Blowin' Through

Well, it's been a while since I posted, what with , well, I won't get into "what with" and my concentration level is woefully low at present but here's some stuff I've done lately for one project or another...

Gordon's Alive!!!

Way back at the dawn of time--which for me was the 70s--I was definitely a kid of the Star Wars generation. Only 6 when it came out, the space opera phenomena loomed heavily over my childhood and so did its' influence. In the wake of its success, the BBC began regularly screening the great Flash Gordon serials starring Buster Crabbe and the movie came out the same year as the Empire Strikes Back. The Filmation Flash Gordon animated movie and series aired around the same time so I grew up with a great affection for the character. However, like many fans of today's popular comic characters, I had never read any Flash's printed adventures.

I knew Flash's original Alex Raymond-drawn strips were considered classics but were unavailable to me back then. I enjoyed Dan Jurgens' 1989 Flash Gordon miniseries for DC but the title sequence of the live action movie, featuring lovely clipped Raymond images set to that infamous thumping theme tune, made me want to search out the original strips.

Then in 2003, Checker Books started a seven volume set of hardcover full colour landscape format reprints of Raymond's work on the series on glossy stock, starting from the strip's debut in 1934 to its creator's departure in 1944. I snapped the first volume straight up and it has to be said that I was fairly disappointed. These crude pages had none of the grace I saw in the movie title sequences and the plots became quickly formulaic (Flash and co stumble into a new domain, lead uprisings against Ming while fighting bizarre monsters , Dale becoming jealous of any woman glancing at Flash, etc) but there was enough improvement throughout the first back that I continued with the second. Thankfully I did because when Raymond hit his stride in later years, the art becomes beautiful.

Despite becoming more popular than the Buck Rogers strip that it was created to directly compete with, the Flash instalments do suffer when read in chunks rather than in weekly instalments. They were never meant to be read this way though as they were created as disposable entertainment before the strip hit big.

Daily strips followed for Flash intermittently but his main home was the Sunday sections. The strip continued happily enough following Raymond's departure but received a real shot in the arm when famed Captain Marvel Jr artist Mac Raboy took over in 1948. In the wake of the Checker books, I sought out Dark Horse's four-volume set of black and white reprints of Raboy's run, averaging five years worth in each edition. To be fair, the stories are less clunky than the earlier episodes but become similarly repetitious as Flash leaves Mongo (Raymond first had Flash leaving Mongo to temporarily return to earth during World War II) and joins a space agency to travel across the galaxy. As with Raymond's work, Raboy's work elevates the strip into something graceful and beautiful and even though Raboy's final episodes were not as polished as his earlier work (the artist continued working on the strip until he succumbed to cancer in 1967), it's still pretty great throughout.

When George Lucas was developing Star Wars, he clearly based Han Solo's design on the Al Williamson spacemen in the 1950s EC sci-fi comics (which themselves often featured likenesses of Buster Crabbe as the hero). Williamson's work on the Empire Strikes Back adaptation was a revelation to me, his naturalistic style in stark opposition to the Marvel house style and dodgy Carmine Infantino that had preceded it. Williamson had been a huge fan of Flash Gordon and loved drawing those types of strips the best.

As a fan of both Williamson and Flash Gordon, I was chomping at the bit for Flesk's recent collection of every piece of Williamson Flash Gordon art, from the King comics of the 60s, rare advertising and portfolio art, the sumptuous adaptation of the 1980 movie and the 1990s Marvel miniseries. Reprinted on glossy large format pages, the art is a joy to behold, especially the art for the movie adaptation: shot directly from Williamson's originals, the ornate panel ,bleeds carry on further than the crudely printed originals issue allowed and the high quality scans even enable the reproduction of the ink washes used instead of featuring solid blacks, feeling like a true reproduction of the original art and an insight into a master's finished work.

All of this has been leading to the recommendation that if you truly appreciate comic art, do yourself a favour and buy the Williamson Flash Gordon book and you won't be disappointed (though don't expect much of the scripts!)

Anyone For Scribbles?

For a number of reasons, I'm not able to concentrate on drawing at the moment. Despite laying out a six page sequence for an Image art talent search that I could easily do (quality issues aside) and wanting to do samples for BICS, I'm finding that really I just can't produce. I try and it just farts out like a deflated souffle.

Even blogging seems to be a chore at the minute (as does everything really!) so while my Flash Gordon post percolates, here's some recent things I've been working on. (Bugger, just remembered I was asked to do another poster today for work!). From the bottom:

Line art of new Who sidekick Amy Pond, actress Karen Gillan: she looks great in the most widely publicised pic of her so I tried drawing it. This will eventually be pencil shaded so hopefully the dodgy likeness will come together a bit more...

Next, one of the officers from work requested a pic after seeing the pic I did of another girl in the office (previously posted here somewhere): despite being a bit basic, I actually quite like this drawing but the face is generic and I had to approximate the hair, so it looks nothing like her. I won't show this to her but it's good enough to post: I couldn't gather the enthusiasm to add pencil shading so just flat coloured this, adding some dark tights to further distance it from the officer (the clothes are sort of what she wears but again, I had to fudge details and specifics).

Finally, another request from a girl in the office, the same person mentioned above. She said "You've got to draw another picture of me, bursting out of an Ikea bag or something!" She sits opposite me at the minute so it was easy to doodle a quick likeness to draw up at home but I again failed dismally at capturing her features. She's one of the most naturally pretty girls I've met so this does her no favours and the art's pretty shonky throughout. I drew her in the outfit she was wearing the day she asked me to draw another pic but I had to again fudge details like the belt and boots, which I couldn't really look at without looking like I was ogling or something. I tried pencil shading to save it a bit but I still think it's a poorer pic than the first one, although she liked it so job done I suppose...

Kick ARSE!!

Now I know it's hardly surprising for me to kick off a post with some Romita Jr art, seeing as I'm such a fan (cough) but bear with me...

There's a surprising amount of hidden talents and skills around you if you get to know people. In my office alone, there is a comedy script writer who plays in a band, another person in a band actually playing on CDs, a former interior designer and a talented cook (I know that doesn't sound much but you should taste how she makes the most innocuous looking things taste eye-flutteringly devine!).

Today I found myself walking home with somebody who I overheard talking about her recent work as an extra on a crime show or something. Being a film/TV fan (though increasingly less of the latter), I began asking her about this line of work when she said (being short) "I had to play a little girl in a movie recently!"I asked her more and she was hired as the stand-in: y'know, the body double used to set up lighting and block out shots before being replaced with the actual actress. When I asked her what the film was, she said "It's not out yet, it's called KickArse...". (Yes, Kick ARSE, OK?Not Kick Donkey Synonym, Kick ARSE)

"KickArse?!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah, have you heard of it?"

"Ohhh yeah, I know KickArse, I..the writer's not my favourite..." (Actually, I like Ultimates but his FF, Spider-Man, Wanted, Civil War and War Heroes have all ranged from meh to offensively mean-spirited).

"I don't know him but I couldn't take to the director Matthew Vaughn, he was right up himself.."

Bloody hell, I work in the same office as somebody in a comic movie (before you shout "She was only a stand in", for one shot she was a hand double of the little sword swinging girl, so there). You really never what lies below the surface until you scratch, do you?

You could even find something like, I dunno, a Kryptonite heart giving me an excuse to post a cool-looking pic of Metallo from Smallville's next season.

Hulk Smash!!

'Kay, I trundled off to the quack's recently for a routine blood, piss 'n' whatever else test and everything was fine...except my blood pressure, which had spiked. I was expecting this as work's got to such a manic stage that the non-stop bollocks is driving me nuts (so to speak). Not to mention the fact that I'm the only person taking every single call in the second busiest section of work but I'm thwarted in trying to achieve my own job by three other sections in the same department. I'm a fairly easygoing person but I'm a slow slow burn and bottling the pressure has steadily been getting to me, causing me to want to throw a Hulk-like tantrum. Course, I can't so the mounting pressure builds within, resulting in thumping headaches and nauseous, swimmy spells...

I've been popping a few paracetamols and taking the odd breath of fresh air but quite frankly, my resilience and patience have gone. Whereas up to a few weeks ago, I felt energised when i left work and was eager to get on with my own time, now everything's all a bit...meh.

I can't be arsed at work (and capability apart, I've always been fairly conscientious) and constantly space out. What's worse, it's spilling over into me personal time as I'm horrendously apathetic at the moment: I've only managed breakfast for the past few days, can't even be bothered to get lunch or make dinner. I just can't summon the will to draw or even read (my read pile currently numbers 60ish back issues, two books and about five GN/TPBs), I just want to..well, I don't want to do anything. At work I get so (cumulatively) infuriated that I just want to kill myself, stab my own hand or pluck out my own eye (I won't though---I'm not actually suicidal, just driven to loony rage) but at home, intellectually I want to get productive but emotionally can't engage. I'm spending too much time pondering my sanity...I don't feel like I'm having a depressive bout but god damn if I don't have the same symptoms.

I started doing some samples (Superman above) and gave up as I couldn't focus: dunno if its because I'm angsty or the art's crap but I gave up as it just wasn't coming together. I started compiling a portfolio for BICS this year...and find that the Oni pages are lacklustre, with nothing yet to boost them up. I printed off a few nice colour pics I liked at Staples and they came out nice but too dark so I don't know what I'll show. Maybe I won't. maybe I'll pack in all the drawing, what's the point? (Well, I still want to draw my own stuff...but what's the point of working in a vacuum if you're not an astronaut?). I doubt myself at the best of times, let alonee when on the verge of a titanic hissy fit.

I halfheartedly scanned in a tweaking of an old pic and coloured that as it was all i could be bothered to do..I don't like the art or (basicly flat) colours at all but kinda like the way the red pops...kinda sums up my mood right now...

This Week I Have Mostly Been...

Well, I actually started some pencil samples yesterday and am happy with the main figure but have doubts about the background and I have a few things to do online so no drawing tonight. So what else has been occupying my time?

Well, I ordered Al Williamson's Flash Gordon back in December and it finally turned up, on my birthday of all days. I haven't done more than flick through it yet but I know this will be a firm favourite: an over sized black and white collection of ALL of his Flash Gordon work, his first stuff as strong as his last work decades later. I've been a fan of Williamson ever since his Star Wars issues and loved Flash Gordon as a kid so this is pure gold for me.

Sitting on my box of Legion issues to get through are a Modesty Blaise collection (an Amazon bargain with art by Romero), Insiders: Chechen Guerrilla (a Cinebook reprinting of a Euro comic currently being developed by Jessica Alba...lovely drawing but all plot and no characterisation, so a bit of a slog to read) and Arthur The Legend, a glossy Welsh (but English language)reprinting of a French comic retelling the roots of the Arthurian legend.

I don't really have the concentration or time for reading any fiction or anything overly taxing but have enjoyed two books lately: although a brisk read, Was Superman A Spy? is a fun collection of stories from Comic Book Legends, a column at Comic Book Resources that reveals the truth behind various comic book rumours. The book covers more recognisable properties than some of the more interesting stories around minor properties but is still intriguing.

The most enjoyable book I've read in a while is Charlie Brooker's dawn of the Dumb. I haven't really read daily papers since working at Smiths, where I read the Guardian and always enjoyed Brooker's writing. His Screenwipe, Dead Set and current C4 game show thingy were enjoyable so I picked up this book, collecting some of his Guardian articles . He is slowly revealed as not only a closet sci-fi, comic and techno geek but also a hilarious misanthrope. I read this at work and found myself giggling like an idiot every few pages at a turn of phrase or amusing notion. Well recommended.

TV wise, there's absolutely sod all on but luckily my TV pimp Mr McGee has supplied me with copious hours of TV fun. I'm currently watching the first season of The West Wing, intrigued by Rol's listing of President Bartlett among his best TV characters. I only ever caught the odd show but always enjoyed it so when offered the chance to view a season, I took it. Other than the Ivan Reitman-sounding end music and Josh's obnoxious media consultant ex-girlfriend (seriously, I haven't hated a character so much so instantly since reboot Starbuck!), I'm really enjoying it so far...though I can't believe a democratically elected government is ruled so much by favours and trade offs instead of genuine values. On the other hand...is it wrong to find CJ kinda foxy?

Anyway, best TV I've watched recently is the end of Lost Season Five. This has benefited no end from having a definite direction to follow, despite a few plot holes like if one character died from time travelling because she was born on the island, shouldn't another character have also died after time travelling at the same time? However, the double final episode opened up a whole new can of worms: free will vs destiny, the manipulation of the crash survivors and a major change for the final season. That character down the mine shaft in the end? Quite liked them but as they're in the new V, they won't be around much next season but I wouldn't be surprised if we see more departed characters. Great stuff and alot more rewarding than Heroes, which hit it's peak with season one, spiked during the first half of season three but looks to experience an excruciating fourth (and hopefully final) season..

I also enjoyed the two seasons of Carnivale, which only represent the first third of the planned six-season series before expense cut the show off but can still be viewed asa complete story in and of itself, albeit with a dangling plot thread or two. This is one od the best TV productions I've seen, the title sequence alone being damned impressive, and I liked the slow build in an epic tale of good vs evil. The second season really tied together the two opposing elements, leading them to each other while subtly highlighting their similaities and differences, mirror images of each other. There's moments of haunting despair and fleeting exultation but overall it's a grimy depiction of a turbulent era. Shame it didn't last though...

Ringading

Not much to say except here's the finished version of the Arisia pic...coulda spent more time on the colours but lack of time 'n' all that...also cropped the right hand side to place the figure better on the image.

Right, I'm off to watch Grizzly Man...