Garthim!

While looking up pictures of garthim I found this website: http://www.retrojunk.com/details_articles/968/ which is hilarious.

The reason I was looking at pictures of garthim is because as many of you know The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets have been re-invited to the Penny Arcade Expo after bailing at the last minute a couple years ago. (I should never forgive Bob for that but who can stay mad at this face?)

To that end, I’ve been thinking about making myself a new costume. I’ve always wanted to do something crustacean-like but it would be incredibly hard to perform in (not that that has ever stopped me before) and I think it would complicate border-crossing. So now I’m thinking about recreating an old costume which I really like – essentially it was a set of coveralls that had a bunch of plastic garden chains and shower curtain rings (spray painted to look metal – in all senses of the word) and a helmet with a transparent vacuum hose on it. I miss those days of going to the thrift store and finding kooky things to make into Thickets costumes, perhaps I should revisit that chapter of my life, and I bet Best would help!

Here’s the old version:

Perhaps it’s time to take a stroll down Thickets costume lane. You can click on the pics to enlarge.

I wish I had a photo of my TIE Fighter helmet. It’s not a helmet a TIE Fighter would wear – it’s a helmet that looks like a TIE Fighter.

Yes! I want to put glowing goo in my mouth!

While we’re talking about cartoons…

And does anyone else remember this Levi’s commercial? I only saw it a few times when I was a kid but it really stuck with me – the animation was, for a commercial, memorable.

They Cut My Death Scene!

Super special thanks to Mr Joe, who cut all my scenes together. At the end of the scene where I’m all nervous and beard-stroky, the wraith comes at me and drains my life-force with his handgina. Many prosthetic nails were broken during take after take so it’s a little disappointing that it got cut, but I choose to believe that my portrayal of death was so realistic that it was too disturbing for network TV.

PS – clearly being drained of life-force causes beard defoliation.

SMCP Update

So unless something goes terribly awry, the Saturday Morning Cartoon Party will be at 9am on Saturday March 22 at my new place. Bring a bowl and a spoon, and if you have special milk needs, bring it. As always, Count Chocula, Cap’n Crunch, Reese Peanut Butter Puffs, and the usual sugary suspects will be provided along with 1% milk.

The theme this year will be “time” and here are some contenders for the schedule:

THE RIPPING FRIENDS: The Man From Next Tuesday **
POWERPUFF GIRLS: Speed Demons or Get Back JoJo ****
THE TICK: The Tick VS Pre-History OR Leonardo Da Vinci and his FightinÂ’ Time Commandos ***
STAR TREK ANIMATED: The Counter-Clock Incident **
FUTURAMA: Time Keeps on Slipping ****
DUCKMAN: The Once and Future Duck ****
DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS: The Time Lost **
TRANSFORMERS: A Decepticon in King ArthurÂ’s Court (if I can get it) **
THUNDARR THE BARBARIAN: Portal Into Time **
THE HERCULOIDS: The Time Creatures *
FREAKAZOID! Freakazoid is History ****
JUSTICE LEAGUE: The Once And Future Thing ***
SUPERFRIENDS: The Krypton Syndrome OR Time Trap OR Time Rescue OR The Mysterious Time Creatures **
SUPERMAN ANIMATED: New Kids in Town *
ROCKET ROBIN HOOD: The Time Machine *
THE VENTURE BROTHERS: Escape to the House of Mummies Part II ****
LOONEY TUNES: That one with Bugs & Elmer getting really old, the title of which I forget at the moment. ****
SAMURAI JACK: could be any episode, really. I have some favourites. ****
MR PEABODY & SHERMAN **
THE SIMPSONS: the one with the toaster and the disturbing universes ****
HARVEY BIRDMAN: Back to the Present (anyone have this?)
SEALAB 2021: Lost in Time ***
HULK: Terror of the T-Gun *
MEN IN BLACK: The Head Trip Syndrome OR The Way Out West Syndrome OR The FutureÂ’s So Bright Syndrome **

Any other requests let me know.

Previous themes:

2007 (tenth): Mind Games
2006 (ninth): April Fools (pranksters and nutjobs)
2005 (eighth): Outer Space
2004 (seventh): Double Trouble (doppelgangers, clones, impostors)
2003 (sixth): The Supernatural
2002 (fifth): Secret Origins
2001 (fourth): Robots!
2000 (third): I donÂ’t rememberÂ…
1999 (second): I donÂ’t rememberÂ…
1998 (first): none?

Cosmic Ray – He Never Really Looked That Cosmic, And That Was His Charm

There’s too much history to fully explain what Cosmic Ray is all about, but suffice it to say he was one of Chris’ characters in my Power Enterprise superhero roleplaying game.

Here’s Cosmic Ray from the early 1990’s

cosmic-ray-early-1990s.png

Based off of a Mike Mignola pose. Probably from Cosmic Odyssey. That one is ink and watercolour.
Questions about the head size? See here.

And here’s a drawing I just did of what he would be like if I was running PE now. Now even back in the day, the ‘superheroes’ working for the Federation of Earth Protection wore this sort of SWAT uniform, but for some reason the old illustration doesn’t have Ray in one. I don’t remember why, maybe Chris didn’t want him in one. Well, now he’s in one. Based on an Alan Davis pose. This one’s ink and marker. My scanner doesn’t capture true colours very well but you get the idea.

cosmic-ray-2007-100dpi.png