Aardman vs. DC

Click this.

A Taste Of "Nothing To Say"

Today was a good day.
Apart from work.
But after that, Gav came over and laid down a track. I'd left him him the words and a tune, and he comes back and elevates my feeble attempt at a song to some thing sublime. It's beautiful. The song's not ready, but I couldn't wait, so I'm just going to give you a sneak listen, just a taste, to whet your appetite.
Aw yeah, "Nothing To Say" (Instrumental edit).

Naka Retrospective Bootleg: The Roots Of Scarecrow

Scarecrow is probably my favourite song we did in Naka. This is where it began.
The Bach Riff.

Video Blog For Comics Released 27/12/11

Try stay awake for this, if you want to know about the comics I read this week.

Panel Of The Week: Kamandi: The Last Boy On Earth

Story and Art by Jack Kirby.

Saturday Morning Still Life In Blue

Received In Mail Today

"Iron Rose" by Uncle Walt & The Rocketmen

Click to play.
I don't know what else to do with it, I think it's done.

Expendables 2 Poster

Bring on Winter.

New Poster: The Dark Knight Rises

Ron Howard With A Gun

Panels Of The Week

I read a bunch of comics today, a few weeks worth. This is just a few of the highlights.

 This is why I like Planet of the Apes.

Panels taken from Boom Comics new series, issue 7, drawn by Carlos Mungo. That's awesome comics, right there. Ape with a machine-gun.

This one is from Orchid #2, the new comic from Tom Morello, drawn by Scott Hepburn. I like this one because of all the beasties in it. That place looks dangerous. Looks like the future isn't a nice place to be. Also it's pretty nice lighting. And I like the way the foreground elements come in from outside the panel, gives it a nice sense of depth.

Best Cover: Archie Meets Kiss #1

By Francesco Francavilla, this is an alternate cover for a new 4 part story starting this week. I've asked my comic shop if they can track it down for me, but I think I'll have to be pretty lucky.

Trailer For "The Raid" (Let's See If This Works)

So "The Raid" (the new film from Indonesian martial arts star Iko Uwais and filmmaker Gareth Evans, the guys behind Merantau) is going to get some kind of theatrical release. Hopefully that includes Australia. Anyway, it's a good excuse to try embed another trailer from Twitch. If it doesn't work, I'll just post the link again.

<object width="650" height="366"><param name="movie" value="http://ictv-tf-ec.indieclicktv.com/player/embed/97b1fda2ca43d6c29eaf63ed1ec347c6/4e6a8ad556495/31/0/defaultPlayer^player.swf"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://ictv-tf-ec.indieclicktv.com/player/embed/97b1fda2ca43d6c29eaf63ed1ec347c6/4e6a8ad556495/31/0/defaultPlayer^player.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="650" height="366"></embed></object>

Nope, not working. I guess just try this then.

Trailer For "The Kick"

<object width="650" height="366"><param name="movie" value="http://ictv-tf-ec.indieclicktv.com/player/embed/97b1fda2ca43d6c29eaf63ed1ec347c6/4ed4fc4e32cfe/31/0/defaultPlayer^player.swf"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://ictv-tf-ec.indieclicktv.com/player/embed/97b1fda2ca43d6c29eaf63ed1ec347c6/4ed4fc4e32cfe/31/0/defaultPlayer^player.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="650" height="366"></embed></object>

A couple things about this have me somewhat excited to see it. Firstly, obviously the kicking and punching and general martial arts goodness on display. Secondly, the dancing/fighting martial arts technique looks like it might be used a little better here than in that other film, which was just insane. And thirdly, and maybe most importantly, Jija Yanin's hair looks really good in this.

OK, apparently, I can't embed from Twitch here anymore, so to see the trailer, just follow this link over to Twitch.

Panel Of The Week: Tintin-Explorers On The Moon

It was difficult to choose a panel from this book. There were quite a few very impressive panels of the rocket on the moon. Large panels that took up two thirds of the page, which is unusual, but striking in their size. There's also a sequence in some caves which I was tempted to use, because I liked the lighting in them.

But I chose this one, I think mainly because I liked the composition. The lines of the cliffs seem to focus our attention on the tank, which is quite small in the panel, giving us a sense of scale. Something about the colours. It all works nicely to create a small piece of art in the middle of the story.

First Poster Expendables 2?

So over at Bleeding Cool, they ran a poster from JoBlo, an exclusive for them, so I guess it would nice if you visited their website to take a look.

That works for me, even though the guy at Bleeding Cool doesn't like it. I'm sure he has a point, but when the selling point of your film is those names and faces, of course you're going to put them up there, and it's working on me. It makes me kind of giddy to see all those people on the same poster, and know it's a reality, not just some action movie fan's photoshop wet dream.

Cover to Northlanders #46

I should be going to bed, but I couldn't resist posting this image. The first one is a detail from the cover by Massimo Carnevale, the second image is the whole picture. Enjoy.

Panel Of The Week: Tintin-Flight 714

This is one of my favourite Tintin comics, I probably read this one the most in my youth, and it's easy to see why. A mysterious island, giant lizards, aliens abductions, and Tintin with a machine gun. It's kind of surprising considering today's standards for appropriate content for kids, but Tintin seems to get a gun in nearly every adventure he gets involved with. I'm starting to see where some of my influences started.
It was hard to settle on a panel from this comic, but I think this sums up a lot of the appeal Tintin has for me.

More Eating At The Carolina Kitchen And Espresso

I went back to Carolina Kitchen, this time with Gav, and this time I wanted to get the large ribs to see how big the serve was. Well we saw someone else's serve of larger ribs, and I started thinking that might be too much, so we decided to split a large serve of ribs and get some chicken wings as well. I've already spoken about the ribs, so won't say much, but can basically sum it up by saying I prefer my sauce, but the ribs are cooked pretty nicely, with the meat falling of the bone. So it's ok if you haven't got the time to do it yourself, or if you're too lazy.

So onto the chicken wings. You can order 6, 12 or 24, in a mild, medium or hot with a yoghourt blue cheese dipping sauce. We ordered the 12 with a medium heat.  As a meal for two guys, it was pretty good serving sizes, large ribs and 12 wings. The wings were delicious, spicy without overpowering taste. They're coated in a nice kind of breadcrumb mixture, but I'm sure it's not, maybe some kind of dry rub kind of thing, I'm not sure. I wasn't expecting to like the dipping sauce, because I'm not a fan of blue cheese, but I forgot what it was made of so just tried it, and it complimented the wings quite nicely. It was fairly subtle, not strong like a blue cheese can be, though once I was reminded what was in it, you can definitely taste it there. Quite enjoyable.
I finished of the night with a Snickers attempt at Reeses Peanut Butter Cup. I found it disappointing and wished I'd chosen the Reeses product they had on sale.

Anyway, a nice night out, good meal with a buddy. I think I'll try a burger next time I go, maybe with some fries and a small serve of wings.