Jason's Blog, page 153

Some Came Running

Sinatra is a WW2 vet and writer who returns to his hometown and has to deal with smalltown hipocricy. Also starring Dean Martin and Shirley MacLaine, directed by Vincente Minnelli.

Gotta love the 50s films! The whole look of Hollywood films at the time: the cinemascope, the colours, the melodrama! This is the first Minnelli film I've seen. I should try to find more of his films. The same with Douglas Sirk; I think I've only seen Imitation of Life. Anyway, Sinatra is very good in this film. He had a certain worldweariness that fits the character. The exteriors seem to be mostly shot on location, so it gives a more real feeling than if it had been done on the backlot. The images are carefully composed, in long takes - there are none of the over the shoulder shots you see in modern films - with few closeups. So it looks great, but the images also feel a bit too small on my tv screen; it's a movie that probably should be seen in a cinema.

Arzkat

I should have been working on my new book. Instead I drew this. My apologies if it's already been done. It's kind of an obvious idea. I haven't used watercolours in several years, so I screwed up the colouring a bit.

I was wondering...

...what my drawings would look like with crosshatching.

...and a cartoon

Another end of the world drawing. That must really have been on my mind a lot in the mid eighties. The character in the cartoon I pretty much stole from a Moebius story.

Old strip

I found this strip, drawn around 84, and at least that final panel is clearly influenced by Moebius. To make it more obvious I even put in portraits of Major Grubert and Blueberry. The strip isn't that funny so I won't bother with a translation. He starts World War 3 as an april's fool, ha ha. Anyway, this was the short period when I drew with a rotring pen and it shows I really had a lot to learn.

Them

Giant ants! Directed by Gordon Douglas.

Enough 70s films with longhaired hippie scum! Give me a 50s film when men were men and there was always a big bug around to fight! One starring James Arness - Norwegian Viking, Matt Dillon and Zeb Macahan. Ah, I miss How The West Was Won, that was a great series... Anyway, Them - is it the best big bug film? Probably. There seems to be a pattern in these films. There's a professor who explains what's going on (atomic tests, mutations), with or without a pipe, and he has a fetching daughter that the hero falls in love with. But the film actually looks great, and kudos to the actors who manage to say their lines without cracking up.

The End 2

A second version, drawn a year later.

The End 1

A drawing from around 83. Text: See the end of the world - in colour! - children half price

R.I.P. Moebius

Sad news. Jean Giraud is dead. I was just looking through my Moebius Oeuvres Complètes from Les Humanoïdes Associés yesterday, marveling at his drawings. The Hermetic Garage, Arzach, Le Bandard Fou... And Blueberry that he did with Charlier. It's an amazing body of work. Unfortunetaly, I never got to meet him and shake his hand, as a fellow cartoonist. The closest was the first time I was in Angoulême, in 2000. It was the last day of the festival, I was taking a last walk in one of the tents, when I saw him signing prints. I got in line, and after a couple of minutes I had one of the prints, signed, in my hand. It's now framed, hanging on my wall. That was a kind of magical festival for me. It was the first time I was there, they had a great Moebius exhibition, Robert Crumb had a concert and then, unexpectedly, the signed Moebius. Angoulême has never been quite the same after that...

Son of a gun