I ran across some Yahoo Japan auctions for four cels from the original Transformers cartoon. They're still going on and right now they have 2 days to go. They're breathtaking and I mean that in a Bob Ross kind of way. The painted background of the one Ravage cell is a beautiful depiction of Arctic ice. I hope the animators at Toei really enjoyed their work and weren't all burnt out on cartoons. Usually talented artists start out doing laborious and unglamorous work just to pay the bills and the worst part was that individual artists weren't credited at the end of the show. I wonder if the background painter was a guy named Takumi who had dreams of painting fantastic Arctic landscapes and debuting them at a prestigious art gallery, but until then he was doing cartoon paintings for toy robot commercials. I'd prefer to believe that Takumi enjoyed working in anime and that his background paintings in the Transformers cartoon were his calling. I hope he was afforded a little bit of fame in his lifetime for his work on the show but like I said, he went uncredited and nobody knew who he was as he walked the streets of Tokyo looking for a pachinko parlor to go unwind. I imagine Takumi may have resented being uncredited a bit and one night at the pachinko parlor he may have overheard two little boys talking about cartoons and one of them liked the Transformers and said Fire in the Sky was his favorite episode because of the beautiful ice paintings. But just as Takumi was about to walk over and appreciatively give the boy some signed arctic background cels he kept from the show because the studio threw them in the garbage after they were done filming them, the other little boy said Transformers sucked and it'll never be good as Gundam. After which, alone and dejected, Takumi walked back to his pachinko machine and committed seppuku by continually banging his head against the pachinko machine until the glss broke and then he slit his throat with one especially sharp shard that was reminiscent of the beautiful arctic icicles he painted for the cartoon that day.
***UPDATE!***
The auctions are over-here's what the 'winners' paid in both yen and real money:
Ravage in the snow - 153,000 yen / $1,296 America money
Optimus Prime and a tree - 46,000 yen / $389 America money
Starscream shooting - 66,000 yen / $559 America money
Megatron and Reflector - 90,000 yen / $762 America money
4 comments:
That's pure gold, right there. Your post I mean.
I wish my stupid employer hadn't blocked blogspot, because now I can only read your blog twice a week. You post too much.
I think it's funny when I hear people say I post a lot. Compared to blogging rockstars like David Willis and Nala I really don't post at all. I try to do one a day Monday through Friday, if I think I have a funny thought. Honestly each time I write I think it's the last time because I'm sure I've run out of ideas. It's nice to know you guys are out there and I appreciate everyone taking the time to write comments.
I feel for Takumi. I wish I could have been there to save him and receive all his cells as a thank you so I could go to Michaels, get them framed, and marvel at them every day. Why, Takumi? WHY???
And I don't think you post too much. Not enough, I say. I need more evil king macrocranios in my life.
Blogging rockstar?
Actually, it is just an indication that I have too much free time on my hands at work.
If they were to ever ban my site my blogging would drop significantly.
Though, at any given time I have several entries in the queue, usually the photo stuff.
Your stuff is quality though. Mine is usually random train of thought commentary, some of which I don't given even heartfelt consideration to.
I should just space the photo entries out better instead of the days I post like 10 entries of photos.
That way it would be a bit more consistent.
With that said, the entries of the Evil King are often the ones I look forward to most of all in a week.
While I may post quantity you are the winner unsurpassed for quality.
And as Lagrange Street Polish Village Festival Kielbasa King 1987 I now christen thee... South Dakota's Most Beloved Transformers Blogger!
Feel free to include that on your business cards. Oh, and I expect you to write in in the snow with pee the next time you are in Antarctica! :-)
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