Zombies, Sci-Fi Trilogies and Horror Films

Hey, guys! Long time, no blog, eh?

Well, this is really just an update of sorts. A kind of "What's Ray Not Doing Now" peak at my creative ongoings of late. I've got several things in the mix; a few I've been working on a while and one or two I've recently started.

We'll start with Neomyn. Greg did the first 8 pages of the revised script for Zuda, as I'd stated before and I've colored and lettered the first two pages and posted them in the last two blogs. I'd started working on the colors for the remaining pages when I had an idea. A dear friend of mine--Ruth Collins--is an art major and teacher and a damn fine artist herself. That said, I recently sent a feeler offer to acquire her services as colorist for the comic. She's a damn sight better than I am with photoshop and it would take a massive load off of my shoulders (all I'd have to do is lay the flats for each page for her, cutting my workload on the colors by more than half). She has tentively agreed and I am working on sending her the files. More on that in a few days, methinks.

On another note, Greg (my penciler) has submitted his own comic--Slam McCrackin--over at Zuda so if you've got an account, you should go vote for him this month. It's a nice lil' homage to crime noir done with an interestingly odd twist. I'll just say this...the main character is a hardboiled egg (get it??).

Moving on.

As most of you know, I've redone the Dead Seasons page so that it's easier to get to the different chapters and avoid reading it out of order. For those who are caught up, I'm working on the next part and should have it finished by the end of the month (I look at it like a text-based comic story, anyway, so monthly releases shouldn't be too surprising). My goal with this story is to make each part feel like it's own story. There's a beginning, a middle, and an end. Sure, the end is a cliffhanger and makes you want to know more. But, I want each part to have action and decent pacing in it. Again, this is working on the comic issue theory of releasing each one with at least a month between. This way you know that when you read each part you're going to get more than just character backgrounds and filler. There will be zombies in every chapter if I can help it.

Now, for something new. About a month or two ago, I had an idea to do a 3-part sci-fi story. Each "chapter" would be a self-contained short story that ties into the one before it. Each with a new character and time but each one closely linked to the others so that, as a whole, they make one story spanning the life of a family. The story is called Legacy and will have, like I said, three parts: Recon, Invasion, Counterstrike. Each "chapter" will have its own main character--who is one part of a family--and will take place 5-10 years after the previous story.

My goal here is to tell three seperate sci-fi stories, allowing me to write three entirely different types of characters and motivations while utilizing the same over-arching plot. I'm actually really excited about it and have already set up a page for it: LegacyStory.blogspot.com Look for more to come soon!

Then, of course, there's Rearview Mirror. This is a short horror film I'm writing with the hopes of filming in the near future. I'll go further into detail when I have the first draft of the script done. The premise is to film a horror movie mostly from inside a car, utilizing one shot throughout most of the film. It's about a man who has lost control of his own sanity and done something that he regrets. He begs forgiveness from his victim, who rides in the backseat, silently watching him through the rearview mirror. When she finally speaks, the truth--and consequences--of what he's done is revealed to both the driver and the audience.

Other than all that, I have a few ideas for new Only a Geek strips but have, heretofore, been too lazy to draw them. A problem I hope to rectify soon.

Hope you guys have a great Thanksgiving!

Later!

Neomyn Page 2

Hello, there.

I've been busy with a lot of overtime at work and various other things around the house lately. As such, it's taken me a lot longer to get going on the coloring of my comic than originally planned. However, I'm here to tell you that I'm back on track and to prove it, here's page 2.

Now, keep in mind that all I did was color and letter the pages that Greg drew based on my script details...y'know...how comics work, lol.

Also, I'll have to remove all of the pages I post before I submit them to Zuda so enjoy them while you can!

Later!

Greg Woronchak Rocks!

It was decided several weeks ago that I was going to enter Neomyn into the competion over at http://zudacomics.com/. To do this, I needed to go back and re-write the first 8 pages to make them more "grabbing" and turn that section into a kind of pitch piece. I needed to get across as much of the story and conflict as possible to grab potential readers' attention and interest while still leaving the flow of the overall book intact. This wasn't too hard as I'd written the opening sequence with just such goals in mind; all I had to do was edit out some of the page-lengthening segments and action fillers.

After this was completed, I needed to contact my artist--the amazing Greg Woronchak--and pitch the idea of Zuda to him. It turned out that he'd already done a piece for a previous month's competition for a friend and loved the idea of the site as a whole. I asked him if he'd be interested in redoing the first 8 pages of Neomyn (of which he'd completed 6 standard pages and would need to rework those into the format required by Zuda's media player) and he enthusiastically agreed. Less than 2 weeks later I had all 8 pages in two e-mails, penciled and inked and ready for me to color.

I've been busy with work and moving Jennifer to Illinois over the last several weeks to a month. The amount of O.T. I've been doing at work has left me with one day off every 3-4 days and, at 12 hr shifts, this leaves me rather drained of the energy required for anything save video games. That said, Neomyn had fallen to the weighside recently.

Well, yesterday--after spending the previous day showering my son with attention--I'd bucked up and sat down with the intention of getting at least one page completely done. Of course, the first page in the book was the hardest for me...I've never colored a fully rendered cityscape and, well, that's what I'd written as the opening shot. Several hours and some learning later, I came up with this...

And I must say, I'm pretty damn impressed with how it turned out. Needless to say, Greg's pencil (or stylus work if he uses a tablet, lol) is front and center of what makes this page awesome. I like the way the windows turned out and the glare off the brass ball in the bottom left. I was also happy with the choice of typeface and colors for Cera's monologue. If anything stands out in Greg's work above anything for me, it's the fact that he so faithfully sticks to Ruthie's character designs...wich, of course, you can't see here...but in the following pages (which I'll post as I get them done) you'll see that he replicates her designs perfectly. On top of that, his choice of panel layouts really makes the action pop off the page. It's interesting and unique and I'm a huge fan.

Anyway, keep a lookout for more pages here as well as the whole 8-page story to show up in ZudaComics' July (hopefully) competition!

Later!

Console Wars Hit the Home Front

Okay, so I've had my Playstation 3 for a few months now and I'm about to utter something I never thought I'd say out loud (well, technically it's not "out loud" per se, but I digress)...

I think I may leave my Xbox...

Now, don't get me wrong...I still love my 360, she'll always hold a special place in my heart. And, well, we'll still be friends and hang out on the weekends.

Okay, okay. In all seriousness, though, I am becoming more and more impressed with my PS3 with ever game I play on it. I've always said that there was no doubt that the Big Black Beast could put out more Pretty Power than the White Goddess, but I'd always sprayed forth the usual Microsoft-loving arguments about how the system doesn't have enough exclusives to hold it's own and that Sony doesn't really give a shit about gaming as much as multi-media entertainment (BluRay movies and music and shit like that). And, for the most part, I'm not entirely wrong. Sony still has a fundamental lack of exclusive titles for which I can justify scorning the Achievement Whore within my skull and they're focus still seems to be more about making money than making good games.

That said, however, there are more things about the PS3 that I'm loving than there are things that I think the good ol' 360 does better. These things include:

Free online gaming in the form of Playstation Network. I mean, c'mon! Brilliant! Why should I have to pay a monthly fee to play with my friends online and then turn around and pay MORE for content that I can ONLY get if I pay the aforementioned fee for which to play with my friends? Sony, as far as I can tell, simply taxes its individual content and sets you loose with an abundance of options that you have to get past Microsoft's velvet rope by showing your Gold Membership card to their surly semi-bald bodyguard.

Direct purchasing of downloadable content. When I first dove into PSN with my hold-it-at-arm's-length-cause-it-bites attitude, I was upset that Sony taxed their content forced you to buy content separately (or in a bundle, I later discovered). I was like, "Maaaan, Microsoft taxes you once and then you pay the "price" you see right there." Under further scrutiny, however, it quickly became apparent that this was a much better and consumer friendly method. Now, instead of spending $6 for 500 points to download a game worth 350 points--leaving me with 150 that I'll never be able to spend on anything other than a theme or gamerpic--I can just spend 1.99 (about 2.15 after taxes) for that extra character I wanted and be done with it. No more of the Hotdogs vs Buns scenario.

No Red Ring of Death. 'nuff said.

On top of those two specific things, I'd have to say that there are a few minor things like better graphics and the USB controller charging and, not to mention, the new Trophy System that I like more. All of these things combined have led me to the decision that from now on, unless it's an FPS (cause, let's face it, there's just no way around how awesomely comfortable the Xbox controller is) or a game that offers multiplayer for which my friends and I are interested in playing together, I am going to be buying multi-platform games on my PS3; seemingly starting with Batman: Arkham Asylum.

That is, of course, unless Sony releases a controller with off-set analog sticks. Then it's game over, man...

Be back soon with my thoughts on inFamous; a PS3 exclusive that was "shocking"....

Get it...

Later!

Stellar Trek, Terrific Terminations, and Wolvie’s Wasted Opportunities

Okay, so the Summer Movie Season is off with a bang! So far four of the big blockbusters this year (and I'm talkin' popcorn movies here, people, not sappy love stories or dramedies) have finally hit the silver screen and I couldn't be happier! Roughly $400 and 8 hours and 15 minutes later, and the following is what I've taken away so far.

We'll start with the movie that everyone knows I was waiting for; X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Now, it's no secret that Wolverine is my favorite Marvel character--I named my son after him for cryin' out loud!--and that I had been excited to see this movie since Hugh Jackman went on record after X3 with news they were beginning production. I'm a big fan...

...which is what, after much deliberation and two viewings, I believe is what kept a smile on my face through the film. Now, don't get me wrong, the movie isn't without it's charms and I, for one, will be buying the BluRay when it hits shelves. That said, however, there are a great many things on a growing list that they screwed up or, quite simply, missed out on. I'm not talking about things like making Victor and Logan actual brothers, or Emma Frost Silverfox's sister and making her look like something Favor Flav would put in his grille (really, how else are you going to convey diamond skin and make it look believable as a moving organism?). I'm not even really talking about the creative liberties taken with Wade Wilson and the (sigh) "Dead Pool". All these things are forgivable...well...not Deadpool's retardedlly long hidden blades, that's just poor editing and character design.

No, the biggest mess up is probably also the biggest missed opportunity to do something damned cool with a damned cool character. Gambit. He does one cool thing and then it's all down hill from there. After he charges the Ace and throws it at Logan Gambit is done being anything but a massive example of how these people simply didn't get the character. I might have been able to forgive the telekinesis had it not been for the ridiculous way they used it. But what I simply could not get passed (especially after the second time) was the staff and the way he used it to defy gravity and physics. I could have accepted the climbing the walls if the staff had been glowing at the ends to show him blow the holes in the wall but there's just no way to forgive the helicopter glide...bah!

Other than that, though, I loved the movie. Really. Once again, Jackman really personified the character and showed me once again why I love the Canadian berserker. The use of the bone claws was an excellent visual and the adamantium infusion sequence was awesome; especially the x-ray view of Logan's claws unsheathing. I even liked what they were trying to do with the bathroom sequence at the farm...even if the execution was someone on the cheesy side.

Moving on...

There isn't much to say about Angles and Demons, really. I was a huge fan of The DeVinci Code and, through I'd never read the books, thought that the narrative and character development was phenomenal. Tom Hanks seemed to really sink into the Langdon character with the kind of totality you rarely see anymore. I loved the theological undertones and the mystery of the whole thing. The sequel was simply a continuation of all these elements with a new plot and several new characters. Langdon was once again a man you could relate to and I rooted for, but this time around he was a little less "out of his element" and, since this plot didn't directly include him and he was more of the detective investigating a crime with no connection to the victims. All and all, though, it was an excellent experience. If for nothing more than the purely filmmaking elements of it; the score, the cinematography and overall direction of superb acting.

Star Trek was, well, more than I expected. A handful of people I've spoken with about it have cited slight displeasure with the plot and it's apparent "weakness" but I tend to be of the opposite view on this. I thought the plot was everything it needed to be and a little more for an origin film; which, let's face it, this really is. It established characters, fleshed relationships and laid the foundation for them to build a new history on. On top of all that, J. J. Abrams also managed to use time-travel and the ripple effects of tampering with the past to satisfy old fans while not drowning new ones in decades of story and pre-established continuity. I wasn't sure what to expect going in, but left with a feeling of having witnessed the beginning of something with massive potential to grow and encompass a whole new audience.

The modernization of the original series' designs were probably my favorite aspect of the film. I grew up on The Next Generation and have always had a kind of mocking distaste for the look of the original. From the bell bottom uniforms to the "ray gun" phasers and box-and-tube construction of the ships. But the new film managed to update all of these designs while sticking ridiculously close to the look of the originals. Excellent work, guys.

And, finally, Terminator Salvation. I can only say that I was so totally blown away that it is hard to believe they hadn't done this before. Since my childhood, I have been a big fan of the Terminator in all it's paradoxical glory. I was even a huge fan of Rise of the Machines with the exception of the heavy-handed female terminator. John Connor's fight to fulfill a destiny he never wanted and isn't even sure he can live up to was always one I enjoyed following. My only problem was the fact that my favorite part of this story was the part they kept eluding to but only gave me flashes of. The future in which John leads the war for humanity against a relentless, soulless enemy of our own creation (come to think of it, aren't Adama and Starbuck fighting the same war?).

Well, it would be a massive understatement to say that I have finally been granted my wish...with a giant fucking cherry on top!

Not only do I get to see the fight for our future, but it would seem that the future John is fighting in isn't the future he thought it would be. The future Kyle Reese told his mother Sarah about. It would seem that all that all those trips back through time have given more than John the intel needed to win. See, I'd always thought that a computer that keeps sending machines back to wipe out it's biggest enemy should be learning from its mistakes just as much as John had been. And, to a certain extent, it alwasy appeared that they had...a little...with each subsequent Terminator being an upgraded model. But Salvation does a fantastic job of showing that Skynet is a computer and learns like a computer learns. Thinks like a computer thinks.

Cold. Calculating.

I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about Marcus' character but with every bit of information that was revealed I found myself growing exceptionally fond of the concept of his character and Skynet's plan. Finally they show that they've learned from their previous failures. Finally it's apparent that messing with the past has had a significant impact on the future as John knew it. As even Kyle Reese knew it. Finally the writers and director acknowledge how fragile the paradox they'd created was. Brilliant!

And, the acting! Wow. What perfect casting. I was originally skeptic of how hard it'd be to get behind Bale as Connor since he's already so very much Batman in my brain. But very quickly I found myself believing in his portrayal of the character just as readily as I do when I watch Han and/or Indiana. And Kyle...oh, man, Kyle...I can only say that if they do more of these films (or another series to replace the unrenewed Sarah Connor Chronicles) I hope they focus on Kyle and that he's played by Anton Yelchin!

Well, that's about all for me for now.

Come back next week for a catch-up on some game reviews, including X-Men Origins: Wolverine (the better version of that story)...

Later!