The Gotham City Times

Years ago, the producers and studios behind A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, Minority Report, Memento and the X-men movies made expert use of the internet as a promotional tool, launching viral websites that were created to appear as if they existed within the worlds of the films themselves. A.I.'s many websites and blogs told additional stories of people and artificial people living their lives far outside the plot of the film. Memento's web presence focused on the evidence of a string of murders and the psychological profile of one Leonard Shelby, the brain damaged survivor of an assault that may never have happened. Minority Report encouraged us to vote to support the future crime project, and the X-men sites drew battle lines between the mutants and the non-mutants that fear and loathe them. These websites are almost as entertaining as the films they promote, and in the case of A.I., even more so.

Now there are a number of viral sites that have been set up to promote the next Batman movie "The Dark Knight", including the Joker's puzzle site Why So Serious?, Harvey Dent's official campaign site, a site collecting photos of fans in Joker drag, Rory's Death Kiss (?), the Gotham Election Board site, and the Gotham City Clerk's Office site. There might even be some other ones that I've missed.

The most interesting to me, however, is this humble site for the Gotham Times newspaper. This site gives us just four pages, (you can zoom in on them to read the text) but it manages to effectively chronicle the decline of a once great American city: corruption in the police department, a weak city government unable to turn the tide, the lingering effects of the fear gas attack by the Scarecrow, uncontrolled gang violence and murder, and a telling harbinger of things to come, disturbing sightings of gangs of young creeps dressed as clowns. This is a city on the edge.

If only there were someone with the guts, cash and the right blend of violent psychosis and a Messiah complex to save them.

Some updates:
The Gotham City Major Crimes Unit website.
The Clown Travel Agency
Acme Security Systems

The Joker defaced the Gotham City Times on The Ha Ha Ha Times site.

Keith Olbermann Takes Hillary and Company To The Woodshed

Some of her advisers, aided and abetted by Geraldine Ferraro, are seemingly torpedoing Hillary Clinton's already faltering run at the White House. Keith Olbermann- the brilliant Keith Olbermann- dissects the new attack dog campaign style Hillary and Co. are crafting as "...campaigning as if Barack Obama were the Democrat and you were the Republican". The last couple of weeks has convinced me that the Clinton group is getting desperate, and showing their true colors.

Ferraro for her part needs to be put in a home for the rabid, since the Dems have no need for a Democrat Anne Coulter.



Click the box to start the video.

Free Horton!

Just based on the image on the right, I'd say a better title might have been "Horton Cops A 'Tude!" I'll never understand the need animation producers and executives have for making characters snarky and cocky. Most of the characters in the Horton trailer exhibit this trait at least once, some hit only this one flat note. Notice the cocked eyebrow and compare it to Seuss' childlike, innocent expression on the cover of the source material. There is almost no resemblance.

With the release of Blue Sky's "Horton Hears A Who" imminent, perhaps you'd like to see a classic Looney Tunes Horton cartoon written by Dr. Seuss and directed by classic cartoon genius Bob Clampett.

This is a different Horton story called "Horton Hatches The Egg". It's a weird mashup of the Seuss and Looney styles, and while it is kind of fun, it's more historically relevant that hysterically entertaining. I love the little guy from the egg at the end, though.



This cartoon was found linked in one of the comments on Cartoon Brew, a website that you should be checking out regularly if you've made it through this post so far.


UPDATE: I actually saw this movie today (Thanks, Daryle!) and I was really pleasantly surprised. The kids in the crowd loved it and I laughed quite a bit. Funny, cute and not that far afield of what Seuss put across in the book. It was a little "modern" at times, and it expanded on the original story a lot, but then again we're talking about a picture book here. Unless you're making a twenty minute movie you've got to make some story from scratch.

There were minuses. The bad points come to us mostly in the form of Seth Roegen, who slouches through his vocal performance as the voice of Morton the Mouse, and an under-inspired Carol Burnett providing the voice of the Kangaroo. A very last minute song and dance number set to "I Can Fight This Feeling Anymore"- no kidding- threatens to leave a bad taste in your mouth, but it just can't spoil this genuine, fun, sweet, trillion-dollar movie for kids.

Lastly, If you choose to see Horton yourself: there is a short 2-D animation sequence during the first half that looks like a fully animated, perfect imitation of Dr. Seuss' drawing style. That is really beautiful, so keep your eyes peeled for it.

Look At Me Like A Person!

One of the best scenes from the flawed but hilarious movie "Clifford", starring Charles Grodin and Martin Short as his weird, malevolent ten year old nephew. This is one of those movies that unfortunately adds up to less than the sum of its parts, but there are brilliant little moments here to be sure.

Pop This Book! The Pop-Up Sketchbook of Jim Woodring

This image was taken from Jim's blog without his permission. It's © Jim Woodring 2008, of course.

On Jim Woodring's blog you'll find a short video of the man opening one of his pop-up sketchbook creations. Not this one, another. He does these all the time now, and they're all fascinating.

Dave Stevens Dies at 52

One of the many, many "good girl" cover drawings Stevens published in the '80s and '90s.

This one was a shock. Dave Stevens, creator of the Rocketeer, has died at only 52 years of age. My God that is young. This is disgustingly sad.

The Rocketeer movie produced by Disney might have underwhelmed, but Dave's enthusiastically obsessive line work never disappointed. Prints, posters, tee shirts, statues, lunchboxes and other merchandise based on his art made Dave Stevens a real brand name commodity in the eighties and beyond.

If you know who Betty Page is, you have Dave Stevens to thank for it for the most part. Dave cast "Betty" as "Betty" in his Rocketeer comic, started talking her up to interviewers and publishers, and in no time at all a whole new generation was exposed to Ms. Page, and she to them.

Here's an obituary from someone who actually knew him, Mark Evanier, and here is Dave's wikipedia page. Lastly, here is Dave's home on the web, Dave Stevens dot com, last updated in 2006.

Tommy, Veteran of Foreign Vets

In the car, on the way home.

I had to take the Commish in for a checkup today, and he panted and howled for the entire twenty minute drive to the vet's office. It wasn't until I took him out of the pet carrier that he began to settle down and behave like the calm, wise little owl he's starting to become. Surprisingly, he somehow weighed in at thirteen pounds! Most of that must be fur.

We started up with a new vet, recommended by longtime pal Jenniferda the Nerda. When the assistant came in to take his temperature, he didn't flinch at all. It was almost disconcerting. She even commented on his passive acceptance of the thermometer. I felt compelled to respond myself. I almost said, "Well, it looks like all that time we spent practicing this with the ball point pen paid off!"

But instead I said nothing.

Milt Kahl Hands

I love these. They've been posted around the internet before, but I've noticed that a lot of those sites don't have them available anymore, so I'm going to keep them up here for no other reason than I think they're beautiful and should always be accessible on the web. There's no telling who it was that originally posted them, but it wasn't me. Thank you to whoever this anonymous hero might have been.

Milt Kahl was one of Disney's most popular and most famous animators. These hands are from The Sword in the Stone, and I'm throwing in an incredible model sheet by Milt for Peter Pan for good measure. I don't think you could find better drawing anywhere.

Did you know?
Peter Pan's royalties were willed by the J.M.Barrie estate to fund the Great Ormond Street hospital for children in London, but now that the work has entered the public domain, Disney doesn't feel obligated to keep up the payments. The hospital filed suit for their due in fall of 2004. Stay classy, Disney! See here, here, and here,

A Whole New Low- An Ad For A Trailer For The Hulk

God must surely hate us. An ad for the premiere of a teaser trailer for a movie not to be released for months.

The Lives of Others

Here are a few links I'm sure you'll enjoy. There is a theme in these links- all of which will be added to the recommended links section at some point this week.

Passive Aggressive Notes - as you might guess from its name, this site collects snotty, passive-aggressive notes; notes left by irritable roomies, annoyed co-workers and pissy strangers. Very funny!
Found Magazine- cataloging found objects and photos sent in by readers of Found Magazine. Found exists as an RL magazine, a trade paperback collection and an active, content driven website, and it is highly recommended for cheap thrills and amusement.
Overheard in New York- the original and still the best. This site has spawned many spinoffs, ripoffs and imitators, but OINY just cannot be topped for shocking true life quotes and conversations from the Big Bullseye. Warning: This is an EXTREMELY addictive website to explore. A real time sucker.
Overheard in the Office- nearly as good as the original. An excellent companion for fans of "The Office", or its predecessor, "The Office". Or their predecessor, "Office Space".
The Leila Texts- A bug in Verizon's text message software sends at least one misdirected text message a day to Leila, and she posts them on her blog, with responses.