Young
Edd Gould always enjoyed drawing comics of himself and his friends. Growing up in the internet age, his
doodles evolved into Flash animations of increasing complexity, and in time Edd and pals
Tom Ridgewell and Matt Hargreaves teamed up to produce an
"Eddsworld" series of online webtoons and
comics.
At first crude and halting, the group's
"eddisodes" progressed from
surreal shorts and
one-shots into full-fledged productions that pushed the boundaries of amateur web animation, with
expressive characters,
full soundtracks, complex effects, and a fast-paced, off-kilter sense of humor:
MovieMakers -
Spares -
WTFuture -
Rock Bottom -
Hammer & Fail (
2).
At its height, the college co-op was producing shorts for
Mitchell & Webb and the
UN Climate Change Conference,
fielding offers from Paramount and Cartoon Network, and racking up
millions of hits on YouTube.
Work slowed, however, when Gould was
diagnosed with leukemia -- a relatively survivable form, though, and Gould carried on
working gamely through his hospital stays. So it came as a shock last week when Matt and Tom
announced that Edd had passed away, prompting an
outpouring of
grief and
gratitude from
all the
fans he'd
entertained and
inspired in his short 23 years.
posted by Rhaomi
on Apr 2, 2012 -
5 comments
Twenty years ago today, the gaming world saw the launch of a truly landmark title:
Sonic the Hedgehog. Developed as a vehicle for a new Sega mascot, the fluid, vibrant, cheery-tuned wonderland swiftly became the company's flagship product, inspiring over the ensuing decades
an increasingly convoluted universe of TV shows,
comic books, and dozens of games on a variety of systems (all documented in
this frighteningly comprehensive TVTropes portal). And while in recent years the series has turned out
more and more mediocre 3D and RPG efforts, the original games remain crown jewels of the 16-bit era. So why not kick off this anniversary by replaying the titles that started it all for free in your browser:
Sonic the Hedgehog (1991),
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992),
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (1994),
Sonic & Knuckles (1994). Or click inside for music, remakes, and other fun stuff!
[more inside]
posted by Rhaomi
on Jun 23, 2011 -
71 comments
Darkseid tries to join the Legion of Superheroes, Batman wrestles the serpent in the garden of Eden, Clarke Kent shoots Abraham (Brainiac) Lincoln...
Hall of Silver Age Elseworlds first pages - from DC Silver Age Elseworld stories that never happened, from the Elseworlds 80-Page Giant collection, which was pulped after controversy surrounding
Letitia Lerner, Superman's Babysitter - which later became the only story in the collection to see print again.
posted by Artw
on May 14, 2009 -
21 comments
Tales of the Beanworld ("A most peculiar comic book experience") recently resumed publication after a long hiatus. It's a strange and abstract mix of Native American mythology and culture, with a strong ecological focus, into an wonderfully charming cosmology. While it certainly invites, uh,
overthinking, it's also entertaining on a purely casual level.
A sample
short Beanworld story is on the Dark Horse Comics Myspace page.
If you have questions about it, the
BeanWeb just may have answers, along with illustrations from the comics. There is now a
Beanworld Wiki to supplement it, and creator Larry Marder keeps a
blog where he talks about things bean.
Okay, now that it's properly introduced... the
real point of this post is to link to
this awesome Beanworld Flash cartoon, animated by Fashionbuddha and with music by They Might Be Giants!
posted by JHarris
on Dec 20, 2008 -
17 comments
This site was shown to me by my good friend
Chris Capuozzo over at Funny Garbage. One of his students made it and that is all I knew to check. Now if I did not have to go and ink a sketch of a boombox carrying robot, I would make a few commix.
posted by RubberHen
on Sep 30, 2006 -
29 comments
Graphic novels without words are the silent movies of the printed page. Now, the inestimable and erudite
vacapinta first directed us to the father of the genre, one
Frans Masereel. Up to recently, the most notable of Masereel's successors was
Lynd Ward, whose most famous work was
God's Man, subtitled
A Novel in Woodcuts. Here are some more
plates from
God's Man for sale. Yet more plates can be found, along with a bad midi, at the Texas based
Woodcuts - Lynn Ward: Gods' Man. And here are some
illustrations from Georgetwon University's Lauinger Library September 2001 exhibit
Lvnd Ward as Illustrator. Here, also, is
Graphic Witness: visual arts & social commentary - Lynd Ward. And here is his
Madman's Drum in its entirety. But now we have a contemporary working in the same vein--
Eric Drooker.
More inside
posted by y2karl
on Aug 4, 2006 -
22 comments
What happens when crude Flash animation meets an absurd sense of humour? The surreal serial
Weird Emma, that's what. If Emma's not up your alley, maybe you'd prefer the static cartoons of
Wulff Morgenthaler.
posted by dobbs
on Jul 26, 2002 -
1 comment
Broken Saints is a beautifully done flash animation. A little anime in feel with some strange sonic diversions every once in a while. The pacing is a little slow for my highly Americanized tastes, but it's gorgeous all the same.
posted by willnot
on Jun 12, 2002 -
11 comments
Want to read
Marvel comics without paying for them?
Sign up for
dotComics, a flash based comic download manager/viewer. You can read Spider-Man, X-Men, Elektra, Incredible Hulk and even issues of the new Wolverine Origin series all without the racking guilt of media "piracy". Ahoy, matey!
posted by will
on Jun 5, 2002 -
5 comments
The Little Ninja. A beautiful Flash series, one of the best I have stumbled across in my travels around the web. The music, artwork and production are all top notch, and Ninjai's voice is just spellbinding. Anyone know of any other high-quality flash comics like this one?
posted by skinjob
on Aug 25, 2001 -
20 comments
