Adventures in Animation: Danny Phantom

I had no idea that the show Danny Phantom had been released on DVD until I saw it on the shelves at FYE a few months back. This show holds some seriously heavy nostalgia for me. A long time ago, my brother and I would watch TV together on Sunday mornings, killing time until church started. Most often, we watched M*A*S*H, because it was ALWAYS on the air. However, we also spent a lot of time watching the Nickelodeon cartoons - a lot of The Fairly Oddparents, Jimmy Neutron, and, yes, even Spongebob.

Danny Phantom was always my favorite, though. The plot's pretty standard superhero stuff - basically, just imagine what Spider-Man would be like if Peter Parker had been bitten by a radioactive ghost, and you get the gist. The "freak of the week" tends to have a pretty normal gimmick for a supervillain - this one is a hunter, this one is a millionaire industrialist, this one talks like Gilbert Gottfried - so there's not a lot of novelty to the show.

There's one character, though, who makes the whole series something absolutely spectacular, and that's Danny's schoolteacher, Mr. Lancer:

Why's this guy so cool? Well, there are two reasons. First, he's a high-strung English teacher, and all of his curse words are titles of famous works of literature. Havoc's broken out at Casper High? Lancer will be the first to exclaim, "Lord of the Flies!"

Secondly (and this one's important), he's voice by RON @%&$@^%$& PERLMAN, who, you may recall, is awesome.

I've been turning this show on a lot while unpacking from the big move, and it's been a nice slice of nostalgia pie. Not exactly a healthy slice, but we all need some junk food in our entertainment every now and again.

Happily Ever After

A pen and a little heart. That's all it takes.

And freckles, preferably.

BONUS SKETCH:

I Hate The Homeless

...ness problem that plagues our city.

A news article from KSL made the rounds a few weeks ago on the Facebooks, so pretty much the entire state of Utah saw their expose on the "business of begging."  The article revealed that many panhandlers use the money they get from begging to support drug habits, rather than purchase food or shelter for the night, as most people probably suspect they would.  The entire tone of the article seemed to imply that these panhandlers are criminally deceitful and do not deserve pity or charity.

And the whole thing pissed me right the &$#^ off.

I'm not a terribly compassionate person.  Given a bit of disposable income, I'm far more likely to purchase another seaon of Ducktales than provide a meal for a hungry family.  Heck, I'm still holding a grudge against some lady who cut me off in traffic three months ago.  So this isn't really a call to Christian charity or anything - or, if it is, I acknowledge it's a fairly hypocritical one.

See, the article also points out that many of the people we see around Salt Lake City begging for change are suffering from some pretty serious mental illnesses.  They're sick people, but since they use the money they get from appealing to the sympathy of the general population to feed their illnesses, they get exposed to all sorts of scorn.  And, guys, that's a big freakin' deal.

Good mental health care is very difficult to find in the Salt Lake area - heck, in just about the entire state.  Even if you do find it, psychiatric services can be quite expensive.  Insurance plans are now required to provide mental health coverage (or will be as of 2014), but, even so, most plans used by lower-income households won't pay for finer care.  A lot of people are forced to attend programs that are understaffed and overcrowded - assuming they have the resources and capacity to manage their care themselves.

The truth is, I suspect that many of the people who beg for change are really in need - just not the need that they're advertising in Sharpie on their cardboard signs.  Obviously, the ills of the homeless and the beggars won't be soothed by receiving spare change from the holiday shoppers - after all, I doubt that the $0.78 I drop in the panhandler's cup after I buy my daily bagel will be used to cover the cost of a Lithium prescription copay.  Frankly, I'm not sure what the best use of that $0.78 is.  But I feel that it's criminal of us to shut off our sympathy because someone lied about their problem.  They've still got other problems, maybe even more serious ones.  We can be better people than that.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to finish up my Batman fanfiction where the Caped Crusader punches out lousy drivers.

Color Me Fascinated!

So I figured out how I could use my iPad to color some of my old drawings... just for fun.

Light and the Dancers

THIS is why you don't let ballerinas watch Black Swan!

New iPad means I can practice sketching with the Procreate app again. Finger drawing isn't quite as fun as pen and paper, but, every now and again, I miss it.

The Mask

Excuse me, but you've got something on your face...

I think I was getting tired of drawing so much lovey-dovey stuff(ey), that I felt I needed to put something truly horrible on paper. You're welcome.

Someone's Feeling Lovey-Dovey

The surest way to a person's heart is through a karaoke microphone.

Well, it is called a "love seat."

Man, I sure am drawing a lot of "boy meets girl" sorts of lovey-dovey nonsense, nowadays. I wonder if that means something?

Oh, it does. It means I've been watching too much TV.