X-Men ‘97, s1 (2024)

in

(****+ / *****): A few stumbles in the early middle aside (the Rogue / Magneto stuff, especially, was pretty eh), this is how you do a revival: faithful yet fearless, unafraid to royally shake things up – but never for the sake of just doing it – and amplifying everything that made the original as special as it was into all that it could be today. Can’t wait for season two.

x-men in all their 1997 glory

links/2024w07

in

At around age 60, with her 3 children all grown up and out of her hands, Sugiyama decided to relocate from Saitama up north to Iwate prefecture where she had relatives, and was closer to her birthplace of Aomori. She obtained her chiropractors license and opened a small practice where she served the local community for over 10 years. 

One day, Sugiyama found a pack of discarded colored markers near a dumpster. Noticing that they were still in good shape, she decided to take them home and begin doodling. Soon, images of trees and rivers all inspired by the nature of Aomori began pouring out of her and onto the pages of a sketchbook. After a year or so of sketching with the markers, Sugiyama remembered her mother’s colorful kimonos that had been stored away. There was no use for them in storage so the artist, whose creative juices were now flowing, decided to begin incorporating them into her work, which eventually led to a style she has coined as “Kimono Reborn Art.”

in

Spent much of the morning answering interview questions about animation and transmedia and I remain shocked – and grateful – that, 11 years after it came out, I'm still answering questions (and capable of answering questions) about a 300-page book I wrote in five months (distilling a lifetime of experience, of course) in my grandparents' basement with much of my research material (comics and big sheets of paper) spread across a pool table while dealing with the foreclosure of my first house, quitting smoking, and the general upending of my life and identity up to that point. Back to it.