Spandex 5 UPDATE!

Hey guess what guys – I’ve just sent Spandex 5 to the printers (for a proof copy, I’ll print a couple of weeks later).
Normally, I aim to get an issue done for the Thought Bubble convention in late November, so I’m dead early!! And thank god for that, because every issue seems to get delivered on the day I need to get my train to the con, and it’s always right down to the wire!
It’s so weird, maybe I’m getting quicker – I’ve actually been going out socialising more, so I’m surprised I got it done so quickly (especially as the issue features about 80 characters).
One thing that helped was making my own font. Normally I hand-letter, scan and then do major tidying-up, but it was proving time-consuming, so I tried a different method. The font took me a couple of months to make, and I’m under no illusion that it’s perfect – I think the jury will be out... But hopefully it just about does the job and I will be making tweaks on it for issue 6.
So anyway, issue 5 is all about Liberty and we get to learn her origin, and we follow her as she investigates what happened to her team-mates in issue 4. She ends up fighting just about every villain in the Spandex universe, plus gets a bit of help from some of the good guys too (that was so exciting to do). I think it’s a fun way of exploring the universe, and a slight homage (/piss-take?) of comic crossovers. Will Liberty find out where the team are... And will there be a shock ending...? My lips are sealed lol...
I think, after the shocks of issue 4, people will find this one a bit different. Generally it’s a bit lighter in tone, with a bit of a dark subtext, and the shocks are more story-related instead of issue 4’s out-and-out shockers. For me, though, it’s all about experimenting, and if you don’t like this issue, just stay tuned for issue 6, which will turn everything on its head (and it’s pretty much what the series has been leading up to).
I’m not going to do an official announcement of the issue just yet, as I’m still working on my little free ‘extras’ that come with the issue - I’m making a manga style J-Team mini-comic and 70+ mini-trading cards. The manga story, to be honest, is just me experimenting and having fun and seeing if I can do it (ie, tell a story in Japanese comic style, which is the reverse of how we do it), and hopefully the trading cards are just nice and attractive.
I've popped a rejected cover for this issue up above (it was based on a James Bond novel book, but I felt it was too much of a rip-off!)
Anyway, please stay tuned!
(Oh, and I’ve already started drawing issue 6 – I’ve made a start on about 10 pages woo hoo!)

Melancholia

I saw this movie on Sunday. I can’t believe Empire gave it 5 out of 5!!!
Maybe it’s just one of those movies you need to be in the right mood to watch.
I could sum the movie up fairly quickly – in fact I’ll do it now, obviously spoilers ahead:
Kirsten Dunst gets married but throws a wobbler and ruins it all, then a blue planet is heading towards Earth, but then it seems to go away again, but no then it comes back!, Charlotte Rampling throws a big wobbler and rides around on golf cart, then Kirsten Dunst gets naked, Kiefer Sutherland wimps out and kills himself in a horse stable, and well, I won’t spoil the ending, but the arty end-scenes they showed at the start of the movie were better.

Okay, no more spoilers from here.
I think what this movie was trying to do was quite clever – Kirsten’s character couldn’t handle her life, but then when the planet was heading towards catastrophe she was fine – unlike her more level-headed sister who lost the plot. But did it really need two hours to say this? Two very drawn-out hours?
And the science seemed really dodgy. There was a planet hiding behind the Sun? Really? Wouldn’t a planet heading towards Earth have more of an impact – wouldn’t the sea go crazy? Even I know that, and I’m not a scientist.

Still, it was very ‘brave’ of Kirsten to go naked, and she does have large bosoms. I was shocked to see her full-nude scene in the trailer... And I’m sure you ‘saw more’ in the actual film...

Hello world!

Gosh I haven’t updated for a while! Been pretty busy!
Thought I’d do mini reviews of some movies I’ve seen!

Poetry
I saw the trailer for this a while ago and it was very emotional, all about a woman who gets Alzheimer’s.
I went to see the film with much trepidation, expecting a weep-fest – but no! So disappointing. Almost all of the Alzheimer’s stuff is in the trailer, it’s not really touched upon in the movie. Instead, it’s a rambling movie about a lady in her 60s who starts taking poetry classes and who has to deal with the fact that her schoolkid grandson has a link to the suicide of a schoolgirl (no not a spoiler, it happens at the start of the movie).
The movie just didn’t do it for me – didn’t grab me – and it was too wishy washy. And I hate to say it, but there’s a scene in it where the lady has sex with a disabled old man, and it’s just a bit too much... I’m sure the critics say that it is ‘brave’ but I could have done without seeing that... It just didn't work.
5 out of 10

Akunin (aka, Villain)
This was more like it. I went in, not knowing anything about it, and I was stunned. It’s about a young adult with behavioural problems who is seeing a young woman – and she is soon discovered murdered. Then the guy starts seeing another lady, and it’s all very fucked-up... And many confessions and decisions ensue...
The film might be a tad long, but at the heart of it is just pure epic romance. It really caught me unawares and made me cry a lot!!
Such a great Japanese movie.
9 out of 10.

Super 8
Urrgh hated this!! The creators are capable of so much better – I felt they sold out! That train explosion – so over the top! My friend liked it and said that I missed the point – that it is a pure homage to 80s movies. I dunno – I still feel like they should have offered something new or original in between all that. So the driver who rammed his car into the train survived – really? How? It was so obvious he was going to be suddenly come alive – is that a homage then? Zzzz! The kids really got on my nerves, especially the braces kid and the fat kid – and I don’t know why JJ Abrams likes that bland actor so much – the one who plays the main kid’s father. They seem to use him a lot.
2 out of 10

Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Not a huge fan of the original (too slow and too many court scenes), but this was a nice surprise, pretty engaging.
8 out of 10

Love Exposure
This is a four hour Japanese movie that I had to watch over several days lol. I don’t know why it has to be 4 hours long, but it still works. It’s a rambling epic movie about a young directionless guy who gets in with a weird crowd, starts dressing up as a warrior woman and falls in love with his step-sister – and then it all goes tits up when a nasty young girl and a religious cult get involved.
This film is so much fun and so absorbing. There’s the nastiest scene ever, containing a horrible thing happening to an erect penis lol. And some of the acting is stunning.
I felt the denouement was a little weak, and the lady villain didn’t quite get the comeuppance she deserved, but the ultimate ending does pay off.
It's more of an experience than a film.
9 out of 10

Captain America
I don’t know what it is, but a lot of the Marvel movie – Hulk, Iron Man – have just washed over me. Maybe it’s cos I grew up as a Marvel Zombie, so I’m so close to the characters. Cap A pretty much did the same – I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t really love it. Chris Evans did a decent enough job, but I felt the Red Skull’s mask didn’t quite work – you could tell it was a mask and you could even see the actor’s nose a bit!
I also wish it hadn’t been a total flashback movie, and maybe it could have just interspersed flashbacks in with modern day stuff. All in all – a bit meh...
6 out of 10

Good Article on Spandex Comic!

Enough about nose-picking colleagues, check THIS out! Spandex makes it to Bleeding Cool again, and it's a nice, in-depth feature woooo!
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/07/04/look-it-moves-105-by-adi-tantimedh-superheroes-

Spandex issue 5!

I haven’t posted much on here recently, so I thought I’d do a Spandex update!
Issue 5 is going well, I’ve been working hard on it and feel like I’m making good progress (check out a rough pencilled page above!). It’s going to be a lot of work, as always, but it should be ready for the Leeds Thought Bubble in November.
I will exclusively reveal that the issue is called ‘Big Secret Crisis’ and focuses on Liberty – but also features just about every superhero and villain in the Spandex universe! Liberty will be trying to find out what has happened to her team-mates, and we’ll also be finding out all about her origin.
If that isn’t exciting enough, the issue will come with a free trading card AND a free manga-style comic (ie, you read it back to front!) featuring my Japanese superteam, The J-Team! I’ll also be working on a set of postcards to be ready at Thought Bubble – I’m very excited about the designs! Plus, to celebrate the fact that Liberty is taking centre-stage, I will be launching LibARTy, featuring fun Liberty art from all sorts of contributors! (Please drop me a line at martrpeden@yahoo.co.uk if you'd like to take part!)
I’ve also been beavering away on creating my own font, which will hopefully knock weeks of work off. It’s really tricky, and I’m not entirely sure it’s working, but we’ll give it a go. I really need to sort out how I letter, because it’s too time-consuming at the moment (I letter, scan it, and then tidy up every single letter in Photoshop, and it takes bloody ages). I’m also beavering away on the cover – as usual, my first idea didn’t pan out, and then I tried a couple of other things which didn’t pan out either – but I think I’m onto a winner now.
So it’s all go at Spandex Towers!! Stay tuned to spandexcomic.com for more details!

Smallville!

I need to get this off my chest...
I’m really enjoying Smallville at the moment!
:-O
Yes it’s true! Smallville is a funny old show, isn’t it? I watched most of the first five seasons, and it was very by-the-numbers and pedestrian, not exactly brian-taxing. I actually edited the official magazine for it, but stopped watching it when I left the magazine. There was just so much other stuff to watch!
However, a friend told me that he was watching it last year, so I felt less embarrassed, and I started watching it, and it’s actually not bad.
And then, the final season started on E4, and I stored them on my BT box to watch...and I really couldn’t be bothered...But I started watching and now I’m hooked!!!
Yes, it’s still quite lame – the dialogue can be hammy and the music is so dour – but the effects are amazing, and there’s a real pace to it now – more of an ongoing storyline.
It’s actually a real shame that no one has been watching it, because the show features its own takes on characters such as Deadshot, Darkseid and Suicide Squad. And Supergirl just returned, but she sounded like she was from Canada more than from Krypton...
So yes, Smallville is a bit lame and rubbish – but I think once you’ve accepted that, it’s quite watchable. I’m hooked!

X-Men Second Class

I saw X-Men First Class at a special preview the other week, and I - and pretty much the whole audience - seemed generally underwhelmed...
On the morning I was going to see it, my chum asked me if I was excited... To be honest, I wasn't! You see, I really hate the way they dick around with continuity in the X-Men movies. Yeah I know, it's a different set-up etc, but in my opinion, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And I wouldn't mind either, if some of the changes weren't so brainless and ill-considered (see below)
So now it's really surprising me that a lot of friends and people - and even comic fans - seem to be loving X-Men First Class... Really?? I think it's pretty insulting to comic fans, to be honest, the way they've pointlessly changed so many things.
Overall, I felt the movie dragged in places, felt like a Thunderbirds movie in other places, and in all the other places it was really uneven (c'mon, where did Emma go??). But this is supposed to be the start of a trilogy, so hopefully when its all found its feet, things will improve (let's face it, X-Men 1 was good but not amazing either. But I preferred that to this mess.)
Maybe the best way to look at it is to look at each character:
Prof X - stop putting your finger by the side of your head, it's really boring. And stop over-acting. I liked seeing how he lost the use of his legs - I wasn't expecting that - I was waiting for him to lose his hair!
Magneto - James Bond.
Mystique - She seemed to do a lot of screaming! What a wimp. C'mon, Raven's not a wimp! And why does she have to have those stupid scales?
Beast - very good, but a shame the transformation is spoiled by the trailer.
Darwin - was promising!
Angel - I quite liked her, altho her end fight got a bit monotonous. It'd be nice if the fact she's called Angel ties in with Warren Worthington.
Moira - A cool character... but aaargh! Why is she an American CIA agent? Why? She's a Scottish scientist in XMen 3. Och lordy! Moira will be spinning in her grave!
Emma - Oh January... You are very sexy, even if you don't have massive hooters, but put a little effort in hon! I mean in the comics, Emma is FIERCE, but here, she was just ...dull. And why confuse things with the diamond form thing? This could have been a true break-out role for some up-and-coming actress... And if this was Twilight, they'd probably change the actress for the next movie.
Shaw - Well yes, one of the best superhero movie villains ever, I reckon. However... Now don't all laugh at once... A) I didn't realise it was Kevin Bacon (there are so many lookalike actors these days and I feel a bit left behind!)... so B) I didn't realise Shaw was the Nazi guy... Yes, looking back there was that photo thing, but I guess I just zoned out... The whole moustache thing threw me... And at the end of the day, I wasn't particularly expecting Shaw (the guy I know from the comics) to have worked in a Nazi camp. I mean, why would he be?
Azazel - shit make-up, and over-use of the teleportation stuff. I mean, we wanted more of Nightcrawler's powers in X2, but I wanted less of Azazel.
Riptide - yes, that was Riptide! From the Marauders! But Mr Vaughn and Ms Goldman, how can you have a prominent character in a movie and not even say who he is, why he's there, and what he's doing? I gotta say, I think this movie's creators are over-rated. I sat twiddling my thumbs thru half of Kickass, but that just seems to be me.
Banshee - why can't he be Irish?
Havok - Please don't tell me he's gonna turn out to be Cyclops' FATHER...
The two special cameos - brilliant!
That's all I have to say...