The Flintstones Meet The Jetsons and Then Sell Computers

Here's a nifty piece of modern animation featuring Fred & Barney along with George Jetson as they pitch some new laptop computer. This short cartoon was produced for stores to play on their wall of TVs or I guess computer screens. See if you can identify the different movie clips used in this short. The last one is pretty sweet!

Baltimore Comic-Con

I've always wanted to go to a comic book or science fiction convention just for the experience of it. We've all seen them mocked in movies and television for years, but I wanted to check one out in person. Since my 6 year-old son is all about everything superhero related I thought it would be a great way for him and I to spend the afternoon together. This past weekend we headed into the big city for the 2009 Baltimore Comic-Con held at the Baltimore Convention Center.

The show took up three convention halls. The space was mostly divided between comic book vendors and comic book creators. There were numerous comic book dealers set up selling millions of books both new and old. You could really stock up on your library with the tons of 50 cents and one dollar books. I've always tended to enjoy cartoon comic books more, especially Disney and Hanna-Barbera (big shock there!). It seems all the Flintstones comics now sell for at least $20.00 an issue. I'm not that avid of a fan that I need to drop twenty bucks on one comic book.

It was also neat to see all the artists and small publishers who put out their own material. There was lots of neat artwork to look at and there were even a few artists who have been inspired by the recent Disney/Marvel buy out. Legendary Disney comic artist Don Rossa was there singing his art. I was tempted to buy a piece but never actually did. One of the "underground" comics that was represented at the show was a guy named "Dominator". He was even there, himself, to meet and greet the fans. Even though we've never heard of this guy, Elias was excited to meet a real live superhero. (You can read more about Dominator in this Baltimore Sun article.)

There was some video dealers at the show who were selling DVDs, not of the legit/legal variety. But they had complete series sets of any show you could possibly ever imagine. I was tempted to pick up The Wuzzles or Electra Woman and Dyna Girl but they were kinda pricey. After we left, It dawned on me that I should have looked for the #1 Convention Item of All Time: The Star Wars Holiday Special. But again, I didn't!

My favorite freebie at the convention was a Saw VI lollipop! Why not!?

Elias and I were both most looking forward to seeing people dressed in costume. We saw quite a few Star Wars guys and there was a really good Blade walking around. We saw more than one Joker. There was a Willy Wonka - Tim Burton style, a couple of slutty Wonder Women, and pretty cool looking Ghostbuster. Elias' favorite was...
...this guy from the new G.I. Joe movie. All these guys were so super-friendly too! My favorite fan costume was easily...

...Jane Jetson! It was nice to know that someone else also has a homemade Hanna-Barbera inspired costume. Pretty sweet, eh!?

All's Fair In Love and H-B

The York Fair (open through tomorrow) is filled with all sorts of fun things to do, good things to eat and just a bunch of other wacky stuff thrown in for good measure. As soon as we arrived at the fair I noticed a pizza vendor who was also selling soda in Jetsons' water bottles. That's kind of random, don't ya think!? They don't even make water bottles like that anymore, that's definitely and early 90's product. I joked that the Jetsons' bottles had probably been sitting around since Jetsons The Movie came out when I was in high school. Of course I bought one of these Jetsons' bottles and low and behold the copyright date under the picture of George and Astro is 1990 (the year the movie came out!) It didn't matter, I was happy as a clam walking around the fair on a cool late summer evening sipping Diet RC cola out of a 19 year old Jetsons' water bottle. Good times!

For no good reason at all, I also had to snap this picture of a giant Pebbles Flintstone doll that was a prize as some midway game. I think it was at the game where you have to toss a ball into a basket. I had to restrain myself from playing the game, not because of the Pebbles prize but because I'm pretty good at the game on Carnival Games on Wii and it's hard to remember that there's a big difference between playing a video game and doing something in real life. (Don't ask me about the time I tried to smash a giant gorilla with a mallet!)

I did other stuff at the fair too besides look for Hanna-Barbera goodies. There was a Navy recruiter who had a flight simulator ride on the back of a flatbed truck. It was just like the ones you've seen at amusement parks, a little smaller - it sat about 12-15 people. I was looking forward to riding it. I'm a big fan of flight simulators and blatant in-your-face promotions, but the ride just turned out to be about 7 very long minutes of flying around in an airplane listening to pilots mumble into their headsets. It was no Star Tours! And we didn't join the Navy.

The fair this year is also home to the World's Largest Snake, the World's Smallest Woman, the World's Largest Cow and a few other midway oddities. We didn't pay to see any of those, even though I'm a sucker for that kind of gimmick. We did, however, go inside a home that was carved out inside a giant Redwood tree. That's something you don't see everyday. We also saw a Don Knotts impersonator which would be another thing you don't see everyday.

In the Good Eats Department, I was able to cross something off my Food Bucket List - I finally got my hands on a Fried Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich. Holy Crap....oh-so-good! If you're thinking that probably took a few years off my life then the delicious Fried Cheddar I also had probably shed another year or two from my lifeline!