie Higgenbottom (voiced by fellow comedienne Amy Poelher).  I could've done this in the style of that Vanity Fair 2008 photoshoot which featured both Silverman and Poehler (with Tina Fey), but featuring them both in Vanellope's Sugar Rush video game was more interesting.  :)

This was done tonight in nearly 4 hours on tablet in Photoshop.  I might do more Wreck-It Ralph fan art at some point!

Japan's Avengers - English Version

Using the same resources as last time, I have just assembled (pun intended) an English-language version of my very popular Japan's Avengers poster (originally in Japanese)!  Done in the style of international posters.  I had to do a lot of last-minute changes to make sure there weren't any typos or such!  I hope you will enjoy this one, too (though the Japanese poster is my favorite).  :)

Happy Thanksgiving! - 2012

Done tonight (November 22, Thanksgiving morning) on tablet in Photoshop.  :)

Honey Halfwitch for the Halloween Season!

To get myself into the Halloween season (after a very busy and very strenuous two months), I did this fanart of one of my favorite characters, Honey Halfwitch!  This very obscure little witch girl was the star of 13 theatrical cartoons produced from 1965 to 1967 by Paramount's Famous Studios.  The first of the cartoons was a Modern Madcap cartoon entitled Poor Little Witch Girl (released in April of 1965), in which the character was known simply as "Halfwitch."  The late Shari Lewis (best known for creating the puppet character Lamb Chop) provided the voice for the character in the first 9 cartoons, which was created by veteran cartoonist/animator Howie Post.  For some reason, the last four episodes saw a very radical (yet short-lived) change in the look of the series to a more minimalist style, and Honey was interestingly voiced by an actual little girl (much like a Peanuts cartoon).  These last few episodes were cute and entertaining enough, but I missed the sweet Howie Post version.  (I always thought it would be funny to imagine what Honey would sound like if voiced by Mae Questel, but I'm glad Shari Lewis did the character, as that scratchy little voice she created really fit the character superbly.)  Honey Halfwitch should have had a comic-book series (much like many of the Harvey characters before her)!  Having been created by Post, she was definitely worthy of one.

Finished tonight in around an hour on tablet in Photoshop.  I drew it while looking at the series' title card for reference.

Here's the lyrics to the theme song, written by Howie Post and composed (and sung!) by Winston Sharples:

Oh, Honey Halfwitch, she's a funny

Kid witch, what a honey

When she flies up on her broom

She zips around with a zoom-zoom-zoom

She's magical and mystical and smart

Oh, Honey Halfwitch, bright and sunny

She's as cute as a bunny

She's half-wizard and half-girl

She waves her wand and you're in a whirl

She's full of tricks and sweet as an apple tart

A half-pint pixie sure to win your heart!

Happy Birthday, Sandra!

Done tonight on tablet in Photoshop, here is a birthday present I made for very talented young cartoonist/animator/friend Sandra D. Rivas, who turns 22 today!  Here, she (in my own rendition of her cartoon self-portrait) rides on Rekira's back with Lily Merriweather in front of her!

Have a great one!

Happy 45th Anniversary, Ultra Seven!

Done tonight on tablet in Photoshop, this is the first new tablet art I've done in a month, after moving to a new Richmond neighborhood!  And it couldn't have been a better occasion, as tonight is the 45th Anniversary of one of my top favorite superheroes, Ultra Seven!  Japan's answer to Superman.  The TV series, Ultra Seven (Tsuburaya; 1967), created by Eiji Tsuburaya (as an unofficial follow-up to his previous hit, Ultraman), premiered on the Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) on this day in 1967!  And for this occasion, Rekira (giving a piggyback ride to Lily Merriweather) shakes the hand of one of his inspirations.  (Another character I made, Dengeking, is influenced by Seven as well!)

Have a great one!

RIP Jerry Nelson and Neil Armstrong

I was sad to hear that veteran Muppet performer Jerry Nelson (78) and pioneer astronaut Neil Armstrong (82) have died Thursday and today (Saturday), respectively, so I whipped up this bit of art featuring Rekira and Lily Merriweather flying into outer space.  Done on tablet in Photoshop.

Thanks for the great memories, Jerry and Neil.  We'll miss you.

Japan's Avengers - Assemble!

I saw The Avengers in theaters twice in May, and it has become one of my favorite superhero movies ever!  So I was imagining my own version of the film, where Japan's famous superheroes are assembled the same way Nick Fury assembled Marvel Superheroes!  After pondering and pondering over it for about a month or two, I finally decided to realize it!  Using various pics from the Internet (mostly toy pics from the manufacturers' websites, or from online stores like Hobby Search), I put them together into this fake poster.

In Japan's Avengers (Nippon no Abenjaazu), Godzilla, Ultraman, Masked Rider, Mazinger Z, Ultraman Zero, and Sailor Moon (and Tuxedo Mask, though he's off-poster) are assembled to fight legions of monsters and aliens led by Ultraman Belial!  And yes, that is Times Square in the background.  :)

The tagline is: "Earth's Mightiest Heroes Unite!  Defeat Ultraman Belial!"

The "Japan's Avengers" logo is completely original, done in Flash in about an hour.  The source poster was assembled from various photos in Photoshop, and titles were added in Flash.

Imaginary cast/crew credits on the poster are as follows:

CAST:

Susumu Kurobe (Shin Hayata/Ultraman)
Hiroshi Fujioka (Takeshi Hongou/Masked Rider)
Hiroshi Abe (Jirou Gou, Godzilla's human form/disguise)
GACKT (Kouji Kabuto, pilot of Mazinger Z)
Mamoru Miyano (Human form/voice of Ultraman Zero)
Miyuu Sawai (Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon)
Jouji Shibue (Mamoru Chiba/Tuxedo Mask)
Sonny Chiba (the Nick Fury character)
Hiroyuki Watanabe (the Agent Coulson character)
Yumiko Shaku (the Maria Hill character)
Shirou Sano (the Dr. Selvig character)
Hiroyuki Miyasako (Voice of Ultraman Belial)

STAFF

Director: Takeshi Yagi
Special Effects Director: Shinji Higuchi
Screenplay: JP Cassidy (obviously), Kei'ichi Hasegawa
(Based upon the Avengers screenplay by Joss Whedon and Zak Penn)
Executive Producers: Shougo Tomiyama (Toho), Tsugumi Kitaura (Tsuburaya), Hideaki Tsukada & Kazuhiro Takahashi (Toei), Dynamic Planning
Based on characters created by Toho Company, Ltd., Tsuburaya Productions, Shoutarou Ishinomori, Gou Nagai, and Naoko Takeuchi
Music by Alan Silvestri
Produced by the Avenger Production Committee
-Toho Eiga
-Tsuburaya Productions
-Toei
-Dynamic Planning
Jointly Distributed by Toho, Shouchiku, and Toei

I know that a movie like this will never be made, but the imagination is up to fans like myself.  :)

ADDENDUM: To justify my position on the two Ultramen (three if you count Belial!), I had both of them in mind.  (I thought of Ultra Seven, but I wanted to give his son Zero a chance to shine!)  Zero's inclusion aside, I wanted to pick out the characters most iconic and recognizable to the Japanese public, rather than just the fans.  Also, Zero plays an important part in Ultraman's surviving for more than three minutes in Earth's atmosphere.  :)

I also wanted Zero, because he parallels to Thor, as Belial does Loki.  As far as other Avengers parallels, Ultraman and Masked Rider share Captain America's role (although Ultraman is the team leader of the above depicted characters), as they're the pioneer archetype heroes of Japan.  Sailor Moon is sort of like Black Widow, Tuxedo Mask is like Hawkeye, Mazinger Z/Kouji is Iron Man, and you can guess Godzilla's role...  :)

I even got comments about not including Super Sentai!  LOL  Actually, I'd love to include them, but they're already a team!  The fun of this team is that they're a team of individual heroes, the kind you wanted to see together.

Happy (Belated) Independence Day! - 2012

I had wanted to do this yesterday, but the schedule was hectic, and a lot has been going on during the week.  (My big sister is going in for a bone marrow surgery tomorrow, so I wish her best of luck.)  But I did a 4th of July artwork anyway.  Here's Lily Merriweather garnished in American colors/symbolism, done tonight on tablet in Flash!

Hope you had a great one!

Neighborhood Trees 01

At least once a day, I love to take a walk outside around my neighborhood, and look around at the beautiful surroundings.  A whole panorama of trees surrounds my neighborhood (at the center of which is the office, a swimming pool, and an empty court where I like to hang around and look at the trees, especially in the mid-to-late afternoon, against a blue sky.

Here's my first attempt to capture that scenery, done tonight on tablet in Photoshop.  I admit it's a bit loose, but I'm glad I did this, and I would love to do more of these things.

Who's the true "God of Anime?"

I posted the below article on Tumblr, and it has become the most popular thing I've ever posted!  At 120 notes at this writing, I am both flattered and thankful.

To put things in perspective, this article was never meant to be an attack on Osamu Tezuka.  (Remember, I'm a Tezuka fan!)  I'm simply trying to dispel a long-standing American misconception; while he indeed revolutionized the modern manga industry (thus, he has earned the title, "God of Manga" in Japan), he did not create anime.  Yes, he did revolutionize it on television (the same way Jay Ward or Hanna-Barbera revolutionized animation on TV)!  But I would think that the proper credit for "God of Anime" goes to Yasuji Mori.  Of course, there were animators before Mori, going as far back as the 1910s (they included Noburou Oofuji and Mori's friend/senior Taiji Yabushita, among others)!  But many true anime historians have noted that Mori, who worked on animation as far back as 1948, shaped the modern anime industry in 1957, when he became the first animation director at Toei Animation Studios (which Toei set up in aspirations of being the Walt Disney Studios of Japan)!  Without him, we wouldn't have Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata and others, and Tezuka may not have gotten into animation, if it weren't for Toei's adaptation of Alakazam the Great (which Mori worked on as animation director, although credited only as an animator)!  Mori was a true master, and helped make Tezuka himself a master of both worlds, comics and animation.

So for the longest time, I found it really upsetting and saddening that many people still refer to Tezuka as the one who started anime, and the beautiful, colorful works of Yasuji Mori are forgotten.  And so, because no one else ever stepped up to do something like this, I was eventually inspired to make this article (on May 31 in Flash) to help people understand things better.

And when you're surfing Google or YouTube, look up not only Yasuji Mori, but his works including the short film (and Toei's first animation ever) Koneko no Rakugaki/Kitty's Graffiti (Toei; 1957), Panda and the Magic Serpent (Toei; 1958), Magic Boy (Toei; 1959), The Wonderful World of Puss 'n Boots (Toei; 1969), and my personal favorite ever (and the first where he finally got onscreen credit as "Animation Director"), The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon (Toei; 1963).

To paraphrase Walt Disney, "I only hope we never lose sight of one thing - that at Toei in 1957, it was all started by a cat."  ;)

Happy Birthday, Kyle! (ADDENDUM: Added 7/15/2024)

Just finished a little birthday present for yet another fellow cartoonist/tokusatsu fan, Kyle A. Carrozza (creator of the wacky and hilarious webcomic, Frog Raccoon Strawberry, for Dumm Comics)!

Pictured below is Strawberry Fields (left), the heroine/star of Frog Raccoon Strawberry, with Lily Merriweather dressed up in a frog costume of her own.  Done on tablet in Photoshop.

Have a great one, Kyle!

 

ADDENDUM
July 15, 2024

I have heard the unfortunate news about Kyle Carrozza this past Saturday (the 13th). Without mentioning any details behind his controversy (you'll have to look it up), I was very deeply hurt and disappointed to hear it. I'm also thinking of his wife, Lindsay, who is probably very grief-stricken as I'm typing this. And anyone he may have hurt over the years has my sincerest apologies and condolences.

But I will not delete this fanart. Because deleting it will not make the problem simply go away, I would rather come to terms with it, for one. For two, I will keep this as a reminder of the friendship I did have with Kyle. To me, he was a good friend, even though I have cut ties with him in light of this unfortunate development. This is a decision I do not take lightly.

Thank you for listening.