Gavin Hood is a worthless fuckwit. (Can you tell this is a Wolvie review?)

Yes, friends, I was lucky enough to see the leaked work print of X-Men Origins: Wolverine and I can safely say now that I hope I never again see any of Gavin Hood's films ever again. While I love Ryan Reynolds and Liev Schreiber, and the characters they play in the movie, the rest of the cast made me want to beat my head against the wall. I've all but tuned out Hugh Jackman at this point in my life, so he was a non-issue going in. The man playing Stryker was awful, and I've seen him other places where he has been equally worthy of the viewers' hate. Will.i.am did a pretty decent job, and I wished he was in the movie more, but then, Gavin Hood seems to have derived a science out of not giving me what I want. To that effect: DEADPOOL.

Ryan Reynolds was THE perfect choice for Deadpool, his comic timing and deadpan line delivery being among the best in the business (watch "The Nines" to find out what I'm talking about). The actual Ryan Reynolds-Deadpool was both badass and hilarious for the seven seconds he was on-screen, and then he disappears, and Reynolds is no longer a part of the movie, just like that. When Deadpool reappears later on (by the way, I don't care if I give away spoilers; if you do, tough, because you HAVE seen this movie before in other forms, MANY other forms), he is not Reynolds, he is silent and he has sword-claws. I will reiterate:

DEADPOOL HAS SWORD-CLAWS. CLAWS THAT ARE SWORDS. FUCK. THIS. SHIT. I. QUIT. FOREVER.
The man would not be able to bend his stupid arms when the claws are retracted! If you want the trademark swords to be present, GIVE THE MAN SOME FUCKING SWORDS.

I'm done here. Pray that I live through the night, because I would hate to die of oxygen deprivation to my brain because the memory of this stupid movie clogged and/or burst the blood vessels in my brain. I think I need to lie down.

A very brief update

It turns out that I was wrong about the release date for Ball Peen Hammer again. It actually comes out this October, for real this time. The comic, now FINALLY titled 6107 is progressing, but I've been so busy I've hardly had time to work on it any more, let alone the blog. I'm also writing a play(for a class), which I'll be posting here. I love the thing, personally. It's called AWESOMEVILLE, which will make sense once you read it, I promise. That's all I got for right now. Have a good day, blogfiends.

And so, friends...

I have returned from a hectic and amazing week in New Orleans, sampling the local food, culture and rebuilding houses. I'm not one to toot my own horn, but y'know... toot. In all seriousness, I had a fantastic time, blessed as I was to have some great friends going with me and some connections to the city. I got the tour of the levees from a Tulane professor, which helped my understanding of the breaches flesh itself out; also found out that I hate sanding spackle with a flaming passion. It was a truly fucking exhausting week, but overall, I loved every part of it. It was certainly the best trip I've taken since my second excursion to Japan, the exception being that I actually contributed something really useful this time around.

On the comic front, things are progressing as well as can be expected what with all of this traveling and school and whatnot to distract me. In the interim, though, with some helpful bouncing-around of ideas with my good friend Pete, I have some new and weirdly interesting ideas for the series, including a recurring character/running gag that'll kick off issue 2. I really loved this idea and I hate to be so vague, but since I have yet to finish issue 1, there really ain't much point in giving stuff about issue 2 away, now is there?

Last time, I believe I mentioned my friend George O' Connor's new graphic novel "Ball-Peen Hammer" and the fact that it came out some time in February. I was, in fact, somewhat mistaken, it actually releasing somewhere around January 14th or thereabouts. I have yet to see a copy around, but I will continue searching and will release the site where copies can be found. The premise is a damn cool one, and I got to see George do certain pages firsthand, which was a serious trip. If you like dystopia, alternate futures, violence, profanity and creepy, enigmatic dudes wearing welding goggles, I highly recommend Ball-Peen as your next read.

That's all I have for the moment, people, but I promise to be back with something more substantial in the near future. Good night, you filthy blog-crawlers, you.

Because I'm sure you've been having BTO withdrawal...

My thinly-veiled sarcasm aside, I'm quite pleased with he way things have been going, writing wise. While I haven't had an overabundance of time to write Lab Rat, the first major section of the first issue is done. I'm hoping to eventually get to the point where my abilities as a typist and my creative organization allow me to do 16 pages a day or upwards. Well, I write about 2 pages in 45 minutes, so it's conceivable that I could do it if I had a free day and no distractions. Writing Faraday is still formative, as I haven't exactly found the right mode I want him in, but as a character constantly in transition, maybe that's appropriate. I look forward to writing the Dr. Fader and Mister Reverse characters. Good stuff.

On a more plug-ish note, my good friend George O'Connor (also a follower of this blog) has resurfaced after some time off my respective radar. George is a graphic artist of some serious skill, and his upcoming comic Ball-Peen Hammer goes to press this week. In fact, it may be out now, by the time you read this. George's blog, where he posts art and sketches and other little amusements can be found here: http://geooco.blogspot.com/

My addiction to Twitter has grown steadily ever since I could find my favorite comic people hovering around there. I think it's indicative of how addicted I am that I have Twitteriffic open on my desktop 24 hours a day. If you read this blog and wish to find me on Twitter, my username is JulianRubbish. I'm a Twitterfiend. Lord, I apologize...

Also starring in a play, Daniel Sullivan's Inspecting Carol, the night performances stretching from tonight to Saturday night. I plan to break many legs.

Adios, you slimy bastards.

OHDEARGOD

I keep saying I'll update on a pretty regular basis, but I really haven't got much done recently, and there's been no degree of regularity whatsoever. I do hope you'll forgive. Technical issues of recent weeks have made it very difficult for me to write much of anything, what with a faithful old laptop dying. A replacement has arrived, however, a very shiny new Macbook Pro, and it is rather glorious. This also means I can do more things, review more things and rant a bit more than usual. This is a plus point. The comic is also actually under way, and it's looking pretty good so far. Faraday and new addition Mister Reverse are going to be a positive joy to write. But I have a review for you.

~Review: Renaissance~
Made in France by visionary Attitude Studios, Renaissance was pretty damn impressive from the main menu alone. Being an independent animated neo-noir of a film, I walked into the experience with a grain of salt at the ready. However, the animation was much better than expected, like a moving graphic novel with a distinct visual style. What also set Renaissance apart from other animated films was its almost complete lack of color, presenting 99.99% of the visuals is stark black and white, with very little soft shadows playing into the scenes. The overall look of the film might weird a few people out, as I was until I realized how well the visuals fit with the story.

Daniel Craig voices the main character, a cop in 2077 Paris named Barthelemy Karas, who is sufficiently conflicted and tortured by his past to make for an interesting protagonist without being a complete douche to listen to. Most other characters also have well-defined backgrounds
that make them accessible to the audience. I really enjoyed the futuristic atmosphere of the film, as well, as there were some seriously cool techno-marvels popping up all over the place, and the whole theme of genetically discovering the secret of immortality was pretty enthralling throughout. I had a veeeeery good time watching Renaissance, and for the animation skeptics out there, this is a really eye-opening film. Good stuff.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have some sleep to catch up on.

After a slight hiatus, we're back

Oh wow, it really has been half a month. Shocking, really, but then again, I've scarcely been able to pull myself away from the shiny, glorious black monolith that is my PS3. Sort of like the Monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey, I suppose. But I digress.

As soon as I can beat back the demons Procrastination and Obsession, I'll be starting on the new graphic novel project, now titled "Works Unknown," though I'm still unsure if that will end up being the final title. Characters are slowly evolving in my head to the point where I feel I might be able to write for them the way I want to. It's exciting stuff when I read the thing in my head, it really is.

I have been updating Flickr a bit more often, though the photo dump as it stands is not yet staggering in its volume, but I've had some nice stuff up there recently. I'm also a member of Warren Ellis' Whitechapel forums, so if you happen to be a member, look for me under the name "Julian Rubbish."

Shorter post today. Hope you don't mind. Laters.

Ecks-mas, nonsense, Flickr

To start, my Christmas break has been stupendous so far. Now, here I sit, listening to Menomena and with not much else to do but make sweet, sweet love to my new PS3. Indeed, said gargantuan machine is most of the reason why I've been putting less effort than usual into ze bloggings.
DIGRESSION
Anyway, I've been thinking more and more about this new comic project I'll be working on, what with my feelings towards Braintrust being someplace in the unexplorable aether. The project is called Antebellum, and has to do with a man with waking dreams, horrific schizophrenia and delusions of grandeur committing various crimes and atrocities in the interest of bettering society. And guess what, it's working. GLEE! It's a strange premise, I admit, and one that may cause people to (rightfully?) question my sanity, but I think that by making it ridiculous, what with lots of violence, weird humor and profanity, the point I'm trying to make about social change might be made better. I'd need an artist, though, so if any of y'all reading this is interested by the idea, PLEASE contact me.

Oh, on a more things-I'm-doing-now note, I just got a Flickr account, for posting neat pictures and so forth, meaning I'm kinda obligated to bring my not-so-good camera everywhere I go, which I can manage. Search "Julian Rubbish" if you happen to be around Flickr to find me. I really don't have anything much up yet, but I plan on changing that within the next few days.

Oh golly gosh, this has been a really personal post, hasn't it? Hmm, it's kinda nice. Search me out, you artists! Nighty night, you bums.