The Mongerered Words of John-Paul Bove

It Never Truly Ends...

2011-12-06T19:12:00.000-08:00

I can still remember the day the final Transformers UK issue came out. Getting to the end of the issue to discover that that was it, the end. No more. Imagine my surprise 21 years later when I heard that they would be continuing the book I grew up on, with the writer and the penciller AND the inker that worked on that defining book. Imagine my even greater surprise when I learned that I would be the one working with them on colouring the interiors!

Its no understatement to say that I look up to the Simon Furman (writer), Andy Wildman (penciller) and Stephen Baskerville (inker) as it was Furman's run on the book that made we want to tell my own stories and I think of the countless hours I's spend trying to copy and/or trace the artwork from those books, only to discover that I wasn't very good at drawing! What they did has stuck with me, and has stood the test of time well, and to be in the same company as these gentlemen is nothing short of an honour.

Chris Ryall put this page up earlier so its now safe for me to show too. Needless to say getting the feel of this book right is a priority for everybody, and with that wonderful classic pencil and inkwork its hard to deviate too far from the classic colour schemes without it looking wrong. Striking a balance is hard as people have such expectations of what a TF book looks like now, and indeed what it looked like then, and great pains have been taken to get a look that fits somewhere in the middle. So when you read the issues you can see the DNA of the original books and yet see the modern era, almost as if this is the "missing link" between those points.

As a huge fan of the original book, all I can say is that from what I've read and what I've seen you are in for a treat like no other. Seriously, the best is yet to come.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Review

2011-06-28T16:21:00.000-07:00

I won't lie - this is the first TF film I've been excited about. The first two I've been anxious about more than anything. But this one I had the opportunity to see a preview of this in California earlier in the month where I was blown away with the spectacle of it (for one made more enjoyable through the use of 3D) and that the tone seemed darker after the silly hijinks of Revenge of the Fallen.

I hate getting excited for a film, because I always get let down.

But I loved the hell out of this installment. From the start the tone takes a shift toward more real, though the film does indulge the more improvisational and anarchic comedy used in the second film particularly during Sam's hunt for a job, but its fair to say that the light stuff only makes way for the dark as the plot unfolds. The plot and many of the characters introduced are scattergunned across the screen a bit carelessly but most get a few good moments to shine, and even a couple of the robots actually get a bit of time to display some personality (about frickin' time) though still none are totally fleshed out. But when some of them die you will feel it this time. You either like or hate Shia Le Bouf, and this film won't shift you one way or the other. I like him. His bit of stuff in this film is actually better than I thought she'd be, hardly ward winning, but she feels real despite that mouth. Their relationship works well and a bit more grown up.

SPOILERS (ish) COMING!

Part of the problem I had with the previous 2 films was that the plot was "don't let bad robot get bad thing or bad things will happen". Then the end battle with the impossible to kill baddy would take about 5 seconds to resolve. In this film not only do the bad guys have the thing from early on but the shit hits the fan by half way and victory is hard fought. The tone of the film gets darker, and the stakes get higher throughout. Again, about time.

Now, the 3D. I've watched quite a few 3D films and I'm firmly of the opinion that it's all a gimmick that adds little to anything. Avatar's day glow 3D did nothing for me, nor anything I've seen before or since. Until this film. The set pieces and action scenes are incredible and the 3D actually adds to the experience because those kibbly robots have perspective which makes following the action in Bay's busy movies that much easier and much more fun. He's staged the scenes to make the most of the effect with only a couple drawing way too much attention to themselves. Indeed looking back at his previous films a lot of the action is staged in planes, the camera always in motion which translated to 3D works pretty well too.

So there it is, the review I never expected to make. Michael Bay seems to have acknowledged his mistakes from the second film and delivered something a bit more meaty. He's still the king of explosions but somehow you care a bit more about the stuff blowing up.

Bots of Hono(u)r Begins!

2011-05-30T04:01:00.001-07:00

I recently had a chance to write for a continuityless new Transformers online story called Bots of Honor from the Transformers Mosaic lord himself Josh Van Reyk. I had a lot of fun writing the stories I did and as the theme was sort of Batman Brave and the Bold I went for a Batman themed story and go for a real comic book story for TF, and making some sense of Pretender technology too.

Linework was done by the epic Ger Hankey who I got to work here for the first time here (and hopefully not for the last time) and my words made manifest by HdE's excellent lettering.

I hope you enjoy it!

Ironhide Exclusive Print available at London Film and Comic Con

2010-07-15T15:46:00.000-07:00

I'm pleased to announce that an EXCLUSIVE print of Ironhide will be available from the Apocalypse Comics stall at LFCC. The print has been drawn by the awesome Transformers artist Casey Coller and coloured by moi, as a tie in to Casey's IDW mini-series "Ironhide".

The print is extremely limited and once they are sold out there will never be any more printed, so snap them up while you can.

Only a day to go until the LFCC www.londonfilmandcomiccon.com Last years was amazing and hopefully this year will be even better!. This year I'm there again colouring sketches while you wait. I'll be at the Apocalypse Comics www.apocalypsecomics.com booth where the confirmed artists will be my lovely lady Jess Bradley www.iconvenkman-project.deviantart.com and www.iconcirus5555.deviantart.com and for those that want it I'll be colouring. I'm also happy to colour any sketches brought to me from any artist on the day. If you have colour reference that would be handy!

For anyone who purchases a sketch (or brings me a sketch) an extra £10 will get you a fully coloured version of your headshot sketch, and a full body sketch for an extra £15. Examples from last year are here: http://wordmongerer.deviantart.com/art/Con-TF-Colourings-131336730

They'll be coloured and printed out high quality on glossy photopaper as fast as my wee hands will carry them and ready for you to take away on the day. If you want them on the day its best to come over to me ASAP as the slots fill pretty quick. Anything not done on the day (or if you don't mind waiting) will be sent in the post ASAP after the event. If anybody has already purchased a sketch and would like it coloured BEFORE the show to collect there then let me know.

j-p

Iron Man 2 in Review - SPOILERS ABOUND

2010-05-04T11:48:00.000-07:00

Iron Man was an unexpected surprise of a movie. It managed to find surprising depth, suprising warmth and humour and it had inevitable scenes of blowing stuff up. And it blew things up really well.

Iron Man 2 has a lot of pressure weighing on it. Not only is it a sequel to an exceptionally popular movie but it also acts as a big link in the chain of the upcoming connected Marvel Universe of films. If it isn't very good then it bodes badly for the films to follow.

I'm pleased to say that it is a good movie, though unfortuantely it isn't a great movie. One of the most important aspects of a "big" movie like this one is the action and this film has it in spades, and each sequence is enjoyable, frenetic and has a very good pace to it.

One of the main parts where the film fall down relative to the first is in characterisation. The acting is as strong as the first film (with the merciful removal of the pitifully weak Terrence Howard), but the chances for them to shine are greatly reduced by an expanding roster of characters. Robert Downey steals the show again after a bit of a weak first 5 minutes on screen. Unfortunately the excellent Sam Rockwell is massively underutilised and his character doesn't really undergo any kind of journey, and is largely a foil for the plot. The same can be said for the character of Pepper Potts, Nick Fury, Whiplash, Black Widow... Which is a terrible shame. You could remove Scarlett Johanssen's character and it wouldn't have made any real impact on the movie. I'm sure she will be used elsewhere but I have no idea why she's in THIS movie.

Because of the increased cast there is a lot of "laying pipe" going on with the plot being layed out without really feeling like the character is driving it but rather that the plot is driving them. The worst example of this is the plot involving Tony's relationship with his father. Conveniently Fury knows more about his father than Tony does and we discover that Tony's father helped establish SHIELD. This seems extremely unlikely, and chronically convenient. Tony's estrangement issues go almost as quickly as they arrive as within minutes he watches a film of his father who leaves a message for him telling him how important his son is. This is coupled with a very weak stretch in that Howard Stark left a secret message for a new element in the layout of the 70's Stark expo model... It's a bit of a hideous plot contrivance, especially as this just so happens to be the solution to Tony's medical condition. WHAT ARE THE ODDS?

There are a few moments like this unfortunately, especially in the climax where the army of Iron Men are brought down within seconds after Tony's been running from them for 5 minutes. Added to this, the final showdown with Whiplash is embarrassingly brief and basically is the "don't cross the streams" gag from Ghostbusters. The strongest aspect is the relationship between Rhodes and Stark which is very strong and well acted.

In the first movie Tony was cocky, realised he WAS the problem, and then changed his ways to make amends. In the second Tony was cocky, realises he WAS the problem, blows lots of things up, but ultimately makes no impact on the central problem of proliferation and is then given a medal. Pardoned possibly, or at least forgiven, but honoured? He brought down Whiplash, but he's proven to be wrong in his estimations and it's proven that his advances are causing problems, so a medal feels very wrong here.

Despite these aspects of the film being lacking it is still an exceptionally enjoyable movie. The trademark humour is there, the charisma of the actors is there, it's just a shame that the story and writing is a tad on the weak side. It has flashes of great potential, with Tony's self destructive tendencies in how he deals with his life-threatening condition hinting for a time that this would be the dark middle film, the Empire of the Iron Man movies, but it all gets neatly wrapped up. It shows that Marvel can make good movies but so far they've only made one GREAT movie - the first Iron Man.

Logic Dictates Commentary

2010-04-10T15:44:00.000-07:00

Okey dokey there girls and guys! I've decided to start posting the odd (very odd if you ask me) commentary of things I have either written or coloured. Sometimes it'll be about the writing or the thoughts behind it, sometimes it'll be about the colouring techniques I've chosen and sometimes it'll be about how I did it. This time it'll be a mix of all three.

Before I begin I want to send an enormous amount of props to Rui Onishi who was the penciller and inker for this. The artwork was stellar and made my work a whole load easier when it came to colouring! I would very much like to pimp Rui's DA page here: http://marble-v.deviantart.com/

The fully lettered version of this story is available here: http://wordmongerer.deviantart.com/art/Logic-Dictates-Lettered-160253617

The Story

The story started as an inkling of an idea that tinkled in my head after a conversation probably a year ago with Josh Van Reyk of TF:Mosaic, but that never turned into anything concrete. After admiring Rui's work I asked who Rui's favourite character was: Shockwave.

One thing that always made me intrigued about Shockwave was that he was cold and logical, more robotic than the others. The origin of the story was, why did he become that way, he surely hadn't always been that way, what would be the the thing to make you shut down like that? The answer for me was grief and pain. Shutting down his emotional centres and pain receptors was/is his only way to survive. Revenge is what drives him but in order to get close to the one who did this to him, killed his friend, the thing he cared about the most, he needs to be methodical. He needs to be able to get close, and if he felt rage he couldn't do that, he'd get sloppy and killed. The notion that he was in disguise, appearing loyal and working to undermine and destroy Megatron seemed an interesting unexplored avenue to go down. It's a bit more "real" that just making simple grabs for power. In addition it doesn't undermine any established IDW continuity.

The key thing with one page comics is that you have to either reveal something about the character or tell a story with a twist, there's no room for waste. When I write a Mosaic I try and ensure that the story lives beyond the one page. At the end of this story you have learned something new, something that has deepened your understanding of the character and something that informs the next story you read about Shockwave. If that sounds easy, it isn't, and I don't always get it right, but that's what I'm aiming for.

Colours

Here's the page without words:

The Mosaic begins without letting you know who it is is narrating, but whoever it is they're stepping out of hell. He's all emotion, the first panel is all fire, though somewhere far away the two still moons of Cybertron are icy cold. When we get to the second panel, Shockwave is out of focus - lost. Behind him the fire illuminates him but the colours as we look down on his lost friend are all cool and cold, lifeless. Everything in front of Shockwave has a cold hue, and the colour scheme on the fallen comrade is also deliberately cold. Normally colour schemes are set on TF's but I had a chance here to choose colours that suited the story best. Whoop!

As the story progresses we get closer and closer to the stages of his transformation, more foreshadowing of who he is going to become. As we see the transformation the colours get cooler, the colours get colder. The final image has Shockwave cool in colour against a warm background, the only heat coming from his cannon arm and single, logical eye, a sign of what's lurking behind it. The only other hint of rage we see is his POV of his attacker and the murderer of his friend - Megatron. This panel is very deliberately not like any of the others. Red isn't really used anywhere else on the page and makes this the most angry panel, a sign of his mental state at this point and the beginning of his change. Even the panel borders are different in colour at this point. i think of it like a very quick cut in a film, just a few framed flash, a spike of pain, before returning to the main scene. Everything after this panel though becomes more logical, more matter of fact until we see his purpose and plan spelled out in cold logic.

Techniques

A few folks have asked about some of the techniques I've used. At some point I may do a tutorial but until then, the smoke was done by lassoing the smoke linework, increasing the selection radius a bit and then putting the smoke all on a layer above the linework. Then I use a lot of rough, speckled brushes to do shadows and highlights which I then apply a light Gaussian blur. After that I do another few specks of black/grey/white on the smoke layer, using orange and yellow linear dodge on any fire elements.

As for the starry sky, I get asked this a lot and its very difficult to explain. I start by using some star brushes until there are too many stars, and add some coloured haze depending on the mood I'm after. I then use the burn brush to make some of the regions of space darker than others, and making it look like specific clusters of nebulae stand out. Then I pick a different sized star brush on a linear dodge to make some very bright stars and keep all the stars from looking uniform.

Well - there's a lot in there, hope it helps with either the writing or colouring of your own project or adds to your enjoyment of the story.

Laters!

j-p

Avatar Unseen

2010-01-10T08:29:00.000-08:00

A firend of mine over on DeviantArt posted a link which discussed the original treatment for Avatar. It's discussed here:
http://chud.com/articles/articles/21969/1/PROJECT-880-THE-AVATAR-THAT-ALMOST-WAS/Page1.html

What is particularly interesting is that all of the plot conveniences, one sided and convenient storytelling is all absent. The story here is much more coherent, much more conflicted and the stakes are a lot higher. In short it makes sense and plays fair with the audience. It is a shame that Cameron then hatcheted at this until all the holes were visible. I think he'd have had to cut some of it as the treatment is quite long and he'd never fit it all into the run time but all of the original flair and IDEAS are here. The end result is all about the whizz bang and there's no originality.

Almost all of my criticisms are addressed in this draft which goes to show that they were valid points and that there ARE huge chunks missing in Avatar that make it a funtamentally flawed movie. From the reason that negotiation has failed to the less out-of-the-blue god intervening moment, the logic of the story is here. Other facts such as Pandora's ability to cure all known disease and the true value of Unobtanium (as well as a description of the fact that this is the joke name for it not the real name) are in this draft. The unity of the planet also conspires against the humans at the end and says that if mankind ever comes back it will create a disease that could wipe out the human race. This is a sensible example of Nature winning over technology, not throwing wooden spears through windcreens. It also means the film ends with no humans ever being able to come back which considering the value of what they're having to give up also makes Sully's conflict more of a conflict. It also sets up Earth as an almost lifeless shit hole which would have made even more of an impact when you realise no-one's seen forests before Pandora...

Ah what might have been, had Cameron not done a George Lucas and decided that more money means more effects which only means dialogue, plot and character all get shunted out of the way.

Have a read and you'll see what I mean.

Avatar Review: Spoilers Abound

2010-01-06T12:02:00.000-08:00

James Cameron. On one hand: Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, T2. On the other: Titanic, Dark Angel and True Lies. Cameron has been the purveyor of excellent action and some genuinely inventive contributions to the screen, but simultaneously his characterisation and plotting has been less than stellar. Which leads neatly to Avatar. Which is complete crap.

The plot essentially involves a paraplegic ex soldier who is given the chance to transfer his consciousness into a giant blue cat. The reason behind this is that the world they are on is entirely full of giant blue cat people who happen to have their magic tree directly above a pocket of a mineral called UNOBTAINIUM. A good thing it wasn't called CATGUANIUM... Unobtanium is important because, er, it floats? That's never actually explained but it apparently costs a lot. Which is why Mankind has invented the consciousness clones to get in with the locals. At no point though do they actually discuss with the love cats ways in which they could mine the ore from UNDER the tree. Instead they send our hero, I'll call him Rumpleteaser, to infiltrate and find out their weaknesses. This he does after a brief scene from Starship Troopers.

A moment about the effects. They're fine. Lip syncing has got better than the days of Gollum, but the actual effects themselves are no more impressive. As for the much hyped world of Avatar, it is no more impressive than any of the environments created for the Star Wars prequels. The areas where the effects do impress is where the 3D helps create depth, in particular the scenes at height where you genuinely get the sense of there being one hell of a fall. Beyond that the 3D is no more impressive or not impressive than the same effect in Ice Age 3, Up or Bolt. There's too much nonsense about the film being a "game-changer". The only thing that has changed is the means by which the film is captured using new mo-cap technology and virtual cameras. This changes the way that directors can visualise the film, it does not change what appears on the screen in the same way that using a new brush does not guarantee art from the bristles.

And its a terrible shame. Every idea on show in Avatar seems borrowed. From the bad fantasy novel trapping of interconnected consciousness through a big tree to the achingly poor Native American parallels, it's all a bit too familiar. The only difference is that there's big blue cats and moss that glows when you walk on it. Even the usual Cameron high points of production design are mercilessly stolen from his other, greater works. The aircraft are incredibly similar to the drop ships from Aliens and the Armoured Suits are very reminiscent of the Cargo Loaders, also from Aliens, or indeed almost copied from the robot suits in the Matrix Revolutions. Everything has had a nice ipodesque sheen to it to bring it up to date, but unfortunately the update didn't extend to the logic behind the concepts. Firstly, why is there no bullet proof glass on ANY of the military hardware? On a planet of poisonous gas this would be quite an important consideration. But instead they went for glazing that wouldn't even repel wooden spears. The only purpose for this oversight appears to be to allow an incredibly unconvincing victory by Rumpleteaser at al. There is absolutely NO way they could win this, but they do, because it's written that way. Similarly, if I were in the army and building a giant war machine walking suit I think I'd design one with a gun or guns built into the suit as opposed to building a robot with hands that have to HOLD the gun (with both hands) making the suit utterly pointless, less adaptable and nonsensical. Again, had this been thought about the final battle would have ended with Rumpleteaser et al being mowed down in seconds as there would be no position in which the catfolk could have taken one on. But again, Cameron needed the plot to go a certain way so he just wrote crap. It also allows the final scene to consist of a man in a robot suit having a knife fight with a giant blue cat. I really haven't ever seen anything as stupid as this scene.

Cameron's convenient plotting includes the Na'vi's inexplicable belief that they can move consciousness from a human body to the clones permanently. How do they know this? How could they possibly know this?! After an embarrassing scene which recalls the underground rave in Matrix Reloaded they fail to save Sigourney Weaver, but its OK because you know it'll work in time for Rumpleteaser. There's also the absolute maximum deus ex machina (literally) moment when after Rumpleteaser talks to the magic tree the entire planet of animals all come come together to fight the foolhardy and moustache twirlingly evil humans with their single glazed cockpits. He literally asks God and God says, "Here, have some animals". Breathtakingly dumb.

It's utterly unclear what Cameron is trying to say in this film. All humans are evil? That nature always triumphs over technology? The first isn't true and the second has never been the case in ANY conflict in the history of Man. The human race is portrayed in the most one dimensional terms throughout. The General in particular could not be any more ridiculously evil had he been raping kids at knife point and drowning sackfuls of puppies. He actually utters a line at some point along the lines of "Bombing them so hard to leave behind a racial memory they'll never forget". By making the other side so unbelievable, so silly it undermines any attempt at a message. It isn't the story of Native Americans despite the blatant "the land and the people are one" message. This story ends in a twee and convenient way that just proves that the film says nothing and is about nothing.

Even though there have been other films that have had very little to say but consisted of a lot of things blowing up few have been this expensive and this hyped. The film is basically Ferngully: Last of the Rain forests channelled through the effects of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. Avatar epitomises an old story. It doesn't break new ground, there are plenty of style over substance films in existence, many came out this year. But this was the most expensive film ever made (allegedly) and it is a shame that the ambition didn't match the budget. Despite the hype the film brings nothing that hasn't been seen before. From Jurassic Park to Lord of the Rings to Star Wars to Aliens, there's nothing new here except for the sheer amount of money thrown at it to have more of everything. The film will make a fortune of course, the child-friendly plot, hype and the inflated cost of the 3D tickets will see to that. What we need is a storytelling revolution more than we need a technological revolution, which is ironically a complete contradiction to the main thrust of Avatar.

Interview Prime

2009-08-10T04:08:00.000-07:00

Whoopy de whoop whoop y'all!

My first ever interview is up over at Publishing Comics which is a fairly new site http://www.publishingcomics.com/interview/interview-with-john-paul-bove/

In it I discuss taking feedback, getting better, being realistic and the secrets of the universe hidden in pine cones... OK that last bit is a fib... It's my first real interview after helping to write the answers to the Newsarama War Journal interview well over a year ago.
In addition the adventure to the big smoke last month has been blogged about here: http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/blog/viewpost/1273

And last but not least but a piece of mine has been featured on a blog under the title "Best Artwork of Superheroes from the Most Talented Comic Artists" which is a hell of a thing. However, the piece featured was a peice I coloured of Mike Weiringo, so I think I just got lucky on being featured somehow. The link is here: http://thedesigninspiration.com/articles/best-artwork-of-superheroes-from-the-most-talented-comic-artists/

Transformers 2 Movie Review - SPOILERS ABOUND

2009-07-01T14:38:00.000-07:00

Well the film is currently getting slated left right and, of course, centre. The film is brash, unsubtle and occassionally breath-takingly dumb... but is pant wettingly enjoyable at the same time.

I had very low expectations for the first film, I knew it wouldn't be following the lines of the well told stories of my youth but I was steeled for a good action film with robots beating the shit out of each other. As it turned out that was what I got and it was also quite funny. TF2 is basically the same film but writ even larger. The plot is pretty much the same: Object is powerful, don't let bad man have object. The humour is present here and massively expanded on (occassionally to its detriment) and the action scenes are nothing short of spectacular. What also got enlarged from the first film was the lack of real plot which seems even more noticable this time 'round. All the failings of the first film are on full and obvious display in TF2, but the aspects that TF1 did well are also enlarged.

So in some ways the film is complete crap. But in a great many important ways its absolutely brilliant.

Quick Update

2009-05-30T09:25:00.000-07:00

Alreet?

Just a super swift update to let y'all know what's goin' on in the world of work. I'm presently colouring a 4 issue miniseries for Bluewater who have so far been great with me and given me a tremendous amount of freedom on this book. I can't say what it is yet. You'll have to wait and see!

And in an altogether unexpected moment I bumped into a director in Borders today and after a quick chat about screenwriting he handed me his card and said he could maybe help me make some connections. Such a very odd and random moment which hopefully may reap dividends in the future. A shame I've been so busy colouring comics and writing them that I don't have much to show in the screenplay department at the moment. Still, it's something I intended to work on anyway as soon as I could free up some time so this just gives me another kick u the behind to do just that!

j-p

Recent Colourings

2009-05-21T14:13:00.000-07:00

The Bristol Con has been and gone and I was fortunate to meet Mike McKone and Gary Frank again and was even more fortunate in getting some artwork from them to colour. What follows is NOT that but at some point you'll see some of their work up here coloured. Until then enjoy the epicness of Chris Stevens' Hulk V Cap pic with colours by me. Make sure you check out his DeviantART page here: http://chriss2d.deviantart.com/ and mine by clicking the link on the right.

My STAR TREK review - SPOILERS ABOUND

2009-05-10T14:09:00.000-07:00

And I can say hand on heart that it was "good". Not great, but definitely "good". The film follows the very early days of a young James T. as he comes into his own following the death of his father following the incursion of a timeline changing Romulan baddy played by Eric Bana. All of the main cast do a functional job although the real surprise is Chris Pine as Kirk who was much better than I would have expected. He managed to keep the cockiness and bravado of Kirk, and occasionally you could imagine The Shat if you just squinted a bit. In the timeline rearrange plotline the key focus of this is a branching timeline where Kirk grows up without a father, and comes late into the Starfleet game. In this Star Trek world the rules are out the window and anything can happen, even the destruction of whole worlds. Sometimes even very important worlds... It's clear that a bucketload of money has been spent on this, the screen is routinely filled with dizzying action scenes which are, at times, literally dizzying and you're a bit lost as to what is going on.

The downside of this film is that it is incredibly episodic and linear and it lacks any real depth. Kirk is in a barfight and then is found by Pike who tells him to enlist so he does and then they go off on a mission and then this happens then that happens then Kirk gets booted off the ship where he just so happens to meet Spock who gives all the exposition, then they go to the base on that world that miraculously Scotty is in etc etc. It chugs along but it is fueled by convenience. Even the creation of transporters that can beam you light years away (which would completely defeat the object of ships at all wouldn't it?) comes in as a TECH fix to the marooned Kirk very easily which sort of defeats the object of putting him there in the first place (haven't we learned anything from Voyager here people?). Spock may as well have written him a letter and sellotaped it to his bunk for all the difference it made. I wasn't enamoured with the set design, the iPod bridge was a bit over the top and for some reasons JJ Abrams seemed to film it like there was a floodlight just off camera that kept obscuring the image in almost every scene on the bridge. It was like the sun was rising on the bridge and it was quite distracting. The transporter effect too just looked stupid, although I liked that they brought in a sense of limitations to the transporter which added a bit of drama at the right moment. Unfortunately though everyones favourite "beamer upper" Simon Pegg was just distracting as the obvious comic relief Scotty, who might as well have looked into camera and waved his hands around shouting "laugh now" every time he appeared.

One aspect about the film that should be acknowledged is that it is actually incredibly respectful to the fans of what has gone before. It isn't erasing the old show but it is running along side it (so hopefully there'll be a DS9 at some point with a $150 million budget too). References abound from the little critters from Wrath of Khan that make you do what you don't want to do, to Tribbles, to the Kobyashi Maru.

Still, it was a very accessible film and I think of it as the "Superman Returns" of Star Trek, a flawed but accessible film that kind of says "The sequel to this is going to be really good". We'll never know with SR but hopefully we will with ST.

Off to the con we go!

2009-05-06T09:13:00.000-07:00

This weekend marks the Bristol Comic Con and despite the tickets being sold out myself and Jess will be there to hawk our wares. Well, mainly her (check out her gallery and shop, or just say hello on Saturday). I'll be selling some A1 TF posters (as penned by TF legend Casey Coller) a bit like this:

And some postcards that look a bit like this:

In order to get ready for it (and this was a VERY last minute decision) I've been panic colouring like a good 'un. My latest colouring was over the artwork of the incredibly talented Chris Stevens and was of his marker-rendered Iron Man. I love the energy of his piece although I struggled a bit to translate it into colour at first, all the things that made his work awesome seemed dimmed by the addition of colour. After much fiddling I managed to get something I'm pleased with. I look forward to working with him more!

Introductions All Round...

2009-05-03T15:11:00.000-07:00

Right ho, for now this is just a very quick hello and a welcome to my new blog. I'm a comic book writer and colourist with a leaning towards screenplays and at some point novels too. From here on in I'll be posting news, artwork and all sorts of other excitement here.

Come on in, it's going to be fun!