Kickstarter Arrival - Bubblegum Crisis Blu-Ray

Bubblegum Crisis Front, Back, & Side
Today I received the Bubblegum Crisis Blu-Ray in the mail. It is the first time it has been released on Blu-Ray, and I can't wait to watch it in high-quality. Now, I could go on and on about how much I love this series, or even show you all the different versions and art books I have, but for now I'm just going to show you what the entire package looks like. Please forgive the really poor MSPaint Pasting.
At first, USPS tried to deny me my well deserved reward, and when I first tried to pull the box out of the mailbox, it wouldn't budge. I couldn't squish it either (the back door the mailman uses must be bigger). Well, I grabbed my scissors and for 10 minutes in the dark of the night, stripped the box away to get my precious prize.

Now, the rewards are really cool, as I'm most excited about the A.D. Police key chain, and the coin with my favorite villain, Largo. You also get 7 postcards. Plus, the back of the cards have character design sketches.


They also give you the 4-Issues American Comic Book Series in digital format, as well as all 3 RPG books set in the Bubblegum Crisis universe (not pictured). Next, I'll show you the front and back of sleves. Also, note the pictures with names on them. My name is there in Linna's mouth in the picture she is smiling.


And don't forget the discs. That ends this look at all the items for this Kickstarter. Now that this was a success, AnimEgo might starting doing the same with some of their other properties.

Currently Watching - Casshern (1973)

       I am having a blast watching Casshern (from 1973). It's fun watching him fight robots and seeing one of the early anime titles of that era that was the source for one of my favorite anime titles in middle school. One thing that was surprising for me though, was how both Luna (Casshern's childhood friend) and Casshern's mother both are treated much differently than what I would have expected for not only the girlfriend character, but the dead parent, as well: Luna actively fights by Casshern's side, whereas Casshern's mother is a spy for the robot army.

       In Casshern, lighting strikes the android BK-1, which awakens and decides to destroy humanity. He attacks his creator Azuma, his wife Midori, and their son, Testsuya, who barely escape with their lives. Their dog is critically injured, and is turned into a robot dog with the original's brainwaves (Vision and Wonder Man did the same thing in Avengers in 1970). And this robot can turn into a car, jet, sub, and spaceship. However, BK1 now calls himself Braiking Boss, and creates an army of robots with Azuma's factory and begins taking over the fictional and unnamed country he was born in. Tetsuya, realizing that the UN is no match for Braiking Boss and his robots, merges his body with a robot, becoming an android; neither human nor robot. Now, he fights to defeat Braiking Boss and save humanity.

       Enjoy the theme song:



       One of the themes of the series is that of identity. Casshern hides what he is because all humans hate robots of any kind now, and Casshern frequently finds himself outed, and yet continues to fight for a world that shuns him. However, just by watching Cassherns actions, most people learn to accept him at the end of each episode.



       Luna has a father who invents a gun which can kill robots with one shot. He is killed when his invention is discovered, and Luna is determined to fight with his weapon no matter what Casshern says. In the beginning, Casshern constantly tells her to leave so she will be safe. Yet time and again, because Casshern can only use so much energy before being helpless, Luna comes to his aid. In the end of the 4th episode (in which she saves Casshern's life, by the way), she actually leaves on a boat, and you think they are writing her out of the series, but then Casshern interrupts her boats path, and realizing he can't win this battle alone, asks her to join him in the battle, no matter what happens. Starting out as the damsel that Casshern needs to rescue (2-3 times), she eventually turns into a warrior to fight Braiking Boss' army.



       One of the weirder and unsettling moments is when Braiking Boss kidnaps Casshern's parents. He is going to kill Midori to prove a point to Azume, but Azuma (asking his wife's permission first) says he thinks he can save her, but it will come at a price. Braiking Boss thinks she escaped, but what Azuma has done is transplant her brain into their robot pet Swannee (a robot Swan). Braiking Boss takes Swannee as a pet and is never suspicious of what she truly is. Here, Midori gathers intel and reports to Casshern, helping them stop all of Braiking Boss' evil plans. Midori (usually every episode) puts her life on the line constantly to help all of humanity. And though Casshern wishes they could all 3 return to the way they used to be once this is all over, it sometimes seems that Midori knows this can't happen, and only helps him have hope to see the battle through.

       I'm so used to seeing the parent's dead, and the son trying to move on, that I was surprised at how refreshingly different it was to have the parent now be the spy for the villain of the series. Her life is in constant danger (again, she is only a robot swan), and seeing Casshern and Luna save each other on a near equal basis makes it feel more of a team effort. It somehow feels more progressive than most anime titles I watched in the 90sat the time.

       I have never seen this series before. I grew up watching Cassharn (it was re-tittled) on the Sci-Fi channel back in the early 90s, and was always bummed that it was so awesome, and yet only had 4 episodes (or OVAs, as I would later find out). So much so, that watching the original series, I'm seeing similar ideas and themes that are in Mechanaflux that were not in the original 90s show I watched. So far I have only finished the first 12 episodes, but I know that it, too, will end. Oh well, I suppose I can watch Casshern Sins again and cry at the the really bleak and depressing future and character stories in every episode. I will revisit Casshern again, because there is an episode in Casshern Sins that is definitely a modern re-telling of one of the 70s episodes, and I'd like to examine the way the story is told in each one.

       If you are interested, you can check out Casshern's 35 episode original series from 1973, or the 4 part OVA from 1993.

Why I Should Write For Hollywood - Spider-Man Close Saga Epilogue (I Love Ben)

      So here is the follow-up to my previous Spider-Man Outline; did anyone grieve over the loss of Ben Reilly? Well, someone was missing grieving after his death (what was with me writing two depressing stories about people dealing with the loss of their loved ones? Was it because the comics I was reading didn't appear realistic)?

      Anyway, Ben Reilly had dated Jessica Carradine right before he died. However, he found out she was the daughter of the burglar that killed Uncle Ben, and she refused to believe he was a real criminal, calling his killing of Uncle Ben an accident, and stating that Spider-Man killed him (a very lose recalling of what actually happened when the criminal returned in Amazing Spider-Man #200). She eventually took photos of Spider-Man unmasking himself to reveal that he was her boyfriend. They argue multiple times, with her refusing to believe her father was a criminal and that Spider-Man was a hero, especially when he was possessed by Carnage. That storyline really pissed me off with her character, because she was glad Spider-Man was suffering with the symbiotic on him, but couldn't see he was resisting it and telling her and everyone else to get away because he might accidentally kill them.

      Eventually, she witnessed Spider-Man nearly die saving people in a burning building, realized she might have not been looking at the situations objectively, ran up to him and handed him the photos, then ran off. Ben is too weak to follow; he called out to her, but she had already vanished, never seen again.

      So, here is my short follow-up story to Jessica reflecting on his death when she reads it in the news, because if there was one thing I never liked about comics, it was the way they abandoned characters. I wrote this my Freshman Year of High School.

Spider-Man: I Love Ben

      Opens with Jessica on the internet, thinking about Ben Reily, who she used to love. She is tempted, rejects, then ultimately searches for his name online, only to find his obituary; “Ben Reily Falls To Death. Spider-Man Responsible?” Pic of Spidey carrying Ben to the roof. Jessica remembers her father in prison.

      “Listen baby, don’t worry. It wasn’t my fault. Some costume webs me up, and they think I did something wrong.” As a teenager, she cries because she heard he was a killer. “Don’t believe them, Jess. You father is no killer.”

      Next, Jessica watching Spider-Man, then taking her first picture of him. “This one will rival Parker’s.” She sells the picture to Jameson. She sees Spidey swing overhead. “One day Spider-Man, I’ll take so many pictures of your unjust acts that the world will see that my dad was right; you set people up and take the money for yourself.”

      Later, she hears from a cop that her dad is dead. Heart attack. They tell her Spider-Man was there, that he tried to break into the same house again. She blames Spider-Man, even when the cops say it was only a heart attack, it had been building for years.

      Later, Jessica meets Ben Reily, similar to how she did in the 1995 comic books. They dine, dance. They sleep together. They walk in park. “He was perfect because he wasn’t.” He shows her Steward Trainers lab? “But then.”

      Spidey taking of mask, replica of Blood Brothers cover. Her preparing camera, then after taking picture pulling back in shock.

      Jessica’s shocked reaction in three panels.

      She confronts him (like in old comics), then later sees him save some people in a burning building and realizes, that he isn’t like what her father said. He had nothing to gain, and only his life to lose. She gives him the pics and runs away as he screams her name. As she walks off, her right eye has a tear and her eyes are not visable. “Oh god. What does this say about my father?”

      The Present: Jessica on the street where Ben died, looking at the pavement, holding the newspaper printout of the picture away from her, to the side. She just stares at the sidewalk. “I forgave you long ago.”

      Picture of Ben and Jessica doing something fun. “But I never admitted that I still loved you.”

      On way to Ben’s ‘grave’, Spider-Man is a few blocks away fighting criminals. She tries to run and talk to him, but he says, “No, no need to thank me. Just be sure to say I hired them to save my falling percentage in the hero polls.” “Wait,” she says, not yelling, but he has already jumped away. “Who was that anyway? Cousin, brother...it doesn’t matter.”

End Story

Umm...was there an ending here High School Shawn? I'm pretty sure I never edited this, and I also see that the real ending should probably he her either at Ben's grave or the sidewalk where he died; both which should have been placed after her encounter with Spider-Man. Oh well. Well, so much for that character, she will most likely never show up ever again in Marvel Comics, but at least she had a good character arc.

Why I Should Write For Hollywood - Spider-Man Clone Saga Epilogue (Lost Child - Outline)

      Spider-Man was THE comic book I read growing up. I remember getting every 30th Anniversary issue from my dad, and that got me interested, but the 4 separate storylines leading up to the Clone Saga got me hooked. After the clone saga hint at the end of each title (Amazing Spider-Man, Spectacular Spider-Man, Web Of Spider-Man, & Spider-Man) I went to Krogers (to the comic book section) and bought the first issue of the Clone Saga Storyline – Power & Responsibility. I could only afford the first issue, but when I got to the counter, I realized that the back of the comic was actually a flip comic (where the comic is reversed and has a new cover on the back) so I DID in fact have all of the story.

      However, the Clone Saga eventually ended. but there was a huge, HUGE, glaring character error that annoyed me when the saga ended. Mary Jane and Peter had a child that died stillborn, and after the next issue, they both forget they ever had a child. “WHAT…THE…HELL! Emotions don’t work that way,” my 15 year old self said out lout to no one. So, as you can guess, I wrote my own epilogue. It was the first time I ever wrote fan fiction, because I wanted to right an injustice.

They wrote the baby out because she was inconvenient. Next you’ll tell me they’re going to write Mary Jane out of the picture, too, because married people are too hard to write.

      Mary Jane and Peter were going to have a child, but at the same time, Peter was dying of a virus that was killing him. Previously, he had tried to ignore Mary Jane, the Bugle, and his entire Peter Parker existence due to the death of Harry Osborn and his Parents. But, his child allowed him to have something to fight for and caused him to look toward his future. He found his way back from his darkness and returned to the Peter he had become. During the Clone Saga, Mary Jane was pregnant for about 2 years (in real time), giving Peter and Mary Jane many scenes in which they plan their future. At one point, he even gives up being Spider-Man so he can raise his family.

      Then, his baby died and he forgot it even existed. So, what does Peter and Mary Jane need? Why, a graveyard scene, of course. These were something of a recurring theme in the Spider-Man books, yet the baby has never had a single g*d da** grave scene, because the writers want to pretend it never happened. He still finds the Green Goblin and laments Gwen dying, but no, never remembers, THE DEATH OF HIS OWN CHILD! If the writers continue to remember that the Gwen Stacey / Norman Osborn babies are still around, they can remember Peter and Mary Jane’s actual, natural, non-stupid-plot baby. Rant ended.

Read that last paragraph: Osborn admits to KILLING A BABY.

      Below are adaptations of my hand written notes from high school. All bad dialogue, descriptions, and misspellings are preserved for posterity.

Lost Child – Outline

Mary Jane awakens to the rain. She says Peter’s name, then turns and finds he is not there. She lays her head on her pillow, then hears a babies voice. “Mommy, mommy.” The baby tugs at MJ’s blankets and asks for breakfast, but when she turns to look at her child, she instead sees Peter bruised, in costume, his mask off. Says he fought someone that wasn’t in his rogues gallery. Peter looks at MJ and sees her face, “Is something wrong?” She say no. He goes to bed and passes out. MJ sits in her bed for a few panels, then grabs her coat and heads outside.

She walks around, only to have a little girl tug at her. “Did you forget me mommy.” MJ pats the little girl then holds her hand along the sidewalk. They head over to a park, despite it being dark. “Yay, the swings.” The little girl runs over to the swings. Then MJ’s face when she watches her try the monkey bars. The girl tries the monkey bars, then falls into dirt below. MJ’s expression in one of concern, but not danger. Girl gets up and MJ half-smiles. Girl dusts herself off and runs up a slide.

Peter wakes up, only to find MJ gone. “Strange, isn’t this suppose to work the other way?” He looks at MJ open the door. Peter looks at MJ as she sits on the bed. She looks down at the sheets. Peter asks her what’s wrong. Next panel same as before only with Peter’s shocked face as he realizes what day it is. “Oh my god. I’m so sorry.”

“There’s a reason you forget her, I think. As long as you pretend you never saw her, she never existed. She was real Peter, she was inside of me.” MJ’s tears. Peter embraces her. “I wanted her so bad, Peter. Our little May.” Peter: “I did, too.”

MJ wipes her tears away. “It’s never going to happen again, is it?” Peter: “I want it to.”

MJ, “But? What if someone takes her away from us?” Combine with image of Green Goblin taking their girl away. Then, Chamelon disguised as Peter taking a boy away.

“They could raise him against me, kill him, torture him.” Green Goblin dunks girl into Goblin formular tank, while one rogue who knows him just points a gun directly at a boy’s head.

Peter looks down. “I still remember his words.”

Flashback – Green Goblin with Peter beaten, showcasing his scar. Green Goblin: “What I did to you girl was to make up for what you did to my Harry.” (Nice sentence, Shawn)

Peter leans on head, “It’s all my fault.”

“Peter, it’s not. You aren’t the one who did any of these things.”

“What’s going to happen when he grows up? Will he put himself in danger all the time, like I did?”

MJ: “If she’s like you, could you really blame her.”

Peter ponders that question for a moment with his hands closed together. “No, because I’d understand her reasoning for everything.”

MJ – “It’s always going to be like this, isn’t it?”

“Maybe, when I retire, or…”

“Retire?” Yells MJ, looking at him. “You have the world on your shoulders for everything. You would never retire, until…”

She leans into his chest. “I don’t ever want to lose you.”

“I wish we could, knowing he would be safe.”

MJ smiles through the tears, and pinches his cheecks. “How do you know it won’t be a girl?”

Peter: “Well, I have a sixth sense about these things.”

MJ: “Don’t you mean a seventh sense?”

They put their heads together and smile, holding each other’s face in their hands.

The Next Day

They stand over a grave that says: May Parker: Beloved Daughter. MJ and Peter both place a flower at the grave. MJ looks up to see little May sitting on her tombstone. “Don’t be sad, we just need some ice cream?” MJ smiles then Peter lifts May onto his back. May holds his back. “Look, I’m crawling on you like a wall. I’m Mrs. Spider-Man.” Peter turns to MJ, and kisses her. “I believe that already applies to one lady.”

Little May says, “Gross. I don’t ever wanna kiss anything.” MJ and Peter laugh, with the panel showing the back of all three people, with Peter and MJ with Peter holding May’s left hand, and MJ holding her right hand. The next panel, however, is MJ and Peter close together, holding each other at the waist. They hold each other as if they will fall down without the other, imagining the life their child could have had as they leave the graveyard.

End Lost Child Outline

      So, there you have my totally-not-depressing story about Peter and Mary Jane dealing with the loss of their child one year later.

My Nintendo Scrapbook From My 10 Year Old Self Is A Blast From The Past

      So I was going through my comic books and realized that under them I had a few things I had forgotten existed until I actually saw them. Aside from boring Mutual Fund magazines that I thought were investments of the future, and the very first Digimon Magazine ever [hell yes], I found my Nintendo Scrapbook I did when I was 9 and 10 years old.

      I would frequently cut up my Nintendo and Game Boy boxes [gasp!] and put them in my 3 ring binder scrapbook along with other miscellaneous advertisements inside the games. I even remember cutting apart the Dr. Mario instructional manual to make a birthday card for my dad [you know, BECAUSE HE'S A DOCTOR; 10 year old me was a genius].

      So let's take one last look at this scrapbook before I toss it into the trash with PopBot and some random 2000 AD magazine.

      Attack of the random assortment of games. Look at this masterful arrangement! Battle Tank brings back memories; I always enjoyed it in small doses, but it's the only game along with Battletoads that I could never beat.

      I remember every game came with a minimum of 3 advertisements (with the 3rd always being a subscription to Nintendo Power telling you how awesome you'll be if you get their magazine). These large fold-out ads were how I first discovered all the games out there that weren't Super Mario, Duck Hunt, World Classic Track Meet, & Tetris.

      One of these is not like the others. Metal Gear Solid 2 always looked cool, but I never got to play it. I do remember Little Mermaid being the easiest Nintendo Game we owned (yes, even Kirby's Adventure was more challenging), so I guess it's only natural it go right next to the hardest game we ever owned: Battletoads (yet somehow was also one of my favorite Nintendo games).

      Everyone I know had both of these games, but Luigi was always the superior choice to me in Super Mario Brothers 2. Controlling his slowly descending (and frantically wiggling feet) from the sky was fun, and I remember liking the bosses since there were so many of them to fight instead of the same guy 9 different times.

      This is clearly from a Nintendo Power ad. I remember really enjoying the comic books in Nintendo Power, because they had really good Legend Of Zelda & Super Mario World comics, and the next 2 years after that brought Star Fox and Super Metroid. I only wish they released that last two in a graphic novel. I bought the Super Mario World one long ago with stamps they gave you every issue to use in their store, and am kicking myself for never having gotten the Legend Of Zelda one, because it costs over $300.00 if I ever want to own it now.

      Even more Battletoads. And if you look closely, you can see 2 of their games on the right.

      Bart Vs The World. Because nothing says good controls like making A both the 'Jump' and the 'Run' button. However, lots of the mini-games in if were pretty cool. The Punisher picture on the right reminds me I rented the Punisher Nintendo game once at a video rental store (Before Blockbuster) and it's one of those rentals that, even though I only played one weekend, I still remember it because it left that much of an impression on me (i.e., it was fun).

      Dear Santa. I know I can only get one game for Christmas, so I am going to ask for ... You know, I don't remember what games I ever wanted at that young of an age. I remember getting games, but most of the Nintendo & Game Boy games I got were all random presents from my parents. I was pretty much happy with just about every game we got, so I guess that means I only ever played good games? Legend Of Zelda: Link's Awakening was the first game I remember actively asking my parents to buy, and that was because of the commercial. It wasn't until I was older (and in the Super Nintendo Age) that I actively told them games I wanted for Christmas and Birthdays.

      I played every TMNT game, because not only did I have some of them, but my neighbors had the rest, and the TMNT Arcade (both The Arcade Game & Turtles In Time) were on the ship that took us to Canada.

      Seeing these Game Boy cut-ups makes me realize that Link's Awakening and Battle Arena Toshinden are the only Game Boy games I DIDN'T destroy. The same can't be said of the Nintendo games, BECAUSE I DESTROYED THEM ALL. Though when cleaning out my parent's house this past holiday, I found every single Instructional Manual for every single one of our Nintendo Games. So, I guess I can consider them half-destroyed?

      Oh god, now I've seen Paperboy, and I CAN'T GET THE TUNE OUT OF MY HEAD. There was a time when my house was under construction and I had to live in the dining room on a cot for 6 months. But hey, the TV, Nintendo, & Super Nintendo were right in front of me, and having just borrowed Paperboy 2 from my friends (for SNES), I remember playing that every Saturday morning while I waited for my room to be built.

      And Bad Dudes? I remember my sister and I making fun of how they said "I'm Bad." All I remember is that when I finally beat it some years later, I never played it ever again. That is, until I played the real arcade game from beginning to end with my girlfriend at MagFest and realized that the Arcade is actually pretty awesome.

      Gremlins 2 is hands-down in my top 5 Nintendo games ever. In fact, it was the first video game where I loved the music so much that I could hum and sing all the tunes from every single level. Hell, I even remember where I bought it at the video rental store next to the Kings Grocery Store and the soccer field, and across the street was a Husson's Pizza (though the video rental store was later turned into the Teays Valley Christan School right next to a Save A Lot and housing complex, now across the street from the Interstate Ramp and the Sheetz). Though I do wonder why my mom bought it for me with that scary-looking monster on the cover.

      Super Mario Land 2. Definitely the Game Boy game I played the most. I remember playing this on virtually every trip along with Link's Awakening. Looking at this makes me want to play it again, because now I find that I can't remember much of the level layout or even any of the bosses except something about bunny ears and jumping through protoplasm.

      Well, I hope you've enjoyed my trip down memory lane.

Why I Should Write For Hollywood: A Shakespeare Shared Universe

      What if all the characters in Shakespeare shared the same universe, like the world of Marvel comics. Can you imagine it? You could have Hamlet interact with Henry V and go to war. You could have Romeo and Juliet somehow crossover with Much Ado About Nothing and f*** the story up into a dark comedy. But wait, didn't most characters die at the end? Well, just pretend they didn't and undermine the original stories. Or, have them take place in the middle like the way Kingdom Hearts games deal with their Disney crossover canon.

      Oh, but my brain didn't stop there. You see, the premise of this story would be that the actual characters in history (i.e., the real Henry V, the real MacBeth) would somehow invade the Shakespeare universe for...reasons (I can't find a reason they did this anywhere in my notes). One of them says the real Hamlet wants to resurrect the fake Hamlet just so he can kill him. What the hell young Shawn! That is a really stupid idea. And there is no real Hamlet! Do some research!

      This was before I knew how to limit myself instead of putting everything I possible could into a story.

      But, come on. I was in high school. People would get confused if every Shakespeare character was in the same universe. I once saw a comic at a convention that made me think I had seen something like this before, not realizing until I wrote this blog series and went through my journals that it was because I had thought of a somewhat similar idea. It was inside the journal until I opened it again for this blog series, that should show you much I thought this idea would work. I mean, hundreds of characters throughout literature all interacting with each other and expecting people to be knowledgeable of every play written by Shakespeare? That idea would never work.

The End Kickstarter Artists: Kathleen Parker, Sonia Liao, Tina Lee, & Lauren Sparks

My Kickstarter for my comic book series 'The End' is to fund issues 4 & 5. The artists for those issues are Kathleen Parker, Sonia Liao, Tina Lee, & Lauren Sparks.

Please view my Kickstarter to see their art. Their pages are available to view after the Kickstarter description, and lots of their art is within the video (so please watch).

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1945380719/the-end-4-and-5/

Also, check the Updates tab to see the page’s transformation from Pencils to fully finished Inks.