Reading List: May

Another month, another bunch of books I've read, even though there have been more manga and graphic novels than novels this time. Let's see what we have, and how good it was...

Liberty Meadows, vol. 3: Summer of Love
After enjoying the secon volume of Frank Cho's animal sanctuary, I had to keep going. A terrific read!

Liberty Meadows, vol. 4: Cold, Cold Heart
And then I couldn't help myself, and I had to go for the last one… so far. I wish he was producing more Liberty Meadows instead of doing other stuff. Oh, well: we'll have to wait.

Depths of Madness
I already cursed this book's name here. Do yourselves a favor and don't ever read it.

Shanna, the She-Devil
All that Frank Cho goodness made me reread Shanna to continue enjoying his artwork. Shanna is mindless and fun, and the pictures are superb.

Remote, vol. 4
Detective Kurumi Ayaki is back and taking names. A cool series.

Season of the Witch
I already praised this excellent book here.

Remote, vol. 5
I needed my Kurumi and Himuro fix. This volume is a bit more risqué than the previous adventures.

Remote, vol. 6
The case that started in volume 5 ends here. A good read!

Starship Troopers
The book Nash was always telling me to read. Superior to the movie by leaps and bounds, this book by Robert Heinlein is very entertaining and dynamic, and Verhoeven's film did it a disservice.

Danger Girl: The Ultimate Collection
Again, I already told you about this incredible read here.

Remote, vol. 7
It's very interesting how Remote had a lot of fan service in the first four volumes, and then it escalated to the nudity in volumes 5 and 6. Then, there's a little bit more on volume seven (not as much as volumes five and six), and then there's nothing at all in the remaining three volumes of the series. Weird...

Remote, vol. 8
Kurumi continues to kick butt as her relationship with fiance Shingo and boss Himuro evolves and becomes more strained.

Remote, vol. 9
The last story arc, Marathon Girl, starts here, and it just caught me and wouldn't let me go.

Remote, vol. 10
The series comes to an end in this intense tenth volume. Of course, I won't reveal anything, but I guess it makes sense. You'll have to read it to figure out what I'm talking about.

Demasiada nieve alrededor
This book collects Javier Marías's articles from February 2005 'til February 2007. His prose is sublime, his moral values outstanding, and his reasoning and exposition nothing short of magnificent: un hombre cabal y sensato, as he would probably be glad to be described. And you can find all the wonderful articles in this book compiled on his website.

Orcos negros y lobo gris

Bueno como Hal dijo que queria ver más de mis creaciones aquí tenemos lo último pintado, tambien para el ejercito de mi primo, de orcos y goblins el músico y un soldado de la unidad de orcos negros, tengo que hacer una foto a toda la unidad por que es realmete espectacular, y no me refiero a como las he pintado yo, que eso es normalito, si no a las figuras en si, son chulisimas.

El hombre lobo tambien es de confrontation y les va a cortar el cuello a los pobres orcos que estan mirando para el lado equivocado.

Son de Confrontation una marca francesa que destaca por su calidad, no como los amigos de Warhammer que cada vez son más cutres.

Mejorando

Tras interminables horas de trabajo, aunque en realidad no es que haya sido para tanto, Sunny Jhanna, este vuestro blog de todos, es ahora un poco mejor que antes. La interfaz ha sufrido ligerísimos cambios, y, principalmente, todos los posts, antiguos y nuevos, han sido etiquetados minuciosamente para su mejor localización. Debido a ello hemos sufrido alguna que otra desgracia, aunque nuestro departamento de prevención y seguridad se ha puesto en marcha para que nunca más vuelva a ocurrir semejante incidente.

Gracias a estas reformas, ahora podemos descubrir con claridad de qué se habla en la soleada Jhanna. Hasta ayer, nuestro prolífico Finn5fel nos ha deleitado con exactamente 96 posts que dan muestra de su extensa y excelente producción artística, 18 de los cuales nos mostraron su Terra Inkognita, por no mencionar otros 24 con los que hemos ido descubriendo avances varios de su más reciente Decaying. 84 son, por otro lado, los posts que, de un modo u otro, tocan el séptimo arte, mientras que 65 han sido las veces que hemos hablado de comics y 39 las que lo hemos hecho de literatura. 28 han sido los posts con vídeos o links a ellos, de los cuales exactamente la mitad, 14, han sido los posts con Grandes Momentos en Pantalla hasta el momento, e incluso hemos visto 3 fotos con miniaturas pintadas por nuestro querido Nash (yo necesito más, satisfáceme).

Son varias las conclusiones que se pueden sacar de todo esto:

- La persona de la que más se habla aquí es... ¡sorpresa! ¡Scarlett Johansson con 9 posts!

- Empatados a 6 posts, por detrás de ella, George Lucas y Joss Whedon. Adivinad a cual de ellos hemos elogiado y a cual vilipendiado.

- Curiosamente, 11 han sido las ocasiones en que hemos tocado el tema pirata. Nada nos define mejor de lo que lo hace esta estadística.

- 2 han sido las entregas de London Calling, cuando tendrían que haber sido nueve. Lo siento. Sigo trabajando en ello.

- 20 son los posts clasificados como miscellaneous, sin incluir éste. Está claro: no se puede fabricar un post diario sin irse por las ramas alguna vez o decir alguna que otra tontería.

Por cierto, de 368 posts que llevamos hasta el momento, tan solo 71 no han sido escritos por nuestro bienamado Fel. Echad las cuentas para descubrir la razón de por qué el posteo diario sí es una realidad en Sunny Jhanna.

PD.- En efecto, el de la foto soy yo. Me decidí a hacer caso a Finn5fel, abrirme una cuenta en Photobucket y tener mi propio Meez. Y así me ha salido. Aunque no hay nada mejor que verle moverse, jejeje. Mi vivo-aunque-sobradamente-ficticio retrato.

Enanos y Draconianos

Este el último libro que he vuelto a leer después de acabar con toda mi lista de libros pendientes. He decidido volver a releer algunos de los libros que más me gustarón cuando era joven y decidi empezar por este.

En draconianos y enanos los buenos son los malos y los malos los buenos...bueno los malos son los protas y como pasa con los malos que son los protas terminas por cogerles cariño. Un concepto que pocas veces se ve los libros de fantasia, en el que siempre las razas de la luz...elfos, enanos y humanos suelen ser los protagonistas.

Es una novela muy diverdita donde se mezclan las situaciones comicas con pensamientos más profundos, como la extinción de una raza y el legado que dejan para la posteridad. Dirigidos por su firme comandante, un bozak llamado Kang, un grupo de draconianos supervivientes de la Guerra de la Lanza llega a las montañas Kharolis. Allí, en un pequeño valle, contruyen un pueblo en el que vivir en paz. Por desgracia, los Enanos de las Colinas también habitan el valle y durante 30 años se suceden los enfrentamientos entre ambos grupos. Ahora los enanos han encontrado el mapa de un inmenso tesoro, oculto en el reino subterráneo de Thorbadin y los draconianos han descubierto que para ellos ese tesoro vale más que todas las riquezas de Krynn. ¿Qué raza conseguirá quedarse con el tesoro y vivirá lo suficiente para disfrutarlo?.

Un libro genial por el que no pasan los años...lo malo es que en cinco horas te lo terminas. Tienen que poner ya el Ave Alicante-Barcelona o me voy a quedar sin libros pronto...

Extremely Entertaining

To keep with the alliterations and the book reviews, today we're going to talk about Season of the Witch. The only difference is that Thursday's book was cataclysmically retarded, and today's book is fantastic.
Season of the Witch, written by Natasha Mostert, tells the story of Gabriel, a hacker that is hired to find a guy that disappeared a few months ago. Without spoiling anything, I'll say that he soon finds himself suspecting two beautiful sisters. And I won't say anything else, cause I don't want to give too much away. I will say, however, that the story combines mystery, romance, magic, books, and the supernatural in a tremendously effective way that forces you to keep turning page after page after page.
So if you're interested in a compelling story with cool characters and wonderful prose, you should go ahead and buy this book. It truly was an amazing experience!

At Patience's End

I was going to see Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End on Thursday evening, but I was too tired and, fearing I would have to struggle not to fall asleep, decided against it. Instead, I went to see it on Friday, and I think it's a good thing I did. Had I seen it on Thursday, I would have blamed myself for what I would have thought of the film. "Maybe I was too tired," I would have told myself. "You didn't enjoy it because you were falling asleep," I would have argued. "You'll like it better when you see it again," I would have claimed. But since I saw it on Friday with all my senses alert, there is no excuse: this film should be the last Pirates movie. Please.

At World's End is almost three hours long, and I have no problems with long movies, as long as they draw me into the universe they portray. However, I basically spent said three hours thinking "Now it's going to get better. Now it's going to be funny." It didn't get better, though. And maybe worst of all, it didn't get funny. It actually reminded me of its trailer quite a bit. When I first saw the trailer, I shrugged and thought "Well, I guess they're keeping the good stuff for later." Watching the movie, I had the exact same feeling. A shame there was no "later" after the movie was over.

Since this is a spoiler-free review (as we always do in Sunny Jhanna), there are many things I can't talk about, but I can say that several characters from previous installments don't have the screen time I would have liked them to have, while some others spend way too much time on screen. That is one thing I didn't like, but the main problem was that I didn't care for the story. Just like in the previous films, there is crossing and double-crossing, but the term "double-crossing" is a gross understatement when applied to this movie: there're so many double-, triple-, and quadruple-crossings that you decide not to care and just go along. You start not caring who's working with who, and who's against who. And then, characters you don't care at all jump to the fore, and the combination of story you don't care for and characters you don't care about either proves deadly. To sum this point up, At World's End -just like Davey Jones, and unlike the two previous films- has no heart: it's just an empty shell that leaves you indifferent.

The second problem, and related to this lack of heart, is the lack of audacity. The first two movies left me open-mouthed, unable to believe the audacity of the visuals, the stunts, and the crazy situations the characters found themselves in. I couldn't get my head around how somebody would have the courage and the sheer nerve to come up with outrageous ideas like those, put them in film, and make them work (undead pirates swordfighting, the famous rolling wheel, Jack's escape from the native islanders). But all of a sudden, the movie makers decided to get serious and conservative, and thus At World's End has no such scenes, not even one. Everything feels dull, repetitive; it has a nasty smell of been there, done that --and when they did it the first time it was much better. There is no sense or feeling of exhilarating, rioutous adventure. Instead, we get a story relentlessly and clumsily plodding forward, trying to get the job done and make it work. But it doesn't.

Finally, the third and maybe worst problem is that At World's End is just not fun (or funny). I laughed out loud with Curse of the Black Pearl and Dead Man's Chest. The dialogue was witty, the situations hilarious, the surprises fun and exciting. With At World's End, I laughed out loud once in three hours. I won't say the other jokes and comedic moments fell flat, but I just smiled or chuckled, somewhat amused, instead of roaring with the laughter that possessed me while watching the first two films. And don't even get me started on the monkey: I could have killed that little bastard every time he was onscreen.

I thought the best thing in the movie was Davey Jones, not only because he looks cool, but because of his acting and his subplot (the only compelling one). And he was still affected by not enough time on screen and way too many other things going on. Every time he showed up I kept thinking "Now it's going to get better." And it did, for as little time as Captain Squid was the main focus of attention. But that was too little.

Being nitpicky, the five endings were sort of anticlimatic. It seems The Return of the King made it okay for movies to have a gazillion "final scenes", and if Spiderman 3 wasn't enough proof of that, At World's End gives us another chance to wonder "Why didn't they stop there?" And since we're talking about endings, the Pirates of the Caribbean movies always have a hidden scene after the credits, so stick around to see this one: it certainly is the most relevant out of the three.

So no heart, no audacity, no comedy, no compelling story, not enough Davey Jones. Heck, not even the music was as good as it had been before! All these ingredients make for a dull movie that seems even worse because of its length. I was hoping I would go see it three times like I did with Curse and Chest, but, as it happens, once was more than enough. Before it opened, I was rooting for it to break Spiderman 3's records -which it got by breaking Dead Man's Chest's-, but now that I've seen both, Spiderman 3 is a much better movie, so I'm not sure what I want now. Well, as a matter of fact, I do: I want them to stop making Pirates movies, something I never thought I would say. The first two were fantastic, truly terrific films. This one is sort of okay at best, and that's being generous. Maybe if it had been the first movie, I would have been somewhat impressed. But after seeing the first two, this is just a half-assed attempt at… what? Making more money? Finishing the trilogy? Giving us more Sparrow than we can stand? Boring the audience? In that, they succeeded.

If I Were Two-Faced, Would I Be Wearing This One?

Since the third installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean saga airs today in the USA, and Fel is reviewing it tomorrow in the way of a very much expected spoiler-free post, it just feels right today to talk about the other Bruckheimer/Disney most famous franchise.
National Treasure: Book of Secrets will air on December this year, and its spectacular teaser trailer can be seen right now on the net. The original National Treasure was, if not an excellent movie, at least good enough for me. So I’m definitely going to see this sequel, and now that I know a little bit more about it, more than ever.
The thing is, NT: Book of Secrets has it all to fully surpass its predecessor. The original cast is back again, and, beside all those old faces, this time we’ll also be able to enjoy the acting skills of venerated masters such as Harvey Keitel, Ed Harris and Helen Mirren. Only because of that, if I were you I would take a look at it. And if that isn’t enough guarantee, there's one more thing: this time the screenplay has been written by Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio. Yes, yes, the two screenwriters behind the Zorro franchise, the first Shrek and, again, those Pirates movies.

Atrociously Awful

I'm not going to spend too much time talking about this book, because it's not worth it. However, I wanted to warn the whole world about it, so everybody can give it a wide berth and avoid it like the plague. This very horrible book, which is called Depths of Madness, is a Forgotten Realms book, and was committed by Erik Scott de Bie. I haven't read anything else by him, but if DOM is a good example of what he writes and how he writes it, then everything else by him must be truly abysmal.
I'll just say that the story is boring (a bunch of non-compelling characters trying to get out of a dungeon), the characters trite stereotypes, the different events are unimaginative, and the dialogue is horrendous. And I mean phenomenally craptastic. Here's an example from page 121:

"Insolent, mongrel bitch!" he growled. "I shall see you beg!"
"Many have spoken thus," said Twilight. "All are dead."
"You'll join them!" Davoren lunged, power streaming from his hands and eyes.

So now imagine that pathetic badness multiplied by 310 pages, and you'll see why you shouldn't only not read this book, but warn your friends and burn every copy of it you happen to come across. To think that trees died to print this underwhelming adventure…

Rayos y centellas

De todos es sabido que adaptar comics a la pantalla grande está de moda. También es de sobras conocido que hacer trilogías es ciertamente común últimamente. Y ya no digamos si hablamos de trilogías basadas en comics. Bien, pues ahora tenemos otra más que añadir a la lista, tal y como, entre otros lugares, podéis leer aquí: Steven Spielberg y Peter Jackson se han unido para producir y dirigir una trilogía de las aventuras de Tintín. Las tres películas serán adaptaciones de distintas aventuras, y se harán por ordenador con animación fotorrealista. Según están las cosas ahora mismo, Spielberg dirigirá una, Jackson otra, y aún no se sabe quién se hará cargo de la tercera. Personalmente, no he leído mucho Tintín, y aunque no me interese mucho el personaje -o no tanto como otras posibles adaptaciones-, el que Jackson y Spielberg vayan a producir y dirigir estas películas hace el proyecto mucho más atractivo. Aunque si quieren comic europeo, lo que deberían hacer es adaptar Sky Doll...

Y con ella llegó el escándalo

Hace ya varios meses mostré aquí una estatua de la Reina Blanca diseñada por Adam Hughes. La primera serie de la colección incluía otros personajes, todos diseñados por Hughes, y aunque no sé si la que nos ocupa pertenece a esa primera serie o a la segunda, el caso es que es un personaje Marvel, y también está basada en un dibujo del reputado dibujante. La estatua en cuestión es de Mary Jane, la amante esposa de Spiderman, y ha creado una polémica inusitada. ¿La razón? Que se la muestra lavándole el uniforme a Spiderman. O a lo mejor es por el imponente canalillo que desvergonzadamente nos enseña. O por esos low riders que le dejan el tanga al descubierto. O porque los pantalones tienen un agujero nada desdeñable en el bolsillo. O porque algunas personas son de un pacato que tira de espaldas.
Sea como fuere, la estatua -de la que podéis ver más fotos aquí y hacerla girar 360º-, una edición limitada de 900, cuesta 124.99 dólares, aún no ha salido a la venta, y ya se ha agotado, con lo que parece probable que el polémico diseño no haya sido casual sino una inteligente operación de marketing. A mí, personalmente, la estatua me gusta bastante, pero no pagaría ese dinero por ella; allá cada cual con cómo se gasta el dinero. Sentíos libres de ensalzar las virtudes de la estatuilla o condenar su desvergüenza en este vuestro blog.

Forget About Jack Nicholson

We had all heard about Heath Ledger being The Joker in next year's The Dark Knight, the sequel to Batman Begins. Well, the first image of Ledger as The Joker is out, and you can see it right next to this words. Disappointed? Scared? Intrigued? Or maybe you miss Jack Nicholson? If Batman Begins and this picture are proof of something, it is that Christopher Nolan sees Batman in a completely different way Tim Burton did. Will it rock? Will it suck? Only one more year to fin out!

Dangerous Curves

I recently reread the original Danger Girl series, by master penciller J. Scott Campbell, and it made me both happy and sad. I was glad because Danger Girl is one (if not the) of my favorite comic books of all time. The artwork is truly gorgeous, the action is fantastic, the story is fun, and the pace is dynamic and relentlessly driven by an energy that seems to come both from the page layouts, the frantic action, and Campbell's incredibly kinetic style. Danger Girl is plain fun, a rollercoaster ride that grabs your attention and forces you to keep turning pages. It is fantastic, a phenomenal book.
All this goodness, however, made me yearn for more of Campbell's artwork, which is just not going to happen in the foreseeable future. Complaining about his (lack of) output has become second nature to me, and it really is a shame. He's the most talented comic book artist I know, yet he barely does anything other than the occasional cover. I know he's working on Spiderman now, even though what he should be doing is finishing the ridiculously delayed Wildsiderz. Scratch that. Actually, he shouldn't be doing Wildsiderz because that book should have been finished years ago. And about Spiderman, from what Marvel has said, it's taken him about a year to finish his first Spidey issue. Now there's something I can believe, because it certainly matches his MO (even though you could argue he would need to "operate" for him to have a MO, but hey).
Also, the quality of this first adventure of Abbey and friends made me realize that, while Back in Black and Body Shots (so far) are fun reads (and I never read Kamikaze, Hawaiian Punch, or Viva Las Danger --compiled here), they are nowhere near as good as this first run: a terrific read that's fun, exhilarating, and beautifully rendered. So, if you haven't done so yet, go read it. You won't regret it.

It Came from the Waterwood

This is a creature from one of my stories. If you've read it, you'll know what it is: a draath, one of the vicious denizens of our favorite purple sea. But I won't say anything else, just in case you still haven't read the coolest books ever written and are planning to do so in the future. It took me like fifteen minutes, and the media is obviously pencil on paper. Enjoy!

Death Match

This is a picture of what Spiderman 4 should be, according to a friend of mine. Since Mary Jane and Peter seem to keep arguing all the time, Spiderman 4 should be a death match: Spidey versus MJ, see who walks away. I'm not sure this would be the best plot for a hypothetical future installment of the webhead's adventures, but it makes for a cool picture.
The whole thing took me a bit over two hours, from sketches to the finished piece. Check this link if you want to see the Spidey sketches, and go here if you want to see the sketch of Mary Jane throwing stuff. Unfortunately, I didn't scan the picture before I inked it, so you can't see the pencils. And regarding the inking process, I used my quill for the lines and a couple of brushes for the washes. For the text, I just used a Prisma marker. And that's really it. Enjoy!

Not Quite a Con

We got our Yearbooks today, and the students went crazy. Everybody was asking all their friends to sign theirs --you know how it is. I am glad to say that many girls (the ones that don't hate my guts, obviously) wanted me to sign their books as well. I did (with great pleasure), and I started doing little doodles for them (my face saying "hi", for the most part). The girls seemed to like it, and they started to tell their friends about it, so more and more students started to come. Obviously, this was the biggest ego booster I've gotten in the last few weeks, and I was glad to draw stuff for them. But I got tired of drawing my stupid face all the time, and I started to ask them what they wanted me to draw. And all of a sudden, word that I was drawing pictures for everybody in their Yearbooks was out, and students started to arrive in flocks and crowd around me. And I mean, really: not only my students, or girls I know, but girls I didn't even know.
I was working with just a couple of pens (blue and pink, as it happens), and I was drawing as fast as I could, so the pictures were more like sketches than anything else. And yet they loved them. As far as I can remember, I drew three Spidermans, one Batman, one Venom, three unicorns, two puppies, two hippos, one motorcycle, one cello, one alien, one hot guy, one Buffy, a few random girls, two donkeys, one llama, one parrot, one baseball player, two dinosaurs, one fish, and one walrus. There might be something else, but I can't remember. At any rate, it was fun, and I was very glad to see the girls liked what I was doing. Maybe this will be good advertising for the school club I'll be starting next year: the Cartooning Club! Also, it was a challenge, drawing for a live audience, taking their requests, and sketching with pens and no way to erase my mistakes: no pressure, right?

Robots Are Forever

Ah, it's one of those days in which I have no idea what to write about, so I guess that means it's time for another picture by yours truly. This is a cool robot I drew a couple of weeks ago, and even though he's not supposed to be anybody, he kind of reminds me of Sonny from I, Robot. So yeah: just a fun picture. I think it took me around fifteen or twenty minutes, and I don't remember what I was listening to. Enjoy!

Las teorías definitivas

Si alguno de vosotros, queridos lectores, es seguidor más o menos acérrimo de la misteriosa serie Lost, sabrá -sin que yo se lo tenga que decir- que, desde el mismísimo primer episodio, diferentes teorías que intentan explicar qué demonios pasa en la isla se han propagado por todas partes. Sin desvelar nada que no sepáis ya -además, aún no he empezado a ver la tercera temporada, así que es probable que vosotros sepáis más que yo-, aquí os ofrezco mis dos sesudas teorías, a cada cual más sólida y bien fundada:

Teoría número uno. El otro día me dio por ver el primer episodio de Angel (City of) con el comentario de Joss Whedon y David Greenwalt. Este episodio sigue siendo, en mi opinión, uno de los mejores de la serie, y no me canso de verlo, pese a que hacía unos tres años o así que no lo veía. El caso es que lo puse, y en la primera escena, antes de los títulos de crédito, nos encontramos al Vengador Colmilludo en un bar. ¿Y quién aparece de pronto en el bar, en plan guaperas seductor en el exterior, pero malvado vampiro en el interior? Pues ni más ni menos que Mr. Sawyer. Es evidente, pues, que la isla de Lost es el lugar al que los vampiros difuntos viajan después de sufrir trauma por estaca.

Teoría número dos. Al final de la segunda temporada, los aguerridos supervivientes del siniestrado vuelo descubren los restos de una estatua que debió ser enorme: un gigantesco pie con cuatro dedos. La isla es un lugar de naturaleza exuberante, árboles por todas partes, montañas, y más de una sorpresa subterránea. Si a esto añadimos que, al parecer, la isla estaba poblada por personas de dieciséis dedos, la única conclusión posible es que, de algún modo, Jack y compañía han acabado en Sanya. Increíble pero cierto.

Ahora que habéis visto la luz y descubierto el misterio que envuelve a la serie, no dejéis de escribir comentarios halagando mi perspicacia y agudeza de ingenio. Gracias.

Comics en pantalla grande

Tenía que pasar. Como ya advertí el otro día en un comentario, parecía que era hora de hacer otra lista de películas, esta vez con las mejores adap-
taciones de comics. Curiosa-
mente -o no tanto, dado el éxito de Spiderman 3-, Rotten Tomatoes ha hecho su propia lista de 94 películas basadas en comics. La lista parece, en principio, bastante exhaustiva, pues incluye anime como Akira o Ghost in the Shell, y películas que el espectador "medio" no sospecharía están basadas en comics, como A History of Violence (que no he visto) o Road to Perdition (que no terminé de ver). Sin embargo, deja fuera otra películas como la reciente Hellboy: Sword of Storms.
Pero bueno. El caso es que aquí tenéis mi lista para que debatáis a placer (especialmente tú, Nash). Y como no hay ninguna película oscura o extraña, no voy a comentar nada de las elegidas (¿por quién me tomáis? ¿por alguien que no es un vago?) Ahí vamos:

1. Spiderman 2
2. V for Vendetta
3. 300
4. Spiderman 3
5. Spiderman
6. X-Men 2
7. Batman Begins
8. X-Men
9. Sin City
10. The Crow

¿Estáis de acuerdo? ¿Pensáis que mi gusto cinematográfico es tan espantoso como mi gusto en mujeres? No dudéis en decirme de todo en vuestros ansiados comentarios.

El poder de la Fuerza

Echadle un vistazo a este vídeo, que no tiene desperdicio. Dura 36 segundos, y ni siquiera necesitáis sonido (a no ser que dominéis el japonés, claro). Y no digo más, que no quiero destripar nada.

Siempre comics

La compra mensual nos trae viejos conocidos y alguna que otra sorpresa. Veamos qué tiene que decir nuestro experto en comics (el nene, vamos):

Wetworks #8
Hack extraordinaire Peter Gross sigue dibujando la serie junto al no menos lamentable Darick Robertson. El comic es una porquería, y éste es el último número que compro (ya he dado orden en B&M de que no me guarden más números). Además, después de leer lo que Whilce Portacio dice en su blog, paso de seguir la serie, por poco que le quede. Al parecer, Gross & Robertson dibujan el 9 también; luego no está muy claro quién dibuja los números 10- 12; y DC ha decidido extender la serie hasta el 15, pero Portacio no dibujará ninguno de esos tres últimos números. Así que, hasta la vista, Wetworks.

Danger Girl: Body Shots #2
La verdad es que este número es más flojo que el primero, tanto en historia como en dibujo. Por alguna razón, Bradshaw ha dibujado las caras en este número raras, y todas parecen gordas, hinchadas. Aun así, el comic no está mal en absoluto, así que terminaré la serie, pues, a fin de cuentas, son sólo cuatro números.

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born #4
Como siempre, esta serie es soberbia, así que no voy a repetir lo que siempre digo. Bueno, algo sí repetiré: todo el mundo debería leer esta serie.

Witchblade #105
Y también como siempre, Witchblade es estupenda. Stjepan Sejic ilustra este número en vez de Adriana Melo, y su estilo no podría ser más distinto, pues el croata pinta las páginas en vez de dibujarlas y que luego alguien las coloree. Llevo ya varios meses viendo ilustraciones suyas, y la verdad es que el tipo no acababa de hacerme. Sin embargo, este número me ha encantado, tanto por las ilustraciones como por la historia. Si no estáis leyendo Witchblade, deberíais.

Worlds of Aspen
El sábado pasado fue el Free Comic Book Day, y el comic gratis que elegí fue éste, con fragmentos de varias series de Aspen: varias páginas de Soulfire dibujadas por Turner (la serie, por fin, termina con el número 11 este año, desde que empezó en 2004); varias páginas de Shrugged (serie que empecé y dejé); varias páginas de Kiani; y, lo más interesante, varias páginas de Soulfire: New World Order, la nueva miniserie dibujada por Francisco Herrera, artista que podría pasar por Humberto Ramos perfectamente. No está mal, y me salió gratis, así que no puedo quejarme.

Madame Mirage First Look
La nueva serie de Top Cow sale a la venta este verano, y los chicos de la Vaca han sacado este First Look, que viene a ser como un número cero que cuesta 99 centavos. Hay como ocho páginas de historia (la mitad a lápiz, la otra mitad coloreada), e incluye una introducción del guionista, Paul Dini, y las portadas de los números 1, 2 y 3. Con tan pocas páginas poco se puede decir. Parece que la historia va a estar bien, y los dibujos de Kenneth Rocafort (quien sustituyó a Silvestri en Hunter-Killer cuando su creador, oh sorpresa, dejó de dibujar la serie), pese a alguna barbaridad anatómica que otra, están muy bien también. Ya veremos qué pasa...

Surfin' FinnFemFel

Ah, the ridiculous lengths I go to impress cute girls --not that it ever pays off. Most of you have heard about Samantha, I think. Well, she asked me to draw a picture for her, and even though I've already accepted I'm not getting anything out of this, I said I would. She suggested something to do with the beach, and this is what I came up with. She still hasn't seen it, but I'll let you know what she thinks.

I was trying to get the best composition I could, and this was the first idea I had. I didn't like it though, because the scene looked empty, somehow devoid of life. I tried a second composition, but I still couldn't show everything I wanted to show (the shark, the alien with the sunscreen), so I decided to go for a third try. This one I liked much better, because the composition works rather nicely (both in character interaction and overall framing of the action), so I used it for the final pencils. The scan is not all that great because you could barely see the pencils on the page (I was trying not too add too much pressure because I knew I was going to ink the picture). And the finished piece is up there for you to see. I like the energy and the overall cartoonyness of the piece. I like all the little details (check out that Sunny Jhanna tee), and I think it turned out rather nicely and dynamic. I guess it'd look even better if I colored it, but I can already tell it would take me about eight hours to do so, and I don't know if I want to do that right now, thanks. At any rate, the pencils and ink took me two and a half hours total, which I spent listening to Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier's Smodcast (installments 2, 3 and 4), which I've already mentioned here. Enjoy!

PS: Nash, no seas vago y lee este post, o al menos mira los links, que seguro que te gustan :)

Let He Who Is Without Blame...

Here it is. The newest gift directly taken form Mr. George Lucas' big smart mouth, this time when asked about the last installment of Spiderman trilogy:

"It's silly. It's a silly movie. There just isn't much there. Once you take it all apart, there's not much story, is there?"

I'm pretty confused here now. I mean, isn't this the same guy who wrote and directed The Phantom Menace? Or Attack of the Clones? Or the first half of The Revenge of the Sith?

I still haven't seen Spidey 3, but I'm pretty sure I won't share his opinion of the movie when I'll watch it. Anyway, each day that passes I'm more and more proud I stopped caring about Star Wars the way I used to do. The hell with it. That way I'll never feel compelled to buy this new George Stone-Caster Lucas action figure limited series.

The Squids Are Back in Town

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last year you'll know that Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End opens on May 25th. That's in two weeks, my friends; and I don't know about you, but I'm pretty excited. I know there's a bunch of naysayers claiming the second movie sucked, but we didn't like them anyway, right?
At any rate, ever since Dead Man's Chest opened last year I had been wanting to draw a picture of Davey Jones, that ultra-cool looking villain; and now, ten months later, I've finally gotten around to doing it. The picture is based on a photograph, and it took me a bit over an hour and fifteen minutes to draw it. And to keep me -even more- entertained, I was listening to SModcast #8 while playing with the pencils. So there you go. I hope you like it!

Silent Bob Speaks

I love Kevin Smith's movies, but my favorite Smith material is, hands down, his An Evening with Kevin Smith DVDs (get volumes 1 and 2 here). In those, Smith jumps onstage and conducts Q&A sessions with the audience, usually with hilarious results. That's why, when I heard about his podcasts, I typed the website address as fast as I could, and proceeded to download those assuredly gemmies. The podcast's name is SModcast, and in them Smith is joined by his long time friend and producer Scott Mosier. It is, like they say, the radio show they never had (that nobody let them have). Each episode is usually 52 minutes long and extremely funny. Mosier and Smith just talk about different things, be it some piece of news or some memories from high school, but it all usually leads them to sex and other great topics, such as sex, or… sex. The thing is, their conversations are fun to listen to and absolutely uncensored, so if you're easily offended, don't bother with SModcast. (Then again, if you're easily offended, you're probably not my friend and are, therefore, not reading this.) So if you just want to laugh wildly and be supremely entertained, go to iTunes or to this site, and download away. And if you don't like it, it's not as if you wasted your money, because SModcast is totally free. It's not too often you find great entertainment for zero bucks, so I suggest you take advantage of the offer.

Cute Me

My Photobucket account allows me to upload pictures and other stuff to posting boards and other Internet places. But now they've added a new feature: the possibility to create your own 3D animated avatar. You can only see it static here, but if you follow this link, you'll see the cool animation I chose for my little Meez, for that's what they're called (which strikes me as a rip-off from Nintendo's Miis, but hey). There are roughly four gazillion options to customize yours, and I'm not talking about just shirts, pants, and hairstyles. I'm talking skin colors, nose shapes, face shapes, freckles… Freckles! Anyway, if you have nothing else to do, go to the site and spend a fun ten minutes duplicating yourself. Enjoy!

Web of

It was of course just a matter of time until I posted my review of the highly anticipated Spider-man 3. Well, dear readers, wait no more!

The first thing I want to make clear is that, out of the first two movies, I think the second one is much better than the first one. I know not everybody agrees on this, but that's what I think. With that in mind, and also knowing that the critics were saying that this installment was weaker than the previous two films, I was still hoping SM3 would be better than SM2. And the answer -my answer- is… yes and no.

The "drama" part is unquestionably better than in the past chapters of the saga. Without spoiling anything, I'll say that there's a lot of dramatic interaction between Peter and Mary Jane, and their story evolves and gets more complicated than in the second movie. Then there's Harry Osborn complicating things even more; and the introduction of Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker's other love interest from the comic books --but I won't say what happens in the movie or the comic books. What I will say is that Bryce Dallas Howard, the actress that plays Gwen, is devastatingly, arrestingly beautiful. I discovered her in the truly awful The Village (she was the only thing worth remembering), and even though she's dyed her natural red hair blonde for the movie, she's still impossibly gorgeous. (I think it's kinda funny that Kirsten Dunst, a natural blonde, is a redhead in the movie, and Bryce Dallas Howard has to do the exact opposite.) So the whole love and drama story is certainly more satisfying than in SM2.

The action, however… I liked it, don't get me wrong: it is fun, fast, daring, and well conceived. The fights and other "speed" sequences are cool, but I had the feeling they were overworked. I don't know if it was because of all the crowds everywhere, or maybe because there were just too many villains in the movie (keep it down to one in the future!), but the action scenes struck me as way over the top. And yeah, I know it's kind of redundant to label a Spider-Man movie as over the top, but I think it was definitely more so than its predecessors. These scenes were, as I said, too crowded, with too many things going on at the same time. I think those sequences could have been streamlined to achieve a more unified and dynamic result.

Regarding the special effects, I was really looking forward to seeing Venom, but it was the Sandman who actually surprised me. The Sandman effects are just incredible, especially during the "origin" scene and the safe car scene (Spidey breaking his legs made my jaw drop open in amazement).

The acting was also good. I have read about Kirsten Dunst being accused of doing a poor job in the movie, and she even apologized for sucking at it, but I thought she was good, or, at least, as good as in the other movies. Tobey Maguire portrayed Peter magnificently yet again; James Franco played the duality of his character with sobriety; and it doesn't matter what Bryce Dallas Howard did, because she was stunning, and all I could think when she was onscreen was how amazingly beautiful she was. (Hotness aside, she was good too.) And the bad guys -Thomas Haden Church and Topher Grace- were good too, even if they didn't really have all that much screen time.

Something I also liked very much was the way the different story lines are intertwined. I was afraid the movie would be fragmented due to the multiplicity of plots, but everything fit together rather nicely, which only shows how much of a craftsman Sam Raimi truly is.

And last but not least, Bruce Campbell. I won't spoil anything, but I laughed so hard when he was on screen that I thought I would cry. The Man-with-a-Chin is just priceless, believe me.

And that's really it. I recommend everybody to go see the movie (except for Lori, of course), but I doubt you guys need my recommendation, since this movie is going to be huge, probably one of the two or three most grossing movies this year. I mean, the theaters here in Chattanooga are showing the movie 23 or 24 times a day, starting at 10:00 AM and starting new showings every 30 minutes until 10:30 or 1:00PM. With that kind of screen presence, the movie would be hard pressed not to do well. As it happens, I just read Spider-Man 3 has already established a new record for opening day, surpassing former champion Pirates of the Caribbean 2 by 4 million dollars. It is therefore obvious this movie is an event, so just go and be part of it. And if you see Bryce around, tell her I'm waiting for her to call me. I'll be home all night.

De nuevo, Serenidad

Quién sabe si inspirados por este interesante post y la excelente discusión que originó (aunque, admitá-
moslo, probablemente no), la revista Entertainment Weekly incluye esta semana un pequeño suplemento especial con "Las mejores películas y series de ciencia ficción de los últimos 25 años". Algunas de las seleccionadas os resultarán obvias, mientras que otras serán no sólo sorprendentes sino también polémicas. Pero antes de leer las elegidas y empezar a echar espuma por la boca, recordad que la lista incluye cine y televisión, y que los veinticinco años empiezan (o acaban, según se mire) en 1982. Y ahora sí, del 1 al 25, la mejor ciencia-ficción del último cuarto de siglo:

1. The Matrix (1999)
2. BattleStar Galactica (2003- actualidad)
3. Blade Runner (1982)
4. The X-Files (1993- 2002)
5. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
6. Brazil (1985)
7. E.T. (1982)
8. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987- 1994)
9. Aliens (1986)
10. The Thing (1982)
11. Lost (2004- actualidad)
12. Back to the Future (1985)
13. The Terminator/Terminator 2 (1984/1991)
14. Children of Men (2006)
15. Firefly/Serenity (2002/2005)
16. Total Recall (1990)
17. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
18. Heroes (2006- actualidad)
19. Starship Troopers (1997)
20. Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003- 2005)
21. Futurama (1999- 2003)
22. Quantum Leap (1989- 1993)
23. Doctor Who (1963- actualidad)
24. Galaxy Quest (1999)
25. V: The Miniseries (1983)

Con respecto a mis sesudos comentarios sobre las escogidas, no puedo sino señalar que James Cameron parece ser, con tres títulos en la lista, el mejor director del género de los últimos 25 años, pero Paul Verhoeven le sigue de cerca con dos, hahaha. Y, aunque me ría, debo confesar que me encanta Total Recall, una de las tres primeras películas que recuerdo haber visto en el cine, junto a Batman e Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Hay varias pelis en la lista que no he visto, así que no puedo discutir su inclusión (aunque Galaxy Quest, que sí he visto, me parece más que discutible), y por supuesto echo de menos ciertas ausencias, como Return of the Jedi. Para más información, podéis visitar la página web de EW. Y ahora, ¡a debatir!

El #3 está en camino!

Ha costado cuatro meses, pero la tercera parte de la serie limitada más famosa de la historia en Sunny Jhanna ya está coloreada, los archivos de camino a mi casa gracias a la magia del servicio postal (y la vasta capacidad de almacenaje de los CDs, claro). Los textos están listos para poner en las páginas, y en cuanto esto suceda, llevaré el comic a la imprenta. Si todo sale bien, y ni Correos ni The Bureau (la imprenta) se retrasan, tendréis el ansiado cómic en vuestras pacientes manos antes de que termine mayo (los atenienses antes que nadie). Regocijaos, pues, queridos lectores!

I Am the Walrus

What can I say? I felt like drawing for a while while listening to the third segment of the first part of the Curse of Monkey Island radio drama you can find here, and this is what came out. The radio drama, incidentally, is quite good, and the guy that plays Guybrush Threepwood sounds eerily like Dominic Armato. Oh, and the picture took me 17 minutes, the length of the segment. Enjoy!

The Grass is Always Greener…

And the third picture I drew while in the throes of illustration is this lovely bug. It is obviously meant to be colored, and since I'm starting to see the colors in my restless mind, I might just do that shortly. It took slightly under 20 minutes to finish, and I really like the clarity of lines (no crosshatching for me, thank you very much). Besides, the simple lines give it that cartoony flair I really dig --not to mention it makes it coloring it oh so much easier. Enjoy!

Alien Invasion!

The second picture out of the three-in-a-row deal I mentioned here, this is an alien chick (duh!) with a retro flavor I kind of like. It took me 20 minutes, and I think it turned out really cute. And there's really nothing else to say about it, so I guess this is a short post. Enjoy!