strawberry shortcake was this week’s drawergeeks theme. i did a couple:
i saved some of my steps for that first one. so if anyone’s interested in seeing those, let me know and i’ll see if i can’t find some time this weekend to post them. and that’s all i really have to say about that. time for more important matters:
2008 SUMMER MOVIE RANKINGS!
can’t wait to draw this thing flying…
i might put a pause on these cleo posts for a little while until i can catch up on some pages. hopefully it won’t be too long of a break- there are some fun scenes coming up!
also- saw the incredible hulk last weekend and thought it was great. a really fun action flick with some essential comic geek out moments. it’s not perfect but who cares. HULK SMASH! plus, i love this whole marvel universe that’s being built on the screen right now. talk about early avengers movie hype!
my summer movie ranking thus far:
one day i’m going to collect a book of superheroes/villains playing ridiculous tacky instruments with giant pink hearts behind them.
drawergeeks topic this week was the joker, and i thought i’d draw somewhat of a companion piece to my batman/catwoman that i drew way back in 2006. by 2016 i hope to have an entire bat-band!
has everyone seen kung fu panda yet? what an awesome movie. it’s right behind surfs up as my favorite non-pixar cgi animated film, and definitely one of the best blends of action and comedy i’ve seen in a while. anytime po came on screen and did anything i was cracking up. everything from the character designs to the animation to the backgrounds to the music was all top notch in this film. this is really shaping up to be one of the best movie summers ever!
for those keeping track at home, here’s my current order list of summer movies i’ve seen so far, from awesome to not-so-awesome:
sorry- i skipped sex and the city that week. saw speed racer again instead. :) looking forward to wall-e now!
i’m afraid i’m not as caught up on these as i would like- and i have a lot of other work i need to focus on in the coming months. hopefully i’ll be able to catch up, but realistically i should warn any cleo fans out there that i’m not sure how much longer this weeklyish schedule is going to last.
still- yesterday i went to go see speed racer again (i know- i should be drawing cleo instead…), this time on imax, and loved it just as much the second time as i did the first. maybe even more. i can honestly see this movie becoming one of my all time faves, which is crazy since i almost didn’t even go see it at all. folks- don’t miss it on the big screen while you have the chance! especially the big, big screen. man, imax is cool.
here’s a cleo page for my birthday (29 today- old)!
i saw two movies this past weekend (actually three, but two in the theater)- indiana jones 4 and speed racer. and you know what? speed racer blew indy out of the water in terms of awesomeness. why is this movie not doing better?? i had so much fun and felt like i was watching something really special. the script was great, the characters were super developed, and the car racing was the coolest car racing i’ve ever seen. i don’t think i wanted to go home and play mario kart so badly in my life. there was just so much to love about this movie, all the way from the visuals to the message it was trying to tell.
unfortunately, in contrast, indy fell victim to a really bad script and a super, under-developed story line- and honestly- should never have been made. it was like an indiana jones movie for the sake of an indiana jones movie and just didn’t work on so many levels. i don’t want to go into the details, because they’re fairly obvious and most of you have either seen the movie already or will be seeing it soon. but i think this was a rushed project that was fun only in the sense of nostalgia for how much we all enjoyed its predecessors. i didn’t think it was all bad, but i went in with very low expectations and this movie met those.
the funny thing about the two films is that there are so many “wha–?” moments in both of them. but with speed racer those “wha–?” moments are instantly followed by a “haha! awesome!” while with indy they just leave you with your mouth hanging open wondering how someone thought that was good idea.
so- i know speed racer isn’t for everyone, (believe me- from the trailers, i thought it looked just as horrible as the rest of the world seems to think) but if you go in with an open mind- i think you’ll find something you haven’t really seen before. something fun and unique. something for kids and adults. something for artists and people just wanting to see some great action. something meant to be seen on the big screen. something raiders of the lost ark accomplished 27 years ago.
so, with june fast approaching and more movies on the way, here’s my ranking for favorite summer movies so far:
…i sat at home depressed i was sitting at home. :(
well, not entirely. i did stay pretty busy. first off, me and all of the lunchbox funnies guys were asked to provide some guest strips for scott kurtz of pvp fame. and because we at lunchbox all think scott is a super great guy, most of us said yes (that and the promise of increased traffic to our sites is always a good bribe). click here to read mine!
also- i worked on the parable site a bit. the book is completely done, so i thought a little revamp of the site would be nice while we scout for publishers. especially since i won’t have much to update on it till we actually have one.
also- i added my current seed blog comic panels to comicspace in an effort to get more use out of a great community that i rarely ever visit (but should!). once i get around to drawing more of those, i’ll update them on there as well as here.
also- i started playing zelda: twilight princess on wii finally! and it was so worth the wait.
also- i saw the simpsons on friday and thought it was hillarious. and before going to the theater i simpsonized myself!
jen and i are seeing travis tonight in orlando. before the concert we’re going to try to visit one of those 7-elevens they turned into kwik-e-marts. :)
tomorrow very early in the morning i’m going to go and get some wisdom teeth removed and a few cavities filled. one of the wisdom teeth is impacted which should be a whole lot of fun. i can’t wait. i’ll likely be in pain for a couple days afterwards which i’m also really looking forward too. it’s the start to a great week! anyhoo, i don’t talk about comics, movies and music enough…
music- i’m really in to sufjan stevens right now. i can’t get his song chicago out of my head. i’ve got to thank my friend jeff denton for introducing me to him.
movies- saw snakes on a plane this weekend and it was every bit as bad as i hoped it would be. i was hysterical. now i’m ready for the fall crop of films, which are usually a big breath of fresh air after the ridiculous and over-the-top summer ones.
comics- my new favorite web comic is zip and li’l bit by trade loeffler. the story is just getting started but i already love it. the art is amazing (love his linework) and there are plenty of sheep. lots of sheep is always a good reason to read a comic.
on the paper side of things, i’m really into the x-men books again after suffering through many, many bad issues (except astonishing of course). mike carey and chris bachalo are a big part of my recovering interest but ed brubaker and billy tan are doing an awesome job as well. and, it’s not really x-men related, but everybody who’s into superhero comics should check out nextwave by warren ellis and stuart immonen. it’s absurdedly awesome.
speaking of x-men, i created a new x-character! she’s got magical mutant pixie powers and there’s even an ‘x’ in her name! i call her piXie! (i’m so lame..)
i was dragged- okay dragged isn’t the right word- i reluctantly agreed to to see the devil wears prada with jen last night. and you know what, it wasn’t half bad. i mean it was most certainly a “chick flick” as there were so many instances in the film that various women in the audience would laugh or gasp at while i was left wondering “well, why didn’t she just do this or that”. but of course, being male, there’s no way i can possibly understand this type of thinking. and jen just shruggs at these things, and sees the ridiculousness of situations often times better then i do. that’s why she’s good to go see these types of movies with because we both laugh or get bored at (mostly) the same parts despite our different gendered minds.
at one point, something in the movie got me thinking about star wars, since being a “chick flick” my male mind needed to take a deep breath every now and then. i thought, if this movie had gone a different direction, it was exactly the type of relationship that would have worked between anakin and palpatine instead of the awful mess that it was. this is just good praise on how prada staged andy (anne hathaway)’s gradual character change. you can still trace it back to one moment- but with anakin, it was like, BAM!, i’m evil now. an audience is just not going to buy that.
speaking of chicks, friday’s drawer geeks went up, uh.. friday. this was one of the best weeks ever so check it out. it was for some obscure radio show superhero called “chickenman”, so there was no real visual refference for the character. the result is a lot of fun stuff from the artists’ imagination. i ended up doing a couple. being chickenman, i thought it was important to take the character as serious as he ought to be so i came up with this take…
…and then i drew this one specifically for my good friend matt, who’s past facination with chickens will forever make me think of him as the one true chickenman.
saw pirates yesterday and well.. i was right. it wasn’t better then the first one. but i still loved it! all the elements of the first film were still there- the action, the humor, the deceit, the swashbuckling (i love swashbuckling) and some pretty special effects. and i thought bill nighy’s davy jones was a wonderfully disgusting villain. i don’t feel like i can make too much of a conclusion of it other then that though, seeing how it was just the first of two parts (and i don’t want to ruin anything for anyone that hasn’t seen it). but man.. i can’t wait for next may!
jen and i were going to go see pirates of the caribbean last night but even with trying to pick up tickets early all the showings were still sold out. guess it’ll have to wait till sunday. the excitement of thinking i was going to go see it though caused me to revisit some of my own pirates in my sketchbook yesterday.
since the theater going didn’t work out, we decided to stay at home and rewatch the curse of the black pearl instead. after watching it again, i really don’t see how the next two films can be any better then this one. strictly from a story telling standpoint it’s just so well structured and i don’t think there’s a single character i don’t find interesting. my big hope is that johnny depp doesn’t become a parady of his jack sparrow character. there was such a lovely balance between his lunacy and cunning that i would hate to see brushed aside to revisit certain familiar charms. i do have a lot of faith in verbinski though who managed to make the only movie that ever scared me.
my good friend matt did manage to quench some of my pirate cravings by sending me a link to yet another wonderful short film from some ridiculously talented students from the gobelins school of image.
yeah! i saw superman returns yesterday and loved it. as soon as i heard that original john williams theme and saw the opening credits, i was a kid again. to be honest, i was skeptical of the film until pretty much the day it opened at which point the skepticism rolled over to unbridled anticipation. i think a lot of this had to do with the fact that most of my friends saw the film opening day and i refused to talk to them until i saw it. it took me till sunday because i promised jen and my family i would wait to see it on 3d imax which they were all looking forward to. and jen explained to me it wouldn’t be fair if i already saw it before them. i don’t know how it wouldn’t have been fair, but i understand what she meant. i would have felt cheated if i wasn’t seeing it with others for the first time too- not experincing the mystery, excitement or whatever on an equal level.
as silly as it sounds, i really felt like i was on a separate planet for a few days. unable to communicate with anyone until i saw the film for fear that they’d give something away or spoil my enjoyment in some annoying critical manner. that wasn’t the case of course, as all my friends felt the same as i did after making my phone call rounds after seeing it. i think the fact that i waited as long as i did, letting anticipation build up and up, and still walking out of the theater with a big smile on my face says a lot about the film. the directing was great, the story well thought out, casting was perfect (yes, i believed kate bosworth as lois lane), the cinematography was gorgeous, the kid didn’t annoy me and the music- the music was awesome. i think everyone that was a part of this film was filling some pretty big shoes, but they all played enough homage to their original counterparts to satisfy nostalgia while still entertaining you with their original takes.
i don’t want to spoil anything for anyone though. the only thing i’d like to deter people from is seeing it in 3d. the imax was cool. very cool. i think the larger screen just increased the scope of everything. but the 3d scenes were few and very poorly done. not only did it distract from the movie with blinking glasses at the bottom of the screen and a rush to put them on, but the double imaging caused me to be a bit lost during some of the action scenes. in fact, i was actually starting to get dissapointed everytime i had to put the glasses on. still, i walked out loving this film.
i can’t wait to see it again on wednesday. :)
cow & buffalo is up. actually it’s been up for about eight hours now, but i keep forgetting to mention it since i started writing updates on this blog.
jen and i saw the da vinci code last night. i kept trying to make time to read the book before i saw it but just never found it. we did see it with someone who did though and he said it stuck pretty close to the book, which i guess just added to some of my frustrations with the movie. i mean it was a decent movie, not great, but entertaining enough and with a terrific cast (i just love audrey tautou). and i love treasure hunt tales and searches for the holy grail and stories of that nature. but the way so much of the story is routed in supposed truths just made a lot of what was said difficult to swallow. and yes, you’d think this would be because of me being a christian, and i’m sure part of it is, but it really had more to do with what i’ve studied in art history and particularly of the last supper. i mean, seriously, right off the bat here- why on earth would da vinci paint only eleven disciples? i mean, if he was commisioned to depict the last supper, don’t you think he’d include john instead of mary? was this the master artist i studied for his keen grasp on persepective or somebody more intent on leaving secret messages in his paintings? and if he wanted to conceil a hidden meaning to be preserved throughout time, why would he experiment with tempera? i don’t know. i didn’t know him. neither did dan brown, but he sure seems to assume a lot of what he did and what da vinci believed in. and that’s kind of the problem. it’s clear mr. brown does believe these accounts and theories presented in the film and he roots the basis of his storytelling in these “facts”. if i felt like i was only watching a fictional thrilling mystery with all these facinating puzzles to solve, that would have been great! i would have loved that. and i would have no problem with some of the religious theories that dan brown has. but don’t present them as based on fact. don’t presume i’m going to accept what you say is true because of your “research”. the fact is that the story depends on the reality of these pesumptions to feel credible. and not buying in to most of them really took away from some of my enjoyment.
ack! i’m rambling. i really did enjoy the movie. i enjoyed how the story unfolded, the inclusion of past events, the history, the conspiracies and the mysteries therein. but i enjoyed them as pure fiction. unfortunately, i don’t think dan brown sees things that way. hopefully, audiences are a little wiser.
sorry for the lack of posting lately. i’ve been finishing up a big project this week that’s causing this week to fly by me faster then when the wild hit theaters. though, i finally took a break from the drawing table/photoshop last night to spend some much needed time with jen. yesterday was our third anniversay and we celebrated by going out to a nice dinner at roys, a delicious, semi-fancy, hawaiian themed seafood and steak house (though what we mainly were going there for was their chocolate souffl?. mmhmm!) we then decided to go see mission impossible three. not the most romantic thing to do, but it seems we rarely get to go see movies like we used to. despite thinking the last two were pretty mediocre (actually, no. that was the first one. the second one was just ridiculous), we mainly wanted to see this one because of jj abrams. and i’ve gotta say, he did a pretty good job with it. i was kinda sleepy at the beginning but found myself feeling pretty tense and awake about mid way through. there were some script issues that caused some eye rolling, but enough twists to keep me entertained. i’m not gonna say anything to ruin it for people, but i’d definetly say this was the best of the bunch.
so for our first anniversary we took a boat out to an island, went snorkling and had a nice dinner. for our second one we stayed at a disney resort for a couple days and had a nice dinner. and this time around we had a nice dinner and watched tom cruise stare intensely at things. so again, maybe not as romantic this time around, but i love jen three years worth of days more then when we got married and that always makes for a perfect evening.
on a completely separate subject, i did manage to scan a couple more pages out of my sketchbook. so here’re some pirate girls. enjoy!
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