Movie Night in Robotville

It’s been a weird week for me. What am I saying? They all feel pretty weird. But I was able to leave my little laundry room studio and work out in The World (as the Shakers,the Amish, and I call it). It was nice to sit at Santos Dumont while I signed and remarked 112 issues of FCBD for Jetpack Comics. Let me tell ya, drawing the same Robo head and torso, 100+ times, sort of sucked, but being in a public place where I am sort of known by the staff was nice. I also met a guy who works at Mobile Robotics Inc. Their offices are right down the street from where Widget goes to gymnastics and every time I see the Seekur ‘bot out on the front lawn practicing it’s GPS navigation I go watch it trundle around.

The Atomic Robo art sale is going really well! I’m even starting to find it being advertised on websites I don’t know. Like this one. There have been a few emails to my art rep asking if I would cut an even deeper discount if the purchaser bought a sketchbook, or a t-shirt. Because 25% off isn’t enough I guess. This isn’t a flea market folks. Please don’t waste Bob’s time. Comic Art House, and his other 2 websites, keep him very busy. And really -25% off. C’mon.

Speaking of Robo, you can look for the Atomic Robo Vol.2 TPB: Atomic Robo & The Dogs of War, in stores Spring 2009. Which is not too bad considering that the single-issue series will wrap up in December 2008. I believe we are putting the 2008 FCBD story in this one, and a mess of never published pin-ups. We sort of forgot to put them into the single issues this time. We will be doing another FCBD story for next May -I start work on it later this week.

But first I have to redo the covers to Killer of Demons. You remember this? Yeah me neither! But after Viper Comics dropped the ball we moved to Image Comics. Unfortunately they didn’t like the covers I did. So . . .3 more covers. When I finish that will be 7 covers I’ve had to draw for a 3 issue mini-series. I’m getting a little sick of it. We’re looking at a February 2009 release now.

Here’s teh cover I just finished and some random pages. As usual, the Amazing Ronda is coloring my work.

As you guys know, I like to have something playing in the background while I work. “Like” is not a strong enough word. if I don’t have something playing I can’t work -I’ll just stare at the hypnotic patterns in my ugly wallpaper until I die from lack of food and water. I tried working to music, but it doesn’t really work for me. Music has never been all that important to me, and the 4 days worth of tunes on my Ipod all bore me to death. Except the Red Elvises, but that’s different.

Most of the time I have some kind of documentary playing, because those don’t require you to look very often, just listen. I think I’ve memorized Cosmos, Connections, Ascent of Man, Alistair Cooke’s America, Blue Planet, World At War, and so forth. I’m not sick of any of these programs. But I am a little weary of them.

And so this week I tried movies. Which can often be dangerous. I made the mistake of watching an un-dubbed copy of Paprika last week (with no sub-titles either) and I got nothing done for two hours. I just stared at the beautiful animation and tried to work out a Japanese phantasy acid trip murder mystery by following the action. I really enjoyed it, but I have no idea what it was about. The American trailer doesn’t really help.

This week I stuck to movies in languages I can understand -American. Burt Lancaster as a French railroad man in Nazi occupied France, in The Train, was a surprising treat. The camera work blew my mind, and while it did suck my eyes away from my work, it gave me many new ideas for how to set up a “shot” on the comic book page. Time well spent. I give it 4.5 Robos.

Contact -the adaptation of Carl Sagan’s book, was also excellent, though visually nothing special. One of my favorite stories though. I always love/hate the part where Jodie Foster loses the chance to be Earth’s ambassador to the Universe because she doesn’t believe in a God. When the scary comity persons ask her if she thinks 95% of the human species is self-delusional for believing in a higher power, she wisely says nothing. But I always answer for her -not that the computer screen is listening. 4 Robos.

Chronicles of Riddick -I personally like Vin Diesel. Like Will Smith, he just makes me smile and I want to pinch his cheeks. I will watch him in anything. The story is standard adventure fare, and the look of the movie is pure DUNE, but it was fun. 3 Robos.

Sanctuary -not a movie technically, but a movie length pilot on SciFi.com. The basic idea is that even the monsters that go bump in the night need some place safe to go to hide from the world of Man. The concept sounded good. Too bad the heavy-handed application of low-budget CGI, mediocre acting, and some of the worst writing since Babylon 5 ruined it. 1 Robo.

Six String Samurai -After Russia drops the bomb and invades the USA in 1957, America is turned into radioactive, commie, wasteland -Except for the last bastion of Democracy and Rock n’ Roll, Las Vegas. Elvis was crowned King of Las Vegas, but he died. The movie follows a Buddy Holly wannabe, with his katana duct-taped to the back of his Fender, as he makes he’s way to “Lost Vegas” to try and claim the crown. Of course there are many other rock n’ roll ronin with the same idea. Music and violence ensure. This is a hard one to rate. 1 Robo as far as quality goes. 5 Robos for pure insanity.

Time Bandits -Another one I can’t really explain. If you don’t know Time Bandits then you probably don’t know Brazil, Baron Munchausen, City of Lost Children or any of the other brilliant films by Terry Gilliam. In which case you’re life is an empty waste. Go Netflix them. However, Time Bandits is the weakest of these great films, so I can only give it 3 Robos.

Cutthroat Island -Fucking terrible. I couldn’t even get through 45 minutes of it. 1 Robo.

The Shadow -Not as bad as I remembered it, but nothing great. Which is too bad since the character is great. I will say it was much better than Dick Tracy or The Phantom. 2 Robos.

Hello Dolly -okay, I feel that some explanation is called for here. I saw this one against my will. It was playing at the downtown theater where they play free movies on Saturday afternoon, and the Widget loves musicals. She’s 8yrs old, so I cut her slack for that. I had thought the arrangement was that her friend’s mom was taking her, but I guess not. She was desperate to go so I took her. I didn’t think I could grind my teeth for two and a half hours straight. But I can. There are movies that have music in them, even lots of music -like White Christmas, or Wayne’s World. Then there are musicals -which are just a string of gay dance routines and horrible lyrics loosely strung into some sort of order with just a little bit of talking between each song or big dance number. Visually it was very pleasing. But overall it was terrible. 2 Robos.

RANDOM SPLENDOR

- Hey Sarah Palin