Shabadoobie
I've been listening to a lot of Katamari music lately. The bizarrely catchy soundtracks to the first two PS2 games have been a playlist staple of mine for years now, but it was only this past weekend that I finally remember to get caught up on the tunes from the PSP and 360 titles. Verdict? They're not quite as strong as the originals... but there's still some good stuff on there. Once this song gets in your head, it's really hard to get it back out again.
Just a reminder to all those concerned... I will not be at this year's extremely imminent San Diego Comic-con. But fear not, Californians! It's looking like I'll almost certainly be hitting up the Alternative Press Expo this fall instead.
Sam Logan
Inkery
Over at Octopus Pie this week, Meredith is doing a little artistic experimentation -- using traditional paper and ink instead of illustrating the comic digitally. The resulting art is really different, but also really compelling.
Maybe it's just me, but I find it completely fascinating how a simple change in tools can bring out such different qualities in an artist's work. Of course, it helps that in Mer's case, the different qualities of her ink-and-paper art are all still attractive and pleasing to the eye. Most of the different qualities that arise when I try switching to digitally inked artwork, on the other hand, are the kind that make people want to close their browser window.
You are only safe until we run out of trees!
Sam Logan
Shake It!
Have you seen this Wario Land: Shake It business? It's a pretty startling thing -- an honest-to-goodness home-console 2D platformer, complete with full-out traditional 2D cell animation. (By Production IG, no less!)
Now don't get me wrong. 2D games with 3D graphics -- like, say, Viewtiful Joe -- are all well and good. But man... it's always good to see some actual honest-to-goodness 2D game art back on one of the major systems. Relegating these kinds of games entirely to handhelds makes about as much sense to me as relegating traditional animation entirely to television. Sprite-based games can be so pretty... especially when they aren't being drawn for screens that are as wide as my thumb and as high res as your average calculator.
But now here's Nintendo, not only making a new game with 2D art, but actually putting some real money and effort behind how that art is made, by getting a proper animation studio to handle it. I, for one, am impressed. In fact, this is almost enough to make up for Mario Party 327: Mario Harder.
Almost.
Sam Logan
