ANI-MOVIES, *Shinbone Alley

Here's one for the history books. Set back in 1971, this full-length animated feature was based on a Mel Brooks musical that in turn was based on the series of New York Tribune articles by Don Marquis titled Archy And Mehitabel about a philosophic cockroach and his flirty alley cat friend. The articles were first illustrated by George Herriman who was best known for creating the comic strip Krazy Kat, and his designs were a big influence on the movie. The animated film was directed by former Disney animator, John David Wilson, and done by his studio, Fine Arts Films, which most people know from the opening credits to Grease. This was meant to be a family feature, but tends to go towards more mature concepts that your average child just wouldn't get.

Set in New York, Archy, a magazine writer and poet drowns himself in the river, but is instantly reincarnated as a cockroach with all the memories that this new life as a roach entails, including his undying love for a certain frisky feline. Mehitabel(voiced by Carol Channing)is an estranged cat who waltzes through life from one affair to another. One in particular is the gruff one-eyed tomcat Big Bill(voiced by the original Fred Flintstone, Alan Reed)who she runs off, but ultimately dumps her. Archy convinces her to give her flippant ways and settle down as a regular house cat. However, she gets dazzled by the smooth talking dramatic cat Tyrone(voiced by John Carradine)who cons her into a career in the theatre. Mehitabel soon realizes thought that she's being taken for a ride with Tyrone as he really just uses her to steal food, and doesn't approve of her turning Romeo And Juliet into a swinging showtune. She gets back together with Big Bill, which makes her into a momma cat. Archy has a poetic tangent about how he wants to raise an army of insects to fight the human scourge in a scene done to mimic the style of George Herriman's Krazy Kat, but runs back to Mehitabel after hearing about her motherhood. She has a litter of kittens rather quickly, and regrettably takes Archy's advice to be a housecat with her kids. This makes her very upset, and she kicks Archy out. After an evening of debauchery with some loose ladybugs, he comes to his senses and find he accepts Mehitabel for what she wants to be. This is convenient as she then comes back to the alley, apparently leaving her kittens in the care of her former owners, and the two friends reunite in a big music number.

This is a very eclectic ensemble as far as an animated movie is concerned. Its style is very reminiscent of Ralph Bakshi's early works, and even some of the lower grade quality that Disney was producing at the time. The music numbers are pretty good, even if all the actors aren't professional singers. It's one that's definitely worth watching, at least for the nostalgia. Plus, it provides an honest look at attempting to make an animation production just for sake of animation.

You came to the wrong neighborhood, Mudderflubber!

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Blood Reign: Curse Of The Yoma

This late-80s 2-part OVA was probably one of the first horror anime to be released in English. Originally released in subtitled VHS as Curse Of The Undead Yoma, it was later re-released on dubbed VHS and DVD as Blood Reign: Curse Of The Yoma. Adapted from the short-lived manga series Yoma by Sengoku Nights creator Kei Kusunoki, this was first billed as "ninjas vs. zombies" years before zombies were made popular again thanks to the Dawn Of The Dead remake.

Set in feudal Japan, a young skilled ninja named Hikage is charged with tracking down his childhood friend/fellow ninja Marou who has deserted his clan and is feared to leak the death of their leader who was killed by yoma which are Japanese demons. Hikage's quest leads him to a village inhabited by stragglers and derelicts. All its inhabitants are really sacrifices for the yoma, and grizzly giant spiders harvest them for their leader, who turns out to be Marou, that is really a yoma himself apparently born from the ground itself. Marou escapes, and then the next episode takes place two years later with Hikage still on his trail. This has Hikage getting into a feudal war between the yoma clans and his ninja clan, facing all matters of beasts and monsters. Everything from flesh-eating horses, wolf-taurs, butterfly-women, giant snakes, and other video game bosses that even Ash from Evil Dead say "Screw this! I'm going home!"

Toho handled this animation for this, and for a late-80s production it actually is pretty damn good. There is some serious full-scale gore in store for anyone who wants just a good slasher flick, and they don't skip on the details during the disemboweling. This also makes for a great ninja story too, not Ninja Scroll mind you, but a close second. The dub is pretty stale though, so you might wanna just watch it in Japanese.

MISC. MANGA, *Steamcraft

This recent steampunk manga-styled comic was inspired by the works of Jules Verne and Lovecraft. Oz: The Manga artist David Hutchison put together this horror/adventure tale.

A man interviews the wealthy Sir Beachfort who was the sole survivor of in the expedition of the fabled ship, The Thorpe, from twenty years prior. He discovered a wrecked barge which belonged to a Cthulu-like race called the Deep Ones, and underwater terrors which Captain Nemo wouldn’t have messed with. The artwork is effectively spooky, and brings the atmosphere of an old ghost pirate tale.

You can find some of Hutchison’s preliminary art for this in his Steampunk Sketchbook special from Antarctic Press. Hope this gets made into a movie!

MISC. MANGA, *Reiko The Zombie Shop

Unlike some manga series with the word "zombie" in it, this one had for real zombies in it! The manga was released in Japan as an 11-volume series, but was released in English through Dark Horse stopping at the sixth(for now). The author, Rei Mikamoto, is more well known for creating the manga, Big Tits Dragon, which was later adapted into the live-action Japanese movie out here known as Big Tits Zombie. So, he's kept up a pretty decent history with horror/action stories, but it all stemmed from this original series.

Reiko seems like your average snarky busty redheaded Japanese schoolgirl, however she is really a "zombie shop". This means that she's able to summon someone back to life as a zombie if most of their body is still in tact, which gets her hired by all kinds of customers for her special talents. She does business with child murderers, mad scientists, plane hijackers, fatal rock stars, and even her friends at school who don't seem to have a problem with her being a part-time necromancer. All through the first volume there is a side-story of a teenage girl named Yurikawa that is also a homicidal maniac. She eventually crosses paths with Reiko, and the two have a climactic fight to the death, literally! One would think that having the title character die from decapitation in the first volume would be the end of the series, but Reiko was lucky enough to get some help from some fellow necromancers that manage to reattach her head and bring her back to the land of the living, while not being a zombie. Reiko then sets out to stop her evil sister Riruka who uses her own zombie-raising powers to create a walking dead army to take over the world, which becomes the focus for most of the rest of the series.

Reiko The Zombie Shop is one of the goriest manga to be released in print out in the States, which is possibly why Dark Horse discontinued the series about halfway through its run because of its limited market for adult titles. It's not hentai really, but the violence is and splatter scenes really make it the manga equivalent of a Rated-R movie. Weirdly enough, this does have a slight shojo factor working for it with Reiko and her interaction with her schoolmates. This makes for a very creepy manga, and works through like an actually good grindhouse flick with moments that will give you jump scares!

ANIME ARABIAN ADVENTURES, *Page 7

Story by Jer Alford. Art by Natalie Prayor.

MISC. MANGA, *Cobra

Beating out Cowboy Bebop by about twenty years, Cobra(also known as Space Adventure Cobra)is the original space cowboy in anime! Originally a manga series from the late 70s to early 80s, this spawned off several other manga, an anime movie, two OVA series, and two TV series. Only the original anime movie has been released out here so far, but the first manga was also put out in English through Viz Manga, adapted by non-other than Marv Wolfman. The best part of all, the manga was Total Recall before there was Total Recall.

Set in the far off future, a common blue-collar worker named Johnson goes for a virtual reality trip where he's the famous space pirate Cobra. However, the Matrix run activates his old memories as the actual Cobra who was supposed to be dead for several years. Cobra faked his own death to get the evil Guild off his back, and gave himself a different personality to completely disguise himself. Cobra then sets off to stop the Guild once and for all. The Guild's latest venture is to collect three special sisters, each one is tattooed with the map to the fabled Ultimate Weapon that they plan to take over the universe. Cobra runs into one of the sisters, Jane Royal, who is a hot bounty hunter that teams up with him to hunt down her other siblings and foil the Guild's plot.

Creator Buichi Terasawa was very influenced by American films like Star Wars and Flash Gordon, and he was also a student of Osamu Tezuka himself. His art style is extremely appraling, and is very close to American styles of comic book designs. It's worth looking the Cobra comic collections, even though it was never put out in graphic novel format.