124. Batman
I have a stack of cardboard. It’s neat to draw on occasionally. This is my favorite Legionnaire.
***
The Dictator. Funny. I liked it, lots of fun comedy people are in it.
123
I am sick, but I am starving and am afraid to eat.
Watched the very first episode of the classic Transformers cartoon yesterday. Last year, I watched every episode of G.I. Joe. I hadn’t seen any of this stuff since I was a kid. G.I. Joe holds up pretty well. It’s certainly got its goofy charms, but it’s kinda solid. Transformers… wow. So bad. At least it’s laughably bad. I might watch a few more, but I don’t know if I can sit through every ep.
122
I watched That Guy… Who Was in That Thing, a documentary about character actors who are instantly recognizable, but not exactly “famous”. It was fun, but not particuarly in depth. Perfect for watching while doing other stuff, like drawing. Which is what I do.
121. Captain Marvel
I’m really liking this character a lot. I bought the first two trades of her new series and it’s delightful. Because of this, I also bought Kelly Sue DeConnick’s issues of AVENGERS ASSEMBLE. It’s definitely one of the best superhero team comics I’ve read in the last decade. Short arcs, it’s fun, funny and still able to be action packed and have an emotionally impactful moment or two. It’s definitely the best Anything Avengers thing I’ve read that’s not the original run of YOUNG AVENGERS.
Anyhoo. It was also nice to draw a Marvel character for once. I do have a confession to make. I’ve been drawing more than just “Legion of Superheroes” characters this past month. I have a crapton of post-it sketches I’ve doodle while at work. Especially from the past few weeks when our servers blew up and there were a few days where little-to-no work got done, and now that the servers are back, my work machine runs a lot slower than usual and so I have time to doodle things here and there. What I’m basically saying is brace yourself for a lot post-it doodles that have been accumulated over the last month.
I really love doing the post-it sketches. I usually never know what is going to be drawn until I draw them. Sure, I throw a ton of them away, but the ones that make it usually have no “start” in my head. I’ve thought a lot about making a compilation of post-it doodles, but the main problem is that I can really only do them at work – when I shouldn’t be doing them. I’ve tried drawing on post-its here at home, but it’s not the same. There’s a certain mindlessness to them – a noodling, go anywhere kind of thing that I can’t replicate when I don’t have anything else I should be doing. It’s hard to be mindless when you’re being mindfull of how mindless you should be. Which is a shame, because while I worked hard on the Legion month, I like how most of the post-its turned out a lot better. I wish that whatever it is I can seem to tap into on those I could tap into it when I’m working on something with purpose.
Just venting. Stay away, random internet fuckhead.
Because I have a lot of these post-its loaded up, I had a few days where I could just breathe and not worry about not having anything for the site. I used that time wisely to play a video game for the first time in six months, and to watch a movie that I knew that I would want to give my full attention to. I watched Upstream Color, the new film from Shane Carruth – the writer/director of Primer. Primer came out in 2004-2005. My friend Bruce let me borrow the DVD and I watched it like 5 times or so in that week. I absolutely loved it. I watched it about three years ago for my podcast and while I certainly didn’t love it as much as I initially did, I still feel strongly that it’s a great movie. Sadly it has taken 6-7 years for Carruth to make another film, one that I was anticipating based solely on my love for Primer. Upstream Color came out a few weeks ago on DVD and On Demand. I was able to snag the disc from Netflix pretty much the day after it was released and I’ve been sitting on it, waiting for the time where I could just watch it without working on something or doing something else.
It’s not Primer. Whatever Carruth has been doing since then and now, he’s certainly become a more confident, competent filmmaker. UC is beautiful and wonderfully filmed. It’s very slow and deliberate movie with not a lot of dialogue, but an impressive amount of visually wonderful scenes and segments. The story is a bizzare one, not easily explained. It unfolds slowly and yet never once did I not care about it. I was engrossed from beginning to end. I don’t want to explain it here, because I think it needs to be seen and experienced by the viewer. That said, it’s also not for everyone. I imagine a lot people will see Upstream Color and absolutely hate it. I can guarantee I might be a person who would have hated this on the wrong day. Much like his first film, it is a very low key, lo-fi Sci-Fi film and a slow paced character drama/character study. It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s smart and I don’t feel like it’s ever trying to show off how smart it is. There are also gaps in logic and storytelling – Carruth’s character seemingly gets cut out of the third act – but it’s ambitious and original and it’s art. Oddly, the tone of this is the type that I think Rob Zombie was trying to strike when he made Lords of Salem. Carruth pulls it off though (having a lead actress who can act helps considerably). I can wholeheartedly recommend Primer to everyone, I think everyone should see it, but I cannot do that for Upstream Color. But, if you loved Primer and were impressed by Carruth, then definitely check out UC.
120. Night Girl
So. This is it. The final Legionnaire for “Legion of Superheroes Month”. I had never even heard of Night Girl until she was specifically requested by Jim Purcell, co-host of the fantastic Savage FINcast proudly hosted on the Gutter Trash Podcasting Network.
(In fact, you should listen to all of the wonderful shows on the Network. We’ve already mentioned Savage FINcast – your show for all things Savage Dragon and Erik Larsen related. Also check out the pop-culture chat fest The Stupid Sexy Podcast co-hosted by the delightful Kathleen Coyle; the television review show The View Masters – currently reviewing Farscape in its entirety – with the perfectly cromulent co-host Joe Grunenwald; and finally the original flavor Gutter Trash which the less said about the better something something Jason Young.)
I learned a lot this past month. I learned that I enjoy superhero names better when it’s Something “Lass” or Whatever “Lad”, etc. Almost all the Legionnaires had alternative names that I did not like one bit, which is why I used their original names where possible here. I learned that while the Legion seems fun, the continuity is a confusing mess. I usually don’t care about that kind of thing, but I don’t know of any comic property that has been rebooted as many times as the LoSH.
I learned that almost all of the characters come from planets where everyone on that planet has the exact same powers, which sort of makes it all less special, in my opinion. I learned that I still have major problems drawing women, particularly in action-y poses. Boobs are confusing. I have studied and researched these things more than anything else in the world, and yet my grasp of them is tenuous (Boom! I’m hilarious! And lonely! And single! Ladies…?). The most important thing I learned though is that I should never ever ever ever be coloring anything every day again. Once a week is fine, but every night? Uh-uh. Damn near killed me (it didn’t. I like to exaggerate. Though I’m glad I did it. The Legion should be in color.).
That said, this was a fun experiment. I’ll definitely try another theme month again. Not soon, but, y’know, soon. Thanks to everyone who encouraged, commented and put up with all this.
119. Shadow Lass
I went with the slinky sexy costume here because I have a penis and thusly hate women. Fuck off, fake nerd girls! Go back to the kitchen.
118. Brainiac 5
Went with a more animation inspired look for Brainy.
So, three days in and I am in love with the current returned from the dead ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT. I am taking a break from it for the last few episodes. I don’t want it to end so soon. I will definitely have to go back and re-watch the first couple episodes of which I was sorta dismissive. I think I wasn’t prepared for the structure of the show – a “Memento”-style 8 hour puzzle. The deeper you go, the more genius of the season is revealed. A genius the level of a Brainiac 5, say? I’m still glad that I approached the return with trepidation and doubt. I think lowered-to-no expectation is the way to approach any heavily hyped entertainment form. I also went into this the way I approach movies anymore. I avoided all bits of news and spoilers and trailers. I’m already sold on it, you can stop pitching. I did this for IRON MAN 3 and I think I loved that movie all the more because of it.
So yeah. Arrested Development. I’ll get back to it this weekend after a refresher of some Rockford Files.
As I enter the 4th season of that particular show, I now worry that Netflix will remove it before I finish the series. They did it to me before! NETFLIX!!!!!
(By the way, a year ago, I hated the idea of Netflix Streaming. Goes to show what a good cable connection will do for you)
117. Triplicate Girl
Went with the animated version here.
Sober and further into the Arrested Development revival. I’m actually digging it. The first couple episodes kinda struggled, but it’s defintely getting back to classic A.D form by the 3rd ep. Disappointment averted?