I think it’s safe to say that everyone on this website, or at least the authors, has a taste for nostalgia. After eating a peppermint pattie, I started thinking about this commercial today from the late 80s. It’s pretty great. Just thought I’d share.

Here are comics you can buy now, if you want!

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-27333-Des-Moines-Graphic-Novels-Examiner~y2009m11d19-Wednesday-Comics-111809

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This Wednesday there’s a lot of interesting stuff coming out, if you ask me. New comics by Morrison, Ellis and Azzarello. Steve Dillon’s return to the Punisher. And so forth. More details here.

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TRAVIS

“COMING AROUND”

b/w “Just The Faces Change”/”The Connection”/”Rock N’ (Salad) Roll”/”The Weight” (The Band cover)

Released 6/5/00

(Fran Healy)

I used to really love Travis; from 2000 til around 2003, I would say they were one of my favorite bands. I was won over by their second album (the massive U.K. smash The Man Who) and subsequently picked up their debut, Good Feeling. By the time The Invisible Band was released in the summer of 2001, my Traviphile tendencies were at a fever pitch. My friend Ryan and I even went to a Dido concert just because Travis were opening. In the middle of this period of devotion came “Coming Around”, a non-album single released to help ease the wait between records.

Now, the first thing you might notice when you hear “Coming Around” is that it sounds like The Byrds. Not just kind of like The Byrds. Just like The Byrds. My knowledge of guitars is nil, but I’d bet dollars to donuts that’s the 12-string Ricky on the track, the kind Roger McGuinn made famous. But I’ve never let blatant borrowing ruin my appreciation of a good song (Oasis is one of my favorite bands, after all), and almost a decade later, I still really like “Coming Around”. It’s got a good Fran Healy-supplied melody, and I’ve always been a fan of jangly guitars/ Now, it’s sounds like more of a transitional song to me than it did then; the melancholy of The Man Who being replaced by the (perhaps overly) sunny tones of The Invisible Band.

Unfortunately, that change also marked the beginning of the end for my time as an ardent Travis fan. I enjoy Band still (though it’s been years since I listened to it), but I think my affection may be borne more out of nostalgia than enthusiasm. I actually liked 2003’s 12 Memories, though after that my interest in keeping track of Travis faded. I bought The Boy With No Name, but it was out of habit more than anything and I seriously doubt I’ve ever listened to it all the way through. I didn’t even bother to get Ode To J. Smith. Some bands stay with you, and some bands are destined to fall by the wayside. But I still love The Man Who and I still love “Coming Around”…like I said, it was a transition, but I think it still has enough of a sweet spot for me, enough residual TMW qualities to make the cut-off of my Travis love. I also remember listening to it on a plane ride to Japan in the summer of 2000, and anytime a song can take you back to some of the best days of your life, it’s bound to have a positive effect on you.

Here’s the video…there’s a giant egg in it:

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SAMURAI SHODOWN
original platform
arcade
developer/publisher
SNK

The success of Capcom’s Street Fighter II resulted in a legion of imitators. SNK recruited some of the designers of the original Street Fighter from 1987, but considering how terribly that game actually plays it should come as no surprise that efforts like Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury were complete garbage. SNK finally righted the ship with Samurai Shodown, which incidentally plays much more like SFII than the previously-mentioned efforts, while maintaining the high special effects SNK became known for. The setting is feudal Japan and the cast consists of the great archetypes associated with that period. A whole series followed, although the later entries might be more accurately considered updates rather than sequels.

Samurai Shodown was inducted on November 6th, 2009.

Return to the National Game Registry to view more inductees.

MORTAL KOMBAT II
original platform
arcade
developer/publisher
Midway
key personnel
John Tobias (design)
Ed Boon (program/design)
Dan Forden (music)

Mortal KombatII offers the same as the original, but amped up in every way. The gameplay in particular is superior and the imagery is overall much more interesting.

Mortal Kombat II was inducted on November 6th, 2009.

Return to the National Game Registry to view more inductees.

LUCKY & WILD
original platform
arcade
developer/publisher
Namco
key personnel
Taro Okamoto (design)
S. Tohyama (design)
Y. Kounoe (design)
Etsuo Ishii (music)

By the early 1990s, there were legions of racing games and mobs of light gun games but Namco’s Lucky & Wild lets the player drive and shoot. This combination alone would perhaps just be a novelty but the game is well constructed and has lots of personality, ex: the great rear view mirror at the top of the screen displaying the title characters’ reactions.

Lucky & Wild was inducted on November 6th, 2009.

Return to the National Game Registry to view more inductees.

Unlike many of the other illustrators in this series, Johnny Gruelle wrote most of his works.  He secured his fame with his creation, Raggedy Ann (and Andy).  He is best known for this series of books but he illustrated several others, as well.

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Arthur Rackham, like Maxfield Parrish, still enjoys a following today. His legend extends beyond the world of illustrated books and there are several art books dedicated to his work currently in print. It’s difficult to point out works with which he is specifically associated, largely because he mostly provided illustrations for new editions of long-established works like Aesop’s Fables, Alice in Wonderland, Wind in the Willows, etc.  The one original work of some fame that he illustrated is Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, which is largely overshadowed by its sequel, Peter and Wendy (aka Peter Pan).  Anyway, read ‘em and weep!

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Mr. Tenniel is the eldest illustrator featured thus far. Tenniel was not a full-time illustrator of books but rather spent most of his time working on editorial cartoons for Punch magazine.  Still, the in addition to a version of Aesop’s Fables, he illustrated a couple of immortal whoppers, namely Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There.  And now gaze at his his handiwork!

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