Rough updates - Big Wow convention and other stuff...

Hmm.... So much for more consistent postings in 2013...ah well... Started off the new year taking a once-a-week beginning film class as a refresher course- I was a little nervous at first, insecurity worrying about being the oldest one in class... but fortunately it wasn't quite the case, and there were 25 students all over the map on levels- I'll eventually write a more detailed post about the experiences for the three-month class, but for now I'll mention that it was a blast- maybe because once I got started, that I had a certain amount of fearlessness in casting students at the college... coming from a time of feeling pretty frustrated for (ugh) years of Black Canary being in limbo--- it was a great joy to be uninhibited in filming an experimental narrative (albeit a silly one) and complete it from beginning to end. It really reminded me of the 'ups' of filmmaking and not just the downs that I've been frustrated by for awhile now. Anyhow... That's the most (creatively) interesting thing that happened from January-March. Helped out a couple of folks as well in class, and was very glad to do so. The appreciation level of helping someone who'd never made a film (video) before is great. The unexpected reward was being able to stand on the side and being able to vicariously remember the euphoria of shooting one's first short film ever. I hope it doesn't sound pretentious, but sometimes shooting a short at this point is painful- maybe because what I want in my head is a specific thing, but in the beginning.... there's perhaps less expectation and just a thrill to see what you write on paper get transformed into people performing it and it becoming this tangible piece of film (or video) that you can keep forever. So... it was a great way to start the year off! April and May was a bit clunky--- I had hoped to continue the momentum of creativity by taking a one-day-a-week animation class- and hopefully use the class discipline to complete the Back Canary shorts I'd wanted to start- but, it turned out that it was primarily a Flash class (Something that I'm teaching soon!). Anyhow.... Caught a couple of sequels- Iron Man III (which was a mixed bag--- It was far better than the horrible Iron Man II, but since it was Shane Black, I was expecting something akin to his Lethal Weapon I and II- IM 3 was very good, but it wasn't quite Shane Black's best work) and Star Trek II (which was a big disappointment--- One critic called it 'the Star Trek Supermacy', which was a good title. It was more about the chase than anything else--- which I guess is okay, but after watching it, I immediately longed to rewatch one of the classic Trek movies (except for the Shatner directed one) as I remember the joy of those films not only being more about the characters as a family, but also having more substance at the end of the films as well. JJ Abrams might not be Michael Bay, but it's nice to have SOME attempt at trying to have a little depth along with the flash and explosions in a movie franchise.) Anyhow- that's cool. I'm more looking forwards to MAN OF STEEL and THE WOLVERINE anyhow. How cool is it that there are a set of scifi/superhero films each summer now? On the dvd tv front, recently caught up with DEXTER Season 7--- interesting stuff with Manny Coto as one of the head writers/showrunners there (yeah!) and am currently viewing ALPHAS Season 1--- which was only interesting to me because I'd read that Steven Ira Behr (of Deep Space Nine fame) was fired on Season 2 because he was taking the show into controversial territory. The pilot by Zack was flat, but once the series started with Ira, it's not bad. I partiuclarly like the Rain Man-like character on the show and David Straitharn. On the creative front, attended the 'Big Wow' convention this weekend. Very interesting.... will have a long post later soon - but in short, I have to say a number of different interactions with different folks have me VERY inspired on a creative level of what I want to do longterm. More later, but in brief, this is what I've been up to & I will soon be uploading the entire pencilled "Faith"- long story for later on. H.

APRIL recap/ Jerry Ordway out of work.... What the heck?

First- yeah, I'll be fixing the formatting/pictures for the previous post soon. In the meantime... April- Was the break & I was planning on taking the "Animation with a Professional" class as a way to also push myself to complete the Black Canary animation short project I was mentioning that would sub the live-action one. Anyhow- Because it was all about Flash, I dropped the class (for good or bad). Fell back a bit into the funk- not good- In short, I was happy to: (1) FINALLY complete the idea I had in my head for a short film for years, but sat on--- and (2) that I was able to make it 'better' than I had previously felt good, and (3) that most of it was shot on my ipad 3 and got good response, made me feel good, too. May- Starting up. I am very tempted (although it will be a FAST shoot) to do a kungfu film one day a week. New script. I have an interested actor and possibly kungfu students, but will see. Not 'greenlit' in my head quite yet. On another note, I was trying to find OLD comic fanzines that I threw out, and see if they were available for sale on the internet--- and came across Jerry Ordway's blogspot- and was shocked shocked shocked to find out that: (1) he wasn't as rich as Jim Lee or Chris Claremont (or John Byrne) even though he worked in the 'gold rush' time of comics. (2) he was still a freelancer with no health insurance from a company (3) he was more/less cut OFF from work from DC via poiitics. And then- a number of professionals clamored similar stories. To me, it was a dream job growing up. I wanted to break into Marvel/DC- it was an obsession....but.... I simply was not a good enough artist, and didn't know how to improve (despite searching for teachers/taking classes that might help). I sat back and saw fan artists in fanzine become pros like Jerry Ordway, and just hang back in envy/frustration. I went another path after banging my head against the wall too many times, but I was envying this artist to no end--- And now? Now..... I'm shaking my head in disbelief. He has the rug pulled out from under him- but I never could even get the rug. Wow. Hm...

Return to school, Dredd 2.0, random stuff...

So- Returning back to school from the ground up was great.... Things could have swung either way, where it could have squashed any interest whatsoever in creating ANYTHING for the rest of my life.... or be an interesting re-ignition of a love affair with creating, after a marriage that went really really sour for awhile. The odd thing is: First time I started taking film classes, I felt indestructible and it was ok to make all the mistakes in the world- and everyone was enthused because it was all fresh and new to everyone else, too.... with no idea how far things would go, or where it would go.

I was pretty voracious with creating short films for awhile (no, a large percentage isn't up on youtoob)--- and I was enthused with jumping onto other people's shoots, helping out as well--- but I have to admit the disappointing reception to Vangelis and the immediacy and criticalness of the internet strangled the fearlessness that you SHOULD have in creating. Thus, the endless procrastination with many of the projects that got uploaded later on: Black Canary and Faith, are the most immediate things that come to mind. Announcing it on a blog and then not meeting deadlines just makes it so much worse. Ug.

Anyhow.... It's weird and pleasant going back to night school. Before, I used to fret and care what the world thought about what I put up- to a point of paralysis.... now, so much time and pain has passed, (plus huger-scale real life issues that come with age), I don't care anymore... in a good way. So, that's where my head is at. In the meantime- Yep, yep, yep...... I didn't forget Faith. The school is only a short few months. I want to finish Faith the comic- and -am figuring out the style choices for Black Canary- the whatever-format-I end up doing (not ruling out film, but more likely animation or comic). And.... If you're wondering about why I've got "Dredd" images on this post, it's because I finally caught the new "Dredd" movie that got some buzz on the net. At first I thought it respectable but WAYYY underwritten (especially with great actors in the roles)--- I think with "True Blood" and "Game of Thrones" on HBO, it's upped the ante for doing a good balance of character and action. Those shows don't have great budgets (although they look pretty nice), but they make up for it by having great character development. Still- in any case, the old "Dredd" movie with Stallone was goofy, noisy, and felt a little too Stallone-ized. (And not in a good way) The new "Dredd" movie made me excited about the possibilities and wonder more about the source material more, enough so, that I ordered the Brian Bolland collection of it. Anyhow- the year is off to a bit of a clunky/slow start. But hopefully this year is a game changer creatively. The community that's already come from a beginning film class has given me a much-needed jolt of enthusiasm, which perhaps was squashed by more fear of what the world thought these last few years. I don't know who said that you need self-delusion to really create, but if that's not true, then definitely I think you need to feel a life force to create that's so big, you don't give a shite who thinks you're an idiot to ignore everything and everyone around you and just do it. Wonder if that's how Steve Jobs and Ed Wood did what they did?

Peter David Stroke???

Now and then when I actually peruse the web (not very often in the last few months, mainly use the internet to check any emails from my work)--- I usually pop on over to friends' work/blogs/videos when I can. In surfing a little bit, got a huge shock when I went to NealAdams.com blog, talking about 'helping out Peter David'---I was curious. What did that mean? Then I went to PeterDavid.net (a site I've put in my links and often visit) and found a few posts detailing Peter David's stroke while on vacation on his family for this new year... and almost fell out of my seat. The posts resonate on a lot of levels. Hopefully he makes a full recovery, but from what the posts are saying, it doesn't sound likely. Been mulling over what now seems like minor irritations today... hearing about a health issue of this magnitude about someone that you admire and imagine is a bit of an icon and isn't all that old is a great way to wake one up and get perspective again. Worst possible way (to say the least) for them to start a new year. Wish his family the best and for his health to return as much as possible.

The Hobbit and taking a chance....

Well--- Started the first week of the new year ignoring my health resolutions, but at least catching "The Hobbit" on the magnificent supersize screen (non-3d, but far far better than Liemax) in town & actually committing to being on a waitlist for a (drumroll) return to school. First off: My own impressions on "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Prequel".... Short review is: Good film, was thrilled to read that Peter Jackson was directing again, as I had big love for his "Lord of the Rings" movie adaptations. It was also fun trying to play 'hmm...where is the Guellerman De Toro influences' bits to myself. (Ironically, had a great 'trailer pre-show' with the same Del Toro's "Pacific Rim", Nolan/Sndyder's "Man of Dark Steel" and Gigi Abrams' "Star Trek into Darkness"). Was great to see Sir Ian McKellan & Andy Sirkus come back (as Gandalf and the Gollum, who really steals the show once again- really, there shoulda been a spinoff: "the Gollum monologues", if you're reading this, Peter J.) In fact the best bits involved seeing cast members pop up and return from the Lord of the Rings movies--- and- while the 'new' cast is fine.... the lesser bits involved a lot of exposition and setup involving them. While I enjoyed the extended editions a lot, I have to admit that on first viewing, "The Hobbit" really could have lost about 20-30 minutes towards the beginning and I would have been fine with that. But, still, at least it's nowhere near the horribly disappointing movie experience that was "The Dark Knight Rises (badly)". On another note- After much lagging and stagnation with my projects, decided to 'dive in' and actually commit to going back to school to take a filmmaking class again on the side. I have to admit--- There's something both encouraging and paralyzing about putting stuff up on the internet. I used to have a lot more output when I was making student films, and far less so after "Vangelis" and--- well, yeah, even more of a mess (my fault) with "Black Canary" not even reaching the finish line. So- Yeah. Will see if I get into the class and see if it helps... or hurts. Eh. Like I like to say: "What doesn't kill you.... doesn't kill you." :)

Quickee Incomplete Wrapup of 2012 before the Fiscal Cliff Deadline

Came back recently from Vegas, a great break from life woes this year. Saw (of all things) a great exhibit on the life of Leonardo DaVinci at the Venetian Hotel (highly reccomended) and my first time ever of seeing the Blue Man Group perform (the new show advertised as: "Now with Balls!") on stage (also highly reccomended!), and wanted to at least have ONE entry before 2013 started. Ok- So, creative projects update:

* Faith- is fully pencilled, but not inked. I'm just too slow of an inker to do it properly.... so, I'm planning another way to finish the art and have it finished by the end of January 2013 (if all is as planned).

* Black Canary- is going to be comic book form/ animation. I HATE the idea to no end about an unfinished video project, but at least I really learned a lot of things post-mortem on this project as a live-action. If only things had worked out better, and I'll go in-detail later this year about so many things learned on a future blogspot. * Claim- an old long-gestated project that never got edited, I hope to edit and finish by end of Febuary 2013- March 2013. * Spec comic adaptation project- I'm planning on working on a comic adaptation of a series of novels by a famous silver age comic book writer. More later. * My own old comics project- Three babies that I'll share more after Faith and Black Canary are done. Ok- So, onto stuff that I loved/liked/or just checked out outside of real life in 2012:

JANUARY: GAME OF THRONES. WOWZA. Forget Lord of the Rings. Aces in all categories.... it takes a couple of episodes to figure out who is who, but I'm hooked. One good/bad thing about the show: no characters are safe from getting killed off. Top five cable tv series in my book, for sure. The graphic nudity and violence aren't necessary, but it's HBO, so, that's their selling point.

FEBRUARY: Walt Simsonson's THOR Omnibus. I've been a major fan of Simonson's since his short miniseries "Manhunter" with Archie Goodwin back in the day (which won a number of comic book awards back then)--- and heard that "Thor" was considered his best work by many. My opinion? Neither the writing nor the art impressed. I would have rather have seen a recolored expensive "Manhunter" Omnibus- but NOT colored by the rather-insane (he must have been, given his recoloring work in reprints) Klaus Janson. Don't get it.

MARCH: JOHN CARTER. Well done, good but sadly not great film. I was initially wowed- moreso of how they were able to throw in so much from the books faithfully- but in hindsight... it's one of those cases where maybe the love of the detail of the books might have sidetracked making a film that could have resonated more with non-Carter fans. John Carter books are primarily wish-fulfillment stories- and for Andrew Stanton to have tried towards designing a world away from that direction felt like it lessened what could have been a visually breathtaking film into one that was merely 'ok'. (Not that that was the main problem with the film moving on all thrusters, but I'm also really picky visually when you've got all the money and technology in the world to take your breath away on a fantasy film and you don't.)

JIM LEE's "HUSH" pencil hardback. For some reason, I thought I'd learn at lot from this. I like the book, but don't really feel like I got as much out of this as I'd hoped.

APRIL: BREAKING BAD SEASON 4. Still amazing show. No wonder Frank Darabont loves it so much.

YOUNG JUSTICE VOLUMES 1-3. Very entertaining and impressive. There was a lot of love for this show, I can see why, now. Neat that they actually got Peter David to write a few episodes.

MAY: AVENGERS. Damn, I knew Joss Whedon was the only one who could pull it off. When I'm in a nit-picky mood, I might pick on some bits feeling like it was directed like a tv show at times, from how it's staged.... but, this was a near-impossible job to pull off, and JW did it. I just wish that Emily Blunt would have been cast instead (as she initially was under John Favreau) for Black Widow, but otherwise Scarlett Jo comes off FAR better here than in the disappointing IM 2. Best news of all: Joss Whedon is in charge of AVENGERS 2.

JULY: TDKR. As pleased as I was with Avengers, is as much as I hated TDKR. Totally agree with Harry Knowles review of this disaster. I guess ANYONE can make a mess.

NOVEMBER: Double great news- Obama wins. Thank God. I may actually have faith in America (overall) after all. 007 rocks under Sam Mendes. Sam, come back and do a sequel!!!

DECEMBER: Did I mention the Blue Man Group and Leonardo Da Vinci?

Art of George Perez thoughts...

Received my hardback copy of "Art of George Perez" in the mail recently, really nice book from the same IDW folks who previously came out with the great "Art of Jim Starlin: A life in Words and Pictures".

From Amazon, it's a steal...but definitely an interesting contrast to the Jim Starlin (and definitely the Jim Lee book previously mentioned)- and, in fact, there's a rather odd foreward by Jim Starlin as well in it- (In which Starlin himself muses, of all people, why he was even asked to write the foreward. Not horrible, but just a little odd.)

One thing right off the bat is just how many years Perez has been at it. Definitely makes me feel old. The choices of art pieces- like the Starlin one before it- are mostly very nice, although there are others that are just 'meh'... but that's how it goes, I suppose with these things. For sure, it's on great paper, great artist's views on his evolution of his own work, and is a nice weight and size that you definitely feel like you've got your money's worth. (Well, at least from Amazon)

With Starlin's book, much of it was dedicated to sections of his greatest comics' work- in contrast to the Perez book that breaks things up in decades (70's, 80's, etc.)

Perhaps it's appropriate, as Starlin was a writer/artist for much of his career, whereas Perez was known mostly for his art--- ((*Outside of his writing/drawing the Wonder Woman reboot and his co-plotting credits on the Crisis on Infinite Earths/Teen Titans stuff with Marv Wolfman. (His current writing on the Superman reboot has been pretty savaged by fans everywhere- and hate to say I don't see being able to defend it myself, but that's another story.)

But, anyhow- not a session on bashing Perez, as I'm not a professional artist peer but a hobbyist/fan discussing thoughts and differences between the two contributions by Starlin and Perez.

Anyhow- back to talking about the book- Perez has a lot of great insights as to what he was thinking, and his own personal feelings of his evolution during the many decades (wow) that he's been in comics.

I think I may have detailed before my suprise at the story of how Perez fell into a bit of a creative funk for awhile that got him (temporarily) a bad rep at completing deadlines that led to him getting 'blacklisted' from comics work at the two majors for awhile-

But more suprising to me were two bits:
#1: Perez talking about the importance of health insurance, looking ahead to physical limitations slowing down, and the business side of things (as opposed to Starlin's financial windfall with the novel he and his first wife wrote that got optioned by Spielberg at one point)-

#2: Perez talking about his self-published venture "Crimson Plague" and how it was just killing him financially to do the self-publishing and the lack of discipline that was implied with doing the book.

Later on in the book, it's also interesting to read about Perez's other passions- theatre and fetish videos (though I would be neglectful to also mention much press about Perez's generosity in doing much work for charity as well).... but, on a visual level- it is odd to read that Perez constantly talks about detail vs. clutter, but the further Perez's work goes- the more I feel like there's MORE clutter and more 'sameness' to his work than anything else, despite his talking about progress in his work.

I still feel that Perez's work in the 70's were perhaps his strongest material, but in the end, I question what is the 'it' that makes some images burn in one's skull (for some reason, I LOVE many of Michael Turner's covers even though I'm not all that crazy about his interior work), even when it's not as detailed or is more cartoony than I usually like.

Anyhow, still enjoy the book, and love that it helps complete a picture of the artist behind the art.

But- it also makes me question quantity over quality--- it looks like Starlin may have had less output, but his best stories still get mentioned by high profile folks like Joss Whedon and Grant Morrison- whereas Perez's art is dazzling, but has its limits.

Not sure if it's too much detail in some of his work, or too much clutter.
Sometimes less is more, but finding out what should be the 'more' and what should be the 'less' is tricky.....

Quickee status update

Pencils mostly done on "Faith", damned if likenesses aren't a pain to get right... and I know I didn't exactly, but I put in a lot of time trying my best. I recently came across the "Game of Thrones" comic adaptation and was a bit irritated that the art didn't seem to have the effort that it could have had.... I think I really got spoiled by George Perez's "Logan's Run" adaptation--- while the likenesses aren't exactly there, either, I could see the blood/sweat/tears (and enthusiasm) of the adaptation. I tried to do the same.

But then again, I doubt the publishers wanted to wait years for an assignment to be turned in.

Anyhow, really turning my attention on inking now. I have a few pretty interesting books on comic book inking that I'll share more about next time. But, oddly, one of the things I'm also 'studying' is/are old issues of Dick Giordano's run on "Wonder Woman" and how he drew hair.... VERY interesting on how he uses big black blotches for her hair, and yet is able to get it to work. Hmp.

Hopefully will be able to post the work next time--- by the way, God bless "Comic Life" for comic book lettering software. I LOOOVE it. Man, it makes things look much better than they have any right to be. ;)

CAM