This is quite meta but also quite awesome. AZM Ally deepfreeze sent along photos of a Gundam made entirely out of gunpla sprus, those runner things that are left over once you snip out all the parts to your gundam. The 1.8 meter tall Gundam constructed by modeler Hirotyun was revealed at this year’s Chara Hobby 2010 convention.

It’s just so massively beautiful! They should have sent a poet!

There are some really impressive build-up photos over at Hirotyun’s site and more from the festival from Ngee Khiong.

Source: Ngee Khiong and Hirotyun

At this past weekend’s Harvey Awards at the Baltimore Comic Con, Mark Waid delivered a heartfelt wake-up call to the print comics industry. Now since this is third, fourth, fifth hand since I wasn’t at the show, I can only base my assumptions of Waid’s main point from the various reports online. If I understand correctly, Waid intimated that protecting your ideas is not as important as profiting from them. It doesn’t sound like he was advocating piracy, but since this age of internet has made everything free, time would be better spent figuring out how to make money off of rather than jealously guarding our ideas.

I can imagine the gasps in the room from traditional publishers who depend on their copyrighted characters for licensing revenue and such. But for us webcomic folks, this is old news.

It is absolutely essential for artists to use the internet to promote their work. The catch is that as soon as you put something online, someone is going to steal it. You could spend ages trying to find new ways to prevent digital piracy, but you’ll never really deter the practice nor really stop it. That’s not to say that there’s no value in copyright. But it’s time to start thinking differently about our ideas. Creative Commons is a forward thinking licensing standard that responds well to the digital download era and it has benefited many artists. It gives would-be pirates a legal means to download and remix content while protecting the rights of the content creator.

Creative Commons is a good start. And it’s groups like these who provide these forward thinking tools that will help ween us off traditional notions of copyright protection that may be too antiquated to respond to a modern sensibility. I think Mark Waid was incredibly brave for sounding the call and I think once the dust settles a bit, the print comic industry might actually start moving forward along with the rest of us.

Yes, I realize that I’m the last site in the universe to post this. Hell, NPR did a story on this song before I got around to posting it. But whatever. Cee Lo Green’s “Fuck You” is the best breakup song ever, and here are six magical reasons why:

1. No Apologies
   Breakup songs usually include lots of “I’m sorries” or “it’s my faults” and other emo bullshit like that. Not here. Though there is that one stanzas where he whines that he still loves her, the majority of the song is unapologetic. It’s not my fucking fault! You’re just a gold digger!
2. Expressed Rage
   Besides the title, Cee Lo expresses anger at the woman in question, “Ooh, I really hate your ass right now.” That sentiment usually gets buried during a breakup, but sometimes you need to just let it out.
3. Upbeat
   There is a mile long list of breakup songs that are really down and depressing and completely devoid of anything resembling happiness. Guess what. Sometimes you need to breakup. I certainly did. And now we have an awesome song to celebrate a proper breakup. I would have blasted this jam 24/7 after my divorce.
4. No Autotune
   Okay, so autotune isn’t really a mainstay of the breakup song genre, but it has definitely cut a swath of ear pain across pop music of the 2010s. Thankfully, we’ve got some real vocals and real instruments in the mix.
5. Clever Use of a Racial Invective
   If the N word is to be used, let it be in a clever, thoughtful manner, not as a punctuation to each stanza. Cee Lo’s background singers kind of sneak it in there so stealthily that I almost missed it the first time they sing, “(Oh shit, she’s a gold digga) Well! (Just thought you should know, nigga).”
6. Classy Music Video
   According to the notes on the YouTube page, a “full video” is coming soon. I prefer this version. It’s rare that an artist will let the music speak for itself. Music videos have become overblown circus acts that sometimes have little to do with the lyrical content and very rarely enhance the listening experience. By just throwing the lyrics up there, “Fuck You” is allowed to shine as the perfect breakup song it truly is.

Thank you, Cee Lo Green, for giving us the perfect breakup song that we’ve always wanted.

From a homeless transvestite to a rollerskating bat boy to the woman of our dreams, Satoshi Kon pushed the boundaries of animated film to remind us that really, you can do absolutely anything in animation. I always felt a profound sense of joy and wonder after watching one of his films and while it saddens me greatly to know that I will no longer get that feeling from new works, I can return to the body of work that he left us to recapture that feeling.

My favorite Satoshi Kon film is Paprika. The interplay between dream and reality was beautifully executed. And it had the voice of Amuro Rei doing a fat Amuro Rei! We had the fortune of seeing it subtitled in a theater in Shirlington and I just remember having a gigantic stupid grin on my face the entire movie. It made me excited to see more of his work, but it also inspired me to continue to push my own work further. I really hope that other animators take inspiration from Satoshi Kon and push the bounds of what’s possible in animation, especially American studios who keep churning out the same 3D crapola. There’s more to explore with 3D and I think American studios would do well to take some lessons from Satoshi Kon’s direction.

If you have a fond memory of a Satoshi Kon work, please leave it in the comments. I feel it only fitting to celebrate the wonderful work he left behind.

On the one hand, I absolutely love that Studio Ghibli has never made a direct sequel to its films. They are all special little moments in film wonderful to behold and completely unique. However, if sequels are to be made, let them be made of awesome things. Which is why the rumors sent over from Angry Zen Minion Jeff Posey of Hayao Miyazaki considering a sequel to Porco Rosso are so exciting! The new film would be entitled Porco Ross: The Last Sortie and would feature an older Porco and take place during the Spanish Civil War. We don’t have much more as far as details go, but in an interview with Japanese Cut Magazine, Miyazaki has been working on the background for the story.

Whether or not Miyazaki gets to make his Porco sequel depends largely on the success of Ghibli’s next two films. So, bottom line, if we want to see more Porco (and I’m pretty sure we do), we have to support Ghibli’s next two films (which is difficult here in the U.S., but somewhat doable).

Source: Slash Film

What’s it like defending Shizuoka from a colony drop? This amazing timelapse footage of the 1/1 scale Gundam sent along by AZM Ally deepfreeze gives us a glimpse at a day in the life of our friend, RX-78-2. Absolutely stunning.

Puppy Cow is a crazy, adorable yet slightly gross creature that I created at ConnectiCon. I’ve created many characters and creatures over the years, but none has ever gotten the instant response that Puppy Cow has. Sometimes opportunity kicks you in the head so I went out and got some quotes for plush toys and vinyl toys. Turns out both are doable, they just require some moneys. So I’m starting a Kickstarter campaign to raise money to produce Puppy Cow plushies. If it’s successful, it means that it’s more than just my friends who want to get their hands on this crazy thing. I’m looking to raise $4000 by September 1. For your contributions, I’m giving away some pretty nifty art incentives. Check out the Puppy Cow Kickstarter for more details.

So if you’d like to take home your very own adorably horrifying Puppy Cow plush, please consider contributing. And please share with all your friends.

Source: Kickstarter

There’s going to be a lot of ComicCon stuff to sort through this week. Lots of other sites out there have done a fairly good job of covering the event, although honestly, no report or blog or live streaming feed of ComicCon can ever truly compare to the actual experience of being there. It is wonderful and overwhelming and just as awesome as you think it is. You’ll miss a lot of the cool stuff that will be reported on for weeks after the event, but you won’t care. It’s ComicCon. You belong there.

It’s been years since I’ve gone and I miss it terribly. Sure, it’s becoming more of a movie festival than a comics celebration, but the shit is cool.

Anyway, among the many things Marvel revealed over the entire event, the one that really grabbed my attention was this movie accurate prop of the Infinite Gauntlet. There was no word on what film it would be featured in, but from the aesthetics of the prop, we can make some fairly good educated guesses. The stylings of the Gauntlet match the aesthetics of the magic/tech/armor/disco suits of what we’ve seen from the Thor film. I think we’ll see it introduced in that movie somewhere. If it does show up in the Avengers film, it’ll probably be in the end credits or something. But I think it’s more likely to be found on Asgard. I can totally imagine Loki getting his hands on the Gauntlet and causing all kinds of mess. Or maybe we’ll even see Thanos.

What do you Angry Zen Minions think? Is the Gauntlet headed for a Thor debut? Or does Marvel have a truly epic, cosmic film in the works? Or does it just look like a stupid, shiny disco glove?

Source: Marvel

Tomorrow at Super Art Fight 7 I face off against Chris “IMPACT” Impink. It’s going to be a battle of epic art proportions. I may just have to pull out all the stops and use my secret weapon!

If you’re in the Baltimore/DC/MD area and want to know what the hell Super Art Fight is all about, tomorrow’s show is the perfect chance to see all the insane pageantry. Our show at Baltimore’s Metro Gallery is totally FREE so get there early. Show starts at 7pm.

Wanted to share this email I got from AZM Ally Charm City Shinobi:

Jamie,

I saw your posts on your blog and Yellow Peril about the auction to help out with the oil spill. My friends and I started a group called Designers Giving Back and we’ve been down in Mississippi for a few weeks now helping out with various things, from providing resources to volunteers to building homes for the numerous Katrina victims still displaced. We’re currently working with the National Audubon Society to create a documentary showing the real effects of the oil spill, the shots they’re trying to censor from the news. Our website is http://designersgivingback.com, and if you like what we’re doing, could you give us a shout out on your blogs so we can help spread the awareness?

Thanks, much appreciated!
Dann a.k.a. Charm City Shinobi

Pretty freaking awesome, Dann. Designers Giving Back is accepting donations for room and board and travel or if you want to give directly, you can send money through their Razoo campaign.

I know, not very Gundam Wednesday of me to post this today. But can you imagine if we did have working mobile suits? That hole would have been plugged up months ago. Good luck Dann. You guys make us art folk proud!

Source: Designers Giving Back