Untrue Tales

.... and we're back.

2012-02-05T02:44:00.000-08:00

Oh, yes! We're back in bidness. Monkey-bidness that is.

"But for how long? HOW LONG?!!"
You might shriek in understandable frustration.

Yeah, 2011's been a spotty year. Not much going on around these bloggy parts other than me blogging about how I'm too busy to blog.

So, sorry. I lay myself flat, as they say in Norway.

This year I've got nothing but good intentions and monkey-posting plans every double dang Sunday. Except when I don't feel like it or whatever.

But I'm gonna try REAL hard to feel like it. Promises, promises.

Anywho, we're kicking back off with another flashback sequence. Dive right back in with page 48 here or start back at the beginning here.

As for you Untrue Tales fans who may or may not be out there, yearning for more Gabe Stein-y goodness...

I got nothin'. Sorry, folks. The monkey is my only master these days. I do have plans for more Untrue Tales down the road, but y'know, busy. Here's one panel of an unfinished story I hope to one day, y'know, finish.

Until then, look forward to Monkey-sundays for the forseeable future.

Lay-tahz!

What?

2011-12-05T06:05:00.001-08:00

Yeah, still awful busy.

Here's this:

Good Gawd Y'all!

2011-07-17T03:55:00.000-07:00

Man, I just keep getting worse at this, don't I?

Same old refrain. The busy-ness, it confounds me. Nary a moment to blog, I say, nor a minute to draw forth the images of comic-bookery. Alas.

I'm not complaining mind you. Busy as a bee though I be, it's all business of the pleasant and luxury sort. Doing tons of paid illustration and comic design work - all fun stuff, I'm really in hog heaven. Just bought a new house and I'm in the process of moving and establishing a new base of operations - the nerd-cave of my dreams. And I have a sweet girl with itchy feet that likes to drag me all over the world on exotic vacations constantly. Yeah, boo-hoo, sucks to be me, right?

I do wish I had more time to draw some dang Untrue Tales though. I assure you, dear unbeliever, I haven't given up the tale-telling forever. Still working on stuff in the backest of grounds. It will see the light of internet at some point in the hopefully not too far-flung future.

We shall see.

In the meantime, you might have noticed that Kung Fu Monkeyface has also fallen a bit by the wayside of late.

We're taking a little break on this one as well, while Gabe works on a graphic novel with another guy. Not sure when the monkey will return or in what form as yet. The whole story is plotted so I'm certainly of a mind to wrap the darn thing up eventually. Time will tell. We made it up to page 47 so far. I think it's an OK stopping point for now. You be the judge.

The Hammer prequel A T ale of Two Fiddys is now up on Untrue Tales. This was a fun one to doodle up. Give it a look.

Seen a bunch of movies and read a bunch of books since last I popped in to the blog. But gosh-darn it, I don't have time to get into all that at the moment. Have I mentioned that I'm a tad busy? Flarg.

I will say that if you haven't seen Source Code yet, you're missing out on the coolest sci-fi flick of the year.

And if you need something to read on the beach, you can't go wrong with Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan's The Strain and (part two of the planned trilogy) The Fall.

That is if you like your vampires good and disgusting rather than glam and glittery.

Here's some random sketches.

Bye Now!

Hurfurfurh

2011-04-04T07:07:00.001-07:00

Uffameg.

Blog blog blog. No time for blogging. So much stuff to do. Lots of interesting things going on.

Been doing some cool collaborative things with Juan Felipe Salcedo of Re-Evolution fame.

Man, that dude can draw. We'll see what comes of it, but so far so fun.

Monkeyface is keeping on keeping on.

As is Fiddy for the time bean.

Read a good book from Iceland. Voices by Arnaldur Indridason.

Cool crime novel about a dead hotel santa and the gloomy cop assigned to the case. The whole thing pretty much takes place in a hotel in Reykjavik. Very well-written with a twisty plot and interesting characters. I read this one in Norwegian as part of my plan to improve my stagnated language skills. But it's probably just as good in English.

Saw a couple of good movies. Blue Valentine with Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams is damn depressing and damn good. Top notch acting from the leads. But boy will it bum you out.

Took a look at an old movie from the 60s called Gambit, 'cause I read on AICN that they were remaking it, but the original sounded kinda cool as is.

This is a comic caper movie with Michael Caine and Shirley McClaine. It's very wacky in that 60s kind of way, but immensely entertaining. Lots of fun twists, ridiculous plot holes and Hollywood closed-mouth kissing. It's a good time if you go with it.

Finally got ahold of The Phantom Edit - that recut version of The Phantom Menace that was supposedly re-edited into a far superior version by some guy. I was very interested in seeing this and convinced myself that I was really going to see a cool version of Star Wars that was hidden inside the shit-sandwich of the original. But, alas. The Phantom Menace is actually even worse than I remembered it. I haven't seen the original since it played in theatres the first time, and I guess my memories were softened by the less-awful sequels, but this movie is actually unwatchable. It doesn't matter how much of Jar Jar and Anakin saying "Yippee" you cut out, it's still a pile of shit. I can't believe I tricked myself into getting disappointed all over again. Oh well. At least I only subjected myself to about 20 minutes of it this time.

What else? Got a neat little gig doing caricatures of Norwegian celebrities for a local verison of those comedy-roast tv-shows. Here's a sample.

Not all that interesting if you don't know who this guy is, I guess.

And here's an old-timey Norwegian writer-guy.

Okay, bye.

This and That

2011-03-09T06:00:00.000-08:00

Yello again!

It's Wednesday which means new Buck Fiddy for ya on the Monkeybunnyüberblog!

Are you following along with Kung Fu Monkeyface?

Why the hell not? Check it out here or here.

Some one panel funnies:

Went to the movies and saw The King's Speech last weekend.

It is a good movie. But waaay overrated. Nothing wrong with it, just totally unsurprising. Cool poster though.

Here's what my Oscar picks would've been:

Best Picture: The Kids Are All Right
Best Director: Christopher Nolan
Best Actor: James Franco. Or Jesse Eisenberg. I think these guys had a bigger acting challenge than Colin Firth. He was fine, but I kinda think any British actor could've played that part just as well.
Best Actress: Annete Bening. Natalie Portman was terrific, but Bening was just on fucking fire.

I think they got the supporting actor and screenplay awards pretty much right. The rest of the awards I generally don't give a shit about. And god, what an awful awful show this year's Oscar telecast was. Franco and Hathaway were waylame. They shoulda got Ricky Gervais.

Read a pretty cool book. Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski.

A mystery of sorts about Christian missionaries, anthropology and primitive hill tribes in Northern Thailand. Fascinating stuff.

Been catching up on the tv show Fringe.

I watched the first couple of episodes way back when but wrote it off as just an X-Files ripoff. But I got back into it again and boy howdy is this a great show. As the mythology deepens there are an awful lot of "holy shit" moments that had me falling off my couch. They even give a little nod to the X-Files in one episode, suggesting that the show takes place in the same universe and that the Fringe division of the FBI is connected to the old X-division. Nice little Easter egg. I would love it if Mulder or Scully or even Skinner would show up for a guest appearance. Probably too tricky to make it happen though. I'm about 8 episdoes into season 3 now and am just loving it. Wicked cool show.

That'll do it. Go with Gob!

Odds & Ends

2011-02-23T01:10:00.000-08:00

Howdy do.

Same ol' same ol'. Busy with the business. Irons in the fire. Zippidy dee and a zippidy doo.

Thought I'd post some bits and pieces of stuff I've posted elsewhere on the world wide web recently.

New Buck Fiddy page today on the Monkeybunnyüberblog.

A bunch of Kung Fu Monkeyface sketches and pin-ups.

Monkey One

Monkey Two!

Bleeding Claw

Sophie Sledge

Are you following along? We're up to page 31.

And here's an attempt at one of those one-panel newspaper type comics.

I may do a few more of these.

Finally, our old pal Gabe Ostley has started up a new bloggy collective with a bunch of fellwo comic creator types. Watch the freak flags fly at Odd Kredenzas.

That's it for now. Have a good one!

Out of Africa

2011-02-11T07:54:00.001-08:00

So I'm back.

Been back for awhile in fact. Just busy. As per usual. Life is good. Getting more and more illustration work. I'm a happy camper.

Africa was fabbo. Kicked it in Tanzania. Hung with the monkeys. Ate falafel in Zanzibar. Said "Jambo" to a lot of people.

Here's some pretty pictures:

What else is going on?

Well, over on the Monkeybunnyüberblog we've started running a little Hammer prequel with Buck Fiddy laying out some Hamtown history.

Whoops. Sorry Frank Miller.

Anyways, A Tale of Two Fiddys will run every Wednesday for a few weeks. Give it a look if you're a Hammer fan.

Kung Fu Monkeyface is still chugging along. Having a lot of fun with this one. Every Sunday for the monkey.

Otherwise, got a few projects in the works here in there, but nothing to talk too much about yet.

Read a good book whilst I was holidaymaking. The Garden of Last Days by Andre Dubus III. It's about strippers and 9-11 and it's pretty awesome.

I also read The Hunger Games trilogy by mistake.

Stephen King said this was great and I always listen to Stephen King so I picked up all three books and brought them with me to read on the beach. Turns out these books are for 14 year old girls. They're probably pretty cool if you are in fact a 14 year old girl. Otherwise, not so much. Just a YA mishmash of the far superior Battle Royale and King's own The Long Walk.

Working on The Passage right now and so far it's really, really good. More on that when I finish it.

On the movie front... I'm trying to think if I've seen anything really awesome since The Kids Are All Right (still the best movie of the year, if you ask me).

Black Swan is definitely worth seeing, but not quite the masterpiece it's cracked up to me.

Natalie Portman is great, but I'm rooting for Annette Bening at the Oscars. Sure can't wait for The Wolverine though.

Oh, The Town is just as good as everybody says.

Ben Affleck is right in his Boston wheelhouse with this one. Very cool noir stuff for the crime aficionados out there.

I've seen a whole lot of stuff but not much else is popping into mind. Except for Due Date which is just godawful.

A huge waste of Robert Downey junior who does his best, but gets nothing from the script. I don't really have anything against Zach Galfaniakis, but his character is so ungodly annoying in this movie that you just want Robert Downey Junior to knock out all his teeth with a hammer or shoot him in the kneecaps or something. He's supposed to be funny buthe's just incredibly irritating. I stopped watching in the middle of a giant car chase across the Mexican border. Just painful.

Okay, that's it for now. I'm out.

Happy Holidays and Whatnot

2010-12-17T03:45:00.000-08:00

Happy whatever, internet denizens!

Yeah, it's been mighty quiet round these blog parts. My old refrain: sooooooo busy.

Lots of work to finish up before the big trip. What big trip, you say?

Why my big trip to Africa upon which I embark in about an hour. Off to Tanzania for fun with the animals.

Speaking of animals, while Untrue Tales may be on hiatus, Kung Fu Monkeyface is still going strong.

We've got one last page for you before the holidays. You won't find it on Untrue Tales until after the New Year, 'cause I can't update from the dark continent. But you can check it out on Sunday or Monday over at the Monkeybunnyüberblog or on DrunkDuck, in the meantime.

Have some Happy old Holidays and a great segue into 2011!

Here's some more inky thingies by way of farewell:

Sketchblog

2010-12-08T08:20:00.000-08:00

More fun with ink and brush.

Sketchblog

2010-12-01T08:10:00.000-08:00

Fooling around with some ink washes.

I love messing around with ink.
I'd do it all the live long day if I could.

Sketchblog

2010-11-11T09:03:00.000-08:00

Trying (failing) to draw like Darwyn.

Untrue Interruption

2010-11-08T02:34:00.001-08:00

Aloha Unbelievers!

Today marks the end of part two of Gabe Stein's The Hunter and it also marks the beginning of a little hiatus for Untrue Tales on the whole. Got a lot going on these days, so I need a bit of a break on the Untrue Tales front for awhile. We will definitely return at some point, hopefully not too far down the road. Just got to wrap up some other projects and take care of some bill-paying gigs and we'll be back in the saddle. In the meantime, Kung Fu Monkeyface will be picking up the slack, so there'll still be plenty going on at the site.

So here's your final serving of The Hunter for the time what be:

The Hunter II page 28

And here's your latest helping of simian sweetness:

Kung Fu Monkeyface page 18

On another note, our good pal and fellow Hammerhead Rob Berry's been hard at work with the herculean task of adapting James Joyce's Ulysses to comic book format with Ulysses Seen and he could use a helping hand from all the sequential art aficionados out there.

Check out the Ulysses Seen Kickstarter page to find out how you can pitch in. And check in on the work in progress here.

In movie news, seen a couple of good ones this week.

Robert Rodriguez' latest, Machete, is pure unadulterated badassery.

You saw the Grindhouse fake trailer, right? Well, the trailer was so goddamn good they went ahead and made a whole movie. And it rocks. Don Johnson, Robert DeNiro, Steven Seagal, Jeff Fahey, Cheech Marin, and even Lindsay Lohan kick all kinds of ass in this flick. And towering above them all - Danny Trejo, the scariest man alive, as Machete. This one's just B-movie heaven. It's bloody, brutal and hilarious. Kinda perfect really.

The other movie I saw this week is probably my favorite movie of the year though. The Kids are All Right with Annette Bening, Mark Ruffalo and Julianne Moore.

I loved this one for the acting. Everyone just does fantastic work. Annette Bening should get an Oscar I think. I loved the story and I loved the writing and dialogue. In case you don't know, it's about a couple of lesbians who had a couple of kids via a sperm donor and the now teenaged kids decide they want to meet the guy that did the donating. Hilarity and pathos ensue. The fact that this is my favorite movie of the year probably testifies to the fact that I am old and married. But oh well. I frickin' loved it. On a side note, while watching the movie I couldn't help thinking how glad I was that Josh Hutcherson didn't get cast as the new Spider-man. He's a fine actor, but all wrong for Peter Parker. While watching The Social Network on the other hand, all I could think about was how perfect Andrew Garfield was for Spider-Man. So, in conclusion - I'm really looking forward to the new Spider-man movie.

Okay, how about some comics talk? Bought a whole bunch of Batman stuff at the con last month. Read Death and the Maidens by Greg Rucka and Klaus Janson.

A bit disappointing really. The story seemed like it wanted to be a big deal but it never really grabbed me. Not Rucka's best work. Also thought Janson's art was pretty uneven. There's some great moody stuff going on, but a lot of the figurework seemed stiff and the characters often looked awkardly positioned. If you ask me, Janson does his best work as an inker rather than penciller. I did like it though, just not all that much.

Then I moved on to another Ra's Al Ghul sory -
The Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul.

I liked this one a bit better despite the cavalcade of writers and artists. I like the whole Son of Batman thing, dig the concept and everybody does a pretty good job of selling it here. There's a few weak spots in the art, but it's mostly pretty good too. Jason Pearson sticks out as the best of the bunch and his chapter with Damian wrestling with ghosts in a graveyard is top notch. Don't know which book that originally appeared in, but it's pretty cool.

Moving on to Battle for the Cowl - another entertaining read.

It hits all the right notes to get where it has to - namely Dick picking up the Batman mantle. Nothing special or essential, but entertaining enough, with decent art.

The first volume of Batman and Robin is pretty good too.

Not anywhere near the fabulousness of All-Star Superman, but I still really dig Quitely and. like I said, I like Damian too, so so far so good.

Still more stuff on the shelf to get around too. Kinda been a good year for Batman. But if you're looking for the cream of the crop, seek out any of the books by Paul DIni and Dustin Nguyen. That's the best Batman stuff around these days says me.

Okay, that's it for now. I'll still be blogging here and there when I got the time and something to type.

Have a good ol' good thing and whatnot.

November Already!

2010-11-01T01:20:00.000-07:00

Jeepers! It's frickin' wintertime and all. Time needs to slow down and kick back a bit. I'm just sayin', is all.

New comics this week:

Hunter II page 27

Kung Fu Monkeyface page 17

Look! Colorful kitties!

Found a sketch lying around too:

Saw a couple of movies this weekend.

Red, which was great. Really solid acting from a gang of pros. Brings the funny and the explodey. Great comic too by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner. Check 'em both out.

Also, saw The Expendables which was pretty much garbage. Stallone looks extra hideous and freaky in this one. I don't remember him looking quite so grotesque in the last Rambo and Rocky movies which I quite liked, but here he is completely back in self-parody mode. Couple nice scenes with Mickey Rourke though. Sure, he looks grotesque too, but somehow it works for him.

Keep it (not too) chilly!

Rainy Days and Monkeys

2010-10-27T00:37:00.000-07:00

Hi ho!

It's raining on the far side of the world and once again, I forgots to blog!

New pages went up on schedule though if you were paying attention:

The Hunter II page 26

Kung Fu Monkeyface page 16

Here's a sterling comic book recommendation for you:
The Hunter adaptation by Darwyn Cooke.

This is Cooke's comic book version of the first of those Richard Stark Parker books that I've been extolling here on the blog.

It's gorgeous and note perfect. Hardboiled crime comics at their absolute best. It's really quite a lot better than Gabe Stein's The Hunter. :)

Cooke really is a master. Not a line out of place. The design, the color, the lettering - the whole damn package is just top of the line. I got a chance to go to Darwyn Cooke's panel at the New York comicon. Very interesting guy with all the right opinions on all the right things. I spoke with him briefly and he was all kinds of nice. It's always gratifying to meet people you admire and have them not be dicks.

Check it out and I bet you'll snatch up the next volume The Outfit on your very next visit to the ol' comic shop.

Have a Happy Halloween weekend!

New York Comicon

2010-10-18T05:17:00.000-07:00

So I got back from the New York Comicon and was immediately swamped by all the work I'd neglected. But worth it, it was. Met up with the old Zuda gang, many of whom have now rallied 'round the banner of the Comics Social Club. Truly, a nicer group of people one could never hope to meet. Had a grand time hanging with everybody, drinking beer and talking comics. Met quite a few people I'd only known through the magic of the internets and made quite a few new friends too. Got to go to the DC comics party which was a kick. Made me feel almost like an actual comics professional. Also, the free food and booze was a nice touch. Bought a ton of comics and an iPad too. And I discovered that Brooklyn is quite nice and bears more exploration. Plus, I got a keen comission from a familiar friend that'll soon be seeing the light of the web over on the MonkeybunnyÜberblog. Keep yer eyes peeled. Oh, and I got to meet my big hero Brian Bendis. A very nice guy. All in all, a fabulous weekend.

So here I am back at Untrue central with a couple of updates for ya:

The Hunter II page 25

Kung Fu Monkeyface page 15

I probably should blog more, but the work she calls to me.

Enjoy the Octoberness!

I'm Back! Seeya later!

2010-09-27T07:07:00.000-07:00

Oh blog, how I do neglect thee...

Been on vacation. Been sick. And then I just been lazy. Bad blogger I am. But hey, I'm back... to let you know I'm off on holiday again. To the great state of New York I go, to wend my wares at the New York City Comicon!

Aw, who am I kidding. I have no wares to wend. I'm just gonna browse the stalls and drink beer with my comic buds.

But in the meantime, here's an oh so seldom untrue update to tide you over:

The Hunter page 24

Kung Fu Monkeyface page 12

What else can I say? Read a bunch of books on holiday. Nothing too terribly memorable though. Working my way through the Richard Stark Parker books which continue to be top-notch. Just polished off The Outfit.

I might have to pick up the first two Darwyn Cooke adaptations at the con. Oh, I did read Neil Gaiman's Graveyard Book.

That was good stuff. Especially if you're kind of an overgrown ten-year-old. Like myself. Very keen Dave McKean illustrations too.

On the movie front, a couple of little seen gems to pick up at the video store: the superfantasticawesome Doomsday from Neil Marshall.

It's like The Road Warrior and Escape from New York made sweet sweet love and spawned an evil ultraviolent post-apocalyptic love child. Hilarious, desperately derivative and perfect in every way.

The other one of note is City Island starring Andy Garcia in the best farcical fucked-up family comedy since Moonstruck.

Why had I never heard of these movies?

As for comics, my darling of the moment is Scarlet by Bendis and Maleev.

This is the one I've been waiting for since the end of Alias and Daredevil. Two of my comic book heroes back in their wheelhouse and at the top of their game. Two issues in and looking goooood. Hellz yeah.

Okay, that's it for now.

Seeya in October!

Hammertime!

2010-08-25T03:03:00.000-07:00

The Hammer is up at ComiXology!

Here's a celebratory sketch:

Monday Round-Up

2010-08-23T03:17:00.000-07:00

Good day, Untrue Believers!

A new week rolls in and we roll out the goodies!

The Hunter II page 23

Kung Fu Monkeyface page 7

And coming to ComiXology this Wednesday - The Hammer returns for a victory lap 'round the web!

I'm headed off to the land where titans clash for a couple of weeks of ocean and Ouzo, so no new Untrue updates until September. Keep your eye on the Monkeybunnyüberblog though for new goodies whilst I am away.

Enjoy the rest of August!

Hardcore

2010-08-20T23:10:00.000-07:00

It's Friday! The gateway to the weekend!

Thought today we'd give you a sneak peek at page one of a little project in the works: HARDCORE

Hardcore is a comic I'm doing with Spencer Platt creator of Agent Happy Death and Dollface, among other things. I'm writing and coloring, Spencer is handling the line art. The story follows Flint "Hardcore" Wupaski, cop with an attitude, as he goes about his over-the-top 80s action-movie business. This thing started out as another 8 page Zuda pitched but poor Zuda went the way of the dodo before we were finished, so I wrote up another 8 pages to turn it into a done-in-one short story. Not entirely sure what we'll do with it when it's done, but gee, I guess we'll think of something.

Y'know, I've said it before and I'll say it again: Coloring is hard. I swear it takes me longer to color a page than it takes me to draw one. I don't know how the colorists in the comic biz do it. Much respect.

Have a good weekend!

Sketchblog

2010-08-18T01:23:00.000-07:00

Monday goings-on

2010-08-15T23:50:00.000-07:00

Good morning virtual world!

Here's the scoop and the skinny on all things Untrue:

Hunter II page 22

Kung Fu Monkeyface page 6

And the news of the day: The Hammer will be launching on ComiXology and the DC Comics App on August 25th. The first issue is free, so mark your calendas in Pink and get on board for the big ol' bunny reunion.

Have a great week!

Sketchblog

2010-08-12T09:48:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd post the line art for that Deadly pin-up I did.
Just because.

Deadly issue 2 is out now on Comixology.
I really like that comic.
I may have mentioned that a time or two.
I may very well mention it again.
That's just how I roll.

Lothar the Mindkiller

2010-08-11T08:22:00.000-07:00

Gee, I almost forgot...

I have a new comic too.

Check out Lothar here.

Licked

2010-08-11T02:39:00.000-07:00

Check out Joshua Tyler and James (Deadly) Fosdike's new comic just out now: Licked

It's wicked cool.

Sketchblog

2010-08-10T08:34:00.000-07:00

New Week. New Stuff.

2010-08-09T04:15:00.000-07:00

Round and round it goes!

What's new this week:

The Hunter II page 21

Kung Fu Monkeyface page 5

Add howsabout some fan art for
Sean Causley's Panda Force?

Panda Force is some fun stuff. Always good to see fellow former Zudites making their own way in the rough and tumble world of webcomics.

Abraham's Long Walk

2010-08-05T00:31:00.000-07:00

Good morning internet.

Today we're serving up yet another rejected entry from the long lost land of Zuda.

Abraham's Long Walk

Words by me, pictures by Gabe Ostley and color by Steve Steiner.

This one was originally a part of me and Gabe's submission for a Zuda anthology series - Bizarre Mysteries of Zuda. Needless to say, it didn't pan out.

Here's a look at the half-finished intro panel we'd worked out for this one:

Have a good ol' day now, hear?

Comics I've read lately

2010-08-04T09:30:00.000-07:00

So comics. What's good these days?

Well, I just read a couple of Batman Books by Paul Dini and Dustin Nguyen. Private Casebook and Heart of Hush.

These are the best Batman stories I've read in a long while. Cool, clever, mostly stand-alone stories that you can enjoy without having to read a million other books. Great art from Nguyen too. I'd like to see him do a whole graphic novel in the style that he does those Batman covers. I think I heard something about Dini doing a new Zatanna series too. I just might have to pick that up too.

You know what else I like? Oddly enough, Peter David's

X-Factor.

Again I like that it mostly stands alone and I can enjoy the stories while only being vaguely aware of the larger continuity goings-ons. David really seems to have an interesting take on Jamie Madrox. He's turned this guy into a really cool and complex character. And I like what he's done with Layla Miller too. Fun, old school book.

Warren Ellis is a writer who rarely lets me down as a reader. The latest from him is No Hero with Juan Jose Ryp.

Another superhero deconstruction tale, it's good ultraviolent fun in the same vein as Black Summer. Some nice twists and turns and fabulous hyper-detailed art from Ryp. Here's a dude that just keeps getting better and better. I really dig the famous cover homages in this book too.

I also checked out Ellis' first Astonishing X-Men arc

Ghost Box.

I thought this was just OK. Gorgeous art by Simone Bianchi, but I wasn't blown away by the story. I thought Whedon's run was the best since the original Claremont/Byrne days, so maybe this just had too much to live up to. I'll be picking up the next collection from Ellis and... did he do an arc with Phil Jimenez? Or is the latest thing with Kaare Andrews the next arc? Unsure. But I like Ellis' X-Men enough to pick up the next collection when it comes out in paperback.

Bye for now!

Deadly hits Comixology

2010-08-04T01:54:00.000-07:00

Hey ho how does it go?

One of my absolute Zuda favorites hits Comixology today.

Check out James Fosdike's Deadly!

Did up some fan art in hizzoner:

Go get 'em, Foz!

Movies I done seen in July

2010-08-03T02:09:00.000-07:00

Seen some good movies recently.

How come I barely heard anything about Solomon Kane?

This is an awesome, kick-ass, old school sword and sorcery movie. Mark Anthony from the equally awesome Rome series plays the titular Robert E. Howard puritan swordsman. And he's terrific. The movie is Kane's origin story - how he goes from evildoer to God's warrior. The sword fights are bloody and brutal. The supporting characters are vivid and sympathetic. And the bad guys are wicked cool looking. The ending's a bit predictable, but that's just the way these kinds of movies are. It's not quite as bone-grindingly awesome as Arnold's Conan the Barbarian, but it's pretty close.

Finally saw The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

I quite liked this one. Christopher Plummer is great. It does suffer a bit from the missing Heath Ledger bits. You can see how they tried to work around it, but it's really just distracting. What a shame. Otherwise, it's pretty much your classic Gilliam oddity that I really dig. But the CGI often seems to mesh awkwardly with the more practical stuff. I prefer the old-timey effects from Gilliam. His worlds looked so cool and dirty and real in Munchausen and Brazil and Time Bandits, but it loses it's realness a bit with the CGI in this one. Interesting to see Andrew Garfield at work here, as he's since been hired as the new Spider-man. After watching him do his thing, I'd say he's actually close to perfect for Peter Parker. So that's something to look forward to.

What else? Grown-Ups with Adam Sandler and friends was pretty funny. No classic, but diverting enough. The Ghost Writer started out strong but ends up a bit ridiculous. Entertaining if you don't think too much about it. Youth in Revolt was OK. Michael Cera does his thing. I like that thing, but it's charm is probably going to wear off pretty soon. The Bounty Hunter was garbage. Gerard Butler needs to not do any more romantic comedies. And Jennifer Aniston needs to concentrate on small supporting roles in quirky independent films. Those are the only kind of movies she's ever remotely interesting in.

So there you have it. Or revore!

Books by the Cold Pool

2010-08-02T09:06:00.000-07:00

I like to read books. I read a whole bunch of 'em whilst I was vacationing by the Cold Pool as it is always and forever referred to in my house. It's not in my house, mind you. Or even at my house. I don't have a pool. The Cold Pool is in Vegas. And I like it there. Here's a picture of the Cold Pool.

Those are my hideous feet.

So one of my absolute favorite things to do is to sit by the Cold Pool and read books in between getting in and out of the Cold Pool. This summer I read all the rest of Charlie Huston's Joe Pitt vampire detective novels.

There are 5 books in all and I found them to be immensely entertaining, although not quite as hardcore cool as Huston's Jim Thompson trilogy (Caught Stealing, Six Bad Things, and A Dangerous Man). It's good old fashioned pulp with a nifty vampire twist. I like the fact that it's a finite series and that each book builds off the previous one and keeps tweaking the status quo. And Huston's got a great ear for hardboiled tough talk. Really ugly book covers though.

The other book I read by the Cold Pool is Game Change by a couple of political writers from Time and Newsweek or something.

I don't generally read political books that aren't written by Al Franken, but this book was fascinating. It's a behind the scenes look at the 2008 presidential primary and general elections. The book follows the Obamas, the Clintons, The Edwardses and the McCains (and to a lesser extent the Palins) from before the first primary right on through to election day. Everybody comes out pretty bad except the Obamas. I was really surprised at the extent of some of the revelations in this thing. Apparently, Bill Clinton has never really stopped fooling around. Everybody knows it's going on and just kind of ignores it. Him and Hillary have a really weird relationship. There's mutual respect and affection there, but they seem to do a lot of staying the hell out of each other's way and communicating via intermediaries. The McCain's relationship isn't much better. Affairs all around. And interesting to see just how completely half-assed his campaign really was. Edwards, it turns out, is just batshit crazy and completely out of touch with reality. The chapters dealing with him and his wife and his hair are jaw-droppingly hilarious. And a tad scary, when you think how close to high office this nutbag was. Nothing new about Palin here really, since all her nuttiness was pretty much on display and picked apart by the press while the world watched in horror. Only the Obamas come off smelling all daisylike. The one sort of negative thing is that the guy seems too have almost too much self-confidence. He does really kind of like himself a lot. But gee, I'd like myself too if I was that cool. Anyway, good book. Easy read by the Cold Pool. My girl liked it too and she's a dang foreigner.

Go on and get readin' something then!

Sketchblog

2010-08-02T07:08:00.001-07:00

More Things and Stuff

2010-08-01T23:50:00.000-07:00

Yello.

So here's a thing:

The Hunter II page 20

And here's some stuff:

Kung Fu Monkeyface page 4

Seeya!

Hunting for Monkeys

2010-07-26T04:59:00.000-07:00

Another week rolls by and the comics roll in:

The Hunter II page 19

Kung Fu Monkeyface page 3

Lots of cool news coming out of the San Diego comicon this weekend. Man, I can't wait for Joss Whedon's Avengers. In my eyes, that guy is the perfect choice for that movie. It's a damn shame that Ed Norton isn't along for the ride. I recently rewatched The Incredible Hulk on DVD and after checking out the deleted scenes, I really wish they'd release a director's/Norton cut of that one. The stuff that Norton was fighting for really would have made it a better film. I like Mark Ruffalo though, so it's not a huge blow to the Avengers, but it would've been cool to keep up the continuity between all the films. Heck, I even miss Terence Howard.

Saw Inception this weekend. It's pretty much just as great as everyone says, but I can't say I feel the need to see it twice to understand it or anything. Also, this is the first film where DiCaprio finally seems like a grown man. Not sure what it is, maybe he's beefed up a bit or something, but this is really the first time he doesn't seem like a teenager trying to act like a grown-up. I've always thought he was a fine actor but I've had trouble accepting him in previous films as a tough guy or husband/father. Now it looks like he's turned a corner, so maybe I won't have to suspend my disbelief quite so much next time he teams up with Scorcese.

Also finished a really teriffic book this weekend -
When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson.

This is the third book in her Jackson Brodie series, and they keep getting better as she goes along. They're sort of mystery books, but a step up from your run of the mill crime serials. The writing is just phenomenal. I found myself smiling giddily just at the language on every page. It's like poetry, only without the foofiness. Brilliant stuff.

Okay, here's a sketch:

I've been re-reading Sienkiewicz' New Mutants lately.
Hence the eyebrows.

Have it good!

Things and Stuff

2010-07-19T06:39:00.000-07:00

Hello.

So it's that time again.

New Hunter:

The Hunter II page 18

New Monkeyface:

Kung Fu Monkeyface page 2

And the news of the moment is that it appears The Hammer will be rising again as part of the new DC Digital rollout on Comixology, PSP and iPad and those sorts of gadgets. I think this is gonna happen in August. I will of course let y'all know soon's I got a confirmed launch date. So far, it's just gonna be a relaunch of the Zuda pages broken up into a three issue limited series. But if it does well... who knows?

Here's a rather crappy sketch of good ol' Calvin.

Team Hammer has reassembled and are hard at work making better pictures than this one.

Keep it Pink!

The Blue is Back

2010-07-18T04:48:00.000-07:00

Azure, one of my all-time favorite Zuda comics is now up on the Comixology site. First issue is free. If you haven't seen this yet, check it out. Amazing art. Cool blue story.

Here's some fan art that doesn't really do Dan Govar's creation justice:

Now go check out the real deal!

Hunters, Vampires and a Monkey

2010-07-12T05:19:00.000-07:00

Hey ho whaddayaknow?

Back from holiday with a whole passel of stuff to make up for the ever-widening gaps between blog posts.

First up, the latest page from fictional Gabe's unnatural notebook:

The Hunter II page 17

Next in line is an all-new continuing feature from actual Gabe and myself:

Kung Fu Monkeyface!

KFM will be updating once a week with a new page of monkey madness every Sunday. That's Gabe Ostley on pencils with me providing words and an inking assist here and there. Steve Steiner is along for the ride for the first eight pages, but after that anything can happen. Check out the monkey martial arts mayhem right here.

Finally, another in an increasingly long line of Zuda rejects -
The Last Goddamn Vampire Story.

And you thought I'd just been sitting on my ass all the live long...

Enjoy the summer, gang!

Vay-yay-yay-cay-shuuuuun

2010-06-17T05:31:00.000-07:00

Howdydoo! Tell you what: I am dee-diddly-og-tired. So I'm gone on vacation. I shall lay in the sun until I am brown like a nut. Or red like a tomato more likely. I shall get in the cold pool. I shall lie back down in the sun. I will drink a margarita. I will drink another margarita. I will gamble away all that I own. Waitresses in silly outfits will bring me free cocktails. I need these things. And doggone it, I deserve them. Just for being me.

So I'm gone and away for the next couple of weeks, faithful webizens. A new Hunter page went up on Sunday, but don't you know I just been too darn busy to blog. Here it is:

The Hunter II page 16

That's the last one for a fortnight, folks. I'll leave you with a sketch:

Seeya in July!

The Hunter and The Hunter

2010-06-07T00:47:00.000-07:00

Gawwwwwlllllllllly. Have I ever been so busy in my life? I think not. Can't complain though. Busy is better than unemployed.

Yeah I'm all scatterbrained and stuff, but the actual comic has been updating on time even if I've neglected to mention it here on the blog. You can check out the latest pages here:

The Hunter II page 14

The Hunter II page 15

So what's going on? Man, I kinda feel like a broken record whingeing on and on about how goshdarn busy I am, but dang I AM busy. Freelance life is kicking into gear, and I never met a job I felt like turning down, so all of a suddenly I'm working around the clock. And I've still got a pile of comics projects that I'm trying to keep up with. That's the fun stuff. Gotta make time for the fun stuff.

In between all the working and comic-making, I still manage to find the time to read. Mostly on the subway going from here to there. Been reading a lot of Westlake lately. I never get tired of this guy.

Read one of his novels from a few years back (another two-dollar street-special) called Humans, which was a bit different than his usual crime stuff.

It's about how God has decided to end the human experiment and sends an angel down to earth to manipulate the humans into destroying their world and themselves. Westlake plays the dark humor with a straight face and the result is a pretty entertaining, pretty lightweight book. Still waiting to meet a Westlake book I don't like.

Since I seem to be on a Westlake roll, the next pair of books I read are the first two installments of the Parker series, written under the pseudonym of Richard Stark. I love pseudonyms!

The first book The Hunter (coinkidink!) has been filmed a few times, most notably as Point Blank and Payback (the director's cut is the shit). It's about a tough guy criminal (Parker) double-crossed by his wife and partner and his methodical blood-streaked path to vengeance. Great, brutal stuff. The cool thing here is just what a prick Parker is. He's really a bad guy and the author makes no attempt to make him sympathetic. He's just pure bad news. In the movies they always soften this guy up just a tad. But in the books he's hard as nails and a real bastard. Great stuff.

The second book, The Man with the Getaway Face, picks up right where the first one leaves off.

I won't say too much about it other than Parker is on the run from the Outfit (the mob) and needs cash so he pulls off a robbery here and there. People get killed and stuff. It's also really great. If you like hard-boiled crime, boy are these the books for you. I plan to work my way through the whole series eventually.

Also recently Finished Hollywood Crows by Joseph Wambaugh.

This one's the sequel to Hollywood Station and continues to follow the adventures of the LAPD cops at, you guessed it, Hollywood station. This is pretty lightweight easy-reading. Wambaugh's an ex-cop himself so he knows the lingo and he sketches some likable characters and amusing situations illustrating how nutty people in Hollywood can be. Perfectly entertaining and forgettable. One eye-brow raiser is Wamabaugh's obvious contempt for reform measures thrust upon the LAPD in the wake of all those high-profile beatings back in the 90s. Wambaugh seems to think that the LAPD cops have one hand tied behind their backs by the beaurocrats and politicians. Don't know if I agree with the man (it's been a long time since I lived in LA) but it makes for an interesting point of view, different than the side I'm usually used to hearing from. I'll probaby read the third book in this series at some point.

OK, that's it for now. Maybe next week I'll babble about some of the movies I've seen. I can barely remember....

Sketchblog

2010-06-01T14:12:00.001-07:00

Sketchblog

2010-05-31T07:27:00.000-07:00

Sketchblog

2010-05-28T00:26:00.001-07:00

Sketchblog

2010-05-27T03:49:00.001-07:00

Sketchblog

2010-05-26T05:05:00.001-07:00

Sketchblog

2010-05-25T07:30:00.001-07:00

Time for The Hunter - Barely

2010-05-24T03:01:00.000-07:00

Good Monday, peepholes!

First things first:

The Hunter II page 13

Man, I got so much to babble about... and no time to babble. I've read a couple or three really good books lately, seen a couple of good movies and a few really bad ones. But I just don't have the time to blog about 'em dagnabbit! Here's a hint though: stay far the fuck away from Date Night. Oh Steve and Tina why hast thou forsaken me?

Got a whole lot goin' on on the comics front. Projects really starting to come together and all of a sudden I've got a whole passel of writin' and colorin' and letterin' to do all at once. Perhaps I'm a poor planner. I've been totally neglecting the Monkeyface blog of late, while the background material piles up. Exciting stuff going on there though (with the Monkeyface comic I mean, not the blog, obviously). Gabe is cranking out pages like a machine. Probably getting close to letting slip a bit more information about ol' Monkeyface and what's going on there, but not quite yet.

Anyways. Still really goddamn busy!

Here's a sketch:

The Second Greatest Thing Ever

2010-05-21T00:10:00.001-07:00

Sketchblog

2010-05-20T22:24:00.001-07:00

Sketchblog

2010-05-20T08:26:00.000-07:00

Sketchblog

2010-05-19T10:54:00.000-07:00

Sketchblog

2010-05-18T08:17:00.000-07:00

Gratulerer med Dagen!

2010-05-17T02:02:00.000-07:00

It's the 17th of May! The National Day of Norway! Hip Hurrah! That means I'm busy eating a pile of smoked salmon and scrambled eggs in honor of my favorite adopted homeland and her triumph over the tyranny of them high-hat danes and swedes.

Have some Hunter:

The Hunter II page 12

And some non-sequiteriffic sketchiness:

Yippee!

Sketchblog

2010-05-14T07:25:00.000-07:00

Sketchblog

2010-05-13T05:40:00.000-07:00

Sketchblog

2010-05-12T06:53:00.001-07:00

Sketchblog

2010-05-11T08:27:00.001-07:00

It's that time again...

2010-05-10T06:51:00.000-07:00

Hunter time!

The Hunter II page 11

Sooooooo busy. It's crazy. Can you taste the insanity?

Well, I can. No time for blogging today. But here's a sketch at least:

That's all I got time for! Bye!

Sketchblog

2010-05-07T07:03:00.000-07:00

Sketchblog

2010-05-06T00:27:00.001-07:00

Sketchblog

2010-05-05T04:58:00.001-07:00

Sketchblog

2010-05-04T01:03:00.001-07:00

May Hunt

2010-05-03T07:42:00.000-07:00

Yep, it's May already. Summer's right around the corner and we're still a'hunting:

The Hunter II page 10

Lots going on these days. I'm busy as a bee, up to my knees in freelance work and comic-making. Hoping the center will hold.

And just when a host of prospective pitches are about to come to fruition, I get the news that Zuda has cancelled the contests.

Bummer. Many have grumbled over it, but I really liked the contest aspect of the site. I've been lucky enough to compete twice (plus the invitational round) and each time was a crazy adrenaline rush of a rollercoaster ride. I was looking forward to a shot at another 30 day thrill ride. Granted, I was never much of a marketeer. When we won with The Hammer it was mostly due to my gung-ho teammates (with a special tip-o-the-hat to the networking genius of Mr. Rob Berry). But I really liked the race just for the running. There's been the odd spot of drama and histrionics here and there, but I always thought that just added to the three-ring circus vibe. I guess for the people really trying to take the comics biz dead seriously and looking at Zuda as the first step on the path to a glorious future career, all that hysteria might have been distracting and maybe just a tad embarrassing. I liked it though. I've found the whole game a tremendous amount of fun. It's certainly opened some new doors for me and put me in touch with a lot of interesting and talented people I would never have met otherwise. I hope the next step for Zuda is just as inclusive of the writhing mass of amateurs as the previous incarnation. It was a real hoot and holler to be invited to be part of the show for a little while. In any event, I'll still be following along with my favorite Zudacomics like Azure and Deadly (let's go Season Two!) and looking forward to the long-awaited continuation of I Rule the Night. Hope the Zudaluminati grace us with the knowledge of things to come in short order.

In other news, I ran right out and saw Iron Man 2 this weekend.

My expectations were huge so I was slightly underwhelmed. I liked it. Just quite as much as the first one (which I think is pretty much the best superhero movie ever), but pretty damn good. Rourke and Rockwell are fantastic as the villains. They have some great scenes together. Scarlet Johansson looks good and has a really kickass action scene. Quite a few nice moments for Favreau and Paltrow too. Downey owns everybody though. He's just so ridonkulously perfect as Tony Stark. Cheadle was fine. I like him but I actually kinda missed Terence Howard in this one. He seemed to have a bit more edge as Rhodey somehow. I don't generally find War Machine particularly interesting anyway. The Sam Jackson scenes were very cool but sort of strange somehow. Thought the final fight with Rourke was a little short. And there was a bit of that why-are-you-taking-off-your-helmet-in-the-middle-of-a-fight problem, but whaddayagonnado? Gotta show the actors faces for the big drama I guess. Also, all that stuff about the secret to the newer better power source doesn't actually make any sense if you poke at it. Luckily there's lots of cool visuals to distract you from trying to make too much sense of it. I liked the movie enough to just roll with it. Anyways, all in all a good time at the movies. I'll be watching this one again.

Here's the daily sketch:

And I'm out!

Sketchblog

2010-04-30T06:20:00.000-07:00

Sketchblog

2010-04-29T07:51:00.001-07:00

Sketchblog

2010-04-28T07:14:00.000-07:00

Sketchblog

2010-04-26T23:35:00.000-07:00

The Hunt is Still On

2010-04-26T07:42:00.000-07:00

Gabe continues to crank out his globe-spanning epic tale of bounty hunting on this fine Monday:

The Hunter II page 9

Busy days so not much babble today.

Here's the semi-daily sketch (I'm trying to keep up!):

Sketchblog - Deadly

2010-04-24T01:49:00.000-07:00

Yikes! I forgot to do the sketchblog yesterday! I'll make up for it with an extra-special edition of Sketchblog featuring fan-art for Foz's fabulous Deadly! (It's really too bad Deadly doesn't start with an "F"....)

Deadly just wrapped the first 60 screen season over on Zuda. It's a gorgeous package of virtuoso linework, color and writing brought to you by one-man-band James Fosdike.

Read Deadly now!

Sketchblog

2010-04-22T00:39:00.001-07:00

Sketchblog

2010-04-21T03:34:00.001-07:00

Sketchblog

2010-04-20T01:32:00.001-07:00

Hunter (Not) Thompson

2010-04-19T04:09:00.000-07:00

Monday again and my wit is (not) sharp!

Gabe still slaves away on his magnum opus:

Hunter II page 8

Not much to report otherwise. Kind of slow on the pop-culture front at the moment. Watching the latest season of Breaking Bad. Still awesome. Seems the Sopranos has really ushered in a whole new wave of shows where it's perfectly acceptable that the main character is an unsympathetic prick. All my favorite shows are about assholes these days - Breaking Bad, Big Love, Mad Men. I am a fan of this trend. I do miss the real John Locke though. He wasn't really an asshole. Just a lovable nut. I hope some sort of triumphant return is in the cards. Whereas in the case of Walter White, I am now eager to see him get his righteous comeuppance.

Otherwise, not a whole lot to report this week. There's movement on a range of projects, which pleases me. A lot of cool comic stuff in the works that all seems to be turning out quite nicely. Nothing quite ready to be shared with the unwashed masses as of yet though. Fear not though, I will keep you posted, dear blog follower.

For now, here's the daily sketch:

Tally ho!

Sketchblog

2010-04-17T05:19:00.000-07:00

Sketchblog

2010-04-16T00:09:00.001-07:00

Sketchblog

2010-04-15T00:57:00.001-07:00

Sketchblog

2010-04-14T04:17:00.000-07:00

Sketchblog

2010-04-13T02:03:00.000-07:00

Hunter up!

2010-04-12T06:44:00.000-07:00

And Monday rolls around again. I can barely keep up.

Here's the latest from Gabe and The Hunter:

The Hunter page 7

Spilled a beer on my computer this weekend and fucked it all up, so that left plenty of time to catch up on the ol' book readin'!

I stumbled across some random internet recommendations for a book called Swan Song by Robert McCammon a while back.

Word had it that this was a post-apocalyptic epic in the spirit of The Stand, only much, much better. Well, The Stand being my favorite book of all-time, I was intrigued. Swan Song, it appears, is out of print, so I tracked down a beat-up used copy off one of those Amazon marketplace links and ordered it on up. 8 bucks. Figgered it must be worth it for a book even better than The Stand! So I brought this book with me to enjoy on the plane ride southbound and got a little over a hundred pages into it. Turns out this book isn't just in the spirit of The Stand - it's a big honking rip-off of The Stand. As eagerly adapted by an "author" writing at about the level of a high school sophomore. Starts off with a big world-ending event - nuclear war instead of a plague this time. Then a Dark Man shows up looking for recruits for the dark side. A small band of survivors comes together in New York and has to escape through the Holland tunnel. One of them has strange dreams of a cornfield. Also there's a nerdy teenage boy named Roland who is driven to the dark side and a young girl with special powers. Anyway, I don't know what happens 'cause I gave up reading. It was just too badly written to even keep my curiosity engaged enough to see just how bad and unoriginal it could get. Swan Song is garbage. No wonder it's out of print. Guh! The internet lies!

Finally got a chance to read Already Dead, the first book in Charlie Huston's vampire private eye series.

It is as great as Swan Song is lousy. Huston's got a very cool and gritty modern take on the vampire story. In this world, vampirism is caused by a virus. I swallowed the pseudo-science hook, line and sinker. The book is short, brutal and darkly comic. If you like crime novels and vampires, you will love this book. I read it in one day. I will now gobble up the rest in short order.

Yesterday, I read Born Standing Up, Steve Martin's autobio about his years as a standup comic.

I found it extremely interesting and well-written and I drove my wife nuts by howling with laughter and rolling around on the couch holding my stomach, just reading some of the descriptions of his standup jokes. I think Steve Martin is funny as shit. I even like his Pink Panther movies. Not the Disney family comedies though. I have my pride. Anyway, great book.

Here's the daily sketch. On the blog. The sketchblog.

Whoomp! There it is!

Sketchblog

2010-04-10T10:30:00.000-07:00

Sketchblog

2010-04-09T07:36:00.000-07:00

Out drinking with folks from the office that was last night. A good time was had by all. Fairly impaired this morning. Here's the daily sketchblog. Now I will lie down.

Sketchblog Redux

2010-04-07T23:54:00.000-07:00

Okay, let's try this again.

So I'm now safely ensconced in my brand spanking new home office, kicking off my exciting new career as a freelance designer/illustrator. And what better way to start each day than with a little sketchiness to get the creative synapses to popping. So I'm gonna see if I can't manage to post at least one quick sketch a day from here on in.

We'll see how long it lasts.

Away we go!

What's Going On

2010-04-07T00:09:00.000-07:00

Hey ho! It's not Monday. It's not even Tuesday. No, it's Wednesday, my friends and I've been a slackadaisacal blogger again. Been kicking it in Constantinople that was, battling hordes of Turks wielding shoeshine brushes and kebab menus. An extremely friendly gang eager to scam you out of your last lire. Ah, Istanbul. Really cool city. Nothing like wandering through 1500 year old mosques and Sultan's Harems full of history that would put your average Grimm fairytale to shame. The food ain't bad either.

Untrue Tales has been rolling along uninterrupted though. Here's the latest:

The Hunter II page 6

I've got quite a few other things cooking with a whole gaggle of talented peeps. Some of those souffles are starting to rise, so why not a sneak peek of some of the stuff in the works?

Kung Fu Monkeyface

Art by Gabe Ostley, Sam Little and Steve Steiner

Nixon II

Written by Gabe Ostley and Sam Little
Art by Mackenzie Schubert

The Rift

Art by Tony Rollinson

Hardcore

Art by Spencer Platt and Sam Little

And finally, that secret project I've been hinting at oh-so- coyly the past few weeks? This is it.

The Last Goddamn Vampire Story

Story and art by Sam Little

Yeah, I'm jumping on the bloodsucker bandwagon. I didn't really mean to, but I got to doodling some toothy terror one day and, man, vampires are just so dang fun to draw I couldn't stop. Hopefully it's enough of a new twist on the old trope to stand on its own. We'll just have to see, won't we?

So that's what's in the works. It's a huge thrill to work with all these cool and talented artists and I can't wait to roll these babies off the showroom floor.

That's it for now.

Happy April!

Monday again?!

2010-03-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

Man, that week shot right by...

First up, another page of Gabe Stein's comic epic:

The Hunter II page 4

Been on a bit of a classic movie kick lately. In the mood for more James Caan after The Killer Elite, this week I checked out the Michael Mann directed classic Thief.

I remember seeing this when it came out way back when, but I couldn't remember anything about it except the poster (really cool poster) and the ending which it turns out was the opposite of what I'd remembered. This is another one of those films that has somewhat classic status but isn't really all that great by today's standards. Caan is great in it, but there isn't really a strong antagonist for him to go up against. You never really feel like Robert Prosky is that much of a threat to James Caan. There's a couple of safe-cracking sequences where everything goes perfectly according to plan. And the moral of the story is pretty much "you don't fuck with James Caan". I kinda felt like I knew that from the get-go. Still an interesting movie, but not all that gripping. This is probably one of those cases where a film has been very influentially stylistically, broke some new ground in it's time, but has been done better in subsequent films.

On the other end of the spectrum is a film that just never seems to get old - Ridley Scott's Blade Runner.

It's been about 15 years since I watched the first director's cut of this, and I recently picked up the final cut - so I decided to watch that too. Since I bought it and all. Well, it really just keeps getting better with every viewing. The effects hold right up to today's standards. Pretty spectacular considering this was pretty much the last big sci-fi film with 100% on-camera effects. No CGI to speak of. And it still looks gorgeous. Still probably Harrison Ford's best performance. And a stunning example of art direction and world-building unequaled to this day. I also checked out the three-hour plus documentary Dangerous Days: The Making of Blade Runner. Absolutely fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the evolution of the film from script all the way up to the release of the first director's cut. All the key players were interviewed about the process in 2007 and it seems like everybody is pretty brutally honest about the problems and tensions during production. The best making-of documentary I've ever seen. You can actually watch quite a bit of it in ten-minute chunks on YouTube. Recommended for any serious film geek.

So on the weekend me and the lovely lady enjoy watching romantic comedies, as couples often do. Since most of the recent stuff has been a bunch of dreck, I thought we oughtta check out some of the classics of the genre that we'd never seen.

First up was Breakfast at Tiffany's with Audrey Hepburn.

Directed by Blake Edwards from a book by Truman Capote, this one is a beloved classic by all accounts. Well, I'm here to tell you... it blows. It's not funny. It's not charming. You know how in Romantic Comedies the lead girl is often all quirky and kooky in what is supposed to be a charming way but is usually just grating and annoying? Well, Hepburn's Holly Golightly is the mother of all those irritating characters. You really just want to punch her in the face. George Peppard plays the boringest man on earth. And Mickey Rooney plays a caricature of a Japanese man that is so jaw-droppingly racist you want to punch him in the face twice. I mean, I know it was a different time and all, but jeez, the sixties weren't that long ago. There is exactly one good scene in the movie, when Hepburn and Peppard go to Tiffany's to get a ring from a crackerjack box engraved. The guy who plays the Tiffany's clerk is pretty funny. Otherwise - godawful film to avoid like the plague.

The other one we watched was better. In fact, The Philadelphia Story was fucking teriffic.

This ones a black and whiter starring Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart. They are all great in it. The writing is razor sharp, the situations are funny, the characters are multi-dimensional, and I swear I didn't really know who Katherine Hepburn was gonna end up with until the last scene of the movie. I really liked this one. I gotta say though, Katherine Hepburn was one weird-looking movie star. She really has a touch of Skeletor about her. It works here though. It pretty much works for her in most movies I've seen her in. Guess she was just a really good actress.

Finally finished the book I've been working on for a couple of months. A real doorstop called A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry.

This book is about life in India from the 1960's to the 1980's. It centers on a young woman who runs a sewing business out of her home. She eventually hires two itinerant tailors from the countryside to help out, and takes in a college student as a boarder to help make ends meet. This book is a masterpiece. It will open your eyes and rip out your heart and leave you curled up in a whimpering ball of sorrow. You and me? We've got nothing to complain about, sunshine, let me tell you. Read this book. It is great. And despite the kick in the guts it doles out, it's really an easy-to-read page turner, not a drudge-filled slog through history. Can't recommend it highly enough.

Finally, here's yet another snippet of my secretive Zuda submission. Man, I really hope this makes the cut. I'm all hoppity eager to show this off.

Oh yeah, it's been kinda quiet over at the Hammerblog for awhile. But there's a rumble in the distance....

Later for now!

Hunters, Killers, and a Deadly Blue Duo

2010-03-15T03:25:00.000-07:00

And another Monday rolls around. Here's your untrue update:

The Hunter page 3

Ran across this mash-up of my two favorite Zuda comics by the lovely and talented Dan Govar and James Fosdike:

Beautiful stuff. Both these guys are cranking out mind-blowing work week after week on Zuda. Take a trip out to the cutting edge of webcomics with Deadly and Azure.

Saw an interesting movie this weekend in between drawing flyfisherman and cranky cartoon trout. The Killer Elite is an old seventies flick that caught my attention because of endorsements from George Pelecanos and Ed Brubaker, a couple of crimewriters that I greatly enjoy.

The movie stars James Caan (always a good thing) as a company hitman, with Robert Duvall as his shifty partner. There's a nice jumble of cool scenes and dialogue, but the film as a whole doesn't make much sense. The plot is something to do with a visiting japanese diplomat who is involved with the yakuza (I think) and James Caan is tasked with protecting him form an array of ninjas and company assassins. It's never quite clear why this guy is a target or why all these agencies are involved. The ninja don't really do anything interesting other than crawl around an old naval destroyer and get shot. There's a bunch of double-crosses that also didn't really make any sense to me. The fight scenes are cut really strangely, like they didn't actually have enough coverage to make them flow properly. In some places it even seems like they're just using the same shot multiple times. The movie was directed by Sam Peckinpah, but I gotta say, he doesn't really do a bang-up job here. It's kind of a mess. An interesting mess, but that's mostly due to the actors and dialogue. The best sequence is a long series of scenes where James Caan goes through physical rehabilitation after being shot. You really get a feel of how fucked up he is. Can't really recommend this except for overly curious film aficionados. Kind of scratching my head about why this got such strong marks from Brubaker and Pelecanos. I'm gonna have to go back and read their reviews again I think.

Okay, here's a preliminary character sketch from that hopeful Zuda project I keep mentioning without actually ever saying anything substantial about:

Have a grandandy week!

Monday is for Hunting

2010-03-08T11:05:00.000-08:00

Howdydo. Another Monday, another update. Gabe continues the gripping saga of Simon Trask:

The Hunter page 2

Of other interest, I've got a story in an online anthology that some fine folks at the Michael Avon Oeming Board over at Jinxworld put together. The antho's called SECRET PROJECT and there's a bunch of interesting stories by a number of burgeoning creators in there, updating with a new comic every other week. Here's a cool cover thing that Mike Oeming did for it:

Check out the stories so far at the link below:

SECRET PROJECT

My story went up today and it will be familiar to regular Untrue Tales readers, but give it a look for insight into how I've cunningly designed Untrue Tales to function in both web-friendly landscape and the more traditional portrait format. Oh, I'm so terribly clever. Yeah.

So I just watched the newish Ultimate Cut of Watchmen.

I really love this movie. Still think it's just about perfect, and I love the addition of the Black Freighter stuff and the extra scene with Hollis Mason especially. I remember some of the music choices as being somewhat controversial, but I really dig all the song placement too. The one weak spot continues to be with the Veidt character. I just feel that Matthew Goode plays him as so coolly evil from the get-go that he just seems so obviously the villain. This is as much the fault of the director as the actor I suppose. I think the character would have been more effective if he had been played with more eager innocence - almost kindly in his machinations. I think a young Jeff Bridges would have been perfect in the part. No contemporary actor immediately springs to mind, except maybe Jude Law, but he seems maybe a little too on the nose. I don't dislike Goode though, so it's not a major problem for me. And all the other actors are incredibly spot on. I would single out Jackie Earl Haley for being particularly great, but I think he just pops out to the fore because Rorschack is so compelling as a character. Billy Crudup, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Malin Ackerman, Patrick Wilson and Carla Gugino are all equally as good in their respective parts. And I say Dr. Manhattan looks cool and creepy as hell. I totally buy the CGI work there. It's really almost miraculous how good the movie turned out. I don't think even Terry Gilliam could have done as well as Zack Snyder. Okay. I'm done gushing now. When I finally get a bluray projector this'll be the first movie I buy and then I'll probably come back and write all the same shit again. Except in high def.

Anyhoo, here's another little teaser for my latest Zuda hopeful:

Over and out.

More Hunt

2010-03-01T03:59:00.000-08:00

Happy March!

Gabe Stein makes a splash in the latest page from The Hunter:

The Hunter page 1

Yeah. It's sort of page 2, but page 1 was the cover, so I'm gonna go ahead and call this page 1 anyway. So there it is.

Saw a cool movie this weekend - The Informant!
with Matt Damon.

Boy, that Matt Damon sure can act. A very funny movie about a clueless whistleblower. It's got a bit of a Fargo feeling about it. Damon plays the same kind of feckless nudnik as William H. Macy did in that one. He does a great job, as does Scott Bakula as the FBI agent in charge of his case. Nice to see Captain Archer on the big screen for once. Anyway, check it out. Good stuff.

Here's another little teaser image from one of the Zuda things I'm waiting to hear back about:

Man, I really hope this one gets a shot.

That's all for now. Hope the March month treats you kindly!

Return of The Hunter

2010-02-23T05:12:00.000-08:00

So busy I forgot to blog!

As threatened, the wing-a-ding-ding whirl of an uncertain future has set my plates to spinning at a mad pitch and in order to keep my world of fine china from shattering into a million billion shards of happy insanity, Gabe Stein himself will be stepping in to resume the tale of bounty-huntin', girl-punchin' Simon Trask in part two of the multi-faceted epic The Hunter. It all starts at the link below.

The Hunter part II

In the meantime, I got lots of comic-booky plates a-flying among all the rest of the housewares. New solo project is making the submission rounds at Zuda this very minute. Here's a sneak peek at a potential player:

Not much extra time for pop-culture babble otherwise. Saw two good movies over the weekend though. Crazy Heart with Jeff Bridges as a down and nearly out country singer is absolutely worth a trip to the cinema. Great performances from a whole gang of actors. Bridges himslef coulda been a real country singer if he felt like it says me. Also, someone needs to tell Maggie Gyllenhaal to stop calling me. No means no, girl!

Also checked out Big Fan with Pattton Oswalt. Patton Oswalt might simply be the coolest man alive. I don't quite know how he does it, being short, pudgy, arch-nerdy and all, but he makes it work for him. He does a bit of a dramatic turn in Big Fan as a sad sack slob whose life begins and ends with the New York Giants. He's great in it and it's a cool little film. Track down Oswalt's comedy albums too if you like the funny. Goddamn, does the little dude bring it.

Okay, that's it for now. Seeya!

Stop Smiling

2010-02-14T08:07:00.001-08:00

And so another Untrue Tale comes to a crashing conclusion:

Keep Smiling page 12

Hope you managed to hang on to your happy thoughts through that one. :)

Anyhoo, now that I'm living the high-flying life of a freelancer, I'm busier than ever, so your friend and mine Gabe Stein will again be taking over the weekly writer/artist chores on Untrue Tales for the time being.

Tune in next week for part two of The Hunter!

Don't be coy. You know you were just dying to find out how things are going with Simon Trask and the gang.

So another Zuda rejection slip came in this week. This one for a short story I did with Glen Walker called Hungry. You can check out more of Glen's stuff here.

This was supposed to be the kickoff story for a horror anthology written by Gabe Ostley and myself with a bunch of rotating artists. I guess the powers-that-be decided it would be too much of a logistical hassle to deal with paperwork and contracts for a whole passel of artists and individual properties. Who can blame them?

The idea was to have a sort of cryptkeeper character called Mr. Z introduce all the stories. Gabe drew up a bunch of intro pieces for the seven stories we wrote. Here's the one for Hungry:

And you can read the story here.

Still a few more Zuda pitches with various folks clogging the pipeline. With any luck we'll hit the jackpot with one of 'em. Plans are afoot to start cranking up the ol' promoblitz machine for the latest from Gabe, Steve Steiner and yours untruly.

Keep your eyes on the internetz!

Still Here.

2010-02-08T00:24:00.000-08:00

Hello again.

Yeah, not much time for blogging these days. Recently found out I'm getting laid off from my design job, which paradoxically has left me with less, rather than more, time on my hands. Doing that freelance scramble.

Despite my absence from the blogosphere, Keep Smiling has been trundling along with regular updates - you can find the latest page here:

Keep Smiling page 11

Some of you might have noticed the new addition of me and Gabe Ostley's rejected Zuda pitch Iguananauts to the main page.

We amused ourselves to no end with this one. Perhaps you may find it amusing too. You can check it out at the link below:

Iguananauts!

We've got a bunch of other stuff in the works with various constellations of Zuda folks old and new. So keep your eyes trained on the horizon (actually the Zuda site might be a more logical place to train your eyes) for more crazy crap from the Hammer gang and friends in the near future. Hopefully.

Happy days and sleepy nights, folks!

Smile On

2010-01-11T09:09:00.000-08:00

Well, hello there.

Time for another dose of Untrue Tales:

Keep Smiling page 7

So I've been catching up with Joss Whedon's latest doomed tv venture Dollhouse.

Now that the show's been cancelled it's finally getting pretty good. Which is just a symptom of its cancellation really since they are now free to dispense with the stupid "mission of the week" mandate and concentrate on the good stuff.

The show was pretty much doomed from the get-go by that selfsame "mission of the week" format (hereafter referred to as MOTW). I recently watched the unused pilot which fox rejected in favor of the rejiggered MOTW, and it was miles better than the one that actually aired. All the Dollhouse conspiracy stuff is pretty interesting while pretty much every MOTW episode had been a big fat yawn. A lot of which is due to some weak writing, but after watching big blocks of episodes, I'm sorry to say that the lion's share of the blame here really falls squarely on Eliza Dushku's shoulders. She's really the weak link in this show that was created specifically as a vehicle for her talents. But, gee, it turns out those talents are pretty limited. In a show where she's supposed to essentially play a different character each week, and then eventually an entirely new character amalgamated from all her different imprints, our lead actress really seems capable of three basic character modes: tough talking chick with an attitude, bubbly airhead, or wooden uptight librarian. While the other actors manage to do some amazingly varied and subtle character work (Sierra and Victor are particularly agile at slipping in and out of their different personas), the show comes screeching to a halt everytime Echo is onscreen. It's a shame really, because in the last few episodes, Echo the character has finally started to emerge as something new and interesting, but Dushku just leaves us with an empty space. Oh well. All in all, I'm kinda glad the show got cancelled since some dark animal portion of my nerdbrain compels me to watch anything that Joss Whedon puts on screen and I'd rather he move on to something more solid. I must say I'm enjoying the wind-up to the big finale. As mentioned, since it's been cancelled all the good ideas that Whedon has been saving up are now coming fast and furious rather than being parcelled out between the dead spots of a longer run. I look forward to seeing how it all wraps up. That said, I wouldn't recommend the eventual DVD collection to anybody except the hardcore Whedonites who doubtless have no need of a recommendation anyway.

Finally finished reading Joe Eszterhas' autobiography Hollywood Animal this weekend.

This came out a few years ago and I was waiting for the paperback, but a paperback never materialized. So I bought the hardcover for 5 bucks at the Strand bookstore this summer. I love the Strand bookstore. And I love lurid tales of Hollywood excess and this delivers the dirt in big honking shovelsful. I mostly enjoyed it, even though ol' Joe himself seems like kind of an asshole. Well, not even kind of. Just really an asshole. He has a very high opinion of himself. Also, he left his wife for her best friend while on a family vacation with the kids. Nice timing, Joe. At the end of it all, after fucking half the bimbos in L.A., drinking an ocean of liquor and smoking a million cigarettes, Joe gets cancer, finds Jesus, kicks the booze and the smokes, and lives happily ever after. Which is convenient for him. A big yawn for me.

Here's a sketch of old man Joe:

Smoke 'em if you've got 'em!

Happy 2010!

2010-01-04T02:16:00.001-08:00

Hey whaddayasay! It's the New Year!

I been too busy slacking off and doodling and dicking around to do much blogging over the holidays, but, just the same, a couple of pages of Untrue Tales have gone up in the interim:

Keep Smiling page 5

Keep Smiling page 6

I managed to get a nice bit of work done on my oh-so-secret project the last couple of weeks, but I still found time to read a holy assload of comics and see an unholy buttpile of movies during the holiday break.

Let's start with the flickers. Like I said, I saw a bunch of stuff, but my pick of the pack comes as a bit of surprise when looking over the list: The Time Traveler's Wife with Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams.

I'm a sucker for time travel stories and really dug the concept for this one. Eric Bana plays a normal guy who inexplicably travels back and forth through time through no fault of his own and with no control over where or when he travels. The film is basically a love story, and tells the tale of Bana's relationship with his wife (McAdams) as he time travels in and out of her

life at various ages. I thought it was really well done, and both Bana and McAdams act up a storm. My girl didn't think much of it, but she's not much for any kind of nutty sci-fi rigamarole. I liked this best of all the movies I saw over the holiday.

Up in the Air is the movie all the critics are crowing about these days and it's pretty darn good. Handsome devil George Clooney is a guy whose job is to fly around the country firing people and collecting precious frequent flyer miles. Then he gets saddled with a new girl who wants to switch over to firing people via video conference. Much dry humor ensues. Clooney also has an affair with another frequent flying lady. Everybody's very charming and stuff and it's well-written and shot. It's quite entertaining. You should see it. But I don't really see why it's supposed to be so spectacularly awesome. The girl didn't think much of this one either. Oh, Jason Bateman is in this one which is always a plus. Good thing too, since he's in, like, every other movie these days.

Speaking of which, Couples Retreat was another reliable giggler. Jason Bateman gets more to do in this one and he is right in his wheelhouse playing a micromanaging husband trying to fix his stagnating marriage to Veronica Mars. Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau do their thing as a couple of other husbands dragged along for couple counseling with their spouses. If you like their thing, you'll find it funny here too. I do and I did. Also along for the ride are Silk Spectre and Charlotte from Sex and the City who somehow seems to have managed to stay the same age while Sarah Jessica Parker has withered into the Wicked Witch of the West. Weird. There's also a fat black guy along on the trip who I've never seen before, but he's pretty funny too. He's probably buds with Vince Vaughn or something.

What else, what else... ah, The Invention of Lying with the great Ricky Gervais was also pretty good. Not quite the uproarious laughathon I was expecting but entertaining nonetheless. Ricky plays a guy in a world where everyone tells the truth, but he discovers how to lie, thereby becoming a big ol' prophet. The fun, unexpected bit is how the whole movie turns out to be a big thumb in the eye to organized religion which is not something you see too much of in mainstream hollywood romantic comedies. And here's where the movie stumbles, 'cause it's also trying to be a romantic comedy. Here's the thing: Ricky is hung up on Jennifer Garner who isn't interested in him 'cause he's short, fat and homely. The movie makes a big deal of how shallow she is, only concerned about what kind of genetic good looks her potential mate will pass on to her children. Does she learn her lesson and discover that good looks aren't all that matter? Take a guess. The problem here is that Jennifer Garner's character doesn't have anything to offer except her good looks either. Ricky goes on and on about how sweet and nice she is, but she really isn't. All she ever talks about is how she isn't interested in him because he's short and fat. She only ever pays him any attention after he starts telling his little fibs and gets all big and important. So the lesson becomes - looks don't matter as long as you're rich and influential, then you can get the bimbo you want. Which might be a true lesson, but still. Anyways, still a fun night at the movies. Ol' Rick is always good for an uncomfortable chuckle or two. I kinda think Jason Bateman might be in this movie for a minute or so too, but my memory is, y'know, spotty.

Crap. This is getting long. Let's go for a bit shorter and sweeter. Invictus. Pretty Okay. Morgan Freeman is Nelson Mandela. Slam dunk there. Matt Damon makes a good blonde rugby guy. Good feelings all around. Ever so slightly boring.

Extract, the latest from Mike Judge, starring (whaddayaknow) Jason Bateman, got pretty blah reviews when it came out a while back. I guess it's no classic, but I found it pretty funny. Completely forgettable though. Don't really remember much about it except Kristin Wiig is also in it. Plus J. Jonah Jameson. And a beardy Ben Affleck. I remember it was funny though.

Where the Wild Things Are. Verging on awesome. The Wild Things themselves are fucking fabulous. Standout terrific voice work from James Gandolfini, Lauren Ambrose and Paul Dano, with nice backup from....argh, what are their names? Idi Amin, the lady from all the Christopher Guest movies who isn't the lady from Glee, and Chris Cooper. Forest Whitaker! That's Idi Amin's name. I'll remember the Chris Guest lady too any minute now. Anyway, it's great. The kid is great. If you liked this book as a kid you'll probably dig it. My girl didn't get it at all. Fantasy is not her bag, you see. Whaddayagonnado?

The Hurt Locker. Pretty fuckin' great. The three main guys are rock solid. Jesus Christ, war doesn't really look like any kind of fun at all. Even though that one guy seems to think so. He is one fucked up dude. And whose fault is that? That's for smarter motherfuckers than me to debate. Didn't even try to get the girl to see this one.

It's Complicated. Alec Baldwin is a god among men. And Meryl Streep ain't chopped liver either. I liked this movie better than Avatar which probably means I'm getting really fucking old and no doubt invalidates my opinion for anyone reading these reviews. Anyway, the cheese gets lathered on pretty thick towards the end, but Baldwin is so fucking cool I didn't even care. Steve Martin also has a funny scene or two, but dear God, what has the Stevester done to his face? Fuckin' guy looks like he walked right out of Madame Tussauds. Creepy. The girl liked this one too. But she also thought they could have shaved off quite a bit of cheese.

Just 'cause I have so much nongaymanlove love for Alec Baldwin I had to watch an old gem from back in the day: Malice. This is a thriller with skinny Alec Baldwin and pre-surgery Nicole Kidman. It is awesome. And it's been so long since I seen the original I didn't even remember the twist. Bill Pullman is in it too. Whatever happened to that guy? Alan Sorkin wrote at least part of the script and it's pretty snappy. Especially Alec Baldwin's God Complex speech. Gooood stuff.

Okay, that's about all I remember of the movies I saw, although I undoubtedly forgot one or two already. I barely retain any new memories past a few days anymore. On to comics. Got a bunch of nice trade paperback collection for Christmas.

So I finally read Final Crisis.

I thought it was pretty darn cool. Sure it didn't all completely make sense, but it was entertaining enough to make up for any rough spots. Great art, especially the Doug Mahnke/Christian Alamy stuff. I found it easy enough to follow and I'm fairly clueless about DC continuity. SPOILER ALERT: I was, however, a little confused by the death of Batman stuff. I had a vague idea he died in his own book, blown up on a boat or something, but here something else happens. END SPOILER ALERT. Oh well, whatever.

Batman: The Cat and The Bat by Fabian Nicieza and Kevin Maguire.

Okay, this one is a pure cheesecake catfight between Batgirl and Catwoman. In one sequence they actually fight completely naked in an S & M club. I would be totally embarrassed if anyone ever caught me reading this. I'm ashamed to say I still kinda liked it. It's funny, fast-paced and Kevin Maguire's art has never been better. He should do more stuff. Stuff I can read in public without feeling like a 14 year old pervert.

The Question: the Five Books of Blood by Greg rucka and various artists.

This one is really great. I didn't pick this up when it initially came out because I vaguely recall hearing bad things about it, but after reading it I can't imagine why anyone would have a problem with this. I really dig the character of Renee Montoya. Gotham Central was one of my all-time favorite books. Very bummed it got cancelled. I love Denny O'Neill and Denys Cowan's run on The Question too. I think it was a very cool idea to have Montoya take up the mantle of the Question. I wish DC would collect just the Montoya/Question parts of 52 'cause I'd love to read that story, but I have no interest in all that other stuff around it. Anyways, this little story is a great one about Montoya/Question tracking down something called the Crime Bible and a martial arts cult that has grown up around it. Cool ass-kicking. Cool soul-searching. Very solid art from all the different artists. And Batwoman shows up too. I checked out the first issue of the Rucka/JH Williams Batwoman story in Detective Comics and that looks freakin' great too. Apparently, the Question's story is continuing as backup pieces in Detective too. I'll buy the trades when they come out. I understand Rucka is gonna get his own Batwoman book soon to continue all this stuff which is a good thing. It's kind of a pain to have to track these characters through all these different series. Just give Rucka one book whe

re he can tell all these stories so I can buy it and be happy already.

Finally, the latest trade of Scalped - High Lonesome continues the parade of awesomeness from Jason Aaron and R.M. Guera.

This is first-rate, pitch-black crime writing with a unique perspective and a keen sense of place. Aaron's writing is razor-sharp with dialogue that rings true as a bell. And Guera's art is crazy beautiful. The backgrounds are as alive as the characters. Even the sound effects are perfect. This is comics at their very best right here.

Okeydokes, that's it for me this time. Here's a sneek peek at a little thing I'm working on:

Hope 2010 brings good things and happy times, pardners!

Smiley Christmas

2009-12-21T00:18:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays!

Here's your latest page of Untrue Tales:

Keep Smiling page 4

So I ran right out and saw James Cameron's Avatar this weekend.

Pretty disappointing, sorry to say. I'd seen the 20 minute preview a few months ago and left that feeling fairly unimpressed, but I'd been heartened by the overwhelmingly great reviews it got upon release. i really don't know that the reviewers were thinking. Sure, it's real pretty to look at, but I really had the feeling that I'd seen it all before. The plot is lifted wholesale from Dances With Wolves. You can see every plot point coming from a mile away. There's a cool chase where the hero flees from nasty CGI creatures, each one, bigger and more fearsome than the one before. But then I already saw that in Star Trek. There's a cool battle sequence with robot armor. But I already saw that in District 9. As a bonus, there's an incredibly heavy-handed Iraq-war analogy that is so groaningly obvious it loses any impact it might have had. The sci-fi metaphor thing was handled with far more subtlety in, again, District 9. The 3D was cool, but I didn't really get a sense of it being a great leap forward from Beowulf. I will say that the Navi animation was really well done, and their faces were incredibly expressive, but it doesn't really do much for me when the characters themselves are all cardboard cutouts in service of a dusty second-hand plot. Steven Lang has a nice turn as the villainous Military commander though. And Sigourney Weaver seems to have somehow stopped aging. Anyways, it was kind of a bummer. A technological achievement, I'm sure, but somewhere along the way Cameron forgot to come up with a compelling story to go along with all his cool CGI creatures. Oh well.

Read another two-dollar street-seller special this week, The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V. Higgins.

I'd read recommendations of the movie based on the novel from both George Pelecanos and Ed Brubaker, a couple of writers whom I adore, so when I saw the book on the street I snatched it right up. It's a cool, fast read. Great dialogue and a nasty little plot about gun dealers and bank robbers. Not an ounce of fat on it, just lean mean and right to the point. Worth picking up if you come across a copy. Now I'll have to track down the film.

Here's a merry xmasshole for ya:

That's it for me. Hope everybody has a good ol' holiday and a happy new year!

Keeping on Keeping Smiling

2009-12-13T23:54:00.000-08:00

It's snowing in Oslo and another page of Untrue Tales is up:

Keep Smiling page 3

This week I read Stephen King's latest - Under The Dome.

This is good stuff. King's best in a long while. King is my favorite author and almost never fails to be massively entertaining (except maybe for Gerald's Game, that one never really did it for me), but with Under the Dome he's working near his peak. This one's probably in my top ten favorites of King's books, up there with Desperation and The Shining although not quite scaling the delirious heights of IT, The Talisman or The Stand (my favorite book of all time). Of his recent stuff, I really liked Cell and Duma Key but Lisey's Story was a bit of a letdown as it seemed like King was treading old ground with that one. Interstingly (to me at least), I thought Lisey's Story would have been a better book if King had actually excised all the supernatural stuff which just seemed like another riff on Rose Madder (which I liked).

But back to Under the Dome; the title is right on the nose - the plot concerns a small town in Maine that is suddenly and inexplicably encased in a transparent forcefield that follows all the town's borders, cutting it off from the outside world. What follows is a spin on Lord of the Flies as the town's second selectman Big Jim Rennie manipulates the fears of the populace to conslidate power. Rennie is a great villain, truly a guy you love to hate. Terrible things happen, most of which can be laid squarely at Big Jim's feet. King does a masterful job of setting up the situation and characters like a big apocalyptic chess board and I found myself writhing on the couch in horrid anticipation as inevitable doom mvoes inexorably foreward. Lots of good folks to root for and plenty of bad guys to fear in this one. And King sure isn't getting sentimental in his later years. A lot of very bad things happen to a lot of good people here, and as per usual King makes you really care about his characters before he ruthlessly cuts them down. A really great, entertaining book.

On the movie front, against my better judgment I went ahead and saw 2012, the latest disaster spectacle from Roland Emmerich.

As it turns out, I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, it is magnificently stupid, but since I was expecting that going in, the ridiculousness of John Cusack outracing earthquakes and volcanoes in various limousines, buses and small planes was more entertaining than annoying. And the effects are truly spectacular. The destruction of Los Angeles was particularly breathtaking. Cusack is a pretty reliable actor and makes an engaging hero here. I'd actually say this might be Emmerich's best film as it manages to stay generally entertaining throughout the running time. Usually I find that his film's have a great set-up (the first hour of Independence Day is terrific) but collapse under massive stupidity and cliche in the second half (again Indepence Day). 2012 is pure stupid right from the beginning, so as long as you check your brain at the door and have a taste for spectacular end of the world destruction it's a grand old time at the movies.

Finally, here's a sketch from a little something I'm kicking around these days:

Have a good one!

December Smile

2009-12-07T00:16:00.000-08:00

Ah, December. The last month of the year. Last month of the decade even. Dang, but that time do fly....

Here's the latest page of Untrue Tales for ya:

Keep Smiling page 2

This week I read The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz.

This one won the pulitzer prize not too long ago which is generally a pretty good indicator of quality. And I'd say this is a quality book, although not one that had a tremendous emotional impact on me. The title character is a grossly overweight, role-playing, sci-fi reading and writing nerd from New Jersey by way of the Dominican republic. It starts off as a story about Oscar's fruitless quest to lose his virginity but morphs into a tale of his tragic family history and their roots in the Dominican Republic under the oppressive regime of the dictator Trujillo. The stuff about life under Trujillo in the DR is pretty interesting (and pretty horrible) and Diaz has an engaging writer's voice - very casual with constant references to Marvel Comics, Tolkien and sci-fi trivia. But when it comes down to it, Oscar himself isn't all that engaging and his life ends up being something less than wondrous. I was a bit disappointed. This never really grabbed me in the same way as, say, The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, or Middlesex, or A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. It's worth a read though, just for the insight into a place and people that I hadn't heard much about before.

On the movie front, I finally saw Synecdoche, New York, Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut with Phillip Seymour Hoffman as a theatre director whose life falls apart while he documents it in an ever expanding play.

This is seriously strange, deep and heavy stuff about life and the choices one makes and where they lead. Here they lead to a lot of depressing shit. Now I generally love me some Charlie Kaufmann. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is one of my all-time favorites along with Being John Malkovich and Adaptation. Groovy, mind-bending films that are unlike anything else out there. This one is in the same wheelhouse, but it's much heavier and much darker and requires a lot more from the audience. More than I've got to give, really. The gist of things is, Hoffman is having problems with his wife who doesn't have much respect for him as an artist, so he decides to put on an autobiographical play about the human condition with himself and everyone he knows as characters - a cast list that constantly expands. He has a guy that plays him in the play and an actress that he has an affair with that plays herself and an assistant that he has another affair with that he then casts with another actress while the assistant has an affair with the guy that's playing Hoffman in the play. Then Hoffman gets burned out so he hires Dianne Weist to play him directing the play so he can take a break and play the cleaning woman. Also, one character gets a great deal on the house because it's on fire a little bit and lives there for years while the house burns. It's that kind of movie. I found the whole thing extremely interesting and kind of boring at the same time. I had the constant feeling that I was missing something. That big ideas were going over my head. I'm the kind of guy that mostly skates on the surface of things. I'm not all that deep and I don't really like to think too hard. After watching the movie, I had to go read a bunch of reviews to see what other people thought was going on. The reviews were pretty much equally divided into two camps - those that thought it was a brilliant masterpiece and those that thought it was a pretentious pile of shit. I can sympathize with both sides. I didn't really get the movie, but I don't think Kaufmann is just being a blowhard and disappearing up his own ass. I just think his ideas might be a bit too deep and heavy for the average bear. Me included. It just didn't work on the level I like to be entertained on. Can't really recommend this one except for serious Kaufmann aficionados who're looking for a challenge. It's a long slog and will likely make you depressed as fuck. My girl gave up after about 45 minutes. It'll be interesting to see what he comes up with next.

On a lighter note, I just read the latest Jack of Fables trade in the bath - The Big Book of War.

I love this series. It's a fun, lightweight companion to Fables and the writers do a great job of keeping Jack likable despite the fact that he's pretty much a gigantic, self-absorbed asshat in every way. Big fun for Fables fans. If you're not reading either of these series, you're missing out. Start with Fables, and once you're hooked, move on over to Jack.

Sketchy:

Bye for now!

Smile Time

2009-11-29T23:48:00.000-08:00

Last day of November. Perfect time to kick of a new Untrue Tale, wouldn't you say?

This is kind of a dark one, so stock up on the Prozac and remember to....

Keep Smiling

This week I picked up the collection of James Robinson's Complete Wildcats.

This is mostly of interest to me for the early Travis Charest artwork in the first few issues collected. It's interesting to see his humble beginnings as an Image artist in the Jim Lee/Whilce Portacio vein. That cover's by him. You can hardly tell, huh? The art here is very Image-y indeed but you can certainly see hints of the greatness to come. As a stand-alone collection the book is pretty hit or miss. There's hardly a complete story to be found. Lots of cliffhangers that are wrapped up in crossovers that aren't part of this collection. Kind of makes me want to track down Wildstorm Rising and Fire from Heaven for that matter since that ties in to the Alan Moore run that precipitated me picking up this collection in the first place. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure those are long out of print (and I'm not sure if Fire from Heaven was ever even collected). Anyway, I found it interesting and the stories included were perfectly fine, but I can't really recommend it since it doesn't really hang together as a whole. Some very nice art by Barry Windsor-Smith for one issue though. If you're really hankering for some Wildcats action, I do recommend the Alan Moore collection since it tells a complete story. Wildly uneven art though. The Charest stuff in the beginning kind of spoils you for the pretty pedestrian art that follows. I'm thinking I might have to pick up the Alan Moore Wild Worlds Collection that collects up a bunch of his Wildstorm odds and ends. Even though I hear it mostly kind of sucks.

Saw a couple of movies this week. Terminator Salvation was an utter piece of crap. Astonishingly bad really. I'd heard it got pretty poor reviews, but so did Terminator 3 and I still managed to get some solid enjoyment out of that one. But this one was really just joyless. Christian Bale shouts his way through a completely charisma-free performance. And the story makes no sense from top to bottom. The only bright spots are a 30 second cameo from CGI Arnold and a nice turn by Chekov as Kyle Reese. He almost seems to channel Michael Biehn in a couple scenes. I read an interesting article as to just why the movie turned out so bad. It boils down to McG being so desperate to land Christian Bale that he's willing to tie the script into ridiculous knots so Bale can play John Connor - a character that barely appears in the original screenplay. Then, rather than starting from scratch with a new script focusing on Connor, apparently they started shooting the original idea and just added more John Connor scenes on the fly while scaling back the screentime of Kyle Reese and the other Terminator guy who were supposed to be the main focus. It's an interesting article. You can read the whole thing here.

The other thing I saw was Zombieland. I would call it pretty good. It starts off spectacularly then kind of peters out after awhile. Woody Harrelson is great. That kid that acts an awful lot like Michael Cera is fine. The girls lean more toward annoying than cute. And there's a pretty cool cameo that you've probably already heard about. Worth a rental at any rate.

Okay, here's a sketch.

Seeya next week....

All Cleaned Up

2009-11-23T00:25:00.000-08:00

Good day!

The big wrap up:

Karen Comes Clean page 18

That about does it for Karen this go 'round. Hope you liked her. She may pop up again down the road.

Brand new tale starts up next Sunday without delay. Bleak it is. Dark it be. And furry.

So I finished up Richard Price's latest this week - Lush Life.

It's fantastic. Ostensibly a crime novel, it's more a snapshot of life among the mix of hipsters, immigrants and poor blacks and latinos of New York's lower east side. Every character is vividly drawn. Price gets in the heads of the cops, the victims, the perpetrators, the bystanders and the families of all involved in the shooting of a young bartender downtown. Price writes dialogue like no other and the city itself is maybe the most interesting character in a book full of compellingly flawed individuals. Not to be missed.

Took the lady to see the new Coen bros A Serious Man.

We both liked it. A tad slow and epically frustrating, but that's kind of the point. It's about a Jewish guy in 60's Michigan who leads a Job-like existence. You watch the guy squirm as the miseries stack up and you squirm and twist in your seat right along with him. Those Coen guys know just what their doing and they tease the audience with a catharsis that never comes. It's funny and tragic and ultimately unsatisfying, but like I said, that's the whole point. Not a pleasant evening at the cinema really, but a worthwhile one. Also, the Coen's go for another of those non-ending endings like in No Country for Old Men. It kind of fits here, but it also kinda feels like it's starting to become a thing. Next movie I would like a proper ending please.

Gotta ton of stuff going on these days. Lots of projects bouncing around in various stages of completion. A few I'm really quite excited about. Chimps, chameleons, convicts, clones, cthulu, cops with attitude and creatures of the night. I guess I must have a yen for things that begin with "C".

Sketch o' the week:

Have it good!

Almost Clean

2009-11-15T23:42:00.000-08:00

Good Monday. Nearly at the wrap-up of the latest Untrue Tale. Here's the second to last bit of bidness:

Karen Comes Clean page 17

Still working on a couple of books. One in particular that's reeeeeally good. Review next week.

Saw a few movies this week. The Johnny Depp/Christian Bale Public Enemies put me right to sleep. Whoda thunk John Dillinger could be sooooo boring? What a snooze.

The Brothers Bloom, with the guy with the nose from The Pianist and that other guy from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind who isn't Jim Carrey, was a pretty good if rather predictable con-man piece. WOrth a rental I'd say.

Best of the week was Funny People, the latest Judd Apatow thing with Adam Sandler.

I think I recall this one getting pretty tepid reviews but I quite liked it. I like Sandler. And I like him even just a little bit more when he gets to be somewhat serious. This is no Punchdrunk Love (which is genius on rye and if you haven't seen it well you should run right out and watch it) but it's still darn entertaining. Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill and Jason Schwartzmann and Apatow's wife and the girl from Parks and Recreation who isn't the chick from Saturday Night Live or Quincy Jones' daughter are also in it. And they're all dandy. Eric Bana also pops up and finally gets to use his Australian accent. Not as uproariously hilarious as 40 Year Old Virgin or Knocked Up, Funny People is still pretty funny. Recommended.

Okay I'm out.

Sketchy:

Bye!

Not quite Clean yet

2009-11-09T00:08:00.001-08:00

Here we are again. Another not-so-lovely November Monday.

Here's your weekly dose of Untrue Tales:

Karen Comes Clean page 16

Didn't finish any novels this week, but I did burn through the latest X-Factor collection. A Secret Invasion tie-in by Peter David and Larry Stroman.

I've been enjoying the David's latest iteration of X-Factor. It's the only X-book I read nowadays (other than Astonishing X-Men but I'm still waiting for the trade paperback of Ellis' run). I really tried to get into Brubaker and Fraction's stuff but it's really just left me cold despite my manlove for all things Brubaker. I think he does better with more street level stories than over-the-top superhero action. It's too bad, 'cause I really love the X-Men but I just haven't dug too many of the stories in recent years other than Morrison's and Whedon's stuff. Guess I'm turning into an old fart.

But back to X-Factor. I've really enjoyed this book. I enjoy David's characterization and the fact that X-Factor has operated mostly in its own little corner of the Marvel universe, telling stories without being too terribly affected by larger events while still acknowleding them and running with some of the interesting plot threads left over from House of M. However, it's suffered a bit of late by having some key characters like Rahne the werewolf shunted off into other books by editorial mandate. And this latest collection that ties in to Secret Invasion was just plain ol' crappy. I liked the larger Secret Invasion event, but this story seemed like your standard going through the motions tie-in. She-Hulk pops up, pretty much simply 'cause David writes that book too. And I really didn't care for Stroman's art. To my eyes it was just plain ugly. It really broke with the sort of noirish style that the book's artists have held to more or less up to this point. Oh well. I'll give X-Factor one more chance when the next collection comes out, but it might have run its course for me.

On the movie side, I saw a couple of good ones and one awful one.

Drag Me to Hell is Sam Raimi's return to the horror genre that kicked off his career and he doesn't disappoint.

Seriously funny, seriously creepy, seriously gross. Alison Lohman does great work as the bank exec cursed by an old gypsy woman for foreclosing on her house. She is called upon to do some seriously gross stuff in the call of her actorly duties. Seems like every other scene some nasty goo or icky bug or toothless old woman's tongue is going into poor Alison's mouth. Ugh. Good scary stuff. You'll know where the whole thing is going pretty much from beginning to end, but it's a fun nasty ride anyhow. Stay far the fuck away if you're the least bit squeamish though. Goo galore.

(500) Days of Summer is a dandy romantic comedy that puts a nice little spin on the old conventions.

The guy from Third Rock from the Sun is awkwardly charming. Zooey Deschanel is awfully cute. The movie skids back and forth through time and is vaguely reminiscent of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind without really coming anywhere near the brilliance of that movie. It's perfectly fine though. Worth a rental to watch with a girl you like.

Sunday nights at my house is crappy romantic comedy night and this week my girl and I saw one of the crappiest: The Ugly Truth with the chick from Knocked Up and King Leonidas. This was really really terrible and makes you wonder if the actors were embarrassed to be in it. I vaguely recall the Grey's Anatomy chick complaining that Knocked Up portrayed women badly, but in this movie she plays such a complete shrewish bimbo that it boggles the mind. It's really the most unbelievably chauvinst caricature of an uptight neurotic career-gal that I've ever seen. Of course she has to learn how to loosen up from the King of Sparta playing a piggish shock jock who tells her she needs to spend more time "flicking her bean" and buys her vibrating underpants. The King needs to be more choosy in his movie choices. More Guy Richie less by-the-numbers "romance" please. Another weird thing about this movie - a bunch of fairly well known actors appear just to say one line or two of absolutely no importance and are then never seen again. Like the short guy from Entourage and the guy from that Aaron Sorkin show who's the brother of that guy who used to be on the Daily Show. Okay, maybe they're not that well-known, but still, what was it about this script that made all these people agree to be in this movie? 'Cause it's an ugly pile of shit. And that's the truth. Really, it's even worse than that awful bit of wordplay I just did there.

Okay, here's a sketch:

And I'm out.

Clean November

2009-11-01T23:52:00.000-08:00

And then it was November. Hope everybody had a hap-hap-happy Halloween. My plastic pumpkin was filled to the brim with the hangover of the century. It was quite a party.

Here's a new Untrue Tales page to kick off November:

Karen Comes Clean page 15

So, this week I read The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett.

This was a goody. It's a classic private eye yarn featuring Nick and Nora Charles the crimefighting couple that would go on to be featured in a series of films although Hammet only wrote the one book about them (it was also the last book he wrote about anything, as it happens). Lots of snappy dialogue and cool characters and a very cool central mystery. It's interesting to read old-timey noir novels like this one from the thirties just for the evolution of language. It still feels pretty contemporary, but at one point Nora Charles has to ask her husband to explain what a "junkie" is. He tells her it's another word for "hophead" which clears everything up. It's also funny that Charles and his wife spend the lion's share of the short book waking up at noon and drinking their breakfast. They basically party their way through the mystery. Nick has a drink with practically every one he meets. But it's never presented as a problem. Nick doesn't even really seem particularly "hardboiled". He and his wife are just mostly merrily wasted through the whole thing. Funny.

Also finally saw Up this weekend. I wept like a schoolgirl through the first ten minutes where they show the life of the main guy with his wife. I'm a sentimental sucker for that kind of stuff.
The rest of the movie I thought was just okay. I liked everything well enough until they got to the jungle and the whole plot with the old explorer guy kicked into gear. I found all that chasing and running around kind of boring. I liked the one dog. I vastly preffered Wall-E and Monsters vs. Aliens to this one though.

Okeydokes, that's it for now. Here's a sketch:

Have a happy November!

Last Monday Before November

2009-10-26T04:30:00.000-07:00

Man, did October just come sprinting through with it's ass on fire or what? It's nearly Halloween and I'm still having a hard time leting go of summer.

Whaddayagonnado?

How about a new page of the ol' Untrue?

Karen Comes Clean page 14

So I'm pretty wrapped up in yet another secret project that's got ahold of my heart and putting on the squeeze, so I didn't finish a book this week. Prolly next.

I did see a pretty good movie - the latest from Sam Mendes, Away We Go.

Pretty good movie pretty much sums it up. Jim Halpert stars as a nice guy with a nice pregnant girlfriend played by Maya something from Saturday Night Live. They're kinda worried they might be losers and they're kinda right. But they're also kinda charming. Who doesn't like Jim Halpert? So they go on a trip to visit different places they might wanna live and meet a bunch of other kinda losers, some charming, some not. Maggie Gyllenhaal shows up as one of the less than charming losers in the funniest scenes of the film. Who doesn't like Maggie Gyllenhaal? Also, the guy that plays Jim Halpert on the Office knockoff Parks and Recreation plays Jim Halpert's brother in this movie which amused me. I didn't realize it 'til the end credits but Away We Go was written by Dave Eggers and his wife Vendela Vida (what a great name). I really liked Eggers' book A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. I found his second book You Shall Know Our Velocity so boring that I couldn't finish it. I haven't read his third book What is the What 'cause y'know, the second book. I might read it now though. It got pretty good reviews. And Dave and the missus wrote a pretty good movie.

Here's a sketch:

Have a happy ol' Halloween what's comin'!