Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Buy Comics Tomorrow!
The Amazing Joy Buzzards volume 2 issue 3 will be out in comic book stores tomorrow containing back cover artwork (scroll to the bottom of this link) by yours truly with sweet color work by my friend from Chi-town, Anjin. You should pick it up anyway whether I did art for it or not. But this particular issue is chock-full of artists including Sean "Cheeks" Galloway, Khary Randolph, Jose Garibaldi, Brian Churilla, and series regular Dan Hipp. Brought to you by writer Mark Smith and Image Comics. Go buy it!
Greetings, Peter Bergting Fans
Welcome aboard! If you came here via my pal Peter's blog, then you already know that I'll be doing a pin-up for his upcoming, highly anticipated book, The Portent! Stay tuned for more news on this development!
(0) comments
The Amazing Joy Buzzards volume 2 issue 3 will be out in comic book stores tomorrow containing back cover artwork (scroll to the bottom of this link) by yours truly with sweet color work by my friend from Chi-town, Anjin. You should pick it up anyway whether I did art for it or not. But this particular issue is chock-full of artists including Sean "Cheeks" Galloway, Khary Randolph, Jose Garibaldi, Brian Churilla, and series regular Dan Hipp. Brought to you by writer Mark Smith and Image Comics. Go buy it!
Greetings, Peter Bergting Fans
Welcome aboard! If you came here via my pal Peter's blog, then you already know that I'll be doing a pin-up for his upcoming, highly anticipated book, The Portent! Stay tuned for more news on this development!
(0) comments
Saturday, December 10, 2005
The Atheist Manifesto
The smartest thing I've read all week. Courtesy of the smartest thing I read every week, James Randi's weekly commentary on, well...bullshit.
(5) comments
The smartest thing I've read all week. Courtesy of the smartest thing I read every week, James Randi's weekly commentary on, well...bullshit.
(5) comments
Friday, December 02, 2005
THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE: A REVIEW
I originally wrote this review for The Drawing Board on November 23...there may be spoilers. You've been warned!
Thanks to my friend Ed who works under the Variety banner, I saw a screening of this movie last night at the Arclight in Hollywood. I'll preface this by saying I've never read the books. I read tons as a kid but for some reason fantasy books just didn't do anything for me back then...or maybe it was a question of access.
So...the movie opens with a German bombing raid over World War II London. Within a minute or two during this crisis, the personalities of the children are established. Missing their father, who is off fighting the war, they are later sent off to live in the country by their mother until the war blows over. Stuck in an old, stuffy mansion and bored out of their minds, they play a game of hide and seek. This is where the standout performer of the bunch, the youngest girl Lucy, discovers the wardrobe.
Soon, all the children are transported to Narnia via the wardrobe and the unwilling heroes of the story begin their adventure.
I enjoyed the movie. The children are great actors. Tilda Swinden was spectacular as the witch. The image of her battle ready on a chariot being driven by polar bears was just too damn cool for words. And Aslan the Lion (beautifully voiced by Liam Neeson) could not have been better, pretty much utterly convincing the whole time. I stopped thinking of him as a CG invention soon after he appeared. The world is one I've been waiting to see my whole life: minotaurs and cyclopses. Unicorns and gryphons. Centaurs and mermaids. Giants and dwarves. All gorgeously realized. I thought my inner child was gonna throw up from the excitement. I loved the beavers. Great characters. And Jadis the witch's secret police (the wolves) were pretty creepy. There might have been some weirdness here or there with the character effects, but after you bought Aslan, everything else fell into place and you were stuck in Narnia until the kids leave.
One thing that this movie kind of missed is the motivations of the characters. For example, the young boy Edmund, clearly affected by the war's rationing, is lured into the witch's clutches by "Turkish delight", a pastry of some sort. However, the rationing is never portrayed in the opening London scenes so anyone who doesn't know their history might think this kid is blowing everything for a little rugula. Also, I didn't feel the kids had grown a great enough attachment to Aslan to mourn his death the way they did. The moment itself is great and genuine, but the path there didn't seem to be. It was just too short.
There are some effects composites with the children and their backgrounds in some scenes that stood out as looking unfinished. Perhaps they're still temp scenes (although I don't recall the presenter saying this was an incomplete screening). After all, they do have 2 weeks or so before the movie comes out. But those weak comps took me out of the movie for a minute (until the next gorgeous scene appeared).
The creatures were great and, overall, convincing.
Afterwards, there was a Q&A with the director and producers. I had forgotten that the director was the same guy responsible for the Shrek movies so that put me in a bad mood for about a minute. They patted each other on the back for about twenty minutes then fielded some questions. The important one was asked by a 6 year old girl...will they make the rest of the books? They answered "Yes"...according to the all mighty box office.
Overall, like I said, I enjoyed it. But I think a few things were just rushed through for the sake of cramming it into the movie length format. I'll bet the folks who read the books will have even more to say. Although a couple of the confessed diehard fans of the books at the screening seemed pleased overall.
And kids will LOVE this movie.
(0) comments
I originally wrote this review for The Drawing Board on November 23...there may be spoilers. You've been warned!
Thanks to my friend Ed who works under the Variety banner, I saw a screening of this movie last night at the Arclight in Hollywood. I'll preface this by saying I've never read the books. I read tons as a kid but for some reason fantasy books just didn't do anything for me back then...or maybe it was a question of access.
So...the movie opens with a German bombing raid over World War II London. Within a minute or two during this crisis, the personalities of the children are established. Missing their father, who is off fighting the war, they are later sent off to live in the country by their mother until the war blows over. Stuck in an old, stuffy mansion and bored out of their minds, they play a game of hide and seek. This is where the standout performer of the bunch, the youngest girl Lucy, discovers the wardrobe.
Soon, all the children are transported to Narnia via the wardrobe and the unwilling heroes of the story begin their adventure.
I enjoyed the movie. The children are great actors. Tilda Swinden was spectacular as the witch. The image of her battle ready on a chariot being driven by polar bears was just too damn cool for words. And Aslan the Lion (beautifully voiced by Liam Neeson) could not have been better, pretty much utterly convincing the whole time. I stopped thinking of him as a CG invention soon after he appeared. The world is one I've been waiting to see my whole life: minotaurs and cyclopses. Unicorns and gryphons. Centaurs and mermaids. Giants and dwarves. All gorgeously realized. I thought my inner child was gonna throw up from the excitement. I loved the beavers. Great characters. And Jadis the witch's secret police (the wolves) were pretty creepy. There might have been some weirdness here or there with the character effects, but after you bought Aslan, everything else fell into place and you were stuck in Narnia until the kids leave.
One thing that this movie kind of missed is the motivations of the characters. For example, the young boy Edmund, clearly affected by the war's rationing, is lured into the witch's clutches by "Turkish delight", a pastry of some sort. However, the rationing is never portrayed in the opening London scenes so anyone who doesn't know their history might think this kid is blowing everything for a little rugula. Also, I didn't feel the kids had grown a great enough attachment to Aslan to mourn his death the way they did. The moment itself is great and genuine, but the path there didn't seem to be. It was just too short.
There are some effects composites with the children and their backgrounds in some scenes that stood out as looking unfinished. Perhaps they're still temp scenes (although I don't recall the presenter saying this was an incomplete screening). After all, they do have 2 weeks or so before the movie comes out. But those weak comps took me out of the movie for a minute (until the next gorgeous scene appeared).
The creatures were great and, overall, convincing.
Afterwards, there was a Q&A with the director and producers. I had forgotten that the director was the same guy responsible for the Shrek movies so that put me in a bad mood for about a minute. They patted each other on the back for about twenty minutes then fielded some questions. The important one was asked by a 6 year old girl...will they make the rest of the books? They answered "Yes"...according to the all mighty box office.
Overall, like I said, I enjoyed it. But I think a few things were just rushed through for the sake of cramming it into the movie length format. I'll bet the folks who read the books will have even more to say. Although a couple of the confessed diehard fans of the books at the screening seemed pleased overall.
And kids will LOVE this movie.
(0) comments
Thursday, December 01, 2005
DON'T DEAL DRUGS IN A COUNTRY THAT WILL EXECUTE YOU FOR IT
And don't call that country "barbaric" if one of your citizens gets hanged for it.
(7) comments
And don't call that country "barbaric" if one of your citizens gets hanged for it.
(7) comments
