Hello Cadets, for you here in the Midwest I hope you are staying cool. As I said before you have asked for more zombies and I am inclined to oblige. One thing I like about zombies is that they are complex in their simplicity. There have been a variety of spins on the genre but it is almost impossible to romanticize a zombie story unless the romance is between two survivors because, really, who wants to kiss a diseased undead corpse? Today’s post will be about the three different classifications of zombies. I hope you enjoy and please let me know if I miss anything.
The first type is the classic, rise from the grave, shambling zombie as portrayed in the 1932’s White Zombie. The reason for this is the original lore of how a zombie was created. There are many stories all over the world for centuries about zombies but there was one particular story In Haiti people would get voodoo potions from witch doctors for anything from holistic medicine to love potions but every so often these ‘potions’ would contain a tetrodotoxin to make the person appear to be dead. Bear in mind this was many many years ago before autopsies were common practice. Usually the person who fell victim would be buried alive for hours to days before being dug up by the witch doctor and put to work on plantations. By the time the ‘bodies’ were dug up the person would have developed brain damage from a lack of oxygen and there were times where they didn’t retrieve them fast enough and the person really died. The plantation owners were usually cruel as most slave owners are and would beat the people the essentially kidnapped. One instance the laborers had enough and attacked their abusers with the only tool available, their hands and teeth. One of the men did make it to a town and was recognized by a neighbor, marking the most well-known zombie sighting.
Since then the standard for a zombie is usually some sort of infection or disease that can be spread through zombie bites or being reanimated from a voodoo curse. These zombies are usually all sorts of grotesque, already partially decomposed, slow, and stupid, they can’t use doors or climb anything more complicated than stairs (if that). These are the zombies most typically seen in George A. Romero’s films or the Resident Evil series. These zombies are still terrifying because they do not stop until their head and brain are destroyed and they possess seemingly inhuman strength. Another twist Romero added in Return of the Living Dead and Land of the dead is that they can learn. One on it’s own, while no laughing matter, is hardly a challenge to dodge or dispatch of but a swarm of them could easily overpower a person as displayed in the first episode of Walking Dead. Shaun of the Dead even had something to add to the terror of these slow menaces in the fact that they are easily fooled by pretending to shamble and groan like them but people’s unwillingness to work together or accept the situation is just as dangerous as the zombies themselves and caused them to lose most of their crew. Needless to say slow and steady does not minimize the threat or amount of fear induced by these creepy slow-pokes.
That brings me to the next type, the fast moving zombies. The first film to feature this particular adrenaline-inducing terror was Return of the Living Dead in 1985, which wasn’t terribly scary but great fun. It was not a common trend until 2002 when Danny Boyle directed 28 Days Later. These badboys are of a whole other level of terror because usually they could move just as fast as the survivors but the difference is that they never slow down because they don’t get tired. Imagine trying to maneuver around debris, climb structures and just run like hell while dodging a monster that can do everything you do without slowing down or feeling pain, it’s a whole other level of unfair. On the plus side they are usually still lacking in intelligence and you can still fight if you are able to keep your wits about you but needless to say it’s a safe bet most of us will end up like those who fell victim in Zombieland, rundown and unable to defend against these quick moving horrors.
There is a whole different classification for zombies as of 2002 with the Rage infected people of 28 Days Later, this introduced the infected versus the reanimated. Infected does not apply to all fast moving zombies, as in the case of the Dawn of the Dead remake, but it does make up the majority. The difference is that the infected ‘zombies’ do not need to die to become a zombie. [Rec] was another prime example as was the remake Quarantine with the mutated rabies virus. There are a lot of movies that never reveal the cause of the zombies such as Shaun of the Dead so the safe bet is if they die before becoming a zombie it’s reanimation, not infection. Same can be applied to Left 4 Dead as we do not know the cause of infection and the zombies don’t try to eat the survivors but beat on them instead. Personally I like this spin on the zombie genre, it’s something new for a monster that’s been fabled for centuries.
I have to honest and say that I love how popular the zombie theme has gotten. I am sure with the resurgence of Grimm fairy tale remakes in the making that the trend is going to waver for a bit but the fans aren’t distracted for long. We aren’t in it for the love and romantic drama, we are in it for the gore, story, and even to see the unlikeliest of relationships form. I hope you all enjoyed learning about zombies, if I missed anything please let me know on my facebook group at The Litter-ati. On that note I bit you all farewell until tomorrow. This is War Kitten signing off and reminding you that voodoo priests with potions are the equivalent to a stranger in a van with free candy, usually not to be trusted.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
First Annual Zombie Shamble is in sight!
Hello to my wonderful Cadets! In light of the looming weekend activities I am only making a short post today. I have held a couple polls and it has been requested to have more zombies so here’s the deal, next week I will post a couple zombie related articles. Also I have an invite for you all, I want you to join me on August 20th in Millenium Park for the first ever Zombie Shamble Race. I ask that you zombify yourself, we will designate a meeting place closer to the day of the race. The end point? The Bean. Once all of the competitors are at the Bean we will do a short Thriller celebration dance. From there we can socialize and have fun. The link to the event is here: First Annual Zombie Race. I hope to hear from you and get this event rocking. Thank you all and please watch out for falling satellites.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Skeletons & the Empty Pockets: Bringing the Cool Back to Music
Hello cadets, hope you enjoyed the piece from yesterday on the Pop genre. I had a lot of interesting feedback and I would like to take this time to remind you that I accept all feedback and criticism so let me have it, just try to be constructive. In keeping with the theme from yesterday I will submit to you a review of a local blues-rock band from Sheffield in the UK, Skeletons & the Empty Pockets. This review is only of the songs I had access to here in the United States so please bear with me.
I first stumbled across this band in 2010 when I heard the song “Everyone Still Loves You” (known as “Folks at Home” on their myspace page) on The Rock Sound Magazine's 'Rock Sound: Ones to Watch 2010'. Of all the artists on that sampler CD this was the song that had my attention from the powerful beginning that seemed to start with keyboards, guitar, bass and drums simultaneously playing, needless to say it was an attention getter. From there you are left with a catchy tune that conjures an image of the coolest circus ever matched with interesting lyrics and unique vocals, this song was definitely a gem. I proceeded to not only play it every time I was in the car but to look up the band and see if I could find more of their music.
It was in this time that I stumbled upon the next two songs, those were “Oh Brother! Oh Sister!” and “In the Woods” from their Oh Brother! Oh Sister! EP and I was blown away yet again, both songs have a little subtler yet unique opening riffs and the style seemed slightly different yet still very much their own. “In the Woods” has a very 70’s meets new millennium sound that just clicks perfectly with Liam Creamer’s vocal style. “Oh Brother! Oh Sister!” was also amazing, a little more modern sounding and in the same vein as “Everybody Still Loves You.” Christopher Shepherd and Matthew Westley made the guitar and bass create a whole new bluesy sound combined with a wonderful sprinkling of keyboards by Stuart Di-Tanna. This was the first track I heard to lead with the drums which are brilliantly played by Ryan Jenkinson. These songs are on iTunes and I highly recommend everyone should check them out.
I made it to their myspace page next and found yet another song called “Le Cake”. The song starts out with a playful beat that evolves into a delightful romp of a tune that incites one to get up and dance. The energy is nothing but feel-good with good times to be had and should not be overlooked. The backing vocals and up-beat keyboard definitely tied this song together in a truly great way.
Last but definitely not least was “On Ya Knees,” the Skeletons’ newest song. I think this was their mellowest song since “In the Woods” and brought something a bit different to the table. This is the song you could hear at blues club, the low sound that starts the song off that builds to a crescendo at the chorus is definitely something to behold and the last half of the song takes on a whole life of it’s own without becoming a separate entity.
Overall I think that the Skeletons & the Empty Pockets are a band to watch for, their sound is unique and on a level all it’s own. They have a new EP in the works and currently perform in the UK. Please visit their facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/Skeletonsandtheemptypockets where you can listen to their music and get updates to their activities. While you are there please join me on my page at The Litter-Ati where you can voice your opinions, participate in open topics and polls and hear about any upcoming events. This is War Kitten signing off and reminding you that any story involving the sentence “I didn’t meant to put my sword there” is going to require explaining.
I first stumbled across this band in 2010 when I heard the song “Everyone Still Loves You” (known as “Folks at Home” on their myspace page) on The Rock Sound Magazine's 'Rock Sound: Ones to Watch 2010'. Of all the artists on that sampler CD this was the song that had my attention from the powerful beginning that seemed to start with keyboards, guitar, bass and drums simultaneously playing, needless to say it was an attention getter. From there you are left with a catchy tune that conjures an image of the coolest circus ever matched with interesting lyrics and unique vocals, this song was definitely a gem. I proceeded to not only play it every time I was in the car but to look up the band and see if I could find more of their music.
It was in this time that I stumbled upon the next two songs, those were “Oh Brother! Oh Sister!” and “In the Woods” from their Oh Brother! Oh Sister! EP and I was blown away yet again, both songs have a little subtler yet unique opening riffs and the style seemed slightly different yet still very much their own. “In the Woods” has a very 70’s meets new millennium sound that just clicks perfectly with Liam Creamer’s vocal style. “Oh Brother! Oh Sister!” was also amazing, a little more modern sounding and in the same vein as “Everybody Still Loves You.” Christopher Shepherd and Matthew Westley made the guitar and bass create a whole new bluesy sound combined with a wonderful sprinkling of keyboards by Stuart Di-Tanna. This was the first track I heard to lead with the drums which are brilliantly played by Ryan Jenkinson. These songs are on iTunes and I highly recommend everyone should check them out.
I made it to their myspace page next and found yet another song called “Le Cake”. The song starts out with a playful beat that evolves into a delightful romp of a tune that incites one to get up and dance. The energy is nothing but feel-good with good times to be had and should not be overlooked. The backing vocals and up-beat keyboard definitely tied this song together in a truly great way.
Last but definitely not least was “On Ya Knees,” the Skeletons’ newest song. I think this was their mellowest song since “In the Woods” and brought something a bit different to the table. This is the song you could hear at blues club, the low sound that starts the song off that builds to a crescendo at the chorus is definitely something to behold and the last half of the song takes on a whole life of it’s own without becoming a separate entity.
Overall I think that the Skeletons & the Empty Pockets are a band to watch for, their sound is unique and on a level all it’s own. They have a new EP in the works and currently perform in the UK. Please visit their facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/Skeletonsandtheemptypockets where you can listen to their music and get updates to their activities. While you are there please join me on my page at The Litter-Ati where you can voice your opinions, participate in open topics and polls and hear about any upcoming events. This is War Kitten signing off and reminding you that any story involving the sentence “I didn’t meant to put my sword there” is going to require explaining.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Pop Isn't Dead, It's Just Resting It's Eyes
Hello cadets, I know things have slowed quite a bit around here but alas, even I get struck by a lack of motivation. Recently I’ve been listening to a lot of new types of music (to me, at least) and I’ve noticed something slightly disturbing over the years. Pop music is so extremely cookie cutter that I don’t even notice the track has changed until I look at my playlist quite a bit later. Another trend I have noticed is what I like to call “false advertisement,” which I will explain further. That being said I would like to preface this with the fact that while I tend to prefer bands such as My Chemical Romance and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, I do enjoy pop music from time to time but I’m picky. This article will not be a rant alone so please bear with me.
To start out we will look at the concert scene first as that is where I had my first problem with the pop world. As you all know a majority of pop singers from Britney to Madonna and even Cher lip sync on stage. In a way it makes sense as they are typically dancing and it is nigh impossible to sing well while dancing. My beef with this is the fact that I can go see a band like Flogging Molly for $30 or less, no seating arrangement, and hear actual live music and catch an entertaining show (David King has an impressive jig). If I wanted to go see Ke$ha right now it would be between $45 and $64 depending on where I want to sit. Now I have paid high prices for a show like Muse but I can’t even fathom paying more than $25 for an auto-tuned lip syncer strutting around on stage, the price doesn’t match the quality. The same goes for a majority of the singers of the pop world, they filter and edit their songs so much in the studio that there would be no way to perform these songs live and make people feel okay with the price for those tickets.
Another thing I would like to point out is Milli Vanilli. Everyone old enough to remember knows they were caught when their track started skipping during a performance which revealed that they were lip syncing but that was in the 80’s when people acted like it was a dirty secret. Since then we had known that many performers did the same thing and as long as they were the original singers no one minded. Flash forward to Ashley Simpson. Same issue where the track did something very wonky and she was caught, all of a sudden people were outraged. The thing that baffled me was that people were outraged, by now it was brought to light that most pop princesses and boy bands lip synced in their live shows, so why was it suddenly a big issue? I feel that it was just a chance for the complainers to get on their soap boxes for no reason but I digress, I personally think lip syncing is a horrible trend that needs to go out of style yesterday.
Now the good news, there are a lot of artists that are dropping auto-tune and the prerecorded tracks and doing live shows the right way. I want to give kudos to Lady Gaga for actually singing at her shows and managing dance routines that don’t make her voice too jumpy, hopefully the trend will catch soon. Also bands such as Onerepublic do not lip sync, and they even write their own songs so I consider it an added bonus for them (nothing against those who can’t, it’s like that sometimes). I like that many artists have started to follow this trend and if they have the gall to charge $350 a ticket I would like to hear them sing, not the processed track they pretend to sing to.
Next is the auto-tune monster. If there is one thing I have begun to detest of averything in the music world it is excessive use of auto-tune. I understand using it as an editing tool but it is the sugar of the music world pyramid, to be used sparingly. I am going to pick on Ke$ha again and point out her voice has quite a bit of auto-tune added. Let’s not forget T-Pain, who is a genius because he is able to sell his records extremely well for an overly electronic voice that he makes fun of in the Budweiser commercials. Auto-tune has brought people like Paris Hilton into the music world, for better or worse, showing that anyone with access to this machine can make a song. A majority of rock and country artists refuse to touch this thing and even protest it’s use but at times it’s powers can be used for good, one such instance is the Bed Intruder Song that launched Antoine Dodson’s internet fame in 2010.
The subject of Auto-tune also brings to light another quite interesting aspect that is mostly confined to Japan currently called Vocaloid. Vocaloid is a computer program that generates a Japanese voice characterized by either male or female of different pitches and tones. This program can actually make a pop song without the use of an actual singer (aside from the voice samplings taken from voice actors to create the pitch). There have been tons of tracks released including original songs and cover songs. Each ‘voice’ is given a name and animated character (most popular known voice is Hatsune Miku) and there are concerts where the created tracks are played and sync up to an animation of the corresponding characters.
One person did think that this was just a trend over there but I would like to point out two examples of the separate elements. First is the Gorillaz, who sang live but behind a screen while their animated personas were on stage. Another example is T-Pain, whose electronic voice and obvious use of auto-tune on and off stage still draws in crowds. Whether we realize it or not these trends are pretty global in the pop world but that doesn’t mean the genre is lost, there is hope. Former lip syncers such as Christina Aguilara are now singing without the backing track or auto-tune. Also there are many talented artists who get by without excessive use of any of the aforementioned techniques so I challenge them to step it up because the pop world is being revolutionized and the same old same old is not cutting it anymore. This is War Kitten signing off and challenging you to shake things up, unless it’s a bee’s nest in which case back away slowly.
To start out we will look at the concert scene first as that is where I had my first problem with the pop world. As you all know a majority of pop singers from Britney to Madonna and even Cher lip sync on stage. In a way it makes sense as they are typically dancing and it is nigh impossible to sing well while dancing. My beef with this is the fact that I can go see a band like Flogging Molly for $30 or less, no seating arrangement, and hear actual live music and catch an entertaining show (David King has an impressive jig). If I wanted to go see Ke$ha right now it would be between $45 and $64 depending on where I want to sit. Now I have paid high prices for a show like Muse but I can’t even fathom paying more than $25 for an auto-tuned lip syncer strutting around on stage, the price doesn’t match the quality. The same goes for a majority of the singers of the pop world, they filter and edit their songs so much in the studio that there would be no way to perform these songs live and make people feel okay with the price for those tickets.
Another thing I would like to point out is Milli Vanilli. Everyone old enough to remember knows they were caught when their track started skipping during a performance which revealed that they were lip syncing but that was in the 80’s when people acted like it was a dirty secret. Since then we had known that many performers did the same thing and as long as they were the original singers no one minded. Flash forward to Ashley Simpson. Same issue where the track did something very wonky and she was caught, all of a sudden people were outraged. The thing that baffled me was that people were outraged, by now it was brought to light that most pop princesses and boy bands lip synced in their live shows, so why was it suddenly a big issue? I feel that it was just a chance for the complainers to get on their soap boxes for no reason but I digress, I personally think lip syncing is a horrible trend that needs to go out of style yesterday.
Now the good news, there are a lot of artists that are dropping auto-tune and the prerecorded tracks and doing live shows the right way. I want to give kudos to Lady Gaga for actually singing at her shows and managing dance routines that don’t make her voice too jumpy, hopefully the trend will catch soon. Also bands such as Onerepublic do not lip sync, and they even write their own songs so I consider it an added bonus for them (nothing against those who can’t, it’s like that sometimes). I like that many artists have started to follow this trend and if they have the gall to charge $350 a ticket I would like to hear them sing, not the processed track they pretend to sing to.
Next is the auto-tune monster. If there is one thing I have begun to detest of averything in the music world it is excessive use of auto-tune. I understand using it as an editing tool but it is the sugar of the music world pyramid, to be used sparingly. I am going to pick on Ke$ha again and point out her voice has quite a bit of auto-tune added. Let’s not forget T-Pain, who is a genius because he is able to sell his records extremely well for an overly electronic voice that he makes fun of in the Budweiser commercials. Auto-tune has brought people like Paris Hilton into the music world, for better or worse, showing that anyone with access to this machine can make a song. A majority of rock and country artists refuse to touch this thing and even protest it’s use but at times it’s powers can be used for good, one such instance is the Bed Intruder Song that launched Antoine Dodson’s internet fame in 2010.
The subject of Auto-tune also brings to light another quite interesting aspect that is mostly confined to Japan currently called Vocaloid. Vocaloid is a computer program that generates a Japanese voice characterized by either male or female of different pitches and tones. This program can actually make a pop song without the use of an actual singer (aside from the voice samplings taken from voice actors to create the pitch). There have been tons of tracks released including original songs and cover songs. Each ‘voice’ is given a name and animated character (most popular known voice is Hatsune Miku) and there are concerts where the created tracks are played and sync up to an animation of the corresponding characters.
One person did think that this was just a trend over there but I would like to point out two examples of the separate elements. First is the Gorillaz, who sang live but behind a screen while their animated personas were on stage. Another example is T-Pain, whose electronic voice and obvious use of auto-tune on and off stage still draws in crowds. Whether we realize it or not these trends are pretty global in the pop world but that doesn’t mean the genre is lost, there is hope. Former lip syncers such as Christina Aguilara are now singing without the backing track or auto-tune. Also there are many talented artists who get by without excessive use of any of the aforementioned techniques so I challenge them to step it up because the pop world is being revolutionized and the same old same old is not cutting it anymore. This is War Kitten signing off and challenging you to shake things up, unless it’s a bee’s nest in which case back away slowly.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Anime Central: A Retrospective
Hello Cadets, hope you have all been well. I attended Anime Central last weekend and am still catching up on some much needed rest from the excitement of the weekend. Now there were a few highs and lows and we will cover them as well as a couple of shout outs.
First day was not so bad, the hotel rooms were actually ready before 2 p.m. this year which is a first for me so kudos to the Hyatt. Once that was all said and done I went off exploring. As per usual there were wonderful cosplays and the dealer's room was a bundle of chaos, but this is not new. Anime Hell was good despite starting late as usual but this year there was a lot of new material. I made new friends and the congoers where a lot more mellow with the exception of the entitled few that think they are the only ones that matter (this does happen).
There were a few gripes I had about the way it was run. First major issue were the autograph sessions. For anyone who went did you see the section in the program with the autograph schedule? Yeah, me neither. This year the autograph area was not made known in the program or to the staff. The schedule was made on the day of and posted in the autograph area at 11am the day of the signing so kiss any photoshoots or panels at that time goodbye. To me this was an ineffective set-up and detrimental to anyone who had plans to be anywhere on these days as you cannot plan the day accordingly this way. I hope this was a trial and error that they realize ended in severe error and will not happen again next year.
Also there was another issue with the set-up as, let's face it, if the program can't tell you where stuff is you will ask the nearest I.R.T. or help booth where to go. On four separate occasions I did this and was told they didn't know and to go elsewhere to ask them. The people at the booth that are there specifically to answer these questions didn't even know, which is just wrong. The staff being so uninformed should not have happened and this is nothing against those who I spoke to, it's those who were in charge of making sure this information was available who need to realize this mistake. I hope next year will not be a repeat of this terrible blunder.
I did attend two press conferences which were a lot of fun and all too short. The first being with Michael Sinterniklaas, an American voice actor who is currently the voice of Dean Venture. I am going to say right now that he is by far one of the coolest guests to ever come to ACEN. He not only stopped for photos in the hall and after the conference but he also did snippets of his roles as Dean and even Brad Crawford of Weiss Kreuz. I do have a video that will be up soon on my youtube channel of the short interview and his quick reprise as Crawford.
The other press conference I was able to attend was the one for FLOW. Again, what great guests. They were energetic and polite and when answering questions they looked straight at you the whole time, even while the translator was repeating the answer for us in English. The video for that conference will be posted soon as well.
Next year is the 15th anniversary of ACEN and I do hope those few kinks are worked out. Overall they still bring interesting guests and have managed to surprise me all over again. With that in mind I will depart to continue working on my uploads. This is War Kitten signing off and reminding you that no matter what, it is unpleasant walking into a room full of guys watching hentai together (true story).
First day was not so bad, the hotel rooms were actually ready before 2 p.m. this year which is a first for me so kudos to the Hyatt. Once that was all said and done I went off exploring. As per usual there were wonderful cosplays and the dealer's room was a bundle of chaos, but this is not new. Anime Hell was good despite starting late as usual but this year there was a lot of new material. I made new friends and the congoers where a lot more mellow with the exception of the entitled few that think they are the only ones that matter (this does happen).
There were a few gripes I had about the way it was run. First major issue were the autograph sessions. For anyone who went did you see the section in the program with the autograph schedule? Yeah, me neither. This year the autograph area was not made known in the program or to the staff. The schedule was made on the day of and posted in the autograph area at 11am the day of the signing so kiss any photoshoots or panels at that time goodbye. To me this was an ineffective set-up and detrimental to anyone who had plans to be anywhere on these days as you cannot plan the day accordingly this way. I hope this was a trial and error that they realize ended in severe error and will not happen again next year.
Also there was another issue with the set-up as, let's face it, if the program can't tell you where stuff is you will ask the nearest I.R.T. or help booth where to go. On four separate occasions I did this and was told they didn't know and to go elsewhere to ask them. The people at the booth that are there specifically to answer these questions didn't even know, which is just wrong. The staff being so uninformed should not have happened and this is nothing against those who I spoke to, it's those who were in charge of making sure this information was available who need to realize this mistake. I hope next year will not be a repeat of this terrible blunder.
I did attend two press conferences which were a lot of fun and all too short. The first being with Michael Sinterniklaas, an American voice actor who is currently the voice of Dean Venture. I am going to say right now that he is by far one of the coolest guests to ever come to ACEN. He not only stopped for photos in the hall and after the conference but he also did snippets of his roles as Dean and even Brad Crawford of Weiss Kreuz. I do have a video that will be up soon on my youtube channel of the short interview and his quick reprise as Crawford.
The other press conference I was able to attend was the one for FLOW. Again, what great guests. They were energetic and polite and when answering questions they looked straight at you the whole time, even while the translator was repeating the answer for us in English. The video for that conference will be posted soon as well.
Next year is the 15th anniversary of ACEN and I do hope those few kinks are worked out. Overall they still bring interesting guests and have managed to surprise me all over again. With that in mind I will depart to continue working on my uploads. This is War Kitten signing off and reminding you that no matter what, it is unpleasant walking into a room full of guys watching hentai together (true story).
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Artist of the Month: Tim Broderick
Hello Cadets! I know it's been a while but work and my preparations for Anime Central have kept me quite preoccupied but let's not dwell on that. Today I would like to introduce an artist who created the Odd Jobs series. I met Mr. Broderick at C2E2 and his artwork caught my eye first. It's not terribly often you'll see an booth in Artist Alley selling only one book and have a single banner in black and white. This had me intrigued, so I stopped and spoke with him a bit and asked him to tell me about his book. He very happily told me about the detective type story he had created and after browsing the art and hearing what the story was about I was sold, not only by the story or his passion for his craft but his humbleness when presenting. Needless to say I bought the book and read it on the way back to the con the next day. The first thing I did was run back to his booth to tell him how much I loved it, there's fighting and romance and plot twists and it was just stunning. His art style is like none I've ever seen, it's simple without being overly so and yet it's powerful and there is not a single panel wasted. I had asked him if he would do me the honor of being the first featured Artist of the Month and I am pleased to present the very talented Tim Broderick.
How long have you been drawing and writing? Did one inspire the other?
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been writing and drawing. They pretty much went hand-in-glove for me.
Speaking of inspiration, where do you get yours from? How did David Diangelo come about?
Well, David came out of a poster I drew for some friends’ band appearance back in 1985 here in Chicago. (See below) No one was doing any publicity, so I did up a poster. I had decided to just draw something, so I grabbed pen, ink and paper and did it – no penciling. And there was this character unlike anything I’d ever drawn before.
It took more than ten years to figure out who David ultimately was. That’s when I put together the idea of surviving in the new economy – where experts predicted that you would have more than one career over your lifetime and need to be continually retrained – with the idea of an amateur detective.
What medium do you use to create your artwork? Computer or traditional? What are your tools of the trade?
I used to pencil, then ink. Then scan the inked page into the computer where I would finish it in Adobe Illustrator and photoshop. Now I pencil then scan the pencils in and use Illustrator and some custom brushes with a Wacom tablet to ink. Then I finish it in Photoshop. I save the files both as 600 dpi bitmap files as well as low rez jpgs for the web.
What is your favorite comic or book series? You can give one of each or an overall or however you like.
Oh, so many good artists. Love & Rockets had a huge impact on me, as well as Corto Maltese. I’m a Rex Stout fan, especially his titles. “If death ever slept” - how cool is that? The Travis McGee series is terrific too – David has been compared to him as well as a modern version of Jim Rockford.
What are your thought on conventions such as C2E2?
I love comic cons, as least the ones I’ve been to. I’ve never been to San Diego, but when there’s a good Artist Alley footprint I think it just adds to the whole atmosphere. There are smaller gems as well – SPACE in Columbus Ohio and Fallcon in Minn. These cons are what sets the comics world apart from the rest of the literati.
What is your favorite part of going to conventions?
Just being a part of the whole show – I’m there to sell books, but I want to make sure I’m at least entertaining to anyone willing to listen.
Do you have any big plans for David Diangelo in the future?
After this current story, I believe I’ll try a prose novel with him.
Is there anything you would like to say to the readers?
Ten years ago, a whole bunch of people were doing webcomics because there just wasn’t another pathway to readers. Now, so many of us have fallen by the wayside, but a few have persevered and have been published or a scrapping out a living. I guess the lesson is that if find a creator whose work you like, support that creator. Link to them, buy their books, encourage them. Because without that support, that encouragement, they’re going to go away.
It’s up to the readers, we need them, and we sure appreciate their support.
So there you have it, an exteremely talented and humble artist. Mr. Broderick will have a booth at Anime Central and I strongly suggest you all go buy his book! You can read his other Odd Jobs comics at http://www.timbroderick.net/ where you can also contact him. Please visit the Litter-ati fanpage in the sidebar where you can discuss Odds Jobs and participate in polls. This is War Kitten signing off and informing you that this is definitely an odd job.
How long have you been drawing and writing? Did one inspire the other?
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been writing and drawing. They pretty much went hand-in-glove for me.
Speaking of inspiration, where do you get yours from? How did David Diangelo come about?
Well, David came out of a poster I drew for some friends’ band appearance back in 1985 here in Chicago. (See below) No one was doing any publicity, so I did up a poster. I had decided to just draw something, so I grabbed pen, ink and paper and did it – no penciling. And there was this character unlike anything I’d ever drawn before.
It took more than ten years to figure out who David ultimately was. That’s when I put together the idea of surviving in the new economy – where experts predicted that you would have more than one career over your lifetime and need to be continually retrained – with the idea of an amateur detective.
What medium do you use to create your artwork? Computer or traditional? What are your tools of the trade?
I used to pencil, then ink. Then scan the inked page into the computer where I would finish it in Adobe Illustrator and photoshop. Now I pencil then scan the pencils in and use Illustrator and some custom brushes with a Wacom tablet to ink. Then I finish it in Photoshop. I save the files both as 600 dpi bitmap files as well as low rez jpgs for the web.
What is your favorite comic or book series? You can give one of each or an overall or however you like.
Oh, so many good artists. Love & Rockets had a huge impact on me, as well as Corto Maltese. I’m a Rex Stout fan, especially his titles. “If death ever slept” - how cool is that? The Travis McGee series is terrific too – David has been compared to him as well as a modern version of Jim Rockford.
What are your thought on conventions such as C2E2?
I love comic cons, as least the ones I’ve been to. I’ve never been to San Diego, but when there’s a good Artist Alley footprint I think it just adds to the whole atmosphere. There are smaller gems as well – SPACE in Columbus Ohio and Fallcon in Minn. These cons are what sets the comics world apart from the rest of the literati.
What is your favorite part of going to conventions?
Just being a part of the whole show – I’m there to sell books, but I want to make sure I’m at least entertaining to anyone willing to listen.
Do you have any big plans for David Diangelo in the future?
After this current story, I believe I’ll try a prose novel with him.
Is there anything you would like to say to the readers?
Ten years ago, a whole bunch of people were doing webcomics because there just wasn’t another pathway to readers. Now, so many of us have fallen by the wayside, but a few have persevered and have been published or a scrapping out a living. I guess the lesson is that if find a creator whose work you like, support that creator. Link to them, buy their books, encourage them. Because without that support, that encouragement, they’re going to go away.
It’s up to the readers, we need them, and we sure appreciate their support.
So there you have it, an exteremely talented and humble artist. Mr. Broderick will have a booth at Anime Central and I strongly suggest you all go buy his book! You can read his other Odd Jobs comics at http://www.timbroderick.net/ where you can also contact him. Please visit the Litter-ati fanpage in the sidebar where you can discuss Odds Jobs and participate in polls. This is War Kitten signing off and informing you that this is definitely an odd job.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
A Mild Rambling: Comic Book Movie Melting Pot
Hello Cadets! I must first apologize for my lengthy break. I would also like to thank all of you who have begun to follow my blog, it means a great deal to me. Now that C2E2 has wound down I wanted to do a rambling on something I've been asked a number of times; what do I think of non-American actors getting the roles of American characters such as Superman and Batman?
Here's my main thought on it, if there was an American actor with the right look and the acting chops to back it up wouldn't they have hired them? It's not a conspiracy but it's a well known fact that there is sometimes a gap in experience or training between us and say the British actors (which a majority of them spend some years on a stage first). Also look at it like this; Superman Returns had an all American cast and did poorly, alternately the X-Men had a very diverse cast and past the first movie started to do spectacularly bad as did Spiderman. Alternately, Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk were amazing and had Americans as the lead in both.
Here's the main question, does where you are from determine how well you can act? It's yes and no. In places such as England it is customary to join a troupe to not only train classically but to also get some experience in the field. Here in the United States and Canada it is not as common for an actor to join musical theater before moving on to other things but it doesn't hurt if they do. It also is a lot about their acting style as a fit to the role. Bruce Willis is a very highly typecasted actor who plays gritty heroes who are usually down on their luck which made him an amazing choice for Hartigan in Sin City. Can he do other roles I'm sure he could if he tried but he may feel this is a niche he is comfortable with.
Another example is Liam Neeson, this is an Irish born actor who did amazing movies such as Schindler's List, Les Miserables, and Taken but didn't find it beneath him to do hokey movies such as the A-Team or Darkman, which are both great films if only because they are goofy. He's done it all and did it well which shows the diversity in his acting skill and unwillingness to be typecast.
I think if more actors tried to break out their shells and tried different types of roles we'd find more people like Jaime Foxx, who I thought was an awful comedian but would leave an audience in awe of his dramatic acting abilities. It's a reminder that just because you like to cook doesn't mean you can always be a famous chef, sometimes you have to settle for what you are good at rather than what you wanted to do. That's not to say you should give up on your dreams but be realistic. It is possible to do what you want but it's all about the training and abilities to apply it. Needless to say, the moral of the story is don't look at where a person came from but what they can do, it'll broaden your scope of things dramatically.
Thank you all for reading, please check out the facebook page for the Litter-ati in the sidebar to the right to participate in discussions and polls and feel free to send me a message or ask any questions. Also be on the lookout for my interview with Tim Broderick of the Odd Jobs series which will be out early to middle of next week.
This is War Kitten signing off and please remember, the journey is just as important as the destination, so if you are going to clown school please bear in mind the size of the car you'll be taking when you carpool.
Here's my main thought on it, if there was an American actor with the right look and the acting chops to back it up wouldn't they have hired them? It's not a conspiracy but it's a well known fact that there is sometimes a gap in experience or training between us and say the British actors (which a majority of them spend some years on a stage first). Also look at it like this; Superman Returns had an all American cast and did poorly, alternately the X-Men had a very diverse cast and past the first movie started to do spectacularly bad as did Spiderman. Alternately, Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk were amazing and had Americans as the lead in both.
Here's the main question, does where you are from determine how well you can act? It's yes and no. In places such as England it is customary to join a troupe to not only train classically but to also get some experience in the field. Here in the United States and Canada it is not as common for an actor to join musical theater before moving on to other things but it doesn't hurt if they do. It also is a lot about their acting style as a fit to the role. Bruce Willis is a very highly typecasted actor who plays gritty heroes who are usually down on their luck which made him an amazing choice for Hartigan in Sin City. Can he do other roles I'm sure he could if he tried but he may feel this is a niche he is comfortable with.
Another example is Liam Neeson, this is an Irish born actor who did amazing movies such as Schindler's List, Les Miserables, and Taken but didn't find it beneath him to do hokey movies such as the A-Team or Darkman, which are both great films if only because they are goofy. He's done it all and did it well which shows the diversity in his acting skill and unwillingness to be typecast.
I think if more actors tried to break out their shells and tried different types of roles we'd find more people like Jaime Foxx, who I thought was an awful comedian but would leave an audience in awe of his dramatic acting abilities. It's a reminder that just because you like to cook doesn't mean you can always be a famous chef, sometimes you have to settle for what you are good at rather than what you wanted to do. That's not to say you should give up on your dreams but be realistic. It is possible to do what you want but it's all about the training and abilities to apply it. Needless to say, the moral of the story is don't look at where a person came from but what they can do, it'll broaden your scope of things dramatically.
Thank you all for reading, please check out the facebook page for the Litter-ati in the sidebar to the right to participate in discussions and polls and feel free to send me a message or ask any questions. Also be on the lookout for my interview with Tim Broderick of the Odd Jobs series which will be out early to middle of next week.
This is War Kitten signing off and please remember, the journey is just as important as the destination, so if you are going to clown school please bear in mind the size of the car you'll be taking when you carpool.
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