Sunday, November 24, 2019

Oh, what to do with STELLARA ULTRANOVA?

Sunday, November 24,  11:14 am

So, as per usual, I've become obsessed with something and I've been turning it over and over in my head the last few days.
The initial obsession started when I "discovered" a new (for me) glamour model on the internet (she's apparently been around since 2013?). And yes, "glamour model" is a euphemistic way of saying I found some nude pictures of her. Anyway, she's rather amazing looking physically, and she triggered an almost immediate creative response from me (uh..., no seriously) to try and use her as the physical model for a sci-fi character named Stellara [pronounced Stell-LAHR-uh] Ultranova. For quite a while, I've been toying with the idea of creating a sci-fi character, and one that seemed full of possibilities was Anachronia Sands and her TIME COFFIN (the working title for a another comic idea). Hell, that's still an interesting idea.
But, now I have a new obsession.
Except, I can't figure out what kind of character I want Stellara Ultranova to be, besides resing in the broad genre of science-fiction. Part of me is thinking some kind of sci-fi/underground comix vibe, so something more off-beat and reckless than in a more mainstream approach. I had an idea for a one-off movie poster sometime ago parodying/referencing ONE MILLION YEARS B.C., except in this case it would be called ONE MILLION YEARS A.D. and then I thought maybe that basic concept might work as a series or at least a story for Ms. Ultranova. So I started spitballing some plot ideas and I considered Stellara's character being trapped as a soldier in this space war and a close female friend of hers waiting for Stellara back on Earth and that seemed like an interesting situation/character study, although in the version I ultimately came up with it became very downbeat and sentimental and I wasn't sure about that for thew overall tone of the story. I mean, my initial inspiration was very Barbarella and pulpy, and then this other idea with her and her friend, while still employing sci-fi tropes/concepts, etc. was ultimately very moody and character driven, almost a contemplation of loneliness and possibly PTSD for Stellara's soldier character. Genuinely interesting and worthwhile pursuing, but also a completely different and not light-hearted take on this character. Then I wondered if I could combine the two ideas, but... I don't know.
And then, just before I went to bed last night, I wondered about Stellara being an Edgar Rice Burroughs-type of character, but obviously a female-take on it. So, in other words, she'd be some unwitting Earthling sucked into a whole new sci-fi fantasy world and fighting to survive in a hostile, exotic and fantastic and most-likely scientifically implausible environment and culture and ultimately achieving great heights in terms of status, success and romance. That seemed like a promising imaginative journey and challenge to take. But, I don't know.
I don't now, I don't know, I DON'T KNOW!

nuts.

I should... just do some drawings of this character, by god. That would be a productive step and maybe seeing her fleshed out on the page might lead to some other more workable ideas.
Ugh. Okay. Whatever.

12:33 pm

So, curious about other sci-fi heroines out there, and somewhat self-conscious about how derivative my ideas are, I looked back on Travis Charest's SPACEGIRL strip. It seems that Charest's inspirations are less about the character and more about the spacecraft and tech of his fictional world. True, he does only a strip at a time for each "chapter" and by "strip" we're not even talking more than a single panel, let alone a whole page! So, you have to cut him some slack for that. But still, having said that, our first look at the Spacegirl character in the story is Chapter 2 and it's not much of a reveal of her. The next glimpse is pretty much a silhouette in Chapter 5 [UPDATE: Since I first published this post, the links to the SPACEGIRL comic no longer seem to work. Or at least, you can't go to a specific chapter. So, follow the first link (I updated it) to see the whole series and then find the individual "chapters" (actually, panels) from there. Sorry!]. We see her a few more times in the following chapters, but there are no close-ups. Again, Charest is being economical because essentially each chapter is a single rectangular panel, so there's some plot advancement he has to consider for each composition. Still, the first time we glimpse a new character, a very Emperor Ming-type villain, I'd say our first look at this villain reveals more of him than what we've seen of Spacegirl. So, I think that's fascinating. I mean, it's obvious that Charest's interests in what he wants to do with the strip are more focused on the sci-fi trappings, homages to the past, and space gear, which is fine. But, Spacegirl has no name and she seems disposable, a simple fill-in-the-blank to do whatever the story needs.
Meanwhile, another sci-fi fantasy heroine which I think is more successful in terms of her character grabbing your imagination right from the start is Julie/FAKK2 from Heavy Metal. Based on Julie Strain, an imposing physical presence to start with, and dressed up in a revealing "costume" and armed to the teeth and constantly brandishing her weapons with a snarl, you immediately get attitude from this character and a sense of where she's coming from mood-wise, without knowing anything about her or her situation. I'm hoping I can do that with Stellara's character.
Of course, another strong sci-fi character, although in films, is Ripley in the ALIEN film franchise as played by Sigourney Weaver. That's an inspiration.
Unlike Julie Strain, the model I've been looking at has none of Ms. Strain's personality in her photos. In fact, there are some photos where I think she's uncomfortable with the situation or at least distracted. She's very hit or miss. By the way, I've been hesitant to reveal her name for legal reasons, at the very least, but I should call her something, so I'll just give her first name, Emily. Even physically, sometimes she looks simply spectacular, and then sometimes, she looks awkward as to how she poses herself for the camera. Part of it has to do with her physicality. She's not only endowed, but she's also long-legged and broad-shouldered. In some poses it's quite an intoxicating blend; in other shots, it's somewhat amusing seeing how she carries herself. Sure, part of it is because of her specific circumstances, like trying to negotiate walking with high-heeled shoes in a grassy field, so she seems like an awkward fawn. Although some shots I think are part of a whole shooting day, so maybe they were never meant for public use, so I'm cutting her some slack for various goofy candid shots. But in some "keepers" she occasionally has a less engaged look, so again, she's hit or miss in terms of her attitude (or whatever you want to call it) in her pictures and how she regards the camera. Unlike another model named Emily, Emily Ratajkowski, who's also quite fetching. Ms. Ratajkowski, for instance, seems very consistent in her almost distant mood in all her photo shoots. So, with the Emily I've been scrutinizing, she seems less plugged into that blank, detached model stare that some models have (though, not in a bad way) and E. Ratajkowski definitely has (and definitely not in a bad way). But today I stumbled across some gifs of a photo shoot Emily was in and she's rather charming in very brief glimpses, so that's nice to see. Anyway, I digress.
By the way, the Barbarella character I mostly know by the Jane Fonda film. That film is also a possible influence on Stellara because I like the strong, weird fashion vibe of her character.

One of my (numerous) problems is my creative impulses are at odds with each other:
1. Foremost, I want to do something extremely pulpy, derivative and exploitative, like low-budget sci-fi trash cinema from the 80s. The ERB reference resonates here. Also, Fukitor by Jason Karns does, too, except not so disposable and coming across like a tossed off one-joke premise; so, in my case, I'd like to have much stronger character development and working of themes and plot.
2. Which ties into my other creative impulses, wanting to do something worth reading, so I'd like to have some character development, a reasonable plot, and not be completely exploitative. ARGGHH! I just need to try it out for a few pages, do my best and see what turns out.

Alright, I should get my ass motivated to do something constructive.
More to come... hopefully...

Thursday, November 7, 2019

DRAWING BOARD DIARY #2: "JOYRIDE!" Part 2

Tuesday, November 4, 2019 10:07 am

NOTE: Just a word of explanation here. This month I'm trying to focus on posting more on my various blogs and a lot of that effort is me trying to finish the numerous posts I've started earlier, either begun months or even years before. This is one such post.
Originally started back in June, it covers a number of topics I was preoccupied with back then, but eventually, we'll get back to where my head is now in November. Hope that makes this post more comprehensible... maybe?


Sunday, July 7, 2019  8:18 pm

...So, I'm trying to get my shit together as usual.
This post is pretty much a follow-up to this post, hence, "Part 2."

The main subject to these two posts is I'm just fucking trying to draw a comic book page. That's it.
I'm also trying to just get into a rhythm of drawing ANYTHING, too.
The last new thing I drew and finished, I think, was the movie poster to Rhonda and Mark Parker's* feature film, MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE, back in August 2017. Actually, I'm amazed I pulled that artwork out of my ass; okay, I slightly missed the deadline originally established by Rhonda, but made their premiere deadline, at least.
But, I digress (as usual), dammit!

I want to draw a comic book page (or pages), now.

The first "Drawing Board Diary" (DBD) post talks about a couple ideas I had for a short story, but of course, I keep expanding on the ideas, my usual m.o.
Anyway, I'm still trying to settle on a story to do.
I also have this weird sci-fi thing called V IS FOR VOID I came up with, a sort of variation on another idea called SPACE JUNK. If anything, VOID is a re-iteration of JUNK, although JUNK was originally a single character idea with one or two peripheral characters, and VOID was focusing on a couple or at least two characters.
I think my problem is my lack of confidence to commit to an idea and just DO IT.

I also have a few unfinished drawings/and or ideas I'm thinking of finishing:

1. Gorilla Ranch Girls (GODLAND fan art)
2. Beatbox-ish fan art (mostly just a pig with a mohawk and funky glasses and then overly drawn out of desperation). Here's a really crappy picture of it so far:



3. Re-make of my one-page comic page story, "Karen's Dilemma"/INTERPLANETARY ROMANCES debut.
4. This drawing I JUST started a week or so ago in my sketch book, a woman holding a pig and...? It was something I was drawing but had no idea what I was doing. I then started thinking about it and came up with a name for the two characters, CRANBERRY AND CAMEMBERT, and they're encountering wild outer-space aliens: Truffids! Get it? Triffids + Truffles? Camembert's the pig. Pigs and truffles? Yeah? No? Er...

November 5, 11:26 am

And... we're back.
Yeah, so... I'm re-reading this stuff from about 5 months ago and basically, my mindset is always the same in that I'm thinking of a project to work with a certain amount of obsessive intensity and then, just as quickly, another idea comes along and I more or less abandon completely whatever it was I was so devoted to and preoccupied with for a short period of time (day, weekend, week, month(s)).
Besides these drawing projects, I also have notebooks that I accumulate, feverishly write in ideas for new projects, which I then inevitably forget just as impulsively and reflexively.

grrrrrr...

November 7, 2:28 pm

Well, I haven't done much of anything today. I start work at 4:00 pm today and this morning I had hoped of getting something done by way of household chores before work, but then I started watching TV while eating breakfast, then I fell asleep abit, but mostly I'm looking at the weather outside and we're having our first light, wet snow of the season and I'm, like, crap. I have to work in this stuff tonight? Guh. Just not in the mood, yet.
So, I really shouldn't be on the computer, either. But let me do a quick cut and paste here and then I'll move on.
I actually started another post as well a few months ago and I'm just going to add it to the end of this post because it's all about my art goals for the year. I actually made a list:

February 6, 2019

GOAL 1: Put together my drawing table.


GOAL 2: Finish my story for the Apple Corps Comic.


GOAL 3: Create a piece of merchandise for Society 6.


GOAL 4: Finish THE CAT'S MEOW.


GOAL 5: Finish SWAMP SQUAD OF THE DEAD.


GOAL 6: Illustrate Visual Encyclopedia for JOURNEY OF THE AVENGER.

Part 1: Do 10 illustrations.

GOAL 7: Update my Portfolio.


GOAL 8: Create a website for my work.

-Before I buy a domain, etc., I must have at least 10 individual cartoons of TABLE SCRAPS ready.


Thursday, August 8, 10:53 am


Okay, here's an update sports fans: I HAVEN'T DONE JACK SHIT ON ANYTHING YET.

And, that's still a good list, so I'm not going to amend anything.
Meanwhile, tomorrow is the beginning of the 2019 Buffalo 48 Hour film project and I'm heading up Team BM-VM's efforts to make an entry this year.
I still have a bunch of last minute preparations to address before tomorrow's start at 7:00 pm, but this is my game plan for the rest of August:

1. Aug 9-11: Focus on the Buffalo 48 Hour Film Project


2. Starting Aug. 12: Focus on drawing. Attempt to do a drawing a day (give or take). When I get to 10 drawings, re-assess my progress and speed.


3. Aug. 23-29: Enjoy the Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival.


So, the seven goals seem solid enough.
And as for my plans for August, well... I did #1 and #3.

I'm thinking of calling this month, #BetterNovemberThanNever, as a way to justify finishing up some artistic loose ends, like Inktober drawings, for instance.
NOTE: JOURNEY OF THE AVENGER is a sci-fi/adventure book that Sam Qualiana wrote and is currently re-writing. It's his first effort and he had compiled a reference of strange creatures and aliens that populate his novel, with drawings by him (and some by his brother) along with descriptions. I saw it and I thought I could do a better job of illustrating the creatures and he said sure, give it a shot. So, that's yet another project I impulsively forced myself upon.

Anyway, I should get going.
More later.

*local filmmaking pals of mine, writer/director and cinematographer/editor respectively.

P.S. BTW, I don't know what the (occasional) deal is with Blogger. Every now and then, I'll make corrections to a post and thoise corrections don't seem to stick. So, if you're wondering why sometimes font sizes don't seem to be consistent from one blog to the next, it's not intentional! I try to correct it and it seems to have gone through, but then when I look at the actual blog, it hasn't. No clue why. So, similarly, I tried to correct the colors of the font above where I list my art goals in February and then comment on it in August. I tried to make them all blue, but obviously, for some reason, Blogger has different color schemes in mind. Whatever.

Sunday, November 3, 2019

MY SUMMER 2019 BUCKET LIST

Thursday, June 13, 2:01 pm

Okay, I'm just taking five minutes (if that) to start yet another (possibly unfinished) post.
I'm taking five from cleaning up the house. My wife's upstairs working on cleaning and other things and I'm focused on the garage area (sun room, TV room, downstairs bathroom).
I more or less finished the sun room, which was mostly vacuuming, and now I'm slightly goofing off before getting into the TV room.
Mostly, I want to say "out loud" that I'm going to make a comic book this summer, somehow, some length, some way. I'm going to be fucking SIXTY YEARS OLD in pretty much eight months! So far, for my 59th year on this earth, I've notched a couple good personal accomplishments.
First, I directed my first play in 14 years: ANNAPURNA, a two-hander starring Lisa Ludwig and John Profeta and produced by the New Phoenix Theatre in downtown Buffalo. Although I was very stressed out during the entire rehearsal process, it wound up doing okay. Getting a 4 out of 4 star review in the Buffalo News didn't hurt, either.
Second, shortly after doing the play, we finally sold our old house in Lockport! We moved to our "new" house* in the fall of 2017, but the old house sort of became this albatross hanging over our head for, like, 21 months. Part of that delay was mostly my fault because I still had a bunch of cleaning and moving to do. My wife moved her stuff out but my belongings were so disorganized she left that entirely up to me. Plus I had some additional cleaning up of areas in the old house, too. Anyway, due to circumstances (like going back to work when we moved in 2017) and mostly my dragging my feet, it just took forever for us to finally wrap things up in Lockport. And, boy, did that pose problems, mostly financial as we were then saddled with the expenses of two houses in that period of time. About the only positive aspect of that situation was in 2017, when friend and actor John Karyus needed a place to stay briefly before he left the area to move back to L.A. (long story) and we let him live in the old house from, uh, I think, a few weeks in November to very early December. And it was during that stay that just before he departed for the West Coast, I shot some footage of him (and me) for a ridiculous and spontaneous movie idea called THE RESURRECTION OF THE BLUE AGOUTI. But, that's a whole other (and currently unfinished) story. ANYWAY, I finally got my shit together and this past spring got around to doing what I had to do at the old house, then Amy and I finally got the house straightened out to have a realtor come through and we put the house up for sale and it sold.
It sold.
IT SOLD.
We weren't exactly confident that that was going to happen, what with no home-inspection, and selling it as is, warts and all. We sold it and we also made a small profit, in terms of what we were expecting and the bills we had to pay, but the upshot is: no more mortgage to worry about, no more Lockport utility bills, no more going back and forth to Lockport to cut the grass and shovel the snow, etc. That era of our lives was finally over and we could finally MOVE ON.
So, two huge accomplishments!

Now, I'm just trying to capitalize on that sense of achievement and keep the "momentum" going this year, dammit!
Alright, gotta go.
More later.

Friday, September 27, 5:04 pm

Well, summer's over, man!
And even though I didn't work on a comic book at all, let alone complete one, I DID work on and direct this year's Team BM-VM entry for the 2019 Buffalo 48 Hour Film Project. It happened the weekend of August 9-11. Our entry was called THE CASE OF THE MISPLACED HERRING.


Meanwhile, I still have to get into some sort of habit/routine of doing artwork and making films.
ARGHHH.
But back to housecleaning.
(I know, I know! Two and half months later, and I'm still doing housework!)
Still, I did a short film and it was for the Buffalo 48 Hour Film Project. Yay! That's accomplishment #3!

Friday, November 1, 1:56 pm

Howdy.
Okay, well, this year is just hurtling along.
And I'm still looking to get into some sort of regular work routine. "Work" meaning drawing regularly, writing regularly, filmmaking regularly. Plus my regular household chores AND finishing up with the various stages of remodeling on our house.

Getting back to drawing and artwork...
So, I've done a lot of squat so far this year in that area.
More recently, I was hoping to do something for Inktober 2019 and I did nothing. Well, I started three drawings and jotted down ideas for other prompts. But I didn't finish penciling any of the drawings and I didn't get close to even inking, the whole purpose of the month-long event! But, also, I hoped to get some work in on the my Apple Corps Comics story. And update my portfolio.
Yes, I'm just re-hashing here what I haven't done so far this year.
Which hasn't stopped me from having new, additional ambitions: possibly being a guest artist on a Numina Comics comic, and inking some pages (officially) for Mark McElligott and John Warren's comic, GOOD CREATURES.

Re: the Numina Comics thing.
During October, I got re-acquainted with local artist/writer Aaron O'Brian on-line mostly through Twitter and followed his daily progress as he did Inktober 2019. Which he did! I know Aaron mostly through the Visions comic anthology from Queen City Book Store (a local comics shop owned by Emil Novak, Sr., whom I know through the store and then through some filmmaking projects he did years ago (THE ACCUMULATOR and BANSHEE) that he enlisted me to help him with, and then BM-VM which he introduced me to). Aaron had a self-published comic he did called RETURN TO SNAKELAND. Anyway, I wound up re-checking the website to Numina Comics of which he is one of the creators. I guess they started it in 2017 and as far as I can tell, they haven't created an actual full issue yet. There is an introductory on-line comic, though. So, I'm wondering if they could use an artist..?
Of course, I should NOT be one of those artists because I NEVER DRAW. But that fact NEVER stops me from suddenly having some ambitions to get involved, my usual impulsive, unrealistic, over-extending m.o.
In addition, there's GOOD CREATURES, the comic that Mark and John are doing. And I'm wondering if they could secretly use the help of an inker over Mark's pencils?
I think both of these are legitimate ambitions, BUT before I officially ask both parties and offer my services, I should:
1. FINISH MY ACC (Apple Corps Comics) COMIC BOOK STORY.

So, there's my first goal in order to achieve yet another goal.
Of course, I've already insinuated myself into Sam Qualiana's affairs by asking (quite some time ago) if I could adapt his short zombie film, SWAMP SQUAD OF THE DEAD (to which he said, "Sure!" and I promptly did NOTHING with it). Or Steve D'Addieco's short comic story from the mid-80's (!), THE CAT'S MEOW, that I've been meaning to illustrate. Obviously, I need to do some shit first before I move on to other projects.
And I should move quickly if I'm serious, because re: GOOD CREATURES, Mark is cranking out the pages and John is cranking out post-production: inking, lettering, coloring, publishing. They've already published two comics so far.
So...
TIME WAITS FOR NO MAN, motherfucker.

Sunday, November 3, 9:15 am

Speaking of Time, today is Daylight Savings and so we all "gained" an hour. Yay.
Oh, some catching up: Who is Sam Qualiana and Steve D'Addieco? What are Apple Corps Comics?
Why is my computer table only standing on three legs? Oh, sorry, that last one's a new topic (but something I do have to address today before my table goes boom and my computer goes, well... I need to address this issue TODAY...  stupid wood screws...!).
NOTE: My apologies if I'm repeating myself (and I'm sure I am) for the following background info. I'm sure the Apple Corps Comic Book Club and Sam and Steve's names have come up before somewhere at least once in previous blog posts, not necessarily with THIS blog, but maybe here, too. Anyway, some catching up:

1. Apple Corps Comic Book Club: I've mentioned this group before in previous posts, but myself and another artist/aspiring cartoonist, Pam, have been supposedly working on a comic book for well over a decade (!) with no comic book to show for it yet (!!!). We call ourselves the Apple Corps Comic Book Club. We both used to work at Great Arrow Graphics (aka GAG. I left there in 2003), a greeting card company that prints all their cards through silk-screening. We started a comic book group there called the Crabapple Club (don't ask!) and the additional members were Joshua Hrizak, Dan Clark and Will Rice. Well, the group eventually fizzled out but Pam and I tried to continue and fulfill the goal of making a comic book and we've met infrequently ever since. "Apple Corps" is a nod to that original group ("corps" being a homophone of "core", get it?).

2. Sam Qualiana is a WNY filmmaker who I first met at the first Buffalo Screams Horror Film Festival (which eventually became defunct, but also evolved into the current Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival). Sam and I became friends through the local filmmaking community and he actually became our trusted cat sitter when we were living in Lockport. He's perhaps most famous for this Youtube trailer of his first feature film, SNOW SHARK: ANCIENT SNOW BEAST (815,000 views!). He made a number of short films prior to SNOW SHARK and one of them is a compact, straight-to-the-point, effective short zombie film called SWAMP SQUAD OF THE DEAD.

3. Steve D'Addieco is my best friend from high school. He's still my best friend, but I've been shitty staying in contact with him consistently over the years. Although we did see each other last summer to celebrate our 40th high school reunion which he couldn't actually make (so we met halfway in-between just to catch up along with another classmate). He also was a Marvel comics fan (thanks to Bruce Allen, another classmate, for introducing us!). During high school we talked about doing a comic book together, something called Dimensions, an anthology comic. I think I may have roughly drawn a page or two for a couple stories. One was called, I think, "Life: A Universe Away, A Thought Away," and then there was this barbarian character we were talking about called Myrak of Cyrania and the story was sort of a cross between sword & sorcery and The Tempest. Steve actually went to film school and has written a few unsold screenplays. Post college (well, maybe during), Steve wrote this comic book script for me of a short story called The Cat's Meow. We're talking over thirty freaking years ago! I actually started drawing it a couple times back in the 80s and then again around 2000 when I was working at GAG. I took some pictures of GAG colleagues Jim Cole and Joel Menter as references for the two characters.
Still never finished it. One of the big drawing albatrosses around my neck. Still have a few cool ideas for illustrating the story. And, I think I actually found the script to the story while cleaning out the house for moving. Now, if I can remember where I put it...

Okay, I'm going to post this for now and just move on.

Our new house is pretty much my family's home since 1969. We moved there and I lived there pretty much through the rest of elementary school (I was 9 when we moved), middle school and high school. I lived in Pittsburgh for two years (1978-80) when I went to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, then I moved back home for a couple more years (I can't remember exactly how long). My parents stayed there until they both passed (my mom in 2007 and my dad in 2016). And then I inherited the house outright. But we remodeled it before moving in. So, that's the "new" house.