I feel a cold coming on and my thoughts are not quite holding together this morning, so forgive me if I start making no pancakes on this early Friday zombification. Tired...so very, very tired.
Slice of Heaven
Finishing a new five page story for the Comic Creators Workshop - Every month at the Comic Creators Workshop, offered through Comics Experience with Andy Schmidt, a new writer's/artist's challenge is posted and attendees decide whether or not to participate. For the first challenge, my five-page script was chosen to be critiqued by none other than Jason Aaron and was a challenge to write, requiring that the panel descriptions be no more than one sentence long. His feedback was incredibly helpful and I will be revising the script and reposting hopefully this week.
The October challenge involved writing a script as if I had to motivate a highly-detailed and brilliant, yet in-need-of-encouragement artist to make him psyched to illustrate the script. I got nutty with the writing and was quite pleased with the results. From what I could tell, other members of the workshop enjoyed it as well, which always feels good. Another workshop member's script was chosen to be critiqued by none other than Dan Abnett. Of course I wanted my script to be chosen again, but after reading the other script, I would have been foaming at the mouth to draw it out...too bad I can't draw.
The workshop continues to be an amazing tool to improve my writing and an immensely fun experience. Jumping from writing scripts, to critiquing other's scripts and to receiving criticism from others has proven vital to my growth as a writer, not just in the comics medium, but other mediums as well. I am also considering taking the lettering class and possibly the coloring class next year, when they are offered up again.
I can't give this workshop enough praise. Oh...the November challenge is up. Time to crank up the mental gears.
Morning Glories #3 - Written by Nick Spencer and illustrated by Joe Eisma, published by Image Comics. Morning Glories continues to be the comic that I anticipate picking up from the comic store the most each month. In this issue the mystery and intrigue deepen and we are introduced to a past Morning Glory alum...with past meaning centuries in the past. Although this issue only centers on three of the modern day (?) students, we are given deeper characterization and insight into each of them. There is one point early on when a sentence or two of the dialogue is like nails scraping on a chalkboard, and I was thankful that Eisma did not choose to illustrate what was described; my twisted little brain was more than happy to fill in the details. *shiver* If you are not reading this book, then please let me know what the hell is wrong with you...seriously. Issue one and two can be bought from ComiXology for the computer, iPad, iPhone, iTouch and who knows what else. Now I get to wait for issue number four...3 weeks to go. *sigh*
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| Morning Glories #3 |
Secret Six Vol. 3: Danse Macabre
- Written by Gail Simone and John Ostrander and illustrated by Daniel LuVisi, published by DC Comics. I have not mentioned Secret Six on my blog before, but with the release of the latest TPB, it was time to say how much I enjoy this dark yet amusing book about a team of ex-villains gathered together to run questionable missions for the mysterious Mockingbird. Deadshot takes the spotlight for much of this book, which has a Blackest Night tie-in, but it is not too overly obnoxious. The current members of the Six are as follows: Scandal Savage - the "damn hard to kill" former in-team leader who has recently been put on the sidelines by...; Bane - The man who broke Batman and is now acting team leader; Catman - a vicious and deadly fighter, who once, according to Catman, beat Batman; Ragdoll - the rather insane and obscenely flexible psychopath; Jeannette - an incredibly strong and resilient combatant with a tendency towards dressing in French Revolutionary clothing. Oh yeah, she is also a banshee; Deadshot - a cold and merciless killer. Never get on his bad side; Black Alice - a teenager with the ability to mimic the power of any magic using hero/villain she encounters. She is the most dangerous and unreliable of the bunch. Although this is Vol. 3 of the series, there is also a mini-series and a book before that as well, bringing the count to five TPB's currently out.
Villains United
, Secret Six: Six Degrees of Devastation
, Secret Six: Unhinged
, Secret Six: Depths
and now Secret Six Vol. 3: Danse Macabre. |
| Secret Six Vol. 3: Danse Macabre |
The Mercury Last Saturday Night - Okay, this one would have ended up in the Slice Into the Woods section if not for the fact that I had to get home to finish a five page comic script for a Comic Creator Workshop challenge that I was able to finish on time and for which I was quite proud of the finished product. That Saturday night, Amy and I agreed to meet a friend for a drink at the Mercury Lounge and before we even walked into the bar, we saw a whupped-ass looking person with fucked up long black hair and semi-torn clothing. My thought was, "Great...I hope we don't have to sit next to that guy...errrr girl...errrr whatever that was."
We walked in and there was a screen showing the title menu to a DVD being projected at the bar entrance and three quarters of the patrons were dressed as zombies. There were cookies, gummy worms and other treats for everyone, not to mention the Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA waiting for me. We were completely confused as to what the hell was going on, but found out that they were having a "Zombie Party" for a bartender who was leaving to pursue other opportunities and that at 10:00 PM, they were going to be showing the movie Wild Zero
. "What is Wild Zero?" you might ask. It is a Japanese Rock and Roll film with flying saucers and zombies. WHY THE HELL DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS MOVIE SOONER? Holy shit, if there are naked hot girls in it, I will have everything that I could possibly want in a movie. I was torn to let Amy and our friend head home, while I shirked my responsibilities to the five page script that was due in three hours and stayed to watch the movie. Instead I left to further building my new career. BUT, I rented the movie and we will be watching it at a party on Saturday. Now if I could only figure out what the other movie was going to be that The Mercury was going to screen at midnight.
*side note* - The DVD for Wild Zero has a built in drinking game that will show a mug when the following occurs: a zombie's head explodes, anything explodes, someone shouts "ROCK AND ROLL," someone combs their hair, anything shoots fire. The game is simple, when the mug appears, you drink. I have a sneaking suspicion that there will be some drunk fools within the first 40 minutes.
Slice Into the Woods
Nothing much to gripe about other than the usual bunch of big corporations attempting to buy our elections and continue to damage our economy so that a few thousand white-haired white guys can become even more rich than they are now.
Besides that, this week just simply dragged along at a snails pace. I need to stop living for the weekend.
- Written and illustrated by Eric Powell, published by Dark Horse Comics - The first page of this volume says it all, "This Ain't Funny,"and boy howdy was Eric Powell not kidding...jesus.... This book breaks from all the "Knife in the eye, " slack-jaw (zombie) pounding shenanigans of the prior six trades (incl. 0). Although I would normally be sad that characters such as Dr. Alloy or my favorite Spanish-speaking Lagardo do not appear, the heavy emotional story presented in this book is amazing and almost seems as if from a different series entirely--I did not mind in the slightest. There are few if any jokes in this volume that finally answers the questions of how the Goon received his scars and what happened in Chinatown. I was left more than fully satisfied with the reveals and I am still thinking about the incredibly real depictions of a man's reaction to something so staggering painful that it may very well affect him for the rest of his life. Sure there are zombies, werewolves and other monsters walking around, but this issue left me with the same feeling of loss and sorrow found in works such as 
. Unlike most comics, things don't end up going well, but that's okay. In fact life can be pretty fucked up and that's just something that has to be dealt with and accepted. Page 80 through 89 are some of the most heart wrenching sequentials I have ever seen and they almost did me in. Who hasn't been through something that didn't work out according to your dreams? Who hasn't been wronged for no apparent reason? Real life involves not saving the kitten in the tree, defeating the evil foe, or achieving your heart's desire.
- Written and illustrated by Eric Powell, published by Dark Horse Comics. Okay, after Chinatown, things get back to bloody, nutty and offensive. In this volume the Priest gets whats coming to him, but what replaces him could quite possibly be much worse. Old foes are back, and someone thought long dead returns from the grave...or has he. The immensely hot cock-teasing harpies are back and oh yeah...a four-foot tall hobo riding an alligator in the swamp. What more could you ask for. Do I even have to say it? Highly recommended.
- Written and illustrated by Eric Powell, published by Dark Horse Comics. Damn...can you guess what I have been reading for the past week? Obsess much, Donist?! What to say without giving anything away...the story continues from volume seven, and Frankie and the Goon consider leaving town after the Buzzard reveals that the town is forever damned, but despite all of the sin the pair have committed, it is still their home and people need them. Death, curses and further torment for the Priest are found in this volume and the Goon crosses a major line of cruelty when he captures a traitor in his midst. Oh yeah, all that and the corpse mother, too! You guessed it, highly recommended. 
- Some very cool friends of mine--who were not supposed to give me anything--gave this to me as a Birthday gift at the HobNob party and I was totally surprised. I love this device so much more than the wireless Apple mouse that I was using that I don't know what I did before it came into my life. It took a bit of tinkering with to get it to function the way that I wanted and there was a learning curve to all of the subtle little movements and tricks, but in the end it makes life much easier. The only small gripe that I have is that it is a little awkward when I need to highlight things or click and drag, but this is probably user error and something that I will figure out in time. I love this thing. Shucks, guys, you shouldn't have!
on the album Dead Inside, which I love. What is she doing now?
- written by Joe Hill with art by Gabriel Rodriguez, published by IDW. I decided to finally give this series a go after consistently hearing praise on ifanboy and various other comic related podcasts and I am thrilled that I did. Very much a horror driven series, the story centers on the Locke children: Tyler, Kinsey and Bode. After finding their father murdered and their mother raped at the hands of a deranged teenaged student, the children barely manage to survive the ordeal and the murderer is locked away. The grieving family moves to Keyhouse a New England Mansion on an island called Lovecraft with their mother and their father's brother. The family struggles to heal from the tragedy that they suffered, while the youngest, Bode, discovers a key that allows him to pass through a door in the house that turns him into a ghost. He also discovers a voice at the bottom of a well with less than pleasant plans for the occupants of the house. Things go from troubling to worse when the voice in the well contacts the murderer and mysteriously frees him from his prison cell far away and instructs the teen to find two keys located in the Lovecraft mansion that provide access to something dire. 
" then "
"), followed by Act 2 (also two 6-issue series, the current part is titled "Keys to the Kingdom") and Act 3 (again two 6-issue series). Great read thus far and now I have to buy the next six issues! The IDW iphone/iPad app has "
- Written and illustrated by Eric Powell, published by Dark Horse Comics. I still absolutely love this book and I have heard that the next volume is where the crazy shizzle goes down, but Wicked Inclinations is a great lead in. Keep an eye out for the homage to Alfred Hitchock's 
. The Buzzard returns as does my favorite Spanish-speaking giant lizard monster, Lagardo. The Priest becomes even more desperate when he discovers that the Buzzard knows his name...his real name, and knowing one's real name is power. Also introduced in this book is the disgusting Corpse Mother and her equally revolting brood. Still an immense amount of fun and perverse beauty, Eric Powell's The Goon is something everyone should read. I got lucky and picked up Volumes 5,6 & 9 at 
by David Mazzucchelli, which is supposed to be one of the most important graphic novel releases of 2009. One of the shirts was black with the Red Lantern symbol. I explained that the Red Lanterns were the embodiment of rage in the emotional spectrum. She replied that she was reminded of the Care Bears. What? The Care Bears?! That is absolutely, positively not accept...oh...wait...you kind of have something there. Was there a Care Bear that vomited up flaming blood? I'm not sure.
on Blu-Ray, took Tulip for a walk, went downtown to get my comics, worked on the book some more and came home. I also took an hour long nap, which I never do. I could get used to days like that.
- I'm not one for writing music reviews, but I have to say that I love the latest album from Film School. The addition of more female vocals remind me slightly of some of My Bloody Valentine "Loveless" era songs, and the other tracks are calm and cool or rocking. I love the song Heart Full of Pentagons. Check it out and listen to the samples on iTunes or Amazon.com. Really good.
, Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine, 
, 
and many others. Even if he takes my script and kicks it in the nuts, and rubs its face in the dirt, I will be sad yet thankful that it was done by one of my favorite writers. You know, a sort of "thank you sir may I have another" sort of thing. 
- Okay, I can't believe that it has taken me this long to watch this ugly, thought deteriorating, poorly scripted, over acted, cheaply produced, beautifully gorgeous train wreck of a fucking movie. This was beyond monumental. The story is about an obnoxious little brat who talks to his dead creepy-as-hell grandpa--who should not be allowed anywhere near children--and who has told the whiny little tyke all kinds of bullshit about goblins. Wait a minute there Donist, you said this movie is about trolls, right? Well, the title has the word troll in it, but the short little poorly-costumed creatures are only ever called goblins. This is because...well...beats the hell out of me, but let's not ponder the details. Anyways, there's a daughter with 80's hair, who likes to dance horribly and reveal camel toe while lifting weights all night. She also likes to complain about her boyfriend, who is more 80's than she is, and who refuses to see her without the presence of his three guy pals, one of which he sleeps in the same bed with while shirtless. Ummm...okay. Anyhow, the mom is glassy-eyed nuts and the dad has a really bad haircut and likes to walk around with shirt unbuttoned down to his navel. Then, see, there are these 
(to be released November 16 on DVD), which centers on the near cult following of Troll 2 and follows the actors and actresseses, the fans and with tons of other bizarre information. I cannot wait. Troll 2 is also currently streaming on Netflix. Watch it now, ya lousy bums!![Troll 2 [Blu-ray]](http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=B003ZD9E24&tag=doniworl-20)
- Written by Brian K. Vaughan, with art by Nico Henrichon. I have come to the conclusion that any movie or book that has animals as the main characters--with the exception of Hotel for Dogs, Garfield, and Cats and Dogs--is going to have some serious shit go down, and I will be left feeling as if I were punched in the stomach 37 times. Where the Red Fern Grows, Old Yeller, Plague Dogs, Watership Down, We3, christ...need I go on? I'm already getting teary eyed. That said, Pride of Baghdad is an incredibly well written graphic novel, with gorgeous art that comes together in one of the most emotionally stirring books I have ever read.
