Animated Olympic titles

BBC Sport's Olympics Monkey by Free Animation from Andrew Mashanov on Vimeo

Original comic art

Here are my two prized original comic art pages:


The first one is a page from Scud: The Disposable Assassin by Rob Schrab. He pencils his pages on graph paper, then traces and inks them on vellum. Very unique. I was so jazzed to be able to buy a page this summer.

The second is a page from Sam and Max: Freelance Police by Steve Purcell. I bought that one two years ago from Steve at Comic Con. I still don't have it framed.

Also, be sure to check my Comic Con post below! I updated it with pictures.

Comic Con 2008

We had a great time. Amy and I got in with my Professional badge, and while it didn't create an instant parting of the crowd like I'd hoped, it did cause a few artists we spoke with to ask what we did.

We were only able to go for part of Friday, and all of Saturday and Sunday. Friday we drove down after work and got there about 4:30. We cruised the floor for a bit, said hey to Doug TenNapel and Sean McGowan, and ran into a few other forum friends (Erik "Lars" Brown and his wife, and I think Eric Branscume). Stopped by Eef's booth at Slave Labor, but he wasn't there. We ran into him on the way over to Bad Karma's booth, though. Said hi to Eric Peterson and Val at Bad Karma. (Yes, three Erics in one night.) We met up with Frankie and his friend Melissa, too. Some of us wanted to go to an MST3K panel they had, but when we got up there an hour and a half early, the line was all the way down to the street level, so we said forget it. We wanted to go get dinner with everyone (including the Mulhollands), but it didn't work out, so we had a group of six (Eef and his brother Isaiah, Eric Brown and his wife, and Amy and I). We went to Rockin' Baja Lobster, if I remember right. Had some good carnitas tacos. We went up to my folks' house for the night, and Ian came down and met us.

Saturday was more cruising the floor. Picked up some books and talked to some artists. Got to meet the artist who created Korgi. He was a nice dude, and he had some of his original pages for us to look at. I went to Rob Schrab's booth to say hi, and it seemed like he remembered us from last year and Doug's house, so that was cool. I bought an original Scud page from him! It's gorgeous. I'll post a picture when I get the chance. Dan and Doug Heder stopped by while we were there (and Dan remembered us too!), so we said hey.

We went by Doug T's booth again and Angie was there, and we got a big hug from her. We chatted for a bit about the bewildering experience that is the Comic Con.

Amy and I ran into Scott Adsit on the floor, and got a picture with him. I put my hand on the small of his back without thinking for the picture and felt awkward about it for the rest of my life.

While searching for Ian (whose iPhone had died) I ran into Robert Smigel doing a new Triumph the Insult Comic segment (horrible pictures to come). Amy and I also saw Matthew Fox walking to a signing booth, which was cool. We met up with Josh Kenfield for a bit as he waited in line to get some MST3K guys to sign a poster.

Elizabeth Starks also came Saturday and joined us for a good part of the day. That night was the TenNapel Forum Hodown, and Tawney Smith and bf Tony came, which was great. We had a good time seeing the Westhavenbrook guys and other forum friends (Ruiz and gf, to name a pair), and eating more good Mexican food. Frankie bailed because there was a magical cat giving out free wands somewhere.

On Sunday Eric Peterson and Isaiah and I went surfing in Carlsbad. It was Eric's first time. Isaiah took off to the main lineup, having had a lot of experience up in Oregon of all places, while Eric and I stayed on the inside. Eric was fine at catching waves, but standing up presented more of a challenge. He made it to one foot up by the end of the morning, and I'm sure he'll get it if he goes again. We made it down to the Con in time to get into the room to wait for Sockbaby 4 to premiere. (It's available to download on Sockbaby.com now!) It was great! Doug even gave a shout-out to all the frogmen in the audience, so Eric, both Adams, and I all got to take a bow. The panel afterwards was pretty funny. Jon and Dan Heder were there, as well as Rob Schrab, his girlfriend Kate Freund, John Soares, Justin and Cody Spurlock, and even Isaac Singleton!

It was a fun year!

Making Movies Better: The Reeling Fall

Amy and I started watching Hellboy (the director's cut) today at lunch, since she's never seen it before and we are planning on seeing Hellboy 2 soon. As I watched Hellboy get knocked and go flying through a series of museum display cases, I was reminded of a pet-peeve of mine: the anti-gravity fall. It occurs when a character is punched, kicked, or blasted enough force to send them flying 20 feet or more, and that flight-path is an unnaturally slow and straight line.

The flight and fall look horribly fake because the character travels in a straight line for those 20 feet before suddenly dropping to the floor and sliding. Everyone knows how objects look when they are thrown: there is an arc as gravity overcomes the force of the push. If the director's intention is to communicate that the force was so great that the character actually flew 20 straight feet, than that force needs to be shown. The characters should fly with much greater speed and hit a wall really hard. If the intention is just "a pretty good kick," then show an arc to the landing.

From memory, I know I've seen it in Hellboy, X-Men, and The Matrix. The specific scene I'm thinking of in The Matrix is when Neo kicks Agent Smith down the hallway. He travels straight back at a constant height above the floor before finally dropping at the end. He waves his arms as he flies, and the camera follows him on his straight path. Rather than selling a supreme and forceful kick, it reminds you that a stunt team was dragging him in a harness and an effects team erased the wires. Why otherwise competent action directors keep making this mistake is beyond me.

Reborn and a newborn

Drawings, that is. Angela (a.k.a. Curly or Sweetness) commissioned these from me a while back.

This first one is a redo of this piece, entitled "flee!"

Next is a redo of this drawing.


This last one is brand new. I wrote the "Cat wizards" bit a long time ago and I don't remember why, but it can only be a reference to Frak Fraco.

"it's greek i'm from greece asshol"

I don't know if any of you went back and checked the new-ish comments on my "Michael Turner sucks at women" post, but I had to repost this guy's comment here; it's hilarious. I want to make the last little bit of that run-on sentence my new catchphrase. You have to say it without any pauses, and pronounce "asshol" phonetically, as though the word were new to you. I actually picture Ian saying it when I imagine it being spoken. I think he'd be able to best carry the comedy inherent in the phrasing.

"axriste malaka arxidi asshol do u tjink that u are better?if you did a woman u won't bettr tan michael turner asshol fuc u asshol u r a pice of shit malaka arxidi axriste pou exeis mperde7ei ta mpoutia s malaka it's greek i'm from greece asshol"

I don't know what I did to earn the ire of this Greek madman. Does it make him feel better yelling at me in Greek? I'm sure I'd be very insulted if I understood it.

Apologies for the bad language (both the Greek and the English).

New Digital Bits shirt (Comic Con themed)

The Digital Bits just put up the new shirt they're selling at this year's Comic Con. Sarah, Todd and I developed the idea and I drew it. The original version actually depicted Batman and Wonder Woman towing R2-D2, but their "legal department" nixed that one, so Todd and I came up with this final design based on some typical Comic Con attendees.
If you've ever driven from San Diego to LA up the 5, you should get the reference. Having lived here all my life, I don't know how much of a universal symbol this sign is. Will attendees from a non-border state get it?

Also, in case you can't identify the types: furry, anime cosplayer chick, and kid with Naruto headband and homemade cardboard box costume.

Childhood belief about prayer

As I was driving to a doctor appointment this morning, I was praying a bit. I realized when I arrived at the doctor's office that I had been distracted at some point and hadn't "finished" the prayer. That is, I hadn't closed it with an "In Jesus' name, amen." It brought back memories of how I prayed as a kid.

The way I prayed (and I don't remember if I was taught this or just picked it up from seeing my parents pray or something) was to start it with "Dear Jesus" and to finish with either "Dear Jesus, amen," or "In Jesus' name, amen." I remember "Dear Jesus, amen," as the more frequently used closing until I got older. I also remember believing that if you didn't end the prayer properly, the prayer wasn't over, and anything you said until you actually closed the prayer would count as you talking to God. So, if I said, "Dear Jesus, thank you for my parents, please may I have the He-Man Power Castle ... *distraction* ... stop it, Josh! You're such a booger-face! ... *remembers prayer* .. Oh no! Uh, dear Jesus, amen," then that would all count as my prayer to God. To put it in nerdy terms, it was like forgetting to close an HTML tag or use the proper bracketing in a mathematical equation. Everything between those open tags or brackets would count towards that initial designation (with potentially catastrophic results!). I was afraid that any "sinful" words uttered before properly closing the prayer would be as though I were saying them to God Himself!

This morning as I remembered that I had trailed off in my prayer, I realized I still sort of believe that. If I really think about it, or if you were to ask me, I would say that I don't actually believe that, but I still finish a prayer if I remember later that I hadn't.

BONUS MEMORY!

For a while as a young boy I also used to ask Jesus into my heart in every prayer. I remember praying for lunch with some friends and asking Jesus into my heart for the hundredth time. I'm not sure exactly why I did that. I remember also (at odd times later in childhood) fearing that I had never said it properly and that I was still unsaved, so I would pray it again on the spot "just to be sure."

Spaced signing with the cast and director!

Kevin Smith just announced a DVD signing with some of the cast and director Edgar Wright of the British show Spaced. I bought a bootleg version of Spaced on DVD years ago off of eBay, and have enjoyed it very much. It would be really cool to meet Jessica, Simon, and Edgar and have them sign the new DVD, but I imagine it will just be a huge line with little interaction. Then again, how big is Spaced around here? I have no idea. I probably won't go, but I enjoy the idea. And in the end that's what really matters, isn't it?

The Court Jester (1955)

Jeri's pick for Movie Night last night was The Court Jester, starring all sorts of familiar faces. Danny Kaye, of course, was the main attraction, but I also spied Basil Rathbone, Angela Lansbury, and the mom from Mary Poppins (all young and attractive).

The movie is a Farce For All Seasons. It is chock-full of goofy concepts that are introduced throughout the movie (all the way to the end): first, a former circus performer must transform into an old man in order to smuggle a baby into a castle; then he must assume the identity of a court jester (who is, unbeknownst to him, also a master assassin hired to kill several nobles), and get the keys to secret passageway in the castle that will enable them to put the rightful king (the baby -- who has a purple pimpernel on his butt signifying his royal blood) on the throne; once in the castle, he must locate the other mole by whistling a particular tune, but he mistakes an evil noble for this mole and dismisses the good guy as a peasant; he meets the king who quizzes him on his supposed Italian background, so he has to BS his way out of it; then he is hypnotized by the princess's witch into becoming a dashing hero who will win the princess's heart (the sound of a snap brings him in and out of this condition, of course, so you can see where this leads); then his love interest is accidentally chosen to be the king's wench for the weekend; then he is discovered and made to fight this big brute guy, but before the match, his armor is struck by lighting, which magnetizes it; the witch also poisons one of the cups of wine that will be drunk before the match, and he must remember which is which; the guy he is fighting also discovers the poison, and must try to figure it out ("The poison is in the pestle, while the chalace of the palace holds the brew that is true!" ** "Now the pestle has the brew that is true, and the flagon with the dragon holds the poison!"); then he gets into a sword fight with Basil, and keeps snapping which switches him between himself and a master swordsman; meanwhile the secret passageway has collapsed, leaving a hole big enough for children (or the little people that he is friends with at the beginning!).

I'm probably leaving some of it out.

This was my first Danny Kaye movie, and it's easy to see his appeal. He's a very talented singer, dancer, and actor. He was perfect for this sort of comedy, and carries the show the whole way.

The only thing I didn't like about the movie was that his contact within the castle, the mole named Fergus, gets tortured and killed off-screen and gives up the secret of the baby king. In the whole rest of the movie he's this earnest, competent, hard-working guy who does his job thanklessly, and that's his reward? To get killed off-screen and be known as the guy who gave up their secrets under torture? We are notified of his torture and death by one line uttered by a villain, then he is never mentioned again. The movie ends on a happy note without another word of acknowledgement towards his role in the success of the plan. Bum deal, man. Reminds me of the cop in The Lookout.

Michael Turner passed away

I was shocked to discover this morning that comic book artist Michael Turner passed away a few days ago. I didn't even know he had cancer. He was diagnosed back in 2000.

When I heard the news, I immediately thought of my post from back in 2006 titled "Michael Turner sucks at women." Criticism (even jerky criticism) is fun until tragedy befalls the person being criticized. If something terrible happened to Uwe Boll or Rob Liefeld tomorrow, I'd feel bad about making fun of their stuff, too. I've heard Turner was a nice guy, as well (same as I've heard about Liefeld), so I feel like even more of a jerk, even though I was only criticizing his drawings.

I noticed that I received a few more comments on that post from some angry person (and some Greek guy, I guess?). I always wonder how people find my blog posts several years later. It's funny how they go off without me knowing about it (like the Juggalo post).

Kung Fu Panda (2008)

I hadn't any desire to see this from the moment I first saw promotional materials, as they bore the name "Dreamworks Animation" and offered nothing more compelling. I expected something mediocre with a lot of "big name stars" and pop-culture references.

Then our friend Jeri recommended it, followed by our friends Josh and Miha (very enthusiastically, I might add). Then my boss ranked it as highly as The Incredibles, which is pleasant company indeed.

So Amy and I finally plunked down our $22 to catch it last weekend with our friends Josh & Miha ("You guys haven't seen it yet? We have to go right now.") and Lidia (the birthday girl!). And it turned out to be awesome.

The story is a lot of fun, the premise being that the ultimate kung fu fan gets to become the ultimate kung fu master. It's played very well with boundless enthusiasm by Jack Black, who honestly becomes Po rather than playing a panda with Jack Black's voice. (There are certainly many traditional Jack Black mannerisms, but they seem perfectly fit for the panda, and didn't distract me.) The other voice talent does a fine job as well, especially Dustin Hoffman, who I probably wouldn't have recognized had I not known about his role before-hand. As Jeri pointed out, the other actors don't have that many lines, so it's funny that they cast such big names as Angelina Jolie and Jackie Chan, but they're fine.

We laughed all the way through, so this one comes with a hearty recommendation.

Recent movies - La Strada, The Kite Runner

La Strada (1954) - This one has been in my queue forever. It's my first Fellini.

La Strada (Italian for "The Street" or "The Road") is about a simple girl named Gelsomina who is sold by her mother to a brutish traveling strong-man named Zampano (played by Anthony Quinn). The cover of the DVD and focus on Gelsomina in the movie led me to believe that she was the main character, but by the end it turns out that she is an instrument of potential redemption for Zampano, and that it is his arc we will follow. Gelsomina remains innocent throughout all the horrible things she endures: being sold into slavery, being raped by her thuggish master, being left on the streets when Zampano goes carousing and womanizing, being forced to leave any place that gives her comfort, watching Zampano steal from nuns, witnessing a murder, and finally being left by Zampano. By the end it seems that her life was the catalyst for finally breaking his heart.

In the few reviews I've read of the DVD, much has been said of Giullieta's performance as the simple Gelsomina, and indeed her face shows you her heart. Anthony Quinn is also very good as Zampano, though it was interesting that I never realized that his voice was dubbed by an Italian until after I'd finished the movie. The Criterion edition gives you the option to watch the movie with either the English or the Italian dub, and while the Italian is the way to go to hear Giullieta's authentic voice, you really miss out on Quinn's reading of the lines (and I'm rather embarrassed that I mistook the Italian dub for his real voice when it is actually quite different). The Italian actor for him sounds fine, but it's very simple and just sells "brutish thug" without giving the character the nuance that Quinn's inflections add. The movie was made like Leone's Westerns, in that each actor gave their lines in their native language, so Quinn was always speaking English on set while Guillieta (and most everyone else) spoke Italian. It is really fascinating switching back and forth between the language tracks for different scenes.



The Kite Runner (2007) - I read the book recently and enjoyed it, so Amy and I rented the movie. The movie is a pretty good adaptation of the book. It's always hard for me to judge the movie version of something I've seen or read before. Watching the movie is more like following along with a narrator and mentally checking off all the scenes that were left in and those that were left out. Nevertheless, I think I can say that the movie stands on its own.

The casting is pretty good. I pictured perhaps a bigger man playing Baba, but his face and demeanor were perfect. The boys were also good, though I missed the story of Hassan's hare-lip from the book. They changed Assef's character a bit too, leaving out the half-German heritage from the book, but I suppose it would have been hard to cast that role (aside from the fact that it would lengthen the movie with a minor plot point).

It's a tough story thematically, and the movie stays close to that. The books deals more with it, but it tells the story of two boys growing up in pre-Taliban Afghanistan, right up to the point where the Soviets invaded, and then jumps to America for a while, then to Taliban controlled Afghanistan, and eventually ends up in modern day America. It's a unique perspective to view events from, given our ties to Afghanistan now. It's interesting too having watched this after Charlie Wilson's War, which also dealt with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

I'd recommend the book for the more complete story, but the movie is a fine one.

Sockbaby 4: The Trailer!

Doug and the Westhavenbrook guys released the first Sockbaby 4 trailer! Here it is:



I'm one of the black-suited henchmen who pours down some steps. I'm not one of the guys who fights or gets kicked or anything, though. I did make the fake head that got toasted by Ronnie, though! It took me a long time, the melted clay smelled horrible, the face ended up looking terrible, and you only see it for half a second.

The trailer also finally reveals the mystery guest stars: Doug Jones and the Heder brothers (not to mention Rob Schrab and Isaac Singleton).

Here's a link to a downloadable version of the trailer (in much higher quality).

Tell your friends!

The Man with No Name comic

I forgot to mention: when I was at the comic store picking up the last issues of Scud, I flipped through that Man with No Name comic. Eh. The art was fine, but nothing special, and the story didn't jump out at me. I passed. Oh well.

Dan in Real Life (2007)

Pretty unremarkable movie. Everything is so average.

The scenario seems fresh, but the execution doesn't bring anything new to the table. Steve Carrell plays an advice columnist who, get this, doesn't have his own life together! Ha! A million laffs. And he goes on a vacation with his family and falls in love with his brother's new girlfriend. What will happen?? Nothing exciting. In fact, most of the entertaining moments seemed pulled right out of Meet the Parents 3 (uh-oh, casual sport with the family taken too seriously? And now he has to hide in the shower! And then the woman he secretly loves has to get in with him! Then he escapes out the window and falls off the roof! I wonder if, by the end, he'll end up hurting everyone he loves by lying and letting them all down, only to end up happy by the end because we know he really deserves it?? Maaaaaybe!).

I didn't get how I was supposed to feel about his middle daughter. She's a horrible brat who is desperately "in love" with some guy. She's supposed to be 16, I think. Dan is constantly shutting her down and telling her that she can't be in love after only 3 days, yet by the end he has fallen for Juliette in only 3 days, so he...admits he was wrong? Except he was right, and his daughter is just a crazy emotional teenager. Throughout movie she acts like a typical bratty teen girl, but at the end the writer is trying to tell us that, "Hey, guys, maybe she really is in love. Hm yeah good learnings. All her crazy stuff? Genuine. Mm. Yeah. You judged her, didn't you? Just like Dan. And now you see that you were WRONG. She just wants to love." What? Why did you spend the whole movie making her annoying?

That sounds like I really hated it, but I didn't. I want those 2 hours of my life back, but not in a Musketeer sort of way. I just would rather have done something different.

Jamie Hewlet does Olympic art

I love Jamie Hewlett's work for the Gorillaz, and am delighted to hear that he has been commissioned to do stuff for the Olympics this year. Here's his Monkey King:


Monkey King chuckin' a rod:

You can see more of it here.

Speaking of awesome seasons...

Our softball team, the Pirate Monkeys, went all the way this year. You're reading the words of an A-League champ right now. We lost only one game (the one I missed -- coincidence?), and beat the pants off of everyone else (including that team in the playoffs).

I tried a new position this year at John's request, trading third base for pitcher, and I was very pleased with the move. For one thing, while I can throw straight during warm-ups, I throw like a wild baboon when there is pressure (you know, when it counts), so easy outs thrown from third to first typically went 8 feet wide in any direction. Even as pitcher I botched a few 10 foot throws to first. I don't know what my deal is. But as far as pitching went, I did pretty well. Struck a few people out, could throw strikes fairly consistently, and was backed up by a great bunch of fielders.

Here are a few pictures taken after the final game:

Wearing our championship shirts:

Amy was Team Mom and Number One Fan this year. She also let me use her glove since mine was stolen.

We had a great team this year. We had so many fun people, so many great personalities. Not pictured above are my brothers and Aaron Klett, who played with us for a few games and also contributed the the richness of the experience.

Here's the logo I drew for our shirts a few years ago. John Tiffin made them all up for each player with our names on the back and everything.


The idea for Pirate Monkeys came from a brainstorming session that I sent in an email to John. Here is the original list of ideas:

• The Pirate Monkeys!
• The Cadavers!
• The Federal Duck! (stolen from Dave Barry)
  
• Bon Apetite!
• The Shawshank Redemption!
• Schindler's List!
• The Ox-Cows!
• The Defeaters!
• Undefeated!
• Duty Calls!
• Shufflers!

Pirate Monkeys came from my idea to use the two most played out icons of popular culture I could think of at the time. Another idea would have been the Random Awkward Chuck Norris Pirate Monkey Ninjas (which would probably have been really fun to draw).

Biola Lacrosse 2008

This has been a fantastic year for Biola Lacrosse. The boys had an excellent record and ended up winning the Division 2 Championship down in San Diego against UC Santa Cruz. There was an issue with eligibility for one of Biola's players that was discovered the Friday before the championship game, which unfortunately disqualified them from going to Nationals in Texas (and, technically, cost them the Division 2 title), but it was still a phenomenal season.

This was my brother Ben's final season, and he went out with a bang. He racked up 99 total points for the season, 48 goals and 51 assists. (That's counting non-league games. Click here to see the Div 2 rankings. Look at all the Biola players near the top!) Ben earned Offensive Player of the Year for Div 2 West Coast, made MCLA DIVISION 2 ALL-AMERICA FIRST TEAM, and tied for the highest scorer of the year. He assisted and scored in two sudden-death overtime victories (against Pepperdine and Dominican). My brother Josh acted as coach again this year as well. Needless to say, I'm quite proud of my brothers.

The issue regarding eligibility was this: one of the players dropped a class that took him below 12 units, which meant he was no longer a full-time student and thus ineligible to play. Unfortunately, he either forgot or wasn't aware of this, and he played 5 games like this. It never would have affected the team if they hadn't gone to play-offs and needed to resubmit their eligibility forms. Like I mentioned, they discovered this only a few days before the championship game. They could have not mentioned it and hoped that the WCLL did not find out, but they did the honorable thing and came forward on their own. The WCLL said they appreciated this, but still took the title away from them and disqualified them from Nationals. I know rules are rules, but it was 1 unit, the guy who was ineligible wasn't some ringer from the the East Coast, and the team had such a great year. The team was completely within the spirit of the law, but the letter had to be followed. It's disappointing.

It was a lot of fun watching the team this year. While Ben is graduating and moving on, there is a lot of young talent on the team (as well as a couple great Juniors coming back next year), and I look forward to seeing where they go from here.

Monkey vs. Cat

Frankie drew a picture of a magical cat with wings slashing a monkey, so here is my retaliation.Here's an earlier version that's a little too busy.
Here's Frankie's original, from Facebook's paint program: