Just got back from a bumper weekend in Birmingham and Jean Claude Van DAMME it was hot! Fortunately , alcohol and water was at hand to alleviate it but I'm now in a state of recovery before returning to work tomorrow. So what's up in the world of me?
Well, saw The Dark Knight, which gets the general thumbs up. It's well directed and acted, never really sags (even with that colossal running time!), looks great and has great villains (I liked the surprise appearance of the third villain). Two-Face was great and far better than the previous screen versions, and surprisingly gory (which was great!) and the Joker was actually pretty damn cool. While I still say Jim Carrey's gurning Riddler was the closest thing to the comic Joker yet seen on screen, Ledger's had the required air of menace, unpredictability and above all the sense of duality with Batman so often hinted at in the comics. And that scene with the hospital was amazing!
BUT...it was intellectually satisfying but emotionally uninvolving and at three hours long, not a quick watch on DVD. As a result this well made and intelligent (and probably superior) comic book film loses points with me as quite frankly it didn't entertain as much as Iron Man or the Hulk (the former still being my favourite film of the year). Still have the animated tie-in to watch while pondering which villains they could use for the third Bat film. The Penguin is a natural as he's a mobster but PLEASE GOD NO!! He's crap! Catwoman would work but most of Batman's classic Rogue's gallery gets a bit too fantastic for the realistic Bat films (Poison Ivy, Mr Freeze, Man-Bat, Clayface, Killer Croc etc are all too far fetched). The Riddler remains viable but please not the Ventriloquist!
Checking out the latest news, saw the trailer for BET's new Black Panther cartoon. Pants. It's flash-animated John Romita Jr work that looks like nothing more than the 1960s Marvel Superheroes cartoons...but who cares with the news that Geoff Johns is writing an episode of Smallville that introduces the frickin' Legion of Superheroes?! I am SO looking forward to this; OK, they won't be in costume but they are the characters we'd expect (so Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad at least then, all fairly easy to translate on screen) and feature the flight rings. Wa-hey!!
After considering ripping off the idea from Garen Ewing (see here for his excellent work:http://www.facebook.com/photo_search.php?oid=18961313445&view=all ), Tone mentioned the same thoughts as well so sometime soon I'll be doing a comic characters A-Z. Don't know how regularly I'll be able to do these but I'll be needing suggestions starting with A-F (don't bother with Beano/Dandy type characters as I never read those). I'm not looking to do on-model depictions, just my versions, so all suggestions welcome.
One of the reasons these won't be done really fast is I'm still working on samples. Managed to ink three pages of The Jock #2, and have only a further two to ink and a third to pencil and the issue is done. I'll probably tinker slightly with #1 before going on to #3 but I agree with Tone, you have to move on or things will never get done. However, if this is going to be shopped around, there are a few tweaks here and there that need to be made in #1---not as many as I originally wanted to do as I can redraw elements rather than whole panels for the most part. There are things that will need redrawing but not too much: good, as I've kept Rol waiting too long with this and I want to get it done myself.
Once these are done, I'd like to do a few things for myself, nothing set in stone yet but a few ideas swilling about. I also have another pitch under consideration for a future issue of Back Issue (so crossing me fingers!) while Dave tinkers with some PDFs for me.
I can see me taking a few days to rest and then cracking back on asap...
But gimme an A!
Well, saw The Dark Knight, which gets the general thumbs up. It's well directed and acted, never really sags (even with that colossal running time!), looks great and has great villains (I liked the surprise appearance of the third villain). Two-Face was great and far better than the previous screen versions, and surprisingly gory (which was great!) and the Joker was actually pretty damn cool. While I still say Jim Carrey's gurning Riddler was the closest thing to the comic Joker yet seen on screen, Ledger's had the required air of menace, unpredictability and above all the sense of duality with Batman so often hinted at in the comics. And that scene with the hospital was amazing!
BUT...it was intellectually satisfying but emotionally uninvolving and at three hours long, not a quick watch on DVD. As a result this well made and intelligent (and probably superior) comic book film loses points with me as quite frankly it didn't entertain as much as Iron Man or the Hulk (the former still being my favourite film of the year). Still have the animated tie-in to watch while pondering which villains they could use for the third Bat film. The Penguin is a natural as he's a mobster but PLEASE GOD NO!! He's crap! Catwoman would work but most of Batman's classic Rogue's gallery gets a bit too fantastic for the realistic Bat films (Poison Ivy, Mr Freeze, Man-Bat, Clayface, Killer Croc etc are all too far fetched). The Riddler remains viable but please not the Ventriloquist!
Checking out the latest news, saw the trailer for BET's new Black Panther cartoon. Pants. It's flash-animated John Romita Jr work that looks like nothing more than the 1960s Marvel Superheroes cartoons...but who cares with the news that Geoff Johns is writing an episode of Smallville that introduces the frickin' Legion of Superheroes?! I am SO looking forward to this; OK, they won't be in costume but they are the characters we'd expect (so Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad at least then, all fairly easy to translate on screen) and feature the flight rings. Wa-hey!!
After considering ripping off the idea from Garen Ewing (see here for his excellent work:http://www.facebook.com/photo_search.php?oid=18961313445&view=all ), Tone mentioned the same thoughts as well so sometime soon I'll be doing a comic characters A-Z. Don't know how regularly I'll be able to do these but I'll be needing suggestions starting with A-F (don't bother with Beano/Dandy type characters as I never read those). I'm not looking to do on-model depictions, just my versions, so all suggestions welcome.
One of the reasons these won't be done really fast is I'm still working on samples. Managed to ink three pages of The Jock #2, and have only a further two to ink and a third to pencil and the issue is done. I'll probably tinker slightly with #1 before going on to #3 but I agree with Tone, you have to move on or things will never get done. However, if this is going to be shopped around, there are a few tweaks here and there that need to be made in #1---not as many as I originally wanted to do as I can redraw elements rather than whole panels for the most part. There are things that will need redrawing but not too much: good, as I've kept Rol waiting too long with this and I want to get it done myself.
Once these are done, I'd like to do a few things for myself, nothing set in stone yet but a few ideas swilling about. I also have another pitch under consideration for a future issue of Back Issue (so crossing me fingers!) while Dave tinkers with some PDFs for me.
I can see me taking a few days to rest and then cracking back on asap...
But gimme an A!
9 comments:
Armadillo!
I'd like to see your Angel or Ant Man, or on the more obscure side, Arcanna from Squadron Supreme. I would say Ambush Bug but there's no chance of that.
I already did my A last night. Sod requests, I'm just sticking to favourite Marvel characters I can actually draw.
Aunt May!
Arcade! (When I was a kid, I used to think Arcade was a woman the way Byrne used to draw her...)
Ace The Bat Hound!
No, I'll second Angel. But only because you've already done a very cool Animal Man.
I have a large list of characaters I loved as a kid I'd like to draw but that's the thin end of the wedge! I'll try these mini A-Z things first, see how that goes...
I didn't know it at the time but I think Arcade was intended to be a friend of Dorothy, which would explain why he ignored that slinky woman he had hanging round...
My personal fave of the suggestions is Ant-Man but I like Angel too. Ambush Bug would actually be fun, as would Arcanna. Decisions soon, but how 'bout somes Bs, Cs, Ds, Es and Fs!
Bs, Cs, Ds, Es and Fs - sounds like my GCSE results. Stop me if you've drawn this one before:
Blue & Gold. I'd settle for one or the other. Failing that, Big Barda.
Captain America might be interesting, or Colossus, but the smart money's on Cyclops. Plus you could use a new avatar :)
Dr Fate, Strange or Doom. Or there's always Devil Dinosaur.
For E I can't decide between Electro or Enchantress. So how's about you pick and I draw the other one.
Has to be Adam Hughes' non-fired up Fire. Nick Fury for an alternative (or should that be under N?)
B - I was going to say Blue Beetle anyway, but now I'm seconding Tone's double act.
C - Cycl... no, that'd be silly. How about (John) Constantine? Or is that a J?
D - Daredevil. Or Dr. Strange.
E - funky mask, funky mask, funky mask! Electro!
F - Fin Fang Foom. No, Firestar. I can't believe Tone didn't suggest Firestar.
That's because I was planning on drawing either Fin Fang Foom or Firestar :)
Well, A is done, F is half pencilled and E is inked but only half coloured, which I realised will take more time than pencilling and inking the buggers!
I'm gonna be drawing these at reduced size (two or three on a horizontal piece of A4) so the quality won't be as good as larger hero pics I've done but I'm hoping ffor a more simple knock 'em out type thing. Interestingly, I'm intrigued by some of the choices so may do the occasional extra "letter" to run after the A-Z.
The Amethyst placed in the blog is a result of me looking through a book for reference for an A-Z character and remembering I wanted to draw Amy since reading an article in Back Issue on her, despite hating her comic as a kid. This is what these pics will look like, whacked out with not too much fine detail.
As the blog only allows you to open one image per post, I'll probably host one pic here and put a link to that batch of letters at my Facebook or Comicspace pages (both of which have just been updated now)...thta might change though!
Nice job, though I've never heard of her. She any relation to Crystar?
E & F? Shouldn't you be doing them in alphabetical order? ;) I've been drawing at the same smaller than A5 size, and not spending more than a couple of hours on each. Enjoying it now, but probably be sick of it when we're struggling on X Y Z.
You can post multiple image per post (click Add Another Image), but best just to create a new post for each.
Looking forward to Blue & Gold ;)
Well, Blue & Gold are a natural...I want to get back to sequential stuff but doing these are a worryingly fun diversion apart from the poxy colouring).
Amythyst was a DC fantasy series from the mid 80s that was a cult favorite despite being bloody dull and drawn by Ernie Colon. It was later shoehorned into setting up elements from the LSH series. Can't think why you missed this gem, geddit, gem?!
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