THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Not much to tell about work today. Just continuing to do layout revisions on act II of show 17.

I did go to the comic store this Wednesday with my friends though. I saw Bruce Timm buying comic there again…speaking of Bruce Timm…lets talk about…

SUPERHEROES

I’m such a huge Superhero GEEK. Man, I loooovve superheroes. I love their comic and their animated shows too. The animated shows have been great since the first season of the WB Bruce Timm animated Batman TV show. I’ve recently become aware that there’s a new Spiderman cartoon out right now. The Spectacular Spiderman. I love it. It’s great! The designs are interesting. Very pushed and very very very cartoony. It’s well written, fun and funny too. Me likey! Takes me back to the days when I used to read the comic. I also like the fact that he’s still in high school in this show. I never liked the fact they took him out of high school so fast in the movies. It makes for better drama if he has to deal with teenager things while being a superhero. Here’s a bit from an episode. Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPUKJhhmDnw

If it doesn’t load, click here.

Another show that has caught my interest, is the second season of Legion of Superheroes. I caught a few episodes of the first season and I liked it. The superheroes in the show are really young and the writing is skewed for a younger audience so it wasn’t as mature as other animated Superhero shows I’ve watched. Still, I liked the designs and it had Superman in it so I can’t complain. Season two of Legion of Superheroes looks like it’s changing the formula a little bit. The heroes, while still young, are actually quite a bit older. The story telling is still a bit shallow but if you like super fights, you won’t be disappointed. I saw the first two episodes and it seemed that all they did was fight in the show. Again, I’m not going to complain, it’s got Superman in it. In fact it has TWO Supermans. The show has invented a new Superman character called Superman X. A clone of Superman from the 41st Century (the Legion is from the 31st). Imagine a Superman with the personality of Batman and a few extra powers for good measure and you get Superman X. He’s actually kinda cool. All the flaws of Batman and all the powers of Superman makes for an interesting character. Here’s a bit of the first episode from the second season.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOBJIrm5dnY

If it doesn’t load, click here

It’s funny but the Superman X design reminds me a little of Tom Welling, who plays Clark Kent on the Smallville television show. To show you what I mean, here’s a clip of one of my all time favorite Smallville moments (if you haven’t seen the show, the woman with Clark is his mother Martha and the bald guy on the plane is Lex Luthor):

If it doesn’t load, click here

You might be thinking that I’m making it up when I say that I’ve seen animated Superhero shows that were a bit more mature than Legion of Superheroes. I’m not. The Bruce Timm produced animated Superhero shows where actually really well written and some shows had entire seasons that where mindbogglingly good. Here’s an example from one of my three favorite Batman episodes from the first season of the WB (not the Fox) Batman animated show. From the moment this episode began, I was glued to my TV but when it got to this point in the story, my jaw hit the floor:

If it doesn’t load, click here

Of course there is plenty of mindless fighting in these animated shows too but they are so much more satisfying when they have a long story behind them. For example, the Bruce Timm produced Superman animated show introduced Darkseid into the animated show continuity. During the next three seasons of the Superman animated show he became Superman’s number one enemy to get under his skin. Darkseid did some terrible things to Superman. The Justice League and Justice League Unlimited shows, continued the Darkseid story line using the Superman animated show as part of it’s continuity. This gave the animosity that Superman felt for Darkseid a great history. So when he shows up one final time, Superman takes off the kid gloves. Here’s a small clip of what happens:

If it doesn’t load, click here

These moments are great pay offs for fans of the show who’ve watched the shows from the first season of the WB Animated Batman, all the way through to the last Cartoon Network Justice League Unlimited episodes (because they tell one big story). I highly recommend them. If you love Superheroes and you haven’t seen these animated shows, rent or buy them. They’re worth it.

NEPHILIM SKELETONS

By far the most popular post I have on this blog is the one called Nephilim skeletons, writer’s strike offspring, Munchkin goes to work.
It’s because of the Nephilim Skeleton pictures on it. I’ve gotten a few comments about the pictures I’ve put up. One of them in particular pointed out something about this picture:

Which I was using to disprove this one:

This is how it read:

Comment from Baal:

Actually the Cornell University image was poorly done look at the wooden plank at the upper right, notice the shadow? It does not line with the shadowing in the rest of the pic. Its shadow goes southeast the others follow southwest. This is only going to have conspirators wondering more now as was the original of the skeleton still possibly creditable material? And more importantly is it trying to be debunked in a coverup by someone to trick people into the notion its a joke. I read ARAMCO oil company was responsible for its finding in Saudi Arabia then military supposedly took over the dig site. I dont know the truth here just giving some thoughts.

I took a look at what he was saying and I thought he was right. At first I thought that the area might be lit by two different light sources but I rid myself of that idea. If you notice how cast shadows fall in a situation with two different light sources, you will notice that you get double shadows. Ever been in a stadium at night with the flood lights making everyone cast three or four cast shadows? Also, if you were to walk between two lit lamp posts at night you cast two shadows.

Thing is, the posts don’t have two shadows so either this photo is fake and the person who manipulated it did a lousy job or something else is going on.

Upon closer inspection I’ve found that the later is true. Something else is going on. This photo is not fake and here’s why. As an artist, I work with shadows a lot. I observe and draw the world around me a lot. I’ve often seen that reality seems to do some strange things when you observe it from certain angles. Often, an artist is drawing something and it looks odd from his perspective so he changes reality and makes it consistent so it doesn’t look like they’ve made a mistake. Many times, I’ve had drawing teachers that have told me to do so, so that a drawing reads better. If I was to draw that photo I would probably change the way the cast shadow falls so it would look right.

The truth is, the reason the shadow looks wrong, is because of our vantage point. The posts sticking out of the ground, give the impression that they are all sticking straight up, but what if they are not? If they are not and one of the posts is leaning to one side, then that means the cast shadow of that post is going to fall different than all the others, even though from above that post looks like it’s sticking straight up. This is why I still think the picture is real.

If my terribly, crappy drawing above isn’t enough to convince you, then test it out yourself. Take a pencil or pen, a lamp or a flash light and go to a table. Prop the pencil or pen straight up and shine the light on it so that it casts a shadow. Note how the shadow falls. Now, lean the pen or pencil to the right or to the left without leaning it toward or away from the light. Note how the shadow falls. Problem solved.

There was another comment I would like to respond to that went like this:

Comment from Jeff:

Bullsh*t, the third picture down is real. They want you to believe it’s fake, but in the coming weeks and months, you will start to hear about these mysterious findings. Even in our own backyard. Stay tuned to Lou Dobbs on CNN!!!

Don’t know anything about Lou Dobbs but I will say this about the photo he’s referring to, you can clearly see the remnants of the original photograph in the doctored photograph. I’ll show you what I mean:

I would love it if these skeletons where actually found and that these photographs were real, but the truth is that, (at least this one photo) is not. It’s some sort of prank. Sorry. [EDIT: I’ve just been informed that the this photo was made specifically for a Photoshop contest. It won third place. This is the site for the contest: Worth1000.com. They’ve got other weird Photoshoped photos there.]

If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.

Comments are appreciated as well.

I also have a store. Click Here and check it out.

If you would like to have a text ad on my site, click on the red BUY LINKS button under the Archives list.

And while you’re at it, please Digg me too.

Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.