With the writers strike pulling a black cloud over our collective television set, have you been feeling super-sad? Do you feel lost, without a sense of direction, now that your favorite show has run out of new episodes? Do empty pints of Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia and fresh receipts from the video game store litter your home, serving as a constant reminder that you love TV, you breathe TV, and you need TV to fill your life? I certainly hope not, because that would be kind of pathetic.

What's weird is that before the invention of television, there was this thing called "books". People used their eyes, just as they use them for watching television, to "read" these books. Books are hard to come by these days, but if you visit the library, they might have one or two, hidden in the back room. Please note you may have to slip an Alexander Hamilton or wear a low-cut shirt to gain access to the book room. Anyway, books are a great way to escape reality (TV). If you manage to track a few down, why don't you pick up a book or two while the writers strike is in effect? If the idea of straying so far away from television terrifies you, here are some books that aren't too far off point, so you can join in nice and easy.

I'll blame my relative indifference toward the anime series itself, but it was only recently that I had heard anything about a live-action Dragon Ball Z flick.

Last month, IGN had a brief write-up about the alleged adaptation, but didn't have much other than speculation. Now, however, comes word that the movie will begin shooting in Montreal sometime in the near future, with plans to wrap production by next July. There has been no official word on who will star in it, or who will make it, though Roland Emmerich's name was tossed around.

Quite contrary to the stereotype associated with my nationality, I'm not a big fan of anime. That two year phase came and went while I was still in elementary school, thanks very much. Nowadays, I find the "anime look" a little boring, so when an artist actually does something fun and exciting with it, I sit up and take notice. I also love it when people re-interpret cartoons in different artistic styles (for example, the realistic sketches of Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny on South Park a few months ago)

So, when I found this artist's group shots of The Simpsons' and Futurama's ensembles, I was pretty amazed. Each character looks totally different, but it's still easy to tell who's who (a most important element in good fan-art). I think it's fantastic, but, I must admit, I'm a little disturbed by Lisa's striking resemblance to the characters of Dragon Ball. It must be a hair thing.

[via Neatorama]

It's funny how popular manga has become in the last several years. And to think all I did was read Garfield and Heathcliff books. These days many people in the biz point to the Cartoon Network Effect on manga sales due to the increasing popularity of anime on the network. Thomas J. McLean, writing for Publishers Weekly, uses Bleach as an example. That particular manga was never a huge seller, but when the anime debuted on Adult Swim, sales of the manga began to soar. This is not true, though, for all comic books and graphic novels. In the case of manga and anime, the two often have a direct connection that makes it easier to move from one to another. American animated series based on comic books don't always have that connection, and the result is that a series like Fantastic Four, while popular, doesn't help the sale of Fantastic Four comic books that have no direct correlation with the television series. This difference, however, can work, as in the case of Teen Titans, a cartoon that looks nothing like the original comic books. The anime-style of that show probably doesn't hurt much, either.

[via Toon Zone]

Shin Chan, a dubbed version of the Japanese anime (and manga) also known as Crayon Shin Chan, will debut on Adult Swim this Saturday at 10:30 pm. My anime knowledge is rather limited, so if you know anything about this series feel free to school me in the comments below. I did find some clips of the original version on YouTube, and clips of the newly dubbed version can be found here. Evan Dorkin, creator of Welcome to Eltingville, helped with re-writing the dialogue and dubbing the series for American audiences. He talks about it on his Live Journal, and it sounds like he's trying to distance himself somewhat from the project, or at least protect himself from the ire of anime lovers who hate dubbed versions of anything. Click here for the Adult Swim schedule grid, which as far as I can tell is the only place on the site that mentions the show.

[via Toon Zone]

I watch pretty everything these days via Tivo, which is nice, although sometimes when I'm skipping over the "bumps" that make up the time between shows on Adult Swim I often miss important messages about the network and upcoming shows. This morning while zapping through those bumps, I caught one that said FLCL would be returning to the lineup on August 5. Of course, FLCL has been in and out of the lineup for  a long time, so this isn't  a huge surprise, but I thought fans would be interested. All six episodes will be shown, so set your DVRs. Oh yeah, and to my fellow Tivo users, the show is listed in the guide as "Fooly Cooly." It took me forever to figure that one out. While I don't think I watch enough anime to really consider myself a fan, I loved FLCL. I think their may be a deeper meaning to the show, but I just dig the great music and all the weird things that explode from Naota's head.