Aliens Naruto Run Out of Area 51 on Monday

(They were just waiting for all the Area 51 raiders to go home)

This one is a little late, (or is it?) as the main event to ”Storm Area 51” was of course scheduled for Friday September 20th. 

“What event?” My ever-tolerant mom is asking as she reads this....(though there was a good bit of coverage in the New York Times.... So, perhaps I can’t use Grandma as a foil here.) 

At any rate, there was a fair amount of attention paid by our kids to the supposed raid on Area 51 last Friday. The huge online phenomenon manifested a good bit smaller in the real world. And sadly, we were not among the 400 or so people who actually went to the site...or the environs. 

But we were among the millions who were impressed by the guy who managed to get his Naruto run in the background behind a reporter from “Action 13 News”...and became a worldwide meme.

Naruto running: perhaps no more implausible or uncomfortable in the real world than the extraterrestrials in Nevada.

My son tells me that he can recognize all of the aliens on this napkin, so at least there’s that.

Alien Loves Predator for Valentines Day

‪A classic for Valentines Day:

Alien Loves Predator...my kids love both....everyone loves candy. ‬

Usagi Yojimbo and Predator with Bunny Ears

The latest three issue series of Usagi Yojimbo, Stan Sakai's long running Rabbit Ronin comic featured a bad guy wielding Predator-like claws. This was of course very exciting to the kids at our house.  They were big Usagi fans in past years.  We have every one of the various paperback compilations. And there are many.  Usagi was somewhat out of favor for a while, and I even started to consider letting our subscription to the comic lapse.

He seems to be popular again, however, even if there wasn't a really Predator in feudal Japan.  I am relieved, as I enjoy the series myself.

Usagi has fought aliens and has had crossover issues with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, so the appearance of aliens with blades in the comic is not totally out of the question.

Boba Fett Squares off with a Predator, with Godzillas

Who's ready to take on the Sarlacc?

Boba Fett is suddenly a very popular character at our house.  Of course all things Star Wars are being whipped up into froth in anticipation of the new movie opening next week. I am pretty sure that Mr. Fett, is not going to appear in the film.  Theoretically, he is still in the midst of being digested over a thousand years in the Sarlacc pit that he fell into during "Return of the Jedi."

But Boba Fett is a playable character in the Star Wars Battlefront game, and he has become our younger son's new favorite.  He chose Boba as his lead combatant when the kids staged a large action figure battle over the weekend.

His older brother chose a Predator figure as his lead. When he looked at the image on this napkin, he told me there was no way Boba was going to win the contest, even if he shot the Predator in the knee first.  I suggested that maybe they were just posing, and not actually fighting each other.

At least we know that Godzilla could deal with the Sarlacc just by stepping on it.

Alien and Predator Holiday Selfie

If it bleeds, we can celebrate Christmas with it.

Christmas is a pretty secular holiday at our house. When I was a child, I thought I could be both Jewish and Christian at the same time. But the reality is that despite the lighting of Hanukkah candles and the trimming of Christmas trees, we are not playing for either team.

But we can embrace the general spirit of generosity and togetherness in the season... particularly when it comes to the characters from violent movie and video game franchises.  The Santa/Rudolph theme is popular with the kids even if they don't have the same irrational affection for the old stop motion Rudolph TV show that I do.

I am afraid that they have more affection for the Alien vs Predator franchise in fact.

Bedtime Monsters: Predator and Devil Wolf

And one last poorly executed iteration of the napkins replacing faces concept before we return to our regularly scheduled schoolday napkin programming.

The kids are each sporting the face of their favorite monster: Archer has a specific Predator named Dark from the "Alien vs. Predator" game, while Ansel has a non-trademarked red eyed "Devil Wolf" of his own design.

They are holding monster faces in bed, because...well...more often than not...they are monsters at bedtime.

Godzilla and Predator Birthday Cake

A birthday cake for an 11 year old and the last of my frosting squirting duties for 2014.

The original request was Godzilla, the Alien, the Predator and Steve from Minecraft. But the line had to be drawn somewhere.  

Child Alien and Predator in Santa's Lap

And what do you want for Christmas?

Perhaps no holiday can be complete without bringing out the Predator and Alien kids.  (See other appearances here and here)

I used to take the kids to Macy's at the beginning of Christmas vacation so they could sit next to a frustrated actor guy with a beard and tell him that he was not really Santa.  The activity itself is free and if you go early on a weekday, the line is fairly short...

...and riding up the escalator in the store always gave me a few moments to consider how remarkably grateful I am that  the rise of online shopping has made it largely unnecessary for me to drag two rowdy and impolite boys through a department store in order to actually purchase anything.  I cannot imagine how much more fun life would be if I had to take them along to buy one of them a pair of pants... or, more inconceivably, to buy a pair of pants for myself. 

We have not been to Macy's in a a few years.  The kids are no longer much interested in the man in a red suit, and those Santa guys already suffer too much abuse without our help.

(They look cute and cooperative in this photo, but they just finished telling Mr. Claus that he is an imposter. )

The Predator And The Alien Trick or Treat as Batman and Robin

My kids always like to see a scary, powerful character looking insipidly cute.  They were not too impressed with my efforts here, however.  While I tried to make our murderous friends look childlike, my sons would have been far more pleased if had drawn drawn them as doe-eyed bobble heads. I

Jake The Predator and Finn the Assassin From Adventure Time

We've been reading "Adventure Time: Volume 2." The TV show is one of my sons' favorites...except when an episode is "too much about love."

The bros cosplay here as the boys' other favorites: a Predator and Connor from Assassin's Creed 3... who are definitely not too much about love.

Predator and Alien At The Beach

One for the end of summer:  The Predator and the Alien play nice at the beach.

We do like cute monsters.

Cute Assassin's Creed III Connor Naps With A Predator

Our kids are still fixated on characters from video games that they are too young to play. They obviously enjoy the age inappropriate malice and power of characters like Connor, but that doesn't mean that they can't be improved by insipid cuteness.  

The official request from Archer was that I draw "chibi" versions of the two.  He meant in the manga sense of the word, but I ended up making them look more like "real" children (whatever real might mean in this context....). If you're justifiably wondering what "chibi" means, take a look at the Wikipedia article

Predator and Spawn

The dark and age-inappropriate nature of "Spawn" is very compelling for Archer...in a way similar to the Predator series.

Archer gave me specific instructions for this one last night, asking that the two characters be holding various human remains- the Predator with a his trophy skull and spinal column and Spawn with some other item that I have forgotten, or perhaps repressed. 

Obviously there were limitations to what I was willing, or capable, of drawing last night, so I left the bones and bloody viscera out of this one.

Happy July 4th From The Predator, Uncle Sam and The Alien

Alien versus Predator is Archer's favorite franchise this week.  He has been very frustrated with me as my plot knowledge only covers the first two Alien movies...and the more recent Prometheus, regrettably.  Somehow I missed all things Predator the first time around.

Bomb Pops were a childhood favorite for me.  Now, of course, I see them as an unfortunate opportunity for my kids to dye their lips, tongues and shoes both blue and red.

Predator and Assassin Kids' Costumes

There are few things as compelling as a video game that you are too young to play.

This week Alien Versus Predator, or AVP as the cognoscenti call it, has suddenly appeared on Archer's radar.  Ansel still finds Assassin's Creed III to be his personal age-inappropriate favorite. 

Last night, the two of them asked me to draw them as their respective murderous characters.

Archer woke me up early to tell me that his face looked horrible in the above image.  What he really wanted was to be wearing a Predator mask.  When I observed that then no one would know it was him, he suggested a label.