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Archive for July 2005
Since I missed yesterday’s post, I decided to put up 2 today. This strip is when the series started getting back to basics, thankfully!
This should have been posted yesterday but I couldn’t get to it. Sorry about that everyone.
This is my least favorite of all the Adventures of Stickman strips. It’s way too anime-influenced.
Last night I finally got around to seeing the Fantastic Four. It was a waste of time and money.
I’ll admit right off the bat that I’ve never been a big fan of the Fantastic Four comics. It’s not that I have anything against them, I just never got in to them the same as I did Spiderman and X-Men. However I did not approach this movie with a bias or prejudiced attitude. I wanted to give it a chance, but it failed me miserably. It clobbered my expectations in a very very bad way.
I am rarely bored in a movie theater. In fact I love going to see the latest blockbuster. This however was not one of those occasions. I was so bored that I nearly fell asleep.
- Too much talk, not enough action
- I’m a big fan of slow paced movies (such as Eraserhead and Signs) however I’m not a fan of slow paced movies that are based off of fast paced comic books. Spending nearly two hours of watching people adjust to super bowers is BORING! The fight scene at the end with Dr. Doom seemed to last for about ten minutes at the most.
- Ioan Gruffudd
- This is the guy who plays Reed Richards AKA Mr. Fantastic. Bad choice! Besides the fact that he looks too young and had minimal white in his side burns, he’s a horrible actor!
- Ioan Gruffudd / Jessica Alba love affair
- Reed Richards and Sue Storm look good together in the comics. Jessica Alba and Ioan Gruffudd look ridiculous. Seeing Ioan Gruffudd kiss Jessica Alba is like seeing Bob Saget kiss, well, Jessica Alba! It would never happen. Not by any stretch of the imagination (ok enough with the bad puns).
- The Thing
- The makeup job / computer generated animation or whatever on the Thing had it’s moments, but for the most part it looked like a guy in a foam rubber costume.
- Mr. Fantastic’s abilities
- Was this a low budget film? Could they not afford CGI? Mr. Fantastic’s stretchy arms look like they were hand drawn by a South Park animator.
- Jessica Alba
- No complaints… except that she looks like she’s 21 and is trying to hook up with Ioan Gruffudd. Gross!
The following is not a complaint about the movie, but a recount of my experience:
My wife was out of town so I decided to catch the late show with a friend of mine. We went to a 9:30pm showing, and when we walked in to the theater at 9:15, it was empty. That’s a bad sign. I tried to talk him in to returning the tickets, buying a pint of whiskey and going back to my house to watch some cartoons instead, but he insisted on staying.
After five minutes or so the theater started filling up… with about ten more people. Those people included one old man with, I’m guessing, his grandson and his grandson’s friend, both of whom were around six years old. Out of the entire empty huge theater, where would this small group decide to sit? In front of me, of course.
I hate people who talk loudly during a movie. I also hate little kids. So when little kids talk during a movie I hate them twice. These particular little kids talked a whole lot. Why didn’t I just move? Because the guy I was with didn’t want to. Why didn’t I say something to the old guy? Because he was old and wouldn’t have heard me.
As the movie progressed and got more and more boring, the kids starting standing up to watch it. Then they starting pulling the seats of the chairs next to them down and slamming them back up. Then they starting slamming themselves in to the backs of their chairs and subsequently in to my knees. That was the last straw. I kick the back of the nearest one’s chair pretty hard. The old guy jumped and started yelling at them. I successfully scared the crap out of the kids and got them in trouble. Mission accomplished.
However my victory was a small one, as moments later a baby in the back of the theater started crying. Who takes a baby to a late movie? Who takes 2 six year olds to a late movie? What creepy old man isn’t sleeping by 6pm? We should have just left and bought the pint of whiskey.
My current project is Randy the Robot Killer. I showed you some RRK concept art in an earlier post.
I don’t want to give away too many details, so I won’t. The image included with this post is a picture that is still in production. I promise that if you have a sense of humor, this comic will be worth reading.
I will post a release date as soon as I have one. Being that I am doing these comics on the side, I don’t have a ton of time to devote to them. Ah if only I could actually get paid for doing this… then I’d be able to crank out great content for you to read. Alas, I must work in other ways to support the ol’ family. Perhaps one day…
According to trekweb.com Titan Books will begin publishing old 1980’s Classic Star Trek (as in Kirk and friends) comics in the form of a graphic novel.
STAR TREK COMICS CLASSICS: TO BOLDLY GO (Titan Books, September 2005) heralds a brand-new series, in which Titan brings together the long out of print and never-before-collected classic comics adventures of Kirk, Spock and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise. Re-presented in graphic novel format with exclusive new background material, these comics, originally published in the early 1980s, are presented chronologically in a new collectors’ format.
This is good news for Star Trek fans, complacent news for us normal people.
Download Sketchman vs. The Black Hole Part 2.
All I can really say about this issue is, it’s weird (and crap as usual).
More bad drawings, fairly poor dialog and lifeless backgrounds. This issue is pure crap also. It won’t get much better tomorrow, but after that things start to pick up.
I’m a big fan of newspaper comic strips. Among the great strips of our time is Zippy the Pinhead, created by Bill Griffith.
I recently sent an email to Mr. Griffith asking for a brief email Q & A session, and he agreed.
If this interview were conducted in real life, there would have been an awkward silence after the first question, followed by nervous laughter on my part after his initial response. In the future, I should proof read my interview questions more carefully.
- Joe: I am fascinated by Ted Browning’s Freaks, and the Pinheads in
particular. Brownings film was controversial, and your comic Zippy could
be seen as being controversial in the eyes of human rights activists or
similarly minded people. Have you come under attack by these types
(elaborate if you’d like), and if so what is your response? - BG: (Um, it’s Tod, not Ted) “Freaks” was undoubtedly controversial in its
day (1932), but today it’s seen more as a cult “oddity”, I think. I’ve
always loved the film and Zippy was partially inspired by the “Schlitzie”
character (real name: Simon Metz) in the film. Strangely, I’ve only received
a handful of responses to Zippy from people who believe I’m exploiting the
handicapped. And those were all in the 70’s—there have been virtually none
since then, though many interviewers have asked your question. I assume
Zippy is now seen primarily as simply a weird comic strip character and his
origins, inspirationally speaking, are lost on most readers. I remember
doing a radio interview in Santa Cruz CA in the late 70’s when someone from
a nearby mental health clinic called in. I braced for an accusation, but
instead, she told me Zippy was a “role model” and a “superhero” to the
patients there. She asked if I’d come down and sign their Zippy books. - Joe: What comics have inspired you in your past works, and what inspires
you now? - BG: As a kid growing up in the 50’s, my favorite comics were Scrooge McDuck,
Little Lulu, Mad magazine and Plasticman. I’m sure they all had a hand in
forming my own style and content, especially Harvey Kurtzman’s brand of
satire. Today, my pantheon of great cartoonists includes Robert Crumb, Gary
Panter, Kim Deitch, Dan Clowes, Ben Katchor and the late, great Ernie
Bushmiller, among others. - Joe: In your online bio, it is said that you are annoyed by the simplicity
of today’s comic strips. What is the cause of this over simplification,
and what can budding creators do to avoid this and put out some high
quality reading material? - BG: Today’s daily newspaper comic strips are printed at such a small size
compared to decades previous, that cartoonists have adapted and made the art
simpler. But I think that’s an overreaction– and a lazy one. Even printed
at a small size, drawing can be rich and complex. It’s just more of a
challenge. - Joe: How can one come up with good and original ideas for comics?
- BG: It’s a mysterious process, involving a notebook I always carry to jot
down ideas as they arrive in rough form, a lot of media monitoring and
reading and staring into the void. Zippy says he gets all his ideas from
Orlando. - Joe: What impact has the Internet had on your career?
- BG: Through the Zippy website, I receive 10 times the reader reaction than I
used to get before the net, which is a good thing. It also has doubled my
income and basically allowed me to keep doing the strip. Zippy is secure in
his newspaper niche, but he’s no Dilbert in numbers. Sales of original art
and prints over the website have been quite encouraging. Also, Zippy is now
available in reader’s emailboxes free every day, and thousands of strips are
archived on the site, allowing many more people to dip into my output
without forking over a cent.