A little poetry from the Vampire Azzi that came to me while listening to Patrick Contreras at his facebook page (Particularly “Mad World,” “First Kiss” and “Cotillion”) :
The Astronaut Vampire’s Lament
When you’re floating in space, the night is forever. There is no fear of final death, no desperate skittering from a rising sun, no ticking of the clock pounding in your ears, no sound whatever in fact. No heat, no wind, no water, nothing underfoot and no religion, rules or code. Pinpoints of light, your own stray thoughts and if you’re lucky a stellar view of roiling nebulous clouds. The cold can kill if you let it, but it’s your own memories that pose the greater threat. In space, you have nothing, owe nothing, fear nothing. Until you remember.
On a lighter note, Captain Sera would love this piece:
Patrick is offering free downloads of “Mad World” and “First Kiss” at his facebook page. These are typically for a limited time, so don’t tarry!
I’m going to try to make this quick, but quick isn’t my strong suit–I imagined pumping out dozens of sketches over the Digicon weekend, and maybe a new page to start the week off right! Instead, I got two pieces done and somehow won a guest art sketch from the lovely Dora Gonzales–twitter handle @van_maniac, deviant art handle vanmaniac–of Weblight Dreams, a sci-fi fantasy horror comic–what luck! So I didn’t get the quantity of work done that I had wanted, but I’m pretty sure I came away from Digicon with a whole lot of quality.
What follows isn’t a comprehensive review of Digicon, that’s just not possible, I couldn’t be there all 32 hours plus, so this is more a personal accounting of a few of the highlights for me.
Saturday–Inking FS/MCR Mashup
What I lack in tech set up and art speed, I make up for in socializing, because while I was wrestling with my webcam and chat settings and patiently etching every detail of inks on this Forsaken Stars/Danger Days Mash Up thank you piece for Nicole Sixx, twitter handle @nicolesixx_, for her efforts in getting the word about about my comic and being generally awesome, I met several cool folks and caught a couple great panels Saturday: Ran Brown of the end, blew my mind with her photoshop coloring tutorial; Dan Monroe of Ye Gawds, Hushicho of Incubus Tales and Jon Grasseschi of Everydayabnormal provided an entertaining and insightful panel on the supernatural; and it was a thrill to webcam sketch next to Saiful Remy Mokhtar of No Pink Ponies because it was one of the first webcomics I came across when I was putting together Forsaken Stars online a couple years ago and it was great to hear he is updating again! I capped the night by catching some kick-ass live drawing by Aphex, twitter handle @Aphexangel, creator of Alembic Grimoire, “an online graphic novel steeped in dark lore and mythos from ’round the globe, all with a nice dollop humor along with Lovecraftian horror.”
Sunday–Live Drawing Clark for Mike
So if you love comics and don’t live under a rock, then you have probably heard of Mike Meyer, a Granite City man who was robbed of his lifelong Superman collection a few weeks ago. Ryan Fisher and Casey Curtis, creators of Digicon, encouraged attendees, participants, and anyone within twitter reach to create Superman art, email it to them, and they would print the pieces and send the resulting, hopefully voluminous care package to Mike. I decided to draw Tom Welling’s Clark Kent of Smallville for my gift to Mike, and set to work in one of the tinychat rooms. I got to sketch alongside Antoine Gagnon of The Drunken Fools, who was drawing a hilariously aged and drunken Superman for Mike and also to fit right along his drunken heroes series. He’s as funny as his comic and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that he was a really nice guy to boot. The Digicon Gods smiled upon me, and after an incredibly informative and comprehensive tutorial by Aphex on femaie anatomy, clothing and tennis shoes, I was asked if I would like to move once again, “to the big screen” and continue drawing my Superman–Clark–for Mike as a Live Panel. I jumped at the chance and was met by a warm and encouraging group of folks: Chryss Hart of Comic Action Roleplay, Hushicho, Dora, Chella Morgan of TDUGN, Casey and my girlfriend Ali, who was sitting patiently supportive throughout most of the two day event. I’ve only created a few pieces entirely digitally, so I really appreciated the compliments and cheering while I chatted about Smallville, how great the Digicon has been, comic books and inspirations like Freddy Mercury, Neal Adams and most recently, Ran Brown and Aphex!
After my time on the live panel was done, I had some pizza and continued working on Clark while also checking out Chryss’ Superman/Art Rage Live Panel. Some technical difficulties prevented me from getting back to the Digicon before it ended, but I was able to complete my Superman piece! It has been sent, along with my many thanks, to Ryan and Casey. And to everyone who participated in Digicon, thank you as well for being a part of such an enthusiastic and friendly community! And for those I didn’t get to meet, I bookmarked the Guest List and will be doing some serious webcomic reading soon!
Oh, and the panels were all recorded, so when they are made available, I will update this recap.
UPDATE: The Live Panels can now be found at Digicon’s Justin TV Channel here! My broadcast of drawing Superman for Mike is there too, or you can click here to be taken there directly. But trust me, you’ll want to watch all the panels because they are AWESOMESAUCE. (Do people still say that?)
If you would like to help Mike amass his new and very personalized Superman collection, click here.
I was lucky enough to win a couple of passes to an advanced screening of Fright Night last night. Coincidentally, it wasn’t so long ago that I had Ali watch the original and within a week of that viewing, I learned David Tennant, the 10th Doctor himself, would be playing the part of Peter Vincent in the remake of the 80s Comedy/Horror flick. There’s been a fairly aggressive social media blitz to build buzz for Fright Night 2011, with a website, a facebook and a twitter, and contests to get internet cloud kids to spread the word by hosting ‘Feeding Frenzy‘ parties that would garner them points to win prizes, but I have to admit, blitz aside, the trailers and clips from the movie had me fairly psyched to check it out.
I’m not a big Colin Farrell fan, but he’s had his share of cool and dangerous roles in films like Miami Vice, S.W.A.T. and In Bruges, so I thought his turn as Jerry Dandridge the Vampire was a solid choice. More interesting to me were the casting of Anton Yelchin (Chekov in J.J. Abram’s Star Trek) as Charley Brewster; Christopher Mintz-Plasse of Superbad and Rolemodels as “Evil” Ed; and the aforementioned David Tennant (Doctor Who, Harry Potter) as Peter Vincent.
Once the movie was underway, the guys I went to see delivered as expected, but it was the ladies that brought more than a pleasant surprise to my viewing experience. Imogene Poots as Charley’s girlfriend Amy, Toni Collette as Charley’s mom Jane, and Sandra Vergara as Vincent’s take-no-shit foil Ginger, were not only gorgeous and exciting to watch, but they held their own, and every time they went on camera, I wished they would come back. That may be due in part to Marti Noxon (Writer and Co-Producer on TVs Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Prison Break and Mad Men) having written the screenplay.
But that isn’t to say the guys weren’t awesome. Farrell obviously had a great time vamping it up. I will have to have a Vamp-Off when this thing comes out on DVD to see just how he stacks up against Chris Sarandon’s original Jerry Dandridge, but having seen it recently, I gotta say it’s pretty close. The CGI/Prosthetic effects aren’t overdone here and I don’t think they take too much away from Farrell’s own performance. Anton Yelchin has a lot of ups and downs to navigate, and what the script lacks in transitions, he makes up for with his eyes. Puppies take notes from this kid! And Tennant fans will NOT be disappointed. The man can’t help but be a scene-stealer (all the more impressive when Sandra Vergara steals moments from him).
Fright Night 2011 might be seen as a stripped down version of the original, though, as Jerry’s wardrobe is usually a t-shirt and jeans and his home, except for his study, is bare walls and unfurnished rooms. Charley’s home gets a little more character, but we’re not in it long enough to get the homey feeling.
Perhaps it’s because the budget may have been focused on Peter Vincent’s trappings. In the original, Roddy MacDowell played a campy host of late night horror movies; in the update, David Tennant plays a Las Vegas Magician with a theatrical show and an addiction to amassing occult artifacts via ebay.
But I feel like I’m starting to get on the spoilery side of summary, so I’d better wrap this up. The story hews pretty close to the original, and adds a layer of after school special, then throws in a few tweaks and modern innovations to keep it moving, so I’ll give that three and a half stars. The effects are at times subtle, astonishing and gut-wrenching, and the 3D direction is sometimes heavy handed, but for the closet gore fan it will bring a smile to your face, so three and a half stars again. The best thing that Fright Night 2011 does? It stays true to its Comedy/Horror roots in that it has fun with both the laughs and the scares, so I gotta give the acting four out of five stars. Overall, it’s a great date flick, you’ll cling tight to the one you bring, and it slaps young girls in the face and reminds them “This is real ok he’s a real Monster and he’s not Brooding or Love Sick or Noble He’s the Shark From Jaws He Kills he Feeds and he doesn’t stop until everyone around him is dead.” Well said, McLovin, well said.
Fright Night hits US Theaters August 19, and UK Theaters Sept 2.
