Something Old, Something New...

Two movie reviews, no waiting...

If Optimus Prime was my surrogate father, than Snake Eyes was my cooler older brother, and Cobra Commander was my quirky Uncle who always looked like an ass until you paid him serious attention and realized how crazy brilliant he was.
With this in mind, I was extremely excited to see G.I. Joe last Friday. Ever since I saw the first shots of Sanke Eyes's costume with Ray Park in it, I was ready to slap down my $10. Lots of mixed press out there and Larry Hama getting heat from "fans"...
Well, screw them, it was a good movie. No deep transcendental thought, but there never was with G.I. Joe, its a war story – military action/adventure tale, and that's exactly what they give you with the movie.
Was it verbatim and canonical to the old stuff? Of course not, you can't have something translate exactly between one media to another, its a different style of story telling. But they worked a lot of things in there, the names were all right (I will always prefer Roadblock to Heavy Duty though). I liked that Cobra Commander was an evil genius and puppet string puller, and the samll stuff, like The Baroness's husband being De Cobray, small stuff like that made me smile all while watching it.
That being said, why does Snake Eyes have a mouth in his costume? Thank the All Mighty they didn't have him talk! I was waiting. He also makes too short of work with Storm Shadow at the end (oh, uh...spoiler alert). I would have ather seen the two of them wail on each other in equal measure and Snake beat him just barely at the end...but whatever. I didn't mind the history they gave to Duke and the Baroness, I am thrilled that Destro's metal face wasn't just a silly-assed helmet. And Heavy Duty's British accent was jarring to me, don't know why, just was.
Over all, I liked it. I would buy it, or certainly accept it as a gift. I give it 4/5 stars.

Now the oldy but not so goldy. Watchmen. I know, I know everyone else saw this like 6 months ago or so. I was kicking myself for not making more of an effort to get to the theater and see it. I loved the look of it, I thought Zack Snyder would do the best job anybody could. And, maybe he did.
the main problem is that there is WAY too much to this story than you can fit into a 3 hour long movie. Even 4-5 hours is probably not quite enough. The way to do it properly would have been to make it like 4 2hr movies on TV. Not as glamourous as the theaters though, which is why that didn't happen. But, I think you could've told the story better in that format.
Another thing stuck in my craw – why was it deemed necessary to amp up the f-bombs and gore factor? The story already has sex, nudity, violence, what-have-you and it all fits well into the context of the comic, why push the fight scenes with extra splatter? I can only imagine that that is Zack Snyder's thing and all of his movies will have it. It was appropriate in 300, out of place and obviously forced in Watchmen.
On another note, the look and costumes were awesome. Nite Owl's suit was how they should have been doing Batman's csotume from the get go. Way freakin' cool. The casting was good too.
Overall...3/5, mostly for the look and atempt at trying to stay true to the book.

Not to worry too much, I doubt I will do too many Movie reviews on the blog. But who knows. BTW, saw Quantum of Solace this weekend too. Makes me appreciate the Sean Connery Bond films all the more. I liked Casino Royale, but this one sucked. I had on You Only Live Twice a few weeks ago, seen it all the way through like, 3 or 4 times. Love it every time.
Won't bother with Quantum again though. Oddly...the Dragonball movie was laughale terrible too. Some of my in-laws got it and Larissa and I watched it in macabe fascination. Oof.

-Joe Out.

4 Things I Learned From All of the Comic Con Coverage

Firstly: Comic Con is really not about comics anymore. Granted, most of us have known that for a few years now, but every time it comes around again you see all the Hollywood crap that has nothing to do with comics taking center stage. How does the biggest comic convention in the world shrink how much comic book related events it holds? I think it'll make the New York con more and more attractive to the industry.

Secondly: Megan Fox is ANNOYING. Attractive she is, but she opens that mouth of hers and ugh, what a turn-off. Yes, this is me in my judgment chair, sitting from afar and passing judgment on somebody I have never met. But, c'mon, I listened to three diferent interviews while I was trying to draw & ink, it was irritating. She dared one reporter that she'd go walk the floor, like it was some kind of fight or something. I'm going to see Jonah Hex, because I love the character and like the whole Horror/Western sub-genre, but I'll be seeing it in spite of her being in it, not because she's in it. She might be my new John Travolta.

Thirdly: People are throwing money at comics books and memorabilia, even in our recession/depression. Now I, like a lot of people on the business side of comics, have not been too worried about the faltering economy and its effects on the comic book market. One, people always want entertainment - especially when the world around them is crappy. Second, comic books are a low price item. Its not a big deal for a fan of comic books to spend $3-4 on a book, or $20 on a trade. People seemed to be throwing money hand over fist there. Which is good...for us.

Lastly: I don't know... Iron Man 2 is going to kick ass? Yes, we should most all be of that mind. Uh... How 'bout this: Comic Con is continuing to grow, get more expensive to exhibit at, but be worth the exorbinate cost due to the ridiculous volume of people there with money burning a whole in their collective pockets. Yes.

I hope we all learned something at least from Comic Con this year.

-Joe Out.

Help pick the Cover for Khozos #1

The art for Khozos #1 will be wrapping up at the end of this month.
Help us pick the layout for the cover.
Click the thumbnail here to see the art, then enter your choice on the poll to the left.





The first installment of our series Seven is also coming along nicely. We're also picking away at modifying the Manic Repressive site, so keep checking back through out the month to see all the minute tweeking we do.

I have the subject matter for the con art for RoundCon '09. Once I get the layout decided, I may give everybody here a sneak peek at that as well.

-Joe

MR Site Updates - Store Front is Go!

Hello to all the halves of dozens of my blog readers!
The Manic Repressive site has got some serious make overs this month, and its not even the 15th yet. fists in the air!
Most important is the new store that is online now. Now you can get your hands on our first three publications without waiting for us to come to a show near you. Sweet!
You can even get to it from here, just click on the "store" link to the left.

We've also brought all of the old news updates over here to the new blog and tweaked the navigation buttons a tad. Those of you who already swing all over the site won't know any difference though.
New additions to Joe's main gallery page

We've also been tapped to create the artwork for RoundCon '09. A great gaming con in Columbia, SC.

More fun and excitement to follow!

5 things noticed from drawing comics all day:

1: After working out perspective points on multiple panels I start looking at the rooms in my house different. Am i seeing two point, three point...crazy stuff like that. Outside is even worse sometimes.

2: High-tech space ships and vehicles are way cooler to look at than design and draw. Ugh!

3: Making characters that look very different from each other can cover small amounts of inconsistency in your work. If all my characters wore the same outfits and only had facial and build differences, the art would be much weaker.

4: I need to practice drawing animals more. Way harder to draw than people, only because I'm not USED to drawing them.

5: This is way better work than anything else, even when it isn't paying.

Money of course is the goal and a necessity, but I am way more content spending my days drawing comics.

New Software: what a byte in the @$$!

All puns aside, I feel like an old man. Granted, I'm in my thirties, which is ancient by some standards, (miserable young punks!) but sometimes it feels like I've got the mentality of a 60 year old.
I can't be the only one who doesn't want to learn a bunch of new software, right?
Fortunately, this distaste for expanding my horizons is fairly limited to technology. Books are still fascinating, as well as "educational" TV shows.
As the so-called head of Manic Repressive I am responsible for keeping up with the website, all the marketing, licensing, and production stuff, which all leads to learning more and keeping myself closed up in my little world of doing-nothing-but-drawing, less.
Which, sigh, is good for me. Just like vegetables. But I still feel the need to fuss.

Wah, wah, I don't wanna learn anymore web based software.

There you have it.

Hello Cyber Peeps!

I've just been introduced to the blog and now have a much easier time slapping down anything I think of, if I like.

I'd like to update you all since we don't seem to be putting alot on our website nowadays.

We are, in fact, crazy busy with artwork. I've decided to give Seven a narrative art try. That is, I am drawing up some comic pages for the first chapter in the story: Gluttony. Then I want to move into drawing up a short story, Opus 3, dealing with a fantasy type world. Joe is drawing up Khozos: Chapter 1 and will move quickly onto Chapter 2. We want to get the artwork completed before October 2009. Then we'll be digitizing, coloring, and preparing for production. The beginning of 2010 will be the roll out of these comics, stories, and a webcomic that we'll be hiring someone else to draw (based on the world of Khozos). So, though the website may be a bit barren for a few months we hope to have a great deal to show for our quietude come January. Currently we are both 1/2 way through our respective stories.