Killswitch Billy
Last week, I wrote a nostalgic piece about growing up on comic books. A few days later I realized that I had made a glaring omission, namely that Creature Entertainment will be printing the first appearance in comic form of Killswitch Billy; a concept I came up with last year for a short film. Please understand, I have never printed a comic book or thought that I could ever do one. It was just something that was never on my radar. On top of that, I have been out the comic’s scene for YEARS. And now I feel like the Ted Williams story, where many years later, a dream comes to life. A very unexpected dream. There are waaaaay more talented people out there that deserve to have a comic done for them.
I am LUCKY. I have contributed to a genre that I have admired and loved while growing up, even if it’s for this one time. That is an AMAZING and AWESOME feeling.
Thanks to everyone at Creature Entertainment and Pat Reilly for making this a reality.
Wizard Magazine Closes Up Shop
Just got this link in an email from “Bleedingcool.com“.
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/01/24/wizard-magazine-to-close-immediately/
Wizard magazine has closed up shop.
There are confirmations from across the internet but nothing official from Wizard yet.
From what I understand Wizard World conventions will not be affected.
I guess the “Internets” have claimed another victim. Oh well good riddance to the 90′s; the era that put comics on the map and tore them down as well.
UPDATE: It’s official Newsarama is reporting that Toyfare Magazine has been cancelled too. Over at CBR’s Robot6 they are saying that the magazine will relaunch in digital format called Wizard World probably to coincide with their convention tour. It’s official the Wizard Magazine is kaput!
Ravenous Werewolf concepts
Whew it’s been one hell of a week. We have been running around like Madmen trying to get our books off to the printer so that they are ready in time for Wizard World Miami.
I have also been busy penciling Ravenous #1. Ravenous basically is about the secret world of Werewolves and the shaman hunter determined to bring them down. So far I got about six pages completed. I’ll try to post some maybe next week. But for now here are some Werewolf concept sketches.
Wolf ; these are the most common variety
Wolf with arm tattoos
Wolf expressions
Wolf body jewelery
Ravenous is coming
The wheels are turning and the gears are spinning at Creature as we’re busy getting ready for the up coming cons that we will be attending. The first of which is Wizard world Miami.
We are also excited to announce that we have started production on our newest title Ravenous. Ravenous is written by yours truly John Ulloa and Juan Navarro. Ravenous follows our hero David Blackthorn as he hunts down the werewolf pack that decimated his tribe.
Ravenous Features the eye popping art work of Jose Varese and Patrick Reilly. Here is just a sneak peak of Ravenous.
Ravenous 2 Cover
The small things (and the big sensor)…
I’ve shot video with the Canon 5D Mk2 and now there’s no turning back. The picture is stunningly beautiful and a huge leap forward from my Sony V1U and any of the other 3CCD dedicated video cameras available as of this writing, although Sony and RED are both introducing a relatively low cost (not low enough) 35mm video camera as I write:
http://nofilmschool.com/2011/01/sony-red-square-competing-6k-12k-camcorders/
Back to the 5D… low light performance is amazing, which is great b/c you can shoot with natural light just about anywhere. Sure, it has its limitations. There’s the infamous ‘jello’ (picture wave/wobble) when there is fast camera or subject movement (a product of the sensor writing to memory one line at a time from top to bottom instead of all-at-once, like CCD cameras). There’s the blessing/curse of the H264 codec… beautiful compression algorithm, but not workable natively (or just barely) with Apple post-production software (good on you Adobe for paying some attention to the codec everyone is using), and audio. As for the latter, we use a separate audio recorder, the mighty-handy Zoom H4n, which can record four audio channels simultaneously (two on-board mics and two mic or line inputs). It sounds great, especially when used behind a good mixer/mic pre like the Sound Devices 302 (GREAT input and output limiters). It’s own stereo mic pair sounds surprisingly good also. You just have to remember to clap the scene. I’ve even gotten handy at syncing footage without a slate. If there is dialogue captured by the camera and the external recorder, I listen for hard consonant sounds, especially ‘T’s', place a marker on both clips and line them up.
I’m going to start messing with Magic Lantern’s companion open-source firmware for the 5D…
http://magiclantern.wikia.com/wiki/Magic_Lantern_Firmware_Wiki
…which gives you some handy tools not available in the factory firmware, including:
- ~On-screen audio meters
- ~Manual audio gain control with no AGC (auto gain control)… the bane of 7D users’ existence.
- ~Zebra stripes (video peaking)… very, very handy indeed.
- ~Custom Cropmarks for 16:9, 2.35:1, 4:3 and any other format… another cool and very handy feature.
- ~Control of focus and bracketing… not sure how this is implemented, but stay tuned.
From the Magic Lantern Wiki:
Will it work on a 7D?
7D being reverse engineered. Short answer: Not yet (or ever?). work was being done on producing a Magic Lantern image for the 7D. Currently we can generate signed firmware images and have dumped the 7D’s ROM for analysis, but there appears to be significantly more protection on the 7D bodies that has locked out firmware updates on the camera. Conclusion: No.
Cue the sad trombone. But, it works for the 5D!
Now Canon, if you’re listening (to me and just about every other 5D video shooter), fix the HDMI output… make it usable, it’s important! Nuff said. Eventually, I’d like to couple the HDMI out to something like the Teradek Cube ($$$):
…or a more DIY solution such as the Asus WiCast or the briteView HDelight:
http://cinescopophilia.com/?p=1531
Your 5D is now untethered and the director and DP can record the HDMI signal over WiFi and watch it from the comfort of a video village. Unfortunately, the HDMI output of the 5D Mk2 doesn’t work very well but here’s hoping for a firmware fix!
There’s more ranting from me on all things technical every Friday (lots of DIY projects coming up), same wolf time, same wolf channel!
Make do with what you got. Film props on a budget.
Make do with what you got.
This would be the one statement we would quote in our manifesto over and over again here at Creature; if we had a manifesto. I am sure you have heard Anthony and the others say this before in other posts; but it is something we are very proud of. We apply this “motto” to the way we make our films, the way we make our comics and I apply it to the way I build our film props.
Film props can be made from just about anything. It only takes a little imagination and a little ingenuity. Sometimes the best pieces for your props are sitting in your own garage.
For example the script for Zombie Years: Thanks Grandpa called for the lead character Delilah to carry an old gore crusted machete and wear some sort of hand protection. So I went into my garage (aka Creature’s prop warehouse) and bam I found an old machete I had been meaning to throw away because it was blunt. I also found some old paintball gloves. Both were perfectly weathered to perfection. I love it when I don’t have to spend money on props and they still look great. Next I got some cardboard and duct tape and made a perfect post-apocalyptic scabbard for Del’s weapon of choice. At this point I feel I should mention adding little doodads and such really help personalize a prop and make it look unique. I added some cord to the machete handle and picked up some small items I found lying around and threaded them through the cord. This gave the weapon a personalized feel as if Del had added some “charms” to girlie it up a bit. It might be the Zombie apocalypse but people still tend to hang onto certain things that make them feel human. This was a central theme to this movie; so I went with it.
I also made a pretty cool looking utility belt for Delilah but I won’t go into that here (I have already rambled enough) you can see Del (as portrayed by actress Karla Solarte-Saint) and some of her gear below. I would also like to give a big thank you to Genesis Cordoba and Whitney Paige they did an amazing job on the costume design for Delilah. These ladies really came through for us and deserve a lot of the credit for helping to bring the character to life.
Karla (Delilah) with all her gear
Close up of machete scabard
Ok I have rambled enough. I’ll try to follow up with more posts about budget prop building and just prop building in general. See you guys next time.
EDIT: Check out Whitney’s comments below on how they put together the costume
A Series of Almost Interactions – Photographic Art Display by Star Roman
(Yes on top of all the other things I do, I also run a gallery; here is info on our show at the end of the month)
A Series of Almost Interactions – Photographic Art Display by Star Roman
Miami, Florida – January 17th 2011 – Star Roman brings her photographic interpretations to CS Gallery on January 28th 2011. Jorge Chirinos Sanchez, director of CS Gallery, breaks out of the canvas displays and ventures for the first time into photography with photographer, Star Roman. Star Roman has been a Miami inhabitant and, based on her work, born with a camera in hand. Her images have long been coveted by collectors and clients seeking unique portraitures. “A Series of Almost Interactions” interprets visions ranging from the surreal to the abstract by Star Roman. “I have been a witness and privileged to have captured unique moments in time with my camera lenses. Jorge’s bravado in venturing in to this display with me will hopefully cause thought and reflection to the gallery’s guests,” Roman stated. “I believe that the guests will be pleased with the gallery’s decision to exhibit my work with the unique content and point of view I bring to this world,” Roman added. “A Series of Almost Interactions” shall be displayed on Friday, January 28th 2011 at CS Gallery located at 787 N.E. 125th Street, North Miami, Florida 33161 (across the street from the Museum of Contemporary Art). The reception and show shall begin at 7 p.m. and end at 11 p.m.
A bit of comic book nostalgia
Well we are officially in CON mode. So I feel nostalgic. Personally, I have been out of comics for almost 20 years. To get an idea of what I’m talking about, I left comics when Shadowhawk and Trencher were around and with nearly a $150-$200 a month comic book habit. My comic crack house of choice was Windy City Comics, just across the street from the Lane Tech High School in Chicago. I remember walking in every Wednesday and having Iggy go to my bin and pull out my titles. Ahhhhhhhh. Spawn, Warlock and the Infinity Watch, Batman, The Maxx, The Tick, Savage Dragon, Cyber Force, Bloodshot, Turok, and Warriors of Plasm. Remember the chromium covers? I still have a signed 1st edition Jim Lee “WILDCATS” cover that I paid $100 for. I’m afraid to find out how much it’s worth these days.
These days find me making films. Every one a grind towards trying to make that first reputable feature. But looking back, comics heavily influenced my eyes and style of storytelling. Comic books were good for me back then. It was a clean and harmless way of passing the time. I am now so fortunate to actually work with a team of creators that are absolutely talented and amazing. I love bringing their comic book visions to life. We are trying to become more ambitious with each project, somehow doing it with less money and resources. Yikes.
To date we have realized “The Gun” and “Zombie Years” as films. We have done the reverse as well, realizing a comic book story out of an original short film entitled “Killswitch Billy”. As far as our next film project is concerned, we have been talking about Forgive Me Father, an original graphic novel by John Ulloa or Ravenous (by the same) for adaption.
As we head out to shop our wares across the country, we’d love to have you come by our table and say; Hi. If you are nice, I may be willing to sell you a signed, chromium cover of WILDCATS #1 for only $95.
Getting Spider-man right
Andrew Garfield as Spider-man
I know this is a little late in coming but after the first official pic of Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man has surfaced it quite honestly, deserves applause. After what I think were some good and vain attempts they finally nailed the look of spider-man in his earliest incarnation as a lanky brooding teenager with a heap of emotional baggage.
I really like the new costume design even though it’s not faithful to the original. Another cool thing you can tell from the pic is that they brought back the web shooters as mechanical devices and not a byproduct of the radioactive spider-bite like in their prior incarnation witch was kind of cheesy for my taste.
I was not a fan of the reboot idea and especially of the fact that they were going to use another actor but this pic has really piqued my interest. I honestly think this will turn out to be a truer to life rendition of ole’ web head than we have seen in his prior incarnations.
KillSwitch Billy and Reverend Jim concept art
Here is some of the first pieces of concept I did for Creature. When we started production on KillSwitch Billy Anthony handed me a whole bunch of visual examples he had collected. We also sat down and talked about the characters and their behavior, mananerisms, and things like that. A week later I had come up with these drawings just to get some visuals flowing and see what we could do with the characters.
I am going to be putting up some more sketches and pages soon; especially since I have already started penciling our next book Ravenous.
KillSwitch Billy Concept Art
Reverend Jim Concept Art
Making Killswitch Billy and being “Indie”
I can’t see straight from all the late night hours of editing. And on top of this I am getting these harassing e-mails from our web dept. (aka Al Quesada) to submit a short blog, blurp or whatever you call it for the Creature site. Hey Al, go f*ck yourself. Ok. I feel better now…..
It started with a title. With me, it’s always been that way. A working title has always been a driving creative force for the short films I’ve worked on. So when I finally came up with the title and character of Killswitch Billy, it was as if the story would write itself (with the amazing contribution of Juan Navarro creator and writer of Zombie Years). The name sounded so cool and indie that it fueled my imagination. After pitching the concept and story to the guys at one of our production staff meetings, they were all excited to jump onboard and bring Billy to life.
Out of the Box No.3, I’m not a Fan Boy, I’m a FANMAN
While huffing some paint one day….
One thing I know is this: the comics industry at it’s best, is a Republic. Between that and the worst, it has been everything else, from Dogmatic Fascism to Mob-ruled Democracy.
You know what I mean.
I don’t know exactly when the term Fanboy was coined fer sure, but to me it was always been the iconic DC Comics Lobo #1 Cover, and it stuck. Now in so many ways and in so many forms, be it Comics, Games, Movies, or what-have-you, Fanboy is the term for those really eager masses , that sway and curl in a comic-con crowd for the next event/thing/giveaway/crossover/whatever like a Black Smoke Monster. It’s been a term of endearment, to a really ugly and close-bearing Insult at the same time.
I personally don’t care.
Those few who create and make the various genres that run this, feed this and are fed by this, run the gamut of alignments. Some take full advantage of the stupidity of Fanboy-ism and others help cultivate it. Some despise the fandom that loves them, and some are like Saints, blessing the wretched and raped, as they get whipped by them.
Again not caring too much.
But those out there who really love the work, follow it, and want to make the best of it, be it by creator or for creators, those, yes those are the ones who supersede it all, who really up the challenge.
Yellow Hat Guy, you are no Fanboy, you are a FAN-MAN
Even though you could have gone a ugly route, and just gone up to Liefeld and said “YOU SUCK” you didn’t no. No you actually came to stand toe to toe with the guy, like a person, and probably said to him what EVERYONE ELSE WHO WAS AROUND FOR HEROES REBORN had said, and you wanted an apology for the crappiness of it. Applause. Heck you even wanted to help him create better comics! I mean how self-less is that?
Yellow Hat Guy is our Rosa Parks…… ok, no, not at all.
Sure, you may say to yourself, “What does Liefeld have to apologize for? He’s an artist and didn’t it sell like a bajillion copies?”
If we ever get farther than just the plain bullshit consumerism of the comics world and really turn it into the art, we need more Yellow Hat Guys. We need fans to not only adore you creators, we need them to critique on occasion, and help you make a better book and hence make a better fan.
We can only hope to have that same thing here at Creature Entertainment, FANMEN ( and WOMEN) to give us that Honey Suckled Praise, and that Hot-coal in the culo Critique.
+ We had a real productive meeting Monday on some of the things we have to check list off, and of course, the site is one of them, so expect to see some of changes around here as we go.
+Julio is still editing “The Gun” while we all go blind looking at the sky trying to some rain at ngiht to shoot in. Also, we think Julio is getting a little weird editing all the time, mumbling about his “precious” here and there and holding the DV tapes like they were gold.
+The rest of us are working on our own proejcts and trying to set up the content here in the site. Stay tuned since we’ll be announcing new Webcomics and other Projects soon.
OUT OF THE BOX! No. 2 “Myths of the Suffering Artist and other douche baggery”
“People have to really suffer before they can risk doing what they love.”-Chuck Palahniuk
:::cough:::cough:::
Allow me a moment to be a bit of a dramatic schmuck,yes?
Every other day, I peruse through Deviantart , posting and talking to other artists on there.As much as the code and overall layout has the sense of design of a Ransom Note, it does have an extensive community involved. Of course being that extensive, it spans all the genres you could fathom, but also spans the scale of shit to brilliance with an amazing ability too.
The Emo-like whining and pining does tend to stay within the limp-wristed, tweener, douchbags there, but amazingly enough you will find many a fucking lumpfuck adult pining away: “Another week and more to do, oh the suffering that bequeaths the mind when making AAAAH-RT!”
BAH.
I don’t know if it was the Romantic Period or the Stories of Van Gogh, or just the gross exaggeration of Hollywood’s Infantile imagination, but somewhere along the line we were introduced into a very poor vision of what an artist is: The Starving Artist.
The Starving Artist, the poor struggling soul out to make right with his imagination, heart and soul some type of beauty that the world, oh the world in it’s spitefulness, does not comprehend or worship! Oh Lo, it is so Sad! Boo-hoo! They should appreciate him/her for there soul is the essence of the…
BAH.
Somewhere at sometime, we were told that this was good thing, like this was some kind of badge of honor, some type of backwards ass thinking to poser lifestyle that is still consumed to this day was good, was RIGHT. The worst part? People lap this up! The eat it, swallow it, and lick their fingers in the uttermost backwash shit of an ideal.
BAH.
After you wipe your screen from all this bile I’m spewing, let me be clear that I’m not making this out to be easy. Being an Artist is just an emotional hazard, and can be a crippling line of work, at least mentally. I know, I’m doing it.
I just don’t wallow in it.
When we give ourselves over to such self-imaging and pity, we take the power away from what we have, and what we are: CREATORS. Makers of things. Universe Builders, Thinkers and Ponderers of the Uncreated. You/Me/We are the FUNK in this Punch and the simple fact that we can make something out of nothing. Be it with our bodies or instrument or a piece of paper. That is not celebrated enough, you do not celebrate that enough, and neither do I.
Because we look for the Audience and approval. We have to, we are the protoplasmic foot moving forward for the whole cell, society. We want to do these things and have applause, have limelight have something but really..
BAH.
You have to pursue this for yourself first, because you need the first to applause, the first to stand up, the first to make it. To put it simply:
“The arts are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow.” -Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
AH.
:::End Dramatic Pandering::::
+The crew went out last Friday and filmed a couple of the last scenes of “The Gun”. Other than that, we just need one day of rain and The Gun can go fully into Post-Production.
+Inks on Tommy are coming along, as are pencils. This week we ramp up production a bit to get more of a footing on it.
+If you read on Monday we showed a preview of Jose Varese’s cover for “The Gun” which was just badass.
+Zombie Years also updates today so come see some Smoke, Fire and Undead!
Catch us on the Twitter too.
OUT OF THE BOX, No.1 Spawning of the Creature
Like a Beautiful Eagle made of FIRE AND PCP, rising to the sky if only to tear at your face, and help you fly, WE ARE CREATURE ENTERTAINMENT!
This is a hard thing, we’re trying to do. Oh yes, very hard. How many people out there, believing the big belief, swearing on their talent, go out and try to form an Entertainment Company? How many folks are scratching the walls making an independent film? How many grab some paper and pencils and say “Lets make a comic”
A fuck load.
By the time you finish reading this I bet another has formed somewhere in the world. Somewhere a bunch of “buddies” decided to get together in some creative endeavor. Right now.
With so much creativity happening, why does most of it suck then? Why is it when you turn on the TV, or go to a movie theater, half the stuff blows, and the other half is predictable and stupid? Why is it that the radio is a total disappointment? Why does the TV make your eyes bleed in the shear insipid nightmare of others peoples imagination
Effort.
Phoning it in. Half-assing it. Bullshitting. Weak. Limp-wristed attempts. People just not giving a shit. That’s the main difference 99% of the time. It’s not budgets, it’s not exposure, or fame, or even talent or skill.
Effort.
If you really work your ass off, really burn it all down, you’ll get something. What? I have no idea, but something good will come of it, if anything the ability to do the next project better. But if you don’t sweat or cry a little, if bruises and cuts don’t form, if there isn’t just a tiny drop of blood somewhere in the process, don’t expect anything back.
Here at Creature that is the one thing we have in spades. We’re willing to sweat for our work. With all our productions be it “The Gun” movie or the various shorts we have in the works or our publishing arm, with “Forgive me Father” or “Zombie Years”, we’re doing all we can and we have.
We have days jobs, we have families, we have responsibilities that far exceed these things, but in the end we are putting out and making something we love and want to share about. With that, I think that we’re going to rise above a lot of turds floating in the water.
If not, we’re having a hell of a time doing it.
So this is the opening barrage here on the Creature. I’m Juan Navarro, Editor-in-Chief of the publishing wing of Creature Entertainment. “Out of the Box” is going to be a weekly column informing you on the going-ons here it our studio, but also comment on various issues going on in comics and movies and Bird House Building…
…wait.
+We’ll be filming the last bits of “The Gun” this Friday, so we’re real excited about getting everything done. Geez I wish I could show you how good it looks!
+Julio Alvarez is still at the editing table, and really busting his ass piecing together the first Episode of “The Gun”, and I got to say, it looks freaking awesome, and I’m not enjoying that. Every time we go to the editing room, we’re astounded by the look and form of the first episode. I can’t wait till we can post it.
+Rene Quesada is cooking up another possible web series, we’re just picking out what and how we approach the work itself.
+John Ulloa is currently working on the script for the second episode of “The Gun” putting together all the beats we discussed in a production meeting last week.
+Al Quesada has been putting together various ideas, and I’ve been bouncing some stuff off him, trying to see what other projects for Creature we can do. I think the problem isn’t the ideas, it’s picking one to do right now!
+Jose Varese sent us pencils for the first issue of “The Gun” and they look awesome. The covers are slick as hell. Expect them up soon.
+Between Zombie Years and our upcoming book Tommy, my art chores have been stacking high, but right now I’m on a good rhythm and hope to dwindle some serious Bristol Board this week.
To get up to date Creature news and update go to our twitter at CreatureColumn or subscribe to the feed from the Blog!
My Take from all the San Diego Comic-con Coverage
Like me, if you weren’t at the San Diego Comic-Con, you were probably bombarded, albeit voluntarily, with various Tweets, Feeds, Blogs, and just flailing of limbs at what was coming in from the Con floor.
G4 had some good coverage, not anythingspecial I wasn’t already getting off tweets and such, but in a TV show setting, it was cool to see it on that screen. Both Kevin Pereira and Olive Munn’s Tweets were like war coverage in some ravaged country as they try to get you what was happening on the Ground. I believe they were last seen by the bathrooms, and the kidnappers demands haven’t been given.
News of Olivia Munn being War machine was pretty bad ass too, and a good surprise. I think she could pull it off, I just wonder how?
I really wasn’t into the swag. Believe me, when I was there back in 2007, it all seemed real cool, but after awhile the blatant tagging and bagging marketing gets to you. I don’t want to shit on collectors and such, I can understand the hobby being an ex-McFarlane toy collector, but I just can’t stand that crazy desperation that come with stepping on new-borns to get a USB stick with some label on it. I mean look at some of the most expensive crap they have and you tell me….
Some “BIG NEWS ANNOUNCEMENTS” were just….crappy.
The News of Marvel Anime, like Wolverine and Iron Man were sort of mixed; Iron Man fit the anime perfectly and was dynamic and “Mecha” cool, but Wolverine was just…posturing shit. The character design was fine, a little quirky for the sake of quirky sort of deal, but him fighting some reject of Deathnote? Ghostdogs? Made no sense. Why not have him as patch and show him in an Asian Pacific setting? That would be excellent, not the visual vomit I saw.
Marvel doing Miracle Man news…..who gives a shit? The comics were good, but really i don’t’ find it that out of this world, until I see something worthwhile done with it, until then I’ll give it a nice nudge and “oh…uh-huh cool” and that’s it. With X-men; the Necronosha storyline could be awesome or……just dull. We’ll have to see.
DC is riding this Blackest night thing FOUR-EVA! Yes Dead superheroes coming back, and death and big event, and BLAH-TITY_BLAH-TITY BLAH! When it was just a Green Lantern event in the early stages it really made stay on with the book, literally. I was reading it and ready to drop it when all of a sudden the emergence of the Sinestro Corp , and the GL Corp book came out, and I was suddenly back in, while the main stay book was re-hashing the old Hal Jordan origin AGAIN. To me it saved the title, but now they want to make it this huge ridiculous event across all the books, and ….yawn. Whatever. If it proves to have some weight, I may read in trade. I’m still thinking of getting Final Crisis in trade.What I like of DC’s announcements? Having seen some of the work for it, is that Over-sized newsprint book they are doing at DC with various writers and artist, all top named. That looks bad-ass, and maybe a very worthwhile venture, even at 3.99 price tag.
I also think it’s sad that they are still trying to re-invent Wonder-Woman with this new angle. You can tell DC got shook up when Megan Fox put her big hammer toed foot in Wonder Woman’s ass, calling her lame. The Response? Making her suck more, I think.
Some Article coverages I dug, was this one on IO9 with J. Michael Straczynski and tactics for writing and such. It was informative and packs lots of advice and things to keep in mind if you are going to pursue it.
The Digital Comics Panel held a real interest to me, and was covered pretty well covered here. As much as I’m for it, the hold on all that is tedious at best. Until they start burning the bytes, and people start using and to a certain ABUSING their systems we won’t know who will win…. other than the fans.
One of the cooler stories developing at the con was this, which was very sweet, but I wonder how it turned out?
Quentin Tarantino’s Comic-Con panel seemed pretty cool, but I love his advice, which was as instructional as it should be “Make a KICK-ASS FUCKING MOVIE” ( which seems like a consensus of all the movie-makers involved)
Other cool stuff? Cool Rumors on Avengers Movie, Book of Eli looks awesome, so does Jonah Hex.
My eyes are bleeding from watching the twitter feeds so I can’t say too much more. I dug the coverage and news about projects and such, but all in all, Twitter was more informative than the con, and really I think the whole hub-bub is sort of losing it’s charm. The again, I come form the thinking that if you love something enough, you’ll hate it just a little too, whenever anybody tries to fuck with it.
Maybe next year when I attend I’ll have a different take…… or pile driving pre-teens for a Marvel Poster, who knows…
(NOTE: I found that between Bleeding Cool, IO9, and Robot 6, I was getting all the coverage you needed for the con. I wonder though, if there are more stories coming out of Artist Alley and the independent works.)
A Look back at Supercon
So last weekend the Creature Crew got together and we all went to the South Florida Supercon here in Miami, at the Doubletree Miami Convention Center. We met at the Studio in Doral in the morning and headed out, and to make a long story short, it was very pretty awesome with a slight dash of “meh”.
Now for the long story:
It was a good surprise to see that there was a buttload of people in attendance and we could see the swaths of costumed folks from down the street. We were soon looking at packs of Naruto fans, some Fairy girls, and a Sailor Scout or two on the way in. Five bucks for parking and a small freaking hike, and we were in.
In the line that is. Again the large swarms were all around, but it was fun to see the enthusiasm on people’s faces as they came in, costumes and all. It was also fun to see that some of the cosplayers were half melted from the heat outside, and one guy dressed as the Joker, was already staining his shirt with white and green.
And what took our breath away more than the costumes? The friggin’ price! $25.00 dollar entrance for one day was a bit steep, and we all looked at each other trying to make sure we were registering the same amount of “WTF?” but considering the amount of folks and such, we decided to plunk down the cash and catch the show.
The one thing coming in that I had to comment on was that this was first con I’ve ever been to, where the food court was in front at the entrance. Now I’m not complaining but when you walk into a Comic Convention and get slammed with the smell of nachos, it sorta weirds you out for a second. You’re hungry but at the same time you’re behind the fat sweaty kid wearing the Babylon 5 T-shirt who smells like soup and ass, so it’s just a bad clash
Either way we didn’t buy any food, since con food tends to
A. SUCKS ASS
B. cost you an arm and a leg….. and some of your lower intestines too.
The con had a formidable size and everything was in a neat row. Getting around the con wasn’t a problem and it was kind of cool to see the artist alley to the right and immediate, instead of being delegated to the back like they were Lepers with Pig Flu wrapped in Bacon. Funny thing was, that the bathrooms were in front of the convention, which is great, you do your business, and head right out or go to the bathroom as you were coming in. But the back of the con, which was sort of empty of folks, except for Scions parked there for promotion, smelled like ass. What was that?
Artist Alley had some great people, like Tony Moore, artist on Walking Dead, Dennis Calero, who worked on some of the Marvel Noir stuff, and the super awesome X-factor that is out right now, the guys at Students of the Unusual, Pat Martin and Tony Cronin, and a lot more, and they were all accessible and very cool.
I think I blew so much smoke up Calero’s ass he might have thought I was a stalker or something.
I did find a lot of awesome work, and better yet, Awesome people, like Luis Diaz. He Illustrated the recent run of Garbage Pail Kids and has worked with IDW Publishing, Bang Productions, Miami New Times, New York City’s The Village Voice and recently WWE. The guy’s work was astounding and has a great hold of the brush. Really go check him out, he’s gonna be bursting eyeballs for some time to come. You may see some projects at Creature featuring him in the future.
Now, not all things were comics, and there is a bit of a Craft/Etsy/DIY scene forming in Miami too, (and you know I know) and I met some Hialeah peoples that make up ALMIGHTEE, who were showing their wares at the con. We talked a good amount about Screen Printing and such. I’ve done screen printing in the past, and I have an OK handle on it, but Jordan is doing it HARDCORE, putting out his own t-shirt line. The designs are beautiful and simple, from the Hilarious to the Gorgeous to the just frakkin’ COOL. Check out their shop and get something that’s not only well designed, but hand-made, and on top of that, HAND MADE IN HIALEAH, YO! Coñoooo!
All in all, a good show, and I was surprised to see something this effective, in Miami. Now, on the other hand, the show is very Manga intensive, which I have no problems with, but as we all know , it can get a little ridiculous and immature in that department (though not saying the regular Fanboys aren’t peckers either) so that’s something you have to get used to, and in perspective. It’s funny, but discussing it with some the Creature Crew afterward, we guessed that Miami’s Latin Base (buh-buh-buh-BASE!) tend to love Manga and Anime, and we figure that’s because of it’s strong presence in Latin America (kids grow up on Speed Racer and Mazinger Z to this day). I remember watching plenty of that as a kid when I went to visit relatives in Mexico. I just wish that I would see some stronger Manga Artists coming out of that. I’m not talking quality because if you look at guys like Hector Elsevilla, fucking has it! I own one penciled page by him and it’s like he draws with an X-acto knife made of Graphite! No, I’m talking about overall QUANTITY, especially here in Miami. I suspect there’s more, but they probably have a bad case of limped wrist emo-ness and tend to not show. GET YOUR BALLS TOGETHER, YOU MUTTS, and show yourselves! I always think that if some of these sensitive artist got some spine we would be a wrecking ball of Sequential Hellfire here in Miami.
And that goes for any con, really! You guys that out there putting your heart and souls out, stand up, damn it, and don’t just slouch there drawing away as people pass by! Get up and scream about how much of a genius you are so the rest of us might know. And if you suck? Well people will tell you for sure. People were very cool and receptive, I passed out flyers for Zombie Years and everyone involved was just nice as heck.
Conclusion? the South Florida Supercon was awesome. I was little put off by the $25.00 entry fee for one day, which seemed a little steep, but the venue was pretty decent, it was a very good show, and I look forward to showing there, fo’sho.
