PidgeonBlog Traffic Hits A New Personal Best!

I broke the 3K mark on Friday! I've been having some technical problems, not to mention prepping for Comic-Con has really eaten into my blogging time, so needless to say it was a very happy surprise. Thanks for reading, everybody!

Cool View-Master Scans

Bob Logan has figured out how to scan old View-Master reels, and he's generously put many of my favorite images on his blog. Take a look!

I love these old 3-D set-ups - they're so charming! I hope someone at McFarlane Toys uses them as reference for their Hanna-Barbera figure line. Here's hoping...

Blogging: A Cautionary Tale (Excerpts)

"Back in 2006, when I was 24, my life was cozy and safe. I had just been promoted to associate editor at the publishing house where I’d been working since I graduated from college, and I was living with my boyfriend, Henry, and two cats in a grubby but spacious two-bedroom apartment in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. I spent most of my free time sitting with Henry in our cheery yellow living room on our stained Ikea couch, watching TV. And almost every day I updated my year-old blog, Emily Magazine, to let a few hundred people know what I was reading and watching and thinking about...

...The anecdotes I posted on Emily Magazine occasionally featured Henry, whom my readers knew as a lovably bumbling character, a bassist in a fledgling noise-rock band who said unexpectedly insightful things about the contestants on “Project Runway” and then wondered aloud whether we had any snacks. I didn’t write about him often, but when I did, I’d quote his best jokes or tell stories about vacationing with his family.

Henry, seemingly alone among our generation, went out of his way to keep his online presence minimal. Now that we’ve broken up, I appreciate this about him — it’s pretty much impossible to torture myself by Google-stalking him. But back then, what this meant was that he was never particularly thrilled to be written about. Sometimes he was enraged.

Once, I made fun of Henry for referring to “Project Runway” as “Project Gayway.” He worried that “people” — the shadowy, semi-imaginary people who read my blog and didn’t know Henry well enough to know that he wasn’t a homophobe — would be offended. He insisted that I take down the offending post and watched as I sat at my desk in our bedroom, slowly, grudgingly making the keystrokes necessary to delete what I’d written. As I sat there staring into the screen at the reflection of Henry standing behind me, I burst into tears. And then we were pacing, screaming at each other, through every room of our apartment, facing off with wild eyes and clenched jaws...

...As Henry and I fought, I kept coming back to the idea that I had a right to say whatever I wanted. I don’t think I understood then that I could be right about being free to express myself but wrong about my right to make that self-expression public in a permanent way. I described my feelings in the language of empowerment: I was being creative, and Henry wanted to shut me up. His point of view was just as extreme: I wasn’t generously sharing my thoughts; I was compulsively seeking gratification from strangers at the expense of the feelings of someone I actually knew and loved. I told him that writing, especially writing about myself and my surroundings, was a fundamental part of my personality, and that if he wanted to remain in my life, he would need to reconcile himself to being part of the world I described.

After a standoff, he conceded that I should be allowed to put the post back up. As he sulked in the other room, I retyped what I’d written, feeling vindicated but slightly queasy for reasons I didn’t quite understand yet."

Photo by Elinor Carucci.

To read the rest of Emily Gould's NY Times Magazine article, click here.

Holy COW!

I reached a new personal best in terms of visitor traffic yesterday - over 2,500 page views! Thanks for visiting and reading, even when work makes the original content pretty thin.

Another New Flickr Group

Here we go again! You have to admit, though - don't you think it's a little bizarre that the titan of manga doesn't have a Flickr group devoted to him? I do - so I made one!

I've made it an 18+ group, because a lot of Tezuka's work deals with violent and/or sexual subject matter. I don't intend to dwell on that facet of his work - mainly, I'm just being careful.

Join, post, enjoy!

Cartoon Brew > Flip #11 > Me!

Jerry Beck did a quick write up on Steve Moore's Flip #11, which features Steve's interview with me. Thanks, Jerry!

Another Great Week!

Emailing all the toy retailers last week bumped up my readership even more. I came pretty close to getting 2,000 page views on Wednesday! Thanks for visiting, everybody - I hope to have another Happy Beaver comic finished soon. I know it's been a little while!

The Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum: A Mini-Tour

Christopher Butcher (manager of The Beguiling, a Canadian comic book store) has generously posted a bunch of his Tezuka Museum photos on his blog, Comics212. Until you can afford a trip there yourself - enjoy!

Something Interesting Has Happened

Mainly, that (according to my Bravenet hit counter) my blog audience seems to have increased in a big way - from about four hundred hits a day to almost fifteen hundred today! I guess the Vinyl Toy Network show triggered the jump, but I'm not exactly sure how.

I didn't give out my contact information that much, so I'm assuming that naming my toy business after my web address (and having it displayed on the VTN homepage) was a much better idea than I'd ever anticipated! It's a big reason why I bit the bullet and started the web comic - I wanted to hang onto my new readers with more original material.

Welcome, everybody! Hope you enjoy the new feature...

More Beaver Write-Ups: The Clutter Blog, Punch Pants

It's an older post (from September), but I stumbled across it while Googling "Happy Beaver". The blog is a catch-all for Clutter 's writers, but the magazine focuses more on toys and toy artists - great articles, layout, and design - check it out!

I also found a mention (and photos!) in a July listing of Comic-Con swag that Roque Ballesteros (a member of Ghostbot) picked up. Cool!

A big "thanks!" to Clutter Geoff and Roque for the kind words.

Another Write-Up!

Another mention of my toy photography, this time at a blog called Computerlove. The poster (Alberto Cerriteno) illustrated it nicely with a sampling of my photos. Take a look!

More 'Happy' Posting

Neil LaPointe did a really nice write-up on my toy for his blog, Toronto Animated Image Society. He's a recent purchaser, and he's promised that we'll see another travelogue photo soon. Thanks, Neil!

Yay! More Blog 'Ink' For Me!

The Drawn! blog has a nice post today about my toy photos on Flickr, which has led to a surge of viewers and contacts. Thanks, Drawn!-ers!

A New Blog To Watch

John Field, classic film buff extraordinaire (pictured here with Noel "Lois Lane" Neill), has started a blog of his own! All you moldy figs click on over to John's Forbidden Planet and check it out!

I Mean, They're Not Real Spaceships

How much of this launch is due to an X-Wing's intrinsic design, and how much to poor construction? You be the jury!

So Long, Joe Riley

I got word from Ken Mitchroney today that his friend Joe Riley died on Thursday of a heart attack. The doctors managed to regain a heartbeat for a while, but he never woke back up. He was forty-three, just a year older than I am.

I never got to meet Joe in person, but I'll bet we'd have gotten along great. Joe had a neat blog called men-oo-she-a, which was loaded with all kinds of great pop culture junk. His artwork was really cool, and I was especially envious of how he could build model kits so that they looked better than they did on the box. Way, way better!!

Take care, Joe - I know Kenny'll miss you terribly.

Warm, Fuzzy Nostalgia Or Ungodly Crap? You Decide

As you may have seen on my Flickr page, I just found a treasure trove/trash pile of old Hanna-Barbera kiddie LPs (both sleeve scans and uploadable mp3s) at the Children's Records and More blog.

None of them are all that good, but I only had two of these records as a kid, and I was always curious to hear to the others. The neat thing about them is that they use real H-B voice talent (except Alan Reed and Mel Blanc), music and sound effects! Plus the sleeve art is pretty cool. Check 'em out!

Thanks to Men-oo-she-a for the tip-off!

Another New Flickr Group!

I noticed that there wasn't a Hanna-Barbera photo group on the Flickr site, which seemed odd. You'd think it's a general enough topic that someone would've set one up before today. Maybe it's too general, and most folks pick a specific show to feature. Who knows?

Anyhow, as you can see by the link above, I started one! Feel free to join and post lots of images of anything H-B!

Another Write-Up In The Blog-o-Sphere

Here's a quick blurb about my toy on one of my favorite blogs, Plastic and Plush! A big "Thank you" to Brian Slivka for helping to get the word out there!

More Attention Is Good

My friend Jenny Lerew wrote a nice defense of my "Happy Beaver" toy on her Blackwing Diaries blog, supported by the New York Times article I posted below. Check it out, and her many other thoughtful postings!

More Caricature Sweetness

Previously-posted caricaturist Peter Emslie has another webpage, a blog called The Cartoon Cave. There's more great posts and drawings there, so stop by if you have a minute!

Someone Will Always Get Nerd-ier

Apparently, the serial number on the crate in the Indy 4 teaser poster is extremely close to the one on the crate packed away at the end of Raiders. According to this article, though, Lucasfilm says that it's not referencing the ark - other than to be a similar catalog number. Two fansites based on the number have already surfaced.

Man! It's amazing how quickly the scrabbling begins.

For All You PidgeonBlog Archive Browsers (Both Of You)

You might notice that a lot of the Toy OTD posts are gone. I delete these posts periodically since they're the easiest way to thin down the blog and prevent problems. Worry not, though, they're all still on their own Flickr page!

Happy Beaver Write-Up @ I Like Toys

My friend toysrevil posted a great promo piece/interview on his i like toys blog! You can't ask for better virtual ink than this - thanks, Andy!

Interesting Ralph Bakshi Article

Check out this career-long synopsis/defense/appreciation by Bakshi fan Jeff Kuykendall. You may not agree with some (or any) of his points on why Ralph's work is compelling and thought-provoking, but I think only a fan with his level of passion could have written it.

This column illustrates in vivid detail why I was excited to work with him on his Mighty Mouse show in the late '80s. I saw Fritz The Cat in college (the perfect time), and was bowled over by the complete abandonment of almost every animation feature convention I'd ever seen. To my eyes, it was raw, gritty, and altogether new.

Ralph's work to some degree is out of fashion now, and the prevailing attitude is to badmouth his films. I've fallen prey to that myself in recent years, but this article reminded me about the qualities some of his films have to provoke and inspire - and why they're still in my video library.

Thanks to Kill The Snark for the article, and The Groovy Age Of Horror for the link!

Bill Presing's New Blog!

Bill's started a blog called Daily Peril, and it's sure to be loaded with plenty of tasty artwork. Be sure to stop by and give him support!

The Blog Is Back!

I had a few scary days where I thought my blog had (once again) seized up for good. Happily, I left it alone, testing it occasionally by trying to add new links to the home page. Today, the blog finally published!

To celebrate, here's some insane pictures of a guy who decorated his van with murals inspired by the first two NeverEnding Story movies. Now, I'm as big an arrested adolescent as they come, and yet the first thing that popped into my head was, "A grown man did this. An adult."

Enjoy!

Two Hundred And Fifty Words

NY TIMES: Editorial - Overkill
Published: March 3, 2007

A famous hunter and outdoorsman recently voiced misgivings about people who use assault rifles to kill prairie dogs.

Everyone knows what a prairie dog is: a chubby North American rodent that lives in a communal burrow and grows to be about a foot long. “Assault rifle” is a much touchier term. It is generally understood to be the kind of gun that soldiers use in wars and terrorists use on the evening news. But the gun lobby despises “assault rifle,” considering it a false, scary label tacked onto perfectly legitimate weapons by people who want to take away others’ rights.

That is a debate for another day. The question for now is whether the hunter, Jim Zumbo, deserved what he got after he wrote on his blog that hunters should shun what he called assault rifles — semiautomatics like the AR-15, a cousin of the M-16, and civilian knockoffs of the AK-47. “Excuse me, maybe I’m a traditionalist,” he wrote, “but I see no place for these weapons among our hunting fraternity.” He added: “To most of the public, an assault rifle is a terrifying thing. Let’s divorce ourselves from them. I say game departments should ban them from the prairies and woods.”

Until he wrote that, Mr. Zumbo was one of the most admired hunters in America, a widely read magazine writer with his own cable TV program and lots of lecture appearances and corporate sponsorships. He of all people should have known that “ban” is the mother of all fighting words to gun zealots. His 250-word posting caused a huge eruption on gun blogs, and Mr. Zumbo instantly became their second-most-hated man, after the gun-control advocate James Brady. Even though Mr. Zumbo quickly disavowed his words and apologized, he lost his blog, was dumped by Outdoor Life magazine and was disowned by the National Rifle Association, after 40 years of membership. His corporate sponsors, including the gunmaker Remington, ditched him. His cable show was canceled. The N.R.A. issued a chilling statement warning Congress to take heed of Mr. Zumbo’s fate. By the time Blaine Harden told his story in The Washington Post, Mr. Zumbo was professionally dead.

The paranoia and gloating that Mr. Zumbo’s name has evoked on gun discussion boards like ar15.com and freerepublic.com speak for themselves. You will find only a handful of postings suggesting cautiously that the overnight destruction of a man’s career might not be the proudest moment for the advocates of gun rights. One or two say that instead of cementing their reputations for reflexively enshrining gun ownership above everything, they might have asked Mr. Zumbo what he was talking about. They might even have had a healthy debate. But they shot first.

DrawerGeeks Gets More Attention

This time, on the Frederator blog (Feb. 9th). Check it out!
Thanks to Mike Milo for mentioning us!

DrawerGeeks Gets Attention

There's a write-up for it on the lines and colors website. Cool:

lines and colors: DrawerGeeks
Posted by Charley Parker at 10:53 am
Bookmark on del.icio.us

Now here’s a great idea from a group of artists for an informal series of creative projects that also translates into a fun web site.

I can’t sum it up any more succinctly than they do themselves in the first paragraph of their FAQ: “DrawerGeeks is a fun thing we do every other Friday, where professional artists (mostly from the animation, comic book, illustration and design fields) all draw their own version of a chosen fictional character.”

The result is a delightful amalgam of divers styles, techniques and artistic approaches that is pulled together with a common theme. The characters are often drawn (if you’ll excuse the expression) from mainstream comics, e.g. Thor, Captain America, Wonder Woman and Bizarro; but you’ll also find characters from movies, literature, fairy tales and other areas of pop culture, like King Kong, King Authur, Little Red Riding Hood and Cereal Mascots.

The artists sometimes make the themes bit broader than they seem by giving them an open-minded interpretation; Iron Man, for example, can be the Iron Man, the Marvel Comics character, or an iron man. Keeping to the chosen character is one of only two rules the artists apply to themselves, the other being to “keep it clean”.

There’s no requirement or limit on the amount of time devoted to the piece, and you will see examples from both ends of the spectrum, though most tend to be quite finished and some are very elaborate.

This seems a tremendous way for these artists to have fun and encourage themselves to indulge in playful creation, unrestrained by the demands of art directors and deadlines, but within a framework of a collegial atmosphere and perhaps a bit of friendly competition.

Before you run off looking for how to join, DrawerGeeks is more or less a closed circle. In order to try to keep this as a fun thing for the original participants, and not burden someone with administering a giant web site, participation is limited to invitation only.

The idea to take from this, beyond enjoying the fruits of their project by following the site every other week, would be to initiate a similar project among your own circle of artist friends.

Or, if you want an already established framework for creating a themed illustration on a regular basis and sharing it with a large group, check out Illustration Friday.

The other thing to take from DrawerGeeks is to check out the page that lists the participating artists and visit their individual web sites — something I’m just starting to do. Enjoy.

Suggestion courtesy of Meg Levitt.

A Note To Archive Browsers

You may notice that the Toy Of The Day posts are disappearing from the Pidgeonblog archives. Not to worry - all of that writing is still available for perusal in my new Toy Of The Day Flickr archive. I've been making duplicates of all the posts in Flickr right along, and since I've had trouble with crashing blogs in the past, it didn't make sense to have so many posts that were duplicated elsewhere.

I Like Attention

I've been chosen as Puppetvision's Monday Morning Inspiration! Blogmaster Andrew did a nice write-up on me, with plenty of links to my blog, web store, and art gallery. Every puppeteer I know looks at Puppetvision, so check it out if you haven't already! It's a great website.

Thanks again, Andrew!

Ladies And Gentlemen, The Blue Parrot

Please welcome Roger Colton's new entertainment/pop culture website, The Blue Parrot! Roger's written lots of articles for Jim Hill Media, and now he's striking out on his own. Keep your eyes peeled for lots of fun posts - especially if you like Disneyland!

The Pitch-O-Matic

Got an idea that needs a test spin? Why not run it by the Pitch-O-Matic first?

Thanks to the Drawn! blog for the link.

Dial 'B' For Blog

If you're a fan of silver age DC comics, this blog is for you! Seriously. JUST for you.

This is such a labor of love - great scans of the comics themselves, insanely nerdy articles, plus beautiful photoshop tweaking of classic covers! It's scary how many of these things I recognize.

You may have seen some of this postmodern ribbing elsewhere, but it's so lavishly mounted, even the old favorites (the infamous Batman 'boner' story) are worth a re-visit.