Sekure D was awesome enough to shoot a video with Albotas and talk about his custom sneakers and vinyl toys. We talk about how he got into painting his own sneakers, the process of customizing, the vinyl toy world, and a whole lot more. Check out the video below, and don’t forget to hit the Like button and subscribe!
Okay, so it was less of a party and more like a phone interview, but it totally felt like a party, so that’s what it will always be in my memories.
Regular Show easily ranks among the upper echelon of greatest cartoons of all time. It airs on Cartoon Network right along the equally radical Adventure Time and has become a hallmark of the station.
Now in its fourth season, the show centers around the mega slackers Mordecai (a blujay) and his best friend Rigby (a raccoon). They work at a park where they get yelled at by their boss (Benson, a gumball machine), seek out advice from the park’s handyman (Skips, an immortal Yeti voiced by Mark Hamill), and fight off monsters, aliens, and other evil things that they accidentally summon/create/piss off. Each episode is a smorgasbord of 80’s action/sci-fi/comedy/geeky goodness with references to everything from Weekend At Bernies to Lemmy Kilmister from Motörhead.
You know, regular, ordinary stuff for a kid’s cartoon.
We had the chance to speak with the show’s creator for today’s release of the 16-episode Regular Show: Party Pack DVD.
ALBOTAS: Regular Show has a pretty crazy cast: talking vending machines, ghosts, an old guy with a lollipop for a head. Who would you say is your favorite Character?
JG Quintel: I’d have to go with Mordecai because he’s a lot like me. He’s pretty much who I was in college. Muscle Man makes me laugh too.
Mitch “Muscle Man” Sorrenstein. He doesn’t really get mom jokes.
One of my favorite characters on the show is High Five Ghost, and he also has a brother, Low Fives. I’ve always wanted to know, since they’re ghosts, how did they die?
That’s not something I’ve really thought about yet, but I’m glad people care enough to question it!
Regular Show has lots of video game references. Mordecai and Rigby are often seen playing a Sega Master System and even the episodes themselves feel like video games with almost every episode ending with a boss battle. Is there any chance of a Regular Show video game in the near future?
We’re constantly sharing ideas with Cartoon Network. I’m sure that most people would look the other way but I think there’s a lot of stuff in the show that would translate well to a video game.
Mordecai and Rigby have faced a rogues gallery of bad guys in the show’s four seasons. It was especially awesome to see all the villains come back in the Dr. Whovian season 4 premiere Exit 4B. Do you have a favorite bad dude that stands out among the rest?
I really like GBF (Garret Bobby Ferguson). I think he’s hilarious. It’s funny because, you know, there’s so many cool villains on the show, but most of them just end up dying by the end of the episode, so they’re all just wiped out. When we came up with that episode for the premiere - it was like “Ah! We can bring ‘em all back!” I’m glad that we got to get a little more mileage out of a lot of those villains.
Garret Bobby Ferguson - an evil ex video game champion from outer space based on Billy Mitchel.
What is your secret weapon?
Hrm.. As far as the show goes?
As far as life.
Life? Oh my God! You have to, I guess, just do what you want to do. Don’t worry about what other people what you to do because you just gotta do what makes you happy. I think that translates well into making shows. Just make what you want to see and hopefully people will want to watch it.
Final, and possibly most important question: If you could be any food, what food would you be and why?
Mmm. Mhhhm. Mhhhm. Maybe a hamburger because it has all the essential food groups if the order is made properly and can be quite delicious.
Regular Show: Party Pack DVD is available RIGHT NOW and new episodes air Monday nights on Cartoon Network.
Check it: Our interview with Adventure Time's Pendleton Ward
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For the first time ever, the popular IndieCade festival of independent games made its way to East Coast this past weekend. IndieCade has been going on over on the West Coast since 2009 and is considered by many to be the Sundance of video games, so I was pretty pumped to see it for myself.
It wasn’t quite the spectacle I was expecting. It was basically an open rec-hall sized room with a bunch of tables with computer monitors and iPads on them. Very few of the games on display were accompanied by anyone attached to the projects, so I started wondering just how badly these indie devs wanted people to know about their games. I also started wondering if I wasted a perfectly good Saturday and $200 in bus/taxi fare.
Thankfully, after doing a few laps around the main room and eyeballing computer monitors and TV screens from over people’s shoulders, I discovered a few gems.
Below are two videos of developers who were bodacious enough to answer some of my dumb questions and talk about their games.
This is definitely a game that should be experienced at least once by anyone who appreciates video games as an art form. Huge thanks to Brendon Chu from Blendo Games for taking the time to speak with us for the vid. Be sure to keep an eye out on his upcoming retro cyberpunk game, Quadrilaterial Cowboy. If the official description doesn’t have you sold, I don’t know what will:
When you have a top-of-the-line hacking deck armed with a 56.6k modem and a staggering 256k RAM, it means just one thing: you answer only to the highest bidder.
And now for videos that I didn’t take, but trust me, these games are awesome.
INTERNATIONAL RACING SQUIRRELS
Rob Davis from Playniac was awesome enough to speak with us about his iPad racing sim that’s actually way more about micromanaging your finances and racers than actually racing. At first glance I expected just your standard Mario Kart ripoff. What I got instead was something more akin to Game Dev Story.
It would actually be pretty interesting to see this game’s financial system implemented in other genres - RPG’s for example: buy some weapons and armor using your credit card, and if you can’t make your payments on time, your gear gets repo’d mid-battle! Okay nevermind, that actually sounds terrible.
I fell in love with the PS Vita version of this game when I played it at NYCC last year and was pleasantly surprised to find a PS3 version on display at IndieCade East. This is from Drinkbox Studios, the guys behind one of my favorite Vita titles, Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack!!! It’s a MetroidVania style game that requires a certain finesse in stringing together melee attacks to navigate through levels. You can also bounce between dimension a-la Mighty Flip Champs. Mix that all up with some sweet mariachi chiptunes, amazing character designs, witty dialogue, and multiplayer co-op and you have an instant recipe for me not getting anything done ever. Sadly, no one from Drinkbox was around to talk to while I was there. Bummer.
This was hands-down the game that drew the biggest (and loudest) crowd. Sleek minimalist multiplayer sports action. The kind of game that makes players yell at each other while onlookers cheer them on.
This was the game that stole the show for me. You basically just have to manipulate a puzzle on a 2x2 grid by zooming in & out and interacting with the levels. The artwork, the level design, the intricate precision of thought that went into each puzzle design - it’s brilliant and you should probably just stop whatever you’re doing and go download and play the free demo.
This is essentially Super Brothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, but replace the funny with origami.
There were a buttload of other cool games on display, but there were a zillion other people crowding around and waiting in line to play them, so I had to squeeze in whatever I could before catching the bus back home. Head on over to the IndieCade site for a full list of games that were on display.
Hopefully I’ll be able to stick around for all three days next year as I can definitely see this sort of thing growing over the years. Plus, we really just need more cool geeky shit to indulge in on the East Coast.
Ro-Bear was gracious enough to brave the icy February wind chill during Philly’s 8Static to speak with us about how he got into chiptunes, his chip pop/rap group Kill3r Whale, and where he sees the chipmusic scene going in the future.
Check out the video below:
Check it: Ro-Bear's chiptune cover of "Believe" by Cher
Buy: Make chiptunes with Korg DS-10 Plus and LSDJ
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Shawn Smith, founder of Shawnimals, was awesome enough to do an interview with Albotas after a grueling signing session at NYCC 2012. Hit the link to read about the origins of NinjaTown, the art of plush, and Shawn’s days of writing for EGM.
Armed with a cup of tea, cream, and a few lumps of sugar, Matt JOnes, AKA Lunartik, has taken the designer toy scene on a caffeine-induced tour through his unique mind. With a background in product design, his clean lines combine with a fun and endearing toy: Lunartik in a Cup of Tea. The figure has seen many variations, from its full size editions, to a mini series. This month saw the release of both Lunartik in a Cup of Tea Mini Series 2 and the Brew It Yourself Loose Leaf kit. Hit the link for our freshly brewed interview with Matt JOnes.
Last week I had the pleasure of interviewing the one and only Pendleton Ward, the creator of one of my all-time favorite cartoons, Adventure Time.
FUBAR is an anthology of collected short World War II themed zombie comics by various artists. Lots of violence, lots of gore, and even more originality. Steve A. Becker, the book’s creative director, was awesome enough to spend some time with us at Wizard World Philly to fill us in about this popular indie comic series.
TADO is made up of Mike and Katie, graphic designers from England. What do they do? The more apt questions is “What don’t they do?” From pillows to custom Mega Munnys to custom Mini Coopers, TADO have had a part in pretty much any medium you can think of. And they’re quite possibly the first to blend designer toys with night lights with their upcoming Chuppi line. Hit the link for our interview with TADO.
Once upon a time your humble Albotas editor-at-large liked a band called On Broken Wings. Once upon a time he was inspired by the t-shirts of Johnny Cupcakes to launch his own t-shirt line. He would call it ALBOTAS and it would stand for A Little Bit On The Awesome Side. But then, blogging turned out to be way more fun (and way less of a hassle) than making t-shirts.
Enjoy our interview with the dude semi responsible for this site existing.
NYCC was obviously full of awesome artists and celebrities, but a special few stood out in my mind. One of them was Andrew Bell. You’ve seen his work in toy form (Android mini collectibles, O-No Sushi) as well as on paper and canvas (The Creatures in my Head). Check out my interview with Andrew Bell of Dead Zebra and DYZPlastic.
A huge thanks goes to Andrew!
Eclectic Method is the audiovisual mash-up group responsible for such awesomeness as The Dark Side dubstep remix, The Tarantino Mixtape, Daft Tron, 8Bit Mixtape, and heaps of other insane remixes that will make your eyeballs and ear-holes feel all kinds of sexy.
I had the chance to sit down with Jonny Wilson, one of the group’s three members, at this year’s Virgin Mobile FreeFest where he talks shit on Yoda from the Star Wars series, praises Community star Donald Glover (aka indie hip-hop sensation Childish Gambino), and schools us on his audiovisual mash-up roots. Enjoy!
Campbell Whyte is an Australian artist whose work is infused with pop culture nostalgia and a stylish sense of whimsy. He’s probably most well known for his 8 Bit Dreams project where he’s doing an illustration for each of the original 799 games released for the Nintendo Entertainment System. He’s already finished illustrations for each game made in 1985, 1986, 1987 and he’s just recently wrapped up 1988 which you can peep here.
Hit the jump for our full interview with this bad dude.
Yo gang, I’m starting a new article where I feature different cosplayers from all around. If any of you guys are interested in doing an interview to get a little bit of exposure, or know anyone who may be interested, shoot me an email! gorilla@albotas.com
Megacon 2011, Orlando’s biggest anime and geek convention, recently just passed last March. This year had some remarkable and stunning costumes by fans in attendance, but there was one outfit that really caught my eye. Orlando local Samantha Handler and her “Babydoll” cosplay, from Zack Snyder’s recent film Sucker Punch, were truly awesome in every aspect, and incredibly detailed. I got to talk with Samantha, or perhaps better known as her Cosplay.com alias Cupcake Disko, and ask her a few questions about the process of making a costume and attending conventions.
