The "21 Journeys" anthology is here!

I'm one of the contributors to the fifth and freshest Cloudscape Comics anthology, 21 Journeys, which is finally available to order right here!
Accepting only PayPal, sorry. But if you're in my vicinity, buy it with cash and save on shipping costs.

* * *

...Although with my eCrater shop you're already saving a bit, due to my not bothering to make the accurate rounding up to USD from CAD, and my laziness in calculating weight-based shipping.

The anthology will also soon be available at the Cloudscape site, but that money goes to Cloudscape as a society, whereas the money from my personal shop goes to me. I assure you my shop's not only legal but fair, since it allows me to finally observe rent-paying rewards for this thing I worked on for long nights.

However, obviously "THIS THING" gave me much more than it took from me. I think I'd be happy that you want to read it, wherever you ordered it from.

Real Unreal

"Right -- everyone stop f**king crying, this is supposed to be a rock'n'roll band for chrissakes."

The short post:

I saw Nowhere Boy and then absolutely had to try to draw some early Lennon-McCartney. The suits are not stage garb but funeral garb. Enough spoilers (LOL SPOILERS FOR LENNON'S LIFE), The End.

THE LONG POST (skippable:)

Yay, I finally got to see Nowhere Boy *yeee!* I was eager for this movie because a] like approximately 3/4 of Earthlings I am a Beatles fan, and b] I especially love early Beatles history. Somehow it just can't seem to get old no matter how many times I read about it :) (...Which is a good thing for this movie considering that nothing about it can really surprise the viewer.) They are a unique ...um, myth. A world unto themselves.

Nowhere Boy is more about Lennon's relationship with his mother Julia and his aunt Mimi than forming the band, but that stuff is equally fascinating, and a perfect vehicle for the type of life-affirming drama that the Brits whip up in their sleep. Nowhere Boy didn't disappoint.

Very few movies other than the "actual Beatles-movies" have been made about the band, but the one Nowhere Boy can be compared to -- favourably, I'm glad to say! -- is Backbeat.
What Backbeat has going for it, is that it focuses on Stuart Sutcliffe, whose mannerisms and appearance have not become part of the public consciousness like The Beatles themselves have, so the viewer can enjoy Stephen Dorff's very capable performance without being distracted by an inner voice nagging "this is so far from the real thing."
Since the same is true of Mimi and Julia, who are the two most important characters of Nowhere Boy next to Lennon, and since the script's dramatizations of oft-documented events from Lennon's boyhood are very confident and unflourished, there's hardly anything to make you doubt it could all have happened exactly in the manner that the film portrays.

Inevitably, the kids portraying the young Beatles don't look or sound like the originals, but they are excellent actors -- and if the movie is more about finding your mom than finding your future rock icon buddies, what matters is whether you have the emotional acting chops. In that respect the whole cast delivers. Some reviews had claimed that the other cast members can't keep up with Kristin Scott Thomas, but I thought the performances were amazing throughout. I confess that when I first heard about the film I was confused about why they had cast Aaron Johnson as Lennon, because -- shame on me! -- I mistook him for an American since he'd been chosen for Kick-Ass!
Johnson was actually the film's surprise, because even though it's a little hard to imagine him as Lennon, the compact, charming script combined with his moving performance makes you buy him as simply an (for all intents and purposes) orphaned, insecure kid.

Of course knowing about the future ahead spices up the experience considerably, but still, I'm willing to bet that even if you don't know a thing about The Beatles (in which case, Congratulations on your first day back from cryo-freeze!) or don't find the band interesting, you will still think "What a relatable and captivating story" after watching this. Made me cry a ton too. OK, so I cry at many movies, but this was the biggest cry-fest since Toy Story 3.

In fact the quote at the beginning of this post came right on the heels of a big upheaval in the movie, where a couple of the characters teared up as well (with me leaking silently in the audience). Johnson ordered everybody to "stop f**king crying", which was one of the most characteristic moments about this movie: laughter through tears (oooh dammit I'm sorry about the cliche!) and all such...

I will so see it again and am recommending it to you. :)

Pimpin' Pimentel

(...not that he needs it)

I love life drawing, but whenever people ask me for tips on it (yeah, it happens, I'm as surprised as you) I'm completely useless.

That's where Dave Pimentel's latest post comes in! I know he's not talking about life drawing per se, more like posing in general, but his post pretty much covers my life drawing approach, if you were wondering. The only tip I feel confident in giving is "you gotta enjoy it!"

Maudlin photo fest

If you could see inside my heart...


...IT WOULD BLIND YOU.

(Told you it was gonna be maudlin! :P)

To kick things off: a Finnish poem states, 'when you walk the road, you are imprisoned by the road. The only way to be free is through knee deep snow.' And I am friggin' free!

The only tip you need for surviving winter:
F*** fashion - wear some proper clothes. Even if you can't afford a high-tech insulated ski jacket, no one's going to make fun of you for padding yourself up until you look like the Michelin mascot. Trust me, we've all been there.

(There's my favourite niece. Actually my only niece, actually technically my step-niece, but whatever...)

(Marina in the winter)

...End of fest!

"That's just weak songwriting."

Aaagh, I'm post crazy but I couldn't wait, just like I couldn't wait to see Fantastic Mr. Fox tonight. There are two things you need to know about the movie:

-It's different from anything you're EVER likely to see.
...Including Anderson's other movies. The themes that run through most of his work are a whole 'nother trip when it's all puppets and a lot of puppet violence.

-It's not an adaptation. It has even less to do with the book than I expected (and the trailer had already eroded my expectations on that front drastically).

I loved it, not as much as Meatballs, but it's still wonderful. What a year I've had at the movies :D

WI: Pervert (pretty wordy for an illustration...)

Watch out for a hefty file -- and don't look for anyone's likeness. You'd recognise these guys anyway without me knowing how to draw them.



Yeah, do you MIND, Emperor Pervertine?!

* * *

(A couple of WIP versions of this that I found fun:)


* * *

I shamelessly use kids! ...As a segue to one of my favourite SW-related quotes:

RABID STAR WARS FANS LIKE MYSELF
Ugh! This is the worst film in the series! These Ewoks! They’re so childish and ridiculous and cutesy!

GEORGE LUCAS
Uh.. folks.. these ARE children’s movies, you know.

RABID STAR WARS FANS LIKE MYSELF
Quiet! They are mature space sagas! Some of the greatest fantasy films ever made!

MARK HAMILL
I’d just like to mention that twenty minutes ago I had a deep conversation about the meaning of life with a green puppet.

--Rod Hilton (...whom I prefer to m15m, actually regardless of the fact his site predates it.)

(Sorry about that pretentious sentence above. :( Pretentia runs in my family.)