Reviewdle – equal parts review and doodle.

In the past week or two I watched around a dozen videos, running the gamut from woeful (The Other Boelyn Girl ) to great (Sunshine ). When I’ve recovered from the Emerging Writer’s Festival I’ll tell you all about them. In the meantime…

Night at the Museum 2

Despite a neat idea (museum wax works, miniatures, artworks and taxidermied animals come to life after dark in the presence of a powerful Egyptian tablet, adventure ensues) and a more-than-competent cast (Steve Coogan, Owen Wilson, Ben Stiller, the lovely Amy Adams, Hank Azaria, Christopher Guest, and on and on) the clumsy direction keeps the temperature of Night at the Museum 2 decidedly tepid. Director Shaun Levy is also responsible for ruining Steve Martin for the younger generation with abominations like the redundant Pink Panther remakes, Cheaper By the Dozen and Cheaper by the Dozen 2. Night at the Museum 2 is not all Levy’s fault though. The writing is unable to build any sense of journey, danger or climax and cheap comedic tricks are flogged to death. I didn’t see the original (Amy Adams wasn’t in it, so I didn’t see the point) but in the sequel they can’t figure out the balance between reusing established characters and introducing new ones. The movie tries to up the ante – bigger museum, bigger bad guys, bigger stakes – but it fails.

Night at the Museum 2 is very silly and occasionally funny. I think kids would probably love it. I’d feel sorry for the parents who had to take them if it wasn’t for Amy Adams’ tight pants…

–Jen

This arc is drawn by the talented Andrew Fulton who is currently travelling with Jen across the grand old United States (actually about now he’ll be in Toronto for TCAF). Andrew’s comic Mumblier is sometimes NSFW, sometimes strange but always beautiful and delightful. Jen and I are huge fans of both his comic and his resplendant beard. Sadly he’s not such a great mario cart player but we still love him.

Today is free comic book day. It’s a day when you can pop into your local comic shop and get more than 40 books designed especially for the day FREE! But it’s more than that. It’s an opportunity to discover comics, find your local store. Engage with comics. For the industry it’s about getting new readers. Comic buying is steadily decreasing even though there has never been a better time for comics as far as the quality of the writing and art. So please give titles you’d not usually read a look, if you see a comic a friend’s kid might like pick it up for them, get them reading!

For my part I’ll be supporting FCBD by doing sketches at All Star Comics in Melbourne between 2-3pm along with 17 other great comic creators. Here is the full list. Hope to see you there.

Sawbones began 5 years ago as Sawyer and Bones appeared as background players of a bunnified version of Poe’s the Raven.

Recently I realised that that story wasn’t on the site and went looking for it. Turns out i don’t actually have a copy on any of my computers. Technology moves so fast i’ve been through 4 of them in that time. So I used my moderate google-fu skills and found it online. Apparently nothing dies on the interwebs.

Anyway reading through the story I was struck by two things.

1. Jen’s storytelling was just as delightful 5 years ago. Reading the story with so much water under the bridge was like reading it for the first time and I loved the turns of phrase and way she balanced the horror tone with the comedic twist.

2. There was no way I could bear putting that art up online now. I don’t know a single artist who doesn’t cringe at old work and i’m no different. So over the last few weeks I’ve redrawn the comic. Tightening it up a little and adding a little more mood. I’m sure in another 5 years I’ll hate this too but it’s a start.

I do however want to aknowledge how this started so as this story progesses there’ll be a link at the bottom of the comic where you can look at the original version.

I hope you enjoy this.