Gordon McAlpin's Blog: Updates from Multiplex: Deleted Scenes, page 14

Multiplex First Appearance T-shirts — Maybe? and I am going to blog about your insolence.

Brian's Maybe? T-shirt is available again for the first time in a few years, and — in honor of the Blogger's recent return to the strip — I've added a new shirt with the Blogger's popular line, "I am going to blog about your insolence." Both design (like all of my T-shirts now) are printed on demand by Threadsafe.

And don't forget! There's a sale on original sketches and vector portraits in the Multiplex Store through next Friday! All proceeds go to my accountant and the IRS!

Chapter 7 cover illustration

Here's the final(?) cover/chapter illustration for the upcoming Chapter 7 digital collection, featuring Devi. I had posted this to Facebook a little bit ago, but updated it to start using the new way I'm drawing eyes in Multiplex (as of #678), now with pupils and highlights. Since this is much larger than any single panel, it gives you a better look at the new detail, which I think makes the characters feel more warm.

I remember experimenting with pupils in the characters' eyes when I first designed them (seven years ago, for the oldest cast members) but at that point, the strip was so undetailed that it looks bizarre to have this small area of heightened detail. Now, I pack a bit more into each panel, so it doesn't seem so out of place. Or maybe I just changed my mind. I dunno.

(This will, of course, also be the second chapter in Multiplex Book 2, currently/tentatively titled Multiplex: There and Back Again.)

Chapter 7 has two more strips left before I can publish it, but I probably won't have time to get to those until after I'm back from Emerald City Comic Con, unfortunately!

Sale on original art in the Multiplex Store! (or, a little help from my friends)

If you've read Multiplex for long, then you know I hate doing this kind of stuff, but between expenses for Emerald City and the tax man, money is… shall we say… very very tight right now. Beyond tight, actually. Suffocatingly tight.

I am working on a very cool freelance project right now, but I won't be seeing any money from that for at least a month. (Ah, the life of a freelancer.) And there is a chance I will be doing a Kickstarter project for Book 2 soon, but that money would be entirely for the book (and also well over a month away).

So! In order to hopefully raise some of the several hundred dollars I need ASAP, I've dropped the price of hand-drawn sketches in the Multiplex Store to $20 (plus shipping) and vector portraits to $60 for the next two weeks to help raise a little cash.

You can also get pages of original art from the zombie story arc (feel free to inquire about any other pages not listed in the store) or be a Multiplex: The Movie Sponsor and appear as a zombie in the strip when filming gets started back up again.

I am also available for any freelance illustration or print design & production needs you might have — for your blog, website, magazine, book, whatever! You can see my portfolio over at www.gordonmcalpin.com and shoot me an e-mail with details!

And, of course, if you don't want to clutter your house up, you can just donate to Multiplex via PayPal:

Thanks, as always, for your support!

Andrew Stanton on "The Clues to a Great Story" at TED

TED's generally fantastic series of talks continues with John Carter, Finding Nemo, and WALL·E director Andrew Stanton's new one, "The Clues to a Great Story." Watch the 19 minute clip below… (Thanks to /Film for the heads up.)

Multiplex #655 is running late…

A last-minute-ish production assistant gig on a video shoot (for a web promotion I'm not sure I'm at liberty to discuss at this point) ate into my evenings for the last couple of nights, so Thursday's Multiplex will be late, I'm afraid. Hopefully it'll post on Thursday night, but… you know how things go. I only post this because I'd hate for anyone to start thinking that I'm going to make a habit of blowing my update schedule. :(

Anyway. If you'd like something to tide you over 'til then, please check out this a recent hand-drawn illustration I did for ReviverSoft that I thought turned out rather well. I did the portrait of guest blogger Rantz Hoseley also, but I mean the one farther down the page.

(If you didn't know, I do illustrations for ReviverSoft's computer tips blog now and then to help pay mah billz. If you're of the Windows persuasion or you'd just like to occasionally see drawings by me that pertain to computers, subscribe to their RSS feed! And if you have a blog or podcast or website of your own that you'd like to fancy up by commissioning graphics or illustrations for it by me, feel free to shoot me an e-mail — especially if your site has anything to do with comics or movies! Because they're awesome.)

Trailer Watch: The full trailer for The Hunger Games

The full trailer for The Hunger Games premiered on Good Morning America today, with much more about the plot than the teaser trailer (which is little more than a retread of The Running Man or Battle Royale). Jennifer Lawrence continues to look promising as Katniss, but the supporting cast continues to make my face wrinkle with its almost random assortment of talent, including Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland, Wes Bentley, Toby Jones, and Lenny Kravitz. Many (Harrelson, especially) seem mismatched to the tone the trailer is displaying here… but I guess we'll see if it all comes together on March 23, 2012.

You can check it out in higher definition over at Apple.

The full synopsis is after the cut:

Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the evil Capitol of the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games. A twisted punishment for a past uprising and an ongoing government intimidation tactic, The Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which "Tributes" must fight with one another until one survivor remains. Pitted against highly-trained Tributes who have prepared for these Games their entire lives, Katniss is forced to rely upon her sharp instincts as well as the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy. If she's ever to return home to District 12, Katniss must make impossible choices in the arena that weigh survival against humanity and life against love. THE HUNGER GAMES is directed by Gary Ross, and produced by Nina Jacobson's Color Force in tandem with producer Jon Kilik. Suzanne Collins' best-selling novel, the first in a trilogy published by Scholastic that has over 16 million copies in print in the United States alone, has developed a massive global following.

Trailer Watch: Stop-motion zombie action in Laika's ParaNorman teaser

Laika, the stop-motion animation studio that produced Coraline, is back next year with ParaNorman.

In the film, a boy who can speak to the dead must save his town from a zombie uprising.

ParaNorman is aiming for a August 17, 2012, release. The voice cast features Kodi Smit-McPhee, Casey Affleck, Tempestt Bledsoe, Jeff Garlin, John Goodman, Bernard Hill, Anna Kendrick, Leslie Mann, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse.

Trailer Watch: Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol theatrical trailer

Courtesy Yahoo! Movies comes the "exclusive" new trailer for Mission: Impossible â€" Ghost Protocol, from director Brad Bird (Iron Giant, The Incredibles).

This new trailer gives you a little more about the story than the teaser trailer, but lacks the teaser's punch, I think. Still, I trust Brad Bird not to make a bad movie, and there are enough glimpses of awesome between the two trailers that I'm still very much on board.

Mission: Impossible â€" Ghost Protocol hits theaters on December 16th.

Trailer Watch: Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol theatrical trailer

Courtesy Yahoo! Movies comes the "exclusive" new trailer for Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, from director Brad Bird (Iron Giant, The Incredibles).

This new trailer gives you a little more about the story than the teaser trailer, but lacks the teaser's punch, I think. Still, I trust Brad Bird not to make a bad movie, and there are enough glimpses of awesome between the two trailers that I'm still very much on board.

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol hits theaters on December 16th.

Trailer Watch: Writer-director Angelina Jolie's In the Land of Blood and Honey

I don't know why I should say that I'm surprised that this looks good, but I am, and it does. It looks really good, in fact.

Written and directed by Angelina Jolie, In the Land of Blood and Honey centers around "a love affair [that] blooms between a Bosnian woman and a Serbian man during war in the 1990s." It stars Goran Kostić, Zana Marjanović, and Rade Šerbedžija — the film's cast is entirely local actors (if you can call the six countries former comprising Yugoslavia "local").

The film hits screens on December 23, 2011 — which is basically shorthand for, "We think this is an Oscar contender." There are two versions of the film, which were filmed simultaneously: one in English, and another in the Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian language (or BHS). Undoubtedly, we'll get the English one here.