Posts Tagged ‘sucker punch’
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I’m trying to paint a picture here. The nerd judicial system is not somewhere you want to end up. The rules are harsh and Byzantine in their arrangements. If you think the nerd police are going to protect you from a random, Xena-inspired beatdown, you’re sorely mistaken, my friend.
The site redesign is pretty much cemented in place and I’ve anchored the store in place. We have TONS of t-shirts available for pre-sale until May 16. Baby doll tees and hoodies, too. Please place your orders now to assure delivery. Drop some of our new 1″ buttons into your shopping cart while you’re at it.
I wrote up a couple of paragraphs explaining the new direction of the store front and its renewed focus on customer service in yesterday’s blog. If you haven’t read it, you might want to scan over it quick so we’re all on the same page.
Something I didn’t mention yesterday was my new commissioned artwork service. If you have something you’d like me to draw for you, I’m game. Read all about what kinds of illustration and designs I can provide as well as check out a couple of samples here.
Because I’m promoting different aspects of the site like crazy, don’t forget to sign up for our mailing list over there on the right. Be the first to know all the latest information, site changes, convention appearances and whatnot. I’ll also be offering merchandise and advertising discounts for mailing list members down the road.
Speaking of conventions, I just added a new information to the page detailing my appearance at Wizard World Chicago August 5-7. You can get all the details about that here.
And lastly, it’s Friday, so that can only mean one thing: The Friday Five. It’s a little even we host every week in the THorum. We ask 5 questions, you answer them. It’s a great way to introduce yourself to the community as well as get to know other members. Sign up today and join in the fun.
More movie stuff later if I think about it. I feel kind of bad that I haven’t offered any new commentary lately. But it’s pretty late right now, so I think I’m going to bed.
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I don’t know if you recall, but back in 2006, German director and all around hack Uwe Boll issued a challenge to his harshest critics to step into the ring with him to box. Basically, he was tired of people bashing his painfully bad adaptations of video games like Bloodrayne and Alone in the Dark. I did a comic about it back then, too.
At the time I thought I would include Boll as a regular character. Just someone who would show up and punch Tom for no discernible reason. I kind of forgot about the idea until I heard about In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. Or – as I like to call it – ITNOTK: ADST. Much easier that way.
Looking at the film’s entry on IMDB, I’m kind of surprised by the cast list. Jason Statham, Leelee Sobieski, John Ryhs-Davies, Ron Pearlman, Claire Forlani, Kristanna Lokken, Matthew Lillard, Ray Liotta and Burt Reynolds to name a few. Either their unaware of Boll’s poison reputation or they don’t care and are just doing it for the paycheck. But I don’t think anyone was waking into this film expecting it to be the next Lord of the Rings.
I’ve seen a couple of Boll’s movies and I think the reason he gets so much crap – I mean, despite the amateur hand when it comes to staging or shooting a scene – is because he clearly doesn’t have a passion for the video game properties he’s adapting. And when you’re comparing passion against the gamers who make these properties viable, you’d better be right there along with them. You’d better match their passion or they’ll eat you alive. Comic book fans are the same way. But Boll doesn’t seem to care. Not to sound xenophobic, but he comes off like an outsider capitalizing on a trend. A hack whose just in it for the paycheck.
I know a few hard-core gamers that feel strongly that Boll’s films are preventing video games as being seen as a legitimate art form. You’d think they were talking about Jane Fonda setting back the women’s movement 20 years when she started making exercise tapes.
Did I just date myself there?
At any rate, regarding Boll’s challenge. A few internet critics took him up on it. Turns out he was once a semi-pro pugilist. The results are about what you’d expect:
I was going to post my list of Top 10 Films for 2007 to the site today. But I barely got any sleep last night and I don’t think I can articulate myself the way I want. Look for the full list on Friday.
If you want a preview, you can always listen to Monday’s Triple Feature broadcast. I do an overview of my picks 10 through 6 and dig a little deeper on my picks 5 through 1. Plus, you get to hear Gordon and Joe’s picks as well! Everyone wins!
That’s it for today. Thanks for stopping by the site. I hope everyone survives their Wednesday.
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First, my apologies for the lateness of this strip. If you’ve been following me at all on Twitter or Facebook, you know that I’ve been struggling with it.
I put a lot of pressure on myself to make this comic special because it actually has roots in something I posted on Twitter back in November. After seeing the teaser trailer for Sucker Punch and bearing witness to the cornucopia of geek-approved iconography, I tweeted what became the punchline to this strip. “They should have called it ‘Stuff The Internet Likes: The Movie.'”
That off-handed comment was picked up by the good people over at Topless Robot and included in their write-up of the trailer. And, well, I’ve basically been sitting on my hands, waiting to use it ever since.
Fast forward to last Sunday night and I am wracking my brain trying to figure out how to cram everything I want into my usual four-panel setup. I think I sidestepped the issue pretty well with the large diagonal panel in the middle. But it didn’t solve the problem of actually having to DRAW things that are normally way outside my comfort zone.
Do you have any idea how hard it is to illustrate and color a spinning propeller blade? REALLY HARD! Especially when you’ve never done it before.
There were moments when I was drawing this comic that I absolutely hated it and wanted to throw it away. I finished this one in baby steps, that’s for sure.
I will say that after figuring out the problem with the layout, it gave me just enough momentum to start the pencils. And while I hated the pencils when I was drawing them, finishing them gave me just enough momentum to start the inks… and so on.
After nearly 9 years of producing this comic, some things fall into place very easily. NOTHING about this comic was easy. So I really hope you enjoy it!
Feeling guilty yet? Let’s ignore the comic for a minute and talk about Sucker Punch.
I think most people are familiar with my stance against Zack Snyder. He might be the victim of studio marketing trying to position him as the Next Great Visionary Director, but he’s also not shying away from it and I find his hubris off-putting.
Did 300 and Watchmen look good? Sure, they looked good. But how much of that was organic to Snyder – especially when he basically had storyboards from some of the world’s best graphic artists at his fingertips for reference (iconic images that he relied on heavily).
Sucker Punch will be the true test of Snyder’s visual acuity and – begrudgingly – I have to admit, from the trailers, it looks like he will pass.
I do think he’s leaning pretty heavily on the geek iconography, though. It’s like he went to Comic Con and started cherry picking idea from the most popular booths. “Ooo! Girls in short skirts and too much make-up? Okay! Samurai swords? Toss that in! Mech battle suits? I’ll order ten!” Cynically, I believe Snyder’s little shopping spree was set up as a distraction so he would get a pass from Geek Nation.
What’s worse I that I think Snyder is justifying this with mock analysis. In a photo gallery on Entertainment Weekly, Snyder talked about the costuming of the actresses in the film and how the short skirts and plunging necklines reflect objectification.
“…But Snyder says his intention was to make a movie about the very subject of female objectification,” writes Entertainment Weekly. “The look of Babydoll (Emily Browning) was designed to be ”the personification of innocence and vulnerability,” says Snyder, causing the skeevy men in the movie to both target her and underestimate her.
‘The women in the movie take control of the sexual trappings foisted upon them, even turn [that iconography] into their own weapons. The challenge was to confront the concept of exploitation of women without creating exploitative imagery.'”
So, yeah… I call shenanigans on that.
This is off-topic a little bit, but did anyone catch last week’s episode of 30 Rock where they were parodying The Real Housewives series on Bravo? I hated that episode and here’s why… Even when you’re parodying trash television, you’re still MAKING trash television. You dig?
If Snyder thinks he is confronting the concept of exploitation without creating exploitative imagery, he’s failed. Sucker Punch is exploitation PERSONIFIED. It’s 2 hours of explosions and eyeliner. If it doesn’t exploit the women in the film specifically, it is certainly exploiting the audience, their expectations and their passions.
Not that it will matter all that much. Geeks are only fickle when you get the thing they love wrong by getting it mixed up with something else. But the elements of Sucker Punch are non-specific enough that it looks like it’ll push all the appropriate geek response buttons without any of the negative backlash. It’s kind of sinister and brilliant, when you think about it.
Against my better judgement, I might actually end up seeing Sucker Punch this weekend. If I do, I know I’ll be going by myself. This might as well have “NO WUMANS ALLOW’D” stamped on it with big, red letters.
All I know is that it’s been another long winter with dud after dud being dropped into theaters throughout January and February. I might think Zack Snyder is a first-rate hack, but I could be watching Season of the Witch.
And no one wants that.
What’s your take on Sucker Punch? Are you excited to see it this weekend? Are you at all wary of the flotsam of geek iconography that is littering the landscape of this film or am I a completely paranoid jerk?
LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW!
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