Well i’m still slowly chipping away at my Armageddon booty. Kagemono was something I wanted to read first but it’s hefty size scared me. With comicking and work recently I’ve not had much time to read for fun and the 80+ pages took a while to get through.

Kagemono is a horror anthology put together by Jason Franks but under the banner of horror there’s a rich and diverse group of stories. Jason mentions in his foreward how horror is much like comedy, there’s a set up and a punchline, it’s a rule I like to apply to most of my short stories in any genre. But Jason and fellow contributors really have mastered the art of that punchline. Be it in the form of a very gothic horror turned comedy with a deft turn of mood or a mildly scary story which with a reveal punches you right in the guts with it’s darkness.

Jason works with about a dozen collaborators in this effort mostly artists from around the globe interpreting his words each in completely different styles. Some work, some don’t. The most interesting contrast however is between Jason’s writing (he does the bulk of it) and James Andre’s. James contributes a story to the pool and there’s a darker edge to his writing, even with the story of a world bombarded with chocolate James uses language that makes it feel a little bit more macabre. Jason’s writing on the other hand has characters with some really interesting voices. Maybe it’s because horror isn’t my thing or my soft spot for Tarrantino but because of Jason’s bantering dialogue I think I found myself with stronger lasting memories of Jason’s stories.

There’s been a lot said about the iPad since it was announced last week, from comments on it’s functionality to the comical name that begs to be mocked. I won’t say much about it as I fear I’ll be repeating others far too much but I will say that this new tool in combination with the good old automatic sliding door means that we’ve officially entered the future. It may not be this particular iteration but rest assured that technology very much like the iPad will be increasingly the way in which we access information and entertainment to the point that it will become THE dominant way.

The second thing I’ll mention is that on a personal level I don’t have a use for it yet, that doesn’t mean it’s a dud it’s just that I might not be the platforms intended user. I already have multiple laptops and look for high end performance in my tablet technology because I use it for processor intensive work like drawing my comic. Having said that I WILL be looking at ways to optimise this comic for users who want to use the iPad. I suspect that since it allows the user to zoom in and flip through pages far more efficiently higher resolutions will be handy which makes this comickeer who works in 700mb files a happy chap.

Once again. Welcome to the Future. One to beam up.

This dismays me. apparently Seth Grahame-Smith has written a follow up to his Pride & Prejudice & Zombies that paints honest Abe as a axe wielding vampire killer. For some reason this makes me cringe.

I think what excited me about P&P&Z was the idea a new narrative was weaved into the existing one creating a whole new storyline. It’s why I think Wicked is such a great story. While Dorothy is going about dropping houses on people and scalding a lion for roaring there was a whole other drama. It’s also why people were excited about the Star Wars prequels (although the execution of that was just woeful).

This latest volume though feels like the work of a 7 year old, or the guy who wrote “From Dusk to Dawn”. Random ideas thrown together. Zombie Hawks, Unicorn Transformers, Dawrf Spacemen. All amusing momentarily but damned if I’d want to sit through 90 minutes of it. What the film does promise is stunning visuals if Burton is involved but I’ll pass thanks.

-Trev

Hey folks, I recently did an article for Webcomics.com about how I do cell style shading. It’s just gone online. Now webcomics.com IS a subscriber based site bit it’s also a fantastic tool for people interested in webcomics and comics in general and at only $30 a year (what some sites charge per month) it’s well worth the expense. I don’t get anything for promoting it, it’s just something that I think is worth it. At some point I might put it on this site but for the moment it’s only available over there.

-Trev

Hey folks. Just wanted to let you know that it’s been confirmed we’ll be at Melbourne Supanova. We’ll be sharing a booth with Guardian Comics Paul Spencer who does the great Ticket To Ride webcomic about a group of guys who run a superhero themed adventure park.  We should have books 1 & 2 as well as issue one of the current arc which due to it’s mammoth size we’ll be breaking into shorter comic book style publications.

I also plan on heading up to both Brisbane and Sydney’s Supanova this year (for the very least to meet Joe Kubert!) but i’ll give you more details as we get closer.

Huzzah
-Trev