Google Maps for NES



Google has added a 8-bit Dragon Quest-like map layer to Google Maps. I realize it is an April Fools' Day joke as soon as I watch the presentation video in which Google developers show a NES cartridge that, once connected to the Internet, it loads a retro Google Maps. Glorious NES days...we all wish to go back in time.

Here a view of my town Oñati though the sky and a pic of Google Street View that has also turned into 8-bits




Katsuhiro Otomo update




2012 is being a great year for Otomo fans. On January Kodansha published KABA 2, the second collection of Katsuhiro Otomo illustrations from 1989 to 2011. More than 20 years after the first KABA. In a few months, Otomo Katsuhiro GENGA-TEN expo with original artwork by Otomo will take place in Arts Chiyoda from April 9 to May 30. And what's more important for people abroad, the catalog will be available on Amazon Japan. 

If this were not enough, Japanese magazine GEIJUTSU SHINCHO is covering the exposition and a 8 page full color manga called DJ Teck no Morning Attack drawn by Otomo himself was published in its April issue. Here a preview:




In this same magazine, Otomo said that he is working on a new shonen manga due to be serialized soon. And last but not least, an animation short directed by Otomo, Hi-no-youjin, will premiere on this years Annecy Animation Festival. Here the first picture as show in the festival website.





If you like Otomo's artwork you have reasons to be happy but you better start to saving some money because just ordering (from Europe via Amazon Japan) both books, KABA 2 and GENGA-TEN Catalog ascends to 140€ (shipping incl.) we can still taste or smell what's going on in the industry those who don't have the means to travel to Tokyo and see the exhibition in person or attend the Annecy festival. 

Otomo Katsuhiro Comic works are available on many languages all over the world. Take a look on Amazon US / ES / JP. The illustration books are more hard to find and are only available on Amazon Japan

KABA Otomo Katsuhiro Art Work 1971-1989
Publisher: Kodansha
Language: Japanese & English
178pages
First Printing: 1989/9/1
ISBN-10: 4063050041
ISBN-13: 978-4063050042
size 28.6 x 28.2 x 2.2 cm

KABA 2 Otomo Katsuhiro Art Work 1989-2011
Publisher: Kodansha
Language: Japanese
204 pages
First Printing: 2012/1/31
ISBN-10: 4063648818
ISBN-13: 978-4063648812
size 29 x 29 x 2.6 cm


GENGA - OTOMO KATSUHIRO ORIGINAL PICTURES
256pages
First Printing 2012/4/23
ISBN-10: 4756242731
ISBN-13: 978-4756242730
size 36.1 x 2 x 25.7 cm


  

Google Developers SXSW LEGO Rumble



I would like to play with LEGO Mindstorms. It's great to see that Google is doing such nice things with Android.

NEWS | Changes in ChronoBLOG

This month we have been changing the image of the ChronoBLOG. We turned from a greenish round corner Awesome Inc. template to a more refined look. Some changes in the Html here and CSS there. You know this kind of stuff. All thanks to my brother Aaron that dominates the computer languages to perfection. As the god ol' CPO would say; "I'm not much more than an interpreter and not very good at telling stories. Well, not at making them interesting, anyway". Thanks R2 is always there to help me.

Today We have change the image a little more. We don't want to make the ChronoBLOG the center of AAANDNN. The ChronoBLOG is just a compilation of references of our life, so here go the things we do as AAANDNN, but also with AHABI®, with other friends and in general in life. Here the new design a Archive Box we hope to fill with many things and  ad much more sticker in the future. Stay tuned.

Free Universal Construction Kit



Take a look at the Free Universal Construction Kit project here

Transformers 2 - Behind the Scenes



Every time I go home I like to see some unseen stuff I have on the shelves. This time I've taken a look to the bonus features DVD of Transformes 2 - Revenge of the Fallen directed by Michael Bay. It's worth having a look a it. Here a commercial video of AVID the software with which the movie was edited and comments by it's editors

NEWS | Bye bye Laino.me


We launched Laino.me a year ago and today we are closing it. The idea was to create a cloud platform of comics translated to basque starting with the translation of Dragon Ball but today we decided to set the project on stand by. We need some time to re-think everything and reboot it. The already translated pages will be available soon in a new, better platform. Stay tuned for news.

Ian Nose & me



Joaquin Rodríguez took this nice pic of Ian Nose and me last night with an awesome app for the iphone: cinemagr.ma. The democratization of the Cinemagraphs is here.

Jean Giraud dies at age 73


Moebius is gone. After a long illness Jean Giraud passed away today. When you have read and stare at drawings of someone for such a long time as I have to Giraud's ones, you have the feeling of knowing him for a long time. You believe you understand him the same way you understand your best friends. But this is a kind of a different friendship in wich you can only know about the other when a new album is released or when someone interviews him or just when you discover something old you haven't read before in a book store or surffing the net. It's a weird friendship. But it's ever weirder to realize that of those three actual real ways to know something about your "friend", now only the last one is left. Rest in peace Jean.

Hemingway & Gellhorn



Director Phillip Kaufmann, the man behind The Right Stuff, probably the best pilots and astronauts related movie ever done, is back together with film editor Water Murch. With who he colaborated years ago in The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Hemingway & Gellhorn will be released on HBO as a TV movie in the States, but we will likely be able to see it on cinemas all over the world. Hear Walter Murch speak about the film on last octobers Boston SuperMeet

Ralph McQuarrie Dies at Age 82


Today one of the best concept artist of all time, Ralph McQuarrie  passed away. His work is his legacy. Rest in Peace Ralph.
When Star Wars still was a bunch of written dialogues and George Lucas was fighting with studio executives to make his cinematic vision come true. There appeared Ralph McQuarrie and made George's vision visible. The rest is history. The importance of a concept artist in the very first days of a project such as Star Wars is dramatically important. What those guys draw establish the atmosphere, the characters, the colors and the overall tone that the movie will likely had, if its ever done. Because those are the artists that start to work when there is almost nothing done yet, the ones that have to translate words into images for the first time, the ones that have to imagine it all.