"See You, Space Cowboy": Cowboy Bebop

Cowboy Bebop: The Complete Collection

“Explore the far reaches of the galaxy in this undeniably hip series that inspired a generation – and redefined anime as an indisputable art form. The Bebop crew is just trying to make a buck. This motely lot of intergalactic loners teams up to track down fugitives and turn them in for cold hard cash. Spike is a hero whose cool façade hides a dark and deadly past. The pilot Jet is a bruiser of a brute who can’t wait to collect the next bounty. Faye Valentine is a femme fatale prone to breaking hearts and separating fools from their money. Along for the ride are the brilliant, but weird, hacker Ed and a super genius Welsh Corgi named Ein. On their own, any one of them is likely to get lost in the sprawl of space, but together, they’re they most entertaining gang of bounty hunters in the year 2071. - Amazon

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie / American Pop

"COWBOY BEBOP: The Movie (2001, Rated R, 110 Minutes): Mars. Days before Halloween 2071. Villains blow up a tanker truck on Highway One, releasing a deadly virus that kills hundreds. Fearing a bigger, even more devastating biochemical attack, an astronomical reward is offered for the arrest and capture of the person behind the destruction. On the spaceship 'Bebop,' Spike Spiegel and his crew of bounty hunters (Jet Black, Faye Valentine, Ed and Ein) are bored and short of cash. But with the news of the reward everything changes. Based on the wildly popular TV series, Cowboy Bebop, the big-screen smash COWBOY BEBOP: THE MOVIE pits Spike and Co. against their deadliest adversary ever. Featuring stunning, state-of-the-art animation, this action-packed sci-fi adventure builds to a breath-taking, nail-biting climax, guaranteed to keep you hanging on the edge of your seat. AMERICAN POP (1981, Rated R, 96 Minutes): Journey into an explosion of sight, sound, song and superb storytelling as brilliantly conceived by animation innovator Ralph Bakshi (Fritz the Cat, The Lord of the Rings, Wizards). From a turn-of-the-century immigrant vaudevillian to a rock superstar, AMERICAN POP is the story of four generations whose lives revolve around the beat of American popular music. Featuring a mind-blowing soundtrack bursting with the hit music of The Doors, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, The Mamas and The Papas, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Pat Benatar, Lou Reed, Bob Seger and more. Packed with energy, excitement, electricity and enthusiasm, Bashki's work is a ground-breaking, kaleidoscopic animated trip." - Amazon.

So the first thing I looked up when I finished my last post was Cowboy Bebop and was apalled that I wasn't able to find anything on it. It is one of the better and more defensible anime series. I must have been really distracted back then, or maybe I was hoping to find a good way to summarize it because at the time I felt I had to use my own words rather than perfectly adequate potted quotes from other sources. Ralph Bakshi's American Pop was simply along for the ride with Cowboy Bebop: The Movie. A nice little bonus.

From An Alternative Past

 

During the years 1979 -1981, artist Luis Bermejo released a three-volume comic book adaptation of Ralph Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings, published in 10 different languages (including Spanish and Icelandic), but not in English. Copyright difficulties, apparently. Here are some samples I've been able to glean from various resources.

Fire and Ice: Back to the Bakshi

Fire and Ice is a 1983 American animated epic dark fantasy adventure film directed by Ralph Bakshi. The film, a collaboration between Bakshi and Frank Frazetta, was distributed by 20th Century-Fox, which also distributed Bakshi's 1977 release, Wizards. The animated feature, based on characters co-created by Bakshi and Frazetta, was made using the process of rotoscoping, in which scenes were shot in live-action and then traced onto animation cels.

The screenplay was written by Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas, both of whom had written Conan stories for Marvel Comics. The background painter was James Gurney, the author and artist of the Dinotopia illustrated novels. Iconic American painter Thomas Kinkade also worked on the backgrounds to various scenes. Peter Chung, the creator of Aeon Flux, was a layout artist. - Wikipedia.

Fire and Ice is a part of that wave of sci-fi/fantasy that was kicked off by Star Wars in 1977; it tried to take advantage of the nostalgic pulp adventure that was so much in the air at the time. There is a strong Conan vibe as well, and not just from the 1982 movie; the fact that Frank Frazetta (who did the famous covers for the barbarian’s first series release) and Roy Thomas were involved meant that they dealt in iconic designs already familiar with the sword-and-sorcery fandom.

Ralph Bakshi had evolved a bit since he had produced the 1978 The Lord of the Rings; his use of rotoscoping had settled down into one style. Frank Frazetta adapted his iconic “Death Dealer” into the character of Darkwolf. There was quite a bit of naked butt-cheek (both male and female, with a discretionary wisp down the crack) and enough horror and gore to appeal to the hormonal adolescent in everyone.

It never impressed me greatly as a work of art or a particularly good fantasy. But it has a certain nagging persistence. It is part of my growing up, part of an age of movies, and part of my memories. The way the narrator spits out the word ‘Pow-uhz’ (instead of ‘powers’), the stirring of the dead witch in the ashes, the evil Nekron spurning the princess and unexpectedly turning on his mother for suggesting their marriage (what is he, a poofter?) flash through my mind when I think of the film. And now it is in the Archive, and I can test my memory against another viewing at last. It should be an interesting experiment.  

DVD Library: Fears and Fancies

Count Dracula

Wizards

The Last Unicorn

The Flight of Dragons

The Dark Crystal

Labyrinth

Coraline