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Archive for June, 2006

Infinite Crisis Drawing – Part 1

June 30, 2006 at 6:44 am · Filed under Art, COMICS!!!

Okay, a few general warnings: First, to anyone who hasn’t read Infinite Crisis or any of it’s various lead-in books but still plan to, consider this a Spoiler Warning. Second, to anyone who hasn’t read Infinite Crisis or any of it’s various lead-in books but really don’t give a damn about it, prepare to be confused.

I’ve been having really bad artist block lately. But, finally, I was inspired to do a drawing. Well, actually, it’s sort of an old idea, but it’s a massive one, so I’ve been a bit intimidated to start it. Then, the other day, inspiration hit and I just had to get started.

The concept for the drawing was inspired by Alex Ross’ “Crisis on Infinite Earths” mural. It’s a beautiful, giant painting that chronicles the major moments of CIE and has nearly every single character of the DC Universe featured. Or, at the very least, it has every one I can name and then some. And I know a lot of characters. I actually heard, one time, how many characters were on it, but I can’t remember the figure now. Anyway, I’ve always loved that painting and it’s always been a huge inspiration. I mean, how cool would it be to do something like that.

Well, DC just recently wrapped up their official CIE sequel, “Infinite Crisis”, and I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to give it a shot. Now, my style is nothing like Alex Ross’ and this is by no means an official endeavor. This is entirely “Travis Perkins’ ‘Infinite Crisis’”. If/when I finish, I’ve considered sending it into DC, mostly just to see if I get any kind of reaction, but this is purely for my own enjoyment.

I already have a lot of ideas sketched out. I’m even well into one section. See, due to certain restrictions in my materials, (namely a small scanner) I’m very limited in terms of scale. If I ever want to do a drawing larger then a sheet of computer paper, I have to break the drawing up, usually into specific characters or objects, drawing each separately, and then adding them together once they’re on the computer using GIMP. (Legal Free Photoshop, more or less.) In the past, I’ve considered this a hindrance, but now I think it may become a benefit. Since the general concept is basically a collage, I can draw the smaller scenes and characters in full detail and then put them together at the scale that I want. Also, it means I get to post updates and previews here.

I decided to start out with the centerpiece of the drawing: the ultimate villain of Infinite Crisis, Superboy Prime. Sure, Alex Luthor may have originally been the mastermind behind the whole thing, but Superboy Prime was the one who went bat-shit-insane and started knocking heads off and ripping arms out. And I decided to draw him at the height of his madness/evil, after returning from the Speed Force looking all grey and sickly wearing the Antimonitor’s armor.

I’m already finished with the penciling and inking and I’m currently working on coloring it. (And I’m really happy with how that’s turning out.) I don’t want to show off the colors, though, until they are complete. So, for now, I’m just going to post the inked line-art.

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Once I’m done with Superboy Prime, I’m thinking about drawing Robin and the new Boomerang next in a scene spotlighting them and the deaths of their respective fathers. Even though this is primarily an Infinite Crisis drawing, I’m also touching heavily on Identity Crisis as I see them both being very much intertwined. I also plan on referencing “Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day” and, of course, the various “Countdown To Infinite Crisis” books.

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SHAZAM!

June 29, 2006 at 5:10 am · Filed under General

Had some excitement at work today. I had to come in early to help move prints, I had to break down “The Break Up” really fast before they came to pick it up. Oh, yeah, and out power went out after we were struck by lightning.

So, it’s a little after 8:00 and I was trying to build up “The Devil Wears Prada” when I heard the thunder start. It’s really booming. I think to myself, “Oh, man, it’s going to suck when the power goes out.” I swear, almost on cue, the power was out within a minute. It actually wasn’t quite as chaotic as it’s been some of the previous times. Most of the customers seemed relatively cool with taking passes and an apology without making a big deal out of it. After all, it’s not like there was really anything we could do about it.

Anyway, as all of that’s going on downstairs, I’m upstairs waiting for the power to come back, trying to figure out what all I had to do to prep the equipment and whatnot. Suddenly, our Assistant Manger James (one of the cool ones.) bounds upstairs and says, “Dude, you have to come check it out. I think we were struck by lightning!” So, I follow him downstairs and, as he deals with some more customers, I go outside. At first, I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. I stick my head back in and ask James where I’m supposed to look and he tells me to check out the sidewalk in front of the steps. (I had been looking out into the parking lot.) So, I go out and … damn. I think we were struck by lightning!

About two feet, maybe, away from the steps, there is this little round bit of metal sticking out with a tiny hole in the center and it’s sending out a steady stream of steam. (Try saying that ten times fast.) There wasn’t a lot of steam, but it’s steady. Also, the area just around the metal was bone dry. And there was something else, too, that kind of confused us. There was this strange pattern of perfectly round holes. Six of them, I think, two lines of three. And they were perfectly spaced. Later, the firefighters told us that there had apparently once been a rail or something drilled into the ground years ago but had since been filled up. I guess when the lightning struck it blew out the fillings. They also told us that the steam wasn’t coming from a full on water main, but some smaller pipe of water, which is good, I guess.

So, the last set was canceled when the power wasn’t up in time. Of course, the power came back about ten minutes after the last set was officially canceled. I’m not really complaining, however, as it got me out of work early.

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Weird Al is ‘Pitiful’

June 28, 2006 at 5:54 am · Filed under General

Meant to post this a while ago but forgot.

I was a big time Weird Al fan when I was younger. I still like him in fact. So, I was very pleased to hear that he’s completed recording a new album. I guess all that’s left is the mixing and whatever other post-work they have to do. They can’t have too much more to go, as Al has already released the first single on his web site. It’s a parody of “You’re Beautiful” called “You’re Pitiful” and it’s great. I don’t know of any other songs that will be parodied, but I can not wait to hear the new album.

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Hollywood = Kryptonite

June 28, 2006 at 5:44 am · Filed under COMICS!!!, Movies, Rants

Okay, let me begin with a confession…

I don’t like the original, 1978 Superman movie.

I know. I can hear the marauding mob of geeks coming to smite me for my betrayal even now. I mean, I’m a big time comic book geek. Aren’t I, like, required to like Superman? Even more then that, I actually have a special connection to the movie. It could very well be the reason I read comics today. And, yet, I still don’t like it. Well, if it’s any consolation, I liked Superman II better. (Though, I still have some issues with it.) But, over all, before I saw “Superman: Returns”, my policy was that they still hadn’t made a really good Superman movie.

Now that I have seen “Superman: Returns”, my policy is … the same.

I didn’t much care for Superman: Returns. It was a real bummer, too, because underneath my cynical exterior, I was really hoping to see the comic book idol done right. (Okay, in all fairness, Christopher Reeves WAS Superman. My problems with the old ones were with the story.) I mean, there is no reason this movie shouldn’t have been good. Huge budget, latest technology, Brian Singer, Kevin Spacy. And the trailer gave me chills. But this movie just didn’t do it for me.

Really, I don’t think it was bad. I just think it wasn’t as good as it should have been. In my opinion, it was way to long. Clocking in a two and a half hours, this movie could have easily dropped the extra half hour, possibly more. (Anyone who complained about the never-ending ending of Return of the King will probably hang themselves on this one.) And the natural result of that is that it could be a little boring at times. Throw on top of that the fact that there were a few moments in the beginning where I was lost and became confused as to what was going on. Also, this whole movie seemed grey. Superman is supposed to be bright and colorful, but there were point in the movie, especially in the end, where everything just got dark and murky.

Which brings me to the costume. Believe it or not, I have to defend the costume. Other then the dark colors adding to the “grey” feeling at the end, the suit was a lot better in action then a lot of people gave it credit for when the first pictures first started coming out. (I was a little ticked with I realized that the weird texturing on the “S” was actually smaller S’s laser cut into it, but you really don’t notice it in the movie.)

Random Superman fact: The symbol on Superman’s chest is NOT “S for Superman” as most people believe. It is, in fact, the Kryptonian symbol for “Hope”, which just so happens to resemble the letter we earthlings use. And if you were to invert it, as we learned in the current DC event “52”, it means “Resurrection”.

There were a few problems in this movie that I expected. Clark and Lois were way too young, in my opinion. Brandon Roth could have done a great Superboy (Actually, specifically, when I look at him, I see Superboy Prime from Infinite Crisis.) but he just doesn’t fill Big Blues tights. And despite his brilliance, Kevin Spacy did follow Gean Hackman’s take on Lex Luthor. Though a little darker and slightly more sinister, camp won out through most of the portrayal. I suppose that incarnation is accurate to certain points of Superman’s history, but I personally prefer the “charming yet back-stabbing business man with noble intentions” over the “crazy, evil genius” version that we get in the movies. I mean, the truly scary part about the comic book Lex is that he truly and honestly believes that he’s doing what’s best for Metropolis. If you want an example, Lex on Smallvill is perfect. (Well, right up to Season Four when the entire show craps out.)

True evil never knows that it’s evil.

And then there is the kid. If you’ve seen the previews, you know that “Lois Lane is a mommy” and if you read Wizard, you know that she’s engaged to Cyclops from the X-Men movies. There is actually a twist involving the kid that I won’t give away here. (Don’t worry; you’ll probably see it coming from a mile away.) But, ultimately, the kid serves no purpose. I can certainly tell you that he’s not in the comics. (Yet, at least. There is a tendency in comics to butcher the source material to better fit the movie. Even if they did add the kid, though, it would make a little more since as Clark and Lois are married in the comic.) It was almost as if the writers were just sitting around, spit-balling ideas, and one of them suddenly burst out “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if …” and immediately stopped developing the character and/or the idea right there.

I don’t really blame the makes of the film, though, for missing the mark. Superman is a very difficult character to write for. On the one hand, it’s difficult to stay true to the character and his strengths and still keep the story interesting. Also, Supes has been around since the 30’s, which is quite a legacy to live up to. Plus, nowadays, writers don’t seem to know how to write for good guys. In a world of tough, no-nonsense ass kickers, a lot of people look down on “the Big Boy Scout”. But that’s who he is and what makes him special. There have been many attempts at making him seem tougher (Yeah, ‘cause him taking on Doomsday solo made him totally gay.) but at the end of the day, Superman will always be about Ma and Apple Pie.

So, my final verdict on this one: You should DEFINATLY go see it.

Well, I guess that’s … Wait a minute. Whaaaaaa…?

That’s right, despite my complaints; I think people are just going to have to make up their own minds on this one. I know a few of the other people who watched it last night really liked it. And, believe it or not, I’m going to go see it again this Saturday. In fact, I’m paying to see it. The paying bit I blame on FanForce, but I would have seen it anyway because I could still possibly be won over. It happened with Spider-man 2. I did not like Spider-man 2 the first time I saw it. Nevertheless, I saw it a second time and absolutely fell in love with it and now consider it to be one of my favorite comic book movies. Hell, I’m making a Doc Ock costume, for crying out loud. So, who knows, maybe I’ll like Superman Returns more the second time around, too.

In the meantime, I highly recommend everyone go out and pick up the current line of Superman comics. “Up, Up, And Away”, the current story arc, has been brilliant. The story’s great and I’m loving the artwork. Some of the best Superman stuff I’ve seen in a while.

PS: The special connection I have to the original Superman movie that I mentioned before: Superman was playing on TV when I was born. Apparently one of the nurses had it on and, according to my mom, was paying a lot more attention to it then her. (That’s why she downright hates that movie.) So, I’m thinking, the reason I’m so into comics now just might be because Superman was one of my very first influences.

Also, even though I can’t prove it, I like to imagine that, at the moment I was fully born, the Superman theme started playing. Like I said, there’s no way I can prove it, but how cool of an entrance to the world would that be!

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Web Cam

June 28, 2006 at 4:11 am · Filed under General

I actually wrote this a few days ago, but the power flashed and it was late. Luckily, I had it saved, so I’m posting it now.

Jared convinced me to go in on half for a web cam the other day. At first, I really wasn’t into the idea, but I have to admit, this is pretty cool. Jon even helped me get it all online. I’m afraid I can’t quite get it to work here, though. (I really need to move to my own server like Jon’s blog.) However, I believe it is working on MySpace and, if all else fails, you can go to Stickam.com and search the user section for Travis The Geek to see if I’m online. In moment’s, you’ll be experiencing the thrill of watching me sit on my ass goofing off on the computer.

I also want to give video bloging a shot at some point. That would be kind of weird though as I would never want to watch it. I hate watching video of myself, specifically because of my voice. It’s kind of funny, really. You’d think I’d be over that sort of shyness after my years of drama club.

Anyway, I give it a month before I replace the Star Wars Kid as the most embarrassing video Online.

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WordPress Woes

June 24, 2006 at 1:29 am · Filed under Rants

Sigh… I’ve been having issues with WordPress lately. The site keeps timing out whenever I try to do anything on it. I tried to comment on Jon’s blog this morning and it wouldn’t let me. Now I’m trying to post on mine and it still won’t work. Luckily, I write all of my entries in Word and then copy and past them on. If I don’t get it right tonight, I can save and post this later.

Of course, if you’re reading this, the problems been fixed. Still, it’s kind of funny to write this while not knowing when it’ll actually go up.

(Note: This entry and the two previous ones were written last Wed.)

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Jedi Costume – Boots: Part One

June 24, 2006 at 1:28 am · Filed under Costuming

The boots got here today. The actual foot portion fits great. But the calf … isn’t even close. Isn’t even in the ballpark. Isn’t even playing the same sport. It gave up sports entirely and went into post-modern dinner theater much to the chagrin of its father who now refers to it as his “daughter”. That is to say, they don’t fit quite right.

The good news is that the leather, while the perfect color, is very soft and, I think, will be easy to work with. So my modification idea SHOULD work out well. I think I might know where there might be a leather shop nearby, too, which I’ll be checking out tomorrow. (If it’s where I think it is, it happens to be on my way to Comic Town.)

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Click

June 24, 2006 at 1:27 am · Filed under Movies

I saw Click, the new Adam Sandler movie, tonight. When I first saw the preview for it, I thought it looked pretty amusing. And I must admit, the whole “universal remote control that remote controls your universe” has long been a fantasy of mine. But as the weeks and months wore on, I kind of got sick of the trailer for it. It also bugged me how they seemed to be constantly dumbing it down. First they altered the scene where the two kids are playing catch. Originally the lines went something along the lines of “You kids playing catch?” “More like ‘drop’. He hasn’t caught the ball yet.” Then Sandler freezes it, moves the kids hand, ball smacks kid in face, we laugh. But one day I saw the “new” trailer and the scene had been changed. The bully’s line had been (badly) dubbed over to say, “Your kid sucks.” Really shitty ADR aside, (I mean, come on. You couldn’t find the original kid to do it at least?) the only reason I can see them doing this was that, at first, the original trailer didn’t make it very clear that the bully wasn’t his son as well. So, best I can guess, someone got offended by Sandler’s character abusing his own child. Then, a few weeks later, they started adding “buttons” to the screen. Yeah, like I couldn’t tell that everything was rewinding or pausing. I needed big fucking buttons to tell me what was going on.

So, anyway, I was getting tired of the ads.

Still, I decided to stay and watch it tonight anyway. It’s kind of sad, but one major reason I stayed was so that I would have something to write here.

I have to say, I was surprised. The movie is very, very good. There were four of us watching it tonight and, between us, we represented just about every taste in humor and movies you could think of. Nevertheless, there were points in this movie that had every one of us laughing. And I’m not talking about a polite chuckle here and there. We were rolling in the isles. And there were more then a few truly touching moments, believe it or not. I won’t give anything away, but there is this bit near the end with his dad that honestly had me tearing up a bit.

And Christopher Walken is crazy as all Hell. Luckily for us, he’s also a genius. And for such a scary guy, he is truly hilarious. (My favorite songs of all time is “Don’t Fear the Reaper”, so “More Cowbell” is one of my favorite quotes ever.) And his comedic side comes through in this movie in spades.

So I HIGHLY recommend seeing this movie if you get the chance. You’ll be very glad you did.

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