Michael Jackson.  Sigh.  To be honest, I don't feel all that much in the wake of his death and it's what I find the most surprising.   I was five or six years old when Thriller came out and it shattered my idea of what music was like a sledge hammer.   I know it sounds weird, I was barely in grade school, barely off training wheels, and my musical world was filled mainly with the Beach Boys and the Monkees.  I wasn't old enough to be really be effected by a pop music album they way I was, but I was.  Every single song on that album crushed me at the time and it's probably the only cassette tape that I played (or had my parents play in the car) for at least a year.  For me, when I think of Michael Jackson, his entire career took place between the release of Thriller and culminated in the insane popularity of We Are the World (the U.S.A. for Africa single) in 1985.   In those three years I memorized every second of Thriller, envied the kids who managed to get their very own crazy red leather jackets, bought and wore a gaudy off-brand white sequined glove, felt horrible for the starving in Ethiopia, was shocked at the hair-on-fire footage from that fateful Pepsi commercial, obsessed over the John Landis shot video for Thriller, and luckily had no idea that Jackson narrated an E.T. record book (and it's way creepy.)

And for however influential the man was to me at five, I practically dropped him at eight.  This is what tends to happen when people become so popular that they transcend into another realm of pop culture existence.  They aren't just popular, they truly become icons to some and idols to others.   Michael Jackson was so ingrained in the public consciousness, that nothing he did later, none of the stark raving craziness managed to seep into the illusion I had of the man when I was five, six or seven.   I hadn't thought a lot about this until I read that he died.  Jackson is my perfect example of separating the artist from the art.   In a way, it's almost like he died when I was nice.  He released Bad and he died, becoming a doppelganger that was doing all sorts of hideous stuff with his reputation and image.

Part of me is really getting sick of the massive amount of hoopla that is spewing all over the internet (I luckily don't have cable and thanks to the new governmental anti-televised-terrorism regulations, I no longer get local signals either) that's debating the worthiness of Jackson's effect on the populace.  Is it a tragedy or is he not worth taking about?  Are the people profoundly affected by his passing soulless losers or are the cultural elite just snobbish pricks?  Hell I'm adding to it, but it gets back to the point that this is how deeply the man was rooted in out culture.  Michael Jackson was one of the last of the living crazy American gods.   He fits right in between Marilynn Monroe, Mickey Mouse, Elvis, Ronald McDonald, and James Dean as our culture's answer to Jesus, Buddha or whatever god floats your boat.  Michael Jackson is Levi's, he's Kraft American Cheese slices, he's Coke, he's Ford, and he's the Yankees.  He had a light side (insert obvious joke here), he had a dark side (insert slightly less obvious joke here), and his legacy is a series of life after death sightings, zombie jokes, obsessive attention paid to his kids, questions over the truth to the child molestation charges, an endless string of greatest hits releases, and at least seven more urban legends (perhaps involving his bones being interred with the Elephant Man's in some dusty old museum in London.)



I think the above picture sums up how I feel about his post "We are the World" years.  You might also want to check out the rest of the Michael Jackson stickers in my collection by clicking here or the sad clown above…

So about a year ago during Wizard World Chicago 2008, my wife doodled up an idea for a line of creatures that she hoped to turn into a webcomic.  Well it's been percolating and brewing for awhile and she recently decided to try and make them into a line of stuffed animals.  We went out and hit Michaels this weekend and picked up some materials and she whipped together her first proof of concept…



She had been going through a creative funk, and was trying to find and outlet.  I think this first stuffed animal is great and I'm so proud of her for having her vision, and seeing it through to a very neat end!  We're planning out some other additions to the line and hopefully this'll lead to a new hobby for her, which she's needed for awhile.

I just received my copy of the new Transformers season one DVD set and I was pretty darn impressed…



For the last few years it's been a wonderful time for fans of 80s cartoons.  Between the lovely Filmation sets released by the now sadly defunct BCI Eclipse, Warner Bros. stepping up to the plate and offering action cartoons like Thundercats and the Silverhawks, WEP/Anime Works/Media Blasters releasing the complete series of Voltron, Time Life releasing the complete Real Ghostbusters, and Shout! Factory picking up dropped licenses for a ton of DiC and now Sunbow cartoons, releasing 30-odd episode sets instead of the paltry 4 episode discs for shows like C.O.P.S. and Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, it's just been great.

With the recently released Transformers season one 25th anniversary edition, Shout! Factory has stepped up its game and taken on a tent-pole series, looking to correct the mistakes in the show's past DVD releases (both in terms of price point, attractive packaging and actual animation and sound snafus from the 2002 Rhino releases.)  Taking a nod from Time Life and their release of the Real Ghostbusters, Shout! is putting together multiple DVD sets that'll hopefully appease both casual and hardcore fans.  This set is the first of 4 individual releases that will comprise the complete Transformers cartoon.

This first set includes all 16 episodes from season one, a 20 minute documentary featurette featuring a lot of the creative team responsible for the original toy line, the Marvel comics series, and the cartoon, a G.I. Joe-style "Knowing is half the battle…" PSA featuring Bumblebee, three archival Hasbro toy commercials, a printable script for the episode "Transport to Oblivion", and a large b&w Autobot magnet.   For the most part, these episodes are from the same masters that Rhino used in the 2002 releases, but Brian Ward and his team painstakingly researched the discrepancies between the original masters and the broadcast versions, and replaced most of the incorrect footage (and sound) with the correct sections from the 1" broadcast tapes.  For casual fans these changes will be transparent, but for longtime viewers, these new DVDs are the closest we've gotten to how the show was originally shown on TV.  Unfortunately, the 1" tapes segments tend to stick out a bit, and can be a bit jarring as the animation flows between the crisp sequences of the original masters and the softer, slightly duller 1" broadcast tape.  On the whole though, knowing that the original broadcast versions are preserved far outweighs the visual bumpiness.

Here's an example of the corrected animation from the episode "Fire in the Sky".  Look to the missing Decepticon symbol on Skyfire's chest in the original master footage from the 2002 Rhino release on the left, and the newly inserted footage from the 1" broadcast tape on the new Shout! DVD on the right...



The episodes included on disc 1:
-More Than Meets the Eye: Part 1
-More Than Meets the Eye: Part 2
-More Than Meets the Eye: Part 3
-Transport to Oblivion
-Roll for It
-Divide and Conquer
-Fire in the Sky
-S.O.S. Dinobots

The episodes included on disc 2:
-Fire on the Mountain
-War of the Dinobots
-The Ultimate Doom: Part 1
-The Ultimate Doom: Part 2
-The Ultimate Doom: Part 3
-Countdown to Extinction
-A Plague of Insecticons
-Heavy Metal War

As far as the packaging, presentation and bonus materials go, I was very impressed by the attention to detail and that Shout! had and eye on the style of the original toy packaging when designing the slipcase, sleeve inserts, disc art and the episode guide.  The foil embossed slipcase is brilliant and just plain beautiful (especially compared to the rather dull silver digipaks of the original 2002 Rhino release.)   This is the best work I've seen from Shout! when it comes to their 80s cartoon releases.  The menu navigation is light years better than the old Rhino DVDs as well, with an included feature to play multi-part episodes together without interrupting the flow of the cartoon by cutting out the opening and closing credits on the in-between episodes.  The 20 minute "From Toy to Comic to Screen" featurette takes its cue from the docs that Andy Mangels did for the BCI Eclipse He-Man, She-Ra, and Dungeons and Dragons sets, and is well produced.  The main focus of the doc centers around Hasbro acquiring the toy license from Takara, the development of the Marvel comic series, and eventually how the story-lines for the three platforms differed, and features creative talent that worked for Marvel, Hasbro and Sunbow past and present.  It's not quite as in-depth as I was hoping, skirting talk of the production of the series for the most part, but according to the specs of the Complete series set, we can expect two more docs in these individual sets, as well as two additional and exclusive docs on the complete set (including a voice actor reunion), so there's room for more down the road.   Also, it was kind of weird that the interviewees hid all mention of Marvel when talking about the comics, they'd just refer to "a comic company", or "that comic series".  As for the toy commercials, two of them pertain to G1 toys, while a third is for the G2 Optimus Prime re-release.   It's really interesting seeing these, though it can be distracting while watching them because the child actor's faces were blurred (I’m guessing for rights or residuals issues.)  There's also a glimpse of the Sunbow Marvel comics commercial in the documentary which kind of makes me hope that these will be included on future sets or maybe the complete set, but I'm not holding my breath...

All in all, for a set retailing between $20-30, fans couldn't really ask for anything better considering the Rhino DVDs have been out of print and fetching upwards of $100 a set.  This is the first time the Transformers series has been released with this much loving detail at such an affordable price in the US, and hopefully it's just the icing on the cake as there are three more sets, as well as the G.I. Joe series to look forward to. Brian Ward and the team at Shout really did a great job with this set.

There sure has been a lot of radio silence coming out of Branded this year.  Sheesh.  I have been working on a project that I'll hopefully be able to talk about soon, but in the meantime I thought I'd throw out an update on two of my favorite 80s cartoons getting the royal treatment on DVD, G.I. Joe and Transformers.  I've mentioned recently about Shout! Factory acquiring the rights to release a bunch of Hasbro owned properties and how excited I am about finally getting affordable releases of my two favorite cartoons.  This whole process has been rather transparent on Shout!'s end, with Brian Ward inviting fan input on both shows during the DVD production via the company's community forums (Transformers thread & G.I. Joe thread.)  Though I'm not nearly as well versed in the minutia of the cartoons, knowing the various differences in broadcast versions vs. the original masters, all the little sound and picture errors, etc., I'm glad there is a community of dedicated fans who are and that, that knowledge base was tapped in the creation of these new DVDs.

   

Well, we've finally gotten around to seeing the fruit of Shout! Factory's labors with the Transformers season 1 set finally hitting store shelves this past week (I'm still eagerly awaiting my copy from Amazon as I type this.)   The season 1.1 set of the G.I. Joe cartoon is just around the corner as well, which should be available for purchase on July 21st.

Well, one of the aspects of this whole push to re-release these shows is that Shout! Really is concerned with "getting it right" so to speak, and they've taken a cue (I believe) from Time Life's Complete Real Ghostbusters set, in that in tandem with the announcement of the season 1 DVDs they've also put the wheels in motion on two complete series sets for both shows.   Unlike Time Life (which has only released the individual season 1 set of the GB cartoon), they've also committed to releasing the full run of each series in separate individual sets, giving the casual fan, the strapped-for-cash fan, and the uber fan buying options that best suit their needs.

So on July 13th you'll be able to pick up the complete Transformers G1 series on DVD in a very nice set that really looks like it's going to outshine the original Rhino releases in terms of packaging and special features…



Besides being packaged in a slipcase designed to look like and open like the Autobot Matrix of Leadership, there's also a 60-page book, a bunch of archival toy commercials and PSAs, galleries featuring concept and fan art, as well as a couple of Autobot and Decpticon magnets.  The set also includes five featurettes on the series (including two which are unique to the complete series set, an interview with Bob Budiansky, and a cast reunion with Jack Angel (Ramjet), Michael Bell (Prowl), Gregg, Berger (Grimlock), Aurthur Burghardt (Devastator), Corey Burton (Spike Witwicky), Richard Gautier (Rodimus Prime), Neil Ross (Slag), Frank Welker (Megatron).)  The complete set clocks in at 16 discs (with what appears to be alternate disc art from the individual releases) with all 98 episodes for $140 (shipping included) and is available for preorder.  Click the image below for a nice enbiggened version…



The set that I'm really looking forward to is the Complete G.I. Joe seeing as Rhino lost the rights before completing the original run of DVDs back in the early 2000's.  This will be the first time that a good chunk of the series will be released on DVD, and even though I was skeptical of what sounded like a boring "footlocker" package, I’m really impressed with the presentation…



This set is also available for pre-order ($145, shipping included) and will be released on July 22nd.   Click the image below for a nice enbiggened version…



Again, this set comes with a lot of special features including a 60-page book, a 1gb dog tag shaped USB flash drive (which includes two silent comics, which I'm assuming are akin to CBZ versions of the comics), all the "Knowing is half the battle" PSAs, 25 archival toy commercials (though it looks like the Marvel Comics commercials missed the cut, which is a shame since they were the origin of the animated series), and a couple of rub-on tattos.  Also included are 8 featurettes, again including two which are exclusive to this set (a conversation with Larry Hama and a voice cast reunion featureing: Jack Angel (Wet Suit), Michael Bell (Duke), Gregg Berger (Spirit), Arthur Burghardt (Destro), Corey Burton (Tomax), Richard Gautier (Serpentor), Neil Ross (Shipwreck), B.J. Ward (Scarlett).)  I'm surprised Frank Welker didn't sit in on this one as well seeing as he shows up for the Transformers session and voiced Wild Bill.

I'm probably going to end up picking up the complete series for G.I. Joe if for nothing else than aesthetic reasons as I’m a huge fan of the original toy packaging artwork which is used exclusively in this set for the disc art.  I guess I'm just goofy that way.  Besides, knowing my luck something will keep the full run of individual sets from being released again and I don't want to miss out on any of the episodes this time around.  Also, both sets will be available for purchase at San Diego comic con this year, if you're attending and can afford it.  If nothing else, I hope that these sets move a bunch of units as I've love to see enough profit generated so that Shout! Might consider licensing and releasing some of the other Sunbow shows that Hasbro recently re-attained the rights to including Jem, the Visionaries and the Inhumanoids.  Hell, I'd also be happy if some of that cash could go to pushing second releases of some of the other 80s cartoon properties that Shout! Already holds like C.O.P.S. and Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, but that seems like a pipe dream.

I've got a special treat this week in the form of another reader supplied installment of Peel Here.   I actually have a couple of these in the hopper, but this one was practically written for me so it's hitting first.  These stickers come from the personal collection of Jesse Guiher, a freelance artist & graphic designer (you can find out more at his site, Tigertailart.com.)  Jesse's collection is pretty cool, and it's housed in a pretty sweet Lazer Blazers sticker binder.   Anyway, I'll let Jesse speak for his own collection (which will be italicized and I'll pipe in here and there to give my thoughts, in bold, as well…)

It is a Lazer Blazer album, but I never put the actual blazer stickers in it (never really liked them even as a kid they seemed to lack the 3D element they were supposed to have).  I am a guy, but I have always liked fantasy stuff and never really liked the other lazer blazer albums that were at my local Kmart (though I would have killed for the Gremlins one) so I got the Unicorn one.  Never thought it would be a problem until I was around the other guys...needless to say I never showed it to anyone else again it was my secret sticker album from that point on.



Since I missed out on the whole Lazer Blazer phenomenon to begin with I don't have any of the baggage.   I do have to say that the thought of a Gremlins themed sticker album would be the bee's knees though…

The very prevalent pink stickers are from a poster calendar kit that I had to go around door to door selling to raise money for our school in the 80s (plus the obligatory awesome thick double candy bars with almonds).  You will also notice quite a few praying hands and other little religious stickers.  These are from vacation bible school; you had to save up points by memorizing memory verses from the bible to get the "cool" stickers and they gave away these dumb little religious ones for everything else... well it was a sticker what else was I supposed to do with it?  You don't waste stickers... so to make them "cool" I put them in upside down, like the cross in "The Exorcist" (yes I am aware of how stupid this sounds now but I was kid... its kid logic what do you want?).



I really dig the Lisa Frank-esque dancing bears spelling out Jesse's name on the inside front cover of the collection.

My favorite ones on here have always been the foil ice cream cones, there were a few other colors like pink/red but I am not sure what I did with them.  So far, aside from that there are a lot of valentines stickers from a hallmark pack and lots of scratch n sniff which were probably my favorite kind of sticker.  You can even see a Texas Ruby Red sticker I got off a grapefruit (hey it looked cool and it is a sticker... it counts right?)



The grapefruit sticker is the perfect example of how there are no rules to sticker collecting as a kid.  Like I've mentioned in past Peel Here columns, I wasn't above picking the descriptive stickers off of packages of meat in the deli section of the grocery store, as well as any and all produce stickers I could acquire.  In fact, just a few years ago I swiped an extra Great Pumpkin themes produce sticker off of a Halloween carving pumpkin because it looked so cool.   I also really dig the foil robot and various scratch-n-sniff stickers on this page (that salami one must smell something awful.)  The artwork on the vanilla sticker (in the bottom right) reminds me of MAD magazine style art (of which we'll see a bit more of towards the end of the collection.)   I'm also fond of the monster valentines (which reminds me of these stickers I posted about a little while ago…)

Ah yes, Donkey Kong... the obsession that has permeated my life with old video games started with playing Donkey Kong on a family trip in a heat plastered 7-11.  Naturally I bought the card packs for both Donkey Kong and Pac-Man when they came out.  The cola scratch n sniff here was probably my favorite it really did (and still sorta does) smell like cola.  I love the foil embossed castle and hot air balloon, but they have always been a pain to maintain: they keep coming undone off the page.  The puffy highway signs on this page are glow in the dark (my second favorite type of sticker), but they were cheaply made and easily fell apart as can be witnessed by the two that fell off the page.  Grimace and Sam the Olympic Eagle sticker on the next page came from Mcdonalds of course; my dad used to work as a manager at our local Mcd's in the 80s and I ended up with all kinds of bizarre happy meal leftovers.  I still wish I could track down the cool Atari giveaway scratch tickets they had, or even better one of the promotion posters for the giveaway.  That summer of desperately scratching off tickets (and finding out I wouldn’t be eligible to win anyways due to pops working there) is indelibly etched in my memory.



I love the Atari sticker card sets that came out in the early 80s (like these Donkey Kong stickers.)  Though I love my Topps sticker cards, I really love the idea of sheets of random themed stickers you could get in wax packs.  Just puts a new collectible spin on sticker trading and it provides a ton of stickers so you don't have to be so choose-y when deciding to stick them (if you're not planning on putting 'em all in a sticker book that is.)  Also, I have to second the love for the Mello Smello cola can sticker.  I really dig these over-sized scratch-n-sniffs.

More Donkey Kong, more Valentines, more scratch n sniff (plus a few homemade stickers, one of which is an ice cream soda).  I used to make homemade stickers by looping tape for the backs and sticking them down to wax paper, then selling them to my fellow classmates.  I got busted when my booming business branched out to selling pom poms for shoelaces and pieces of candy from packages, which ended with a trip to the principal's office.  I personally really like the bright goofy space theme stickers here which were from a sheet package.



Honestly, I have to say that was pretty inventive of Jesse to make his own stickers back in the day.   I never thought to do that.  Oh and I totally feel your pain on getting busted for selling stuff at school.  I was also caught with a baggie full of individually wrapped Atomic Fireballs which I used to sell for a quarter a pop to sugar starved classmates.  Oh and those spaceship/alien stickers have a really nice Yellow Submarine vibe to 'em.

Some really cool foil prismatics of amusement park stuff (another life long obsession). More scratch n sniffs (these came on sheets that were so very oddly cut: there was no border they just cut a ling directly around each sticker so the entire sheet was completely used.  Each of these scratch 'n sniffs came to a sheet with one scent, and I think 2 different sheets to a pack.  My favorite stickers of all time are on this page: the glow in the dark ghost stickers I found at Kmart on the turn rack next to the lazer blazers.  These things still glow like a champ when exposed to light and are very thick and durable, to my older graphic designer eyes I think they were silk screened onto laminated glow plastic.  They were more pricey than the other stickers, but I have always loved Halloween themed stuff and just had to have them.



The please-post-bills-here! sticker is from one of the MAD card sets (as is the Don Martin sticker on the following page).  I remember thinking that these cats were unusually freaky looking, especially the orange one and the one with the children's block (K is for "Kill").



Care Bears... everyone was into them to one degree or another, they do have a certain charm even now but seem sickeningly sweet as well.  I still love these round fantasy stickers, I got them off a roll at Hallmark when they used to have this huge aisle of sticker rolls and you could go in with pocket change and get half a dozen.  I think that is the defining moment of when I fell in love with stickers: when I first went into the mall Hallmark and saw that aisle, that along with comic books and collector cards probably are what set me on my current path of illustration/graphic design.



Super grape-ity scratch n sniffs, these grape snow cones are still very powerful smelling even now.  The original Kmart sticker is still on here in the upper right, it seemed strange to me to take off a sticker, even a price sticker in a sticker book so I left it on.





…and there you have a tour down a piece of my childhood, I believe I got this album around 1983, or 1984. –Jesse

Well, thanks for sharing those Jesse. I always love getting a chance to take a look at other childhood sticker collections, in particular what stickers were deemed worthy of holding onto and in what order they're placed in the collection.

Anyway, until next time…