Here are photos from Halloween. One is a shot of the grappling gun prop I made and the other is of me in my final costume.

Halloween is coming...

I always have a lot of fun with the kids at Halloween and here is a peek at plans for this year...

I like the new GIJOE movie quite a bit. It is, what many would call, mindless entertainment, and while it has that aspect, it is also a reasonable take on the 80s-born icon. This movie IS based on the 80s 'Real Amercan Hero' version of the GIJOE toyline, so for anyone who is wondering "Who plays GIJOE", it may be a bit of a mystery. And also, for anyone who has issues with movie adaptations that take liberties, it may be a bit of a bumpy ride.

There are a few hiccups here and there such as a weak effects shot or two and few performance moments that don't mesh, but all in all, it's a solid piece of theater bang up fun.

While this movie is not in the league of the original STAR WARS, it does an admirable job of reaching for that level of visual stimulation while maintaining the basic framework of the 80s cartoon and comics. There are even elements that hearken to STAR WARS in much the same way that Lucas referenced Kurosawa films.

There's plenty of action that escalates to progressively grander set pieces as the story moves forward, yet unlike STAR WARS, there are few quiet moments. In that way, the movie is somewhat like an old Bond movie.

That may sum up the movie well: 80s GIJOE meets STAR WARS meets JAMES BOND...

Not bad.

Brushes with celebrity greatness...

I've seldom gone WAY out of my way to meet famous people, but as fate would have it, I've met a few. This past weekend and BotCon I got the opportunity to meet three: "Weird Al" Yankovic, Guillermo del Toro and Tyrese. I think with most famous people, as they meet so many people, it all becomes a blur, so I harbor no illusion that I now KNOW these people. But still, it's fun to snap a photo. Digital cameras have made all this much easier. Two decades ago, who had a film camera with them most of the time? Anyway... here are the pics...

Be resolute!

To be honest, a great deal of Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming puzzles me. It's either too coarse for my taste or simply not funny. Tonight, however, at midnight (11PM central) Adult Swim will be airing the long awaited, hour long NEW animated mini-movie: G.I. Joe: Resolute.

Brace yourselves. This not your father's G.I. Joe or even YOUR G.I. Joe for that matter. This all too brief outing is rated PG-13 and features actual on-screen death and blood. The script is by Warren Ellis and the animation team worked on AVATAR. The show has been airing all week long as 5 minute webisodes and is really quite amazing. It is full of "oh cool" moments and pretty sophisticated story-telling.

Check it out tonight or set the TIVO. It is the best animated G.I. Joe programming to date. But, remember it is not appropriate for young children due to the violence and mild language.

Time's Last Gift

I came across a copy of this just a few days ago. It was an old copy with the Darrell K. Sweet cover. In the moment, I didn't connect it directly with a blog post by my friend Charles. I grabbed it because I had never read Farmer and did remember Charles posting about his recent passing. I could barely put the book down once I began reading last Saturday morning. By Sunday afternoon I had finsihed. As I read, the story seemed familiar somehow and I began to suspect the main protagonist was Tarzan or at least his descendant. Farmer drops a lot of clues, but keeps it fairly subtle until the last 10 pages or so. The roller coaster reveal made me dizzy! 2/3 of the way through, Charles' blog came to mind and I sought out his old post from last year.

It's a great read if you like time travel stories. One of my favorite aspects of the story is how Farmer pretty much throws time paradox out the window at the outset.

If it happens, then it ALREADY happened. Don't worry about it.

Great stuff!

It was only a matter of time...

When I was a pre-teen, we visited the home of my dad's cousin and her husband. I had not yet become a believer at that time, but I was struck by a black light poster depicting Jesus on the wall of the couple's college age son. I was intrigued by the meshing of the counter culture via a blacklight poster with traditional religious imagery.

Now this was the same son who had a few years before displayed a shelf full of Aurora monster model kits at the end of the home's main hallway. That made a big impression on me as well and most likely led to my fascination with Universal Studios horror films and their related model kits. By age 12, I had built and painted all the re-issues of those same kits I saw on that hallway book shelf.

But, I digress...

Much like that first peek at monster models, my later peek at the black light Jesus poster left a lasting impression. It planted the seed that Christian faith need not be something mired in cultural tradition, but that truth could step outside of culture and find its place in myriad representations. I realized that Christian art need not be only from the Renaissance for example. And that, Christian music need not be only hymns or southern gospel. My mind began to open to the idea that Christian faith might be more diverse in its expressions than I had imagined.

A few years later, I made the leap of faith and made a commitment in my heart to trust Jesus. Now, after all these long years, I find myself playing with faux black light imagery and it occurred to me in church yesterday that I could bring the iconic Christian imagery together with the black light comic art look of the Third Eye posters that I now collect. I could connect with that treasured black light memory right on my own desktop.

Wow, what fun! I found a generic painting of the Resurrection of Jesus online and laid into it with photoshop. This image is not based on the same one that I saw as a poster during my tweens, but it had a quality I liked and depicted a powerful moment in the Christian story. You might even say the event depicted was a little "cosmic", so I added a little "Kirby-Crackle", to capture the comic book feel and added a caption in the pinup style of the Marvel comics of the 60s.

I realize I've backed myself into a tiny niche of enjoyment that might only be occupied by just me, but I had to share anyway.

I thank you for your indulgence and hope you at least find my obsessions amusing.

Mo ichi do!

That's Japanese for "one more time" and here is yet another retro poster style image I edited. This blog entry offers the faux blacklight re-color of a recent Dave Gibbons drawing of Rorschach from WATCHMEN. It took a bit of thought on how to use the limited blacklight palette effectively, but I'm pretty happy with the results. I got the image online and thought it would be fun to bring the florescent look even further into the modern era by adding it to a very recent piece of comic art. The original piece (with the original colors) appears in the new book "The Art of Watchmen". Buy it pal!

Seven colors and black...

Here's another "faux blacklight" image I did recently. This and the previous image are hi res poster sized files. Sadly, there's not an economical way to print them. As RGB files they look pretty much like florescent inks, but as CMYK, they would not look anywhere close to what you see here. If anyone has a solution to getting these files from monitor to paper without spending an arm and a leg and having them actually be blacklight reactive, let me know. I have one more image to show that draws from a more recent source. Click the pic to make it bigger!

More "blacklight" MADNESS!!!

As mentioned in the previous post, I have been playing with emulating the look of the 1970s Third Eye blacklight posters. Some of the most memorable pieces offered by the now defunct New York company were made from panels of Jack Kirby Marvel Comics art. I began to imagine...

What if Kirby's work at DC in the 70s was incorporated into additional posters from Third Eye. What would THAT have looked like? To satisfy my own curiosity and explore the color palette and inherent challenges of printing with only black and seven florescent colors I undertook the laborious task of scanning Kirby art from a black and white reprint volume, eliminating the gray tones and then coloring in the Third Eye style.

Shown here is the first image I did. The art is by Jack Kirby and is reproduced here only for purposes of instruction and historical significance. My only contribution is the color. The original source image is property of DC Comics and I make no claims of rights or ownership.

This is... "The Infinity Man"!

Click the image to see a larger version.

PS - I will probably add these to my Facebook page, but Facebook all but destroys the color saturation on these when the process uploaded files for display. They look practically identical here to their appearance in Photoshop, so I had to let my friends see how they "actually" appear.

Just so you can see it better...

I've been experimenting on doing faux blacklight poster images in photoshop. I've done a couple of Kirby Fourth World images and a Dave Gibbons Rorschach, but while I may show those here eventually, I thought I would offer a better look at the dayglow self portrait I am using for my profile pic...

Batman dead? Yeah, right.

I bought and read Final Crisis #6 just see to see the on page death of the second greatest comic book superhero of all time. Granted (pun intended), I had not read the first 5 parts, but this issue's story was incomprehensible until finally, almost at story's end, Batman confronts Darkseid. I won't go into details on the odd chance you want to read the story for yourself and haven't already.

I'm reading a lot of debate online about Batman's actions prior and the method of his "death", but all that is really moot. The real question is, after some time goes by and someone else steps in to fill the cowl, "how will DC bring Bruce Wayne back?". Because, you KNOW they will bring him back.

Haven't we seen enough of this kind of publicity stunt in comics? Spider-Man's a clone! Aunt May is dead! The FLASH is dead! Superman is dead! Robin is dead! Spider-Man unmasked! Captain America dies! Peter Parker and Mary Jane make a deal with the devil and were never married! And now... BATMAN IS DEAD!

Yeah.

Right.

Have a great 2009!

Even though tomorrow is really just another day, my prayer is for better days ahead for us all.

Be safe...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

THERE!

I said it and I'm glad!

:-)