My first Mosaic webcomic is officially up! It stars G1 Mirage and Perceptor. The strip has only been up a few hours, and is already making its rounds on the web. Check it out here, here and here!

I had a lot fun drawing this one! My thanks to everyone involved. And there's more where this came from...

Wow. You'd think I'd see an upswing in Korpso the Clown shirt sales after this hit the web...

Don't send in the clowns

LONDON (Reuters) - Bad news for Coco and Blinko -- children don't like clowns and even older kids are scared of them.

The news that will no doubt have clowns shedding tears was revealed in a poll of youngsters by researchers from the University of Sheffield who were examining how to improve the decor of hospital children's wards.

The study, reported in the Nursing Standard magazine, found all the 250 patients aged between four and 16 they quizzed disliked the use of clowns, with even the older ones finding them scary.

"As adults we make assumptions about what works for children," said Penny Curtis, a senior lecturer in research at the university.

"We found that clowns are universally disliked by children. Some found them quite frightening and unknowable."

(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Steve Addison)

Source.

(Hat tip to Ben Avery!)

Steve Jobs, please stop making gadgets that I must own. My poor wallet can't take it!

Check out the sweet video below...

So we got a Nintendo Wii for Christmas. Pretty fun machine, though I haven't had much time to play it yet. My only complaint is that the controls take awhile to get used to, and if the game wasn't designed specifically for the Wii, the Wii remote/nunchuk tends to actually make the game more difficult.

Still, with an impressive library of game releases in its first year and backwards compatibility with, conceivably, every Nintendo game ever made (through Gamecube compatibility and the Virtual Console) this could very well be the NES of the 2000s.

We got the following games with the system...

Super Mario Galaxy - My wife has been playing this one, but from watching her it looks pretty darned impressive. I like the nods to older games in the Mario series. That was sorely missed in Super Mario Sunshine.

LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga - My son loved the first two games for the PS2, so it was a given we'd get this. I think it controls a little harder than the PS2 version, but it's nice to have all the levels on one disc and the bonus goodies are a real plus. It's also been polished in places, as the first game seemed a bit rushed. Definitely the best version of the game so far!

Sonic and the Secret Rings - Awesome graphics and breakneck speed. Unfortunately the controls are really wonky and it make doing basic moves much more difficult than it should be. If I get more time, I may give it another try. It's way too hard for the kids, however. So far I'd say Sonic Heroes for the Gamecube is the best 3D Sonic game, hands down. It would be nice if Sega went back to that style of gameplay and just polished it up a bit.

SSX Blur - Another toughie, and I haven't played it enough to tell you whether or not it's any good. I loved SSX Tricky on PS2 and I was kind of hoping for that same rush on Wii. So far I'm not hearing much voice acting, and the controls are very, very difficult. Maybe I just need more practice?

For me, the Virtual Console is one of the most exciting features. My son loves our old N64, but it takes up a lot of room. It looks like we can finally sell it and download Super Mario 64, Pokemon Snap and his other favorites on the Wii.

So far, so good. Between the Wii and the DS, it looks like Nintendo is finally back on top! Sorry Sony, you dropped the ball with the PS3 and I don't see myself getting one anytime soon.

Kneon watched.

Kneon gives a HUGE thumbs up.

Good gravy, Starscream is perfect. P-E-R-F-E-C-T.

I didn't think it was possible for anybody to channel Chris Latta -- especially not Spongebob Squarepants -- but... he's good. Real good.

SPOILERS APLENTY... you've been warned!

There are LOTS of G1 nods including...

• Theme song
• Classic transformation sound
  
• Opening montage of old "footage" ripped right from the Sunbow cartoon
• The Allspark looks like a combination of the G1 Matrix and movie Allspark
• Teletraan-1!
• Vehicles are scanned via Teletraan-1's satellite just like in "More Than Meets the Eye." I was half expecting it to say "Explore! Explore! Repair! Repair!"
• Space bridges!
• Prime has a "Matrix chamber" when his chest is opened.
• When Prime "dies", he turns grey just like the movie
• Cameo by Spike, Carly and Daniel Witwicky...

Beast Wars nods include...

• Blackarachnia
• Protoforms
• Stasis pods
• Young, inexperienced Optimus leading a small team of pacifists/scientists

Live-action movie nods include...

• Prime has lips (works better than you'd think, and suits this younger Prime)
• Megatron's Cybertron form
• Bumblebee's stripes
• Ratchet's design (minus the snot green)
• Matrix/Allspark hybrid
• Bulkhead's line "Oops... my bad!" seems to reference Prime's now infamous movie line

I'm sure there were lots more I'd forgotten or missed, but so far it's an excellent, excellent start. It starts fresh, but also brings in several elements from previous incarnations of the series to please fans of every age. A lot of love and attention to franchise history went into this series, and it shows. I have MUCH more hope for this show than the Unicron Trilogy, and I think it's only going to get better from here!

The kid is annoying, but aren't the kids in every Transformers series?

After being hugely disappointed with this year's live-action movie, I think it'll be safe for me to be a fan of the Transformers again. Time will tell.

Overall? 8/10

A belated Christmas present from the folks at Cartoon Network, the brand-spankin' new animated series premieres with a 90 minute movie at 8:00 p.m. EST. Be there!

In the meantime, here's another preview to tide you over...



If I get a chance to catch it, I'll post my thoughts later this week.

We finally got a Wii and a few games as a family gift this Christmas. One of those games was LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga. It's a real blast playing with the Wii remote and my son is totally kicking imperial booty. So naturally, I'm excited to hear that there will be more LEGO action games coming next year...

LEGO Batman: The Video Game


LEGO Indiana Jones: The Video Game


Now if we could get a LEGO Transformers game, I'd be a happy camper.

So I'm doing a couple of one page stories for the Transformers: Mosaic project. It's a really cool experiment in fan interaction, as these one page comic stories have Hasbro's and IDW's blessing.

Here's a sneak peek at a penciled page from the upcoming story "Protest" written by a fellow named "GeO" and drawn by me. Stay tuned!

Because Jeremy Zehr wants to know!



I'm pretty sure mine was G.I. Joe 14. I had read and re-read that book so many times that the cover started to fall off and I had to scotch tape it back on. Yo Joe!

Holy twisted sociopath, Batman! Any doubts I'd had about Heath Ledger as The Joker are gone, gone, gone. The Dark Knight is now my most anticipated movie of 2008, hands down!

Check out the trailer here!

For more geekery, check out my "real" blog here!