Betty Boop at St. James Infirmary

Asteriks: [* * * * *]
Rating: PG

This is a banned episode of Betty Boop, probably because the mirror and icicles appear to be in black face.

The episode is called "Snow White", published in 1933, featuring Cab Calloway's rendition of St. James Infirmary. If you've heard Calloway's versions before, this is a particularly haunting rendition, very similar to Louis Armstrong's version.


This episode of Betty Boop displays some great music, and also trippy animation helped marked by the rotoscoping technique developed by Betty Boop's creator, Max Fleischer. During the performance of St. James Infirmary you might notice the background art matching the lyrics, but also try to notice Koko's (Calloway) movements. They're very detailed and smooth, having been rotoscoped over footage of Cab Calloway dancing.

Criminal Walrus

Asteriks: [* * *] * *
Rating: G

One of the smoothest walruses I've ever seen. This is a cute two minute video to make you smile.

And she's buying a stairway to heaven

Asteriks: [* * *] * *
Rating: PG

Link: Jeff Milner's Backmasking Site

Most of us have heard it: "Popular songs have demonic messages when played backwards!" But have you ever heard the songs?

Milner has developed a site designed to play clips of songs popularly accused of sending underlying messages to the user. They play forwards and backwards with the original lyrics listed, and the lyrics interpreted.

Milner states that he has no agenda, but just wanted to try his hand at Flash design.

JACK

Asteriks: [* * * * *]
Rating: R - NC17
Warning: LANGUAGE, SEX/RAPE, VIOLENCE, AND GORE. THIS IS EXTREMELY GRAPHIC.

Link: JACK

Do not be deceived by the cuddly cuteness of some of the characters. David Hopkin's JACK starts as a horrific tale of murder, death and rage, but also of love, joy and discovering the truth.

We follow Jack, also called Wrath, who is designated the gatherer of souls of the dead. What makes him different from his six other brother Sins is that he genuinely cares for the souls and tries to help them reach Heaven or Purgatory, anything but hell. But what of Jack's past? He was alive once too and Heaven's angels seem to be shunning him for a reason.

This comic asks a very important question: "When are we responsible for our actions?" JACK takes us through situation after situation, intruducing characters ridden by guilt, anger, lust, or if they were lucky, love beyond death. Each character must decide their path, because eventually Jack will be there to take them to their Judgment.

Last Warning: The characters are drawn as "furries". The furry culture is extremely underground and the characters sometimes speak furry slang. If you don't know a few words I suggest you Google them.

A Blind Painter

Asteriks: [* * * *] *
Rating: G

A short inspirational story about a blind dude that loves to paint.

Umbrella

Asteriks: [* *] * * *
Rating: PG

Vanilla Sky's cover of the popular song "Umbrella" by Rhianna. With a emo/punk sound and a sense of humour, it's worth to at least give them a try. If you don't like the music, the video will at least give you a chuckle at their parody.

It was truly a pleasure to come across this so randomly.

Azuzephre.net

Asteriks: [* * *] * *
Rating: G

Full of fuzzy feelings and cuteness, Jeff Thomas' characters Pon and Zi are sure to make you go "Aww!". A great pickmeup for a bad day.

Link: Azuzephre.net

Scubadiving Cat!

Asteriks: [* *] * * *
Rating: G

Just watch. No, really.

Asteroids

Asteriks: [* * * *] *
Rating: G

Arcade games anyone? How about a game of Asteroids?

Link: The imbed codes are from Blinkyou, but the actual flash is from Neave Games.

Dead Like Me

Asteriks: [* * * *] *
Rating: PG

George is a college dropout who's parents are pushing to get her off her bum and start working. She reluctantly gets a job pushing paper at Happy Times Temporary Services, and during her first lunch break, it would be her luck that a toilet seat from a space craft returns into the atmosphere and hits her square. A Grim Reaper collects her soul, but it turns out this Reaper has met his necessary quota in order to "move on". Because George is the last person to be collected she's forced to become a Reaper, and to steadily realize how much she neglected herself and her family during life.

It's not very often I get obsessed with television shows, but after watching the hour-an-a-half first episode, I watched the first season in less than five days. It's depressing, it's hilarious, it's filled with irony and raw emotions, and filled with characters that you know by two episodes. The only reason I didn't give this 5 Asterisks, is because I'm mostly sure HBO canceled it after season two.

Take a look though, poke around in Youtube and find scenes; This show deserves to be watched.
Link: Wikipedia

Lackadaisy

Asterisks: [* * * * *]
Rating: PG-15 to R

The Lackadaisy Speakeasy operates under the guise of The Little Daisy Cafe, as Lackadaisy is actually an underground brewery that prospered during the Prohibition...at least until Atlas May was murdered, and widower Mitzi May took over her husband's business.

I saw a random page of Lackadaisy on Deviantart and curiosity spurred me on. All the characters are drawn as Disney-like cats with painstaking detail, and lovingly placed panels. Don't let the almost kiddy style of art deceive you, all the characters have adult, human personalities. To make it better, the author's sense of humour is wonderful and the story, while still young, has kept me wondering on what will happen. This comic is definitely worth a glance or two.

Link: Lackadaisy
More Links:
Tracy JB's Deviantart
The full summary from the author's first three intro pages

This is a random comic using her own characters by Tracy JB:

DO NOT PRESS THE BUTTON.

Asterisks: [* * *] * *
Rating: PG

Have 15 minutes to spare? Go ahead. Press the button.

Link: The imbed code came from Arcade U.com

Sinfest

Asterisks: [* * * *] *
Rating: R

Looking for insightful humour? Sinfest will meet you needs! Meet Slick and his ongoing struggle to love, make it famous and "find himself". With the help of Buddah, God, the Devil, Jesus, and a Transformer-like robot, maybe he'll figure himself out. Or maybe the sexy 'Niq will force him to act beyond shallowness and not completely rely on "talent" to pick up the ladies.

Drawn by Tatsuha Ishida, Sinfest is a great example of being able to make fun of religion, life and the inner struggles that maybe aren't quite so important.

Link: Sinfest Feed