Cartoons

We meant to post this yesterday but somehow it got lost in the shuffle. This fall Robot Chicken — the toy-motion animation satire that uses lookalikes of your favorite childhood toys to enact grisly jokes — is doing an entire 15-minute episode devoted to DC comics. Recently, Geoff Johns, a past contributor to the show, linked to the trailer — which is NSFW, we might add. Robot Chicken is animated in the super bad style, and it's ugly all the way, but with its laser-cutting, bloody wrist stumps and cock ring humor, this is one of the most disturbing things we've ever seen. And to think that DC used to burn books just because it was suggested that Superman might drink a beer.

It's Mary Blair's birthday and if Google can celebrate her, so can we. And so should we all. As an animator and designer, Blair is among the most influential artistic figures of the mid-century era, an icon and the creator of some of the loveliest art you'll ever see.

French cartoonist Joann Sfar is making the interview rounds this week to promote his directing debut: GAINSBOURG: A HEROIC LIFE, a French language film which has already won two Cesar awards (the French Oscar), including best debut film. With a lyrical portrait of the skinny pants icon of a zillion emo hipsters, this film should quickly become a classic from Williamsburg to Portlandia. Sfar was previously know here for his vibrant, humanist comics, like The Rabbi's Cat and Little Vampire, but like his fellow L"Association alums Marjane Satrapi and Riad Sattouf, he's made the jump to film direction with distinction.

Anyone in the LA area who is bummed over the postponed Wizard World LA show scheduled for September 24-25 should be aware that Power-Con is still on for those dates. This small two-day fan show is focused on Thundercats, He-Man and She-Ra. It's a small show but sounds like a swell afternoon if you're into 80 animation. More info:

An oddball story that has only been seen on comics sites because it contains the word "cartoonist" or "cartoon" and keeps showing up on everyone's google news dump, is still fairly incredible in its own right. However to really get all the excitement you probably need to live in Renton, WA., a quiet Seattle suburb that was rocked by a scandal involving cartoon mockery of the police department.

Mostly the work of Tom Kenny (Spongebob), Andy Suriano (Clone Wars) and Stephen DeStefano (Venture Bros.), the PLASTIC MAN cartoon pilot was created in 2006 for Cartoon Network but didn't get picked up, alas. It seems to have been much inspired by Kyle Baker's take on the character. And it turns out that more is on the way!

We missed the actual anniversary, but Cartoon Brew noted that 20 years ago yesterday -- August 11, 1991 marked the debut of the Nicktoons programming block, including Ren & Stimpy, perhaps the most influential cartoon of the last quarter century. Early episodes featured John K's eccentric genius unleashed and ushered in an age of more personal, biting animation -- and for a little while Happy Happy Joy Joy, Muddy Mudskipper and Log were household names, as hipsters called one another "you eediot!" and were urged not to qhiz on the electric fence. We wanted to embed this clip from "Ren's Toothache," the most horrible cartoon ever made, but a still will have to do.

Despite the awful, whitewashed M. Night Shyamalan movie, AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER retains its passionate fanbase, and news of a sequel, THE LEGEND OF KORRA, a 26-episode miniseries, has had hearts a fluttering for some time. The trailer was released at Comic-Con, and the panel had lots of news about the show, which is slated to air next year.

The Bruce Timm-designed superhero character The Flaming C -- aka Conan O'Brien -- has proven to have legs, probably because of that sexy fishnetssock garters combo he wears. Conan was a big topic at the big show, with an off-site art gallery, and a much hyped special appearance. Here's the trailer that made a guest appearance at the animated Green Lantern cartoon. While we'd totally watch a show that looked like this, maybe 73 is just long enough.

Well, the second full day of Comic-Con is coming to an end, and there's been lots of amazing stuff announced! I've diligently sat deep in Stately Beat Manor, watching the news feeds, so you don't have to! Read on!

A lengthy trailer for The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn has finally been released that actually shows faces and things. As you may recall, this film is a collaboration between Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson and has been fashioned using mocap technology -- and will be presented in 3D PLUSSES: Obviously a very smart lietrate script by Steve Moffat (Doctor Who), Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim) and Joe Cornish (many smart British things.) It's not too often you watch a trailer for an action movie and think "Wow, that is a well written script!" MINUSES: Jeepers did they shoot this in some kind of overcranked mode? It is so ssslllloooowwww. Everyone moves in poetic Malick-cam motion.

Anina Bennett wrote to share the cover to FUTURAMA #57, a steampunk story which includes a mashup of acerbic robot Bender with historical chameleon robot Boilerplate (created by Paul Guinan and Bennett) called...Benderplate. It had to happen.