1979-1990 Anime Primer
Galaxy Express 999 (1979)In the future, steam trains travel the universe, lawless space pirates are the stuff of legends, and the rich trade in their flesh and blood bodies for cold, immortal steel. Tetsuro, a street urchin on Earth, longs for a machine body of his own in order to take vengeance on the villainous Count Mecha, who hunted his mother down for sport years earlier. To accomplish that, he must to hitch a ride on the eponymous Galaxy Express 999, the only train making stops at the planet rumored to give these mechanical bodies away for free. After a failed attempt at stealing a boarding pass, Tetsuro encounters the beautiful and mysterious Maetal, who offers him a ticket in exchange for his company. As they make their way through space, Tetsuro finds himself learning many hard-earned lessons about the nature of the human spirit…
Galaxy Express 999 is a film adaption of Leiji Matsumoto’s (Captain Harlock, Interstella 5555) long-running manga series, directed by the visually inventive Rintaro (Harmagedon, Neo-Tokyo). A far cry from hard sci-fi, the audience is presented with a romantic take on interstellar travel that is heavily influenced by old Westerns. The narrative, too, is sentimental, espousing at length the values of dreams, freedom and the fleetingness of life. But like much of Matsumoto’s work, Galaxy Express 999 strikes a chord, and as the catchy theme song suggests, it’s hard to keep it from whisking you away onto a journey to the stars.
Syd Mead concept art from the Blade Runner 30th Anniversary blu-ray still gallery, part two: interiors
(Source: indistantdays)
(Source: architecture-drawings)
Old Canon advertisements, with art by Katsuhiro Otomo
Eizin Suzuki
Mike Quon, from JCA Annual 4 (1982)
Democratic National Convention
(George Skadding. 1952)
Pat Gorman, MTV logo, from Design With Illustration, 1990
(Source: pressworksonpaperblog)
dept-of-research-and-development:
Snoopy knew how to make an entrance. From his first appearance in Charles Schulz’s third Peanuts strip, October 4, 1950.
dept-of-research-and-development:
With only four frames, and not much action, it’s difficult to justify this clip as my favourite piece of animation ever, but man, it’s up there.
The Office owes so much to Chuck Jones. This is, of course, from Jones’s One Froggy Evening (1955).
