I was getting ready to go to bed when my brother said, “Hey, you aren’t going to do a Saint Patrick’s Day post.” I was tired, but I said I would give it one try and see how my quick and dirty skills are holding up. I was happy with my quick draw skills and the rest is history.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day everbody. Don’t drink and drive. You know even my Leprachaun has a designated driver and he is a legendary magical creature.
1. The New York Times is introducing a graphic book bestseller list. There will even be separate categories for hardcover, softcover, and manga.
I don’t think I will give up my Wizard magazine just yet and what’s the deal with calling my graphic novel which itself is just a collection of comic books a chimerical graphic book. Baby steps…
2. The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian has opened an exhibit entitled “Comic Art Indigene.” That’s right comics are indigenous baby!
The origin of sequential art is depicted with rock art, ledger art and ceramics as its evolution toward the modern comic is revealed.
You see comics aren’t just taking over the world in their primal way they have always exerted more influence than they are given credit.
3. With a comic book fan in the White House, the geek-in-chief and hero of hope President Barack Obama helped Spidey release the best selling comic in over a decade.
4. Drawing from another New York Times headline, the financial crisis has a solution rooted in comic superheroes. Rob Cox and Antony Currie declare, “Citigroup, Turn on Your Bat-Signal.”
Here comes the Justice League to spare us a continued financial meltdown by being recruited as the first ever superhero board of directors.
5. The Watchmen
Virtual reality or at least the prospect of it has been around for quite some time. The results have thus far been rather disappointing, but now a team of British academics thinks they have got it all figured out.
“A virtual reality helmet that recreates the sights, smells, sounds and even tastes of far-flung holiday destinations has been devised by British scientists.
Armchair travellers wearing the device will be able to hear the roar of lions on safari, smell the flowers of an Alpine meadow or feel the heat of the Caribbean sun on their face – all from the comfort of their sitting room.” –Daily Mail
Video games, travel, education, business meetings it all sounds great, but what I really want to know is what it would feel like to experience art like this:
Imagine art that you could feel, taste, smell, and experience in a comprehensive environment. If it were an art piece in the desert you could feel the heat and taste the sand all to the sound of some Bedouin music. If it were a piece on the ocean you could feel the ocean breeze and the mist of water on your face, taste the salty air, and hear the relentless crashing of waves. The prospect of designing a reality for your artwork is something I would love. It would be a kind of artist’s Matrix.
*** Mild Spoilers Ahead ***
At the beginning of Coraline, one is presented with a lonely heroine grabbing a divining rod and wistfully following its lead. Instantly, I was brought back to when I was kid where I could be free to follow my imagination wherever it took me. It was a nice first step down the rabbit hole.
Based on the children’s book by Neil Gaiman (of The Sandman fame), the film is a marvelous display of imagery courtesy of the stop-motion genius of Henry Selick who also directed Nightmare Before Christmas.
Coraline is an isolated little girl living in a new environment with busy parents who seem to pay her little concern. An annoying neighbor boy named Whyborn (constructed especially for the screenplay), two bizarre has-been burlesque actress spinsters, a bizarre Russian gymnast, and a trickster black cat voiced by Keith David (the voice of Spawn and Goliath in the TV show Gargoyles) are her only companions.
Coraline finds a door in the wall to another reality in which her parents are attentive and loving, but in which everyone has horrific buttons sewn over their eyes. The alternate reality first is presented as the ultimate escape for an unhappy girl, but as the dream reality and the real world begin to blur, it quickly descends into something much more sinister.
Comparisons to Alice and Wonderland abound, but the movie visually breaks new ground that reinforces tried and true themes in novel ways. I have always found myself partial to these types of magical realities.
I really don’t want to give away more than that except to implore you to support this film and the artists who made it. The garden scene in particular will blow your mind with vivid colors and an amazing praying mantis tractor.
The “other mother” is also one of the best character designs I have seen for an evil witch in a while. She is certainly up there with some of the most menacing witches in film bettering some of my favorites like the Grand High Witch from Ronald Dahl’s Witches, the witch mother of the Sheriff of Nottingham in the Prince of Thieves, the Wicked Witch from the Wizard of Oz or any of the Disney witches including those from Snow White and Sleeping Beauty.
As an artist, I am simply blown away by the surrealistic vision that was put on screen and this marvelous presentation of the dream reality. Unlike the sleek and smooth perfection of the CG realm, I could see and feel the textures of Coraline. Even the slight imperfections conveyed an eerie feeling that stayed with me throughout the movie.
My artist’s instincts believe in imperfection as a basis of conveying a reality even in a completely fantastic form. Whenever, I watch a CG film I can’t help but feel that I am being lied to. There is no doubt that Selick has achieved a new state of the art in stop-motion animation managing its weaknesses and exploiting its artistic advantages to great effect.
Watching Coraline, I just couldn’t stop thinking about the state of film animation in general. The CG Pixar films, Kung Fu Panda, Shrek, ect. have their place and I enjoy many of them, but frankly a lot of what we have been getting lately has not been all that great. It is like the difference between a digital painting and oil painting. In Coraline, I could feel the brush strokes and it didn’t feel like a lie. It was a little reality constructed painstakingly by hand.
Coraline certainly pushes the limits of what a child can handle, but I noticed a lot of children in the movie theater. In fact, I think a child exiting the theater summed up the film best. Her mother asked her how she liked the film to which she responded, “It freaked my head out.” I found this a most appropriate response to a movie that contained both a child’s greatest fears and wondrous dreams. It freaked my head out too and I loved it!
As a little bonus, check out the HBO First Look featuring Coraline and just try not to jump out of your chair to see the movie if you haven’t already:
Part 1:
Part 2:
It has come to my attention that I was nominated and have won the “Best Blog of the Day Award” for Saturday February 14th, 2009. I am glad to see that some benevolent soul nominated me and that somebody took notice. It is an honor and I very much appreciate the recognition. Jay Zuck’s Simian Nation marches on!
I designed this logo for a fantastic organization called Iemanya Oceanica. It was intended to be used for a promotional material Iemanya was sending to some of their generous lawyer friends and donors. It was actually my Dad’s idea to riff on the concept of a lawyer as a shark. I thought the idea was pretty funny and it made for an interesting logo.
Iemanya is a non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of sharks and rays and their habitats. Iemanya supports research, provides environmental education, and promotes sensible environmental policy.
It really frightened me to learn that possibly as many as 100 million sharks are killed in a given year. Many of them have their fins lopped off and are brutally thrown back in the ocean to die all of the sake of shark fin soup.
The numbers are staggering and there are many good reasons to preserve this apex predator. Don’t buy the hype portraying sharks as mindless and viscious maneaters and if you are feeling particularly ambitious I encourage you to adopt-a-shark today.