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This was the first sketch I did in the new sketchbook that I bought earlier this year. I believe that the first image is important to a sketchbook and had this image in mind when I bought it. I think it turned out pretty well especially since I hate having to draw hands. Tweaked contrast/brightness in Photoshop.
I’ve included the sketch since I’ve started reading A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby, a book about four people who decide to off themselves on New Year’s Day by jumping off a building. Halfway through the book and it’s a good read so far. Though suicide is the main thrust of the story, Hornby relates it with several other topics among the various characters, making it a multi-layered story. The switching of the first person viewpoint between chapters threw me off at the beginning but at this point, I think that’s the only way it could have worked. Thinking ahead, I don’t think Hornby will kill off anyone but if I were to write something like this, one of the four would not make it to the end.
I wasn’t sure I was going to go to Comic-Con this year since last year’s experience was so tiring but that’s the same thing I said after I went to my first Otakon and I went to Otakon several consecutive times afterwards. I haven’t gone to Otakon lately since they don’t do single day passes anymore and being among so many anime cosplayers for several days causes a severe shock to the system that makes it difficult to reintegrate back to reality. There is a good deal of cosplaying at Comic-Con too but the ratio to regularly dressed people is closer to the real world. Either that or I’m probably just desensitized by it all now.
But Comic-con is a different animal because it is so big and has sold out to capacity of around 125,000 for the past several years. Since there are so many panels dealing with film, television, comics, animation, writing, drawing, and more, scheduling is a nightmare with titanic lines for the more popular events. Luckily some of the panels, like the EW and SyFy ones, can be seen online on their respective sites.
I was lucky enough to buy a 4 day pass since they were auctioning some last minute about a month before the con and I stayed with a friend who was within walking distance of the convention center. Mucho Hollywood star power came down to San Diego this year including Johnny Depp, Denzel Washington, and Scarlett Johannson as well as the regular sci-fi/comic book celebrities you might expect.
And when someone wasn’t available, they sent a replica.
I really didn’t buy much because I didn’t really find anything that I had to have. That means I probably wasn’t really looking that hard. I was a bit distracted since I was working on a couple submissions to the WB Writers’ Workshop but inevitably was able to send out only one. The TV writers’ panel I went to gave out some helpful information though some of it was also disheartening. The other panels I went to were informative and entertaining for the most part but the Star Wars one that I sat through just to get to the next panel was one long boring infomercial. The best footage I saw was for District 9 which is coming to theaters soon and Kick-Ass which is still looking for distribution. It was a good trip but next year…it’s just too early to think about it.
Last weekend, I went to Comic-Con for the second time in as many years. A ton of Hollywood people were in attendance as comic books have been embraced by Hollywood as a source to be mined for content to reap boatloads of cash from the global box office. I’ll write more about my Comic-con experience in my next post but there were several films that piqued my interest and led me to stay at home this weekend. Kick-Ass, directed by Matthew Vaughn and based on a comic by Mark Millar, was one of those films. They showed footage that had some amazing fight choreography and brought about a raucous reaction from the audience. After I came back from San Diego, I came upon an early draft for Kick-Ass and read it this weekend. I also came upon an early draft of the Green Lantern script.
Minor spoilers ahead!
The Kick-Ass script is fairly strong. A nascent superhero, Kick-Ass bumbles along, attempting to break away from his mundane life and pushes himself to see if he has what it takes to be a hero. Billed as a realistic view of a world where people without superpowers try to become superheroes, the script still contains many trappings of a comic book world. Usage of comic book physics and spandex costumes are a couple of items that make this less grounded in reality than I thought it would be. And Kick-Ass may be the titular hero in the film, but the supporting cast is as important and possibly more interesting than the lead character. After seeing the clips at Comic-con, Hit Girl might steal the movie and Nic Cage looks to have a great role as a mad blue-collar Batman if they stay with his character arc. The footage was definitely a hard R for violence, strong language, and bloody dismemberment. They kicked up the violence from the version of the script I read. Though there were action scenes galore, hopefully there’s still room for the smaller, quieter moments between characters that should help glue the film together. The ending sets up a possible sequel but changes the world in a way that could hinder the storytelling if they aren’t sure what happens in the next film.
The Green Lantern script was not as polished. The film will definitely depend on the special effects to drive it with an alien world inhabited by different alien species, glowing green constructs, and a destructive monster of chaos named Legion. They will all have to be rendered really well for this film to fly. I also think they took cues from Superman the Movie, especially the part when Hal shows Carol his powers which reminded me of the scene when Lois Lane goes flying with Superman for the first time. The finale where Hal heroically saves Carol needs work since it seems hard to visualize and a bit sappy, but it may work in a capable director’s hand. Since it was a very early version, hopefully they’ve cleaned up a number of problems now that they have cast Ryan Reynolds in the lead role and will probably go into production soon.
