New Free Digital Magazine: Galaxis – The Worlds of Science & Science Fiction

I'm proud to unveil the premiere issue of my new digital magazine, Galaxis. Subtitled "The worlds of science & science fiction," the premiere issue features an exclusive interview with famed physicist Dr. Michio Kaku, plus Q&As with writer Mary Doria Russell, physicist Leonard Susskind, critic Michael Medved, and heart specialist Deepak Srivastava.

Also in this issue is a colorful look at the days when science fiction magazines were the place to find out about your favorite genre films, background on Mobile Suit Gundam, David Gerrold's Starhunt books, a look back at the TV adaptation of The Lathe of Heaven, and more.

This new quarterly magazine is a free digital magazine that you can read online or download. Check it out today.

Gundam 00 Season 2 Theme Played on the Piano

This is a very well-done piano version of the pop theme song from the opening credits of the second season of Gundam 00.

Hat's off (and, apparently, pants off) to the talented piano player.

What Boba Fett and Gundam Have in Common

If you've ever followed the Japanese Gundam anime series (and by series, I mean the plural of series, not a singular series, because there have been more Gundam TV series than there have been Star Trek series), and if you are a collector of Gundam model kits, then you know that there is a lot of cross-media action for that franchise. The TV shows, model kits, prose books, manga, and other products all feed off each other, spur development in each other, and sometimes spawn entirely new characters, mecha, and other things.

In the short video above, the cross-platform rollout of the Boba Fett bounty hunter character is explained. First appearing in animated form on the Star Wars Holiday Special on TV in 1978, he then appeared as a collectable action figure in stores, and eventually became a hit in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.

More Gundam Stuff: When 14-year-olds Saved the World

So, to put a temporary end to all this giant robotness on this blog, I figured I'd go into the wayback machine and share with you a column on Japanese giant robot anime that I wrote back in June 1999 for my friend Aaron Barnhart's TV Barn web site.

When 14-year-olds Saved the World
By John Zipperer

(June 15, 1999) In the late 1970s and early 1980s, when American animation viewers were watching such uninspired TV fare as Superfriends and Scooby-Doo, Japanese and other Asian audiences were treated to the likes of Mobile Suit Gundam. As Americans would later discover from watching bootleg copies of Gundam, their Pacific Rim counterparts had the better deal. More recently the series has resurfaced in legit form. To watch these vintage Gundam episodes is to realize how poorly served American audiences have been by their animation studios until very recently. In the spirit of this season of repeats, here's a summer project that will be both enjoyable and educational. Let's look at what we Americans have missed.

[Read the complete article here on my main web site.]

Maybe I'll Just Change This Blog into a Giant Japanese Robot Blog

So, the avalanche of giant robot stories continues, and instead of dribbling them out to you one by one, I figured I'd do some leg work and link a bunch o' them here.

• Such as this LiveJournal bulletin board posting that rates three different giant robots.
• The deliciously named blog Robot War Espresso has some very nice photos of the Tokyo Gundam robot at night.
• "KP" at The Cool Kids Table has lots of photos and information to prove the point that "that Gundam in Tokyo is only the beginning of the giant robot craze." Can't wait.
• New York-Tokyo has a story about a giant Gundam, but it's a different giant Gundam. A working one.
• Dark Diamond has a story about a treehouse giant robot. You read that correctly.
  
• I have to admit, I usually get very tired about all the attitude everyone thinks they must include in their blogs and online videos and online comments, but I found the video hosts of this Karmaloop video (which includes a segment on -- you guessed it -- giant freakin' robots) to be quite funny and well done:

The Japanese Keep Building Giant Robots

I hadn't intended this to become a blog series here, but InsightOnThingsThatMatter has a photo of yet another (non-Gundam) giant robot that's been built.

Even CBS News deems this worthy of a report!

Another Giant Gundam

Yesterday I posted a video about the giant (well, "life"-sized) Gundam that was built in Japan to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Mobile Suit Gundam. A later report says that the closing ceremony for the statue was canceled due to an approaching typhoon.

But just because the ceremony was canceled, of course, doesn't mean the giant robot still stands. All good things must come to an end, so by now, the 18-meter-tall guardian of truth, justice, and the Japanese way is probably well off into the solar system, fighting the Zeon forces.

But seeing that video reminded me of some photos I took of a display of large (but hardly life-sized) Gundam robots at San Francisco's downtown Metreon shopping mall a half-dozen years ago. There was a full-body Gundam, a huge Gundam head, and a full Zaku suit. (Please forgive me; I don't know exactly which iteration of Zaku this one was.)

All three of the statues were up on the second floor, right outside the (now-defunct) Things from Another World comic shop, which also sold lots of models, figurines, books, t-shirts, etc.

It was a nice display, but it, too, didn't last. I'm just impressed that the Zaku and the Gundam never got in a fight. Woulda really messed up the store.

Giant Gundam Finally Built

In Tokyo, they built a giant Gundam to commemorate the anniversary of the long-running anime/manga/novel/model series. Above is an IDG video about the beginning of the giant robot's public exhibition. In a nice touch, they included Mr. Tomino, who created the series back in the 1970s and who was initially skeptical about the project of making a life-sized Gundam.

Now that the good guys have an actual Gundam to fight the bad guys, how will Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Glenn Beck be able to sleep at night?