Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can...

I've been a fan of Spider-Man for a long time; I started out buying the UK monthly publications in my tweens but they were only compilations of slightly older stories. After finding out about Forbidden Planet in my teens on Tottenham Court Road I started to collect the US publications but in recent times, aside from the films, I've not really followed him. A couple of months ago I stumbled across a clip on YouTube of a Spider-Man cartoon that I'd never before but it turned out that the series was new and had only started in in March. It's called The Spectacular Spider-Man:



In the West, cartoons and comics are seen as childish but in the East both are just another tool for artistic expression. In the East they're better known as anime and manga and they deal with a huge variety of themes for everyone of all ages. I must concede that western perceptions have changed a little over time with the advent of modern comic book movies and the greater exposure of western audiences of Japanese animation and manga.

The series is in a children's TV slot but it is well written and aimed at a very broad audience. The dialogue, ideas and themes can be appreciated by everyone. The series follows Peter Parker's career from soon after becoming Spider-Man and is based on the original comic book stories from Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, the creators of the character. It's fun to watch with a simplified art style but very fluid animation allowing for very dynamic and energetic action sequences.

If you're a fan of Spidey I would highly recommend checking it out! Personally I think it's much better than the series from the 90s:

Movies to look forward to...Part 1

It's been a while since I posted so I thought I would start with something simple. I'm big fan of Pixar and their new film WALL-E looks particularly good. It looks absolutely gorgeous and the characters seem incredibly likeable from the snippets in the trailers and featurettes:



It also looks like a lot of fun and oddly I feel more anticipation for this new one than I have for previous films from these talents guys and gals. It's out on the 18th of July in the UK.