RIP 2024

[Paulbot]

News today that Jose Delbo (https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Delbo) has passed away

One of the most prolific artists on the original Marvel comic series, he drew 25 issues out of the 80.

[GoktimusPrime]

Manga legend Toriyama Akira, famous for works such as Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump etc., passed away last week. :(
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-68444060

I got into my manga/anime phase in the early to mid 90s. My original online handle was Gokuu, named after the Dragon Ball character. After Beast Wars came out and I finally discovered the online TF fandom (realising that I was no longer alone as a TF collector), I changed my handle to Goktimus Prime. I was watching Dragon Ball before I had learnt to speak Japanese, and English language versions didn't exist, so I was watching stuff raw without fully understanding what the characters were saying. But it was good enough to engage me even without translations! When I was learning Japanese, Dragon Ball became the first manga series that I read from start to finish. My interest in Dragon Ball waned after Dragonball GT came out, which I did watch as I was living in Japan when it aired on TV there... but funnily enough, even though I could finally understand the language, the new show (which wasn't based on Toriyama's work) failed to engage me.

https://i.ibb.co/18TS45N/cosplay-1995.jpg
Photos of me and my friend cosplaying as Son Gokuu and Vegeta in 1995. :)

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

He did the art and design for a bunch of JRPGs too, most notably Dragon Quest and Chrono Trigger.

[GoktimusPrime]

John Erwin, original voice actor for Prince Adam/He-Man, has passed away. :(
https://www.forbes.com/sites/marcberman1/2025/01/31/john-erwin-the-voice-of-he-man-and-morris-the-cat-dies-at-88/