The year 2013 so far: From January to October

JANUARY - SEPTEMBER 2013 QUICKEE REVIEW

Oy. Well, mainly I'll go over the creative stuff. The regular life stuff is usually a snooze, so I'm not gonna go into that here.

JANUARY- MARCH

Decided to take a one-night-a-week basic film class as a refresher-

low-res REALLY compressed version here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEsF-E0TKjs&feature=youtu.be

Great course- it was like stepping into a time machine and seeing how people felt when they made their first film- and it was great fun being in the middle of that again.

As the class went on, though... the 'innocence' of the first assignment went mostly away from many, and the class generally split into a mixed camp of high ambition, competition, and frustration. Many in the class were there for professional reasons, but I was there because I was so unhappy over how things had turned out (in no small part due to budget and poor management of my own creative ambition) for Black Canary.'

Anyhow- I don't know how it was for the others, but I had a blast (and made sure to... classes are what you make of them, for the most part, or what you can push out of them), and recruited as many members of the class as I could for a fun zany 'Rodzilla' trailer (think of a coke-snorting Tony Montana meets Godzilla, and there's Rodzilla) and a concentrated 7-minute short about a fight over a quarter.

Oddly- it was fun- but not in the way I expected. The shooting and racing against the clock because of people's time was not fun, even though the people were great. Editing was fun, seeing how it came together and how things could be saved/improved. Not having the camera behave they way you wanted it to was not fun. Having to truncate the ending was not fun. Being 'in the zone' for filming on location was fun. The concept had to change greatly for what I thought was going to be a very simple short, and there was frustration- but the extremely funny and perverse thing was seeing again how just getting a couple of people together for a film (well, without pay, anyhow) isn't as easy as you would assume. There were a lot of ambitions and great plans with big casts talked about in class, from people who had great confidence and no confidence.... but only half of the projects ended up getting completed, to my surprise.

I started off in the class feeling as if I had been out of it too long- but the lessons learned from my other shoots had helped. It wasn't outdated.

I was very glad to have had the fortune of having two folks from class and my cousin to be a second camera to do the film- and it turned out much nicer because of their time... although I was in 'pit bull' mode and know I would have pulled people off the street (I actually did do that for a couple of extras) to get my short film done.

So, anyhow- that class was January-March. Two shooting days... and two ten minute class breaks for the Rodzilla trailer.

APRIL- MAY

Must have been asleep. I'll have to get back to this. I don't remember anything particularly significant happening then.

JUNE-JULY

Was asked to teach/create a class in comics to kids- and that was a giant joy for the summer. When I grew up, finding anyone else remotely interested in comics was extremely rare around me, and I often lost interest due to the environment I was living in. To have a classroom full of little ones who were genuinely passionate about creating something with their bare hands and willing to put the concentration and time in was fantastic. It's said that roles reverse: at times, the teacher teaches the students, other times, the students teach the teacher--- and I got a lot from them. I was heartened to see especially the kids who, on their own, were part of creative groups writing and drawing comics, and learning from the web and libraries about the best way to write/draw. In many many ways, they definitely have the environment to have the talent to get that cartooning career that I dreamed of, but never really had the right circumstances to ever get. Anyhow, I hope that they got as much from me as I learned from them.

AUGUST-SEPTEMBER

Invested in comic paper, giant scanner, and other sorts of tech material, and signed up for a one-night-a-week screenwriting course. The previous two screenwriting courses well.....weren't all that, but a little production is better than none, if one doesn't produce enough. On the flip side, was thrilled to find out that a friend of mine not only self-published two versions of his own comic book (color and painted, no less), but that he got many of the local comic shops to pick up copies and he's almost out of them. Given that he's not a 'name' and has no ties to DC/MARVEL, it's very inspiring.

OCTOBER

Anyhow, a lot of suckiness this year, but some great things, too that I enjoyed on a personal level. Going to do my best with this class and wrapping things up this year (Faith pencils are done, but I need to upload), but I really hope 2014 is better than 2013. Will see....

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

Catching up on March 2012: And...an update on the art stuff-

March has been filled on the side with meetings and catchups with friends- writingwise and drawingwise...

Picked up a few art books in March, one "Classic Human Anatomy" by Valerie Winslow, who turns out to be a bay area art teacher--- and marveled/sighed at the level of detail that I probably will never be interested enough to know all the names of the parts of the human body that she lists, but should-

Picked up: "ICONS- Jim Lee", which, by comparison to the first book, in retrospect, feels a bit silly in its title. With all due respect to Lee- (and I hear he's a great guy in person to pros and fans alike--- not always something you hear about those in the biz)--- It's a nice fluff book, but in comparing it to the first one- it feels so lacking by comparison. (I've been recommended a Bruce Timm book by my cousin that supposedly outdoes it by far)

Drawingwise, I've finished pencils on "Faith", but inking has sucked--- so I'm deliberating what to do on that, for the moment.

Black Canary-wise, just haven't had time to complete the story in comic book, animation, let alone live action form.

Anyhow, oddly that hasn't stopped me from still trying to multitask and plant other seeds as well...

* One collaboration may be for a startup - more details later...

* Another collaboration is for self-publishing with a great writer that I'm meeting with in a couple of weeks, big hopes that it can work out...

* And--- there's still 80 hours of footage to edit.

So, for anyone curious about the stats on those projects, it's (sadly) still on 'SLOW....but not DEAD YET', mode...

;)

Catching up on March 2012: Game of Thrones love

Ok, so soon after really enjoying John Carter, bought the bluray of "Game of Thrones", which had gotten a lot of buzz, and...



Short review: WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! I'm in BIG love with a tv series again.

Slightly longer review: This has been called an 'r' rated version of "Lord of the Rings", but I think it's underselling it. (Although I recently revisited the extended versions of those films and was amazed at how much I wished that Peter Jackson had directed "John Carter" instead of Andrew Stanton- but then again, Jackson never had to deal with Disney over his shoulder...)

In times past, my 'big love' for tv has been: ROME, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, SIX FEET UNDER (although with some weak slow episodes in season two), ONCE AND AGAIN, FREAKS AND GEEKS (easily the best work Apatow has ever done- on network tv on a family show, go figure)---

There's been some romance with TRUE BLOOD (But season two then three weakened the love greatly), DEXTER (Not interested in the supporting character storylines and each season except for the last one has had some major flaws), CHUCK (Seasons 1-3 are fantastic with Anne Couffel Summers as story editor, then afterwards, it takes a giant dive in quality), WALKING DEAD (uncertain about following season 2 after Frank Darabont got screwed out of a job) but I have high hopes for this series based on season 1.



The nice thing about the series is that it's following more/less an actual series of books that already had acclaim with a showrunner that's an author himself (25 Hours)... and - like ROME - I like that all sides of the social class are represented, and the facination comes from how each of the players stuck in social classes negotiate with the rules of their society and one another to get the things that everyone wants in their lives- self-esteem, love, respect, family (in one form or another), and/or what extent they would go to protect anything that might threaten it.

The heart of the story (rightfully so, imo) is the conflict between two main family units: the Starks and the Lancasters. The Starks are (almost) the ideal family, that gets splintered and torn apart by outside forces as the father tries to live an honorable life--- and the Lancasters- a powerful and rich family who are cruel and unmerciful in their pursuit of domination.(except for the drunken, cynical but most decent youngest dwarf brother, Tyrion, who is played by the brilliant Peter Dinklage who rightfully won an Emmy for this role).

Anyhow, the players in the first few episodes is a little tricky to follow, but once you get who they are- then it's incredibly easy to fall into this show, that hits every mark just right- if Star Trek: The Classic Series was groundbreaking for scifi/fantasy for the 60's, and Trek: TNG (and its extensions) broke even more ground decades later for the quality of scifi/fantasy--- Game of Thrones breaks it again, with supernatural elements to a minimum (there's very little, and very little necessary, thank goodness) but human elements to a premium.

Game of Thrones I should say, also doesn't mind killing off characters the audience falls greatly in love with--- and (so far) there are no magical 'resurrections' or 'time reversals' that only make mainstream fans (rightfully so imo) groan or dismiss fantasy as something unrelatable to daily living.

Game of Thrones--- kinda like an updated English HBO version of "Legend of the Eastern Condors".

That's as a high a praise as I can give it.
:)

Catching up on March 2012: John Carter of Arizona

Short review: I REALLY ENJOYED IT!
Slightly longer review: BUT....

Peter David put it best- Andrew Stanton was sort of in a lose-lose situation.
If he was 100% faithful to the books, then the movie adaptation might have felt extremely dated.

If he updated/reinvented things to compete with all the scifi/fantasy movies that have come after that have already been influenced by the John Carter books- then,loyalists would have felt betrayed.

So--- given that- it's a pretty amazing tightrope that he walked. The movie is very enjoyable.

THE POSITIVES:
The script adaptation itself--- it introduces a world that's not going to be all that easy to begin with to relate to (the civil war era) and take us to another world that's not all that easy to relate to, nor is all that magnificent to look at (MOre on that later)... so we're introduced to many characters and many situations but without too much confusion nor exposition. That's a task in itself.

The CAST is amazing. I'd argue that Stanton might have taken a short cut or two by choosing actors in similiar supporting roles in "ROME", but who cares? Well cast is well cast.... particularly the leads.

80 percent of casting John Carter I think has to be the looks. Fortunately, the guy from Friday Night Lights (fantastic show btw) works just fine. He makes a good lead, although I'm not certain how much acting is required of him in parts like this. There wasn't a second I didn't buy him, but...

More amazing casting is Lynn Collins as Dejah Thoris. While she doesn't look exactly like the Dejah Thoris I've seen in the comics, she steals the movie imo- In many ways, the story centers around the relationship between Carter and Thoris (Why the marketing team wasn't fired by Disney is a complete mystery to me) and while I may have had problems with some of Stanton's other choices, Lynn Collins is a powerhouse in her performance as the Princess of Mars. (If you view her interviews, she's VERY different in person from her character).

And-- beyond being a fan of the books...I can't say I'm totally unbiased- for an outsider I'd imagine the movie works, but again, can't say for sure. (One relative didn't believe the film at all, another thought it fun.)

In any case, it certainly deserved a better fate than what Green Lantern got.
But, on the other hand....

NEGATIVES

Where the hell did the $250 million go, Andrew???? I've seen Arizona deserts! Boo! Hiss!

As a visual medium, I would think that artists would salivate over movies of this kind that are RIPE for eye candy. Where was the eye candy? For years I've heard that John Carter was the movie that George Lucas, John Favreau, Robert Rodriguez wanted to make--- but to be frank, the ultra-campy FLASH GORDON of the 1980s were far more memorable visually!



Or David Lynch's "DUNE" (Forgiving the unfortunate poster taglines, insulting one's experiences or imagination) ;p


Even the horrible Star Wars prequels didn't cost $250 million but had pretty planets! What the hell, Andrew?
(Though truth be told, as a movie, "John Carter" is better actingwise and storywise than all three Star Wars prequels combined, but still--- eye candy opportunity greatly wasted)

Also..... the sad thing is, even with what was chosen--- wasn't photographed in a particularly interesting way as "FLASH GORDON" or "DUNE". Sad because Stanton had all the resources available, (I bought the 'art' book for John Carter as well), but if it's not on the screen, it's not on the screen.

What's there is a really good movie, but why couldn't it have been a visual spectacular at the same time? Oh well.... thankfully, I have Game of Thrones for both content and style (more later)....

News clips and 'news' mob mentality

First off...
Have to remark on a recent news bit with a Korean Christian family who on-camera were still crying but forgave the killer of person who killed their sister/daughter/mother.

I know there's already background info tracing bad fortune/whatever for the shooter, but I NEVER have any real sympathy for the shooter or the choices that get made when someone takes a gun and starts blowing people away randomly. Maybe he did have a crappy life, but who doesn't?

But- enough about that a-hole who turned himself in (which is a little odd in itself, did he come to his sense afterwards? Who knows? A family member of that family mentioned that if he did have mental health issues in Korea, he might not have gotten help, either- but he wouldn't have had access to guns to shoot up everyone else at the same time...because guns are legal in the US. Good point!

Anyhow--- can't imagine what it's like to be a family member with dealing with a loss in that way, let alone forgiving them. I hear of this happening, but seeing the people uncontrollably crying right soon after news of the death, and automatically forgiving is really jarring. They see the world in a way that doesn't prevent them from feeling the pain, but extending their compassion instead as a response--- and I still can't quite get over it, but I hope that their faith gets them through having to live with the loss every day.

Me? If proven to be true, then I always thought that the shooter should be given to the family's victims, and let them decide the fate....forgiveness or not. Mainly, I think about the 4 year old without a mom because this a-hole decided to use a gun to demonstrate his manhood when he decided to act out..... I still don't know how these folks can forgive- but maybe the cost is greater to themselves not to.

I know it's something that happens in different forms every day in lower income neighborhoods with probably zero press.... but it's timing that I saw it.

*****

In other news, that whole craziness with the kid that got shot, with nobody taken into custody. I'm not mentioning names, because the whole story isn't there, and it's kind of ridiculous to make a hero or villain out of anyone before all the facts are there.

If there's a plus side to any of it, it's how the news media is being exposed for going WAYYYY over the line, as well as people overreacting to it, and causing great damage to bystanders by reacting and not thinking first.

Thankfully nothing serious apparently happened to them, but Spike Lee tweeting the wrong address for a mob to attack--- Well, let's just say I'm glad it was a celebrity that did it, so that it can be exposed what NOT to do in the future and its possible consequences. (Not that I'm sure anyone really cares, but it was nice to see the innocent couple that Spike Lee had his followers target mention how sorry Lee was for what he did.)

*****

On a lighter note, the new flying car looks terrible. Didn't anyone see Blade Runner for reference?

Quickbit

Almost finished with the entirety of the pencils (now numbering 50+ pages) for "Faith".
Man, it took a long time. Wish I could feel stronger about my inking, but...

Almost finished. Cool!

Brlliant new show.... pity it's not on cable...

"Awake"- freebie FULL pilot from NBC, about a cop who gets into a car accident, then awakes into two realities: one where his wife survived the car accident, another one where his son survives instead. The beginning is a little slow, but by the end of the pilot, I dare you to have a dry eye about the short discussion on sanity and the value of loved ones. I don't know how the show will develop (it seems like something better as a miniseries), but color me extremely curious.

Free pilot.
http://www.nbc.com/awake/video/pilot/1385322/

CAM

Whitney's fall, Kick-Arse Abe Lincoln, and Faith update

This weekend, had a tragic death--- That is, my distant relative died from a pretty horrible accident from powertools (not joking), killing him instantly.

Whitney Houston's death I saw announced whilst at the gym, puffing away rather pathetically on the hamster treadmill between two tv screens, one with the Chinese New Year's parade, the other with CNN.

Didn't know her 'quickee life story' until it was capsuled in news bits later, about her fall from fame (for the most part) ending up being a broken lush with most of her fortune gone.... It's a shame that she couldn't transform her riches into helping others as well as herself, instead of blowing it all into drugs and building something- but, I guess not every celeb can turn into Angelina Jolie.

After the death of my stepfather in a horrible (they're all horrible) senior home, I always question when life should end for each individual. Was life too long for Whitney or too short? Was she on a spiral that just would have gotten worse with no escape?

For me, so long as things are stable enough with finances/family and I have enough resources to be able to create for myself- I'm happy enough to want to keep on creating until go blind or my drawing arm melts, or both. ;p

Anyhow. Everyone is saying that Whitney died too young.
I dunno. Only she knew if she wasn't going to be able to beat her own demons at that stage of life. If so, then she lived maybe too long.

Again, only she knew...

Transitioning to that-
"Abe Lincoln- Vampire Hunter"--- Wow, the title itself sounds like the type of film I would have love to have made. ("Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter" was a giant boring disappointment, but may be up for a healthy reboot if Abe works)

If they only blended this with the Twilight series, and had Abe hunting down Bella and Edward in his time travel machine, then I'd be more confident it's going to be a good movie, but, damn, in any case, this trailer with Abe swinging a mean axe at exploding trees definitely looks like it'll fulfill in the 'kickbutt' department.

Funny how it may compete with Speilberg's "Lincoln".

I do wonder if it's a better life tribute.

In fact, if I died and had a motion picture based on my life, I think I'd like it to be "Crazy Asian Man- Vampire Hunter" than a biopic about my real life directed by Spielberg.

(Actually, it could work for any tragic death. Not that my life may be more significant than a pop star, but.... it may lead to a great new trend of re-inventing biopics. I can see it now.... "Lady Diana-Vampire Hunter", "Ghandi-Professional Assassin for Hire", "John Lennon-Firestarter", "Whitney Houston-Ninja by Night", "My distant relative who died via powertools- The Ghost Plumber", etc.)

Anyhow.... speaking of vampire hunters....

Faith. 54 pages total now, with some redrawn panels here and there. Liking it better.
Two weeks to refine the pencils to my satisfaction, I think. Two months to ink.

So....looking at April 2012.

Unless I die first, of course.

Powerful Minute and a Half from Dirty Harry....

A lotta buzz over the Superbowl commercials- my favorite being the "Avengers" teaser, to a minor degree "John Carter".... and, now- THIS-
http://youtu.be/pGMOhOYvcw4

Is it propaganda or just inspirational or just hitting the right note at the right time?

Dunno- maybe it's all three.

It's been said: (though I didn't say it, someone else said it first)"
"All art is propaganda".

To make something so powerful in such a short time is amazing- but breaking it down to its elements and trying to re-create it is always fascinating to me, too...

Pretty suprised Clint Eastwood's presence works so well here-
(I doubt his ex-wife would be much moved by the commercial, but o well)

It's just a pity that filmmakers didn't have him take a gun out at the end and shoot one of the gabillionaires who started the financial crisis in America in the first place.

Maybe in the sequel commercial...
;)

Art Supply Store Reminders...

Took a trip to the art store today for more supplies- Hadn't been there in awhile, was an interesting experience to float in a store surrounded by other folks in there (*bear in mind, my day jobs have rarely if ever had co-workers remotely interested in comics, art, or chatting about movies to the degree I do) who I suspect also knew the pain of being someone who struggles with the blank canvas/piece of cardstock.

The rather depressed mumbling staff of this particular store hasn't changed, although the faces have. One suspects that the staff was hired for being familiar with art materials more than being extroverted salespeople- but that's cool. I understood that the experience of having to interact with unpredictable people in retail isn't an artists' first choice at all, so I always try to be an easy as possible customer.

But, I digress.

I missed the pluses that come from the atmosphere of being around others who know the love and frustration of creating anything, as I did in the short time I was able to attend a (too) few art classes. The camaraderie of other art students young and old was usually always evident, and I realized how much I missed it.

As the middle class shrinks to nada (though I hope that will be reversed as time continues), the likelihood of people being able to take community college art classes (including myself) at affordable prices on the side will probably dwindle as the prices of these classes start to skyrocket.

Not a pity party post- just a sad thought that came up about whether or not nieces and nephews will be able to know some of the joys that can come up in the college experience of exploring different things beyond just something to pay the bills.

Crossing fingers things get better for the middle class in the long term....

'Super' vs. 'Colombiana'--- Weird & cheap vs. Slick & shallow

Recently saw two films that I was curious about... one was 'Super' written/directed by James Gunn, a screenwriter who reportedly makes a FORTUNE in Hollywood over the years ("Scooby Doo" is one of his big credits) but is also a big comic book fan and 'Super'had a lot of buzz on Aintitcoolnews.com--- and the other was 'Colombiana' produced by the Luc Besson ("Le Femme Nikita", "Leon", among other things) action factory.


Let's start with "Colombiana"--- A family member said it best- "A good action movie, but not very realistic". I'd agree with that, but also add that it was a pity that the movie wasn't a little more ambitious and went out out on a limb somewhere. Robert Mark Kamen, one of the screenwriters, (Writer of "The Karate Kid 1, 2, and 3) seems to be able to write engaging enough action films- but with little leftover a day later to remember it.

The movie was engaging enough, with a scenario that's a bit unbelievable at times- but I just wish that there would have some scene or bit that would have made me go, "Ah, THAT'S why the filmmaker was driven to make this movie".

Back when John Woo was making personalized action films (Now it's hit or miss), I'd be thrilled by the action scenes, but more thrilled by the point in which the movie would reveal the scene or two that would take you off guard by the intensity of emotion that would rarely be seen in a formula action flick (There are plenty of them in early John Woo action films- the last great American film that Woo did with this had to be "Face Off"). John Woo at his best tends to have a lot of sappy moments when he's unfiltered- but at the same time, extremely emotional ones as well that take you off guard.

Colombiana....doesn't have any of that. It's engaging for a far-fetched premise, but just engaging enough. The broad strokes of the story are made even stronger by having someone on screen explain what's going on every few minutes or so- but it's decent enough for a dumb action film. In watching the size of the crew behind the film at the end, it's a bit painful knowing how impersonal the final result feels.

It's slick and got the basic job done, though I wish I could have been a little suprised.

On the other end of the spectrum.... We have "Super".

Now, on first viewing, I just thought that the movie was really a mess. The film looks ugly (why not just have it be shot on video on a steadicam if going for such a look?), and the movie felt like it couldn't decide if it wanted to be taken serious as a drama, if it wanted to be a comedy, if it wanted to be a gross-out Troma film, if it was making a statement--- I'm not sure, but outside of parts I liked, it had 'cult' written all over it--- particularly because despite a lot of misfires in the film, the last five minutes takes a turn that I thought was sad and made sitting through the film worthwhile.

Then, after listening to the feature commentary, I don't know if I liked the movie more because of it..... but it was refreshing to hear that both actor and director made almost EXACTLY the movie they had in mind, crazy tonal shifts, underdeveloped screenplay and all. They even were so bold as to share that for the actor, this was THE movie that made him feel artistically satisfied so much so, that he could die and be satisfied.

The joy and satisfaction on the commentary made me feel a bit more respect for the film.... why?

Well, to me, there's little that's more painful to see all the time and effort put into a film- and then have the results go astray for a multitude of idiotic reasons... and so, what's gotten onscreen is an embarrassing mistake that didn't even really represent what the creative person had in mind in their head to begin with.

In any case:
"Colombia" was engaging enough, but was slickly made for a decent budget with a big crew.

"Super" was downright weird (and unpleasant in a Troma way at times) with some very entertaining bits (particularly the crazy almost love-romance between the main wannabe superhero character and his psychotic fangirl groupie)and a strangely beautiful ending.

In other words, it was high budget slick film vs. crude low-budget vanity project--- in the end, it's funny how the weirdo vanity project has me remembering more bits and pieces and lines of dialogue from the film, than the slick formula flick.

Or maybe it's not so suprising.

In any case, shelling out the money for "Super" feels better than shelling out the money to see "Colombiana".

Why? Because ultimately "Super" feels far more personal- like a labor done out of love- after listening to the commentary, it really confirms it. "Colombiana" feels like a project designed to make money (even if it may or may not be).

Weird, cheap, and passionate as hell ftw over the successfully slick.
Maybe not always, but in this case I think so-

Or, as the superhero in "Super" would say:
"SHUT UP CRIME!!!"*

(*Not that it makes any particular sense, but, hey, it's one of a few memorable signature lines in the film and is fun to write.)

Holy Adult Superhero Fan Film Batman!!!!?@*&

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0t0u1ofiv0

Wow.
I always thought (or hoped) that if something was a parody, that low budgets could be forgiven- but at the same time, the fun could come out of being able to visually look and feel like the original. That was my hope with "Vangelis" (Oh god he's still talking about that one)- there were pains (albeit with a low budget) to mirror the show. Giant pains.

Anyhow--- Came across this- and was shocked at what looks like fairly high production values for what's basically a fan film... with porn mixed in. :0

Apparently, this isn't the only 'big' scale superhero porn parody. This same guy is also working on a Spiderman parody, a Superman parody, and more. And the trailers look good, suprisingly! (And at times the costumes are more faithful than their Hollywood counterpart)

Not sure what to make of it....but whatever value a superhero fan film has/had compared to its Hollywood counterparts, the entertainment value is even more in question if it's competing with big budget porn counterparts!

Wow.

In other news, men of science have invented a bullet that can move around and kill their targets, and may have it available for the private sector soon.

So much for science elevating mankind. They're more interested in elevating drivebys.
Great.

*sigh*