As you can see in the tag line, today will be the last day that some of my favorite “CMX Suite” strips will run. You can sort of consider them my own personal guest strips. Also, if you found the “CMX Suite” reprints this week to be enjoyable, you can find brand new ones appearing every Tuesday at Community MX.

And since I forgot to add my full review of Speed Racer to Wednesday’s blog, I will do it right now.

First, let me say that when I first watched the previews of Speed Racer on iTunes and on TV, I was worried that it was going to end up being another version of Dick Tracy. For those that never saw Dick Tracy, the movie was pretty cool to look at but didn’t really have any substance. And that’s what I thought Speed was going to be… pretty much nothing but eye candy.

And, for the first half hour or so, it looks very much that way. But if you can get past that first half hour and stay with the film, I think it is actually a pretty nice film. I can understand what the Matrix brothers were going for. The cartoon was always very campy and fantastical and so they didn’t try to make the movie be realistic. It was - quite literally - a cartoon come to life. And the racing scenes are an absolute joy to watch! I would LOVE to see this film again on an iMax screen.

But back to the review…
For long time fans of the cartoon, you should notice a few subtle nods towards in the movie. One of the most obvious was the older announcer in the yellow suit. That was Speed. Then there is the nod towards the modeling of the bad guy’s car when we first get introduced to Racer X. It wasn’t as long as the monolith car (the one made of gold) but it was obviously modeled after it. And the race in the desert was an obvious nod towards one of the best episodes in the Speed Racer cartoon series - the Transcontinental Race. Even the teams that raced in that part of the film were a nod to the crazy and wild groups that were sometimes featured in the cartoon - although none of them were directly taken from the TV show.

Some might argue that Snake - the bad guy in the desert racing portion of the movie - was taken from the cartoon series (the leader of the car acrobatic team) but if there was one part of the film I was mildly disappointed about, it was in the depiction of that character. If it was actually supposed to be Snake from the Car Acrobatic Team, I was very disappointed in the way they portrayed him. For me, Snake in the cartoon series was always sort of like an anti-Racer X. He was ultra cool and ultra bad ass but in the movie, he was cowardly and wimpy. That certainly wasn’t the “Snake” from the cartoons.

But Mathew Fox WAS Racer X. Mathew Fox is old enough to have grown up watching Speed Racer as a kid so it seemed to me that he took great care in trying to capture the monotone and harsh nature of Racer X. If you were a fan of Racer X, watching Mathew Fox’s interpretation on him is a joy to watch on the big screen.

The same really should be said for Emile Hirsh’s depiction of Speed as well. He definitely captured the innocence - and the determination - of Speed. That’s not always the easiest thing to do. And, this may be weird to say but if they decide to make a Spider-man 4 without Tobey Maguire, Emile Hirsch wouldn’t be a bad choice for Peter Parker.

I mentioned the fact that there were lots of scenes or parts of the film where the Wachowski brothers were obviously tipping their hats towards the cartoon series but one thing I’m really glad that they decided to do was to keep the spirit of the cartoon alive. They very easily could have gotten rid of Chim-Chim or decided to re-write or re-name, re-write or completely ignore Inspector Detector but they didn’t. They definitely made an effort to keep those characters in the movie in order to stay “true” to the cartoon series.

But if you’re hoping for a “Days of Thunder” version of Speed or, really, even a “Transformer-esque” version of Speed, you will be greatly disappointed in this movie. It’s certainly not Speed on the NASCAR race circuit. And although I think it would be interesting to see a Michael Bay version of Speed Racer, there wouldn’t be a Mach 5 or cool blades coming out of a NASCAR style car or a bullet proof windshield or the cool sounds of the jacks as Speed races along the side of a mountain. For me, THAT’S the essence of Speed Racer and I thought the movie really captured that spirit.

-Chris

[Edit: Since this post, I have created a simple photo album of Seagrams. If you would like to see what I saw for 15 years, click the here and take a look at her.]

I’ve said on this blog many times since I’ve started, I always feel it’s important to be as honest and as truthful as you can be with your audience. So if I make a post that’s cheerful and “everything is super fine and everything is positive-positive-positive”, even when I’m not feeling that, isn’t that a bit akin to lying to your audience? Those who can be super positive 110% of the time have always had my admiration and respect but sometimes, this world is a crappy place. Sometimes life is hard. And sometimes life is very, very sad. And I’m not fully convinced that on rare occasions, it’s perfectly fine to show your audience that it’s okay to be human every once in a while. That it’s perfectly acceptable to show a side of yourself that may not always be so uplifting and cheerful. If it was so bad, there wouldn’t be an “Old Yellar” or a “Where the Red Fern Grows”. I’m not saying people LIKE to be sad but I do think they appreciate the occasional sad story - if for no other reason, those sad stories serve to remind us to appreciate our love and cherish every good day we have.

So what is all the above babbling about? Quite simple. Today, I had to put a cherished member of our family at rest today. I had to put our cat - MY cat - Seagrams to sleep this morning. Seagrams was diagnosed with cancer last June. In addition to the cancer, she was also diagnosed as having a hyper thyroid problem. Because of the combination of the two diagnoses, the vets gave her only 3 to 6 months to live. She, to her credit, lived 11.

I’d like to think it was the love for us that gave her the strength to live five more additional months then she was supposed to.

For those of us who are pet owners, we all know the heartache we will eventually go through when it comes time to show our animals - our adopted, extended members of our family - one last generous gift of love. The same kind of love that they show us for 10, 12 or - in Seagram’s case - 15 years that they are part of our families.

This is a sad day for me but not because I had to put Seagrams to sleep. I knew for 11 months that this day would come. And that I would dread it when it eventually got here. But saying good-bye to her is not the thing that makes me the saddest. Saying good-bye to her actually filled me up with a bit of calm and peace as I knew she would no longer be suffering simply for my benefit. No, the thing that makes me the saddest is the “never more’s”. There will be no more little acts of love, attention and devotion that made her truly unique. There will be no more sleeping on my chest and helping me fall asleep as I listen to her purr. There will be no more licking my goatee or pawing at my head (even as I push her off the bed so I can finally get some sleep after a long evening at the drawing board). It’s these realizations that make it hard. And sad. But ultimately, I know this sadness - although intense at the moment - will soon be replaced.

It will be replaced with a happiness… a fondness… a bitter-sweet laugh at the things she used to do, the way she used to act. Those things will come in time. And I know the same amount of heartache I feel right now will be replaced by an even greater feeling of joy that she was a part of our lives for 15 years. And no matter how great the pain is now, that pain could never, ever be as great as the joy she has given us these last 15 years. The pain will disappear and evaporate but the memories (and love) will last forever.

I will miss you, Seagrams. I already do.

A side note or two… obviously, because of today’s events, I’m not currently in the right mind to draw or “make with the funny”. That won’t last very long but in the mean time, please enjoy my cartoons from Community MX called “CMX Suite”. The strips appear every Tuesday at Community MX. I thank you for indulging me in this little post for today. In the next day or so, I will post pictures of Seagrams and let you see what I saw for 15 years.

Thank you!

-Chris

(Added May 6th, 10:30am)
PS: I also want to thank all my Twitter friends who left their condolences to me in Twitterland. They are, as follows:
indigoskynet
madscott
dcorsetto
spizzerinktum
tovias
scartoonist
ddronz
spizzerinktum
rgnelivic
stevefleischer
gamedame
joelbartlett

Thanks guys. Your kind words are very much appreciated!

Some of you may be aware that I also do a weekly web comic for Community MX. The strip is called “CMX Suite” and runs on the Community MX Home page every Tuesday. Here is a small sample of the strip for January 15, 2008:

If you would like to read my archives for the past three years, you can do so by clicking here.

-Chris