Dasien Blog

Green Avenger joins the cast of Crossoverlord!

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 23:11:19 GMT

Clickity-click!

Crossoverlord: Fay Wray style!

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 00:17:56 GMT

sigh... When I saw King Kong for the first time, I must have been ten. It's still my favorite film of all classic cinema. Even as limited as their resources were back then, the animation is remarkable, and the character of King Kong came to life like no stop-motion character before or since.

...And Fay Wray was fuckin' hot!

Click the image to see today's comic.

Crossoverlord Update-arooni!

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 02:22:40 GMT

Yep, this week's Crossoverlord is up! Click the pic!

Cammy in Street Fighter IV

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 00:27:56 GMT

Ah, Cammy. Bout time they put her back in a regular Street Fighter game. Yeah, I know she was in the Alpha series, but I can only take so much of evil fifteen-year-old Cammy in a thong. The Delta Red version doesn't leave me feeling quite so dirty.

You know, I'm glad Street Fighter resisted 3-D as long as it did. Part of what made Street Fighter fun was the quality of the in-game art. Having PS1-quality polygons would never have done it justice.

Oh, and if you haven't guessed, this is actually reason number 2 that it's time for Neil to finally get an X-Box 360.

Oops! Sort of New Crossoverlord?

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 18:29:29 GMT

Not only did I forget to post a reminder for last week's Crossoverlord, I also somehow screwed up the Comic Genesis update. I don't know where the page went, but I have it up now, in case anyone was following the comic there. Otherwise, just click on the image below to visit and comment on Drunk Duck.

That's it! Time for Neil to get an X-Box 360

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 18:43:43 GMT

For those of you who haven't heard, I never get a console at launch. The last console I got at launch was N64, and that's only because I won it. And before that was the SNES, and that was because my parents bought it for Christmas.

I'll wait around forever to get a new console, and I think this is the year to get it. You know why, boys and girls? This is why...

Yep, It's Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection. And while the title may sound stupid, the collection is not. Finally...FINALLY...Sega compiled the Genesis collection that everyone wanted. They basically merged Sonic Mega Collection on Gamecube with Sega Genesis Collection on PS2. That, in itself, is grand, but then they went all hog wild crazy! The started adding stuff like the Shining Force series and Streets of Rage. FINALLY, Streets of Rage! I've gotten so tired of getting the shaft on that. Two times, it was supposed to be included in one of these collections, and both times, Sega pussied out.

Also, they removed some of the games that nobody fucking wanted. Sword Of Vermilion; more like Sword of FUCKING GONE! Ecco Jr., also fucking gone. Virtua Fighter Genesis got it's 2D ass knocked out! And finally, they got rid of that Shadow Dancer, which I... Oh, wait a minute. Why did they get rid of Shadow Dancer? God damn it, Sega!

So, here's a rundown of the entire catalog.

Games	My Thoughts
Shining In The Darkness	Yes!
Shining Force	YES!
Shining Force II	YESSSS!!!!
Phantasy Star II	FIST PUMP!!!!
Phantasy Star III	For completion's sake...I guess
Phantasy Star IV	Fuck yeah!
Sonic The Hedgehog	AWESOME!
Sonic The Hedgehog 2	AWESOMER!
Sonic The Hedgehog 3	Hell YEAH!
Sonic & Knuckles	If it does lock-on with the other games, then awwright!
Sonic 3D Blast	sigh... Okay, I guess.
Sonic Spinball	Sucks.
Ristar	YES!
Flicky	Not yes.
Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine	Puyo Pop released in the US, back when Sega tried to de-Japanify everything. Decent.
Columns	Best. Tetris clone. Ever.
Golden Axe	Meh...
Golden Axe II	File under: Never gonna play it.
Golden Axe III	File under: SUCKS.
Streets Of Rage	Kind of like an urban Golden Axe... except AWESOME!
Streets Of Rage 2	Best. Final Fight clone. Ever.
Streets Of Rage 3	Eh, it's worth having it along for the ride.
Ecco the Dolphin	Meh...
Ecco and the Tides of Time	Bleh...
Shinobi III	Bitchin'!
Comix Zone	Kick ass!
Altered Beast	Return to your grave.
Alex Kidd and the Enchanted Castle	A Sega Genesis game that looks like a Master System game, but isn't even as good as the Alex Kidd games that are actually on Master System. No thanks.
Kid Chameleon	Decent.
Dynamite Headdy	Never played it.
Decap Attack	Is okay.
Bonanza Bros.	Mildly amusing.
Gain Ground	Whatever.
Super Thunder Blade	yawn
Vectorman	I must be the only person alive who doesn't like this game.
Vectorman 2	Couldn't care less.
Alien Storm	Never played it.
E-SWAT: City Under Siege	Never played it.
Fatal Labyrinth	Never played it.

And that's not even the complete list, because there are locked games on the disc. Now, I'm hoping that they're not like the lame bonus games that were on the original Sega Genesis Collection. I have no desire to ever play Zaxxon or Zector, and I certainly don't need to ever play the arcade version of Altered Beast ever again.

Instead, (I know it's too late to start making demands) I hope that Sega has considered the following for this upcoming collection...

Sonic CD
One of the best Sonic games of the entire series. I know it's a Sega CD game, but it's part of the Genesis family anyway, dammit! And it's already been ported before, so it can be done again.

Revenge Of Shinobi
Come on, Sega! Stop short-changing us on this game! Why do you keep skipping over this classic? What, because it has Spider-Man in it?! Sprite-hack the damn thing, like you used to do! I remember back when it was Godzilla and Batman, and you changed those characters. Why can't you just alter the graphics again and release the damn game, already?!

This is almost as stupid as not including Shadow Dancer.

Phantasy Star 1
Yes, it's a Master System game, but I don't fucking care! There was a one-thousand copy production of Phantasy Star for Mega Drive in Japan. That's justification enough for me. Put it on the collection. I don't think there will be any objections from the peanut gallery. And if they do, they can die in a fire.

Out Run, Afterburner, and Space Harrier
Why not? There were arcade games on that last Sega Genesis Collection, but unlike the ones on the previous collection, these are actually cool and worth playing. You listening, Sega?

Virtua Fighter 1 and 2
Wouldn't that be a kick in the ass! Even though neither of these games had anything to do with the Sega Genesis, it would be totally awesome if they were on this disc as bonus games. Bonus points if it's the 32X version of Virtua Fighter.

Contra: Hard Corps and Castlevania Bloodlines
Yes, I know they're Konami games, but seeing as they're pretty much exclusive to the console, I think an exception can be made.

Any other Alex Kidd game
As long as we're mining Master System, you might as well throw some Alex Kidd goodness in there.

No Sub-Menus for Bonus Games
You know what sucks? Having to go to another menu just to play the fucking bonus games. Don't make me hunt for the bonus content. Put it right there on the games list, with everything else.

NO MORE FUCKING GAME GEAR GAMES!!!
I don't ever need to play Sonic Drift again. Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!

Editorial Note: By the way, I noticed about an hour after I posted this that the title screen for Beyond Oasis is on the cover of this collection. I've never played that game, either, but it looks as though that's on the collection.

Crossoverlord Update: Ro-bits!

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 05:58:03 GMT

The armory is under attack by RO-BITS! (Pronounced roh-bits) Time for action!

Click the image to see today's comic!

Crossoverlord: Welcome To The Phallus Palace!

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 22:15:21 GMT

NO! It's the Armory of Apocalyptic Objects! It's certainly not meant to resemble any particular naughty object of any kind. (...regardless of what my DeviantART subscribers say!) Nope! It's just a big alien structure. Nothing dirty about it at all!

New comics start this Tuesday. Click on the image to visit the website.

Pier Solar box art!

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 02:56:51 GMT

So, people who ordered Pier Solar got a special email today. The packaging is well into production, and the gang over at Watermelon are showing it off! I like that the guys over at Super Fighter Team work their asses off to give Sega Genesis fans the authentic Genesis experience, with the clam shell case and all, but I think the Watermelon team just did them one better. Check out the glossiness!

I suspect that this means that it's a cardboard case, but I can't really tell. It looks like it's an open-up case like the clam-shell. Maybe it's one of those collector's edition boxes, like the ones that Working Designs use to make.

Or better yet, maybe it's secretly a Gaijin Works production, and any day now, project leader Tulio Adriano will pull his rubber mask off to reveal that he's really Vic Ireland!

And Vic will be like, "Nah-ha! I'm back! Tremble in terror as I insert pop culture references into a fantasy setting! All the songs in the game shall be sung by Jenny Stigile! Nay-ha-ha!"

Oh, come on. That would be awesome, and you know it! Don't listen to those 1-Up Network guys. They love pop culture references in their RPGs, especially ones like the Ebonics joke in Albert Odyssey. You know that Nick Sutner and Jeremy Parish secretly listen to their Lunar soundtrack CDs to get their Stigile fix.

And besides, I just needed to digress long enough to Google-bait Jenny Stigile. She's posted on my blog before, and even though I make jokes about her, she's a really good sport. To be honest, I'd love to have another game with her in it, especially if we could have yet another outtake reel of her doing nothing but fart jokes.

Come back to video games, Jenny. It's been a dull and dreary world without you. ...Okay, enough off-topic gushing.

I'm really digging this new support that Sega Genesis has in these small-time game enthusiasts. Even though Beggar Prince was kind of a glitchy game, it was pretty good. I could have done without the instant death traps, but those are forgivable. I've not yet had a chance to order Legend Of Wu-Kong, but it looks fairly decent. Not as graphically pleasing as Beggar Prince. (Whoever did the cut scenes should be flogged.)

Despite its delay, I still think that Pier Solar is the most exciting indie project to come out for the Genesis, largely because the game is entirely homebrew, and because it's made in loving tribute to games like Lunar, Chrono Trigger, and Final Fantasy VI. And I think the delay has kind of stolen Super Fighter's thunder, because if they hadn't delayed the game, then The Legend Of Wu-Kong would have had the distinction of being "the last Genesis game". Pier Solar has swiped that distinction back by simple pushing the release date back a few months.

Actually, it kinda is the last game, regardless of what comes out in its wake. Of the software that's been available for Sega Genesis in the last two years, Pier Solar is the only game that's entirely new, and it's probably going to be quite some time before we get another project like this to come along.

I actually hadn't been to the Pier Solar website in a while, so I haven't seen anything of the game since the original demo. I'm pleased to see that they replaced all of the terrible character artwork in the game with quality images. They also tidied up the text boxes so that they have their own unique feel. they were a bit generic-looking in the demo.

Of course, I'm dying to play this game so that I can experience it with the CD audio. The audio in the demo uses the Genesis FM synthesizer, which is kind of bland by today's standard.

The game will work on any model Sega Genesis from any region. It has enhanced audio for Sega CD, which when booted with the cartridge, will enable enhanced music and sound effects. This is only Genesis game ever that uses by the cartridge slot and the CD drive simultaneously, which is something that Sega never tried, oddly enough.

Water Melon is still taking pre-orders, so rush on over there and buy yourself a copy!

http://www.piersolar.com/

Crossoverlord: Bettah Late Than Nevah!

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 21:27:25 GMT

Click the picture for a new comic! What else can I say to make you click other than... LORD CRIMSON CAMEO!?!?! ...Okay, it's really not that special.

Yeah, I got caught up in my procrastination. And after I was ranting and raving about the video games I've been playing.

In my very thin defense, the weather out here has been kind of rough on the power lines. We've had high winds, freezing rain, and even flooding. (Fortunately, I live on a hill and my new sump pump is in no immediate danger of failing.) Nevertheless, I had to shut down the computer a number of times, due to flickering lights and the such.

Granted, I could have averted this by not pushing things off, but what's done is done.

Now, go read that new Crossoverlord, goddammit!

What the hell does Intelligent Systems have against grinding?!

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:33:17 GMT

Well, with my newly acquired free time, I've been able to afford to set aside about and hour or two a night to play some video games. My newest pick: Fire Emblem: Path Of Radiance. Why? Well, because it's been on my shelf for ages, and I've never played a Fire Emblem game before. And besides, I had to reassert my status as the world's last Gamecube fan.

Fire Emblem is a tactical RPG, so if you've ever played Dark Wizard, Final Fantasy Tactics, or Shining Force, you know what you're in for. Enemies are dispersed onto a grid, and you have to plan a strategy of approach. Charging in like gang busters will easily get you surrounded by enemies, and then it'll it's game over. The defensive fighter is rewarded, although sometimes you lose item pick-ups to thieves and looters. in later battles, you'll even have enemy units coming at you from the rear, prodding you along.

So, the first thing I noticed about this game is that the characters can be a bit unbalanced. Ike's a wuss early on in the game, and so I had to rely on Titania to keep him from dying. After the first couple of battles, though, Ike begins turning into a certified badass, and eventually he becomes so strong that hardly anyone can touch him. I've had a couple chapters now where all I've had to do is simply park Ike in a doorway and just let people initiate their own demise by running into him.

Incidentally, there happens to a be a FAQ floating around the internet that basically demonstrates that you can do that for pretty much the entire game. It's called the "Ike Solo".

The only problem is that very quickly, it became so that Ike was the ONLY character who could dispense with villainy without dying (other than Titania, that is). And so, I have all of these other characters who now have no hope of ever leveling up. This isn't like Final Fantasy, where if your character dies, you can just revive them between battles. No, once someone dies in Fire Emblem, they're gone forever. Actually, this is par for the course when it comes to tactical RPGs, but I thought I'd make that clear.

So, the natural thing to do would be the grind to get those weak characters up. But nope, you can't do that!

See, this sort of reminds of Paper Mario, another Intelligent Systems game, in which grinding is pretty much nonexistent. Okay, sure, Paper Mario had the Crazee Dayzees, but you had to really know how to fuck around with those badges to even stand a chance of taking those damn things down.

But the point is that there's no grinding to be had in Fire Emblem. You want to power up wusses like Mist and Rhys? Simple! Stop killing so many people with Titania and Ike. God damn it! And it wouldn't be such an issue if not for the fact that Ike tops out at level 20, so if you're still killing people with him after that, that's wasted experience that nobody will ever have.

Maybe I've been spoiled by Final Fantasy Tactics. I've come to expect the ability to go out randomly onto the playing field and initiate a conflict for which I'm not even required to use my main character. "Hey, we got a new guy! Let's go flog some imps!" Nope! None of that here!

Actually, it's not a bad game. It's kept me suitably entertained. It can be a little frustrating when there are characters I want to keep alive, and so I have to reset whenever someone dies. It can be a little annoying when I'm forced to babysit characters like Mist, who seem to have no talent on the battlefield except to die. I find more often than not that I pretty much use the unstoppable chracters (i.e., Lethe, Ike, Titania, etc.) and just use everyone else as sword caddies. Sometimes I'll let characters like Mia get a free hit if Ike only left two or three hit points on a baddie.

The one thing I HATE about this game is all the text chatter that goes on. On and on! Nobody shuts up, and it's all TEXT! What the fuck, Nintendo?! And what's worse is that the Japanese version had recorded dialogue over most of these conversations. The US release has none of that. God damn it!

I've taken to doing a lot of skimming, and this has contributed to my inability to completely follow the plot. Something about the unknown princess of a defunct kingdom traveling around with a bunch of mercenaries. There are anthropomorphized animal tribes, most of which distrust humans, but some don't. There are three or four warring nations, and it's hard to keep track of who's on whose side or what the motivations are. Granted, it's not as confusing as Final Fantasy Tactics, a game in which I was actually TRYING to follow the story.

I'd give it a mild recommendation to anyone who has a Gamecube or Wii. Actually, there's added incentive to get it if you have Wii. There's a sequel called Radiant Dawn, which, if you have your old Gamecube save state, you can transfer from it into the new game. I love games that do that, and I keep meaning to make a post about my love for games like Arc The Lad, Golden Sun, and Shining Force CD, which enable one to transfer data from one completed game to the next.

This is far from being my favorite RPG, although I can kind of understand now why Fire Emblem has such a devoted following, even if it is kind of a niche series.

Christmas time at Das HQ!

Thu, 25 Dec 2008 17:45:00 GMT

Oh boy! Let's see what Santa brought!

ALBERT EINSTEIN ACTION FIGURE!
Best. Gift. Ever.
Get out of the way, Molly!

Alright! BOGGLE!

Let's play some Boggle!

...fucking Boggle.

Update? Soon!

Thu, 25 Dec 2008 17:11:54 GMT

Hey gang,

Well, it's been a crazy holiday season, even though it's been one of the shittier ones. I'm finally finishing up some freelance jobs, including a couple that have been waiting a while. I might pause in the middle of these, though, and finally put up the next couple pages, before the year ends.

I have a couple weeks ahead of me where I won't really have much work to do. I'll have some work going into 2009, though. It looks like I've been hired to do some work for drum kit designs. I don't really know what kind of work to expect from this, though. Hey, it's experience. I seem to have the darndest way of falling into dumb luck like this. (I suppose it also helps that my soon-to-be next client is my cousin, but let's not split hairs.)

I think I gave up a long time ago expecting Dasien to be an actual means of making money. It has, however, given me plenty of opportunities to make some cash on the side, which I love. I think I can live with it being a hobby. That's why it's never really gone away, nor is it ever going to.

I just need to find the time to pull out the last couple of files and finish them up. Keep an eye on that RSS. You might see something by the weekend.

Don't forget to set those DVRs!

Thu, 25 Dec 2008 00:02:01 GMT

Tonight is the Bozo, Gar, and Ray special on WGN (aka The CW in Chicago). Check your cable listings, because I have no idea if this is airing outside of Chicago. For those that get it, tonight will be a look back at television history as well as a chance to laugh at all the double entrendres that used to slip by the censors!

Bozo: The World's Greatest Clown

Also, don't forget to listen to the WGN Radio archives for more Bozo...

One In A Million: A Three-Part Tribute to Bob Bell
A Tribute To Roy "Cooky The Clown" Brown
Bozopalooza (prior to Bozo's final airing)
A Tribute To Ray Rayner
Dean Chats With Joey D'Auria

Mystery Artist on Crossoverlord

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 06:04:33 GMT

Well, it won't be a mystery for long. Just click on the image, and you'll get to find out who drew today's comic.

New Crossoverlord!

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 01:34:54 GMT

Click the image to see the new page!

New Crossoverlord!

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:53:28 GMT

The heroes that have united against the Crossoverlord are having trouble thinking up a team name. Help them out by posting your suggestions rightchere!

And don't forget to check out today's update. Click the image below...

CLICK HERE!

Energize/Dasien returning!

Sat, 06 Dec 2008 15:05:39 GMT

Clickity-Click!

Like an explosion in a spaghetti factory

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 17:58:13 GMT

He only comes once a year! He's a beloved friend to all the boys and girls! And late at night on Christmas Eve, he'll come to your home and spread joy and happiness! Yep, it's time once again for BOZO to return to the airwaves here in the Chicago area!

Wait, who did you think I was talking about?

Yes, we're only about three weeks away from the annual "Bozo, Gar, and Ray" special to air on WGN, aka The CW. At 10pm on December 24, if you turn on your TV, you'll have the honor and privilege of inviting Bob Bell, Ray Rayner, Garfield Goose, Roy Brown, Marshall Brodien, Joey D'auria, Frazier Thomas, Cuddly Dudley, and many others back into your living room to bring hysterical laughter and joy to an otherwise corporate and stressful holiday. Get all your shopping done early, set your TiVo, and get ready for some laughs, because Bozo's Circus is back on the air!

Oh, how I miss this man.

So, what's so special about Bozo? Well, Bozo was, quite frankly, the last vestige of classic television that our generation ever saw. With as controlled and scripted as today's children's television is, Bozo was wild and loose. It was a show where it was okay if you forgot your lines, because the improv was always funnier. In fact, the players often took great delight in making each other laugh or screw up. It was like the Carol Burnett Show for children. (Most of the time, anyway.)

Oh, but there were adult jokes. Quite often, there were gags lobbed over the heads of children, landing squarely in the laps of adults. Jokes, such as the infamous Three Bears routine, in which the three stars, Bozo, Cooky, and Wizzo, performed perhaps the best/worst ever rendition of the classic children's tale.

Wizzo as Mama Bear: "Someone's been sleeping in my bed."
Bozo as Papa Bear: "Well don't look at me!"
Cooky as Baby Bear: "Is this really the way Eddie Fischer started?"

Of course, the special also includes several bits of classic television that are even before my time. Sadly, most of it was pretty well gone by the time I started getting up every morning to watch these goofs. Heck, I only barely remember Bob Bell and Frazier Thomas.

Frazier was basically the second (and last) ring master of the "circus" (which was really just a sound stage), after Ring Master Ned "sold" Bozo's Circus to Frazier's puppet goose friend, Garfield. (By the way, this character long predated Jim Davis' fat orange cat.) Of course, this actually coincided with the fact that Garfield's show had ended, and thus the goose became a temporary fixture on Bozo.

Frazier Thomas and his wacky puppet friends.

As for Garfield's actual show, of which I've seen only very few clips, the best comparison I could make to it would be the Kingdom of Make-Believe on Mister Roger's Neighborhood. The puppet characters, operated skillfully by Roy Brown, were confined to a very small balcony-like set, which Frazier would walk up to, peer in, and talk to the puppets. The goose itself didn't talk, but it would clack its bill and snip at Frazier. This was the work of puppeer Roy Brown.

Roy Brown himself was a masterful artist, and one of my most admired heroes. Of course, he was the hand inside of the puppets on Garfield Goose & Friends. And while his puppets were seldom as sophisticated, his raw talent and ability to bring life and humor to these creations was nothing short of extraordinary. And while I did not grow up with Garfield Goose, I certainly remember the years he spent operating the Cuddly Dudley puppet on the Bozo Show.

Like Garfield, Bozo had inherited Cuddly from another program, in this case The Ray Rayner Show. And just as he did with Garfield, Roy Brown often used Cuddly as a means for revenge against Bozo, to whom he had to be so nice when performing as Cooky. Roy's verbal jabs at Bozo were often subtle and well below the radar of the target audience. This was, of course, a delight to most parents watching, because, as I eluded to earlier, who doesn't love watching two grown men trying to make each other break up on camera?

Roy Brown as Cooky, Chicago's Favorite Second Banana

If I may be so bold, I would put Roy Brown on the same pedestal as Jim Henson. And I'll go even farther to say that he is, quite literally, one of the finest comedic performers to every grace television. The Bozo Show wouldn't have been as special for me as it is if not for Roy Brown playing the ever suffering Cooky.

Before Cooky, though, was Ray Rayner. I don't have many memories of the man, as he was before my time, but what I've seen of him is brilliant. The closest modern comparison I could draw to the man would have to be Blue's Clues, although he is also often compared to his contemporaries, Captain Kangaroo and Mister Rogers. In fact, Ray was often on at the same time as Captain Kangaroo, and would actually beat him in the ratings in Chicago. He would host cartoons, have fun activities for the kids (activities which he would often bungle), and be a ray of sunshine for the brief moment he was on TV every day. ...As Ray Rayner, that is.

Cuddly Dudley along with Ray Rayner

See, the beauty of these men is that they wouldn't just have one show per day. These men would literally end one show, scrape off all their make-up, put on different costume, eat a sandwich, and then go right back on television as someone else. Ray Rayner also played Sergeant Pettibone, host of The Dick Tracy Show. He would also go out on Bozo's Circus as Oliver O. Oliver, Bozo's original bumbling sidekick, prior to the introduction of Cooky.

Bob Bell was also a well-known station chameleon. He would go from being the station's staff announcer to being Bozo and then right into being Andy Starr. Andy Starr was the geriatric theater custodian and host of classic Three Stooges shorts.

As was often the case back then, classic cartoon and live action theatrical shorts were often rebranded and expanded upon when hosted in syndication. Stations rarely just put them on the air, as they do today, without filler material. Thus was the case of classic television showmanship. And the boys at WGN were masters at this.

Bob Bell as Andy Starr

You don't see this at all in today's television. And that's not to put down the work ethic of today's performers. Rather, I see this as a time when television was as fun for the performers as it was for the audience, and I think that's been lost in today's corporate world of uninspired television. The closest thing we get to any of this is probably Conan O'Brien or maybe even Saturday Night Live, although I can barely stand watching the latter.

And what's worse is that so little of this material actually remains. The Bozo Show literally had no archive. A few years ago, I was horrified at the revelation that the producers of the show would often record the program over the tapes of the previous season. What survives is a very small collection of dusty tapes in addition to whatever people at home may have captured on VHS or, if they were lucky, BETA. If I had known back in 1984 that Bob Bell's last year on the Bozo Show would become one of television's lost treasures, I would have pestered my parents to buy as many VHS tapes as they could.

What plays on an hour-long special every year at Christmas time is, as Dean Richards puts it, "the best of what remains". That's sad.

Even though I have my own recorded-from-TV copy of this show, I agonize every year that this isn't on DVD. It really should be, but the problem has always been Larry Harmon, the owner of the Bozo franchise. Not to make light of the man's death, but his recent passing may be a blessing of sorts. WGN really should look into acquiring the Bozo trademark so that they can actually market this show, as opposed to simply broadcasting it as a "news special" legal loophole.

And if they still have it, they need to also produce a DVD of the final broadcast of the Bozo show, as well as the final show with Cooky. These are so rare that, to best of my knowledge, they've never even appeared on YouTube. In fact, much to my annoyance, most of the Bozo material on YouTube consists of Bozos from other markets. The best I was able to find is a segment on Nude Hippo, in which Joey D'Auria, the second man to play Bozo in Chicago, explains how to properly throw a pie.

But that's not all! As per my yearly holiday tradition, I've hunted down all of the episodes of Dean Richard's radio show, in which he pays tribute to the characters on the Bozo Show. You'll need Real Player to play these.

One In A Million: A Three-Part Tribute to Bob Bell
A Tribute To Roy "Cooky The Clown" Brown
Bozopalooza (prior to Bozo's final airing)
A Tribute To Ray Rayner
Dean Chats With Joey D'Auria

And please, please remember to watch the special on Christmas Eve. Tell WGN that we need to see this program more often and that it needs to be on DVD. There are millions of grown children, like myself, who would be giddy with delight to have this program return.

Adam Warren = WIN

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:36:21 GMT

Here's another example of why I love Adam Warren. By the time I had started subscribing to PSM, I pretty much already knew who he was, but still, having regular illustrations of his delivered to my house every month made me squeal like a little girl. Although, by this time, I had already kind of started questioning his thing with drawing HUGE TEETH, but I still loved the guy. He and Ryan Kinnaird were all over that magazine, and you couldn't asking for anything better.

So eventually, the sad day would come when the very last PSM would ship to shelves. Indeed a dark day. Things were never quite the same without it.

Below is the very last PSM end-of-book comic that Adam Warren did so regularly for the magazine, as it's reign of magazine rack terror was ending. Seemed fitting that he end it with yet another Raiden slam. (I nearly peed myself reading this!)

Click to visit Adam's DeviantART entry

As a courtesy to Mr. Warren, the image links to his DA entry for the picture, where you can comment on it and add it to your favorites. Hellsyeah!

In other news, I made the hilariously stupid choice to read Lindsay Lohan's blog this evening. It popped up as a "featured blog" when I was checking MySpace earlier, and with morbid curiosity, I clicked. It was only a couple of minutes, but it was long enough to knock me down a few IQ points. For an adult, Lindsay's punctuation and grammar is barely junior high level. And the people who reply to her blog are some of the most intellectually bankrupt people whose words I've ever had the misfortune of reading.

Don't ever read a young entertainer's blog. Well, you can read mine, but I'm not young...as young. I'M NOT OLD!

Whatever happened to Shadow Rising? Oh yeah....Who cares!?

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:59:23 GMT

Back in 2006, Harmony Gold released the first new Robotech feature in 20 years. Picking up from the end of the series, Shadow Chronicles told the story of the mysterious Shadow Technology that had abruptly caused the Invid to flee planet Earth. The Haydenites, a robotic race which I believe are from the Robotech novels, fills the role of the primary villains. Much of the original cast returned for this production, as well as guest voices Mark Hamill and Chase Masterson. (Wow, a Jedi and a Star Fleet member in the same production!)

This movie was to reinvigorate the Robotech franchise, giving Harmony Gold a second opportunity to make a sequel to the original series, which had stalled with Robotech II: The Sentinels. Unfortunately, it looks like things had stalled again. The next movie in the series, Shadow Rising, was supposed to have happened by now. According to my favorite PR rep Kevin McKeever, the movie is in production, but there was apparently some confusion as to whether or not the movie has been postponed, due to Warner Bros. wanting to release the live action film first. (Lame if that's true.)

In the meantime, Chris Meadows, of the Space Station Liberty podcast, had Kevin on his show, where things were "cleared up". Kevin didn't really say why Shadow Rising is delayed, but he did say that it WAS in production, but that it was on hiatus for some undisclosed reason, which still sounds as though it could be Warner Bros, but who knows? Kevin's PR news is so cryptic and misleading that I really have no interest in whatever he says, anyway. I mean, whether or not production had started wasn't even the issue.

In fact, the last time I attempted to make any sense of his useless babbling, it was around the time that the live action movie was announced. Listeners to Chris Meadows' program called in attempting to ask Kevin about what properties from the original series (referring to iconography from Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeada) could be cleared for use in a Robotech live action movie, as much of the original design content is bogged down by multiple ownerships, making use of the original mech designs an expensive venture. McKeever "answered" these questions by stating that Harmony Gold "owns all the rights to Robotech". This is like asking Dreamworks why the fairy tale characters in Shrek don't resemble their Disney counterparts, and then having Dreamworks respond with "We own all the rights to Shrek."

The only "rights" that Harmony Gold has in relation to Macross is the production rights for the original TV show, but McKeever's answer makes it sound as if Harmony Gold can use any design they want. He uses extremely vague terminology to tautologically declare that all the properties that currently comprise Robotech happen to be owned by Harmony Gold, which is sort of like saying, "We own everything we own." It's useless conjecture that doesn't even come close to answering the actual question. In fact, it's not an answer at all, because if someone is asking about acquiring the rights to use the mech designs, what sense does it make to declare that you own the production rights to the TV show?! These are two completely different licenses that have NOTHING to do with one another.

To further illustrate the degree to which McKeever dodges questions, take Rick Hunter's cameo in Shadow Chronicles. Rick Hunter is, I believe, the only Macross character to appear in the movie. He's also significantly redesigned so that he no longer resembles the Macross character Hikaru Hichijo, which was a necessary legal move. Having this brought to his attention, however, McKeever opts for a different explanation, which is that Rick Hunter had aged. This is pretty asinine considering that the legal wranglings between Tatsunoko Studios, Studio Nue, and Big West is readily available to anyone willing to look them up, and the fact that this is common knowledge among Robotech fans. Fans know darn well that the reason Rick doesn't look like Rick is because Harmony Gold doesn't have any licensing arrangement with Studio Nue or Big West to use his likeness. It would be like if Golden Books produced a version of Pinocchio but without the likenesses from the Disney production. Same thing; they can use the characters but not the actual designs.

I'm not going to outright call McKeever a liar, but I will say that nothing he says ever means anything, and you ought not to listen to him. He's a PR worm who will make rhetorical press announcements that barely reveal anything beyond what we already know. He's a master of rephrasing things to sound as though he's saying something new and important.

I'm not going to hold my breath for new Robotech. Until the live action movie comes out, which has progressed little since Warner's acquisition of production rights on a live action movie, we're probably not going to see anything new from the franchise.

And that's probably for the better, because as much as I liked the new movie, Robotech as a franchise has been fairly anachronistic. It was a show hodgepodged together so that Harmony Gold could syndicate Macross. And we don't even have to watch it that way, anymore. ADV has since released the real Macross, which is like seeing something clearly for the first time after twenty years of seeing it through a murky haze.

With all the crap from Mospeada and Southern Cross yanked out of the show, the original story actually makes sense. There's none of this nonsense about the Invid Flower of Life, and you don't have to try to apologetically decipher the waffling definitions of Protoculture and Robotechnology. There's none of this nonsense about Rick Hunter being a war criminal for employing scorched earth tactics against the Invid, because, aside from that making no sense, it doesn't even happen in Macross. And best of all, you'll never have to put up with the worst Robotech character ever Dana Sterling.

Forget Robotech. Just watch Macross. And if everyone chooses Macross over Robotech, maybe one day, we'll actually get a localization of Macross 7!

Oh my friends!

Smiley Face in the Sky

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 20:15:08 GMT

Fans of The Crossoverlord will remember the page in which the Crossoverlord himself aligned the stars in the night sky smile down upon him. Well, according to an article that Remus found this afternoon, Australians will be able to look to the sky Monday night and see a very similar phenomenon. The crescent moon and the planets Venus and Jupiter will be in perfect alignment to form a smiley face!

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/a-smile-that-will-light-up-the-night-sky/2008/11/28/1227491827180.html

I hope someone gets some actual pictures of this.

The Making of an Awful Video Game

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 17:59:37 GMT

Hey, you ever wonder goes on behind the scenes of a bad video game? No? Well, how about if the game happens to be a sour chapter in an otherwise grand video game franchise? Yep, we're talking about Street Fighter The Movie: The Game! And if you ever wanted to know about the behind-the-scenes of this dung heap, then you'll find this forum thread interesting.

http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=125411

Alan Noon, who also played the lame cyborg characters in the game, discusses his experiences during production and interaction with the cast. The thread itself is a couple years old, but it's still an interesting read. Find out why the game didn't come out very good, despite the best efforts of some of those working on the project. You'll also find out why the Sega Saturn version was completely retooled, why the characters don't say the right names of the moves, what did and did not make it into the game, what they did wrong, what they did right, and what the hell was up with that Sawada guy.

Working with Jean Claude Van Damme is described as "interesting", which is a nod and wink for "difficult". Because he was such a big star, he had the shortest digitization session of all the actors. Apparently, Jean Claude's sessions were so abbreviated that they never got him in the sound studio to record voice samples.

And they almost didn't get Kylie Minogue. There had originally been a problem with scheduling Kylie, so they had gone ahead with video-capturing another actress. When Kylie's schedule cleared up, they put the skimpy leotard on Kylie and did another session of Cammy poses. Or maybe they just did that on purpose. (I would!)

I guess they were thinking about using the extra set of Cammy sprites to create a "new" character, but they weren't pleased with the fact that they were basically identical. Oddly enough, it would only be a few games later that Capcom had fake Cammys all over the place.

Oh, and for those curious, yes, they did oil up Kylie Minogue when doing the video capture. I don't think it was explained why, but I'm not exactly demanding an answer. Instead, we should be thanking Noon and his cohorts for opting NOT to go with that awful blue fatigue and khaki combo from the movie!

Here's the money shot that everyone wants to see, by the way...

Now I wonder how long it's going to take for Stefan99 to swipe this picture.

ADDED NOTE: Those of you who actually own Street Fighter The Movie may want to head over to DVDPodblast and download their commentary of the film to sync up with your DVD. It's highly amusing.

New Heroes Unite

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 07:24:57 GMT

Click the image, read the comic...

http://www.drunkduck.com/Heroes_Unite/?p=488867

Comic Update: Two-In-One

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 06:54:48 GMT

Two updates today involving Dasien! One for Heroes Unite and one for Crossoverlord. As usual, click on the images to see the pages!

And yes, that's the Saved By The Bell pink dream border. I couldn't resist.