I've been really stupidly busy lately.

First off, I've been trying to work my ass off on completing chapter 2 of Other Sleep, but, well, other life-related things keep getting in the way. I'm nearly done coloring it, and after that all I'll lack is the lettering. It should be up here in the next few days, I promise.

I had that comic show in Gray, TN a few weeks back, and it was slow, not really the greatest experience ever, but not too bad either. Sold a few sketches and some comics and met the other two artists who were pretty nice guys.

I'm still working on that print collection for the Distinguished Gentlemen and Exciting Tales strips. Here's the wrap-around cover for it, though I may make a few changes to it before it's done:
 

Then my birthday happened last weekend. All I really asked for from my family was a proper drawing table, because drawing on a flat desk so much at work and on the floor or on my bed at home was starting to do some damage. Turns out we had one in the basement for years upon years with old computer stuff sitting on it. I cleaned it up and dragged it upstairs and now I got a pretty righteous setup that I sadly haven't gotten to use nearly as much as I'd like to:
I love it.

This week was my best friend David's birthday, and we went and saw the Avengers. I REALLY didn't want to go, for reasons best outlined in this Comics Alliance post by David Brothers. Buuuuuuut Leif bought our tickets, so I figured why not. Even going in, I really didn't want to like it. I was actively looking for reasons to hate it, and, well, the first act of the movie definitely gave me plenty of reasons.

The main big thing that bothered me for the majority of the 2 hour+ movie was simply the way it was shot. For one thing, it was shot digitally, when I feel like it could have looked so much better if it were shot on film. But you know, Hollywood is trying its hardest to kill film and make everyone go digital. I'm not saying movies shot digitally are bad, I mean hell, Crank 2 was shot with cameras you could go purchase for yourself at Best Buy and I LOVE the look of that movie. The problem here was in some part due to the way Joss Whedon shoots, coming from a TV background. For practically half the movie, it feels like you're not watching a REAL movie, just something straight-to-DVD that somehow got a larger budget than usual. There was a lot of stupid camera work that got on my nerves and the lighting, combined with the super-high-def clarity of being shot digital made the costumes, especially Captain America's, look WAY too fake. It felt more like a guy doing really expensive cosplay, not an actual soldier/superhero, until the costume got battered and ripped up later in the movie, then it looked good. Everything was just too clean, and the lense focus too sharp, it was so distracting.

This actually DID work to its advantage in one scene between Loki and Thor where it felt like I was watching an 80's fantasy film, and it actually developed a certain sense of charm that everything coming before it lacked.

So I was not happy for the first 45 minutes or so. But! BUT!! I must give credit to Joss Whedon for keeping the "witty banter" down to a tolerable minimum, and for having a good sense of character development and understanding of how to handle a big cast of unique characters and how they work with/against each other. The movie would sink or swim depending on how it was written and how the character dynamics worked, and Whedon made it soar. Once the plot REALLY kicked in and the stakes started going up, the movie got good and I wasn't so distracted by how it was shot.

The final act is insanely impressive, despite the alien army reeking of another common Hollywood problem: being over-designed. The CG is great, very realistic yes, but I hate how everything is so damn unnecessarily detailed that rather than looking like something that could very well exist, you can just tell that the aliens were designed by a team of artists locked in a studio somewhere. There's just too much detail.

But it's okay because the Hulk steals the bloody show and wrecks things good. And Mark Ruffalo's performance as Bruce Banner was great, he was definitely my favorite character in the movie. Loki was fantastic as well.

Also? The final, post-credits scene was probably my favorite in the entire movie. And it was, weirdly, the most grounded, human, relatable scene in the movie too.

So yeah, I actually really enjoyed the movie after I got through with the irritating first act.

Anyways!

Yesterday was Free Comic Book Day, and I got the opportunity to go to Mountain Empire Comics in Bristol and set up for the day to sell copies of Burst Reach and stuff. I was partnered with a man called Dionysis Metalcult, creator of Metalcult Comix, drummer/vocalist for a metal band called Cult of Dionysis, and owner of one sweet mustache. We traded comics and he gave me a couple CDs which I'm listening to right now. I couldn't have asked for a cooler guy to share a table with.
 (Spider-man was there too, he's pretty cool)

I met another artist there, Betty Ogletree, who does fantasy art. I'm jealous of her use of color and attention to detail in her work. She let me try out her Copic markers, which were awesome. I plan on getting me some.
Also, legendary illustrator Charles Vess showed up for a while, and we kind of nerded out at him. Here's a pic of him with Burst Reach and Metalcult Comix:
All in all, a good time was had, and this BLEW that show a few weeks ago out of the water. I had such a blast.

And now it's back to work. Gotta finish chapter 2 and put it online, finish designing that print collection of strips, get chapter 1 printed, AND work on Burst Reach 2 and get it finished and printed in time for ROB-CON 2012. No rest for the wicked...

[Brett]