The first season of The Adventures of Tintin was released on DVD at the end of November. The first five episodes actually include the stories that were woven together into the movie version as The Secret of the Unicorn. I actually watched these five before going to see the movie, and it was pretty interesting to what things were changed from cartoon to movie and which things were preserved. There are several moments in the movie that are lifted straight from the cartoon — which, in turn, were taken from the original books by Hergé.

Within the first few episodes of the series you meet (in addition to Captain Haddock and detectives Thompson and Thomson) Professor Calculus, who is brilliant at times but completely deaf. Bianca Castiofore, the “Milanese Nightingale” in the movie, doesn’t actually make an appearance until late in the season.

I really enjoyed the movie version, but I think the animated series better captures the feel of the comic books: it uses the same drawing style, for one, and more closely follows the original story lines. It’s been a while since I read the books themselves, but watching the series brought a lot of it back: Tintin’s readiness for any adventure (and dumb good luck that gets him out of sticky situations), the slapstick humor of Thompson and Thomson, the politically incorrect portrayals of other cultures. (Yes, if you watch this with your kids you should probably expect to have a conversation with them about this sort of thing.)

The 2-DVD set has 13 episodes, totaling about 5 hours altogether, and retails for about $20, which is a pretty good deal even if you subtract the dozen times you’ll skip past the title sequence after you’ve seen it the first time. The DVDs are strictly the TV episodes, though, with no special features whatsoever. It would have been nice to have something more about the transition from book to screen. Since the series originally ran in the 1990s, you’d think that some of the people involved in its creation would still be around to provide some commentary.

Nonetheless, for fans of Tintin this is a delightful collection, and it’ll whet your appetite for Season Two when it comes out in February.

By the way, I highly recommend the Tintin books, too. As I mentioned above, there are some racial insensitivities and there is some real violence mixed in with the slapstick — but on the whole it’s still less graphic than what your kids have probably seen if they’ve been playing video games and watching movies already. One notable thing about the Tintin books is that, although they’re comics, they have a lot of text in them. I remember reading about them in The Read Aloud-Handbook by Jim Trelease specifically for that reason: you can give them to kids who like comics but aren’t particularly fond of reading, and it’s got as much text in it as a typical chapter book (or more, even). Just don’t be surprised if your kids start running around saying “Blistering blue barnacles!” all the time.

Disclosure: Shout Factory provided a review copy of the DVD set.

I can’t say I am surprised at this news — the Pathfinder RPG has grown immensely in popularity over the past few years, and is now tied with Dungeons & Dragons as the best-selling hobby roleplaying game in the world. In an attempt to further grow their player base, Paizo recently released the Pathfinder Beginner Box, for which I will have a review soon since Santa was nice enough to leave one for my oldest son under our tree. I was impressed enough by my preliminary experiences with the box set that it made my Top 5 RPG releases of 2011.

The comic book seems like the next logical steps in terms of product development, now that the Pathfinder novel line has matured somewhat. I am quite interested to see what Dynamite does with the property since the Golarion setting is gritty enough to appeal to many adults but kid-friendly enough to allow for stories aimed at young adult readers as well.  Taken as a whole, 2012 is looking to be a great year for fans of the Pathfinder RPG.

Beautiful wrote about our boys new-found obsession with superheros and that passion was rewarded this Christmas with all manner of swag. The boys got action figures, legos, jammies, and socks with different superheros on them and from all different sources. Even the wrapping paper from Grammie and Tom Tom had Green Lantern on it, making them highly valued. Beautiful made them capes and masks in different colors so the boys could dress up to their heart’s content.

Not being a superhero fan growing up this world is all new to me so when I saw that DC Comics was rebooting 52 of their story lines I thought it was a good time to get in on the ground floor  and share something with my boys. So together the boys and I made our first trip to the comic store September and picked out two comics to start with. This was early on in the superhero craze for the boys so they were a bit overwhelmed, as was I, with all the colors and books. Over the next couple of months our knowledge of the DC universe has increased and the boys are picking out comics that they know and are written for them, or for young kids that are already reading. Our first two comics have now turned into four comics that we are collecting and while these stories are not age appropriate for the boys I’m looking forward to sharing with them when they are. In the mean time I am loving these iconic characters with accessible entry points for me to get into and the monthly trip to the comic store is eagerly anticipated by all three of us. So far Beautiful hasn’t caught the bug, but we’re working on her.

Tale of Sand preview pages provided by Archaia

Back in September I mentioned an upcoming graphic novel, Tale of Sand, based on an unproduced screenplay by Jim Henson and Jerry Juhl. It’s surreal and bizarre, gorgeously illustrated by Ramon Perez. Archaia had released the first 20 pages as a preview on their website (go read it if you haven’t already). The book itself is now available in comic book stores in very limited supply, with a wider release on January 17.

I’ve had the chance to read a PDF review copy, and it’s an astonishing book, a side of Henson that I wasn’t really familiar with before. He did some interesting experimental films in his day (not all of them appropriate for kids) and this has that sort of feel to it. The book opens with a heroic-looking man, surrounded by people celebrating and throwing a big party … apparently for him, although he doesn’t know why. And then he’s taken to the edge of town and told that he gets a 10-minute head start so he’d better start running.

Tale of Sand preview pages provided by Archaia

Before long, he’s being pursued by a mysterious assailant, and running into all sorts of weird situations in the middle of the desert: an outhouse that seems to contain an entire nightclub, TARDIS-style; a big game hunter in safari gear, hunting lions from his perch on a convertible; football players in the middle of a game. The absurdity of the situations he encounters is heightened by the fact that he still doesn’t know what he’s doing or why any of this is happening; also, Perez’s artwork really captures Henson’s sense of comic timing, which is impeccable.

One neat feature is the way that the script itself is incorporated into the artwork, sometimes as background images and sometimes even in some of the dialogue bubbles. The story, I should mention, is not really for kids — little ones, anyway. There’s some swearing, a lot of violence, and some nudity toward the end of the book. Plus it’s just a bit on the creepy side. It is funny, though, in a very dark sort of way. (Archaia has the book rated as T+, or thirteen and up.)

I don’t want to give you much more than that, because the discovery is a wonderful part of reading the book for the first time. However, it’s also one that I will want to read again, because there’s so much packed into the details of the artwork, and little touches that carry throughout the whole book.

Oh, there’s also an essay at the beginning of the book about Henson and Juhl, about their work together and the sorts of themes that Henson was exploring in this screenplay and some other short experimental films, like Time Piece.

All in all, it’s a wonderfully written, beautifully illustrated graphic novel and there’s so much going on in it. For older comics readers and adults, I highly recommend checking at your local comic book store, or putting in a pre-order!

Image: Drawn by Andrew Neal, circa 1986

Every winter for the past six years, a local comic book shop in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, turns into an art gallery for a few weeks. And the pieces showcased within are very special. Not because they are original comic book art or signed pieces from famed comics artists, but because they are all created by kids.

The rules are simple: kids in middle school or younger can submit one piece of hangable art to the store. The art gets returned to the kids after the exhibit, assuming it doesn’t get sold.

I had a chance to chat with Andrew Neal, the owner of Chapel Hill Comics where the Kids’ Art Show takes place. I asked him a few questions about the origins of the show and his own experiences as both a child artist and a grown-up one.

GeekDad: This year marks the sixth Kids’ Art Show at Chapel Hill Comics. Way back in 2005, what gave you the idea to get kids to submit artwork and turn your store into a gallery for young artists?

Andrew Neal: I had the idea simply because I am a big fan of art by kids. Kids are rarely encumbered by the same self-consciousness that is present in so many grown-ups, so kids’ art is less likely to be worked and reworked to the point where it loses its fun and spontaneity.

GD: What was the reception like for that first show? And since then, how has the event changed?

AN: The reception for the first show was a huge success. The kids were excited, the parents were excited, and the customers who showed up to talk to the artists were all excited. The event hasn’t changed much — we still put a bunch of kids’ art up on the walls and invite folks in to talk to the artists and possibly buy their stuff. The biggest two changes we’ve made are that we only accept one piece per kid now, and that we no longer accept art submitted by teachers. Both changes were to ensure that we have enough room on the walls for everyone who wants to participate.

GD: Your store is colorful and clean and friendly. Even though we all know that kids aren’t the only ones reading comics these days, how important are the young’uns to the comic book business and to your store?

AN: They’re a very important part of the business. Many of our best-selling books are sold to kids or as gifts for kids. Among our best-selling series are Bone, Tintin, Calvin and Hobbes, Amulet, and Babymouse. Kids are very important to us as a retail store because kids who read grow up to be grown-ups who read, and who are more likely to shop for themselves or for their own kids once they are grown. I learned to read on comics and am still a voracious reader of both comics and prose.

GD: A lot of people — especially kids — are turning more and more to digital devices for their entertainment. Many even access their comic books via digital readers. How does a local store devoted to “analog” books offer a unique experience? How do you make sure that comics fans leave their houses and their internet connections once in awhile to stop by the store?

Photo: Chapel Hill Comics

AN: Our presentation is very important. We keep the place clean and pretty, and our staff is made up of folks whose goal is to match the reader to the comic, rather than simply selling the flavor of the month. We sell flavors of the month, too, of course, but the best way to get someone to come back is to sell them something they enjoy. It’s very rewarding to hear, “You recommended the Bone series for my kids, and they loved it. Where should we go next?”

GD: That’s definitely one of the reasons why we love stopping by. Your staff is friendly and knowledgable and the store is such a comfortable place to be. What else is coming up for Chapel Hill Comics in the near future?

AN: Right now, we’re just making it through the holiday season a day at a time. This is our biggest sales month of the year due to gift sales, and it takes all our efforts just to try to keep everything in stock that we need! I keep telling myself I’m done with orders for the year, but I have to keep reordering things I thought I’d ordered to last into 2012.

GD: What about you? How did art and drawing impact you as a child? How does it continue to impact you as an adult?

AN: I was encouraged by my mom to be creative from a very early age, and went on to get a BFA in painting and printmaking. After buying the store in 2003, I began to focus most of my creative energies into the business, but eventually began to really miss drawing and have recently gotten back into the creation of visual art again. I’m currently curating and creating art for a web-based art project called AlphaBeasts, in which folks draw monsters every week corresponding with a letter of the alphabet.

Thanks to Andrew for answering my questions and for putting on such a great exhibit. The Kids’ Art Show is accepting submissions through Thursday, December 15 at Chapel Hill Comics at 316 W. Franklin St. in Chapel Hill. Read the guidelines before submitting.

The show itself opens on Saturday, December 17, with a reception from 4pm until 7pm, including a meet and greet with the artists. The show runs through the end of the month. Follow Chapel Hill Comics on Twitter for more information.

The Forbidden Planet App

One of the greatest geek store chains in the world, Forbidden Planet, has just come out with an iOS app (works on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad). From the app description (in the Queen’s English):

Forbidden Planet is the world’s largest and best-known science fiction, fantasy and cult entertainment retailer and the largest UK stockist of the latest comics and graphic novels. We specialise in selling action figures, books, comics, DVDs, graphic novels and toys and we offer all the best merchandise from the cult cream of movies and television.

• Purchase from Forbidden Planet directly from your iOS device.
• Scan product barcodes to immediately look them up in our enormous online catalogue.
• Download content exclusively available within the app.
• Use our Store Locator to find our nearest retail store to your current location.

If you’ve never been to a Forbidden Planet, or seen what they carry, do yourself a favor and check this out. Your mind (and holiday wishlist) will be blown!

iTunes link for the app (which is free)

Recently at GeekDad we announced the launch of CIA: Operation Ajax, a dynamic and engaging new digital graphic novel for iPad.

The story itself is based on actual events involving the CIA involvement in Iranian politics in the 1950s. The story of the app’s development and design is just as interesting, and we got to ask a few questions of the developers at Cognito Comics. They talked us through a three year process from idea and concept, all the way through to launch.

The answers really help get a feel for just how much work is going in to the development and production of amazing apps like CIA: Operation Ajax.

GeekDad: Where did the inspiration for such a project come from?

Cognito Comics: The war with Iraq left me asking a lot of questions. In 2007, I had just finished up on Tony Hawk 8, and frankly, I wasn’t feeling like I was producing meaningful work as an artist. I discovered the book Overthrow by Kinzer and I was like “Oh my god! Look at all this undiscussed history of the United States!” It explained so much to me about world events, and I wanted more Americans to know these stories.

I started wondering if the awesome marriage of art and tech that was practiced in games could deliver the stories in Kinzer’s books to a wider audience. However, doing another game didn’t really seem viable at the time (this was the PS2 and Xbox days) so I thought a traditional graphic novel made more sense.

I met Stephen Kinzer in 2008 at a book signing and I pitched him on the spot as he was signing my copy of All the Shah’s Men. He paused, looked up at me and said, “That’s a great idea.” I was stunned. I figured I would get something like “no way, kid,” etc., given that I had like no prior experience in comics. But he seemed serious, and with his buy in, the project started in earnest.

GD: Was iOS your first preference for delivery? Was this always going to be a digital project? If not, what guided it that way?

CC: Ajax started as a traditional print comic book. In early 2010, we had just finished the script and were gearing up for art production when the iPad was announced. Up till this point, I was really just acting as a producer since I neither write nor illustrate, so I saw an opportunity to leverage my background in games by changing gears. Tall Chair and I had been collaborating in the iPhone space with some of my students, and we basically came to the table at the same time and said “We should do Ajax on the iPad!” I didn’t realize just how powerful the iPad would be as a platform, being able to blend together games, comics, and film into new storytelling experiences.

GD: Some of the original documents and news reels are fantastic. What was the process obtaining those like – they really add to the story, providing valuable authenticity and context – how did you come up with the idea to use original documents?

CC: Since Ajax is a well documented historical event, there was a ton of material out there for both story research and drawing reference. The original coup plan was declassified in 2000, and we found it online. We had this huge trove of material collected for the print book and discovering that we could embed it into the iPad was like this completely eye-opening experience. I thought “OK, this is really a story about the CIA, how can I use that as a theme to show more information?” and from that came the Files section. We kept finding new ways to blend more of these historical artifacts into the product. Our producer Katie Edmonds spent many hours collecting and curating free to use photos, and documents, as much of the original research material was copyrighted.

GD: Can you describe some of the production process, it obviously requires more work than a standard graphic novel… is it more like producing a movie?

CC: I come from Games, and my script writer, Mike de Seve, from Animated Film and TV. We were both accustomed to working on large teams with many artists all working together on a single vision. Once we went to iPad, Ajax by its nature required a production team approach. The pages needed to be built in layers so they could then be animated in the Active Reader tool. Even without layers, it was still a ton of work just to make the print comics page work, and I have nothing but respect for those that work in traditional comics. I’ve learned it’s not easy!

GD: What do you want most for the readers of CIA: Operation Ajax – what should they come away from the reading experience with?

CC: I sincerely believe that if we are to do the right things going forward as a country, we need to understand our past. The relationship between the US and Iran is not well understood by Americans, and my hope is that this story reaches a wide western audience, challenges their assumptions, and through that larger context of understanding improves the US relationship with Iran. In short, I’m trying to change the world.

GD: I personally found the sound most engaging and really took the work to the next level. Can you tell us how that all came about and who was behind your audio?

CC: Thanks! Yeah, sound almost didn’t happen. Completely 11th hour. I had wanted it from the beginning, but quickly got shot down as being too complicated when we hadn’t even worked out our animation workflow. However, after things started really coming together with the animation, we decided to give it a shot. The task fell completely on the shoulders of our sound designer, Andrew Scott Duncan. We knew it would be expensive and push back our release date, but after we saw a few test pages, we knew it was essential to what we were trying to accomplish. It was a tremendous amount of work, as all of us were new to developing sound for interactive, but in the end, the long hours were worth it. It’s a testament to the power of the Active Reader, as Tall Chair made it possible for us create something complex with minimal programming support.

GD: So, what is next for the Cognito Comics team?

CC: While it may not look like it, Operation Ajax is actually entirely 3D, with a flat camera. We’ve barely scratched the surface with what the Active Reader can do. The iPad provides incredible new experiences in storytelling, and after all the lessons learned from Ajax, we are more eager than ever to keep pushing the boundaries of this awesome new platform. We’ve been talking to a number of potential partners and may have a card or two up our own sleeves…

You can download CIA: Operation Ajax at iTunes App Store for $7.99.

Recently at GeekDad we announced the launch of CIA: Operation Ajax, a dynamic and engaging new digital graphic novel for iPad.

The story itself is based on actual events involving the CIA involvement in Iranian politics in the 1950s. The story of the app’s development and design is just as interesting, and we got to ask a few questions of the developers at Cognito Comics. They talked us through a three year process from idea and concept, all the way through to launch.

The answers really help get a feel for just how much work is going in to the development and production of amazing apps like CIA: Operation Ajax.

GeekDad: Where did the inspiration for such a project come from?

Cognito Comics: The war with Iraq left me asking a lot of questions. In 2007, I had just finished up on Tony Hawk 8, and frankly, I wasn’t feeling like I was producing meaningful work as an artist. I discovered the book Overthrow by Kinzer and I was like “Oh my god! Look at all this undiscussed history of the United States!” It explained so much to me about world events, and I wanted more Americans to know these stories.

I started wondering if the awesome marriage of art and tech that was practiced in games could deliver the stories in Kinzer’s books to a wider audience. However, doing another game didn’t really seem viable at the time (this was the PS2 and Xbox days) so I thought a traditional graphic novel made more sense.

I met Stephen Kinzer in 2008 at a book signing and I pitched him on the spot as he was signing my copy of All the Shah’s Men. He paused, looked up at me and said, “That’s a great idea.” I was stunned. I figured I would get something like “no way, kid,” etc., given that I had like no prior experience in comics. But he seemed serious, and with his buy in, the project started in earnest.

GD: Was iOS your first preference for delivery? Was this always going to be a digital project? If not, what guided it that way?

CC: Ajax started as a traditional print comic book. In early 2010, we had just finished the script and were gearing up for art production when the iPad was announced. Up till this point, I was really just acting as a producer since I neither write nor illustrate, so I saw an opportunity to leverage my background in games by changing gears. Tall Chair and I had been collaborating in the iPhone space with some of my students, and we basically came to the table at the same time and said “We should do Ajax on the iPad!” I didn’t realize just how powerful the iPad would be as a platform, being able to blend together games, comics, and film into new storytelling experiences.

GD: Some of the original documents and news reels are fantastic. What was the process obtaining those like – they really add to the story, providing valuable authenticity and context – how did you come up with the idea to use original documents?

CC: Since Ajax is a well documented historical event, there was a ton of material out there for both story research and drawing reference. The original coup plan was declassified in 2000, and we found it online. We had this huge trove of material collected for the print book and discovering that we could embed it into the iPad was like this completely eye-opening experience. I thought “OK, this is really a story about the CIA, how can I use that as a theme to show more information?” and from that came the Files section. We kept finding new ways to blend more of these historical artifacts into the product. Our producer Katie Edmonds spent many hours collecting and curating free to use photos, and documents, as much of the original research material was copyrighted.

GD: Can you describe some of the production process, it obviously requires more work than a standard graphic novel… is it more like producing a movie?

CC: I come from Games, and my script writer, Mike de Seve, from Animated Film and TV. We were both accustomed to working on large teams with many artists all working together on a single vision. Once we went to iPad, Ajax by its nature required a production team approach. The pages needed to be built in layers so they could then be animated in the Active Reader tool. Even without layers, it was still a ton of work just to make the print comics page work, and I have nothing but respect for those that work in traditional comics. I’ve learned it’s not easy!

GD: What do you want most for the readers of CIA: Operation Ajax – what should they come away from the reading experience with?

CC: I sincerely believe that if we are to do the right things going forward as a country, we need to understand our past. The relationship between the US and Iran is not well understood by Americans, and my hope is that this story reaches a wide western audience, challenges their assumptions, and through that larger context of understanding improves the US relationship with Iran. In short, I’m trying to change the world.

GD: I personally found the sound most engaging and really took the work to the next level. Can you tell us how that all came about and who was behind your audio?

CC: Thanks! Yeah, sound almost didn’t happen. Completely 11th hour. I had wanted it from the beginning, but quickly got shot down as being too complicated when we hadn’t even worked out our animation workflow. However, after things started really coming together with the animation, we decided to give it a shot. The task fell completely on the shoulders of our sound designer, Andrew Scott Duncan. We knew it would be expensive and push back our release date, but after we saw a few test pages, we knew it was essential to what we were trying to accomplish. It was a tremendous amount of work, as all of us were new to developing sound for interactive, but in the end, the long hours were worth it. It’s a testament to the power of the Active Reader, as Tall Chair made it possible for us create something complex with minimal programming support.

GD: So, what is next for the Cognito Comics team?

CC: While it may not look like it, Operation Ajax is actually entirely 3D, with a flat camera. We’ve barely scratched the surface with what the Active Reader can do. The iPad provides incredible new experiences in storytelling, and after all the lessons learned from Ajax, we are more eager than ever to keep pushing the boundaries of this awesome new platform. We’ve been talking to a number of potential partners and may have a card or two up our own sleeves…

You can download CIA: Operation Ajax at iTunes App Store for $7.99.

Jet, a mysterious visitor who literally burst onto the scene about a week earlier, is an odd kid. He has a jetpack, like those used in the war nearly 50 years ago, and never takes off his goggles. Roman helped him out of a nasty scrape, and now he’s helping out around the farm — but he doesn’t like the idea of fixing up a robot for farm work. As far as he’s concerned, the only good robot is a dead robot: they were designed for war, and you simply can’t trust them, re-coded or not.

Intrigued? That’s the premise of Rust: Visitor in the Field, the first volume in a graphic novel series by Royden Lepp. I got a sneak peek at a PDF version of the book, which is nearly 200 pages long, and ended up reading the entire thing instead of going to bed last night. The images are done in a sepia tone, giving it an odd, timeless feel despite the jetpacks and robots. It’s not exactly what I’d call steampunk (these robots, after all, don’t seem to be running on steam) but the robots do look more like something that might fit on a rural farm than on a spaceship.

I really enjoyed the story, which starts with some visions of the war, 48 years ago, before cutting to the undefined present day. The story is narrated in part by Roman’s letter to his father, recounting Jet’s tumultuous arrival on their farm, and we get hints that there is something much bigger going on than a lost kid with a jetpack. Of course, a lot of that will have to wait for the next book, because the Visitor in the Field mostly just sets the stage — but if volume 1 is any indication, the rest of the story will be worth sticking around for.

Here are a couple sample pages for you after the jump; or you can visit Archaia’s website for a longer preview.