Jake Parker is one of those names that might not come to mind real quick, but some of his work does. Your kids may know him best from the Scholastic series Missile Mouse, but for the rest of us he’s been a behind-the-scenes guy for films like “Titan A.E.”, “Horton Hears A Who” and “Rio”. He’s also contributed to several books and comics as an illustrator, while also teaching up at BYU. Jake sat down with Gavin Sheehan from City Weekly to talk about his career and more.

Gavin’s Underground interview with Jake Parker

Gavin: How did the opportunity come about to work for 20th Century Fox, and what was it like working for them on various projects?

Jake: They had a studio in Phoenix and had imported a lot of talent, but were also looking for local talent as well. I was visiting my old art teacher from high school when he told me I should give it a shot. I sent them my portfolio, they saw a glimmer of something in my work and gave me a drawing test. Miraculously I passed and they hired me on. The spot they had open was for the “Rough Inbetween” department. Back when animated features were hand drawn the studios had a team of artists to fill in the drawings that the animators didn’t have time to do. So I would draw all the drawings that went in between the drawings the animators did. It was an eye opener for me to work at an animation studio. I had never seen so many talented people working together in one place. Prior to this I had no idea if drawing for a living was even viable, but here were 300 people in front of me doing art for a living, supporting families and paying off mortgages. While I was there I worked on “Bartok the Magnificent” and “Titan A.E.” Fox became my new art school. I was actually pretty bored with inbetweening, so I haunted other departments like background painting and visual development. There I would show the artists my work and get feedback and instruction. I really owe a lot to those guys who sort of took me under their wing and helped me make an artist out of myself.

Gavin: Over time you’ve had some pretty cool titles out for younger teens, like Hugo Earhart and Lucy Nova, plus your own title The Robot & The Sparrow. What’s the difference for you in creating your own works with your designs, and putting your work to other people’s creations?

Jake: Hugo Earhart was the story I contributed for the first volume of Flight. I wouldn’t exactly call it a “title” since it was just one 14 page story. Lucy Nova was a couple of 14 page stories I did for fun and to experiment a little more with drawing comics. One of them was self published and the other was a follow up story in the back of Kazu’s Daisy Kutter comic which was published by Viper Comics. The Robot & The Sparrow was the story I contributed to the second volume of Flight and is probably my favorite piece of art I’ve ever done. The only time I’ve drawn a comic that wasn’t my own creation, was a 10 page Jimmy Neutron story I did for Nick Magazine. It was fun to play around in that world for a little bit, but I much prefer creating my own worlds and characters.

I know in my lead ups, I always tend to talk about the cliffhanger from last week. It’s mainly because those are my favorite parts of the serials. Sometimes they can be incredibly goofy, but when they are done well, they actually still work in a suspenseful way. Take the last cliffhanger for example, Gail is about to be guillotined for failing to reveal Cap’s identity. Sure, it’s a tried and true death trap, but the way they lead up to it in this case gives me a case of white knuckled thrills if ever there was one! Will Cap save Gail, or will she be getting a head in life? Let’s watch Chapter Six: Vault of Vengeance and find out!

And for this week’s supplementary material, I don’t have anything directly related to this chapter, but I do have a giant scan of the poster art I used for the header image. Wheras most movie posters are one sheets, this baby is a three sheet! Apologies for slower load times, but I didn’t want to sacrifice quality. Enjoy!

UPDATED:  Congrats to our contest winners Christopher Tarbell of Portland, ME and Jeff Sudgen from one of the Jordans, UT.  I’ve added their essays at the bottom of the post for your perusal as they gave awesome answers. I’m getting to see X-men First Class tomorrow at a press screening and will have a review for you as soon as I can post one.

Early word on X-men First Class is surprisingly positive. I’ll be seeing it Tuesday and have a full review for you on Thursday.

In the meantime, we were contacted by the great folks at Junk Food Clothing to see if you lucky readers would like some FREE T-SHIRTS!!!!!?!

Knowing the awesome quality of what Junk Food puts out, we jumped at the chance. If you’re not familiar, Junk Food specializes in vintage tee’s and have a huge selection of superhero shirts, both in the Marvel and DC flavors.  You could (and totally should) go stock up and get one shirt for each of the rest of the movie premieres for the rest of the summer: an X-men, a Green Lantern, a Captain America, and get a Thor just to round things out.

So their shirt we’re giving away will be two of the following three varieties:

Nice, huh?

So, how to give these away to you, dear readers?

Well, I love the X-men. They were my gateway drug into Marvel comics. I loved the concept: a bunch of misfits, outsiders, scorned by society as freaks, who individual powers and personalities weren’t that compelling, but working as a part of a team, they could really kicks some ass. Plus, giant robot sentinels that scan your DNA is hella-scary and a pretty awesome vision for a dystopian future.
My geek coming-of-age was at the height of Chris Clairmont’s run on X-men, so my original X- team was Wolverine, Storm, and new recruits Rogue, Psylocke, Dazzler, and Longshot.  Colossus was frozen in his metal form, Nightcrawler was in a coma, Kitty Pryde was permanently “phased” and her molecules were floating apart. . . Havok and Polaris came in and out of the ongoing story, and, oh right, Professor X was missing and Magneto had become a good guy.  Crazy, and awesome.

Meanwhile, X-Factor was ongoing, featuring Cyclops, Angel (I cried when he lost his wings and then committed suicide), Jean Grey, Iceman, and a not-yet-furry Beast.

Marvel was also reprinting old X-comics as “Classic X-men” so I was also introduced to the original X-team and experienced the Phoenix origin as a monthly title thank to the spinner rack at Days Market on Canyon Road in Provo, UT.  One of these Classic X-men was a reprint of X-men 100, which inspired this contest:

“Old X-men vs. New X-men.”

Hmmmmm. . . and I thought of the other lineup changes X-men went through over the years: The Fall of the Mutants and their “Death”/exile to Australia. The addition of two characters , Jubilee and Gambit, who I hated and tolerated, respectively. There was the 90’s X-men cartoon. There was Age of Apocalypse. Cable. Bishop.
The Legacy Virus. The hiatus I took from comics. . . and picked them back up with Ultimate X-men and Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-men (with Emma Frost as a good guy?!?) The X-men movies, of course, blew my mind, and X2 remains at the top of the heap for my favorite superhero films ever.

So that’s the contest: Old X-men vs. New X-men.

Tell me, briefly, which X-men lineup is the best ever. And why. Which is your favorite?

Email me at citizenbot@bigshinyrobot.com with the subject line “X-men lineup” before the end of the Memorial Day weekend and include a name, address, and shirt size (S to XL).  I’ll go through all entries in my inbox Tuesday morning and post the two winning answers here.

Good luck, happy nostalgia-ing, and so, until Wolverine’s adamantium claws start to rust, MAKE MINE MARVEL!

Jeff:
My very first X-men comic was Uncanny X-men 226, and it was enough to get me hooked. This was towards the end of the “Fall of the Mutants” story line by Chris Claremont. The line-up consisted of Colossus (still my favorite X-men), Wolverine, Havok, Longshot, Rogue, Dazzler, Storm, non-ninja Psylocke, and Forge. I had no idea who the original team was, nor did I care at the time. As the story progresses the team ultimately sacrifices themselves to defeat their enemy the Adversary. While this team isn’t the most powerful, the most classic, or even the most memorable, it was the team that won me over.

Christopher:
When thinking over the greatest X-Men line ups over the ages, people usually mention one of Claremont’s reinventions, whether it be the late 70s team with Cyclops, Storm, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, and Thunderbird, or the 90s team which was split into two separate teams, and led to a much larger X Team and a very successful toy line and cartoon. Claremont’s 70s line up was better than his 90s one, but neither were the best. Claremont’s 70s run was small enough to work. Afterall, the biggest downfall of the 90s X-Men was too many X-men, and the overwhelming popularity of Wolverine. The 70s run was small enough to work, but the characters, except for a few here and there, were not fully established in the canon yet and the team didnt gel as well as it would later. Claremont was responsible for fleshing out so many of these characters. But is it really believable that Claremont’s Wolverine would take orders from Claremont’s Cyclops? Or that any of these X-Men would continue to follow Claremont’s Xavier so blindly? So this brings me to my point. When initially thinking over this question, my immediate response was Grant Morrison’s New X-Men team. The team consisted of a totally different, Apocalypse tainted Cyclops, an insecure Jean Grey, an untrustworthy Emma Frost, sarcastic Beast, and Wolverine being his regular self. This series team gets my attention mainly because the series itself is so good. But what makes this series so good, is that it is a transitional period for the X-Men. We start to see that Xavier is a jerk, Cyclops cheating on his wife, and Wolverine who seems too focused on the goals of the team to really come across as the lone wolf anymore. The team is small enough, which always helps, but it becomes apparent that there is no room for two strong female leads in any X team, and that either Cyclops or Xavier will have to take over the X helm as neither will be able to work with each other for much longer. Joss Whedon takes Morrison’s take on the X-Men and creates the greatest line up of the X-Men so far. Cyclops becomes defacto leader. It is now his job to run the school, and he is officially done being Xavier’s lapdog. This makes his take no crap from anyone role as leader all the more believable. With Jean dead, Emma becomes the central lead female of the team. Although not the main female character of the story (this honor is bestowed on the excellently written Kitty Pride), she is the central leading role of the team. She does it well. While I have always loved Jean, there is not enough of a woman to be with the new and improved Scott Summers. Emma is a perfect leadership and romantic counterpart to Cyclops. Beast is still the same sarcastic, comic relief character that he is in most X stories. Although, in Whedon’s run, the comedian shows his real demons (every comedian has them) when confronted with his rapidly mutating self. He is terrified that he will one day become an animal and lose that intellect and wit, the one thing that has always defined him. This gives a real gravity to a character that, in my opinion, was always kind of kitschy and throw away. Colossus and Kitty are the perfect antithesis to the romance of Scott and Emma. They are the young couple, stumbling over the beginnings of love. Their youthful love helps to further define the parent/leader role of Scott and Emma, and really Astonishing X-Men is the story of Kitty and Colossus. It begins with Kitty and it ends with Colossus. Someone reading it begins to really understand how far Kitty Pryde will not only go for her race, but also how far she will go for one particular mutant. Wolverine, and eventually Armor, are the final two members of the team. In my opinion, Wolverine was never meant to be a lead character. That being said, he is an excellent character, and Whedon uses him perfectly. Wolverine is the lone wolf, and naturally all writers and readers are attracted to this kind of character, but in order for Wolverine to be successful he needs to remain morally ambiguous and his reason for being part of the team should remain a mystery. This is why Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine is unbelievable, and James Marsden is forced to play a whiny boyscout Cyclops in the movie. Wolverine is not a leader. He is the seasoning on the steak. Too much of the seasoning ruins the steak, just the right amount makes it perfect. Armor is also a nice addition. She becomes the young up and comer, like Kitty Pryde, Jubilee and Rogue (movies) were before her. She makes a great counterpart to Wolverine and is a joy to read. So, in summation, while there have been so many great X-Teams, Joss Whedon’s got to the heart of it all and made the team that much more believable.

The second teaser trailer for the new Muppet movie (entitled simply The Muppets) is out now, and it appears to be a parody of the Hangover 2 teaser.

While it doesn’t provide much in the way of story, you can see most of your favorite characters together at the end (and YES!  I do believe I spot the Swedish Chef, sans hat).  This trailer is called “The Fuzzy Pack.”

I’ve also included the Hangover 2 teaser for comparison:

When I first heard that a new Muppet movie was in the works, I admit I was rather skeptical.  The quality of Muppet projects has waxed and waned since their creator Jim Henson left this world, but I have hope that this new film will be a shot of adrenaline to the franchise.

The appeal of the Muppet movies is that they are funny while still having heart.  The wedding scene at the end of Muppets Take Manhattan makes me a little teary-eyed, but the playroom scene with Kermie and friends as babies is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.  Okay, well, one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen.  (I’ve seen a lot of cute things).

The first teaser, known as “Green with Envy” also debuted very recently, and at first glance it looks like a romantic comedy.  Amy Adams is as adorable as ever, looking perky and very much like she did in Enchanted, and I’ve heard over and over that Jason Segel is a huge fan of the Muppets and will likely be mindful of how much people need a GOOD Muppet movie after years of nothing.

And boy, how we hope this movie will be good.

The Muppets debuts in theaters on November 23, 2011.

In a shocking turn of events the first official poster for Breaking Dawn – Part 1 is suprisingly lacking in the brooding character department. Nowhere to be found are a single mopey teenage girl, a glittering pedophile vampire, nor a hunky werewolf (What? The dude is pretty ripped).

I imagine the conversation of how to design this poster went something like this:

“So, we need to make another Twilight poster.”

“Damnit. Really? How many more of these are there?”

“Just one more after this. But seriously, this is due to the studio execs in like twenty minutes.”

“Okay, okay. How about Bella and Edward holding each other longingly?”

“No, we did that with the first movie.”

“Right. How about then we put Bella, Edward and Jacob all on the poster standing there, each looking off into different directions with brooding expressions on their faces?”

“New Moon.”

“Damnit! Okay, what about that same idea, but they are all looking at the camera with brooding expressions?”

“Eclipse.”

“I really can’t think of any more ways to put a teenage girl who suffers from chronic depression, a 100+ year old vampire who’s into young girls, and a werewolf who apparently doesn’t own a single shirt on a poster that’s going to appeal to this fanbase.”

“Hey, check out this image that came up when I did a Google Search for ‘Dawn Breaking’!”

“Nice! Throw the title over that! Who gives a shit anyways? Let’s go get a beer.”

In any case, if you click the poster image above you can see the high-res version that has pretty much nothing on it. Gawd-Almighty I can’t wait for the last installment of this movie to be released so this will all just be done and over with. How did I end up being the one to cover this stuff for BSR?! Twilight is in the top three things I absolutely hate in this world! Honestly! Check out my list:

1. Politics
2. Hitler Twilight
3. Hitler
4. Bono
5. Banana Pudding
6. People with Bad B.O.
7. People who are obsessed with In N’ Out
8. People who bring their crying children to grown-up movies
9. People who make eye contact with me
10. People in general

See?! It actually bumped Hitler down a place!

Naw. In all seriousness I love writing about this stuff. There are few things in this world that bring me joy like getting Twilight fans all worked up in a hissy-fit.

You know the drill. Tell me how much you love Twilight and hate me in the comments below!

Hey everyone! This week on Anime Update we’ve got AM2 convention guest announcements and information about a new charity manga series that you can pick up to benefit the Japanese Red Cross.

First up: Convention AM2, held in Anaheim, California, has just announced two very special guests will be attending this year from July 1st – 3rd. Akihiko Yamashita and Miho Shimogasa will be the guests of honor at what is one of the most anticipated anime, manga and music conventions on the West Coast!

Akihiko Yamashita is known for his outstanding work on the character design for Giant Robo: The Animation – The Day the Earth Stood Still and Zegapain. His first directorial work was at the world famous Studio Ghibli where he directed Chuzumo. Yamashita-san has also directed some of Studio Ghibli’s most famous projects including Howl’s Moving Castle, The Borrower Arrietty, Ponyo, and the latest film from Ghibli – Kokuriko. Check out this stunning trailer for The Borrower Arrietty – one of Yamashita-san’s most recent projects:

A fun side note about Yamashita-san: he has huge admiration for the works of J.J.Abrams and has said he is an avid “Trekker/Trekkie”.

Miho Shimogasa was born in Yokohama and decided to become an animator during her first part-time job as a cell painter (this was while she was still a university student).  Upon graduating, Shimogasa-san joined the highly recognized anime studio Artland as an animator. She later became a freelance animator and has worked on such notable titles as Cutey Honey Flash, Kocchi Muite, Miiko, Nightwalker, Gokudo, Gravitation, Psychic Academy, The Prince of Tennis, Ultra Maniac, Powerpuff Girls Z, and Battle Spirits: Shonen Toppa Bashin. Shimogasa-san has served as Animation Director of Sailor Moon Supers, Sailor Moon Sailor Stars, and as assistant director in Galaxy Express 999: Eternal Fantasy.

Shimogasa San with her nekko. Kawaii desu ne!

Fun fact about Shimogasa-san: her name was used to name a twin maid character in Detective Conan.

A pass is not required for general admission to AM2, but those who do purchase a pass will receive many benefits. Attendees can avoid the anticipated huge lines at autographs, premiere screenings, workshops, main events, concerts and panels by purchasing a Passport Fast Pass.  This pass will also provide holders with priority seating options at Main Events and at Concerts as well as earning discounts with nearby theme parks, retailers and local restaurants during the event weekend. Activities at the convention will include Exhibit Hall, AMV’s, Arcade, Summer Festival, World Cosplay Summit, Behind the Voice Actors Studio, Rum Party Pirates, Masquerade, Cosplay Chess, Dances, Fashion Shows, Table Top, Console Gaming, AniMaid Café, AniMaid Café Host Club, Workshops, Panels, Concerts and more! Get more information about AM2 over at their website.

Second this week: Viz Manga is now hosting Takehiko Inoue’s Smile: Pray for Japan charity manga series on their Digital Manga App.

Drawn on the iPad with Zen Brush app, the illustrations by master manga creator Takehiko Inoue portray smiling Japanese citizens of all ages. These images reflect a message of hope in the aftermath of the devastating disasters that struck Japan on March 11th. The creator has approved the wide use of these images for fundraising efforts in Japan. The digital compilations available through the VIZ Manga app is the first use of these images for fundraising outside of Japan.

Volumes 1 and 2 are now available and are priced $9.99 and $1.99 respectively. Future volumes will be made available for $1.99. All proceeds will be donated directly to the Japanese Red Cross Society. So, if you’ve been buying manga on your digital device, give this a look and support Japan’s Earthquake recovery! Learn more over at Viz’s website.

For more anime, manga and geek news from Japan and around the world, stay surfing on BSR!

The website for Star Wars Celebration VI went live today. It’s not much more than a tease, asking for your email address to send updates to. Which might be a little frustrating, because we were teased that we’d be getting an announcement soon and launching a website that takes your email address is hardly that.

Clearly, you’re here for my two cents and if you look at your calendar, you’ll notice that today is May 24th. Tomorrow is the 25th and the anniversary of beginning of the Star Wars saga.

It would not surprise me at all to see an actual announcement come tomorrow, straight to everyone’s inbox, circumventing the press entirely.

I’m still holding out hope for somewhere closer to the west coast, Salt Lake City, preferably.

To go to the site, see it for yourself and sign up, go to Star Wars Celebration.

Things have been crazy and I’ve been a little bit behind in posting reviews online, though they’ve been appearing like clockwork on Comcast.

Here’s some of the more recent episodes!

Super:

Water For Elephants.

Win Win

Fast 5

Miral

and Rubber

And don’t forget to listen to the podcast!

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of George Lucas and his works. Though some might say otherwise, it’s not a blind devotion, either. George Lucas is an incredible filmmaker in his own right and his pre-Star Wars films I would count among my favorites, whether or not Star Wars had ever happened.

One of those two films, American Graffiti, is being released on Blu-ray next week and it’s a must have for any serious cinephile.

The film itself is worth owning in any format. The film is a documentary-feeling examination of the car culture of the late 50s and early 60s. It takes place over one night and has some of the finest performances out of Richard Dreyfus, Cindy Williams, Ron Howard, Charlie Martin Smith, and plenty of others. This is one of my favorite movies because of its incredible direction, acting, storytelling, use of music… All of it. It’s one of those films that brings everything together perfectly and ends with a bang (literally in the case of Harrison Ford’s character, Bob Falfa.) The film is charming, funny, quotable, preposterously well-written… Above all, it’s engaging and timeless. If you haven’t seen it, I implore you: SEE IT NOW. This new release is the perfect reason to buy this film and watch it.

One of the biggest reasons this release is perfect is the quality of picture. George Lucas personally oversaw the digital cleanup work on this film and it is one of the best looking Blu-rays I’ve ever scene. This is an incredible colorful film and the neon and bright lights stand out on a screen in a way I never expected possible. American Graffiti was shot in what’s been called “poor man’s anamorphic,” meaning that each frame was half of a 35mm frame split in two so that the film got them twice as far and they didn’t have to use anamorphic lenses while shooting. The movie is very dark, shot almost entirely at night, and I had always assumed the grainy nature of the film would be impossible to sharpen. I was wrong.

This release looks truly stunning.

Another great thing about this release is the behind the scenes documentaries. George Lucas has always provided incredibly insightful and inspiring documentaries for his material and this is no exception. When it was on the DVD, I must have watched the documentaries a dozen times and they are educational and give me a jolt of creativity that’s more effective than coffee.

New to this release is a video commentary starring George Lucas. It’s interesting to listen to and offers great stories about the production of the film, but the video component to it seemed useless to me. I like looking at George as much as the next guy, but I really felt like the video element was a distraction.

I was very appreciative, though, that there was an option that told me the song playing during the film. There are so many damned songs on the soundtrack (all of them great) that it’s nice to have some way of figuring out what they all are other than guess work.

All in all, this is a must have. Buy it. Now.

Add this to my long list of movies I can’t wait to see this year.

I love the Muppets and have for all remembered time. Jason Segal has always been an X factor for me on this project, since I can take him or leave him. “I Love You Man” was pretty boring and by the numbers and I haven’t really seen him in anything else. But anything that brings The Muppets back to the big screen (except a Pirate movie) is good news in my book. Although it was panned, I quite loved “Muppets From Space” and if this is a return to form at that level or higher, I’ll be pleased as punch.

This marketing campaign is interesting. I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that the setup isn’t going to be in the final film at all.

It doesn’t matter, though.

It’s the Muppets and I want them on my theatre screen.