Anime in the U.K. (an extremely short history)

I loved Battle of the Planets as a kid, it seemed so much cooler than other cartoons like Banana Man and Super Ted. At the time i didn't realise it was actually Japanese in origin. Its funny but looking back now a lot of my favourites were either Anime or based on a series that originated in Japan, such as Robotech and Transformers.

Then in the early 90's Manga Video introduced me to whole new world i never new existed, the preview trailer alone blew my tiny little mind.

I loved films like Fist of the North Star and Battle Angel Alita but more importantly if it wasn't for Manga Video most of us over here would never have seen the masterpiece that is Akira.

Since then things have only got better. More and more films have been released over here, and around the same time they come out in Japan. Beautifully translated and subtitled rather than badly dubbed and 5 years old. If you are new to Anime you can't go far wrong by starting with the Ghost in the Shell films, visually stunning and set in an amazingly detailed Science Fiction world.

And for anyone still not convinced, whats not to like about giant mechs beating the crap out of each other!

Captain America Annual #8 1986

This afternoon I'm in the loft still trying to sort out this:

Ive been coming up here on and off for months and don't seem to be getting anywhere. I think its because i keep stopping to read gems like this:

 

Captain America Annual 8 from 1986. This issue features a great team up between  Cap and Wolvie. The story involves a villan called The Overrider and his robot TESS. TESS stands for Total Elimination of Super-Soldiers, a project proposed by Prof Daniel Schumann to keep the Super-soldiers in check after the war. As it turns out Cap was the only Super-Soldier created and the project was scrapped. Forty years later a mutant called Richard Rennselaer, A.K.A. Overrider has control of a TESS robot that Prof Schumann had completed in secret.

The Overrider plans to take control of Americas nuclear missiles and bury them on the ocean floor. He is doing all this as his son suffers from "Nuclear Psychosis, an overwhelming dread that the world will end at any moment".

 

At the end Cap gives Wolverine a speech condoning his methods and telling him The Avengers would never have him, which is quite ironic as The Ol' Canucklehead seems to be on every team going at the moment!

A great old school comic, written by Mark Gruenwald with great artwork by Mike Zeck.

Shaolin.

Only a couple of weeks until the U.K release of this amazing looking film.

Jackie Chan and Andy Lau, epic.