BlitzTheComicGuy

Conventional Wisdom: Otakon 2023 - page 1

What, you didn't think that blog about the gas station house was going to be ALL of my Otakon 2023 content, did you? ...I mean, I wouldn't blame you, seeing as how long it took me to actually finish the first of these comics.  But yeah, there is indeed real regular Otakon comic comics for you all.

Also, in my own defense, I didn't drag Stefan up to Cleveland ark JUST to watch me point at the School of Rock that was once the place where I bussed tables.  2023-12-06 01:45:18 +0000 UTC View Post

SOMEHOW TEN MORE CHRISTMAS SONGS YOU’RE PROBABLY NOT FAMILIAR WITH

YES, I STILL FOUND MORE OF THESE THINGS.  This is the fifth year in a row I’ve written a blog like 2023-12-03 11:48:57 +0000 UTC View Post

Weekly Anime Comic: Macross - page 36

You know, if it weren't for the fact that the movie Highlander didn't come out until three years after this episode aired, I'd seriously believe that somebody working on the show might have included that deliberately.  I mean, episode 34 also has a completely out of nowhere reference to Shane, or all things.  A convoluted meta-warning to Hikaru via movie quotes is hardly off the table.

Also, I don't know if this should be taken as building up hype or making a...

Weekly Anime Comics: DIRTY PAIR WINS!

That's right, I'm calling it!  Once the Macross comics wrap up, we're diving straight into a weekly dose of Dirty Pair!  And just to reiterate what I was saying earlier, I'm currently only committing to the original 1985 TV series.  I'm certainly not AGAINST doing the '87-'88 OVA series as well, or possibly even the features, but I'll probably put it up to another vote when we get there.  I am NOT putting Dirty Pair Flash up as an option, though....

Weekly Anime Comic: Macross - page 35

Okay, confession time: I've never actually watched Macross Zero myself, so I probably shouldn't be dunking on it without direct personal knowledge.  However, the main reason WHY i've not watched Macross Zero is because I've pretty much never heard anything good enough to make me want to.  Seriously, ever person I directly know who's talked about Zero did so disparagingly.  Even when I hate on Macross II in their presence, I'll still get a "Ye...

BONUS Anime Comic: Gunbuster - page 6

Admittedly, this joke probably would have made a LOT more sense if it focused on equating Gunbusters "aliens" with the forces of Chaos directly... but sometimes a guy just really feels like drawing a chick in Ultramarine armor, ya know?

Of course, I also could have thrown everybody a curveball and used that line as a springboard for an Event Horizon joke instead...

Weekly Anime Comic: Macross - page 34

Granted, that's also the ONLY shot in the entire sequence where that guy appears.  In literally every other angle of the crowd at Minmay's concert in episode 32, all the big Zentradi are clearly sitting behind the little folks.  So in all likelihood, our guy was SUPPOSED to be further back and this is just an especially egregious production snafu.  Lord knows it's not the only one in this episode.  I mean, the art's not quite Knife Fight levels of bad, but it gets close in...

BONUS Anime Comic: Gunbuster - page 5

I'm not even kidding, the pre-credits bit at the start of episode 3 absolutely BROKE my brain.  It's already tricky for me to keep up with translated on-screen text while also following separate dialog subtitles, but THOSE FREAKING CLAPS, man.  That kind of flagrant lack of a beat would have distracted me like a bit of popcorn between my teeth just on its own, but while I'm already trying to multitask?  That's when genuine brain injury will ensue.

BUT ANYWAY!  There'...

Weekly Anime Comic: Macross - page 33

This comic is specifically inspired by episode 31, but really I could have drawn it about ANY episode Kaifun appears in, because it's always true.

ANYWAY, not only am I working to get back to doing these in the MIDDLE of the week instead of scrambling at the end, but ANOTHER VOTE IS COMING!  Yes, people had their chance to tell me to keep doing more Macross shows after this one, but NOT SO!  In the next few days, I'll be putting out another poll for the $5 and up tiers to vote...

Weekly Anime Comic: Macross - page 32

Let's be honest, though: in the darkest days of the 80s video games crash, would it seriously surprise you to see a "Baby Toss" game? 

Also, sorry this one is so late.  Aside from recovering from a big ol' convention trip, I'm also sorting through the mess of a hard drive failure at the moment.  Otherwise, I probably would have tried to make a secondary joke from episode 30 where "Circle of Life" plays during the baby-lifting scene.

But hey, one way or another, this...

Beyond the Cycle: 8. The Terror (1963)

Oh dear.  Oh dearie dearie me.  Where to even begin with this one?  The Terror really is the stuff of B Movie legend.  If fact, it sounds more like the kind of thing film buffs would say to each other as a JOKE:  Roger Corman worked so fast that he got a movie finished ahead of schedule, and was so cheap that he insisted on filming a second movie while the sets were still up.  But it’s basically true, even if it only scratches the surface of how the en...

Beyond the Cycle: 7. Madouse (1974)

Vincent Price didn’t stop making horror flicks for American International Pictures just because they gave up on continuing Roger Corman’s Poe Cycle.  If anything, he had another minor career resurgence in the Doctor Phibes movies, which led directly to the pseudo-career send off Theater of Blood.  Granted, Theater of Blood wasn’t an AIP movie, he did that one for United Artists, but it still seemed like a blatant attempt to take the Phibes f...

Beyond the Cycle: 6. The Dunwich Horror (1970)

(Okay, before anything else, I REALLY should have just drawn the '70s hair over an actual photo of Lovecraft instead of trying to do a caricature.  That 'stache and fro do a bit TOO much to make my doodle version of ol Howard unrecognizable)

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, American International Pictures had a really weird relationship with H.P. Lovecraft in the 60s.  You've heard this story SEVERAL times by now: Roger Corman had hoped to shake up the Gothic Horror/Vin...

Weekly Anime Comic: Macross - page 31

Look, don't get mad at me, I'm just reporting the facts as I see them.  In fact, they showed an admirable amount of restraint by ONLY tearing her sleeves.  I mean, we're talking about a female character in a post-apocalyptic setting with a background in violence AND ALSO an antagonist.  By most rules of fiction, such a character should spontaneously be running around in a leather bikini and bondage gear by this point.

And yes, this page IS coming out weirdly soon after th...

Weekly Anime Comic: Macross - page 30

This one's been percolating in the back of my brain for literal YEARS, but it was worth it.  I am exaggerating exactly nothing here, the entire room literally erupted in a chorus of boos the second Minmay's poster appeared on screen.  I'd always heard that large portions of the fandom weren't exactly fond of her, but it was fascinating to watch that impression form in real time right in front of me.

And yes, just in case it wasn't clear, this the ANOTHER case of me double-dipp...

Beyond the Cycle: 5. Witchfinder General (aka The Conqueror Worm) (1968)

Okay, I'm just gonna rip the band-aid right off and say it at the very start.  This is the single most well-regarded film out of all these blogs... and I don't much care for it.  If you're one of the many who hold this one up on a pedestal, and you also get angry when other people don't like that one thing you like, you'd probably be better off just skipping this blog.  Life really is too short to waste getting annoyed by a random dude on The Internet over a movie that's most l...

Beyond the Cycle: 4. Diary of a Madman (1963)

I occasionally see it said that Roger Corman’s Poe movies were responsible for Vincent Price being reborn as a horror star, though this is fairly misleading.  He’d played bad guys in everything from costume adventures like The Three Musketeers, Son of Sinbad, and The Ten Commandments to film noirs like Shock to even the pseudo-Gothic Horror House of Wax.  Heck, the guy literally played The Devil in The Story of Mankind.  Even whe...

BONUS Anime Comic: Gunbuster - page 4

Look, there's just no way a person in my line of work can be presented with the Rip Van Winkle effect and NOT make a joke like this.

On a slightly related note, I've just started a SECOND poll for $5 and up patrons regarding the future of these Gunbuster comics.  (One that's totally separate from the other one about the future of the Macross comics)  Remember, I only originally committe...

Weekly Anime Comic: Macross - page 29

If you know pretty much anything about the production history of Macross, you know that episode 29 is where they finally pass the originally intended conclusion of the show and basically have to start making a whole new postscript sequel series.  And don't get me wrong, I really respect that they resisted the urge to just have the Zentradi whip out a previously unmentioned new superweapon at the end of the previous episode and just stretch out the space dogfights for one more ar...

Beyond the Cycle: 3. Die, Monster, Die! (1965)

Okay, fun fact: I got so used to seeing this movie filling out TCM's marathons of the Roger Corman’s AIP Poe movies that I thought it was another American International product until, well, about a minute before sitting down to write this blog.  See, this is why it’s always important to check your sources, kids.  Granted, AIP did distribute Die, Monster, Die!, and even put it out as a double feature with Corman’s The Haunted Palace in the UK, but the actual h...

Beyond the Cycle: 2. The Comedy of Terrors (1963)

When I did the first set of these blogs, I complained about not liking The Raven all that much, thanks mostly to the abrupt left turn from Moody Horror into Broad Comedy.  I tried to make it clear, however, that I don’t NECESSARILY have a problem with injecting humor into Gothic Horror trappings.  Rather, I just find The Raven too slapstick and zany for my tastes, at l...

BONUS Anime Comic: Gunbuster - page 3

Remember, even if you excuse the fact that all this tech is supposed to be in use aboard A SPACE STATION, there's still the basic fact that this is taking place in the year 2023.  So, yeah.  Either way, this is pretty funny when you stop to think about what you're looking at.

Also, IMPORTANT REMINDER: I need $5 and up patrons to give me some feedback regarding the REGULAR weekly anime comic...

Beyond the Cycle: 1. The Oblong Box (1969)

1969’s The Oblong Box is one of the two movies most likely to be grafted onto somebody's “official” Poe Cycle list (though don’t expect me to talk about the other o gets tacked onto the Poe Cycle list is thanks to having Vincent Price in the lead… except he’s really NOT the lead.  Oh, the first act certainly makes it LOOK like he is.  We are introduced to Edward though Julian’s dealing with him, the co-conspirators in Edward’s escape plan are introduced via ...

Bah blah blah update about the next round of voting

Most people probably won't care about this one way or the other, but since it involves other people's money I wanted to make sure everything had been mentioned at some point.

I just put up a poll that $5-and-up patrons can vote in to help me decide on the next Weekly Anime Comic series.  This poll isn't to actually pick the next series itself, but rather to decide between one of two potential sets of shows that the NEXT poll will be about.  So if you want to be a part of the d...

Weekly Anime Comic: Macross - page 28

Man, it is REALLY dangerous for me to take a break from watching a show for even one week.  Yeah, since I already had the second page from episode 26 penciled the same night as the first one, there was no need to actually watch anything last week... and whatever semblance of a routine I had leading up to that point was TOTALLY thrown off.  Granted, the problem is ALSO that I chose that week or to to grind out more bonus Gunbuster comics and even to queue up some Halloween blogs... t...

Conventional Wisdom: Animazement 2023 - page 3

...and the worst thing, at least in MY mind, is that my convention notes don't even contain any part of their conversation.  So Present Day Me couldn't even show you whatever they were talking about if I WANTED to, all I have written down is the instruction to write a comic about whatever it was.

And pathetically enough, THAT'S my final bit of content from Animazement 2023!  Next up, I'm gonna go ahead and start working on some Otakon 2023 stuff, including a type of content I ...

Beyond the Cycle: More Gothic Horror (that may or may not involve Vincent Price, Edgar Allan Poe, or Roger Corman)

Last Halloween I did a series of blogs about the “Poe Cycle:” a series of Gothic Horror movies that Roger Corman made for American International Pictures, based on the works of Edgar Allen Poe, staring Vincent Price.  It was a whole lot of fun to do, and well before I’d even finished writing those things, I’d already decided I wanted to do a sort of sequel the following year.  It ...

BONUS Anime Comic: Gunbuster - page 2

The more things change, huh?

Well, at least pointing and laughing at stupid names will be timeless no matter what.  Like, even setting aside the fact you'd have to REALLY thing all foreign names sound alike to think that "Jung Freud" is a convincing name for a Russian girl, who looks at a cocky pilot character and thinks "REFERENCE TO PSYCHIATRY!" is the obvious move?

Far Out There: MadLib 5 - page 14

Now this is ABSOLUTELY my opinion of what dance clubs are like.

Weekly Anime Comic: Macross - page 27

Not really anything to add to this one, it pretty much speaks for itself.  Also, I immediately regret the fact that I probably gave some ironic memelord fanartist out there some ideas.

But yes, as promised last week, this is actually a SECOND comic from episode 26, meaning the page numbers will be out of sync with the episodes for the final stretch.  That totally won't get confusing at all.  But hey, given that the show wasn't even supposed to HAVE this many episodes, I s...