T minus 3 Hiroko Sakurai

If I remember correctly, this was Comic-con in 2004, whenever Ultra Q had been released on DVD for the first time in Japan.  That is "Fuji" from Ultraman, and she was so nice and sweet.  I still have her autograph somewhere, along with the promo material they gave me for the Ultra Q release.  Who knew it would actually have a (somewhat) legit R1 DVD release with subtitles over here?  Not this guy, I'll tell you what!  Hiroko spoke English much better than I spoke Japanese, by the way.

T Minus 4- Eiji Tsuburaya day

I think August said his real birthday is July 10th, and it's only fitting that I'll be hosting the Ultraman panel at Comic-con that day.  It would be his 114th year on this planet, and it's really nice and still surprising at all the love he got today.  I mean, even Google had the game to play online, which was amazing to me.  Ten years ago I would never have thought this was possible at all, and here we are, celebrating a true master's life.

Countdown... t minus five

Wow, this trip is sure coming up fast! Spoke to Ashlee tonight about the format of the panel and it should be a lot of fun. I've got some trivia questions ready to go, and I think they range from easy to arcane, so we can weed out the nerds. Yes, that is a joke.

the LAST Marine Boy episode

The time is upon me... I am about to watch the last episode of Marine Boy.  In the 15 plus years now that I've been watching this cartoon, this episode has never been available to anyone.  I had the 77 episodes in various quality and was watching them and taking notes.  When I started, I didn't even know how many were made, let alone if any were missing.  Even when it was aired in Australia this was the missing episode at the time.  Heck, we didn't even know the name of it. 

the Origin of Captain America

I posted this a couple years ago and that one is gone, so here it is again, the original motion comic books (just called cartoons back in 1966)! Gantry-Lawrence Animation did a pretty good job on the first and second season of Spider-man, but when they licensed some other Marvel titles they animated them as little as possible, and by using the actual art from the comics.

Ultra Comic!

This arrived in the mail yesterday.  I've only read a little bit but it's very interesting.  This what I'll be hosting my panel on little over week, so I better read it a few times.  It's set about 20 years in the future from the original Ultraman timeline, so that makes it about 2013 or so?  Hayata is older and has a son and both have some after effects of Hayata merging with Ultraman.  It's been some time since Earth has had a giant monster or alien invasion, so people have sort of forgotten what the Science Patrol was there for to begin with.

Blondie - Accidents Never Happen

Today is Debbie Harry's xxth birthday (cause I don't really care how old she is). In honor of that, and of her being one of my entrances into the world of "punk" and "new wave" I wanted to present one of my favorite songs of theirs, "Accidents Never Happen" as done live on the Midnight Special in 1979.

Marine Boy book conundrum

I worked on this book for over ten years, watching episodes, writing and re-writing the various parts to it and even securing interviews with two of the actors.  It was a true labor of love in every sense of those words.  I had thought it was complete right up until press time and then... Warners Home Video released the entire series on three sets of DVDs,  These are great sets as I've reviewed them elsewhere and am so happy to see them on legit DVD as one can only believe a fan would be.  However...

Iron Man 3 wrap up

So we last left our hero down and out, the Mandarin and AIM in charge, about to kill the president of the good ol' USA.  Aparently they've elected a new guy since the events in CA2 was revealed to be part of Hydra.  Hmm, wonder if Hydra and AIM would work together.  I don't think so.

The Ultra Call

Tomorrow I am talking to the rep for Viz Comics about my Ultraman panel at Comic Con (did I mention I was doing this yet?).  I'm excited but I also know I have some more homework to do, since most of my Heisei Ultra knowledge is limited to Ultraman Cosmos and Ultraman Mebius, English speaking Ultras notwithstanding.  I'm really excited and can hardly believe I am headed back to San Diego in less than two weeks now.  Maybe I miss it just a little bit.