Still Scamming

Another Happy Monday! Is it spring yet?

The big brawl continues in today's Scam smackdown:

The Scam page 25

Plus a sketch for your trouble:


























So, the other day I went on and on about how lousy Dollhouse is. Well, this weekend I watched episode 6 which word on the digital street has as the big game-changer episode where shit finally starts to click. And what do you know, it kinda did. This episode was miles better than the first five and has got my hopes back up for this show. It even had Patton Oswalt in it and he is truly a god among geeks. He does a damn fine job in a dramatic role here. Not really seen too much of Patton's serious side before, but it looks to me like he has the makings of a serious character actor besides being one of the funniest people on the planet. Here's hoping they can hold up this level of quality in upcoming episodes. And that it isn't too little too late and this show goes the way of the gone-but-not-forgotten Firefly.

I also fianlly saw the big Battlestar Galactica finalé. A really great send off for a show I thought had a pretty uneven run. Lots of long boring stretches punctuated by some truly great Sci-Fi, usually in the two-parter episodes. The last episode really does wrap everything up in a nice big bow and I found it to provide really satisfying closure for all the characters. I even shed a tear or two for the resolution of the Adama/Roslin relationship. Good stuff.

SPOILER SPOILER SPOOOOOILEEEEEER!

I kinda woulda liked to see Baltar get a bit more comeuppance though. That dude was a real prick.

Have a good week, folks!

Pow! Bam! Scam!

It's Thursday, so that means a new page:

The Scam page 24

The pitched battle continues!

Here's some random doodles to round out the week:
























As always, have a fine and dandy weekend!

Scam Scuffle

Good morning, World!

We're rolling right along with The Scam and the battle royale is in full swing:

The Scam page 23

And a little sketch for your trouble:




















Still fiddling around with a few different styles for a few different things I've got cooking.
So much to draw, so little time...

The Scam Heats up!

It's on!

Gabe puts up his dukes in the latest from The Scam:

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Sketchy:
























Saw RocknRolla the other night. Guy Ritchie back in form. I guess it was the missus who'd done sucked the creativity right on out of him. But now she's gone and the high octane caper action with a cockney accent is back. Good violent hilarious fun with some interesting new faces and King Leonidas minus the biq square beard. And whoda thunk - Stringer Bell's a Brit.

Boom!

Monday once again!

Fighty fighty fight-fight in today's update of The Scam:

The Scam page 21

And here's a quick little sketch:


























Man, I am slacking on the sketches. Need to try and get that sketchball rolling again...

Can I take a moment to talk about how not interesting Dollhouse is? Now I love Joss Whedon. I love Buffy. Loved Angel. Looooove Firefly. Thought his run on Astonishing X-Men was the best thing since Claremont and Paul Smith. I even dug his stint on Runaways which seems to get a lot of hate from the fanboys for some reason.

But Dollhouse is dull as ditchwater. I've now seen three and a half episodes. This show is so boring I can't even get through an entire episode in one sitting. The biggest problem with the show are the done-in-one plots. So far these have all been sub-fantasy island level stuff of overused cliches - Echo has to rescue a kidnapped child. Echo gets involved with a guy that likes to hunt women - the most dangerous game! Echo has to sing backup to protect a pop singer from a stalker! Echo has to pull a heist! All of them dreadfully dull.

The second big problem is Eliza Dushku herself. I liked her on Buffy. She was great as Faith, but here's the thing: the conceit of the show is that Echo is implanted with a completely new personality in each episode, and yet, Eliza plays them all exactly the same. The kidnapping negotiator is in no way different than the backup singer who is in no way different from the tough-talking thief. Except the hostage lady wears glasses and has her hair in a bun.

Third big problem is that 4 episodes in, I'm still not sold on the premise. It seems too ridiculous and the actors aren't selling it to me. Oh look, it's the standard techie geek with a collared shirt open over a colorful t-shirt. The key person who's supposed to be in charge of implanting personalities is this lame stock character? You need someone with some gravitas to sell this concept. Not some yutz in high tops and acid-wash jeans.

And because I still haven't bought the concept (why are these blank people with implanted personalities even useful really? Why hire one as a bodyguard? Why not just hire, say, an actual bodyguard?), the FBI agent who's trying to get a lead on the Dollhouse is also uninteresting. He's just like Fox Mulder. With no Scully. And with no sense of humor. I liked you better on Galactica, Helo. :(

So far there is exactly one interesting character. The one played by Fred from Angel. I forget her name in real life. I forget her name on the show. But her character interested me because I did not immediately recognize her as Fred and she has cool scars on her face.

That's the only good thing I can say about Dollhouse at this point. It's got Fred with scars.

I do feel compelled to keep watching though. It's still Joss Whedon after all. I keep waiting for that curveball that's gonna turn everything on it's ear and blow me right out of my seat.

I understand the initial script was much better and it's the stupid network that messed in and said they wanted more stand-alone episodes like CSI. Stupid network. I downloaded the script but haven't gotten around to reading it yet. It's not really all that fun to read a tv show.

I have no idea what the ratings are for Dollhouse. Maybe it's wildly popular. People like that CSI and NCIS and shit. I dunno.

Lost is still good.

Scam Scam Bo Bam Banana Fanna Fo Fam

It's your Thursday serving of The Scam!

The Scam page 20

Gabe is at the breaking point!

So, I finally saw Watchmen. What can I say that hasn't already been said by smarter and more erudite folks than me? Who cares? It's my blog and I'll prattle on anyway.

I fucking loved it. I thought it was the best superhero movie ever. Better than Iron Man. Better than Dark Knight. Better than my beloved X-Men 2. Zach Snyder has proven that he deserves to be called a visionary director even though he's only made three films. He's taken a book that many have called unfilmable and made adapting it look easy as pie.

The montage over the credits is fantastic. Gave me the chills. The casting of all the leads is perfect. I read somewhere that Joaquin Phoenix and Hilary Swank were signed on at one point as Night Owl and Silk Spectre. Bullet fucking dodged. I thought Patrick Wilson and Malin Ackerman were spot on. The guy everybody's talking about though, is Jackie Earl Haley. He is so great I don't even have the words to describe how great he is. Kelly Leak is back, baby! Jeffrey Dean Morgan is also terrific as the Comedian. He makes you like him even though he's a coldhearted amoral bastard. Billy Crudup does a great job as Doctor Manhattan too. It's interesting how much his performance shines through all that glowing blue CGI. The guy that plays Ozymadias does a fine job. I think a slight misstep was made in that he seems a bit too creepy right off the bat, but it's a minor niggle. Carla Gugino also bears mentioning in the smaller role of Silk Spectre I. She's always great and she's great here too. Really nicely done old age makeup for her elderly scenes too.

I didn't really mind the tweak to the ending that a lot of people seem up in arms about. I think it works fine.

A few other minor niggles that didn't really spoil anything for me, but could probably have been changed for the better: Nixon doesn't really work. They should have only shown him from far away or briefly on tv. His makeup looks silly and fake. And having Lee Iacocca show up struck me as just kind of dumb.

What else? Hmm. The dwarf that plays the crime kingpin in the jailhouse is Kramer's buddy from Seinfeld and I found that to be distracting, but that's just my own problem. At least they didn't use Vern Troyer.

You know, I can't think of anything else wrong with it. It was great. Great, great, great. I can't wait for the director's cut. I hope it's 6 hours long.

I was gonna do a sketch of Rorschach but I didn't have time 'cause I'm such a busy bee. Here's a peek at things to come instead:
























Good weekend to ya!

Still Scamming

Happy Monday!

The Scam continues as things really start to get hairy for ol' Gabe:

The Scam page 19

Here's a slightly boring sketch too:
























Finished Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep on the train to work this morning.























Great book. Great writer. The descriptions, the one-liners, the mood - Chandler has a real way with language. If you're any kind of crime fiction fan this is one to seek out. If you're any kind of fan of hardboiled noir I'm guessing you probably already have. Haven't seen the movie in at least 20 years. Kind of thinking I'd like to rent it now. I was picturing Bogey and Bacall all the way through. Trouble is, I can't remember which part Bacall played in the movie so I just pictured all the femme fatales as looking like her.

Saw a couple of movies this weekend too. Rachel Getting Married was really good. Boy is Anne Hathaway unlikable in it. But that's kind of the point. Debra Winger rocks the house in a few key scenes. Kind of nice to see her onscreen again. Bill Irwin also has a great turn as the Dad. A really interesting portrait of a family that's been immensely fucked up by one daughter's drug problem.

The Reader I thought was just okay. An interesting angle on the Holocaust and the burden of guilt and culpability among ordinary people. Kate Winslet is always good, but boy, old age makeup still doesn't work very well if you can't afford to pay ILM a few million for digital aid. Mostly I found it a bit slow and ponderous. Watch it if you're in the mood for something gloomy.

The Scam Revealed!

Things are looking mighty uncomfortable for ol' Gabe as the plot thickens:

The Scam page 18

It's about to get craaaAAAAYyyyy-zzzzzaaayyyyyy....

So, even though I been busier than a bee with a beaver in it's bonnet, I always find time to read me some good old fashioned books. Mostly on the train to work. I've had a pretty good run of late with one really good book and one book that is so bone-chillingly awesome it just leapt into my top ten all-time favorites.

We'll start out with Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory.























I'd never heard of this one, but a friend gave it to me 'cause it's vaguely (very vaguely) superhero related. It's about an alternate reality where a group demons have infested the world via possessions of random people. Each of the demons has a distinct personality that seems to be based on iconic pulp heroes and villains of yore, and they possess people for a short time and wreak havoc or vengeance or whatever gets their demon jollies going. Our hero is a guy that was possessed as a boy by the demon called the Hellion and his life has been fucked up ever since. Cool things happen. We even run into Philip K. Dick and Sinead O'Connor. A really fast-paced pulpy read that's very good fun indeed. It kinda falls apart a little at the end, but it's still worth taking a look at.

The other book I read is The Shotgun Rule by my new favorite crime writer, Charlie Huston.
















This book is incredibly intense and absolutely horrifying. A real squirm-in-your seat thriller. This book is ten times more scary than anything that Stephen King ever wrote because you can imagine it happening to yourself or someone you knew in school. It's about four delinquent kids in California in the 80s. They're into small-time crime like breaking into neighbor's houses and running pills for their shady relatives. Then they make a mistake. And things go so horribly wrong that I am literally getting the shivers just thinking about it. This book will scar you for life. And you'll thank Charlie Huston for it.

I'm currently working on The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. Good God, that man can write. More on that when I've read the whole thing.

Have a great weekend, guys and dolls!

Monday Scam

So how was your weekend? Mine was pretty OK.

You remember that bunny comic I was going on about? Well, it actually won the Zuda competition. How about that? Thanks to everybody for checking it out and voting for The Hammer.

Seeing as how I might need to devote a little more time to the big pink bunny we might be seeing a little slowdown over here at Untrue Tales. After The Scam concludes we might have to drop back to one page a week for awhile. We'll see how it goes.

At any rate, our current tale continues on schedule!

Here's The Scam page 17.

And a wee sketch:
























Have a great week!