My sewing mojo is still gone, having left home with no forwarding address.  I keep wanting to do something creative with my hands, but have no incentive or staying power for sewing.  It’s driving me completely insane!

To help combat this creative malaise, I’ve gotten out the beads, deciding to work up a project from the most recent Bead & Button magazine.  I have a friend whose favorite color is lime green (not the previously mentioned niece).  If this turns out, it will be a nice Christmas present for her.

The piece with the dangling threads is 1/4 of a beaded bow.  Two upper loops, two lower loops, attach in the middle and add a pin on the back.  I promise, pictures when it’s finished!

Oh, and the cable bit in the title – while that looks like thread holding the beads together, it is actually Fireline.  Fireline is a very thin coated cable used for fly fishing.  Available at most sporting goods stores, Fireline has taken the beading world by storm.  It’s very appropriate for use with crystals and rough glass beads – ones where the edges are sharp, and likely to cut through regular nylon (Nymo, Sono) thread.

This piece is using hex beads, which have that sharp edge, so it’s needle and cable as my creative outlet.  If anyone sees my sewing mojo, please send it home!

Maximus Cat, On Top of the World!

Luke Goss in ‘Hellboy II’ Totally Looks Like Jeremy Irons in ‘Time Machine’

» Think you can do better? Make your own!

Pictures by: dunno source. Look-Alike by: JocastaMann via Totally Looks Like Builder

Volkswagen L1 Concept

Volkswagen e-Up

Volkswagen Polo

Lexus LF-Ch

Audi R8 Spyder

Rolls-Royce Ghost

Lamborghini Reventon

Toyota Auris Hybrid

Bentley Mulsanne

General Motors Ampera

Maserati GranCabrio

Aston Martin Rapide

Peugeot BB1 Concept

More Auto news coming up soon. Keep checking this space for latest updates…

My cousins daughter is the closest thing I have to a niece.  There’s enough difference in our ages; that’s how I think of her.  She too has inherited the family magpie gene.

T-shirts from Targét, to which I added a little more sparkle.  Her favorite colors are lime green and electric blue (thank goodness she’s out of the pink phase!) so I did my best to follow that with the green shirt.

The shirts are not decorated with crystals, but something called rhinestuds.  They are faceted metal, and also hot fix.  Not quite as sparkly as true crystals, but much less expensive, and more prone to staying affixed through multiple washes. Sewing for teenagers is, at best, a temporary thing as their tastes change so frequently.  Decorating something already assembled seemed a much better, and easier way to go.

I am sorely tempted to keep the grey shirt for myself, since it is very much my colors: silver and purple.  So, we shall see what the holidays bring. Maybe she’ll get it, and maybe, she won’t!

Mojo Update: still missing!

Puck scales new heights!

The One Ring (theonering.net) is a little concerned that Hellboy director Guillermo Del Toro could go kid-oriented when he directs the upcoming Hobbit movies. Personally, I don’t think anyone who’s seen The Devil’s Backbone, Pan’s Labyrinth or even Hellboy 1 or 2 would think Del Toro the type to go that way, so it’s clear TheOneRing is playing this one tongue-in-cheek, but the list it’s come up with is awesome. You can read the whole thing here, but here’s an excerpt…

3. Keep Leonard Nimoy Away From the Soundtrack!
Yes, Nimoy’s version of “Bilbo Baggins” is the greatest music video in history (except perhaps for the DaVinyls “I Touch Myself”). But it’s also exactly the wrong note for the new Hobbit movie.

This is exactly the light-hearted silliness that makes The Hobbit fun to read as a child, but hard to sit through in a feature-length film. Unless Nimoy plays Gandalf. No offense to Ian McKellen, but that would be awesome.

Naturally, they include this video as a chilling reminder…

And in other Hobbit news, remember those bones that were found a couple years back? Small and humanoid, they were dubbed ‘hobbits’ and had even archaeologists and their ilk scratching their heads. Well, a little bit of the mystery has been solved: They weren’t humans at all! The Mirror explains…

Hobbit-like creatures who lived 18,000 years ago were a lot less like us than we thought, say scientists.

Researchers have decided the 3ft 6ins tall tribe from the Indonesian island of Flores are an unknown sub-species of modern man. Their remains caused a sensation when unveiled five years ago and they were dubbed Hobbits after the elf-like creatures in JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.

Some researchers argued they were modern humans with a disorder called microcephaly accounting for their tiny brains.

But analysis of the most complete skeleton, of a female called Flo, suggests she was a different branch of human. Anthropologist Dr Karen Baab said: “Dwarfing syndromes and microcephaly bear no resemblance to the unique anatomy of Homo Floresiensis.”

It is thought the little folk were wiped out 12,000 years ago by a volcano.

And that’s all, it seems, for real-life Hobbit news and the fantasy Hobbit-news we’ll of course be keeping up on–especially when WETA starts sending out the merch! ‘Til then, we do have a wide selection of Lord of the Rings figures and collectibles still available, which of course feature a couple Hobbit/LOTR crossover characters. Look out for ‘em.

Comics!

I love comic books. You might think it childish but I beg to differ. I think comic books are great because:

• Of the art! I love art and comic books give you that cinematic experience without the need to switch on the TV or to go to the movies.
• The writers are brilliant. They keep you coming back each month for more much like a Chinese soap.
• Comic book stories are rich with influences from a variety of sources. Comic book creators draw from history, science, folklore and all kinds of literary sources to make their stories interesting. Let’s not forget the human element.
• Superhero comics especially inspire me to be more than I can be. Don’t we all want to be heroes and do the right thing each and every single day in our lives? Sacrifice. Honour. These are lessons that comic books can teach us.

I used to read a lot as a child and I am trying little by little to get back to reading but I find that I’d much prefer to read books that teach me something about myself and life rather than fiction. I don’t do that as much these days cos’ I have to read & write as a living and I can’t stand reading pages that are made up of walls of text. I guess that’s why I prefer comic books to books these days which is a lil’ sad I suppose. I read so much less now compared to my growing up years. The only book that I go back to constantly is the Bible though so at least I’m getting some reading done daily from the good book.

Here are some good books I would suggest to anyone who wants to get into comic books as a start:. You might recognise some of them as they’ve become Hollywood properties in recent years.

• The Hellboy series written & drawn by Mike Mignola (Seed of Destruction, Wake the Devil, The Chained Coffin and Others, The Right Hand of Doom. Conqueror Worm, Strange Places)
  

  Hellboy

• The Green Lantern books written by Geoff Johns with either Ivan Reis or Ethan Van Sciver on pencilling duties (The Sinestro Corps War Vol. 1 & 2, Green Lantern: Rebirth, Green Lantern: Wanted)
  

  Green Lantern

• 1602 by Neil Gaiman with art by Andy Kubert & Richard Isanove
  

  1602

Interior art from the pages of 1602

Green Lantern is currently one of the most exciting titles I’ve read in recent years. I’ve written posts about the Emerald Gladiator before and if you’re a long-time comic book fan I can’t help but marvel at what Geoff Johns has done with the character. It’s amazing stuff cos’ he’s taken the Green Lantern mythos further. I’m in the middle of the Blackest Night saga and all I can say is wow.

Blackest Night - a Green Lantern epic

Before you write comic books off as childish give one a spin. You’ll find that there’s a lot more than meets the you within its colourful pages. Nuff’ said!

Como se verian varios personajes famosos con barba??? el ilustrador Vanja Mrgan nos enseña como…

Visiten su pagina

Thats right, Ron Perlman…Actor who plays HellBoy! was in BladeII and was the “Beast” in the Beauty and the Beast TV show….was born in Washington Heights.  While living uptown he attended G.Dubs.

So, the next time you see him, ask him, Why the “HELL” hasn’t he been back to visit.

Gosto do Hellboy e dos filmes dele. Esse foi legal, assim como o primeiro.

The film Hellboy was released in 2004. It is based on a comic series by Dark Horse Comics. I have not read any of the Hellboy, but I can say that this is a very enjoyable film. And I have heard a lot of people who read the comics and a lot of them say this is a great film. However, my mom doesn’t like it, she says that Hellboy is boring. WOW, how can anyone think that this film is boring. Whatever this is really a great film, it has laughs, action, and more laughs. The comedy is very good. The special effects were awesome, and the thing that I like the most is that the director does not use CG for everything, only when he needs to. It really annoys me when directors don’t need to use CG, they can use a robot or a costume, like George Lucas and the prequels, almost everything was CG, personally I would rather have something that doesn’t look as good but is real instead of CG that I know is fake. Anyways, I can’t really annotate on how close Hellboy is to the comics. The acting is good and the lines are delivered well enough, at some points there are a few bad lines, or they aren’t delivered well but still a really good film.

TTITN

(^_^)v

I have already resigned myself to a significant fall-off in hits today, after yesterday’s 59-view extravaganza (okay, so I’m not Daily Kos). That’s fine. As if to make up for last week’s spare offering of one, this week was a bumper crop of titles.

I’ll be a little briefer on some (hopefully), and others I’m going to go into greater depth on in future Start Reading This installments. Comics nerds, let’s talk.

Blackest Night – REBELS #10 ($3.99) – Wait, I paid $3.99 for that? Christ. I forgot the Big Two had started printing on original pages of the Bhagavad-Gita. This isn’t a book that I read, and it’s not one that I’m going to read again – it’s here because it’s got the Blackest Night stamp at the top and I’m following my own rules. Not that it’s a bad book. DC recognizes that many readers are going to be stopping in for the same reason, and they do a good job bringing you up to speed. The little callouts describing each character as they show up, Pop-Up Video style, are a nice touch. Is this something the book always does?

They give you one of these with REBELS #10. I used mine to make smores.

Braniac’s son Vril Dox (Braniac 2) is set in a skirmish against Starro (DC, you continue to kill me with names that are either goofy or sound like they were invented in eighth grade detention) while in search of his son, Lyrl, also a 12th-level intelligence, whom he has effectively lobotomized until he can handle his own big brain maturely. Starro finds Lyrl, and Vril’s dead, Lanternized girlfriend Stealth finds him, along with another Black Lantern hunting a bunch of Yellows. Somewhere in that sentence is a clue to the twist that comes at the end of the issue, which could (!) factor into the larger continuity. I had forgotten how exhausting crossovers can get.

BPRD – 1947 #5 of 5 ($2.99) – Two big finishes this week from the Hellboy universe. 1947 wraps up mostly in a single room, the scene of a mostly effective exorcism. What’s nice about the story for me, though, is the young Hellboy bits in the margins. While this first proto-BPRD case is being closed, Dr. Bruttenholm is given some friendly advice about the wisdom of adopting the Beast of the Apocalypse as your son. Some nice further characterization for a key figure who’s been dead since Hellboy’s very first issues. Plus, I’m a sucker for Hellboy Junior and his dog.

Hellboy – The Wild Hunt #8 of 8 ($2.99) – Hellboy was left last time deciding whether to pull Excalibur (see, it turns out he’s King Arthur’s son). This issue he decides. And in the MIDDLE OF THE ISSUE, leaving the rest to really get the next story wound up. This is the last installment of this one, but it’s not a finish so much as a setup for what’s to come – editor Scott Allie calls it the end of “the second arc of Duncan and Mike’s Hellboy saga” (Fegredo gets top billing?). The pieces are literally getting put into place for a new kind of war, and not one on frogs, either.

I'll get you, Hulk!

The Incredible Hulk #603 ($3.99) – I picked this up because I thought it was recommended in Gary’s emailer this week. Turns out they were recommending Assault on New Olympus, and this was mentioned in passing. Regardless, I’ve always read Hulk on and off, and although this is part of a larger story, it works well as a standalone. Bruce Banner can’t become Hulk anymore; Hulk’s son Skaar is here to kill Banner; Banner convinces him to train first so he’s ready to kill him; Skaar starts beating on Wolverine. In this issue, Banner sends Skaar after Wolverine’s own hostile spawn, Daken. The two drink, beat on each other, and talk about their feelings a bit, then go their separate ways with dads in tow. The Leader may or may not be involved.

Sweet Tooth #3 ($2.99) – Haven’t started it yet, but I’ll get to it. Short story: It’s been pretty cool so far.

Transformers Continuum – The Definitive Chronology ($3.99) – This book is pretty much all text, serving only to review EVERYTHING that’s happened so far (hence the name). Only buy it if you are a colossal nerd who wants to hear more about your precious 1980s robot toys. Like me.

The Unwritten #7 ($2.99) – Man, I’m loving this book. Tom’s still in jail, Lizzie Hexam gets sent to women’s prison, and Tom’s somehow making literary creatures appear (the Frankenstein cameo from last ish? kinda anticlimactic.). Things end with a flying cat and the promise of bloodshed. I’ll have more depth in a piece to come.

(Also, there’s a nice preview for Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon’s Daytripper. I like these guys.)

The Walking Dead #67 ($2.99) – This starts off feeling like a beat, one of the Talkers that drive a certain class of Walking Dead fans batty. I kinda like those – they’re why I read this book and not other zombie titles. Carl and Rick turn back from their forage after encountering a zombie town, and Carl comes clean about killing Ben. On returning to camp, Rick gets the idea to try the radio again since they’re getting close to their destination, DC. Eugene, who until now has been in sole control of the radio (I had not realized this), is not happy with the plan. Then, as they so often do, things go bad – not because of the bloodthirsty undead, but because of the still-living and the choices they’ve made. Kirkman drops another Deus Ex on us at the end (I KNOW I’ve seen this last page at least once before), but it’s the drama from beforehand that makes me want to read more.

Wow, THREE $3.99 books, one of them not even from the Big Two. I knew it would happen eventually, but am I really getting more from the Hulk than I am from Unwritten and the Walking Dead? Yet another reminder why I walked away in the 1990s, only to be brought back by Image and Dark Horse ten years later. You better be worth it, Blackest Night.

Last week I spent a goodly chunk of my paycheque on the second volume of The Absolute Sandman by Neil Gaiman (and artists). I did this for a few reasons. First, I don’t want Xmas presents this year (and am not buying them for anyone). These Absolute Sandman books are mainstays on the Xmas list, but now I could get it for myself. Second, for some reason it’s not available on Amazon.ca at a reasonable cost right now so I noticed it at McNally Robinson. Third, I wanted to read something in a big-ass tome, to feel like I was plumbing the depths of arcanity and such. That this volume of Sandman tales involves the lord of dreams coming into possession of hell makes it a good fit for that “reading a tome” experience.

Sandman comics are things I’ve known about through my entire comic-reading life (which isn’t actually that long). I may have only started reading comics when the original run was ending. I remember the spines of the trade paperbacks in the comic shop. I remember flipping through issues and not really being dragged in. One time at Campaign we were given a trade paperback by one of our book suppliers. I read it (it had the Midsummer Night’s Dream story in it) and I didn’t mind it, but I had other things to spend my money on like Transmetropolitan. So yes, I wasn’t a long-time fan or anything.

And then I started learning how influential it was, beyond the coolness of Neil Gaiman himself. How this was sort of a gothy bible, an artifact of the 1990s that I missed out on. But now I’m reading it. In Absolute form. While I would love to own books like Absolute Watchmen or the giant volumes of Sin CIty or Hellboy, I’ve read those stories, in many cases I on those stories already. But Sandman is this pristine land I’m walking through on these massive pages with their beautiful colouring et al.

Reading this doesn’t bring back memories of the first time reading these stories because this is my first time. I don’t know if this is forming the same kinds of memories for when I reread them in the future. Of being wrapped up in a blanket on my couch in my underheated condo, sipping tea and shooing away a cat. It’s not the same as if I’d been 17. Damned fine stories though.

When I think of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a few words and phrases come to mind – Awesome, Phenomenal and Household Name to the second power..!

Green As Money..!

 

They made being a mutant look cool..! 

- And it was this very same concept that made them a household name…

Wondering?..How did I come up with this topic choice? Well, it happened while I was rummaging through my old toy chest(yes you hear right a toy chest, the opposite of a pirate’s treasure chest) a week ago I came across some of my old TMNT Comics and toys, the memories of my youth came rushing back to me as hot and heavy as a pubescent wet dream, memories of my TMNT antics were as bright and pristine as the Hope Diamond, however…I could not say the same for the toys and the comics though, it seems the ravages of time and rodents took its toll(damn!).

Since then I’ve asked myself the question, Is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the greatest success property in Indy comics history?  I think so!

I came up with a few swiddles to support this statement. Given its longevity, success across multiple media outlets and genre types (countless TV shows, about a new one every few years, 4 movies, and massive  amounts of toys and video games – Heck I even owned the Crang Battlebase) it’s influence has clearly spanned over several generations and other shows to mention: Street Sharks, Treasure Trolls, The mighty Ducks, and countless other swipes that wanted to capitalize off the marketing genius that created TMNT franchise – Think about it, they made it easy for kids to choose their favorite turtle, all you had to do was pick a color…Each character was unique with weapons, names, and personalities.

This franchise was so massive they even affected the food industry i.e. Pizza…think about it how much more pizza must have been bought because kids nagged their parent to buy it all for the sake of wanting to be like our childhood heros(the turtles).

If you consider the total value of the franchise, it must be fast approaching the Billion Dollar Mark, it made tons of money and yet it continues to do so till this very day. Other properties (Bone, Strangers in Paradise, Uagi Yojimbo, Love & Rockets)  have blossomed and in some cases flourished in the medium of comics, but non have managed to scare up the cross over appeal as TMNT.

In recent time only Hellboy has managed to even scrap the surface of Influence, may be even Spawn. However, their appeal seems to be trend induced at best and not a cultural constant – think about it, if you were to mention TMNT in basic conversation with the comic disabled(Norms), even they would get the reference… let me see you do that with Hellboy, Spawn , Bone and the entire gambit of other comics.

On paper, it’s undoubtedly an infantile concept at best, yet their success is unquestionably important to the potential drive of the small Indy publisher – many may think to themselves, “If  TMNT can do it, maybe  just maybe I can do it as well.”

Here is a trailer, a documentary dedicated to those 4 radical turtles (Http://turtledoc.fauxpop.tv). You’ll never quest who was the voice of “THE SHREDDER” – It blew my mind, I never saw it coming.

So November 4, 2009, I gained another year of experience in life. Throughout my day of yearly reflection and festivity, I wondered what my dear friends would do for me on this particular day of days. One of my fellow editors here chipped in with a few others and handed me an origami card. Upon opening it, I found a picture of the inimitable Léon Theremin working his magic and a speech bubble coming out of his theremin and saying: “I am coming for you in the mail.”

What is a theremin, you might ask? It’s a box (mine is white) that senses the position of its players hands relative to two antennae, one vertical, the other horizontal and looped, and emits sounds at varying frequencies and volumes to correspond to it.

The theremin is well-known for being the instrument used to make those really weird, oscillating noises in scary movies. Its filmography includes The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Red House, Spellbound, Ed Wood, The Machinist, and Hellboy. Moreover, pop musicians the world over have used it throughout music history, including The Beach Boys, The Flaming Lips, The White Stripes, Pink Floyd, Pixies, and Of Montreal, among others.

Because of the method behind its operation (waving your hands around the antennae), the theremin is notorious for being difficult to play properly. I know I can’t wait to start learning!

– Eric Vilas-Boas, Managing Editor

I love the Super Hero Squad toys from Hasbro.

The tiny little good guys and bad guys make nice desk decor.

They’re so popular that everyone from DC to Dark Horse has gotten into the act.

Green Arrow, Thor and Hellboy

So it came as no surprise that Marvel would spin these little moneymakers off into a cartoon series.  What better way to sell the toys.  Its a time honored tradition.

My kids were jacked up about the debut of the cartoon, so I set the DVR.

I told Stephe, who had already seen an episode.  His response?

They’ll love it.  It might kill you.

Worrisome?  Sure, but I sat down and watched it with them.  My response to David on Monday?

It made my head hurt.

I understand the show is geared for kids and in that respect its a great jumping on point for them.  They’re getting exposed to the Marvel Universe in a manner their brains can handle, much the way the Super Friends was the entry to DC Comics when I was a kid.  A few episodes in and they already know who Misty Knight is.  That can’t be all bad.

My biggest problems have been with the handling of Thor, one of my all time favorites.  In one episode he was banging himself in the head with his hammer.  In an episode this morning, he was using Mjolnir as a squeegee.

Why?

Did I mention the part where Dr. Doom was blowing a bubble out of his mask?  No?  Nevermind.

The Super Hero Squad Show is a mixed bag.  Take a couple of Tylenol before you sit down with the kiddies and you might just enjoy yourself.

Here’s a taste of what you can expect:

It currently airs on Cartoon Network weekdays at 8:30 am EST.

From Erik:

Well, I’ve been in the City of Angels less than 24 hours but it’s been a productive day! The morning started with the AFM Finance Conference, which was actually a series of two panel discussions: Current State of the Independent Film Industry and Foreign Investment: A Growing Source of Film Financing.

Current State of the Independent Film Industry

Honestly, this first seminar was a bit of a letdown, though reaffirming. Don’t get me wrong, the information was great, just nothing new. Focusing on the film industry while getting my MBA introduced me to all of the material that was discussed today. I was just hoping to get deeper insight from some of the top minds in independent film finance. However, like I said, it was certainly reaffirming for me to see that my understanding of the industry is accurate rather than purely academic.

Here are some noteworthy points from this panel discussion:

-Digital distribution shouldn’t be seen as a threat to the industry but as an opportunity for expansion. Figure out how to monetize the next generation delivery platform.
-This economic climate is a much needed film industry house cleaning that has “[cleared] out the suckers” (Modi Wiczyk, Co – Chief Executive Officer, Media Rights Capital).
-The traditional studio habit of getting rich at the expense of investors is a tired and dying model. “Construct products at a price that makes sense” (Wiczyk) and focus on returning a profit to investors (duh). Profit margins within the studio system have been shrinking…this trend is reversing.
-Banks still have money to lend to viable projects; there are just fewer banks in the game now.

Foreign Investment: A Growing Source of Film Financing

Honestly, this panel discussion was essentially a repeat of the first discussion with a new panel of experts. The information was equally insightful, but nothing new. They didn’t discuss foreign investing in much depth except to say pretty generally: emerging markets (such as India and China) are bringing new money to the table, when seeking foreign investment money relationships are key, etc.

Admittedly, I did leave the panel discussion about 15 minutes early to make another appointment, so maybe it got more interesting in the last 1/4 hour…?

All-in-all, the Finance Conference was worth the money spent to attend…if only they were giving away money…

And now, for the MAIN event…our first MOVIE STAR!!!

A Meeting with Doug Jones

Hands down, the highlight of my day was getting to meet THE Doug Jones! Don’t get me wrong, it was great getting to meet with Sunny face-to-face for the first time since High School (let’s just say it’s been over a decade for those counting), but come on, it’s DOUG JONES. Doug’s credits include: Pan’s Labyrinth, the Hellboy movies, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Adaptation, Men in Black II…the list goes on and on and on.

Doug read the script and loved it (a HUGE complement!) and, schedule permitting, would LOVE to play the role of JOHN!!! We’re thrilled that he has decided to become a part of this ever-growing project and can’t wait so spend more time with Doug, who is probably the warmest, most cordial person I have ever met!

Since I was too dumb to take a photo of Doug today and I’m not sure which pictures I’m allowed to pull from the web, just click on this link to Doug’s official site and have a look around.

Not that any news could really top this new addition to our team, but we’re going to try before the week is out! We’re planning another meeting to hopefully rope in another star for our lead role. We’ll keep you posted.

Check back tomorrow when I’ll be blogging about the Pitch Me! and Produce and Sell Your Film seminars. Thanks!

(By the way, thanks Ryan Dunlap for helping with the introduction!)

GUILLERMO DEL TORO

New interview with PAN’S LABYRINTHE, HELLBOY, and upcoming THE HOBBIT director, GUILLERMO DEL TORO.

GUILLERMO DEL TORO on what source material is being used for the two The Hobbit movies:

“We are respecting the structure established by Professor Tolkien…

…but we will be integrating Gandalf’s comings and goings because he does disappear in the book quite often.

So, as opposed to the book, we see where he goes and what happens to him…”

On interpreting characters such as; the dragon Smaug, the Spiders of Mirkwood, the Wargs, and Beorn the bear-man:

“Smaug has beautiful lines of dialogue; the Great Goblin has beautiful lines of dialogue; many creatures do. So we had to design them with a different approach because you are not just designing things that are scary.”

THE HOBBIT: The Dragon SMAUG

On Smaug specifically:

“I think one of the designs I’m the proudest of is Smaug.

Early in production I came up with a very strong idea that would separate Smaug from every other dragon ever made. The problem was implementing that idea. But I think we’ve nailed it.”

Read the entire interview HERE.

——-
——-

So…. I’m not in class right now.  Note that I am not a usual lecture skipper at all!  But it’ll be ok.  Speaking of class, I mays well mention a few sketches I did the last time I went to class, as all these designs have been running through my head like fish down the river and I try to catch just a couple of them when I can!

I’m seeing corsets  and skirts..  I’m realizing that I really like feminine fashion.

Tired engineer -> class is so boring

This whole popular “steampunk” movement – of gadgets, cogs, and victorian fashion – I’m going to have to do something with that soon. =)

Anyway.

Last night we stayed up late finishing this commissioned dress from Hellboy II and now I’m busy packing for my Indiana trip!  I’ll be visiting my grandparents  and getting another interview done this weekend.  I’m excited to go   Leaving in a few hours.

And, the outfit before it was de-greenified:

I think it looks much better re-painted =)  Note that the success is all credit to kakaner who cut out all the pieces and designed the whole thing!!  Yay designers

If it looks interesting, grab it. This is the rule I broke with Chew. I’d read the teaser story in the back of some other Image book** but for whatever reason, it didn’t click. Illegal fried chicken joints, a cibopath detective who sees the history of whatever he eats, and a unique/grotesque art style just didn’t work for me. I’ll even reveal myself as a closet wuss whose stomach was a little turned not just by the range of foul things Tony Chu has to eat, but by the overall disgustingness of his world. It was novel, sure, but probably just a gimmick rooted in grossness that would ultimately disappoint – I’d been down that road with The Exterminators.

So I was wrong in my conclusion. After seeing multiple printings of Chew’s first issues sell out, I finally picked up the first four. After reading them, I couldn’t wait until the 5th. The thing is, I was right in my observations. Chew IS set in a disgusting world, which includes cannibalism in the line of duty, frequent dismemberments by multiple means, a writer whose work can make readers projectile vomit, and above it all a mysterious bird flu that has outlawed chicken and let the FDA rise to Big Brother-like status over it all. There is always blood in Chew; the mystery of each issue is what other kinds of fluid and viscera will accompany it.

Part of what makes Chew work is the kind of horror over the body you might find in a Cronenberg film. Tony doesn’t love his “gift” – every rotting finger and dead dog he has to eat to solve a mystery is a struggle, one usually leading to vomit (the only food that doesn’t cause this is beets – awesome). Rob Guillory’s art complements this fantastically. The world is stained, crumbling, and off-kilter; characters are distorted, exaggerated at best, monstrous at worst (this is everyone, not just the villains); even Tony’s love interest is more odd-looking than gorgeous.

One more thing I like about Chew is how it functions as a follow-up to the past decade’s love affair with zombies. In addition to the traditional shamblers, the last 10 years introduced fast zombies, funny zombies, zombie songs and zombie reference books. Mass culture has embraced zombies – isn’t it supposed to work the other way? – and they’re all but played out (and don’t even start with ninjas and pirates). What Chew does is take a piece of the zombie concept – body horror once again – and spin it: What if the flesh (and whatever) eater was the good guy, and our bodies could be made to work against us in a different way (i.e., as edible evidence)? It might sound like kind of a stretch, but consider whether Chew could exist without the past years of zombie prepwork to pave the way.

Chew has just completed its first major arc, “Taster’s Choice,” with a nice game-changer. That means you’ve got two options: Pick up the trade paperback (due Dec. 9), or grab the back issues. They’ve been going fast, but the popularity of the book means you should be able to find a stack of the reprints and read ‘em all together. Or you could skip that entirely – the book’s been good about providing recaps each issue, so you can expect the new arc will kick off with a big “here’s where we’re at” story. But once you start reading, you WILL want those first five, so why not just get it out of the way?

**The teaser story idea has become a trend, and I’m still not sure what to think about it. It’s great when you’re into the story, but other times I don’t care, and at its worst it’s annoying when four of the books you pick up in a week have the same damn story (I’m looking at you, wordless Batman story in Darkest Night). If there’s any issue, it’s that these can feel kind of untargeted. As great as it is when the teaser jives with whatever you just read (the MonsterMen micro-teaser series in Hellboy: The Wild Hunt comes to mind), other times it feels too transparently like a blast fax aimed at picking up as many hits as possible. We can’t all be targeted by everything, but I wouldn’t mind a little more sense of “if you liked that, you might like this.”

Por lonkomacul2008

Hoy es el turno del mms84 Ave Sapien co-protagonista de Rojo en “The Golden Army“, una cinta maravillosa en sus dos entregas, esta figura aunque parece sencila es algo que lo ves y no quieres quitarle el ojo de encima, fijarse muy bien en el detalle de terminacion y esculpido de cabeza, la pintura es fascinante como asi toda la terminación de la figura en si, sin más bla bla bla echenle una miradita y me cuentan…

Galería

Fuente: comunidad.chilejuguetes.com

Tonight will be the Hellboys first Halloween.  I wonder what Max and Puck will do when the neighborhood urchins start to call?

Just in case something untoward should happen, they’ve gotten their first collars, to be worn on special occasions, like tonight.   Puck has developed into quite a fluffy fellow.  Collar discussion around the dinner table said “No PINK! No matter how fluffy he is. No Aqua or Lavender either!” We wouldn’t want the little guy to have a gender identity complex.

Puck got something suitably macho

While Max chose something more colorful, with his favorite:  food!

C’était le 11 novembre, jour férié s’il en est, que Canal + a concocté un programme fort en action pour ses abonnés. De 15H20 à 22H30, les super héros se sont succédés pour enchanter les téléspectateurs de la chaîne payante. L’Incroyable Hulk ouvrait le bal, suivi de près par l’acariâtre Hancock (incarné par Will Smith) et du richissime Iron Man, Hellboy fermant la marche des super héros dans le deuxième opus de Guillermo del Toro.

Quelle bonne journée de télévision pour moi qui adore les super héros, leurs pouvoirs étranges et leurs différences par rapport aux “simples mortels”. Pour un fan de fantastique comme moi, le programme de Canal + était sans conteste celui à ne pas rater.

Mais la bataille a fait rage parmi les chaînes hertziennes avec Shrek sur TF1 en début d’après-midi et le mélange Grey’s Anatomy - Private Practice en soirée, Et au milieu coule une rivière avec Brad Pitt sur la deuxième chaîne, ainsi que les deux Crocodile Dundee sur M6. Et aussi sur la TNT : TMC pariait sur la jeunesse avec Taram et le chaudron magique et Tarzan 2, NRJ 12 sur la comédie avec Coluche dans son rôle de Dagobert, et le film Qui veut la peau de Roger Rabbit ?

Un jour férié, c’est l’occasion pour toutes les chaînes du PAF de sortir ses plus beaux atouts pour faire de l’audience. Malgré tout, certaines d’entre elles choisissent de ne pas perturber les habitudes du téléspectateur et diffusent les mêmes programmes qu’un jour normal. C’est le cas de W9 notamment, pourtant co-leader de la TNT avec TMC.

Alors, vivement le prochain jour férié et ses programmes toujours plus attirant. Et que vivent les super héros !