Who’s Tim Eldred?
Thanks for clicking to find the answer to that question. I’m Tim, and for as long as I can remember, I’ve been a maker of things.
I’ve been drawing ever since I noticed that certain tools could make marks on stuff. My mom used to describe how hyper-focused I was as a little kid, and that she wouldn’t hear a peep out of me for hours on end. Worried that this was abnormal, she asked my pediatrician if she should do something about it. He looked her in the eye and said words that set the course of my life.
“Don’t. Do. Anything. That’s a gift. It will take him far.”
She followed his prescription, and allowed me to go on being a maker of things. Thanks, doc! I dedicate this website to you.
I grew up in the lovely state of Michigan, very far from the creative centers of the world, but the stuff I needed to see still found its way to my eyeballs. Newspaper strips, comic books, TV cartoons, SF novels and movies and TV shows, and all the attending merch.
The ones that really hooked me, the ones that showed me what I should aim for, were Speed Racer, Land of the Lost, 1970s Marvel comics, Space:1999, Star Wars, Star Blazers, 2000AD comics, and the massive world of anime. We’re all a product of what we love, and those things worked their way through my brain to my drawing hand to come out in various forms.
I couldn’t make movies, but I could certainly make my own books. I always had a drive to curate and organize information that appealed to me (dinosaurs, space missions, TV shows, comic strips etc.) and package it in some way. Few newspapers or magazines got by me intact. The scissors came out, clippings were grouped with similar clippings, and wound up in a stapled-together scrapbook. It’s no accident that I would later graduate into a print media career.
But what I loved most were comic books. From the first time I saw one, everything about them made sense to me. As a kid I made comics about my favorite stuff: Star Wars, The Shogun Warriors, Godzilla, Marvel characters, original stories, and more. No rules, no limits. There was no audience waiting for them, I just drew them for the sheer, unmatched pleasure of creating. When I discovered the world of SF fanzines as a teenager, I got to level up.
I hung onto almost that entire body of work and have rolled it out – warts and all – in the Hey Kids Comics section.
I got my first break in the pro comics world in 1988 when I briefly worked for Dark Horse and then fell in big time with Malibu Comics. That resulted in a move to join their staff in Los Angeles (in 1992). Malibu is no more, but the move to LA made a whole new life possible. You can see my many published comics in the Pro Comics section.
Concurrent with my comic book career, I also landed a productive relationship with West End Games in 1991. This was back when they had the rights to publish Star Wars RPGs, and I actually got paid to play in my favorite galaxy. That led to assignments from other game companies and became a steady side hustle for the next five years. Everything from that period can be found in the Game Days section.
I made the transition from comics to TV cartoons in 1996 and have been there ever since. In that world, you bounce from one production to another and wear different hats. I’ve alternated between design, storyboards, and directing, and today it pays all the bills. If you’ve watched any action-oriented TV cartoons since 1996, chances are very good that you’ve seen something I did. I write about those experiences show by show in the As Seen on TV section.
TIMDb should be self-explanatory: a complete-as-possible index of all the stuff I’ve done. It makes even me dizzy when I look at it. I add links to it as I write about individual projects, and it doubles as a chronological index for everything in the ArtValt.
The Mystery Grab Bag section is a catchall for anything that doesn’t fit into the categories mentioned above. These are projects that came and went, some of which I completely forgot about afterward. I can always count on a surprise when I go digging through the storage boxes.
Speed Racer was my first anime and Star Blazers was the one that made me want to make TV cartoons for a living. Since then, countless other titles have found their way onto my long list of favorites. Watching anime, collecting the merch, and traveling to Japan are things I will never get enough of. The Anime World section is where I sort it all out for my fellow junkies.
That brings me to Cosmo DNA, the Star Blazers/Space Battleship Yamato Fandom Archive. I’ve been writing about my all-time favorite anime saga since the 1990s. I’ve had the honor of meeting some of those who made it, and also creating Star Blazers comics, both on paper and online. This subject is so deep and vast I may never reach the end of it. Fortunately, many others have come along for the ride.
Grease Monkey and Pitsberg are what everything else leads up to. As much as I love all the other stuff, these projects are what I was born to create. Both are longform comic stories, both can be read entirely for free on their respective websites, and both represent the legacy I intend to leave behind. And you bet there’s more to come, including my current project, The Last Blue Eagle.
And now, a rant.
Paper is Dead to Me
Paper and I have had a complicated relationship. Paper broke my heart over and over again, no matter how many times I gave it a chance. So now we’re finally breaking up for good. It’s not me, paper. It’s you.
Here’s the deal: when you decide to publish something on paper, you’re instantly burdened with a chain of commerce. You don’t just pay for the paper. You pay for the ink, the printing, the binding, the storage, and the shipping. And when it lands in a store, they keep half of the profits. And that doesn’t even start to cover the cost of making whatever goes on that paper.
Therefore, whatever gets printed on that paper has to pay for itself several times over before you will see a dime. Every editorial choice is dictated by that chain. Otherwise worthy projects never get to the starting gate because of editorial anxiety. I shoved my way into the publishing world in 1989, and nothing has improved since then. Everything has gotten harder and more expensive.
What’s the solution? Take paper out of the equation. It’s amazing how liberating that can be. Once I got a taste of what I could do with online webcomics, I never wanted to deal with paper again.
And yet, I’m surrounded by books printed on paper. I buy new ones all the time. Go figure.
Find me on the socials:
Hear me yammer on podcasts
Anime World Order Ep. 14 (April 2006)
The Greatest Movie Ever podcast (April 2007)
Anime News Network Cast Ep. 43 (July 2010)
Anime News Network Cast Ep. 112 (March 2012)
Macross Speaker Podcast Ep. 3 (June 2012)
Anime World Order Ep. 117 (August 2013)
Anime World Order Ep. 131 (October 2014)
Anime News Network Cast Ep. 235 (August 2015)
The Great Divide Ep. 53 (February 2016)
DNA Podcast Ep 21 (July 2016)
The Greatest Movie Ever podcast (February 2017)
Planet 8 Ep. 50 (May 2020)
Oldtaku no Radio #056 (May 2021)
Cartoon Barroom May 1 episode | May 15 episode (2021)
The E-Town Anime Podcast (Part 1) (December 2021)
The E-Town Anime Podcast (Part 2) (March 2022)
MAHQ anime mecha podcast Ep. 272 (March 2023)
See and read me yammering in interviews
Anime Superhero (March 2006)
CBR.com (March 2006)
Balloon Tales (November 2005)
Bookspot Central (guest blog)
French interview on comics and anime (Summer 2011)
Web Comic Network (July 2017)
The Nova Show Ep. 3 (December 2017)
The Nova Show Ep. 4 (December 2017)
The Nova Show Ep. 5 (December 2017)
Momoconline panel (June 2020)
Art of Webcomics (Summer 2020)
Art of Webcomics (December 2020)
The Third Impact anime podcast interview (March 2021)
StoryArtist Academy Forum video cast (2020)
bubbleblabber TV video cast (2021)
QUESTionaire video cast (2022)
My Anime Village video cast (July 2023)
Canvas Rebel interview (December 2023)
Psychonaut Sessions video cast (September 2024)
The Anime Business interview
(shot summer 2023, posted summer 2025)
Hello Sir,
VOTOMS, VOTOMS, VOYOMS(just trying to get your attention)
My name is Chris Western. I’m 50 year old long time Macross fan. 70’s Amine, Gatchaman, Yamato, Gundam. For whatever reason, I have never seen Votoms. I’ve know about it (ATs etc.) Needless to say, recently I started watching.I am hooked. Better late than never.
That leads to my question. Will the comic you were involved with have major spoilers in regard to the original story? I want to read it. I know of the whole perfect solider/Chirico plot line. However I don’t have all the details until I finish the story.
I decided to watch in the order of release. I have seen the recommended viewing order, but I’ll watch in the order of release. Sir, thank you for your time and dedication to Votoms. Like I said I’m hooked.
Sincerely,
Chris Western
Nice to meet you! My Votoms graphic novel encompasses the prequel OVA “Roots of Ambition” and the first TV episode. In my view, it will spoil nothing. Stay tuned to the site, it will appear before too much longer.
Thank you much
CW
Hi, I just had a question about some comics that were published here. The comics are Cyber Coty Oedo 808, MD Geist, and Armored Trooper Votoms Supreme Survivor. We’re these comics originally created in japan? Or were they originally created in North America? Are they actual manga? Thanks!
I drew all of those comics and many more. You can read all about the Votoms book in the Votoms Hub in my Anime World section. I’ll be covering the others at a later time.
Thanks. Are they canon to each of their universes?
They are adaptations from one media to another, so some details may differ slightly. But they’re based very closely on their source material, so you can decide for yourself how canonical they are.
Hi, thanks for answering my previous questions. I know you also did the art for MD Geist, was there a compiled edition with everything in it? Like a trade paperback ever released? Thanks.
I think a collected edition came out, but I don’t remember for sure. Look around for it on ebay and see what you find.
Hi Tim, You are very amazing. Thank you for everything you do. Star Blazers and Space Battleship Yamato is a wonderful series. Beautiful music and story. Growing up in South Florida Star Blazers was on 7:00am for one year. I was 13. I can still remember the first time seeing and hearing the opening song and saying to myself this is fantastic. Thank you for developing and sharing so much about our beloved Star Blazers and Yamato. Watching the SpaceX launch yesterday brought back a memory I saw years ago a Japanese astronaut on board the ISS wearing his Kodai white shirt with red arrow crew shirt. I did internet research today and found this published about astronaut Soichi Noguchi is also a Yamato fan and inspired by the series and others.
Astronaut Noguchi Cosplays as Yamato Hero in Space (Updated)
posted on 2010-04-10 05:44 EDT by Egan Loo
arrow-on-white shirt of Susumu Kodai, the main character of the classic anime Space Battleship Yamato. (Susumu Kodai was known as Derek Wildstar in the American adaptation Star Blazers.) Noguchi has been aboard the International Space Station (ISS) since last December, and the photograph was taken on Thursday.
A day earlier, fellow Japanese astronaut Naoko Yamazaki came to the station after the Space Shuttle Discovery docked as part of Mission STS-131. The photograph below shows Noguchi (left), Yamazaki (right), and another fellow Discovery astronaut, Stephanie D. Wilson (center), within the station’s Destiny module.A day earlier, fellow Japanese astronaut Naoko Yamazaki came to the station after the Space Shuttle Discovery docked as part of Mission STS-131. The photograph below shows Noguchi (left), Yamazaki (right), and another fellow Discovery astronaut, Stephanie D. Wilson (center), within the station’s Destiny module.According to JAXA, both Noguchi and Yamazaki were fans of Yamato as children, and the space opera anime inspired both to become astronauts. Yamazaki was also a fan of the Galaxy Express 999 anime, which Yamato co-creator Leiji Matsumoto conceived. Matsumoto now chairs the Young Astronauts Club (YAC) of Japan, and Yamazaki serves as a vice-chairperson.
During a YAC ceremony last December, Matsumoto presented Yamazaki with a wristwatch that he designed himself. The wristwatch is date-stamped “1999” and has the serial number “1999” — to commemorate the year that Yamazaki became an astronaut candidate. Yamazaki even made a special guest appearance in an episode of Rocket Girls, the anime based on Housuke Nojiri’s science-fiction novel about a Japanese girl who becomes an astronaut.
On Thursday, Yamazaki and the rest of the Discovery crew woke up to Joe Hisaishi’s “Hato to Shōnen” (“The Pigeons and a Boy”) song from Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli’s Laputa: Castle in the Sky film. When Noguchi was part of the Discovery crew on July 29, 2005, he woke up to Hisaishi’s “Sampō” (“Walk”) song from Miyazaki and Ghibli’s My Neighbor Totoro film, as sung by Noguchi’s daughters and the other students at the Houston Japanese Language School.
Daisuke “Dice-K” Enomoto, an early investor in the Japanese Internet firm livedoor, had planned to travel to the ISS in 2006 as the world’s fourth “space tourist” — complete with a cosplay outfit modeled after the uniform of Mobile Suit Gundam anime character Char Aznable. However, Enomoto was unable to fly to the station due to a physical exam.
Source: Mainichi Shimbun
Image © Voyager Entertainment
International Space Station photograph courtesy of JAXA
Update: NASA posted a January 26 video in which Noguchi wore his Yamato-inspired shirt.
https://youtu.be/313FjEI1kvQ?si=IxeeGvRbxhwhCEaZ
Thanks! I reported on Astronaut Noguchi back in 2010, but this article is new to me. Much appreciated.
Im relatively new to star blazers and ive been trying to collect almost all the models for them and ive seen your work on collecting them and its amazing but i couldn’t seem to find anything on megahouse’s newer line for the ships like the domelaze iii and such, would you happen to have information on all megahouse’s models for the newer lineup?
Megahouse released a series of ships under the “Cosmo Fleet Special” label, but it’s been about ten years since then. They’re no longer in production, so you would have to search for them from second-hand dealers.
Would you happen to have a list of all the megahouse models for that lineup? I haven’t been able to find a definitive list for those besides finding a few on eBay such as the darold and domelaze iii. I appreciate the information, Thanks.
Sure do. 01: Yamato / 01 Limited: Yamato warp version (clear) / 02: Domelaze / 03: Darold / 04: Balgray / 05: Lambea / 06: Schderg / 07: Deusula II / 08: Megaruda / 09: UX-01 Dimensional Sub / 10: Yamato 2202 (with asteroid ring) / 11: Andromeda
Thanks for the info, this was a fantastic help for me to grow my collection.
Tim,
I found your website through trying to figure out who the REAL genius behind the MIB intro was, and if Peter Chung was involved. (turns out, it was just an influence… ha!) Little did I know I would come across an excellent treasure trove of material and stories!
I’m old enough to have watched Dragon Tales as a very young child on PBS around the early 2000s, I’ll say that (your article on that is excellent; I laughed out loud at the internal booklet attached). But I’ve got a lot of interest in much animation/comic history (I’m a cartoonist myself also, not professional but still), especially a lot of stuff that seems to pre-date the internet (much of the anime fan content and zines come to mind). Your write-ups offer great insight into the hard work that went into making these productions, which I LOVE to read about.
I’m sorry I don’t have much else to say! I just wanted to express how much I love your website. Thank you so much for taking the time to reminisce on everything you’ve worked on, and SHOWING IT too! Best wishes!
Brendan
Thanks, Brendan! I’m glad you found so much to like here.