Tuesday, July 19, 2011

THE ORIGINAL DON OF CYBERTRON!



The 31st seal of the Roboplastic Apocalypse KRAKKKS apart like the front of your truck as special guest Don Perlin takes you for a spin through the Car Wash of Doom! Mr. Perlin's career as a writer, penciller, inker and cover artist spans so much comic book history you'd need a space bridge to get through all of it! Listen in strange suspense as I tell uncanny tales of my journey to Ancient City Con 2011 to meet a living legend of comics and ask him about his days as the regular penciller on Marvel's Transformers comic from late 1985 through 1987. Did being the man drawing the greatest toy robot comic of all time change his life profoundly (and if not, did it at least bag him a cool robot collection)? Did he know Stan Lee was a big fan of Battlechargers? And where can I get some original pages from Buster Witwicky and the Car Wash of Doom? Find out all that and more in this DECEPTICON GRAFFITI CAR WASH TIME MACHINE edition of the Podcastalypse!


Or download it directly

Transformers #25 pg 8
Transformers #31 pg 18
These are just the two pieces I bought. You can see more original Transformer art Mr. Perlin took to the show at my Facebook album of Ancient City Con pictures.


DRAW!-With weapons like this, Stormtroopers, cowboys, aliens, Jedis, robots and blank paper all feared Don Perlin at Ancient City Con. Nobody pointed a blaster, lightsaber or Pokeball at him and got away with it. I think some Stormtroopers might have peed themselves.

SHOOTING STAR!

Of course huge thanks goes out to Mr. Perlin and Ancient City Con for making all this possible. You can find Mr. Perlin on Facebook and check out his gallery at ComicArtFans. He's still taking commissions and selling original Transformers comic art so drop him a line at DPerlin@Bellsouth.net to score some great art (Transformer or otherwise) or just to say hi.

SHOW NOTES OF THE PODCASTALYPSE


  • Ancient City Con!
  • A brief overview of Don Perlin's career
  • Don Perlin's entry at ComicBookDB.com
  • Don Perlin's run on Transformers
  • The best a man can hope for
  • Bob Budiansky is my Stan Lee
  • MegaCon 2011 "The Art of the Cover" panel at the SupermanFan podcast
  • Interview with Don Perlin
  • Starting on Transformers after leaving Defenders
  • Staying as a penciler on books for the long haul
  • How to start an instant Transformer collection
  • The limitations of working from Sunbow model sheets
  • Still taking out the garbage
  • The Stan Lee Transformer fan letter
  • The difficulties of conveying emotion when your characters all wear facemasks
  • Designing Scrounge, Straxus and Spanner
  • The huge Transformer commission I mentioned in the interview
  • Don Perlin's page at Comic Art Fans
  • Working with inker M. Hands
  • Reluctance of artists to work on toy books
  • Turning down G.I. Joe and regretting it
  • Still doing commissions and selling original art
  • Post interview thoughts
  • Buying original Transformer art
  • Scrounge's significance in my life
  • Grimlock's crown and other stories I didn't catch on tape
  • Not getting issue 13 signed
  • Living with post-convention wouldas and shouldas
  • The Masterpiece Grimlock Transformer toy that is a tribute to Don Perlin
  • Don't rocket punch your friends!

(P.S. During the interview I mentioned Bob Budiansky told of how Stan Lee once sent a fan letter complimenting a Transformers book Mr. Perlin worked on, specifically issue #23, "Decepticon Graffitti". You can read this story in interviews Mr. Budiansky has done at AlteredStatesMag.com and also at the Transmasters UK's geocities page. Mr. Budiansky has also mentioned that the Perlin-era Space Bridge story arc from issues 17 and 18 of Transformers is one of his favorites from the time he wrote Transformers.)

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Two modes at once wasn't exactly what we were going for



Okay so we've got Super GoBot CyKill, vehicle Voltron and Bumblelion the Wuzzle in this Spencer ad from September 15, 1985. It's kind of a strange combination but weigh what they all have in common versus what makes them different. It's actually pretty deep. I wonder if Spencer was purposely choosing toys that were in their theme of being alternative and underground. If you think about it, Vehicle Voltron wasn't as popular as Lion Voltron, GoBots were running a close second in popularity to Transformers and throwing a Wuzzle in there just makes me think this was Spencer's way of making some complicated metaphor about counterculture dualism and what it means to be two things in one. Or maybe the artist just thought this would be a great setup to a "3 guys walk into a bar" joke.

Thursday, July 07, 2011

The Robotastic SuperConocalypse 2011!



The thirtieth seal of the Roboplastic Apocalypse KRA-KOOMS apart like an iPod being eaten by a talking robot Tyrannosaurus in this Florida Supercon 2011 edition of the Podcastalypse! Thrill to the adventures of the Nostrodomatron as I spend the entire convention wandering around talking to myself about toy robots and pictures of toy robots. Then as if that weren't mind-blowing enough, I talk with special guests Ken Lashley and Gregg Berger, two men who know a lot about cartoons of toy robots! That's pretty much the toy robot subject matter trifecta right there. It's all here and more in this "TRANS-TECHNOLOGICAL CYBERTRONIANS" IS HARDER TO SAY THAN IT LOOKS edition of the podcastalypse!


Or download it directly

HAY GUYS CHECK OUT my Facebook gallery of Supercon 2011 pictures.



Ken Lashley is the man behind Draxhall Jump, which is the company most famous for originating the concepts and designs of the Transformers Transtech line. He's been involved behind the scenes with Hasbro on a number of franchises including Star Wars, G.I Joe and Transformers for over a decade.



Gregg Berger is of course a renowned professional voice actor famous for many roles including The Transformers' Grimlock the Dinobot. I asked him a few questions about the work he did voicing super robot pilot Tommy Davis in Tranzor-Z, the US released English dub of the legendary Japanese anime Mazinger-Z.



Darth Vader is a fallen Jedi who punched his pregnant wife to death but still knows how to party at Supercon!

SHOW NOTES OF THE PODCASTALYPSE

  • My job as a roboplastilogical archaeologist at Supercon 2011
  • My generation's indebtedness to José Delbo
  • Juan Antonio Fontanez met my Jetfire
  • Luis Diaz drawing me a Mazinger
  • Fending off armageddon in your spare time
  • My golden questional nuggets of wisdom at Gregg Berger's panel
  • Ken Lashley is living the dream
  • Draxhall Jump's work on Transformers Transtech
  • Interview with concept artist Ken Lashley of Draxhall Jump
  • Ken's design work on Beast Machines
  • Ken's love of the robot genre
  • Love is owning and watching the same cartoons on different formats
  • Design process of action figures as product vs as show characters
  • Being immortalized in plastic as the G.I. Joe figure Burnout
  • How much of this Armada toyline poster do you remember?
  • How high end concept work works
  • Drawing the brunt of concept work on Transtech
  • The connection between Transtech designs and those in the new Transformer movies
  • Ken's early concept work on the Driller.
  • Doing tons of concept work from Transformers boardgames to Star Wars Transformers blister pack pencil art and other package illustration
  • Who keeps the pencils?
  • The Star Wars Celebration 5 Ken Lashley "Galactic Bad Boys" print
  • Working 15 careers at once
  • Post Ken Lashley thoughts
  • Somebody bought the $75 AT-AT!
  • Scoring me an Exo-Squad transforming E-Frame
  • The train robot formerly known as Midnight Express
  • Tranzor-Z break
  • Interview with Gregg Berger
  • The degree of awareness Gregg had of Tranzor-Z/Mazinger fandom
  • Casting directors filling roles based on actors' talent versus their celebrity
  • Exploring the allure of giant robot cartoons
  • Bumping into everybody from everything
  • Gregg's CD Think Globally...Act Locally
  • FamousFoneFriends.com
  • Gregg on Facebook
  • Gregg at Auto Assembly 2011
  • Don't Rocket Punch your friends!

Tuesday, July 05, 2011

DAIMOS II - DAI MOSER

Hey check out my new powerwasher. I named him Battle King Powerwasher Daimos. Also check out this Toys R Us ad from December 17, 1980. The Jumbo Daimos for only $6.90! Ouch.

Sunday, July 03, 2011

I'VE DIED AND GONE TO DEATH STAR!



I'm uploading pictures of this weekend's events at Florida Supercon 2011 over on my Facebook page.
 

Minibox 3 Column Blogger Template by James William at 2600 Degrees

Evil King Macrocranios was voted king by the evil peoples of the Kingdom of Macrocrania. They listen to Iron Maiden all day and try to take pictures of ghosts with their webcams.