The issue with having a giant robot hand.

Had to post this because it's simply adorable.

This robot hallmark card short does bring up larger debates however. Is it plausible, or effective even, to shoot off your robotic arm like a missile?

Think of the repercussions! Now you're fighting with only one arm. Even if you survive after this point, shooting off your forearm can't be cost effective. Do you think giant robotic limbs grow on trees?

Food for thought.

And before I head out for the night (fighting off the swine flu. Not really, but I do have a craving for bacon. Oh no. Maybe I got the zombie swine flu?) I wanted to post another link to a robot related comic- We The Robots by Chris Harding. It's wonderfully drawn and touches base with robot philosophy without getting crazy ahead of itself to alienate a larger audience. Also, Mr. Harding's animation has appeared in The Animation Show. Basically, badassery.

Let our links combine: Degrees of Separation from Facebook

Lets start off with the official Titan Maximum Facebook Page. Right now it's a celebration of the premiere episode with random quotes, comments on the official after party, and proclamations of adoration for the shows roster of characters.

Here's a few comments left by fans. Sorry Andy for stealing your idea (but it's too good to pass up!)





Jason Van Horn- you suck up. Of course your review of the show is plastered on the fan page because you give it a "Five out of Five". Five what, huh? Fingers? Toes? I'm just yanking your crank though- Jason gives a good synopsis of the show, and points out a couple of high lights, such as Stupid Monkey's attention to Titan Maximum's joke pacing,

"The death of Spud, for instance, is a hilarious moment, which is nothing but him falling to his death for several seconds. Another delay joke has to do with Leon, the grease monkey that's actually a monkey, who never says anything, but rather only gives long and vacant looks."

Although I'm sure Mr. Van Horn (or is it just Mr. Horn?) had the best intentions for his write up of Titan Maximum, it is better used for product advertisement than an actual review.

Now for something completely different. No, not really.

Although Bonnie Burton didn't directly post her interview, labeling Star Wars to anything will give it fanatical attention. I would really love to know what kind of negotiations went behind getting this conversational piece together. Bonnie edits the interview to give the individuals behind Titan Maximum a relaxed tone, along with some light teasing.

A quote from the interview:

"Matt [Senreich]: We also had to one-up Clone Wars director Dave Filoni and integrate some CG into our stop-motion world a little bit. So we throw it back in Filoni's court, and let's just see if he can put some stop-motion into The Clone Wars now!"

What a goofy bunch of hooligans they are, sticking it to "the man" of sci-fi. The tone of this segment of the interview is carried throughout the entirety of the article, but you gotta know that Stupid Monkey is fiddling their thumbs in satisfaction because now every fanboy and their momma is going to at least check out the pilot episode.

And finally, the best post from the Titan Maximum Facebook:

Thank you, Mr. Crysix, for your honesty and ambition to announce your devotion to the public stage.

(Sasha was the promiscuous pilot of the black aircraft, in case you didn't know.)

Also while looking up some character information, I happened upon Dan Driscoll's, stop animator for the Titan Maximum show, professional blog. Something else is going up on my blog roll! While the website doesn't have any actual footage of the animation process, you can still check out some titan maximum clips and check out the direct link to his regular animation website. Perhaps I should look into contacting him? Why not!

Finally, a blog that hit close to home today. Rock on, Jeff Zwirek! Comic blogs FTMFW.

Titan Maximum premiere

Figures that a new show about a giant fighting robot would come out around the same time I conceive the idea for this blog. Is it a blessing or a curse? Gives me new subject matter, but the guys at Stupid Monkey Productions do such a superior job that it makes my robot comedy look stupid in comparison.

Who am I kidding? I can't hold a grudge against these guys. You just gotta catch an episode. The premise of the show is that the Titan Robot team are pitted against a former member. One of the pilots is a monkey named Leon.

The show is a good mix of the Robot Chicken satirical comedy and gory action, and something completely unheard of before from the usual producers of animated sketch comedy: an over-arching singular plot. When I first heard that the program was going to premiere I was skeptical towards the concept. Right now, I'm still a cynic and I say I need to watch another episode before deciding whether I like this format or not.

Isn't it refreshing to know that good old quality cartoon robot action is still around? Next week expect another write up, and maybe a synopsis? I don't want to write anything down yet because Adult Swim is rebroadcasting at 3:30AM eastern, and I think you should watch the pilot episode for yourself!

ps: if you do want a spoiler, my favorite quote from the show tonight was from the lead pilots younger brother, playing a table top robot roleplaying game. I paraphrase (because I'm sick): "My brother is the leader of Titan Maximum. What does your brother do? Jerk off and cry."

Shows got a bunch of potential.

Comic Update: a sample

I'm thinking about chronicling the adventures of the robot team into chapters, and this is the first page of Chapter One: Team Building. It wouldn't make sense to link to Chapter Two: 2heads2furious yet, unless I was going for a Quentin Tarantino style format or something. That might be an interesting concept though. OR I could just rip him off completely and make the robot comics kill NATSIES. One hunderd of them to be exact.

Looking back at that last comment, I'm thinking that phonetics doesn't work as well in written format. I might have to stick some parenthesis around NATSIES and hunderd later for "clarification."

The website that hosts the actual comic will be different- right now I'll probably be using webcomics nation but after a while I would enjoy switching to WordPress.

Give me some feedback- and also look forward to my write up on the first episode of Titan Maximum tonight.

Manventures: Revenge of the Lunarsaurus

And so the saga continues.

It turns out that the hot air balloon festival was cancelled due to rain and high winds. Pansies. Instead of wasting a perfectly good night, me and my hooligan friends decided we'd walk around Lake George and visit the locales. I got reprimanded by a drug dealer for not being high before entering the Silvermine “Peace” shop. You must eat two bags of cheese doodles to ride.

The night has been fun so far. Here’s a picture of me hugging the first Arizona iced tea vendor I’ve ever seen instead of a clever transition.

Back at Lunarsaurus’ house, and still having fun with my friend’s camera (which reminds me, gotta find the cord to my own camera. So damn lazy.) I decided I would take pictures of one of the most impressive collections of mechas and robots I have ever seen. The dedication of constructing and collecting these figures is unparallel. Give props where props are due to Lunarsaurus and his father. I'd give his dad a hug if he didn't hate me for prank calling him.

To end the night, the gang will be watching WALL-E. Do I even need to describe how awesome that movie is? You have to be living under a rock to not have heard of it.

If you do live under a rock I don’t mean to offend. Here’s a link to the IMDB so you can check out WALL-E for yourself. Oh why not, I’ll throw in a Google word search too so you don’t develop the bad ol’ carpel tunnel syndrome. I’m feeling mighty generous.

I guess it’s time to turn in. There will be more shenanigans tomorrow, and maybe a post of the comic!

steam punk hot air balloon robots would be awesome.

Tonight I was stolen away from the apartment by my buddies ze Grif, Lunarsaurus, and Schraver (he doesn't get an awesome nickname like Jesse and Gaby do. Oops I think I dropped the ball on their pseudonyms. Want their social security numbers too?) for some man-ventures. That's a mix of the words "man" and "adventures". You can use it if you like.

What does this have to do with the premise of this niche'd blog? Well, on the way over I contemplated what would happen if the car transformed mid-travel. One meandering thought was catastrophic.

So, tonight I will be watching the "Moon Glow" of the Lake George Balloon Festival. It's amazing to see this antiqued form of transformation in comparison to air travel today. To pull it back to the blog, maybe one day we'll look back on industrial planes with that same sense of amazement as we're preparing for our vacation on the planet Pluto in our anthropomorphic space ferry. Also, I'm predicting that Pluto will be reinstated as a planet because it's just too cool. Scientists will look back on their conference and unanimously agree that they fucked up.

"My bad guys. Not only is Pluto a planet but it is the coolest planet we have. Not just because it's so far away from the sun."

Next time someone sees me slap me in the face for making that terrible pun.

So, I'm going to wrap up this post because Schraver and I are going back out after he took a quick shower because he smells like an ass. After the event we'll be watching movies. Hopefully one will have a robot in it. Doubtful though!

About "The Head"

Every morning I would wake up to the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Lucky Charms. Did you know that show originated the verb “morph”? I didn’t care because it was common knowledge to me.

Don’t swallow bubble gum.

Storks made babies. Dinosaurs morph into giant fighting robots. If you remembered all this, then you were an awesome five year-old.

Eventually, the Power Rangers went out of fashion and I had to fill the hole in my heart with other clever marketing toy and cartoon collaborations. The collectables, the card games, and the television shows all played a large hand in my development into adulthood. Maybe the geekiest fucking adulthood ever, but still.

Another obsession of mine, going hand in hand with my nerd upbringing, was comics. I enjoyed the distributed comic books, but the syndicated strips was where it was at every Monday through Saturday, all pumping myself up until the climatic Sunday funnies.

I just made a comparison between reading comics to ejaculation. I am ashamed yet humbled by the realization.

To cut to the chase, I have a thing for web comics now and I want to publish my work online. The comic, And I’ll Form The Head, is a satire and homage to the mecha genre. This blog will be used for research and communication with the comic community so that I’ll be able to create a better comic.

The comic And I’ll Form the Head is created by me, and the posts will be a collaborative effort between me and my roommates, self-confessed giant fighting robot experts, ze Grif and Lunasaurus.

Systems

ARE GO.