In Stores Today

SCOOBY-DOO #116 is available in comic book stores today. It contains a very short informative story I wrote about a bit of japanese folklore known as Tsukumogami, or "haunted utensils."

Fun For You

I just noticed that 3 out of the past 7 posts were obituaries. Not to diminish the passing of any of the individuals mentioned (which was done because they are all significant to me) I thought it might be time to offer up some fun distractions.

Digital Funnies beautifully archives early forgotten comic strips.

Omni Monster features gorgeously photographed images of beautiful Japanese vinyl kaiju which I wish I possessed, such as Ikarus from "Ultra 7" shown above.

Steven Hill has amassed a tremendous collection of screenshots of movie title screens.

An evolving look at how all of the Disney theme parks have changed over the years can be seen through the collection of park maps found at mousemaps.

Finally, Todd Kauffman finds worthy inspiration in H.R. Pufnstuf and creates beautiful art celebrating this wonderful tv show.

Yvonne DeCarlo (1922-2007)

Babydoll

I'm still without a scanner (if anyone has any recommendations on what I should buy, please advise me), so I haven't posted much of my own stuff in a while.

Here's a preliminary sketch I did a few years back for the character "Babydoll" for "Midnight, Mass. -- Here There Be Monsters" Obviously, she didn't have a speaking part, but she was one of the good-guys.

Iwao Takamoto (1925-2007)

Today, the world lost one of the great contibutors to animation. Iwao Takamoto began his career at Disney and is best known for the work he did for Hanna-Barbera where he designed, or had a hand in the design, of most of their characters beginning with their second wave. Among his creations; The cast of Scooby-Doo, The Impossibles, Penelope Pitstop, Speedbuggy, The Hillbilly Bears, Captain Caveman, Dastardly and Muttley, and Astro on "The Jetsons."

Cartoon Brew reprints Amid Amidi's informative 1999 interview with Iwao Takomoto from CARTOON BLAST #3.

Happy New Year!

If you haven't picked up a calendar for 2007, here's a cool, free dowloadable one courtesy of the Website at the End of the Universe featuring vintage science fiction art of impractically clad space babes, and filled with the birth dates of various science fiction authors, artists and editors. They still have calendars for the past few years to download as well.