INDIANA JONES AND THE T-SHIRT JAKe DESIGNED

First thing this morning I thought I'd stroll by the Indiana Jones front desk to check out any stirrings and sure enough, they've posted a clip of Harrison Ford as Doctor Jones. All tremendously exciting stuff, naturally, seeing Harrison Ford donning the hat again, but much more exciting than any of that, and something that had me spitting out my cereal in surprise was to see George Lucas wearing a Han Solo t-shirt designed by JAKe Steel!! A "Han Shot First" t-shirt no less!

MOOMINS - OPOWIADANIA MUMINKÓW

Often referred to as the 'fuzzy felt Moomins', this was the third production of five to make it to TV screens. It was made in Poland (Opowiadania Muminków) by Film Polski for Polish, Austrian and German television and later sold to the UK (among other places) where I think it really benefited from another integral ingredient, the voice of Richard Murdoch.

The series has been collected onto DVD. There are a 100 English episodes in all, edited down into 5 minute episodes from their original 78 x 30 minute episodes but you can watch the original episodes also (in German and sans Richard Murdoch's wonderful voice).

For more on Tove Jansson's Moomins I recommend you visit Brian Sibley's Ex Libris blog where he's written a wonderful piece about the books and their author.

THE LITTLE STORY ON THE BIG STORY

The Big Story. This brilliant short film was carried with the screening of Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction upon its theatrical release in the UK.

Tim Watts (one of the directors and animators of the film) , a fellow Kingstonian alumni, came back to Kingston when I was studying there and gave a talk about his work, which included The Big Story. We even got to see pencil tests for the film which you can view by clicking this link.

Tim told us that originally they'd tried to contact Kirk Douglas himself to get him to do the voices but eventually got through to one of Kirk's sons (I cannot recall which) who said Kirk wasn't available to do the voice, but all was not lost. Tim and David where advised by one of Kirk's sons to get hold of Frank Gorshin and get him to do it because apparently, according to them Frank Gorshin could do a better Kirk Douglas than Kirk Douglas. As was testimony in a short clip Tim showed us of one of Gorshin's impersonation routines where he pretends to be both Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas. For an example of Gorshin's talents outside of playing the Riddler in the Batman TV series watch the following clip.

ETHAN HAAS WAS RIGHT (UPDATED)

Right now, the internet is abuzz with news of JJ. Abrams monster movie Cloverfield, a Blue Harvest smoke screen title for a movie barely anyone knows anything about. The movie has an estimated budget of $30 million and began filming last month in New York. A teaser trailer appeared before Transformers and a viral campaign is under way in order to build hype. There's also a puzzle website which presents you with 5 puzzles that unlock a series of video messages and then leaves you with a code you can use on August 1st when I'm guessing more stuff will be revealed (the puzzles are all relatively easy, it's just the interface makes it all look like hard work).

The teaser trailer is a heck of a tease, showing a group of people at a party when a thunderous roar outside halts celebrations. News channels are seen reporting the disturbance. Revelers spill out onto the street and see a large rolling ball of flame down town and the statue of liberty's severed head lands in the street as people scatter. It's noted on some sites that the ball of flame is an explosion but to me it looks like a rolling ball of flame, like an abstract monster from H. P. Lovecraft's mythos (there's a lot of talk that this all has something to do with Great Cthulhu, but he wasn't available for comment when I called). That's the great thing about this teaser, you don't really see a great deal of detail, and really you're at the mercy of the panicked camera operator given as the whole teaser appears to have been filmed on a mobile phone-camera. So you're left to fill in a lot of the gaps and that's the best bit. It's terrific.

There's also this site (click the link), which is basically the film's release date, and it has snap shots from what I can only assume is the party in the teaser. I read somewhere online that someone had checked the registration for the site and it belongs to the Freemasons and one Albert Pike. Which sounds like the people in charge of this campaign are either incredibly clever and that there's a wealth of information if anyone cares to dig deep enough, or people are reading too much into what little information there is out there. Some people have even taken the photo of the two frightened young women that appears on the 1-18-08 site and spliced their faces together in the hope that this is some sort of clue, and others are seeing the devil's face inbetween the two women. I think its more of a coincidental simulcrum myself, but it goes to show what an effect this pre-movie buzz campaign is having.

The problem with a lot of stuff like this is that the 'mystery' can often be greater than the truth. And it's largely because people build in their own conclusions. They imagine a far greater payload than the initial idea can deliver and so when the initial idea reveals its payload it usually doesn't reach spec. VAL LEWTON WAS RIGHT. Never show the payload (or in Lewton's case, never show the cat people). The mystery is the monster.

UPDATE: You can watch the teaser trailer here (click for the link). Seeing the severed head of the statue of Liberty really does evoke memories of "Escape from New York".

Yet another 'interpreted' rumor going around now is that the monster of the movie (which has been referred to as "the Parasite"), is in fact a Lion. If you listen carefully, just after the scene on the staircase as people spill out onto the street, you'll hear someone say, very quickly "I saw it, it's alive, it's huge". At least that's how I hear it. But some people are hearing the words "a Lion" in place of "a live", and drawing the conclusion that the monster is some sort of lion.

"Nice thinkin', Ray."

UPDATE PART DEUX: The rumor mill concerning JJ Abrams' untitled film thunders on. This time in JJ Abrams drops Harry Knowles a line over at Aintitcool.

So according to JJ Abrams, the Ethan Haas puzzle site has nothing to do with his film. The Ethan Haas puzzle site certainly has all the trappings of a video game. At one point I even suspected it might be the launch for a new MMORPG as the mysterious video message guy says "What role you will play, and how you live or die, is completely up to you." Time will tell.

UPDATE PART III: Ethan Haas Was Right, it turns out, really isn't marketing for JJ Abrams Cloverfield. It's marketing for a game called Alpha Omega by Mindstorm labs, which is an RPG. So there you have it.

With regard to JJ Abrams Cloverfield, it's also been said that it is not "a sequel or a remake". Which rules out "Zombie Kong"!

LITTLE NEZHA

I love this film. I saw this film when it was on the BBC many MANY years ago. Cannot recall precisely how old I was at the time (though I'm guessing it was the early eighties given when the film was dubbed into English by the BBC, so I would have been about ten or eleven years old) but it left an indelible impression upon me. I no longer own a video player, so I've not seen this film for a few years). From time to time (once or twice a month) I've been logging in to You Tube and searching for this just to see if anyone would post this, and bingo, here it is at long last. I've also since found that it is available on DVD from China (with English subtitles), so this is one I will definitely be adding to my reference library.

A THING OF BEAUTY!!

Spotted this over at Drawn! Just had to post this here because it is just too beautiful to miss. The great thing about this morphing technique is how there appears to be a constant in motion, as though all these faces were just one woman turning her head from side to side whilst shaking off thinly veiled disguises (though it does get considerably more abstract towards the end). The amount of emotion conveyed is simply wonderful. It's a work of art in itself. Enjoy.

GEORGE LUCAS IN LOVE!

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha-Ha Ha Ha-Ha! Most enjoyable take on the origins of Star Wars.

CAMOUFLAGE

This weeks Illustration Friday Topic is "Camouflage".

MAD ABOUT THE BUOY!

(click on the image for a larger version)

A background design for nothing-in-particular. Complete with flocks of birds and red buoy. I think I was trying out water effects in photo-shop at the time. This was going to be a follow up to Zombie Kong with Zombie-Zilla rising out of the sea headed for the city but I really liked the buoy and the water's surface and got kind of distracted. So, technically speaking, this is a Zombie-Zilla picture only Zombie-Zilla's running a little late.

REJECTION

This weeks Illustration Friday Topic is "Rejection".

THE STATION AGENT

Over the weekend, I got around to watching The Station Agent, which I got as a present from my sister ages ago. It stars Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson and Bobby Cannavale as three strangers who become friends and the film focuses largely on the cementing of that bond between three very different people. Joe (played by Bobby Cannavale) plays man's-best-friend in this trinity. He loves life, hates being alone and just wants to have fun. Fin (Peter Dinklage) is quite the opposite, and for a while the relationship between these two men is akin to a dog (Joe) and a person who's not particularly fussed about the company of dogs (Fin). Most amusing. Joe follows Fin around asking what he's doing, what he'd like to do later etc, while Fin just wants to be left alone. He's inherited land with an old train depot on it in (making him The Station Agent of the title). Then there's Olivia (Patricia Clarkson) who's a lonely, divorced woman grieving the death of her son. Hers is quite a different need for social isolation to that of Fin's, for entirely different reasons. The endearing Joe serves as the cathartic dog, bringing Fin and Olivia out of their respective shells.

I usually avoid films with the word "uplifting" in the review because that, to me anyway, usually means depressing. Certainly true of quite a few films with that dreaded word in the review quotes. The Station Agent isn't "uplifting". It's life-affirming.

EAGLE VS. SHARK

Great looking film. Out this summer.
Jemaine Clement is one half of Flight of Conchords (Bret McKenzie being the other half of Conchords, who Lord of the Rings fans may recognize). They have a 12 part TV Series coming from HBO. You can watch the pilot here.

Here's a clip from a live performance of a great song of theirs, "Jenny".

CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT .... WHAT MUSIC THEY MAKE

What sold me on Philip Glass was the incredible soundtrack he produced for the Universal horror classic, Dracula (performed by the Kronos Quartet). It's a score which provides the film a sense of longevity Renfield could only long for (the above clip doesn't include Glass' score unfortunately). There's a genuine sense of foreboding when Renfield (a stunning performance by the excellent Dwight Frye) first arrives at Dracula's cobweb riddled, rat infested manse. The scene where Renfield and Dracula first talk and Renfield cuts his finger is accompanied by a score of such sinister intensity; repetition complemented by soft, ebbing strings. There is also a scene where Renfield pleads with Dracula from behind bars not to go to Mina's room that night. The music here again is utterly breathtaking, not so much feeling modern as feeling utterly timeless.

There is nothing cliché about Glass' score. It somehow manages to re-cut the film without leaving a single foot of film on the cutting room floor, offering an entirely different sense of pace to what has gone before and bringing new meaning to a classic.

SOMETHING TO LISTEN TO

LONDON 2012 ANIMATION + ARTS LOSING OUT TO OLYMPICS

This story is all over the place. An Animated promo for the 2012 Olympic Games has been taken off the organisers' website after it apparently triggered epileptic fits. Heard about this on the news last night and as soon as I did I raced to the batcave to see if I could catch a glimpse of it before they took it down so I could see for myself what it was that they'd done to it. But I was too late.

Rules on strobing in animation are pretty strict for obvious reasons. First off, there's certain frame rates you avoid - couple that with the percentage of the screen that's altered by the effect, there's definitely a clearly delineated no-go area that you should be aware of before you even start making stuff like this.

Images are tested through the BACC (a lot of the work I do goes through them I believe) or a Harding FPA before they go on air in order to ensure they comply with OFCOM regulations. So, how this got through in the first place is beyond me. Draw your own conclusions.

A very similar thing happened with a certain Japanese TV series called Pocket Monsters (Pokémon), when in 1997 more than 635 kids in Japan were taken to hospital with epileptic seizures caused by watching an episode of the show in which there was strobing blue and red color patterns. The publicity of course did the show no harm at all as most bankrupt parents can likely testify.

Now then, back to the Olympics. On the official website there's a sidebar that has a picture of Joanna Lumley in it with the title "Backing the Bid: Joanna Lumley" and a quote from her saying:

"Anything that helps young people become more involved in the arts, culture, sport and the spirit of personal achievement excites me. The Olympics isn't only a sporting feast - it's a celebration of culture and creativity too - and that gets my vote."

Well, here's the stinger. The arts are going to suffer because of the Olympics thanks to future PM and present chancellor, Gordon Brown. And here is why. There's currently a petition to stop this happening and the petition itself probably best describes what's going on, so I'm quoting it and, for your convenience, you can click the quote and that will take you to the petition itself (which is a very simple form to fill in):

Stop the chancellor using Lottery money to plug the funding gap in the 2012 olympics. If this goes ahead at least £900m will go from Big lottery, Sport England, Arts Council and Heritage Lottery much of this money would fund projects within the local voluntary and community sector. Services to disadvantaged people will be directly affected by the loss of this funding, people who will have no opportunity to benefit from the olympics directly but rely on local services provided by the voluntary sector.

This all on the tails of reports that Tax credit errors (the Tax Credit system Gordon Brown set up) is set to waste a further £1.4billion.

THEY'RE MAKING BABIES ... ROBOT BABIES!!!

Over in Japan they're making babies ... robot babies - and they sound a lot like Anne from Little Britain.

The crazy thing about this is it has the intelligence of a 1-2 year old (which I guess must mean it's learning to walk and talk). It can sense light, has a sense of hearing and touch. The scientists are going to be developing the robot to three year olds intellectual level, which basically means it should have speech and walking down to a tee in four years time.

Quite scary. Are you scared? I'm scared. If this baby grows up to look like Haley Joel Osment, I'm outta here!

BARBATUQUES ROCK!

Baiana from Barbatuques. First heard this on the trailer for the video-game Shadowrun. Barbatuques are a Brazilian percussion group. I think I like ... I like a lot.

ATTENTION!!!!! (MADAM TUTLI PUTLI)

This 17 minute long film from Clyde Henry, produced by the National Film Board of Canada, looks truly stunning. Nice to hear also that they're currently working on an adaptation of one of my favorite funny books, Ed the Happy Clown.

Madam Tutli Putli Trailer

Animating Madame Tutli Putli (I love how he laughs when asked 'what was your life like'. Life?)

Producer Marcy Page

Making of Madame Tutli Putli

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU

Go take a look-see at the exceptionally talented JAKe Steel's new Star Wars site celebrating the 30th Anniversary of Star Wars. I have a couple of postcards which JAke kindly sent me (I beat him at holographic stop-motion chess) and very lovely they are too.

I used to have an compulsive habit of leaving a message in the call log book at reception at Picasso Pictures (when I used to have a desk* there) which read "Luke, Darth rang. Says he's your dad." Star Wars left an indelible mark on many a child that grew up in the seventies.

(*a light-desk no less)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HERGÉ!

Tintin creator, Georges Remi (Hergé), was born 100 years ago today, and apparently Dreamworks is planning to bring Tintin to the silver screen in CG motion capture. Which I have to say is something of a relief; I shudder at the thought of a live action version. According to CBR News, Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson are set to direct just two of three films slated to be made. Exciting stuff.

IMAGES FROM "OVER THE HILL"

These are images from the short film I co-produced (along with Margaret Milner Schmück) and mentored on; "Over the Hill" by Peter Baynton (funded by EM Media's DV shorts scheme). Absolutely beautiful work from Peter, who is already cooking up an idea for another film as we speak. The film's set to hit the festival circuit, then from there ... who knows, hopefully some tv. Pete's certainly a name to keep an eye on. The film was animated in Flash and run through After Effects. Music and sound was provided by Ollie Davis and "We Write Music", who I've worked with before on Dagmar's Friend (among others).

IF CHINS COULD KILL...

Old spice never smelled so good and Duran Duran never sounded so good.

WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY - BIONIC WOMAN

Michelle Ryan (best known in the UK for her role in Eastenders as Zoe Slater, whether people watched the show or not given the media coverage of soaps we have in this country) is set to star in The Bionic Woman.

I was a huge fan of The (relatively inexpensive now) Six Million Dollar Man when I was a wee lad. The idea of someone being re-built into basically a superhero with all bionic parts was just way too cool. That and of course the show starred my hero back then, Lee Majors who would later go on to star in another favorite show from my childhood, The Fall Guy, as Colt Seavers. I used to have a Steve Austin doll, complete with red tracksuit, white pumps, bionic eye and bionic arm with removable skin. I also remember these strange bionic stickers you could get that you stuck on your skin to make it look like you had bionic working parts under your skin (by some enormous leap of the imagination no doubt). Whether they were a cash in or not (most likely), I cannot recall, but I remember that once they had been worn through I decided to draw bionic parts on my arms and legs with felt tip pens. What a mess!

So I'm wondering if that's Oscar Goldman that's the 'landlord' in that clip. Love the bionic eye focus (they appear to have taken a lot of bionic enhancements from Steve Austin and given them to Jaime Sommers, no doubt she still has the bionic ear).

Here's another clip from the show where Jaimie wakes up in the hospital / facility, and isn't too happy. Brilliant stuff. I love how she finds out what her bionic arm can do.

Katee Sackoff (from Battlestar Galactica) can also be seen in these clips and the show is produced by David Eick who is one part of the team that brought back Battlestar Galactica. So here's hoping that they have an equal success as they did with the marvelously reinvented Battlestar Galactica. Here's also a word from the show's producer, David Eick (who is also producing the tv show "Them"... a show about a sleeper cell of aliens living on Earth... I hope people don't confuse David Eick for David Ike!).


UPDATE: Thanks to PaulHD for reminding me. The stickers I spoke of earlier in this post, they were from Prog 2 of 2000AD! Thanks Paul. I can really clearly remember these now. I even wore the bionic watch! Thankfully, 2000AD have a catalog of all the free gifts they've done so here's what I was on about.

HOT WIRED

One of my illustrations for Illustration Friday, entitled "Wired" is going to be used for the cover of Prism, a bimonthly newsletter for the British Fantasy Society. The editor, Jay Eales, contacted me a little while ago asking if he could use it after seeing it on this blog, which is nice.

OVER THE HILL

Yesterday I went to the screening of a film I've co-produced and mentored on called "Over the Hill" by Peter Baynton (as previously mentioned). I hope to put some stills up soon. It was on at screen 2 at the Broadway in Nottingham for a private screening where we got to see all the other films made under the DV shorts scheme. Great stuff. Pete's film was very well received to much well deserved applause and laughter (in all the right places). Have to say, he really worked incredibly hard, and I'm really glad to say that he's planning another film.

COOKING WITH GAS...

THE RETURN...

This is a promotional short for NASA's planned return to the moon just as I am planning on returning to blogging! I'm back from the wilderness!! Had a few days up in the lake district visiting my sister, following a couple of mad days of work last week on an animatic for a commercial. My wife, my son and I traveled up for my niece's birthday party in our relatively brand new car enjoying the air con and CD player. I love our new car.

DO OR DO NOT ...

... there is no try. This is RvD2: Ryan vs. Dorkman 2. What I'd love to see is RvD: The Prequel. Great work.

DOCTOR WHO COMIC MAKER

This is cool. The official Doctor Who website has a Doctor Who Comic Maker for young audiences, with Mister Russell T Davies himself giving a comic maker tutorial. You need to register to have a go, but it all looks relatively straightforward enough. Great to see comics being used to inspire younger generations to write their own Doctor Who stories. Tip top stuff.

TIME FOR A LITTLE MUSIC ...

A LONG TIME AGO, IN A GALAXY NOT SO FAR AWAY ... THERE WAS VALÉRIAN

Princess Leia: Fancy Meeting you here.
Laureline: Oh, we've been hanging around here for a long time!"

A long time ago, sometime in the mid-eighties when music sounded terrible and men rolled their jacket sleeves up to their elbows, in a town many miles away (Woolwich to be precise), I picked up a comic book called Ambassador of the Stars, drawn by Jean-Claude Mézières and written by Pierre Christin. The book followed one of many adventures of two spatio-temoral agents, Valérian and Laureline. I pretty quickly discovered within a matter of pages that this was quite a remarkable book. I adored the story and the artwork. There were a further three books but I'm not certain I managed to get all of them on the pocket money I had. World Without Stars was one of them. The other I'm pretty sure I picked up was Welcome to Alflolol (I distinctly remember reading Welcome to Alflolol under my desk during a science class at school ... I call that studying).

There have been a couple of attempts to translate all the books. There were four published in the mid-eighties which is when I first discovered them, and then recently iBooks published Valerian: The New Future Trilogy (collecting "On the Frontiers, The Living Weapons, The Circles of Power). Unfortunately iBooks folded after declaring bankruptcy so it would seem no more translations are forthcoming. Impatient, I have since taken to collecting the books in French. They are to this day excellent. It's also exciting to see how from the first few books like Les Mauvais Rêves, published in 1967, how much Mézières style develops over the course of a small handful of books. The characters develop, the backgrounds however, with all their detailed and lived qualities, remain remarkably consistent.

"VALERIAN'S originality lies not only in the profound humanism that permeates Christin's text and the 'anti-heroic' quality of the main character, although these elements are not negligible. Nor does it rely on LAURELINE, VALERIAN'S companion, who is without a doubt one of the most non-confor­mist female characters in the history of comic books. To my mind, what is basically a question of originality — and originality there certainly is — owes a lot to Mezieres' creations : machines, scenery and creatures. Obviously when we read AMBASSADOR OF THE SHADOWS today in 1981, we no longer have that sense of disorientation we felt when we first discovered it. The decks of Central Point are haunted by machines, vessels and even stranger beings which now seem quite familiar to us."
- Daniel Riche
(article paru dans Ambassador of the shadows, 1982)
Foreword for the unsucessfull english edition of 4 translated Valerian album

As a Star Wars fan, the books aesthetically ticked all the right boxes. Here was a world as well realized, if not better realized, than Star Wars, and yet, as I was to learn, Valerian pre-dated Star Wars (Valerian started back in 1967).

For any fan of Star Wars looking for another lived-in universe, or even jaded Star Wars fans looking for a new place to call home, Valérian is the genuine original article. Seek it out.

MONKEY MAGIC (1961 'HAVOC IN HEAVEN' ANIMATION)

“Let hundreds of flowers blossom and hundreds of schools of thought contend"

Havoc in Heaven was made between 1961-1964 by the Wan Bros. The film, based on the early chapters of Journey to the West, is a delightfully choreographed and beautifully laid out film, rich and vibrant in both color and action. Can you get an English translation of this classic on Region 2 DVD? Can you heck. But you can watch a fan subtitled version over at You Tube. Viva la televisión revolución.

POLAR

This weeks Illustration Friday topic is "Polar".

INDIANA JONES AND THE ...

... City of Gods.

That's apparently the title for the next installment where we see Indy aged 64 and with, rumor has it, Shia LaBeouf playing his son (the image of LaBeouf to the left is actually from Transformers, but certainly looks fittingly Indy, ... prior to seeing this picture I had trouble imagining him in the role, but now, no problem now I can just picture him clutching an artifact and falling flat on his backside as Indy would do).

Well the only City of Gods I can think of is Babylon (Babylon is the Greek variant of the Akkadian "Babilu" meaning Gateway/City of the Gods) which is semi topical as it's in Iraq. Archaeologically speaking, the remaining layout of Ancient Babylon is that of Nebuchadnezzer's reign and these remnants now lay on the east and west banks of the Euphrates roughly 50 miles south of Baghdad. Saddam Hussein started rebuilding the site, much to the dismay of Archaeologists, and planned to build a palace (in the style of a Sumerian ziggurat) over the ruins. The UN even had plans to turn it into a cultural center complete with a shopping center of all things. So, much of what remains of Babylon would certainly have had Doctor Jones shouting "it belongs in a museum".

Rumors of Shia LaBeouf playing Indy's son have been on and off, with LaBeouf denying the rumors and so on and so forth. Even Indy Producer Frank Marshall said "We're sticking with Indy on his own. He still gets around pretty good." But Indy's son could be the MacGuffin Lucas came up with that nobody agreed with at the time and that has taken so many drafts to convince all parties concerned would finally work. It is after all touted by Lucas as a Character piece, and writter David Koepp has said it tackles Indy's age. Also... Sean Connery is only rumoured to be in it, Ray Winstone is definately in it as is Cate Blanchett as the leading lady, Sallah has been ruled out and Karen Allen may be back for the part of Marion Ravenwood (and possibly therefore the part of Indy Jr's mother?)

Speculatively speaking, perhaps Indy and Marion had a son, but with Indy barely able to attend his day job because of global adventures, and with he and Marion estranged, Indy had a son he knew nothing about, a son who'd grown up unwittingly in his fathers shadow (given as Marion is his mother... the boy grew up with a keen interest in archeology but this would be an interest associated with his grandfather, Abner Ravenwood who got a mention in Raiders). Then basically you'd have Indy possibly retired (now it's definetely the years as well as the mileage) being drawn back into the game looking for his son who's gone missing.

That would be my bet. This could be interesting. But then again ...

SUPINFOCOM

Supinfocom is the leading university for computer animation in France. The work that comes out of that place is pretty amazing. As I've been finding out whilst making Grimmwood, there's animation and then there's fight choreography. Go check it out.

FORTUNE

This weeks Illustration Friday topic is "Fortune".

The word Fortune conjures up just one strong image in my head and that's those slot machines that tell your fortune or make you Big and head designer for a toy company. I wanted my Fortune teller to have deep hypnotic eyes, which again instantly conjured up another strong image in my head, Rasputin (or more specifically Christopher Lee's Rasputin in the 1966 Hammer Movie). I also figured I'd use the casing for the Fortune Teller slot machine as a way of framing the image.

RADAR MEN FROM THE MOON

King of the Rocket Men was a Republic Movie serial that I used to watch when I was kid. All I really remember of it was that there were gangsters, an evil genius called Doctor Vulcan and a hero with an atomic powered rocket suit. I just loved watching King duke it out with trilby and pinstriped hoods. And every time King flew up a building they would kind of warp the perspective so the building looked really tall. The climax of the series saw Dr Vulcan using "The Decimator" to destroy Manhatten (the destruction of which used footage from the 1933 movie "Deluge"). What does a Decimator do? It decimates stuff!

So, the mad bad Doctor Vulcan gets to wreak havoc but ends up getting his backside handed to him on a plate by Jeff King (the titular King of the Rocket Men). What was amazing about King of the Rocket Men was that it really did look (for the time...and for young impressionable minds) like he could fly. I wanted that rocket suit so bad!

By the time Radar Men from the Moon (which you can buy on DVD) came around, Jeff King was gone and replaced by Commando Cody (Interesting to note, in Star Wars Ep 3: Revenge of the Sith, one of the clone trooper commanders is called Commander Cody). The exposition heavy dialogue is glorious. The plot is ludicrously fantastic, and while some of the acting may be wooden, it has a wonderful veneer.

MONARCHS ON PULP SECRET

Fist-A-Cuffs got a mention at PULP SECRET... and the Monarchs got a spot. Saddly, Monarchs didn't get through to the next round.

Damn their eyes!!!!

TWO & "LIFE ON MARS" - THE END

My favorite TV show, Life on Mars, has finished. Two seasons totaling just 16 episodes of utter perfection. The makers of Lost ought to take note - leave while the music is still playing.

HELLBOY

(click to enlarge)

Here's my version of HELLBOY.

Duncan Fegredo is the artist on the next Hellboy miniseries from Dark Horse Comics (which I'm really looking forward to ... follow the link and you'll find a preview at the Dark Horse site) and is going to be doing a signing at the Nottingham Travelling Man store on the 28th of april from 1.00pm (he'll also be signing at the Bristol Travelling Man store 11th of may from 4.30 pm).

GREEN

This weeks Illustration Friday topic is "Green".

Don't forget to vote for The Maliciously Merciless Monarchs of Misery over at Sam Hiti's Fist-A-Cuffs while there's still time. They need your love!

THE MALICIOUSLY MERCILESS MONARCHS OF MISERY NEED YOUR HELP!

The first round of Sam Hiti's Fist-A-Cuffs tag team challenge is up!

Vote for The Maliciously Merciless Monarchs of Misery. (L-R) The Butcher Wieners (drawn by Woodrow Phoenix) and The Angry Ball (drawn by me) are the greatest. They only want to be loved. You know it makes sense.

DOCTOR WOO-WHO!!!

Proper Saturday evening telly has finally been restored. The new series (third series* with a fourth already commissioned) of Doctor Who began this evening on BBC1 here in the UK and very good it was too. A lightening storm sends a hospital to the moon (looks mad enough on paper doesn't it? Wait till you see it on telly). "We've got air," Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman), the doc's new companion observes, "How does that work?" "Just be glad it does," says the Doctor. And he's right. Everything about the new Doctor Who works. Far be it from me to try to figure out why, it just does and I'm glad.

*for all Stargate fans, it's season twenty-nine ;).

SNAP

This weeks Illustration Friday topic is "Snap".

IF YOU GO DOWN TO THE WOOD TODAY...

Here's two stills from my own personal ongoing project, Grimmwood, for which there's a production blog if you're a patient sort of person as it doesn't get updated very often. I'll be posting these again over at the other blog with more details in a short while. Now blogger has introduced a labeling system, and given the infrequent posts over at the Grimmwood blog, I am considering migrating the content of that blog over to here ... still undecided.

It's been a busy week again (but that's a good thing, because it means that as soon as the work is done I can go back to comic books and Grimmwood). Also, production of the Peter Baynton project that I'm co-producing, which I've mentioned before, is nearing completion (and the film looks excellent).

I SPY.... WITH MY LITTLE EYE

Another illustration based on this week's Illustration Friday topic "I Spy". The artwork here's a lot like my original pitch to Dark Horse Comics for Wild Talents, back in 2003 (which reminds me, I must dig up my original pitch (it was a Victorian zombie yarn). This particular image sprang to mind after watching "The Thirty-Nine Steps" last night (the Robert Powell version), which is a cracking spy adventure story based on the novel by John Buchan (who hailed from roughly the same neck of the woods as the Culbard Clan). There may be a Wild Talents Redux appearing at Strange Planet sometime soon.

Whilst drawing this I learned about the reasonably interesting origins of the term "I Spy". According to Phrases.org:

The game I Spy originated in the early 20th century. It remains a common pastime played by children - albeit often initiated by adults to occupy bored children on car journeys and the like. One person secretly choose an object that they can 'spy with their little eye' and the others take turns to guess the name of the object.

The game isn't especially old and the first record of it that I can find is in The Winnipeg Free Press, December 1937:

"Other games ... are: What is My Thought Like, I Spy With My Little Eye (children love this) and Bird, Beast, Flower or Fish."

The game spawned a highly successful series of I-SPY spotter's guide books made for British children. These were very popular in the 1950s and 1960s.

The guessing game was preceded by another children's game called I Spy (or Hy Spy). This was a variant of what is now called Hide and Seek and was known in the UK from the 18th century. John Brand refers to it in his
History and antiquities of the town and county of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1789:

"'I spye', is the usual exclamation at a childish game called 'Hie, spy, hie'."

NO REST FOR THE WICKED!

Live action!

Had to attend a live action shoot for a couple of commercials I'm directing at the moment (the commercials are animated with a couple of live action elements) and that involved getting up at 5am this morning (after realizing at 2am that the clocks changed ... so I had even less sleep than I'd anticipated) and traveling down to London on the early morning train.

The woman in the seat next to me fell asleep on top of me. Not just resting her head on my shoulder (like you get with people commuting sometimes) but properly laying on my whole left side because the arm rest between us had been left up between the seats (I'd fallen asleep myself, against the window). She was very embarrassed. I didn't mention that she had been snoring very loudly (which was what woke me up), I thought she was embarrassed enough.

All the live action for these commercials was shot against green screen, which basically means intensely hot studio lights. So today was a day of feeling intensely hot and sleep deprived. And sleep deprived meant drinking lots of coffee (which I don't normally drink) and feeling really anxious as a result. But I actually managed to enjoy today, even though I'm really wiped right now and have only logged on to write about it because I'm in one of those 'so exhausted I can't sleep' sort of moods.

More manic craziness tomorrow and then on Wednesday I may actually finally catch up on the sleep good and proper (I think I owe myself a months worth... wouldn't that be nice?)

Onward!

I SPY...

This weeks illustration Friday topic is "I Spy..."

I've just finished a two hour email ping-pong session with Woodrow Phoenix. We've been drawing our Fist-a-cuffs tag team, so hopefully I'll have links to that in the next few days. Be sure to vote.

UPDATE: I have produced a second illustration with regard to this topic.

TWO-FISTED TALES!

Well, it's Thursday now and I've had three monstrously long days already. Had another trip down to London yesterday for the actual production meeting for the commercials I'm working on. Didn't get back till 10pm last night.

Slightly quieter today. Looking forward to the weekend.

The above two images are a color exercise I did a while ago, exploring antique palettes. I'm a big fan of the pulps, which is the only reason for the subject matter.

TOTAL

This weeks Illustration Friday topic is "Total".

POOPED!

Last week was the week that was. Heck of a week. And next week, more of the same! Busy, busy, busy. Keeps me out of trouble. No Illustration Friday from me yet. Been too mad busy for that.

My wife woke to my son presenting her with flowers, a card and a present this morning (Mother's Day). We had a great day but we had to cancel our lunch because where we went was overcrowded (they weren't taking bookings and we even showed early but the wait for the food was way over an hour and it seemed like everybody and their mother had had the same idea as us at exactly the same time) so we headed home again, which, as it turned out, was no bad thing.

I've labeled my Dogface Doodles under Sketchbook and I'll be adding more to that over the coming weeks, months, who knows, maybe even years.

All I gotta do now is sleep. Monday is gonna be crazy.

LONDON CALLING

I traveled down to Picasso Pictures in London today for an informal preproduction meeting (a sort of pre-preproduction meeting) for a couple of commercials I'm going to be working on over the coming weeks. An enjoyable visit as always but there's something about going from the quiet solitude of my working day to the throng of the multitude that I find quite exhausting. I guess it must be the sheer volume of people I pass as I travel on foot from St. Pancras to Soho via The Brunswick.

On my way to my meeting I popped into Gosh! Comics and ran into Will Kane (a fellow blogger), which was very nice indeed as I haven't seen him in quite a long time. Gosh! is an excellent comic shop (along with Traveling Man in Nottingham it is one of my favorites). Gosh! also boasts a rather fine collection of Golden Books.

MORE DOGFACE DOODLES FROM DOGTOWN

More Dogface Doodles from Dogtown approved by Mrs. C.

Okay, so I'm thinking, she likes my drawings of people with hairy faces... wait a second, I've got a beard!! The penny has finally dropped!

Had a meeting yesterday afternoon concerning a film I am producing, a short animated film directed by the very talented Peter Baynton (who I'm mentoring) which is presently undergoing title changes. It is being co-produced by Margaret Milner Schmück and funded by EM Media's DV shorts scheme. It's was a very interesting meeting, not just with regard to the production, which is soon to come to an end as the film reaches completion, but also with regard to film in the East Midlands. I'm hoping to put together a pitch for funding later on in the year as EM Media really have been a great bunch of people to work with.

CAPTAIN AMERICA

Captain America is dead. Long live Captain America. Currently there's a MEME going around and this is my contribution to it.

MORE "DEATH OF CAPTAIN AMERICA" COVERAGE

From Variant Edition:

also CBS coverage:

DOGFACE DOODLE

It's pretty rare that my wife sees something I've drawn and says she likes it so I thought I'd scan in and post this picture that she spotted on my desk, singled out and said she liked. It's not a drawing I did in relation to anything, just a doodle I did while watching TV.

WIRED

This weeks Illustration Friday topic is "Wired".

On a related note: "In the future there will be robots," as they say in GTA. Right now an ethical code which prevents humans from abusing robots and vice versa is being drawn up in South Korea and is due to be released later this year. It's being drawn up by a team which includes a handful of futurists and a science fiction writer. Already it's been forecast that by 2020 every household in South Korea will have a robot and by 2018 robots will routinely carrying out surgery!

CAPTAIN AMERICA - R. I. P.

Captain America is dead! Here's the Colbert report on Cap's death.

COULD HAVE WOULD HAVE SHOULD HAVE

There was a Spiderman 3 clip released just the other day all over the net with a gorgeously well choreographed fight scene in it. There's a few evil dead moments where the actors appear to get a battering, notably when Toby Maguire gets dragged backwards along the face of a building. A lot of buzz about too many villains appearing in it, but heck, the Spiderman of the comics lives in a city FULL of villains, so I see no problem in the movie showcasing three bad guys. It should keep Parker on his toes. Quite looking forward to this outing but Spidey 3 isn't all I'm looking forward to from Raimi. Apparently he's going to be bringing The Shadow to the screen (it's March now, so this is old news, but hey, it's still exciting news).

Above is the trailer to the 1994 Alec Baldwin vehicle The Shadow (with John Lone in an excellent turn as Shiwan Khan). The movie was unfortunately a flop, panned by critics and fans alike, but I really love this film. Whilst it may not embody all of what the Shadow as a character has to offer, I loved it as a straight talking pulp adventure.

Now, originally, Raimi was going after the rights to The Shadow (in much the same way I mentioned a couple of posts back that Lucas was going after Flash Gordon) but in failing to get the rights to The Shadow (and Batman), decided to come up with his own (much like Lucas came up with Star Wars) and came up with Darkman (starring Liam Neeson). Looking at these clips, and compared to Darkman, I wonder how close the Baldwin vehicle actually was in tone to what we would have got from Raimi at the time (not what we're going to get from Raimi given as he's refined his craft over the years since). Darkman had a favorable critical reaction (two thumbs up from Siskel and Ebert) and spawned 2 sequels.

What follows is a scene between Baldwin (playing Lamont Cranston, aka. The Shadow) and John Lone (playing Shiwan Khan). What we also see is a little bit of Ray Harryhausenesque animation in the form of The Living Knife. It started out as a prop on another pulp movie, The Golden Child*.

*The Golden Child was originally intended as a serious adventure vehicle for Mel Gibson, but Gibson turned the role down, which is a real shame because once Murphy came on board it became a comedy. I've taken this plot summary from IMDB and basically taken the words Eddie and Murphy out of it... so now imagine the film not as a comedy but as it was originally intended:

**** plays a detective with a speciality of finding lost children. He is told he is the 'Chosen one' who will find and protect the Golden Child, a Bhuddist mystic who was kidnapped by an evil sorcerer. **** disbelieves the mysticism but finds more and more evidence of demon worship as he investigates.

Also, John Carpenter was originally set to direct with John Barry set to score. Can you imagine it!?!?! Now THAT is the movie I would rather have seen.

BIG ROBOTS & JUDGE CULBARD!

I've been Dave Taylor-ed!!

Okay, a while back I mentioned in a post titled I AM THE LAW! that I'd be appearing in the Megazine again, this time as a Judge. Well, here I am (the physical resemblance is uncanny, right down to my incredibly muscular physique... yeah right, actually, the badger's-backside-of-a-beard is mine, the rest ... I'm working on it).

Megazine #257 sees the start of a story called Big Robots, straight out of Dave's noggin, written by Alan grant and drawn by Dave.

Dave's next assignment is for Wildstorm comics. For more info on Dave Taylor go check out his blog.

FLASH GORDON: THE GREATEST ADVENTURE OF ALL TIME

As I understand it, this is pretty rare. I distinctly remember seeing this on television when I was a kid. I love the palette, all the rich orange tones set against the green and the color of the title card. Beautiful. This was the original opening for a made-for-television feature (its production prompted by the success of Star Wars) which was later turned into a Saturday morning series.



Apparently, George Lucas tried to nab the movie rights for Flash Gordon, but upon finding that Dino De Laurentiis had secured them, decided to make Star Wars instead. You can see quite a number of influences found in the above episode of the serial starring Larry (Buster) Crabbe (note the text crawl at the beginning of the episode).

I love this serial (this and King of The Rocket Men ... I used to watch both these old serials when I was a kid). I've posted this episode here because of a really strange scene 15:51 mins into the film where a tribe of rock-headed people (called Rock Men, funnily enough) speak backwards. It always freaks me out.

STAR WARS DRINK DRIVING PSA

A rare public service announcement from 1979.

We're speeding our way closer to May 25th (the film's original release date) and the 30th anniversary of Star Wars, so, no doubt there will be more Star Wars shenanigans over the coming months. Also, I found out today that Star Wars fans were called "Warsies", something in all my 30 years of loving a story set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I had never heard of.

Spent my afternoon on Sunday painting pictures with my wife and son (it was raining all afternoon). VERY messy and a lot of fun. We got paint everywhere, but it was a hoot so it was worth it. My wife picked up a few rolls of lining paper from IKEA which is great for rolling out across kitchen floors and drawing all over and painting on.

HIDE

This week's topic for Illustration Friday is "Hide".

THE MIGHTY HEROES

The Mighty Heroes was a Terrytoons Saturday morning superhero spoof from 1966. The show was created by Ralph Bakshi and began life as an impromptu pitch during a meeting with CBS (the parent corporation to Terrytoons), after they'd rejected a slew of planned pitches. There were 21 episodes in all after which (in an episode of Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures) the Mighty Heroes hung up their capes and cowls to become accountants in a firm called "Man, Man, Man, Man & Man".