jamesmith

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Ooh. Christ. What a pretty movie.

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As has been suggested, it ain’t the smartest flick ever made, but what are you going to do?

I’d forgotten about this movie, and was reminded of it while digging around through BLDGBLOG, which, I also discover, has an interview with Walter Murch, who talks about all kinds of stuff besides editing (AKA: the best part of filmmaking).

They apparently ran some contests in conjunction with Deviantart; one each for a poster, short story and comic. This strikes me as somewhat clever, not because it’s never been done, but because the film is so much about it’s own design. If the story were really engaging– or maybe if there were more stunts and shoot-outs (damn French can’t do anything right)– they might have generated a kind of cult around the thing. It just screams for fanfic. That there isn’t any (as far as I’ve seen) is a kind of failure, I think.

_{via MSNBC via Eric at TalkAboutComics}

Iraqi artist Wafaa Bilal spends a month in a room in Chicago’s Flatfile Gallery, with a webcam and a paintball gun you can use to shoot him. He says his PTSD– from being victimized under Hussein– is returning. Way to go, world!

Pantha via flickr.

Remake/Remodel #9 at the Engine, Princess Pantha.

I figure the typical “jungle girl” character is about the fascination of the Other, yeah? The white chick in deepest, darkest, scariest Africa.

So, who better to navigate the wilds of post-Apocalyptic Hollywood than an African supermodel, stranded here when her plane is shot down trying to escape LAX.

Dressed in wild dalmation furs and D&G baby seal boots, she remains in Los Angeles to hunt a mythical prey: a cab driver willing to take her to South Central.

Revolution (part 1) via flickr.

By flickr photog Tous les noms sont déjà pris… pfff….

Stephen Frug’s Attempts to write about 100 Great Comics Pages.

Note, he’s not doing the 100 greatest pages, just 100 of ‘em that he really digs. And the writing’s pretty smart.

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Bear in mind, he’s the kind of guy who’ll include the Codex Seraphinianus, so some of ye purists might want to avert your eyes.

In less depressing comics discoveries I’ve made tonight, Doug TenNapel can draw his ass off.

_{copyright 2007 Doug TenNapel; you may also click for biggification– maybe just take that as read.}

Eight pages a day. Christ.

From The Ultimates, v2 #13

_{copyright 2007 Marvel Comics; click to biggify}

The reaction to the textured stuff, via the BPelt Multifill plugin I’ve been using, was very positive, so I’ve been playing with it. So here’s I did this East Vs. West picture. Click the thumbnails for larger versions.

First I sketched out an idea. Then I put together the figures in Poser, which is useful because it makes it faster to experiment with perspectives, framing, etc. Then I take a screen-cap and paste into Pshop.

In Pshop, I trace with a brush, then print that out and lightbox that onto bristol board. Then I can use that plugin– which is supposed to lay flat colors into separated fields of white. What happens when you use it on textured paper is that the colors go totally random. At this stage, I make way too many versions to show them all here, but a few look like this:

And of course I ink the pencils as well, then run variations of that plugin on the ink.

At one point, one of the variations was of little value, other than the hand:

And there’s a crap load of duplicates, and changing blending modes and layer order to come up with the final. The stars were added because I wasn’t sure if it came across that the girl was Chinese, and the stars of both US and Chinese flags seemed too sensible a connection to pass up.

I probably should have made the whip follow the arc of the stars on the Chinese flag, to solidify the connection, but the stars were a much later addition.

The only thing that worries me (something’s go to) is how clients would react to this: not quite knowing exactly what you’re going to get. I feel I’m in much more control of this technique in the year I’ve been playing with it, but the chaotic approach means every picture’s going to be substantially different, no matter what you do.

They’re interviewing Cowboy Junkies on the radio as I write this. Hey, Shannon…

East vs West via flickr.

If you were socio-politically aware during Ronald Regan’s America, you may recall “Japan-bashing.” One more swing of the Yellow Peril pendulum. That was largely based on opposition to Japan’s economic policies, seen as unfair in a global-capital sense. Some people would say that was based on racism. I reserve final judgement.

Maybe I’m reading too much into things, but I feel like we’re swinging that way again, only the focus now seems to be on China. A fun path to liver failure would be this drinking game: listen to talk radio, and take a shot every time another story mentions how China’s growing economy threatens the world, and, oh yeah, America too.

And I listen to NPR for fuck’s sake, not Rush Limbaugh. Right now, the emphasis is on environment, how China’s increased use of dirty coal is going to feed into pollution and global warming. Now, okay, that’s fair, but America has absolutely lost the moral authority to demand that some other country start adhering to tough environmental standards.

I fear that, even subconsciously, we’re gearing up for some sort of fight (probably not in the military sense) with China. Maybe there’s nothing to really worry about– nothing all that terrible came out of the 80’s antagonism with Japan. But the argument back then wasn’t that the Japanese were a real threat, just that they weren’t playing fair. But the groundwork being laid now, in these increasingly xenophobic times, feels shrill. It’s boring. We should figure out a new way to deal with people.

Whitmore45.jpg via flickr.

I’d actually forgotten how much I love 50’s illustration (though this style runs from the late 40’s through the mid 60’s, I think).

What I love most about 50’s popular culture is how disconnected it is from any world I know. It’s truly alien to me, coming from some strange world where war and hunger and oppression just don’t exist. It’s like fantasy, without the dragons…