Walking Deeead

Like most people who will read this, i'm a huge fan of the Walking Dead comic, and very excited about how the tv show is shaping up... (and also feeling weird that people are jumping on our bandwagon!)
I can't help thinking some of it isn't quite right... Andrew Lincoln as Rick... hmm not so sure.. He looks too weird. They guy who plays Shane seems more charismatic and I'd prob want to watch him more...
as much as i like Laurie Holden, i think she's too old to play Andrea... In fact the gal who plays Amy would make a better Andrea - would be great to watch her get all mean and warrior-y.
Bit worried that sarah wayne callies is too likeable for Lori...
can't wait to see Mihconne and Tyreese.
but oh well, i trust them, and it does look cool. reeeally wish they were doing it in black and white though!
a couple of thoughts on the comic - gosh, its' really slow at the moment. in fact the general consensus is that it's been a bit off the boil since they left the prison... it's definitely lost it's edge. i think it's time they killed off rick.

Inception

I think I’m gonna start getting annoyed!!!
I just saw Inception, and it’s a cool movie…but it’s not perfect by any means… And that’s what’s gonna annoy me, because the lazy 10 out of 10 reviews are already starting to come in…
All I can do is break it down into what I liked and disliked about it…

Likes:
- The cast. Wow… Nolan certainly has an eye for an ensemble that works. I absolutely loved this cast. Ellen Page is always good (will she ever become an adult though?), Tom Hardy is phenomenal, great to see, I want to see him in loooads more films. Nice to see Ken Watanabe in something like this - he just ‘looks’ good (altho I struggled to hear some of his lines). Dileep Rao is a fab character actor, and it’s always good to see him. Marion Cotillard was just beautiful. But my Oscar goes to Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who stole every scene he was in - he just fit this movie like a glove. Move over, Leo.
- The music - swooon, just beautiful.
- The effects, of course, although not as many as you’d think.


Dislikes:
- Okay, they try to make it all make sense and some ideas ring true and are clever - such as: you never remember the start of a dream etc. But at the end of the day, dreams are crazy! They don’t make sense! Where was that element in this movie? It was just the Matrix really…
- Too serious! Leonardo’s character was just a bit too serious - I mean, I know he had his ‘issues’, but still - what a downer! And Leo himself is a bit weird now - he’s not fat, but he’s big… I just can‘t figure him out and I found him hard to look at… And I kind of felt some moments were unintentionally funny - like when the gang are all tied up together in the hotel - it just looked silly. It was just all way too serious, and I think that worked against it.
- Exposition! Some stuff was left unexplained as if it was obvious, but sometimes things were explained maybe a bit too much - way too clunky. And I defy anyone to say they didn’t get ‘lost’ at some point in this movie, as they tried to remember which ‘layer’ they were watching, and why Ken Watanabe was suddenly okay, etc etc.

So all in all, I found it a frustrating movie, I can’t say I particularly understood it all, but Nolan really has a knack of hitting the spot in his movies and, damn him, he did make me shed a manly tear here and there (actually, to be honest, I was practically weeping in a couple of scenes featuring Marion Cotillard and Cillian Murphy).
But I really hope the movie doesn’t start getting universal ‘perfect scores’, because a movie with such clunky dialogue and crammed-in exposition and unintentionally funny moments is far from perfect, I think.
Please, reviewers, try to put aside your ‘man crushes’ on Christopher Nolan…

THANK YOU to all the Japandexers!

Japandex is finished! And without wishing to sound like an X-Factor contestant - what a journey!!! I can't believe it's been just a month - it feels like years! I started off with only around 5 people involved, and it's incredible and very exciting how it all developed!
I love art and I love people who draw (I... think everyone in the world can draw, to be honest, everyone has a style) - so it's so cool to have so many different styles and to see the reaction to each picture. And some of the reactions have surprised the artists - and that's very exciting.
Some of the artists have been doing this for years, and some are new talents who I asked to take part. It's been so worthwhile doing this and when some of the art came in, I ended up just staring and staring at it, jaw dropped. And I've met some great people along the way too!
So basically, I'd like to thank each and every person for giving up their time to take part in this very special project. It has been so rewarding, and so much fun to see your versions of my characters. So cool, thank you thank you thank you!!

Japandex final day!!!!

GAYZILLA by Steve White
Steve was the first person I invited to take part in Spandex, so it’s a bit of a full-circle thing that it is the last one I am featuring. Steve loves dinosaurs (and Jaws) so I just had to ask him to draw a pic of my Gayzilla character, who made a cameo in issue 2 of Spandex.
Steve’s been a comics professional for years, working with Marvel UK and now for Titan, and he’s been involved in tons of comics that you will have read. He’s currently editing Transformers and overseeing Clint Magazine!
Steve does a lot of drawing in his spare time, and he loves drawing dinosaurs – he often does art as gifts for people. Gorgeous stuff!!!
Right, that’s it from Japandex, thanks for checking it out!
I’ll put up one more thing later this week, so keep your eyes peeled!

Under the Drone?

It's a sad world when a new STephen King book comes out and i have no interest in it whatsoever! He's just released a mini-book called Bronco Billy or something - a baseball book. Having read a couple of baseball-themed SK short stories, I think I'll steer clear...
It's funny though, I'd been thinking of re-reading Under the Drone - maybe a 2nd attempt might improve it, now i know where it's going - and to add to this excitement, I just found out they've released the paperback with four covers - and I think they are pretty stunning!!!! So I think I'll deffo get one of those. Can't decide between the li'l girl and the lady hmmm (is anyone gonna buy the old man??)