That Gundam In Tokyo Is Only The Beginning of The Giant Robot Craze

Wow have I wasted a lot of time on this:


So, anyone who reads Linko! weekly will know I've been semi-following the story of the massive robot that conquered the man-made Odaiba Island in Tokyo this summer. I say "semi-following" because really I've just been confusingly posting pictures of the thing sent to me by friends completely devoid of explanation or context. I'm not sure what this exactly says about me and loose collection of nerd reporter, but it can't be good that almost no one writing in the American comics blogosphere seemed to have much of a clue what was going on with this giant otaku installation beyond ging, "Wow! That's neat! Wait...they took it down already?"

So last week, I went google fishing to find out how much info was actually out there for an American audience to dig into this thing. Here's what I gots:


Announced sometime around March, the Gundam earned it's three-month stint of kind of lighting up and blowing a bunch of steam at random intervals in celebration of three factors: the 30th Anniversary of "Mobile Suit Gundam" (first anime of the whole Gundam franchise), the environmentally-driven Green Tokyo Project and, tangentially, Tokyo's bid for the 2016 Olympics (and I know I've been making a lot of jokes about that, but I'm seriously wondering how a temporary installation was supposed to impress the IOC. Did they promise to rebuild duder if they got the games?). Early word of the project must not have hit so hard in America as the earliest mention of the whole shebang I found was on the French Gizmodo where I nabbed the above CGI model from, but soon things started popping up in English

There's a great general write up on the project here, though it's really just a translation of a Japanese newspaper article, and the LA Times travel blog posted a basic fact-sheet on the project and how to get there. These are nice and all, however news of the event rarely popped up on nerd-centric sites. The one major (and probably obvious) exception was the Anime News Network who had all the latest news that for some reason never got widely reposted amongst American comics types, including some great coverage of the robot's unveiling complete with videos I couldn't entirely understand:


A while ago, I got into it with some folks on a comment thread at The Beat about whether or not American comics journalists were any good at covering manga and other Japanese pop culture crazes. I said then and still think now that we do a pretty shitty job of noting the spaces where our interests crossover with those of Japanophiles and teenagers who really dig Naruto and what not. ANN is doubtlessly the site covering this stuff better than anyone out there, and I'll take some shit outright for admitting that I barely check their coverage of anything because I don't connect to/don't understand so much of it. If there's a blog that aggregates more of the manga news and the bigger geek cultural stuff that comes out of sites like ANN for folks like me, I'd love to hear about it in the comments.

Anyway, ANN had plenty of other fun bits on what Sunrise did across the summer to draw more attention to the 59-foot fucking robot they erected in a major city, including an auction to have one's photo taken from the 'bot's shoulder and the search for the perfect couple to be wed at the statue's feet.

God, I wish I would have heard more about this as it was going on. By far, the absolute best thing I found online was this photoset and too brief news report on the 30-something couple who won the privilege of finally making their three-children relationship legal at the statue's feet while the groom announced, "I swear my everlasting love to Gundam in front of Gundam." You just can't make this shit up!

I'm sure plenty of folks in America see the fact that the Gundam's already been disassembled as a missed opportunity, but ultimately we may be better off not having it around. See, despite it's status as a promoter of a Green Tokyo, the statue's presence seemed to really fuck up the nature 'round Odaiba Island. Plus, there are plenty of ways to live the magic of real life giant robots to this day as the craze seems to just be starting!


Example 1: Baby Gundams!

For anyone super bummed about missing out on the Gundam specifically because they love Gundam and not just giant robots, the owners of the property have plenty of other impressive bits scattered throughout Japan including the above Gundam chibi which stands outside Bandai's headquarters and several "memorial" statues in Toyko at anime museums and the Sunrise animation studios. If that isn't enough, you'll have to be content looking over photosets of the big guy or watching this crazy time-lapse video on a repeated loop.


Example 2: The Kobe Project!

My personal pic for the next excitement-worthy Japanese robot statue is the Kobe Project – the currently underway project to erect a giant version of Tetsujin 28. I think it opens in October (if this blog's info is still accurate), although I can't tell if it's temporary or permanent. In any event, read more about it with photos here and here.


Example 3: The Robot Taekwon V Amusement Park!

As you can see, this one's still in the development and design stages, but it appears that South Korea isn't going to take their neighbor's giant robot construction sitting down. Plans are underway for a whole amusement park centered around that country's Robot Taekwon V franchise (what do they call animated films in Korea? Is it still anime, or do they have a different name like manwha?). Anyway, you can read what little I've found about this project over here.


Example 4: All Robots Are Bigger In Texas!

For anyone who won't be able to afford a trip to Asia this year to celebrate giant roboticism in immobile statue form, the good ol' U. S. of A. has got you covered with Dallas' The Traveling Man installation. Sure, it's not based on a cartoon or anything, but it looks pretty neat. Plus, I bet if this trend continues, we'll see a big ass Iron Man or Stormtrooper in Hollywood by 2011.

Goodbye, Grandma

Below is a picture of my grandmother, Joan, and my grandfather, Larry, from their wedding day.
Late last night, my grandma passed away peacefully in her sleep, 17 years to the day after she lost her husband. She lived a long, wonderful, fulfilled life and this was not something unexpected, so please understand this is not me asking for pity or even condolences (in fact, I debated even posting this because I don't want it to be misinterpreted as that, but I figured we've got a nuanced audience here at the CKT).

Rather, my grandmother was always a person who loved the field of communication (she worked for the Boston Globe for many years) and enjoyed reaching out to people. I truly believe were my grandma still in her prime, she would have one killer blog. So as a way of celebrating her life and saying goodbye in my own way, I thought I'd post this picture and a few words about it, not really to work through any grief, but because I know she'd get a kick out of it.

Love you, Grandma.

The "downside" of "making it" in comics

I should warn and caution that what I'm going to semi-complain about here is likely to get an eyeroll from many of you, and not an undeserved one at that.

So I'm in Mystic, Connecticut for the weekend staying at Megan's parents' lovely home. As an added bonus, Mystic is only a stone's throw away from New London, where I went to college. I actually took the train here last night and thus got a nice whiff of nostalgia as I stepped out of the station and briefly glimpsed some of my old haunts. Specifically, I spotted my college comic book store, Sarge's Comics, and made a mental note that I had not been there in a couple years now.

Lo and behold, Megan and her mom took a trip to the site of our upcoming wedding today, leaving me alone at their house (her dad mysteriously disappeared) and looking for stuff to do. I figured why not borrow Megan's car and take the 10 minute trip down I-95 to Sarge's.

I once again rode the nostalgia wave into New London and nearly OD'ed on it once I stepped foot within Sarge's, which despite having shuffled some sections around and hired some new people out front still had that old familiarity of the place I redsicovered my love for comics in (and remains for my money the biggest, best, most extensive comic shop I've ever seen).

20 minutes of browsing later, I walked out empty-handed. And I gott be honest, folks: that bummed me out a little.

During those 20 minutes, I saw a lot of comics, trades and toys I thought about buying, but I didn't. To be fair, part of that was due to what I like to think is my growing maturity in a rough economy where I'm doing my best to limit my purchases, but a bigger part was there was not a single item I saw where I couldn't justify not getting it with "I can get this for free" or "I can borrow this from one of my comics-inclined friends."

Don't get me wrong, I still spend a lot of money on new comics each week (particularly for somebody who has that aforementioned access to free goods), but I've been noticing more and more as I hit up conventions and shops I don't get that frenzy for back issues or holy grails anymore.

Certainly this isn't really a bad situation to be in by any stretch of the imagination; even more than the fact that I can get comics by the busload for free by virtue of my career choice and good fortune, I dig that the amount of people I hang out with who actually have robust collections I can pilfer has increased to this point as it means I not only have access to that material, but friends with whom to discuss it.

(As an aside, I just remembered I should also mention that a vast chunk of stuff I didn't buy today consisted of trades I got to read while I was at Wizard, which is a fairly significant x-factor I didn't really figure into this rant)

Still, for the busload of stuff on the plus side, I definitely do miss that feeling of "Holy shit, there is sooooo much stuff here" accompanied by the knowledge I'd be unearthing some hidden gem and bringing it back to my dorm room (wow, that sounded both a little dirty and a little sad) I used to get when I walked into Sarge's. I gotta say I do admire Rickey in that if you read any of his con reports, you know that he still manages to find about eight billion cool little things to buy every time he goes to a show.

The moral of the story is this: of the countless awesome reasons you could have for getting into comics professionally, getting free stuff shouldn't be one of them.*

*I'm kidding; of course it should be.

Linko! XXIII

* So every nerd blogger in America and their sister put up links to photographer Win McNamee's pics of President Obama hashing shit out on the White House lawn with a lightsaber this week, but with rare exception, most didn't point out WHY the president had the more elegant weapon on hand. As the Huffington Post points out, the event was to promote Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympics. Don't you know what this means, y'all? It means that Tokyo's stupid temporary Gundam can suck it! Our president's a fucking Jedi FOREVER!!! And while it will be the First Lady who will travel to Coppenhagen on October 2nd to convince the Trade Federation International Olympic Committee that Chi-Town is the place for the games, I'm hoping that the Commander-in-Chief will make an appearance via blue hologram.

* Hey, speaking of that Gundam...I spent like 6 hours last weekend looking up links about its rise and fall. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to post them this week as it's been crazy 'round here and Ben's been on an awesome run of truly sick CKT posts. Look for Gundam news on Sunday, but in the meantime check Ben's thoughts on The Suicide Squad, Exiles and the Teen Titans character named after his lady.

* Jeff Katz posted this link of Detroit baseball announcer and legend Ernie Harwell saying goodbye to the fans at Comerica Park after it was announced he has incurable cancer at 92. I couldn't help but cry watching the thing. Not only is Harwell's voice something that's permanently attached to my brain in the best way, always working its way through the static and delivering the play-by-play in a subtle, shaky baritone. I mostly listened to Tigers games from the back seat of my grandma's car, driving around Flint after most school days. Grandma lived with us from when I was about ten right up until we lost her last year to cancer at 92. I miss her every day.

* On a lighter note Link: Ryan Penagos pointed me towards the hidden Triforce in the one dollar bill. That reminds me, if you're even in Manhattan in Union Square, stand with your back to the Shoe Carnival and look skyward. It's wicked. Also: don't you think Nintendo would sue over this? (Via)


* Hey...did you guys watch "Community" last night? It was funny! And I didn't realize until hours before it went on that the show was created by former comics scribe and Rob Schrab associate Dan Harmon. Thanks to my buddy Zach Oat for interviewing both Harmon and star Joel McHale about the show and about comics.

If you never read my super nerdy interviews with Schrab from back in the Wizard days, you should know that the Scud: The Disposable Assassin books they put together were quite possibly THE favorite series of Middle School Kiel's existence. I'm super psyched to see them both doing so well, getting nominated for an Emmy for writing the Oscar ceremony this year and having some great shit on TV at long last (Schrab writes, produces and directs a big chunk of "The Sarah Silverman Program"). You should check out their work when you get a chance. They're funny, as evidenced by this photo Rob had on Twitter last week:

* Local Cartoonist Profile on Chris Onstad.

* Semi-political Link #1: this Ghost Fleet is fucked up. (Via everyone, but I think it started with Andy Diggle on Twitter)

* Semi-political Link #2: The Tea Partiers have no sense of humor. (Via Mark Waid)

* Hey, they're unleashing a Green Day musical next? Wow. It does star John Gallagher Jr., who I met once on a bus outside of New Orleans with Gob Bluth. He was a solid dude.

* Finally, I don't link to a lot of the stuff I find on Tumblr, particularly the really cool original superhero pinups the guy who runs the Comic Books! account finds on Deviant Art and reposts because there's just too many of them, but this week there were two I really liked. Namely:

This classic Cyclops piece by some dude called xShaunx. Even growing up with the '90s Jim Lee Cyclops, I still recognize that this costume design is still the best Scott Summers has ever had. And...

This bad to the bone Rocketeer by Robbi Rodriguez. I love the Rocketeer, but few people who've drawn him for fun have had as nice results as Robbi, who most people probably know from his Oni Press work on Maintenance, although the first time I remember seeing his work was on this Vertigo book called Codename: Knockout, which looked like a dumb ass titty book, but I got a few issues as a DC intern and thought it was pretty clever and fun. Does anyone else remember that?

Random Reviews: The Red Circle parts 3 & 4

[Editor's Note: As always, the nowhere near semi-regular feature known as "Random Reviews" should not be considered any of the following things: The opinion of anyone who works at DC or Marvel. Brief. Smart. Entertaining. Insightful. Spoiler-free. Or vaguely resembling something worth your time unless you're madly in love with Archie superheroes like I inexplicably am. - KP]

The Red Circle: The Web #1
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Penciled by Roger Robinson
Inked by Hilary Barta

For anyone who didn't play along with my reviews of the first two entries in DC's Red Circle launch – a series of four semi-connected one-shots meant to introduce Archie's Mighty Crusaders heroes into the DCU under the pen of writer J. Michael Straczynski – the basic gist of that post was this: I thought the Hangman story was pretty bland, and I thought the Inferno story was a total mess. Contributing to my lack of enjoyment was JMS' bare bones "super story" that was supposed to connect the books in some sense but ultimately explained very little within the story about how the characters are connected, what the so-called Red Circle is or even why the latter character exists or does anything. So: bad start.

Still, I remained undaunted from my goal of keeping up with new comics featuring these characters I for some reason really dig and soldiered on into the final two issues of the introductory series, which coincidentally starred two characters that at face value seem to have a WAY better chance of drawing some attention in the superhero-crazy direct market by dint of having a more traditional heroic design and outlook (in the case of the Web) and having a little bit of actual recognizability with the more casual readers who can still be called fanboys (in the case of the Shield). Well, after reading JMS' take on those two guys, I'm happy to report (well...maybe "happy" isn't the best word. Let's say I'm relieved to report) that things got a little better.

The Secret Origin of Miss Martian

I know that some of you are aware of this fact, but for those who don't know perhaps the coolest bit of comic book trivia about my life, there is indeed a Teen Titan named after my fiancee.

In 2006 after attending Wizard World Los Angles, Megan (my aforementioned intended), her friend Ashleigh and myself remained in the City of Angels for a couple more days on vacation. One night, we met up with Geoff Johns for an evening of sushi and Sapporo (the latter for me and Geoff) on him (he makes Hollywood money and I was 24, folks, no shame on my part). After Geoff and I overcame our disappointment over the fact that they never served us the Superman Roll we ordered, he told us a bit about his upcoming plans for Teen Titans, Megan's favorite comic (really the only one she read) at the time. Geoff mentioned that he was trying to come up with new characters for both the One Year Later roster and for what eventually became Titans West, and that he wanted to do more legacy characters for heroes and villains who didn't actually have any yet.

Perhaps it was the Japanese beer that fueled Geoff and my creativity as we noted that Ashleigh's last name was "Catsos" and thus there should really be a Catgirl (she ended up being cutting room floor material), but I've got to give full credit to him for realizing if you put Megan's first name and my last name together (as we're planning to do in under a month and a half), you got an alliterative identity in the classic tradition of Clark Kent, Peter Parker, John Jones, Matt Murdock, etc. Not only that, Geoff already had a character in mind who was going to have a double-M name to begin with.

And that's how Miss Martian got her civilian identity of Megan Morse (or M'gann M'orzz if you're from Mars).

Truthfully, we weren't sure if Geoff would remember his promise from that dinner, even though he had already put Megan in one issue of JSA the year before as an Air Force pilot who gets hit on by Hal Jordan (the best I did was score a cameo as a zombie who gets decapitated by one of Mr. Terrific's T-Spheres in an earlier JSA). Lo and behold though, Teen Titans #37 rolled around and there was Megan in all her Martian glory. Both Geoff and Miss Martian's co-creator, artist Tony Daniel, claimed around that time that her visual appearance was based at least a little bit on Megan, but I'm pretty sure they were just humoring her. It was definitely tough for me to keep the secret Geoff told me that she was going to end up being a White Martian from Megan so that when she went all monster form at the end of Teen Titans #40 I could watch her freak out, but I did.

So needless to say, even though Megan doesn't read Teen Titans regularly anymore, she always wants to know how "her" character is doing and always gets a smile out of reading her name being "spoken" by Wonder Girl or Kid Devil (and she just loved that issue where future Miss Martian made out with that dreamy Robin). We also both live in constant fear that the character will get killed off at some point, but with my old Wizard bud Brian Cunningham currently at the editorial helm of Teen Titans, I'm sure we have nothing to worry about...or everything to worry about.

Following in the footsteps of me and my Nova sketchbook, a couple years back Megan began her own sketchbook featuring Miss Martian. I need to scan in the entries from Todd Nauck, Bill Willingham and others, but I do have this gorgeous piece that Ethan Van Sciver did for the inside cover handy.
It's totally classic and awesome EVS, from the meticulous detail to the pronounced horror vibe (and as more than one person has pointed out to me, it's almost certainly not a coincidence that Ethan drew those aliens in the background in perfect position to see up Miss Martian's skirt). Megan couldn't have asked for a much better opener to her book as it definitely screams to whoever is drawing in there "You better live up to this benchmark," which Ethan said was his goal from the start.

Megan also bought the uncolored very first appearance of Miss Martian off Teen Titans inker Marlo Alquiza a couple years ago for me on my birthday (so she essentially got me a picture of her for my birthday, but that's my girl) and it hangs proudly framed on our wall.

The moral of the story: get Geoff Johns drunk enough and you too could have your very own Teen Titan (provided your name is alliterative)!

Underrated/Overlooked: Exiles: A World Apart

Judd Winick has spent so many years now as exclusively a DC talent focused primarily on characters like Batman and Green Arrow that it's kinda nuts to think that a decade ago (wow) he was across the street at Marvel writing, in a somewhat roundabout way, one of the least street level franchises of them all in the X-Men. Honestly, most of the Winick work I've been reading of late is his earlier moody/quirky cartoon stuff like Pedro and Me and Barry Ween, so it seems like a million years ago to me that he was penning the adventures of a reality-hopping team of mutants working their way through the pivotal moments in X-Men history.

But once upon a time, that's just what Judd Winick did when he launched Exiles, and it was excellent.

Exiles launched in 2001 right as I was getting back into comics and it was one of the first books I start picking up regularly. There was something magic about what Winick and artist Mike McKone were doing; it felt like a gateway to the imposing, towering mythology that was the X-Men but one that was easily accesible. I could relate to the characters because on some level they were like me: they had a cursory understanding of the worlds and situations they found themselves on or in (as did I as a lapsed fan), but they needed some clarification in order to fully function (again, ditto). While I wasn't at a place as a reader that I could really appreciate the heady stuff Grant Morrison and Joe Casey were doing over in the primary X-Men titles just then, Winick and McKone (plus frequent fill-in artist Jim Calafiore) served me up a monthly helping of mutant adventure that was easy to jump into and also of high quality.

While Winick's run on Exiles had its ups and downs (he lasted over 30 issues, albeit with a hiatus during which time Chuck Austen wrote an arc), I'd say a lot of the really good stuff came quite early on, with the first year being particularly excellent. There was a real energy and sense of fun as you could definitely tell Winick and his artistic collaborators were enjoying the freedom they had to delve into the X-Men Universe in a way few others did. However, when I pluck early issues of Exiles from the longboxes sitting back in my house in Newton, the one story I can read over and over is "A World Apart," which unfolded over the course of three issues from #8-#10.

The story starts with a cold open on Mimic in chains, fighting in some gladitorial arena as a raucus crowd cheers him on. Mimic wins his match and is escorted back to his cell where his teammate, Thunderbird, is being prepped to fight. In fitting with his optimistic tone at this point in the series, Mimic tries to give T-Bird a pep talk and gets a glare. We learn quickly that our heroes are captives of the Skrulls, who have conquered Earth, and that they've been prisoners for some time now.

Elsewhere, Blink and Morph have eluded the Skrull captors and are searching for mankind's last hope: Reed Richards. It's not spoiling much to say that they find him, but as is usually the case with Exiles, he's not what they (or we) expect.

The first half of the storyline focuses on this situation and Winick effectively and masterfully paints for us the picture of a fully-realized universe we've never seen before in the course of an issue and a half. He builds on character dynamics only hinted at in the series' half dozen prior issues, such as the somber romance between the flirtatious Nocturne and moody Thunderbird. He begins his dissection of Mimic, setting him on a lengthy journey that will force him to question everything he believes in and test him as never before. Along the way, we get some great fight scenes between the Exiles and other-dimensional versions of Marvel mainstays all decked out in exotic new costumes, something a design master like McKone excels at. McKone is also great at choreographing fight scenes on a cinematic scale, be it the "Gladiator" type brawls we start with or the "Braveheart" style war to come.

And that war comes because halfway into the story, Winick blows up everything he's been doing and brings Galactus to Earth. The Skrulls flee, the heroes are freed, and the Exiles are stuck with like a day to train the champions they've looked up to all their lives but who have been muddling along as slaves to fight a god.

It's fucking sweet.

You get to see pretty much every hero and villain in the Marvel Universe learning on the job as they try and fend off a hungry Galactus and his herald, Terrax the Tamer. It's the underdog story you could never really do in the Marvel U proper since the Fantastic Four and friends were all already pretty experienced when the Big G first showed up, and Winick works the beats perfectly; you'll cheer for the small victories and you'll cry (or at least frown) at the major sacrifice (and it's a big one). Mike McKone opens up like he's George Perez drawing Crisis On Infinite Earths and treats these three issues like the biggest event crossover ever. Actually, that was one of the cool things about those early days of Exiles: every storyline basically was a huge event crossover told in a few issues from a very specific point of view.

There's an epilogue/coda in issue #16 called "Nocturne and Evensong" that I don't want to spoil because this is a story you really should hunt down (and it's pretty readily available) and it really is one of the more beautiful little stories Judd Winick has ever written.

Though Exiles remains a fun vehicle to this day, given the core concept it was inevitable that it would eventually become a little bogged down by continuity and explanation, so there's a real fun and innocence to these early issues where it was just a bunch of confused mutants jumping through alternate worlds with no need to get bogged down in the details. Good stuff, check it out.

You can purchase A World Apart on its own or as part of the first Exiles Ultimate Collection.