Wednesday 3 February 2010

I Am Astro Boy


Just before Christmas I received a charming invitation from Virginie Selavy at Electric Sheep magazine to write a short entry for their Alter Ego column, where writers are requested to reveal who they’d most like to be if they were a character in movies. I asked if I could be a cartoon character – which is not much of a stretch for me, I know – and was told that this was permissible. I doubt whether many will be too surprised by my choice. Godzilla might have been my second call, had I needed it, but I’m feeling particularly optimistic at the moment, and Astro Boy’s cheerful heroism is always so inspiring.

You can read the piece, which has just gone online, by clicking here.

From now on Electric Sheep is to be published exclusively online, with a book-length anthology of film writing scheduled to appear in print at the end of the year, so please make sure you establish a good connection with their site. It would be a shame to miss out. The current issue has a killer combination of sex, death and ballet in the form of extensive pieces on The Red Shoes, Suspiria and Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary. Dance, fools, dance!

The above image comes courtesy of the National Library of Australia: Tezuka Osamu Tetsuwan Atomu (Astro Boy) Tokyo: Shogakukan, 2003, Vol. 1 of 5 vol. set Asian Collections JAP 726.1 Te95A (v.1) © Tezuka Production. Astro Boy comics are a good example of the manga genre, popular in Japan with adults and children alike. The Library acquires a representative sample of manga to add to its Japanese collection. Please drive carefully on your way home.

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