Kyle Baker's Plastic Man

This was my favourite comic series ever. Hardly anybody seems to be aware of it now, which is unfortunate. On the other hand, their relative obscurity makes me feel like I'm in on some kind of secret, which is always fun.

The writing and art in this comic were absolutely hysterical. Sadly, it only lasted 20 issues, and two of them were 'guest' issues done by a different guy. The last batch of issues, comprising one long storyline, never got collected into a trade paperback, so I suspect they're pretty hard to find now. As such, I don't think I'm causing any trouble by uploading a few of my favourite panels from some of those issues... Sorry for the crappy quality. All those tiny dots gave my scanner a headache. These do not do justice to the actual comics.

The first four images are from issue #15, the fifth one's from #16 and the last ones are two consecutive pages from #17. The first few pages of that issue, showing the teenagers' party in full swing, are especially great, but I didn't want to scan all my favourite drawings-- this is just a tiny sample of the greatness.

New Cartoon Character!

Here's my newest character. I'm currently working on a cartoon with him. It should hopefully be more like an old theatrical cartoon, and a little less talky than my Space Goose ones are. The character is loosely modelled after early 30's characters like Flip the Frog, Bimbo, Bosko, Mickey Mouse, etc. He's supposed to be a fish, but at the same time, he's not supposed to look or act like a fish. Sort of an exaggeration of how Flip the Frog didn't look anything like a frog for most of his career. That seemed to happen a lot in old cartoons, and I think it's hilarious.

His name is still undecided. I originally wanted to call him Fester Fish, but then realized that I'd stolen that from the Addams Family, so that wouldn't work. I mean, Fester IS an actual word, obviously, but using it as a deliberately gross name is exactly the same idea as "Uncle Fester".

So now he's probably going to be Flakey Fish, as suggested by my sister. It's a pretty good compromise between having the effect I want, and blatantly stealing an existing joke-name. It sounds a little cutesy to me though.

Other names I'm not really considering, but amuse me--
Flavio Fish
Fyodor Fish
Fineen Fish
Fidelio Fish
Hornyhead Chub (a real kind of fish... You learn something every day!)

Fester or Flakey - Which name do you think I should use? Or does anybody have a better one?

Anyway, here's a little statue thing of him I'm working on. I still need to paint it.





And of course this is my dog sleeping in a fetal position.

Lupin - Ice, Robot Part 3

Lupin and the rest have brought the robot back to Dr. Pot's place. About to enter, Gavotte stops to observe "oh Baby, you are so damn bee-yootiful."


Again, this is just a shot of a guy opening a door, but I think it's really funny.


Inside, as our heroes look around and wait for Dr. Pot to get back. The lab is full of bizarre devices like a giant magnet. According to Lupin, it doesn't work.


Meanwhile, Jigen has trouble with a nose-blowing machine.


Suddenly, bullets fly through the windows!



It's Gavotte, come back to re-steal the robot.


This is one of my favourite shots. Apart from this great image, I like it because Gavotte yells "YAAHHHH!! SHOOT STUFF!!!"


Eventually they realize there's nobody there. Baby is not pleased. Nice cartoony stretching of the hat here. Cartoony stretching and squashing, which is the bread and butter of classic Western animation, is really rare in Japanese animation.








Eventually Lupin and Gavotte agree to meet at an amusement park at sunset, to exchange the robot for Dr. Pot.



All does not go well.



Dr. Pot and the robot wind up in the same roller coaster car.




Goemon slices the track with his "deus ex machina" sword, and Jigen lifts it up, in a helicopter. Only in a cartoon...





This causes the car to roll back to Lupin and Fujiko.


Gavotte doesn't like that, so he sends his men up after them.








Then Lupin makes Gavotte and Baby asplode.


But as the heroes are rolling away, who should jump down onto the car but Zenigata?



He announces that Lupin's under arrest, but then the car flies off the track (which Goemon cut).


Lupin and the heroes escape by holding onto the robot, which Jigen lifts in the helicopter using the super-magnet from the lab. Apparently it does work after all.


Dr. Pot is re-united with his robot, which as it turns out, has been broken and now only makes diamond-shaped ice cubes. Dr. Pot is more excited about that than he was about the diamonds.


And so Gavotte quits being a gangster and becomes a clown.

The End.

This mystery animator/layout artist/director was sometimes given material that didn't play to his strengths, similar to how Terrytoons didn't always give Jim Tyer the most appropriate scenes (versus Bob Clampett's Looney Tunes unit where Rod Scribner got the craziest scenes, Bob McKimson got mostly the low-key straight ones that required really solid draftsmanship, etc). Off the top of my head, I can recall one other episode he did at least part of-- "Zenigata Get You into my Life." That's one of the more dramatic episodes, and so he wasn't able to do as much with it. I don't remember thinking that it was that great, because he's best suited to funny comedic poses and flat staging, whereas in that episode he was required to do more 'straight' work. In Mamo the poses aren't quite as funny as these, but I'm not sure how exactly he was involved in it, so I don't know whether it was the fact that it was a bit more drama-oriented, or the fact that he was less involved in the animation. As I re-watch other Lupin episodes I'll try to find others where I can recognize the guy's drawing style.

I should point out that this episode is available on the final volume of Geneon's Lupin the Third DVD series-- Vol. 15, 'Thievin' Ain't Easy.'

Lupin - Ice, Robot Part 2

Here's more from the cartoon.


This is a hilarious shot. The scene is showing us that this nightclub is a naughty place filled with gangsters, loose women and the devil's music (ragtime), and in the middle of it, we pan under a table and see that all the gangsters are tapping their feet in perfect unison. It's not a weird idea or anything-- it makes sense that they'd be tapping their feet to the music, but somehow I find it hysterical. Tapping your foot to music just seems like such like such a tame, wholesome activity.



Okay, so here are the characters who really occupy most of this episode. Gavotte the gangster, his moll Baby, and this weird kid named One-Eared Joe. They've stolen this robot from an eccentric scientist named Dr. Pot (why exactly is he named Dr. Pot?) that's supposed to 'cry' diamond tears. As I said, it's a weird premise, especially given that the robot doesn't actually cry, or do anything. It's just a static machine, and it barely even resembles a humanoid in the first place. You wonder why the diamonds wouldn't just come out of a hole or something. The 'crying tears made of diamonds' idea seems a bit under-developed... or should I say 'half-baked?' Maybe that's why he's called Dr. Pot. It was the 70's, after all.



So we've seen the robot make diamonds earlier in the episode, but now that it's back at Gavotte's place, it just shoots water.


Gavotte is confused. Also funny-looking.



As I said, One-Eared Joe is kind of a weird character. He just sits in the corner and laughs hysterically at Gavotte. Kinda seems like he's not all there.

But it never really explains why the kid hangs out with Gavotte and Baby (what kind of name is Baby? It's not just Gavotte's pet name for her, as everybody in the episode calls her that). It never really explains anything about these characters. I guess it's not really necessary, but it is a bit awkward at first.


Gavotte's voice and dialogue are great.
"Shut yowah yap One-Ear! Do I amuse you? Do I make you laugh?"
I think he's played by Tony Oliver, but I'm not 100% sure.




While trying to retrieve the robot, Lupin and his gang run into Zenigata. Normally he's obsessed with trying to arrest Lupin, but not in this episode. Instead, he's in town to see a Liza Minelli concert.




This is just a simple shot of Lupin inserting his key, but even it's kind of cool. It's better in motion though.



Eventually Lupin gets away, but Zenigata's obsession gets the better of him, and he hails a taxi, ordering the driver to "chase that car." This gag is sort of a twist on the old joke that was also used in the Muppet Movie-- Instead of just driving after Lupin without Zenigata, which is the standard joke, he strips down to his underwear, makes Zenigata fire a starting gun and chases Lupin on foot:







Zenigata observes that for a man his size, the guy sure is a fast runner.


Lupin soon gets the ice robot, while Gavotte's gone out for a drive. Look at Lupin's face in this picture, and tell me this wasn't the same guy who did the "Secret of Mamo" designs.



Zenigata sees Lupin again, and finally rips up his ticket in frustration. He gets another taxi.

It's the same driver, but he won't make the same mistake twice.


I love these poses. Notice the camera error in the last one, along the top of the image.


When somebody makes a turn in this cartoon, they really turn! Gavotte's face in this one also really reminds me of the Mamo movie.


More domestic abuse in Gavotte's basement.

"Dat's not a joke, One-Ear! You keep this up and pretty soon you'll be changin' yah name to No-Ear!"



Gavotte decides that boxing is the best way to get information about the robot from Dr. Pot.





Part 3 is on the way.