Last years of high school was when i first found out about Brendon's work, it was one of those revelatory encounters. The preview art for this is beautiful. He's perfect for this. So jealous. :)
Well, that's cute, but quite true i think. I'm getting old but this is not how i remember it. They used photos of cow brains alright, thought that was really cool! But i doubt it was smeared on the Multiplane camera directly. :P hah!
I was around as a little kid at the time at Nelvana, 8 or 9 years old. 10 or 11 maybe by the time that part was being shot. Watching that film get worked on was the highlight of several summers - my mother was on the crew and we didn't have daycare. Remember the crew working on that part in particular, it made an impression.
The demon was drawn on black paper with red and white pastel, or something like. Lot of smudging was involved. Crazy hard work for the artist. I recall they were copying from pencil drawings done by the animators who had worked out the mechanics of it traditionally on a light table. Think it might have been the first time i saw someone make tracing paper by rubbing something [chalk in this case i think] on the back of a page and re-tracing the lines of the drawing. Only way they could get the animation onto the black paper.
But it didn't look intense enough when they were done that. I recall the big debate in the paint department about what to do after the first rushes came in. People who worked on it still talk about that part of the production wide eyed about all the work that went into it. So, that's when the guts came into it.
The pastel art was shot on to full size transparencies, the blacks blacked out solid leaving the demon translucent on the films/cells. Making an overlay layer.
The photos of guts n' brains was shot in a bucket as i recall, poked and sloched to make it unduatle. That footage was terned into large stills and were under the cell art, lit from below on the Multiplane. It was footage of moving guts, so they would have to change the photo of the guts for each new frame shot, far more often than the animated demon's cells had to be changed, making it slow going.
Have a clear memory of the camera guy showing me what he was doing at the time and making eyes about all the work involved with perverse pride. Pretty awesome stuff.
But they loved that machine, maybe something happen when i was not around and i never heard about it. But I kind of suspect they could just shot the bucket of stuff with a regular camera, be a heck of a lot easier, and doubt they'd have gotten that gunk on the machine, it was huge and expensive.
...I've seen run true in my own lifetime, is that humans are boom and bust creatures, with a well documented tendency to ignore folly and run after the endless return. Not a revelation. Not everyone all the time or anything, but yeah, as a general thing just about all of us some of the time.
There's a real strong, but kind of late push towards electric renewables these days. But sadly we're far from braking point with Gass just yet. Got some more rev to grind out of those hot old hot rods.
There's also a kind of particular level of crazy fascination that we often associate with greed for things like gold, that inevitably heralds the bust of these booms. And that's what i thought when i saw this.
Put this up on Flickr a few days ago, it's open to the changes different venues and opportunities will provide but I'm kind of hopping i can do it just B&W like this. I really love working in this style, and i think this one would suite it well. Can't say too much yet but this is something I'm collaborating with Mark Sable, my co-hort on Upside Down for Comic Book Tattoo.
More to come soon. Juggling doing some pages for a pitch [as seen here] and inking two Dream Life pages, shooting for 5 in all by the end of the week. So far looking good.
Messing around. It's important to remeber play time while i keep looking for work, as an old doodle reminded me the other day when we crossed paths by the river.
Cleanead up a bit this would be a cool T-shirt i think.
I wounder what the best site for that kind of deal is these days?
K wrapps up soon, i'm doing roughs on 10 now. Don't know what the numbers are on it but it's been seen all over the pace in QC. I sould take a cammera around and shoot some of the displays the publisher had for it. Pretty good coveage it looks like.
Still in Toronto for another day, but soon I'll be back at work. In the mean time though....
After the con, i was able to finally catch Ronley Teper & co preforming @the Tranzac in Toronto Live. This is a band/performer i've been following for a little while now, found her via myspace, my cousin plays with her sometimes. you can check her out here.
Also lots of links on youtube with the vid, check them ALL out. :)
The great thing was that i wanted to see this show but forgot the day of about it, lost in Kensington market reminiscing w old friends. Made some new ones too. Then me and john walked up to Bloor on Brunswick to get some sushi, and lo there we were passing the Tranzac! Ronley was out side and we said hello, got the stage time and grabbed a great din before the show. Nice night.
This was at a zine launch, Cass was helping out set it up and i tagged allong. There were a few good local bands/acts, and one god awful one from out of town. But this is one song by someone who's voice was just amazing, reaches out and grabs you.
I have to check in with the organizer, for now only know her first name is Meghan Riley, she has some opera training and she's also very charming in person. We [Cass and I] were both smitten. I'll post some more from this show shortly, want to get the info sorted first....
Taking a few days to ink, then back to Top Secret project.
Blocky thing takes forever to ink, I'm telling you, Boyo.
Having some interesting conversations with a few writers right now, considering illustration a sort of philosophical picture book, been approached about a couple of comic book ideas that if not too big I might end up doing, and maybe even seeing if I cant think of an interesting animation idea - had a studio contact me about the possibility of talking about developing an idea with them, pretty exciting the more I think about it. Pondering what concepts i've been kicking around might make the leap well, or if I have any new notions that might be worth pitching....hmmm.
Also making small steps towards writing a new Sea of Red project, that i've pretty much decided I'd like to do sooner than I can draw it, so looking into other artists for that maybe.
Been making plans
to tour for Therefore Repent!
It's looking very good for me going to the NYCC, and Paradise, and by hock or crook my first visit to the San Diego Comic Con. Also Windsor/Detroit as well in the next 6 months! Maybe more yet, haven't got a confirmation but might be giving a presentation here in Montreal at the end of the month as well in NDG, hosted by geekmontreal.com
Jim's going to hit the road as well a little bit, stay tuned and i'll have dates and places for all that.
I was waiting for the rain to let up a bit so I could go to the D&Q book store opening, but the roof drain was blocked and it all started coming in through the ceiling!
Landlord had to come over, fist we drilled holes to control where it was coming in - it was pouring out of light fixtures and all over. With the holes it was possible to get it to all drain out in one place. But it came down in torrents! it would fill the bins in about 5 min. So the landlord went up to the roof, saw that the drain was blocked, and that was almost it. Mostly it's stopped now, except one slow dripper in my bed room, that's keeping me up......grumble....
Wanted an excuse to work with a few new tools, some stuff I'll probably apply to my own site soon, to help tidy it up some.
+Told Bernie a while ago I'd help fix up his old site, and move it to a better host.
Sooo....
The new url is bem.spiltink.org, and while it's still got some stuff to tighten I'm officially launching it today. Drop buy and bug the guy to post some new stuff! :)
Years ago when i first started visiting Montreal, Rupert Bottenberg introduced me to a fellow young Jewish lad name of Josh Dolgin.
We talked a lot over the years, and i always liked the guy, eventually I ended up living a few blocks from his place and would drop in from time to time to say hi. His pad was always hopping.
The guy is inspiringly creative. First off he's a DJ, and Rapper. Did a lot of sampling and turntabling and had really interesting eclectic taste. He was also a classically trained musician, and played a squeezebox too.
He also makes documentary films, a fair bit of that really, lately with the NFB.
And to top it off is really amazing with slight of hand tricks that he obsessively practices for hours on end. Its not just a hobby, he performs as a magician sometimes. When I held the first Monthly Montreal Comix Jam for my 30th birthday I invited him to come and perform, the show was amazing.
Lost track for a while, mostly because he started touring a lot for his music and I started hearing mutterings, every once and a while something on the CBC about him.
Last year for a while we were neighbours and when he was in town it was great to go over to his place and talk the shit. Half the time he's just making shit up, but then it's even deeper! :P
Words been getting out, this guy is talented. DJ, Filmmaker, Musician, Magician, oh, did I forget really excellent Photographer too? Forgetaboutit! Check out his web site for some of that action. All around creative and inventive dude I tell you!
So if you haven't been bit by this bug yet, lets see if i can fix that. He's got two Youtube pages going. Here and here. Some highlights to hook you in bellow.
A comic book launch featuring two very different visions of the end days, spanning the political spectrum:
Claudia Dávila's spOILed is a peak oil parable about a world without petroleum. A peek at that here.
Salgood Sam and Jim Munroe's THEREFORE REPENT! is a post-Rapture graphic novel about a world without God. preview here on comicspace
The creators will be in attendance, and their original artwork from the comics will be on display. Books, original artwork and silkscreened posters will be on sale. This event kicks off the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, which culminates in the weekend fair of international artists on the U of T campus.
Thursday, August 16th, 8pm-10pm. Free. Tequila Bookworm (512 Queen St. W., upstairs)
(The Bookworm's new location is ten doors west of their old place, and the upstairs features lots of cozy rooms and an outdoor patio to enjoy their local brews.)
BIOS
Born in Santiago, Chile, Claudia Dávila moved to Canada in 1973 and grew up in the culture-rich cities of Montreal and Toronto. She began drawing and painting at an early age, and was fortunate to attend art-focused public high school Wexford C.I., followed by York University for Visual Arts. She emerged to develop a multi-faceted career of graphic design, art direction, illustration, painting and cartooning. Five years were dedicated to the award-winning children's magazines Chirp, Chickadee and Owl, first as Associate Art Director and subsequently as Art Director. She is presently creating a book-art piece relating to survival in Toronto after the end of petroleum energy, for which she received a Toronto Arts Council grant. Claudia's art is informed by her various interests, such as the environment, social politics, yoga, vegetarian cuisine, ayurveda, and metaphysics, as well as the issue of the end of fossil fuels, and as such is a member of the Toronto Peak Oil Discussion Group.
Salgood Sam is Maxim Douglas backwards: Toronto-born, Montreal-based artist and author. Since the early '90s he's worked professionally for Marvel, DC and other commercial comic publishers as well as in the alternative world of zines and underground comix. In recent years his work has appeared in a variety of comics, such as Terminator 3: Before the Rise (Beckett Comics), the bloody swashbuckling Sea of Red (Image Comics), and Revolution on the Planet of the Apes (Mr Comics). In 2005 he was nominated for the Doug Wright Award for Best Emerging Talent for his self-published book RevolveR, and in 2006 he received a grant from The Canada Council for the Arts to complete another graphic novel currently in the works. He's also worked in animation and as an illustrator, but his first love has always been pictures that talk with balloons.
Jim Munroe had his first novel Flyboy Action Figure Comes With Gasmask published by HarperCollins. Despite their interest in his second book, he was uncomfortable with the corporate ownership and went back to his indie press roots. He founded No Media Kings, named in dishonour of right-wing media magnate Rupert Murdoch, and published his next book in Canada himself - it sold just as well, made him more money, and drew attention to the issues of media consolidation and the alternatives to it. His do-it-yourself publishing resource website created an international network of people through which he was able to found The Perpetual Motion Roadshow - a volunteer-run circuit that sent a hundred people on seven-city tours. He recently released a lo-fi sci-fi no-budget movie he wrote and co-produced called Infest Wisely.
Should have posted this sooner, if your in the area check this out, Cassandra and Co have been working on this for a while, it's going to be quite a show. I'll take some pictures! Here's the goods...
Hey all, Your invited to join us for the Andalunda Vernissage, Friday May 25th.
We have 40 people participating in our extravaganza: bands, performance art, spoken word, film, visual art, sculpture, installation and cheep beer to boot!
We're chilling out and having a little vernissage at 6:30, snacks and some wine with live solo performers providing music.
Then at 9 there's going to be more music which is mostly folky/jazzy/indie and then experimental beatboxing dancers, performance art and an open mic!
I'm pretty excited about the whole shindig (especially the 3D projected snow fall on the stage).
If you would like to drop on by, the address is 3997 St. Laurent (the Mainline Theatre).
Been following the story? Read the latest instalments, page 25 to 32, starting here on Comic Space here. To go to the start go here.
Also, got some cool news this week - the segment of the book published on comicspace so far represents the contents of RevovleR2, a small run I did of my personal anthology for Expozine 07. So it turns out RevolveR2 has been nominated for the Expozine Alternative Press Award for best comic this year! Cool beans. I'll be a the big galla this wen, see you there if your in town maybe?
I was already seen as a brushy heavy blacks artist by my peers and superiors even know i only used markers and pens, so it was assumed I was already qualified when they asked me to join the crew, and the fact that the senior designer had asked for me made it all the more attractive despite the fact that i had not ever yet used a brush with any regularity.
Who you know is everything in the arts world and I had spent some of my brakes chatting with this interesting character who sat in a cubical a row over from mine hid away in the back. Goran was a former Yugoslavian soldier who had spent some time in jail for refusing to fight in the post perestroika ethnic civil wars in his region.
He liked to play that dark past up a bit but he wasn't creepy about it, entertaining company and an amazing, fast and talented artist & draftsmen. He had down pat a kind of heavy brushwork that I have always admired.
He was the main designer for Sam and Max, and my job as an inker was to ape his style as closely as I could for the BG inking, so I spent some time watching him work and them just had to go do it.
Fortunately I took to it pretty fast and would have had a great time if not for some crazy office politics on the gig.
It did make a big difference in the feel of my art from then on, I can still see where Goran's example is still directing me to this day in some reaspects, amongst others.
Radical Transparency has been one of those ideas that's wandered about in the back of my head for a long time, and i remain pretty conflicted about the idea.
On one hand I have lived a portion of my life online for going on 14 yrs now.
Computer camp to Bulletin boards to email to the web I was not much more than a dabbler till around 99, but from then on it's been a significant part of my carrier as a artist to use this forum as the primary way of getting my work out into the world.
In part it's also why I've had a not so secret identity - a bit of a joke with myself and a bit of a shield for the ego to make dealing with the ups and downs of self-promoting a bit more manageable.
I've fumbled around the balance of public and privet and tend it seems to favour privacy in my own life.
At first this was a consequence of minimizing my self-conscious embarrassment over the obvious side effects of being dyslexic - even with the red lines, revealed & reviled still look at times the same to me.
But over time I've also had to discover where my comfort zone for being any kind of public personality lay.
I've had missteps and resolved a lot of questions for myself about this, and it remains an issue that captures my wandering attentions frequently.
I've also watched as people around me have revealed themselves via the net, to varying degrees, with all kinds of unexpected and not always good consequences.
Objectively - and there fore abstractly - I have come to prefer the ideal of Radical Transparency in our civic lives without question.
So doing an assessment of my progress on Therefore Repent! last night I worked out that I'm passed the half way point and well on the way to conquering this monster of a task I set out for myself!
Was worried for a few weeks there; feeling like the monster might have been getting the better of me a bit, but no longer.
Feels good.
Also, cant talk about it much yet but I'm happy to hint that a great publisher I've worked with not too long ago is looking good for the US and Direct market edition of the Novel. This means there will be two editions of the book, one from NMK for the Canadian book shop market, particularly the Indy lit scene. And another for our aspirations of wide spread obscurity via the Comics direct market and US book store markets ;)
Also a footnote for future note - Dream life is basically ready to go. soon as I wrap up Repent, I'll be starting to draw that. And it seems likely that you'll be able to read that in about a year or less in a newly re-launched RevolveR - also no details yet but it seems we have ourselves an interested publisher for my personal anthology project too now!
Actually I would not be surprised if Clive will talk to Warren for a piece like this if he gets onto the ways cyber punk fiction has forecasted these trends and clashes between secrecy and freedom of information on the net.
SALGOOD
SAM's WORK DIARY | an account of endeavors
and random musings | the web-log of Max Douglas, a
professional cartoonist working and living in Montreal Qc Canada
max at salgoodsam dot com atom feed
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We talked a lot over the years, and i always liked the guy, eventually I ended up living a few blocks from his place and would drop in from time to time to say hi. His pad was always hopping.
