Jason's Blog, page 168

The Smiling Horse

It's the return of the two main characters from & in Low Moon. One thing I completely screwed up in that story is that they were supposed to be Laurel and Hardy. Hence the title. It's the story of how they met. Yes, I know, I should have drawn Hardy fatter! I don't know what I was thinking... But maybe it's just as well that nobody got it, as I assume the likeness of Laurel and Hardy might be copyrighted. So if nothing else, at least it kept me from being sued.

A Cat from Heaven

The image above is the translation into French that I got from my publisher, glued into my sketchbook, the image below is thumbnail sketches. The story is influenced by Charles Bukowski, particularly the novel Women. Okay, it's a rip-off.

Nick Drake

Tom Waits on The Moon

I usually avoid thought balloons, so I wanted to do a story with only thought balloons. We follow four characters, and then something happens at the end that connects them. I did the drawings Marvel style, just the drawings, no text. Only when the drawings for all the pages were finished, did I sit down and decide their thoughts. I had to think of the background situation for each character, and if there should be some sort of theme going on. So one of the characters, a bird guy, wants to get out of a loveless marriage, and I had five pages to tell his story.

Norwegian Ninja

Commander Arne Treholt and his Ninja Force saves the day. Starring Mads Ousdal, written and directed by Thomas Cappelen Malling.



Having read some good reviews of this film, I got curious and ended up ordering the dvd, and it's pretty funny. A mix of martial arts, obvious models and 80s computer graphics, it's a lot of absurdity played completely straight. The director has clearly seen more than one film by Spike Jonze, and there's touches of Wes Anderson as well. And he knows not to drag it out too long, the film clocking in at 77 minutes. It might help to be Norwegian and remember the Treholt case from the tv news in the 80s.

The Cure

Been watching some old The Cure clips on youtube. He's written some catchy songs, Robert Smith. I don't really know how to draw a guitar.

The Brain That Wouldn't Virginia Woolf

It's The Brain That Wouldn't Die meets Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. And... it's told backwards! Woo-hoo! Yeah, real clever... Anyway, that's something I've wanted to try a long time. I've seen it used in episodes of thirtysomething and Seinfeld. There's also the French film Irréversible, but that one I haven't actually seen. Hopefully it'll be more than just a trick, but who knows, probably not.

So Long, Mary Ann

I'll write a couple of words about each of the six stories in Athos in America. First: So Long, Mary Ann. It's quite influenced by the film noir Raw Deal, directed by Anthony Mann, with cinematography by the great John Alton. It has some of the same story elements: a prison escape, a couple on the run, a love triangle. It's a good film, but in my head I saw an other ending. There's also my version of the ultimate film noir bad guy. And yes, I stole the title from Leonard Cohen, just changing it from Marianne to Mary Ann.

Le Havre

The trailer for Aki Kaurismäki's new film, Le Havre, can be found here:

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2011/0...

... and the back cover.