MMM: Spirited Away

MMM: "By The Countless Constellations!" - Ulysses 32

....and onto Disc 1 of 'The Complete Series'. Please note that TheAdamAdamant's episode running order differs from the UK DVD release - Agent Rob assumes it is the original French broadcast order, hence the difference in the numbering of some of the embedded titles....

EPISODE 2

In this second episode the Odyssey encounters the seventh satellite of Zotra - a 'holiday' planet remembered from Yumi's childhood - now to be found wandering in Olympus and ruled by a strange old witch. Is she as she seems...?

A good enough episode, most notable for the leery scene above (watch to find out)....

EPISODE 3

The Odyssey approaches an asteroid that is home to Heratos and Atina. Heratos tells our heroes of how, aboard Atina's ship - incidentally she's a Zotran the same race as Yumi - he saw The Black Sphere of the title, itself a map of Olympus. Naturally he was then struck blind by the gods and doomed to his lonely existence....

Of course, with the gods meddling, Ulysses does not in fact head for The Galactic Glaciers as Heratos (wrongly) instructed but instead is diverted via The Graveyard Of Wrecks and Hulks where the Odyssey collides with Atina's original ship. Will Yumi beat the race against destruction to salvage The Black Sphere, the map back to Earth, in time....?

EPISODE 4

The Odyssey encounters a cyclonic disturbance that puts the ship's gravitation out of control and ends up trapped by Aeolus, King of The Winds....

And thus, on his daughter's birthday, Aeolus pits Ulysses, "the plaything of the gods", against his guests, the North, South, East and West Winds, in a series of deadly games - akin to Target, Chess, Pinball and Bowling. Will Ulysses be able to survive and rescue 'the children'....

EPISODE 5

One of the true classic episodes where Sisyphus, doomed to a cycle of repetition following his attempt to uncover immortality, the secret of the gods, tries to cheat Ulysses into taking his place, forcing him to repeat the same thankless task while he commandeers the Odyssey to make his escape....

'The children', as ever, intervene with these plans and soon our heroes find themselves beneath the surface of the planet, bearing awed witness to the hidden machinery behind the downfall of  Sisyphus's....

An episode notable for an especially bleak opening - the reason why this disc alone of the 3 is rated Parental Guidance? - as we witness Sisyphus foraging desperately for food (before it spoils in the baking sun) as well as the general mood of despair and hopelessness that hangs over the proceedings, especially when Sisyphus discovers the truth behind his endless tasks and the gods mock him for his suspicious, selfish behaviour that prolongs his weary isolation....

The Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters

BUY>> 03. 04. 07

Sketch Sunday

MMM: Ranma 1/2

Miss Satsuki

P-Chan

MMM: Steamboy

The Charlatans - Between 10th & 11th

BUY>> 23. 03. 92

Sketch Sunday

Three From The Vault - The Royal Weeding

By Royal Diss- Appoint - ment.... Seems somewhat apt to share this today. Quite possibly the strangest thing Agent Rob's ever drawn, published in Wasted Comic to coincide with the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. The initial idea was cooked up in collaboration with the Emperor - who at that time was working with the mighty Alex Ronald on the initial Vampire Vixens strips, also for Wasted - but as the back and forth dried up I ran (at something of a directionless half-pelt) with this vaguest of ideas. That it took me until this post to christen this "The Royal Weeding"  kind of says it all. (The boy on the donkey in the final panel of page one is based on a take on the kid Mark from Gentle Ben that I used to draw in Secondary School....)

If it's not entirely apparent (anyone?!) the strip is Prince William trying to recollect all the crazy things that went on at their wedding, his memories/flashbacks triggered by what's happening on the beach. So there we have The Royal Yacht Britannia pitching up in a fountain in Las Vegas and Elvis helping out with yet another ceremony. And, if feverish, fizzled-out finales are your thing then this certainly fails to deliver - it seems Will has married Kate.... and (the mystery man is) Prince Harry! I think we're missing an, "awrite, bruv?" from the second to last panel to complete the eclectic tale. Still, nice zippy art from my official "rattling any old scripts out to help plug the gaps in Wasted" period....

MMM: Amon Saga

MMM: "By The Great Galaxies" - Ulysses 31

It's not massively common for anyone associated with Braw Towers to fall into or for the (ever-expanding-wallet-shrinking) nostalgia trap, but Agent Rob has to admit that his admiration for Ulysses 31 is about as close as he'll ever get to indulging this modern phenomenon. There's no doubt that his young imagination was well and truly fired - just as it was with the similar-ish Star Fleet and 80's Doctor Who - by these highly imaginative and memorable animated 'space adventures'. Over the course of this Manga Month (and perhaps into the mythical near future) we'll hopefully cover every episode of this cartoon classic in detail....

Yumi, Ulysses, Telemachus and Nono

"It is the 31st Century. Ulysses killed the giant Cyclops when he rescued the chilrdren and his son Telemachus, but the ancient gods of Olympus are angry and threaten a terrible revenge...."

"Mortals! You defy the gods!? I sentence you to travel among unknown stars. Until you find the kingdom of hades your bodies will stay as lifeless as stone...."

EPISODE 1

In this opening episode Telemachus, the son of Ulysses, is 'spacenapped' from their ship, the Odyssey, and is to be sacrificed to the mighty Cyclops. In prison Telemachus meets (the other central characters) Yumi and her brother Numinor of the planet Zotra....

The 'spacebase' at Troy

The Odyssey

In their attempt to rescue these three, Ulysses and Nono - the obligatory comic relief robot - destroy the Cyclops, thus angering and defying the ancient Greek god of Poseidon. As such their ship is banished to a black hole where they will undergo many trials in the dominion of Olympus....

Shirka, the Odyssey's computer

The Cyclops

At this juncture, while Ulysses repairs the ship's Iris (its main source of power) for Shirka (its central computer), he is sentenced to "wander among worlds unknown" and his companions are frozen - "their bodies will remain as lifeless as stone" - until such a time as they eventually (hopefully) find the Kingdom of Hades....

Zeus

Nestor and the lifeless companions

This first episode - and one that my little brother delighted in telling me about when I came home from playing football at the park and caught the ending, knowing I would have to wait until such a time as it was repeated to finally see it - is a good enough introductory tale, essential for the initial set-up of the overarching plot, the mighty Cyclops and his eerily faithful disciples. Worth noting that it only takes 6 minutes for one of the especially memorable and haunting themes to make an audio appearance, 'Le Cyclope et Les Moines Aveugles' and that after 9 & 1/2 minutes we're treated to yet another classic bit of the '31 soundtrack, 'L'Odysseus'....

Episode 1 - Vengeance Of The Gods

Agent Rob's been watching these episodes on an historic 3 DVD set 'The Complete Series' from 2004 but the lucky(?) readers of this blog can enjoy them courtesy of TheAdamAdamant's Youtube Channel. Adam has, over the past four years been diligently and lovingly restoring the entire series episode by episode. Indeed, all the beautiful, crisp screengrabs on display are sourced from said videos. I'll be sure to link/share the very best of these restored Ulysses 31 episodes here....

Not content with his services to the obvious betterment of mankind, Adam Adamant has somehow unearthed the original 15 minute (decidedly) Japanese (looking) pilot of the show - the final 1981 series was a French-Japanese co-production - taking the time to dub it into English too. This intriguing curio is (his but) yours to view above....

Of course, for many people, myself included, much of the (enduring) appeal of Ulysses 31 is the tremendous original soundtrack - composed by Denny Crockett and Ike Egan (with Shuki Levy and Haim Saban)- comprised as it is of quietly brooding, highly atmospheric, proggy space rock. And, thanks to the dedication of French composer/musician David Colin/Parallax - who obviously knows quality when he hears it - you can listen to rerecorded excerpts here or indeed invest in a lavish variety of physical versions here. Agent Rob was lucky enough to grab a 10 track work in progress sampler of the very best tracks online many years ago and, IMO, the greatest of them all is this effort (AKA the aforementioned 'Le Cyclope et Les Moines Aveugles')....

Ulysee 31 Soundtrack - La Malédiction Des Dieux

Mogwai - Atomic

BUY>> 01. 04. 16

Sketch Sunday

MMM: Spriggan