Saturday, April 30, 2011
the day of reckoning.
In the off chance any lost soul stumbling upon this blog might remember I made a pact.
To create a script in april.
A story with-in one month.
Please dont tell anyone about it as I have quite obviously lost all my marbles.
I have paper booklet, a scrapbook of sorts awaiting translittering to computer. To interpret my hieroglyphs to something resembling any known human language.
It is still bound to have loads of spelling/grammar mistakes.
Yeah, I write scripts and have undiagnosed dyslexia.
Whoever says the universe doesn't have a sense of humor?
anyways...to the results!
yeah I didnt do one story in a month.
I did three.
I may have a attention deficit syndrome too I guess.
Not that there wouldn't have been plenty of stuff unfinished to finish, oh no...
but while I shant post full scripts here (Please,call me Paranoid as I really am and it is one of my favorite songs too) but in short:
A tale of Dieselpunk world in shades of a cold war burning whitehot. Meet Jenny Lane.
She is young, adventurous and in deep trouble.
You see she took over her dad's business when he was shot down over mediterranean sea.
the business? Glad you asked. Pony express for modern times. No horses though, aeroplanes.
But this time our couriergirl is hunted by spies and gangsters, aristocrats and revolutionaries.
Too bad they are up against Jenny.
But thinking up that I came up with another piece of dieselpunk/pulp tale. It's world war 2. Finland is blocked up in the north. The soviets are attacking and surrounding nations are under nazirule (yes, yes dear swedes I know you were unaligned) and left to their own devices.
but what creations they are. But are you really going to risk your nations best and brightest youth by putting them on frontlines with experimental mad science?
Of course not.
It's war now and every man counts. And those enlisting to fight for their country get their prison sentences nullified.
War is hell so who better than sinners inside the Devils machinery.
And the third is a actionhorror piece from current events.
I found it too tempting to use a public domain comic figure (apparently not public domain in US yet, but doubt regocnizion will happen, nor publishing there) in different way.
A bit of postmodern take of classisc "funny" comic creation in quite un-funny civil war in Libya leading to unspoken horros that drive men mad in of so eldritch ways...
(ok so I am HPL fanboy and a war-nerd. Deal with it)
the concepts were fun. Storylines too but now starts the hard parts: typing it down and finding the artists suiting the stories.
As Sherlock said: The Game's afoot!
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Blog 2 and I never drink (white) wine
The old daft luddite tries to be hip.
See the sadness! Witness the witless in sorrowful attempt to follow the times as they pass his fossilic existence!
Amusement values of assured technological failure for all ages!
Yeah. I have a tumblr account.
Very hip, blogish, but immensely more anti-social.
Full of pics and people if not by actual age then at least by their heart who are at least twice younger than me.
Ok.
So at least 27 times younger than me. Hope you are happy now.
any ways...as I am known of my imagination it is: curtvilescomic.tumblr.com
And I have no idea how to use it yet. grand ain't it?
And more fun to follow: remember my rant on werewolf superiority?
I know, for a guy promoting tolerance I am such a speciest hatemonger when it comes to vampires.
and what a surprise something in that venue is coming up by yours truly and scifi/comicartist Marko Keränen
He can suavely go from HCscifi to horror and his black and white art fits the 4 page story of Otava.
Otava is a finnish superhero, or was.
You see in a previous heated battle of finnish superheroes against rogue giant russian superwarmechas he got thrown very high up.
The thing is flight isn't one of his powers.
or landing.
So he is paraplegic these days.
And most of finnish superheroes are AWOL /on a mission while teens and young adults go missing.
There is foul play and wornout, cripple hero.
Teaser page from Otava Musta peili (black mirror)
to the non-finnish speaking audience, yes in panel three in the caption box it says "Corpses. It's a vampire."
This will be out by fall of this I think, with some other stuff
and next time it's either more comics, babes, monsters, dieselpunk or something else.
And I really detest white wine.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Power of girls
Come saturday 16th april 2011 there is once more a panel on the subject matter too and it goes roughly translated as "Supergals and the guys who wanna get beaten by them"
As I know most of the guys on the panel it's going to be quite entertaining.
yeah. Guys.
And some of you might have noticed that I am also a straight man.
And as I know that Modesty Blaise was created by men,as was Wonderwoman, Power girl, Supergirl, Catwoman, Elektra, Maggie the mechanic, Tara Chace, Promethea, Tank girl and even the women in Strangers in Paradise.
Those lucky enough to manage getting to Tähtivaeltajapäivä will get some...well most likely interesting answers.
I don't think I need to point out my view. Again.
See I stumbled on this picture, copyright by allan.williams24 in flickr
see? that there con picture has already better elements then most that hollywood has to offer.
A hot, strong independent female and cool monsters known as Predators.
Yeah, sure I know :there's "slice of life" stories too.
Oddly I think the characters they portray in that pic there would have much more interesting slices of life.
(the picture in question is also proof that the physique of female heroes is not wishful thinking on their male creators side)
To my opinion there are three maingroups that have a problem with this kind of heroines are the following:
1) the boys in my sons agegroup 7-10 years old.
The girls are icky to most of them. Give them time and this will change
2)people who dont feel that women are as capable as men.
To these there is no help. It takes a special kind of stupidity not to see beyond the gender, to the individual.
Sadly this group is protected by the same laws that apply to sane people.
and 3)false feminists.
These are the people who see repression and male chauvinism when you have a strong woman and when the woman isn't strong.
Unlike those who realize feminism as equality they have as limited view of both real world and fiction then their counterparts male chauvinists and the aforementioned group 2.
To their defense: they can re-evaluate their views given chance and persistance.
there are few reasons for this rant of mine.
one was the cracked-article about the 5 creepiest sex scenes in comics
the opening line and I quote:
If there's anyone who knows how to handle sex in a mature and tasteful way, well, it's not comic book writers
that sort of got me.
To write, to create, I feel I need to know what I am doing and why. Do I have an ulterior motive? A subversive one?
You see the dieselpunk story is advancing but there are two and because I would really like to have a female protagonist.
I dont feel ashamed to be a man. Men have caused loads of problems and while I can help in fixing existing ones the mistakes other men do and have done are theirs. Not mine.
And as I know I am ok with my sexuality. So it's not that either. But the number of bondage one stumbles on a normal search about this is baffling.
Those knowing me and my charmingly blunt bullterrier kind mentality, it cant be trying to pander to the masses.
Never understood why people would like to do something creatively just to appeal to others instead of doing stuff one themselves enjoys but isn't available.
If anyone else gets fun out of it, learns something or so on that's grand.
All these answers seemingly didn't tell me why my brain has decided that now is the time to have women, girls, grrllls and femme fatales as heroes.
One answer is there are now artists capable enough to present the fairer sex too.
And one is that I simply prefer beauty.
If there is no reason to choose a modern car in a story I choose a classic instead, the 1950s 1930's kind.
If there is a flyig machine of any kind in a story and it can be bi-plane or single prop engine or a zeppelin.
I rather use Alphonse Mucha instead of that god awful Jeff Koons.
Remember I said there were reasons, plural, to this post?
It pics like one before and this:
from Brian C Carters Fanboys dream.
Not showing them to more people would be a crime of some sort. A travesty against being geek and proud of it.
For the Empire!
Who has a stormtrooper tattoo on his left bicep.
So I was over the moon when I heard there was a Jedi training Academy that trains Young preschoolers in the ways of force it made me smile a bit. and then came this:
Is she awesome or what?
That girl right there on the youtube clip is most likely your future dark overlady.
Also, the background study for dieselpunk story came up with her engineer corps: Mike Koehler is working on life-size, working AT-AT walker
These things regenerate my sole trust in the species, at least some of us work on keeping the world wonderfully weird and strange.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
one story down, new one up
Not satisfied with the ending, too cheesy and corny but heck: I do despair, the hope part always kinda sucks.
And found this
That is genius.
That has to have a story of it's own too.
After all :if you dont stop toddlers in time they will destroy the world!
Monday, April 11, 2011
Registered Society of Hermits and Recluses
Most of it is in my case mostly sitting and writing, or reading background research(fact and fiction alike) or just being in ones thoughts.
For artists it's hours upon hours of finding referencematerial, models, pictures etc and doing sketches and trying out various angles and trying out styles of drawing painting and so on.
And like writers they train and hone their talents endlessly, finetuning and polishing stuff while doing rough drafts, going out of their comfort zone to improve their art.
But damn it's plenty of alonetime.
In worlds of art, whether graphic or writing, it is quite lonely and not just on top.
Dont get me wrong I love collaborating and the times I say the artist saves the script by his/her amazing talents making the story work it is not hype.
I know it works vice versa too, but I have been really lucky.
Yet this kind of creative work is mainly solitary. Musicians have gigs, actors have an audience but us comicsfolk? So far not so.
Our field is more personal and individual, closest I can now come up with is authors. But they have audiobooks that can be(theoreticly) enjoyed as a group too. Audiocomic might come in the future but still...
(this also shows why there is IDOLS but not Comicbook Idols. No, Stan Lee reality "who wants to be a superhero" does NOT count. Creating comics isn't all that good selling point to TV)
And it's not even a matter of fame or popularity. Humans just are social creatures.
Most of my collaborations are done by endless e-mails, phone calls and old school mails of scripts, sketches and finished pages and then we might get it published, by someone, somewhere.
At some point.
And most of the time there's just us and our passion as different con's are relatively few and far between.
So on monday I jumped once I got to Vandercon that is Jeff VanderMeer and Anne VanderMeer on a tour of Finland and europe.
They are continuing the tour and I for one loved it: the lecture, the banter.
So if you ever get a chance to meet up with them, use it.
New weird, old weird, scifi, fantasy...now I have even more ammunition of the mind regarding steampunk and squids.
And stuff.
And do chack out their websites: Jeffvandermeer.com and weird tales
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Let slip the Werewolves of war.
Once more I am a day closer to death then I was yesterday.
And happy about it.
I consider myself gladly damned by the old chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times."
And to prove it I jump from yesterdays much deserved praise for women to the other end of my inspiration: Horror. those of you expecting Twilight-type trite a) please go away and b) learn to read, I said Horror. As in :something scary.
While as of lately I have been introduced to US band My Chemical Romance (in spades) I can honestly say that Teenagers don't scare the living sh*t out me.
Nor vampires.
To me it's always been a mystery why vampires have been so popular.
Dracula's fine with all it's insidious little snipes at aristocracy, society, religion and of course sex and diseases.
If you are a horror fan (even if you aren't) these are given.
But I never got why settle for secondrate if you can have something better? Monarchy's all nice but while democracies and republics are less pompous we guys actually get stuff done. Empire has a nice ring to it, but then most of those are either ruined or mere shallow shades of their glory days.
Vampires and their fans are telling us that it's because vampires are in deepcore of horror: sex AND death.
Nope, sorry.
Nice sales pitch but I don't bite.
Sure you have the gothic chic, good looking aesthetics I'll give you that.
But see I am a goth too.
No, not in the way how it's seen now.
Not the stylized androgynous thingie of today that swears to Joy division.
The original goths.
The ones that sacked the roman empire.
See those barbarians were scary and had a real grasp of life. They were much closer to the true beast.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls...the Werewolf.
See? now THAT is real face of our primal fears. That is raw sexuality and source of nightmares considering one's mortality.
Yes, I heard you in the back row...very quaint and ironic the "*cough* vampires can turn to wolves and smoke*cough*"quip.
Righty.
Sorry to rain on your parade but the dentally challenged guys have more deficiences than advantages, in pop culture and the original folklore:
-sunlight burns, either just bit beyond the carrot tan or far beyond TexMex BBQ rib
-cant cross running water (considering the number of real cities on riverbanks..)
-cant enter buildings unless invited, "no second date for you, mope as much as you want!"
-stopped by garlic. My guess is no-one has (yet) tried plain pizza herb. Probably works too.
-decapitation and a stake though heart. Wow,the first of these that makes any sense
and, oh...
-stopped by religious symbols. This cracks me up on so many levels.
Holy water and crosses are commonly used shenanigans but why stop there?
Just think of David's star-shaped shurikens and since christian faith has common ground not only with judaism but islam too it explains why there are no eco-vampires: if green is a holy color...(and also explains why one of best vampires in comics, Cassidy from Preacher, is so rare: being irish)
So yes, the vampires can turn to wolves or to smoke.
As a defense mechanism under the three F's rule against werewolves.
The smoke gives Flee a chance via intangibility as does wolf-form.
Turning into a wolf makes Fight a bit more of a sane tone, if not utterly desperate one, as far as options go.
The third F ... well being the polar opposite of FIGHT the turning into wolf is the fangy kinds last ditch "pleaseohplease dont hurt me" choice.
(and turning to smoke is a one try in avoiding that exact fate)
Not the dumbest move the vampires can make.
Those in the know might point out that I have actually written about vampires, in comics as well as in the sequal of sort's to Run Monster, run ( a tale I wrote to Comicmonsters.com ,a great site for any fan of horrorcomics or the genre)in it's the Britain set romp Bloody high stakes.
In that as well as in my comics work they are mostly cannonfodder.
To me the vampire isn't an archetype.
It's more of a stock bad guy that is easy to use since everyone knows it and no-one gives a toss if you do something heinous to them.
A bit like the nazis.
They too had awesome clothes design by Hugo Boss, made very little sense and also had their asses handed to them.
But as I lately read Run Monster run again in order to see if I could turn it into a comicscript and in the process I also read the still unfinished Bloody high stakes.
So, I wrote this story with creatures that I don't give a rodents bottom about? But not about the real deal?
Now, let's add that to my list.
A werewolf story.
That is going to be fun.
After all, life is short and one has to make choices: cats or dogs (DOGS), Doors or Mötorhead (Jim Morrison is dead, Lemmy Rocks) prancing glowing jedi-ripoffs with quasireligious BS=Twilight or Horror (ok, so this defies the multiple in multiple choice. as if there was an option..)
Besides, the werewolf is proud sly daddy to the best monsters of them all: the unstoppable Jason Vorhees, the harrowing bogeyman Michael Myers are the modern slasher offspring of the werewolf .
Hailing back from viking berserkers in their bear- and wolfskins.
The duality of werewolf ancestry is seen in the many glorious versions of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde.
Those of you who thought that Jason and Halloween's main man are sole descentants of the beast... in the lineage of every slasher and serial killer from far too real Jack the Ripper to Dexter or that nice Bates-boy running his motel, there rises the shape of the wolf.
The roar and howl taints even pages of seemingly safe and spandexy atomic age superhero comics. The gamma radiation might have changed the furcoat to green muscles but the reason HULK of Marvel comics is tattooed on my leg is that he is also one of the members in the pack.
We humans are basicly are still (and will be )primitive. We are scared of the dark.
We should be.
Bad Moon is rising.
The wolves are coming.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Babe-a-rama
at this point you people should not be surprised.
Not really.
I know terribly sexist of me and for some probably degrading to women or some such. You notice me caring about that kind of un-necessary PC trite then congratulations you have just met my changeling.
I love my women as women: curves required but one thing is mandatory. Brains. I know, I know. On the above pic it's not brains you see at first, but I'd like to think so. Otherwise it is just a glorius waste up there.
In women at their best there is both, the inner beauty and strenght and the outer looks. And what wondrous creatures they are. I have no problem delving into mindscape of martian warlords or street tough guys but to write about females... it's scary, challenging and more alien then xenomorphs.
And I find it a bit peculiar why there are so few female heroines out there. I mean women and girls can relate to them better then at the male scarred warveteran down on his luck and for the guys(and more than some girls) it has added bonus of catching their attention better. Once they snap out the drooling phase, that is.
So there are already a couple of irons in fire on my account, since no one else seems to be doing it, i am very lucky to have an partner, both in our artistic disorganized crime and in life, that does things like this: I know that the androidwoman is a fictious character, but see the strenght? The resolve? Beauty and composure and all the immensity and complexity that she possesses? I for one am in love, or the very least swept off my feet in infatuation with the maturity and sensuality the character has.
It's funny to think though. I have been lucky to work with both my dark gothy queen Sari Sariola(who still has a script or two, or three(or more..) to work on) and afore mentioned Julia Riitijoki and dumbfoundingly talented Katja Louhio. All are good, if not great, artists in their own right, but they can breathe life into female characters in subtle ways so simply that it is unfathomable for most male artists. I like my women as smart, strong and sexy on their own terms and rights in real life. And these talented women can make it happen in comics pages too. I don't know if world needs that, but that's what I want.
And that's what I am going to do and if dark gods of comics are on my good side these art goddessess shall come to my rescue and will plow down any and all resistance in their way.
Seize the day back for heroines in comics.
And on an endnote: those of you who stumbled or googled here because of the name and expected too see sexy pics of Rama, one of best female comic artists northern europe has to offer in her own right(no Rama, it really is true )you better check Ms Mandus Oblivion High to see that, then boy are you in trouble because I happen to know her.
She can kick your ass so watch out.
Something new, something blue, something elder...
yes. that is Unfinished. Yes that is a sketch. Someday that comic of forbidden knownledge and library set horror will be hopefully published, most likely on the hour the stars are right...IÄ! IÄ!
I await the day I pick any comic sporting his art with excitement.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
The (common) Cold war and other miseries
One of those moments when reading news about antibiotic-resistant superbacteria that's just...fitting.
The cold just happens to mess up both. The plan to go to London's Kapow comic con and the contingency plan the finnish Tampere kuplii comic event
how nice.
Now as I have gotten most of tight spandexclad stories out of my system for the moment(undoubtably short moment but still) and pulpy dieselpunk is on it's way for april as well I am finding enjoyment in action fiction.
I just watched The Company miniseries and the buxom goddess with brains that happens to be my GF got me spyactionfest adapted(cough*quiteliberally"adapted"*cough) from comicbook that is RED.
Fun with spies and violencein company of a nerdy female beauty.
Screw you influenza. I win.
This reminded my croggy gray cells (of brain-kind, not terrorists or aliens) that wait didn't I do some silly draft's about the subject?
Why Yes I did.
And apparently I still have them.
Just blow some dust off it, polish a bit and fix the story a bit. Make it more angletonian wilderness of mirrors with hardcore assassins...
and it gives me an excuse to show this picture:
Done by young, immensely talented graphic designer/comic artist that goes in DevArt by sig Penuser just click the link on the name to see more of his art.
You wont regret it.
Taking the above pictures inspiration and my previous notes and despite the flu: I am cooking with gas.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Update on comicprogress
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
April fools month, part deux or bloody something
Sunday, April 3, 2011
And now for some defreshments
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Shoutout
Mightier than sword
The most dangerous thing in the world.
Wait...what?
Friday, April 1, 2011
What I love
um... well... yes.
I love women and comics and lately I have written about them. There have been actual jobs to do instead, some which to my shame are still hanging for so long they can have birthdays(and no, not in dogyears), but I have tried to come get my game on.
With comics. Yeah with comics that's ALL I meant.(yes, my beloved reads this occasionally and even though she knows me: better safe than sorry).
I have a theory.
The best work comes out when you take things you love, things you are interested in and do that.
Screw esteem or what others think.
Yes there are themes and points that would sell better.
And since I am more than prone to severe bouts of depression it has actually helped me be happier person.
I have succumbed to the fact that oh, yes world needs even more superheroes like Sotanorsu(Warelephant)
here pencilled & inked to flesh by talented Rami Rautkorpi.
Sure that Rautkorpi can draw (he really truly can) but why yet another spandex boy?
Because there wasn't one like him before and I wanted to read a story like that.
Same applies to all creations in genre, I write the kind of stories I would pick up.
And I don't like just superheroes.
I watch and read endless amounts of horror, crime and scifi. No, not forgetting fantasy(the barbarian medieval with dragons kind, not the one with...yeah you get the picture).
but I never liked JRR Tolkiens LoTR as basis. Why not wars of Vietnam or Afganistan as basis for fantasy? Wait I wrote short story like that once...with lizardman helping kings troops..oh right. The point I was making.
So as it is as I know what I like in many varying genres but far too seldom have any luck finding something living up to my expectations: it's better to do it myself.
(yeah, well the writing part as I am not known for my skills in artdept.)
but wait there is more( I promise read the manic rambling to the end, there might be a point to it[well there is a chance for that too...] but I'll post a pic at least. One I have not drawn)
I have a pencahnt of making everything massive and convoluted. It is because I love research. It is a blast to find out stuff of how the world works, how species became extinct, the male german officers who thought they were pregnant or details of forensics etc.
but that's just half of the fun. Ok so I have at the moment I think 8 reviews to be done, 3 horror stories, an alieninvasion tale, drugwar and some others in the making.
Oh and one postapocalypse science fiction piece.
But here is the thing. I try to write, during april, here a story. That's right. a full comic script most likely from 10-20 pages worth of comic.
On basis that it's something I would read but so far it either doesn't exist, or at least I have never heard of it.
And of course find someone to draw it.
So that's the plan.
thankfully I have a backup plan:
It's going to be interesting.