Alex Robinson's Blog, page 147
September 7, 2011
September 6, 2011
The Ink Panthers Show: Episode 105 - I Need a Hero
Lots of great stuff in this episode: Alex returns from a trip to Las Vegas with a veritable ton of topics, thanks to all the oxygen they pump into the casinos and non-stop five-hour energy drinks. He's on fire! A Beach Boy concert, vomit-bags on airplanes, celebrity-sightings, this trip had…
August 29, 2011
Bring on the Bad Guys!
Two observations:
1) I tried to include...
Bring on the Bad Guys!
Two observations:
1) I tried to include some ladies in the drawing but Marvel's bench is surprisingly shallow when it comes to female villains.
2) This is the first time I've noticed how many villains wear green (often combined with purple) and how few heroes do. I can't think of any classic Marvel heroes who wear green other than The Hulk (who started off grey). I can swear I remember reading something where one-time publisher Larry Lieber had a rule that "green covers don't sell" and it's not hard to imagine he was parroting something said by his brother Stan Lee.
I changed the Mole Man's costume to brown since I was sick of green and brown seems more "mole-ly."
August 26, 2011
thenewrepublic:
Fifteen years ago this month, the U.S. House of...
Fifteen years ago this month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). The bill, which defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman under federal law, passed by a vote of 342-67—an outcome that roughly reflected public opinion at the time. But over the past decade and a half, our society has undergone a seismic shift in how it recognizes and accepts the relationships of gay and lesbian couples. This report provides a snapshot of this dramatic transformation and illustrates the crystallizing consensus in favor of legal relationship recognition for gay and lesbian couples, extending all the way to marriage in many parts of the country. In 1996, DOMA was thought to have ended the debate on marriage. But it seems to have been only the beginning of a more profound shift in favor of gay and lesbian couples.
Graphic via Queerty.
August 23, 2011
spx:
Hey, everyone in Brooklyn, (We know that's where all you...
spx:
Hey, everyone in Brooklyn, (We know that's where all you cartoonists live. It's no secret.) go check out the release party for Mike Dawson's Troop 142! It's one of the best graphic novels of the year!
August 20, 2011
Abandoning The Method--Part 4
So I just finished page 9 of the New Book (I really have to come up with a working title). It's always interesting working with a fresh new batch of characters. Even though I've already written out a bunch of scenes (the most writing I've ever done for a book before sitting down to draw it) and have a pretty basic grasp of the characters it's always a learning process.
The best analogy I can think of is having writing to a pen-pal for a while and finally meeting said pal in the flesh. You might know a bit about the person but that impression can totally change once you're face to face. A similar thing happens with drawing a comic. Subtle things I never planned come out—how does Billy hold a beer when he drinks it? When his friends are talking, does he make eye contact or does his focus wander around the room? Does he use the coaster? Does he lean back in his chair or keep it flat on the ground? Etc, etc.
This is also the first time I've been working on a book while being very aware of social media. I'm torn. Since I'm excited about doing the book and its occupying a big chunk of my mental space part of me wants to post about it, share pics, post pages and so on. But a bigger part of me doesn't. At this stage I think it's best to be selfish and keep it to myself. There was a time I was really into the idea of serializing my new book, either digitally or in print, but for the moment I've completely changed my mind. We shall see.
August 19, 2011
That's alot of god damned robots
thedailywhat:
Above:...
August 18, 2011
A Frank discussion of biographies
I recently read Frank Kaplan's excellent biography of Frank Sinatra Frank: The Voice but it got me wondering about the rules for biography writing.
The book is loaded with examples of things which would seem to be impossible for a biographer to discover through research: people's inner thoughts, exact conversations which happened decades ago, etc. Obviously you expect a certain degree of reconstruction and filling-in-the-blanks and speculations from any biography but at times it almost felt like a novel in its ability to get inside so many of the characters heads. At what point does something cross the line from non-fiction to something like Norman Mailer's Executioner's Song, a novel based on real life events which the author exhaustively researched?
I did find the book a compelling read and hope he's at work on volume 2.
August 16, 2011
Star Trek: the original series
Since they added it to Netflix I've been slowly working my way through the original series of Star Trek. I've never watched most of them before, though I'm familiar with them at least.
The things I like best are the characterization of Kirk, Spock and Bones—probably one of the best teams in TV history, though they don't hang out nearly as much as you'd like—and the bold colors. I have a hunch that if the interior of the space shuttles looked as funky as virtually everything on this show the space program would still be going. Spock is, of course, terrific.
The series suffers from two big drawbacks in my opinion. For one thing, we've had almost 50 years of sci-fi (and, what? 400 episodes of Star Trek?) since then so the concepts that were once cutting edge are pretty cliche now. Modern audiences can probably figure out the twists long before Kirk and his crew do ("She's an android/powerful alien/space ghost!" etc).
It's also kind of ironic that while Star Trek was pretty progressive for it's time ("Who let this black woman/Russian/Chinese guy on my bridge/TV?") the sexist attitude toward its female characters is cringe-inducing*. Every time Kirk is alone with guest-lady-of-the-week they go to soft-focus, the soundtrack turns into syrupy strings and that's when I get up to refresh my drink.
Most of us rarely watch any other programs from the '60s (especially dramas) so that only makes the sexism stand out all the greater. One interesting thing about the Netflix shows is that they're the mildly controversial "remastered" versions which feature updated CGI effects in place of most of the clunky original shots. Would the show be improved by digitally removing the awful kissing scenes?
*There's an episode in which we discover that some women who appear beautiful are really hideously ugly women using some kind of drug to make themselves attractive. The thing is, they aren't so much ugly as plain women with bad make-up. It's possible that they're making some commentary about unattainable beauty standards (they aren't ugly but see themselves as such) but since every other woman on the show falls into the soft-focus-boring-model type** I don't think this is the case.
**Except for Nurse Chapel, of course, who stands out because she's plain looking, but those are the breaks you get when you're married to the creator of the show.
August 13, 2011
Friday Night Lights
Last night we watched the original Friday Night Lights movie—the one that inspired the excellent TV series we recently finished watching. I can't really judge the movie, since it was so hard to watch without always comparing it to the show.
Some observiations:
—the movie covers one football season, something the show normally took an entire season to do, so things are really compressed.
—I was surprised that none of the players directly carried over into the series. The only characters who really made the transition (with different names) were Mr. & Mrs. coach and Buddy.
—on a related note, Mrs. Coach and Buddy were played by the actors who would go on to play them on the series. This and the fact that the movie is set in 1988 almost made it feel like some kind of prequel. I was imagining that Tami Taylor is essentially a scout for Buddy. When she finds a good coach she marries him and brings him back to Dillon. Once the coach outlives his usefulness they "take him out of the game" and she goes off in search of another husband/coach. Trust me, if you watch it with this in mind it takes on a very sinister air and the games become more exciting when you realize a man's life hangs in the balance.
—While the relationship between Tami and Eric Taylor is the keystone of the TV series it's given very little notice in the movie. I think Connie Britten only has one scene in which she gets to do anything other than Watch Football With Wide Eyed Anticipation.
So, if you're a fan of the show it's worth checking out for the curiosity value, but you'll probably find they covered the same ground much more satisfyingly on the series.
