Luis’ Illustrated Blog

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

The count down has begun the pressure is on to finish our show on time.  It’s the first story reel of the season so we need to start this season off with a bang.  Sheesh!

BLOG/COMIC BOOKS

I’ve heard a lot of complaints, online and off, about comics and how difficult they are to get into.  I don’t see that at all.  I’ve found the opposite is true. Before I begin to explain myself, I will first point you to two online sources that put fourth good arguments against my position. The one that started me thinking about this to begin with is this one:

•  Today’s Mainstream Comic Books: New Reader Friendly?  By Krishna Sadasivam of PC WEENIES fame.

And the second one (which Krishna linked to as well) is:

• The four dollar barrier  from the HIGHWAY 62 Blog.

You should first read these two articles. I think their arguments are very sound, but limited in what they put forth as the way to get into comics.  I left a comment on Krishna’s post but I don’t think I truly answered Krishna’s concern.  I mostly commented on everyone else’s comments to Krishna’s argument.  I recommend you read the comments as well.

Okay, now that you’ve read those articles, I’ll put forth my thoughts on the topic. Before I begin though, I will first tell you what I’m not going to be writing about. I’m not going to argue whether or not the modern superhero genre is catering to a younger audience nor will I write about whether cartoony  comic artwork is better than more photo realistic comic art.

I will use the superhero genre of comics for most of my examples, mainly because they are by far the most complex type of comic to get into and it’s the genre that more quickly comes to mind when we think of modern comics.

What I mean by “mainstream” comics in this article is this: Marvel and DC comics, and to a far lesser extent Dark Horse, Image and Top Cow. I also include, in my definition, all English translated Manga. This might be surprising but most younger readers are more familiar with Manga than with Marvel and DC books. I will also use the word “floppy” to describe what most of us know as a regular flimsy comic, as apposed to a much sturdier trade paperback comic (a.k.a. “graphic novel”).

Okay, so, the topic that concerns us here is how easy is it to get into reading comics. I propose to you, that it’s easier than it’s ever been to get into comics. Comics and information about comics are everywhere. The internet has a ton of free legal comics at your fingertips.  Cartoons and movies are great introductory ways to get you intrigued and curious about reading comics.  Newstands may be dying off but comics are thriving as trade paperback books in all major books chains. Libraries carry comics now and there are even Encyclopedias that explain some superhero comic book universes. There really is, no real reason, why someone who wants to get into comics can’t get into them. If you think it’s too much work, trust me, it’s worth the effort.

As I was growing up in El Salvador (I lived there till I was 6 years old) my grandmother had a bookshelf of comics in her house for us and we used to look through them and read them.  Surprisingly enough, this is not what got me into comics. What got me into comics was, years later, when our family had moved to California. Sometime when I was around 11 or 12, I picked up a copy of Peter Porker, The Spectacular Spider-Ham #15 at the local Circle K convenience store. It cost 75 cents. The same book now would probably cost $4.00 and I would have probably gotten it at Barnes and Nobles or Borders.

I wasn’t interested in “serious” comics at the time.  I just wanted the funny cartoony stuff. Eventually, the book was canceled (I guess I was the only person that bought it) and the Spider-Ham stories where relegated to the back of Marvel Tales featuring Spider-Man.  I bought those for the Spider-Ham stories but eventually, got bored one day and read the “serious” Spider-Man story which I fell in love with.  This lead to my love of the “serious” comics.

I learned real quick that I had no idea what the heck was going on in any of the “serious” comics.  In fact the only reason I knew who anyone was in a Spider-Man comic was because the Spider-Ham comic had spoofed them.  I read the comics anyway.  I thought I’d eventually understand what was going on. This worked some what.  In those days the only way to find out what had gone before in a superhero book was really limited. You either bought back issues or read the “old issue index” comics that gave you a synopsis of the years of comics that had come before.  If you were lucky you collected the comics that had does indexes.

Okay so what’s my point? Why the personal history?  Well, on the one hand I see the point that a floppy comic now a days being $4.00 is a barrier to entry.  I may not have bought my first comic if it was $4.00. But lets say I got a comic somehow.  If it was a cartoony superhero comic like, Billy Batson and the Power of Shazam, it would have a good long story for a good value and it would have appealed to me where I was at, taste wise.  I would have come back for more.  Okay, lets say I wanted to get into a “serious” superhero comic, lets say, Spider-Man. Somehow I got hold of one and read it. Exactly the same thing that happened to me the first time would happen, I would read it, be intrigued and not know who anyone was, but I’d probably come back for more to find out.

You would probably argue,

“See you’re assuming you would read a floppy and get into a comic but comics are $4.00 so how would you even get the chance to read them at all?” Well, I’d read them for free at the Marvel website or download it for free from DC KidsWB. The Marvel website even has books that help you catch up with what’s currently going on.

There are more ways now than any other time, to get into comics and find out who the mainstream characters are. For starters, there are animated cartoons that do a phenomenal job of introducing people to the mainstream characters. I know because, it was through these cartoons that I got introduced to the characters of the DC Universe. Now, I love to read those comics. I’ve also gotten exposed to a lot of great Manga from watching their movies and anime, like the Lone Wolf and Cub manga and the Akira manga to name a few.  My wife learned and became familiar with the X-Men and the JLA from watching their cartoons so when she reads those books, she knows who everyone is. The same goes with my Sister-in-law. She loves reading DC comics because she watched the Cartoon Network Justice League cartoon. My kids know who the Justice League, The Teen Titans, Spider-Man,  Iron Man,  The Legion of Superheroes, and Astroboy are from watching my DVDs of those cartoons. During her nap time, my daughter flips through kids comics of some of those characters before she goes to sleep (they’re all totally trashed, and very well “read”. She’s only three). My kids even ask me to read them comics.

My brother and sister-in-law bought the Marvel Encyclopedia and the DC Encyclopedia in order to get caught up on who’s who in both Universes. If you don’t have the money to spend for one of those, go to a website like Comic Vine. They have up to the minute explanation on what’s going on. Something I wish I had been able to do when I first started collecting superhero comics. The superhero comics I read as a kid in the 80s needed that as much as the current superhero comics do.

If you don’t want to deal with the big history of most superhero comics. Most Manga doesn’t have that problem (some do though) and there is also DC’s Vertigo line. Many of those don’t have as much history to catch up on, if any.

Not only that, but you can’t really argue that current superhero genre comics are too complicated,  too adult or too , whatever you’re prejudice, and that older comics are better. Mainly because those very superhero comics are now collected in omnibus editions. Some of these collections can be found used for as low as $4.00! So if you want to read “better” superhero comics, then nothing is stopping you from reading those and literally starting from the beginning. If you want to make sure that the comics you let your kids read are “kid friendly” why not buy them or encourage them to buy and read those collections.  They still hold up and there’s plenty of them; and when it comes to manga, there are plenty of kid friendly comics there too. Astroboy anyone?

If you want a complete comic story (old or new, adult friendly or kid friendly), you can pick up a trade paperback. There are many of these which are good introductions to a hero or universe. You can find all these and more at you’re local book store (here in the U.S.) or even *GASP!* at the library. Something unheard of in the 80s when I started reading comics.  I would have LOVED to have that opportunity.  I went to the library all the time as a kid.

Okay, having said all that, I want to argue that the price of floppies is too much for the value you get. $4.00 seems too much.  Yet, a Magic the Gathering Booster pack, (same target audience) is about $4.00 for fifteen cards. A Yu-Gi-Oh! booster pack is $5.00 for nine cards. A Playstation 2 game averages $35.00 (double the price of most trade paperbacks). Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 games are about $60.00. The target audience of today’s comics are pretty used to forking over a lot for a little.  I don’t like it at all but the price seems about average. Whether you get $4.00 worth of entertainment out it, that depends on the comic you buy and how it’s written. This is especially true for floppies since many (but not all) of them can be read in about 15 minutes.

Still, in the end, I don’t think floppies are as important as they used to be. Don’t get me wrong, they still have a valuable role to play, but they aren’t the only way in anymore. In fact, I will go so far as to say, floppies are not the  way to get into most American superhero comics. Floppies are mostly written for comic geeks, trade paperbacks are for everyone else.   Times have changed.

“But wait,” you say. “Encyclopedias? Looking up characters on the net? Watching cartoons and movies? That’s an awful lot of work. I want everything spoon fed to me”. Sorry, I can’t help you. Reading comics is a hobby.  Every hobby has a bit of a learning curve. In knitting you have to first learn to knit. In putting together model kits, you have to first learn the best supplies to use and the best methods of assembling. In wargaming, you learn the rules and then learn tactics and strategies. The same goes for board gaming. If you golf, you learn and practice your technique. If you’d never played a video game before, how steep would  the learning curve be to play a game like Halo 3? Most people that play video games spend hours looking up games and reviews to see what games are coming out that they’ll like to play next, as if researching for a school report. That’s a lot of work.   Most hobbies require some level of work on your part. Work that you enjoy doing because it’s fun, enjoyable work and you find the reward from the hobby worth the effort. Comics are worth the effort.

After looking at everything that is available, I don’t think that mainstream comics are difficult to get into at all.  It’s easier than it was when I started. I only had superhero comics to choose from. There’s more variety out there than there ever was.  If you want to get into them and you’re finding it difficult, you must be working pretty hard to not succeed.

MY WEB COMIC

To read all 11 pages of this comic CLICK HERE

The end

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THE SIMPSONS NEWS

It’s the first week back at work for the new year. It’s been business as usual…sorta. I’ve been asked to work overtime to try to make up for the time lost because of the holidays. So much for our time of rest.  I guess it’s okay.  I really need the money anyway.

MY WEEK

During my time off, I had all the time in the world to work on my comic.  It was the perfect opportunity to  work on my project and get it done faster than in any other time.  So what did I do?  I spent all my free time reading comic books.  I got through about 60 comics or more.  On the one hand, it was a complete waste of an opportunity, but on the other hand, not only was it relaxing, but I was ready to start drawing by the time the holidays were over. It really recharged my batteries.  I got very little drawing done but it was a good trade off.

In case your wondering where I got the comics, they where the ones I picked up at the kitchen at work for FREE.  The ones that Drew Johnson leaves there because he has too many. Therefore, all the comics I was reading where DC comics.

Best thing I read was the New Krypton Superman storyline.  It had me pretty hooked.  I may or may not write more about this. I also read a few Blackest Night preludes and one Blackest Night story so far.  It looks like it will be a fun read.

Reading the comics, I was made aware of the fact that Dick Grayson has taken up the mantel of Batman. More on that below:

COMIC BOOKS

Before I begin, I’ll (very quickly) explain who Dick Grayson is and I’ll give a quick explanation on Robin the Boy Wonder.

Who is Dick Grayson? He’s the original Robin.

There have been four Robins so far: Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, and now Damian Wayne.

Damian Wayne - He’s the current Robin and Bruce Wayne’s (Batman’s) son.  His mother is Talia Al Ghul.  Bruce married her in a story a long time ago called: Batman Son of the Demon.

Tim Drake -  The third Robin. He’s been the Robin you’ve seen in most modern Batman stories.  My personal favorite so far.  You can see Tim as the younger Robin in the Bruce Timm Batman adventures cartoon. He is currently running around as the Superhero Red Robin.

Jason Todd - Better known as, the Robin that died.   Jason was the second Robin and was a huge jerk.  He was such a jerk that when the readers where asked whether  Jason should live or die, the readers voted him dead.  The Joker, beat him with a crowbar then blew him up.  He’s came back to life a while ago and has made the “Bat Family’s” lives a living hell.  He seemed to have died again recently but it’s very unlikely that he’ll stay dead.  He’s still a jerk.

Dick Grayson -  The first Robin. The Robin most people think of when they think of Robin.  He’s the “Holy (insert random word) Batman!” Robin.  In the comics, he had a falling out with Bruce Wayne and went his separate way.  He later became a new superhero called Nightwing. He’s been Nightwing for about 30 years now.  I really liked Nightwing and my brother and I would get into arguments about where or not he was a necessary character.

In a way, my brother was right, Nightwing seemed like he was just a bench warmer character waiting to come into his own.  He was just sitting around waiting for Batman to die so that he could finally become Batman himself–which he now has.

It thinks it’s AWESOME. I was getting tired of Bruce Wayne and I thought he was a bit “played out”.  I wanted him to go and become the Gandalf/Obi Wan Kenobi character, that way, a new Batman could take over and maybe surpass him.  Besides, Dick Grayson is a cool character and it’s pretty much what he was created for isn’t it? To become the next Batman.  It’s about time!  I haven’t gotten to read any of his stories yet but I really want to.  I haven’t wanted to read any Batman comic for a while, until now.

ART 

So when I got back to work I thought it would be fun to draw a new Superhero Versus Superhero drawing , like the ones my friends and I did last year (click on the numbers to see what I’m taking about: 1,2,3,4,5,6). I started the drawing and I even began to ink it.  I took a break from it before it was done.  A few hours later, I looked at the drawing and wasn’t happy with it.  I was planning to finish the drawing at home but as the day went on I disliked the drawing more and more to the point where I was considering abandoning the drawing.  On the drive home I decided to give the drawing another shot. I needed to adjust the characters so that they were better designed and better drawn.  When I got home, I put some tracing paper on it and gave the characters another pass.  I was much happier with the drawing after that.  As of time of this writing, I’m still working on it.  I’ll put the drawing up next week if it turns out okay.

ART

I’ve written about the podcast Big Illustration Party Time.  It’s a podcast where the hosts talk about being freelance illustrators and give tips on how to survive  being one.  Well, both hosts have a passion for drawing comics.  They both have comic projects they’re working on.

One of the hosts, Kevin Cross, has begun a web comic of his character Monkey Mod.  I think the character has a cool look to him so I decided to try drawing him as a fun bit of fan art:

Check out the Monkey Mod web comic.  I highly recommend it.

CLICK HERE to buy an Uncle Chestnut T-shirt with my art on it.

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THE SIMPSONS NEWS

It’s not looking good for our crew so far.  We’re very far behind on our work.  Looks like I’m really going to have to go into focus mode if I  even stand a chance at finishing all I need to do this week.  I’m probably going to be working over time. I guess that’s okay, I need the money.

COMIC BOOKS

I really felt like drawing something different in a different style this week.  The Disneyland strip story will return next week. In the mean time, I have other news.

My friend Raul has just self published a comic book.  I was fortunate enough to read it and I thought it was great.  It’s really entertaining and it cracked me up.  I few years ago I was looking around for funny comic books.  I wanted to know what one looked like, (that wasn’t a Simpsons comics). I asked the guy at the counter if he knew of any.   I asked him if he knew one that actually could make you laugh at loud. He showed me the one he liked.  I bought it.

It wasn’t funny.

I was looking for a funny book because, at the time, I was thinking of writing a funny comic short story. Well, I wish Raul’s comic had been around when I was looking for a comic because his made me laugh out loud. It comes across as a “serious” comic and it is in a way, but it has so many jokes and fun banter between the characters that you can’t help but laugh.  Fun stuff.  I highly recommend it.

I liked it so much, it inspired me to draw some fan art for it.  So this is my drawing for the week:

Pick up Raul’s book Codename: Sparrow by clicking below.  (You can even get some sample pages to look through.)

WEBSITES

Does the drawing below look familiar?

It should, I drew it for this very blog when I reviewed  Paul Nowak’s book The Inconvenient Adventures of Uncle Chestnut.  Paul liked the drawing so much, he asked if he could use it on a t-shirt.  I said, “yes,” and, “Ta da!” here it is.   I own one already that Paul was good enough to send me and I LOVE IT.  IT’S SUPER COOL! Impress your friends kids. Buy one today! If you do, I’ll get a little something as well.  Yay!

To buy one CLICK HERE

If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.

Comments are appreciated as well.

I also have a store. Click Here and check it out.

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Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

This is the last full week I have to work on the the episode I’m on. Tuesday, my work load doubled.  I have more work than I think I can do.  Still, I’m going for it.  I have to figure  out a way to get it all done.  Wish me luck.

Okay so, as of the time of this writing, this is the last of the drawings we’ve done of the superhero versus thing.  Once again, Tommy drew something I can’t put up on my site so if you want to see it, you have to go CLICK HERE.  When he showed me the pencil drawings I was planning to put it up, and then he colored it and added some details that I thought were a bit inappropriate so…

Paul’s drawing I can’t put up so here’s my last one:

I drew Spider-man (Marvel Comics) Vs. Batman (DC comics).  Yeah, this is reeeaaally stretching it.  They fight because their main mode of transportation, in their respective comics, is swinging around the city.  Which is to say, I was using any excuse to draw these guys together. I couldn’t help myself and gave Batman “Astro Boy” boots.

Interestingly enough, after I finished the drawing and handed a copy to Paul.  He told me I should ink it.  Paul is really into inking right now.  I told him I might but I’d rather start drawing new drawings than keep working on ones I just finished.  I then said, I’d probably go back and ink all the other drawings I’d done,  just so that I can get some practice in at some point.

The next day, when I got to work, I found this on my desk:

It seems Paul had gotten a bit of extra time and decided to ink my drawing.  Not only did he ink it but since he has been obsessing over inking and he’s been studying Michael Golden’s work, he decided to ink my drawing in Michael Golden’s style. The thing I found most interesting about the drawing was that he fixed the things I was most annoyed about in my drawing, namely, that the black had pretty much covered up most of the details of the characters.  Paul took in upon himself to add a secondary light source when he inked the drawing, adding a new dynamic to it.  Only after seeing what he did, did I kick myself over not having thought to do it myself.  It was a good choice on his part.

COMIC BOOKS

A kinda of weird thing happened to me this weeked.  It started sometime last week.  I was listening to a Role-playing game Podcast were in there was and  interview of a game designer.  I’m not sure which podcast it was or who the designer was, but they were talking to him about his superhero roleplaying game.  He mentioned that he had made “stats” of some public domain superheroes and put then in his game.  I thought to myself, “Public domain superheroes?” So later in the week, I recalled the interview and decided to look up these superheroes and I found them.  About 100 or so Golden Age superheroes that were never copyrighten and that had fallen into the public domain.

I then discovered how there had been attempts over the last ten to twenty years, by different companies to use and revive these character, without much success.  After reading the characters’ their bios, I got excited and wanted to do a take of some of these characters of my own.

May 2nd was Free Comicbook Day.  I went to the comic store with Dante, my Brother, his wife Deborah and my little nephew Paolo.   Among the comics I picked up was a free issue of Savage Dragon by Erik Larsen, and lo and behold, one of these Golden Age public Domain characters was in the comic. That was a pretty big coincidence.  Then doing more research, I discovered that these same characters had made their way into Alan Moore’s hands  (of Watchmen fame) a while back and he had written them into one of his Tom Strong comics (issues 11 and 12), which I owned.  I took out my copy of the comic and was blown away. I had read the thing before but I didn’t know that the characters had been  public domain. Then I discovered that Alex Ross was having a go at these guys too in his Dynamite comics run, currently on sale. So it seems everyone knows about these guys and I’m really behind the times.

In any case, I think that’s pretty cool.  It makes me want to try to do something with them.  I think I have an idea for one of them already. We’ll see if I can actually get off my lazy bottom and do it.

FAMILY

My mom got mad at me because I forgot to write about my nephew Paolo’s baptism last week.  I had forgotten all about it.  Work is really stressing me out right now.  It’s almost all I think about. It was a nice baptism.  Hurray for Paolo! She also got mad because I didn’t draw a cartoon about it.  Well, I only have so much time in the day.   I’m working on a commission right now that’s taking up all my drawing time. I wish I could do some cartoons but I can’t.

In fact, I wish I had the time to draw a cartoon about what happened THIS weekend. My Godmother’s daughter Lili, her husband John and their daughter Stella came over to visit from out of state.  Stella is the same age as Munchkin and they are both very energetic little girls.  I was really excited about their meeting.  I wanted Munchkin to meet Stella so bad.  I’d seen and read a lot about her from the photos that Lili sends my mom.  Well, I won’t go into much detail right now because maybe at some point I might have the time to do that.  What I WILL say is that the day was full of fodder for cartoons I don’t have the time to draw.  Here’s hoping I can at least get ONE done at some point in the next couple of weeks.

Love you Lili, John and Stella! It was great seeing you.

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Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

I’ve got a ton of work to do and it all has to be done by May the 13th.  It feels as if I’m getting no where fast but that’s only because it’s still early and I’m only now getting into the meat of the work load. It also doesn’t help that we’re inventing the “pipeline” as we go. Nor does it help that many of the scenes I finished need more work done to them so I have to fix them while still getting new scenes done.  One great thing about how we are doing things now is that I feel like I’m getting to propose my own ideas into the show.  It feels like I’m more involved in the process. This actually make the giant work load much more tolerable since it fuels my creativity and makes me WANT to come in to work everyday.  I hope other directors I work with are as open as this one.

So our superhero drawing thing is still going on.   Tommy has eased out of it because he’s doing some freelance work for Ben Ten, so he has no free time. Still he managed to draw a few pieces before he started on that. Thankfully, he drew one that I could post on my blog, so here’s his drawing:

Quicksilver (Marvel Comics) Versus The Flash (DC comics).  They fight because they are, what the DC comics universe calls a “Speedster”. In other words, they have super speed.

Then, just because he could, using the magic of Photoshop, he changed the colors of  Flash’s costume and turned him into the Reverse Flash (a.k.a. Zoom). 

Meanwhile, Paul is getting himself married over in his home state of Hawaii. Besides, as I mentioned last week, he doesn’t want me to post anymore of his drawings since he’s publishing them in his Sketchbook. He’s probably over there drawing pictures of waterfalls or something and having a great relaxing time with his new wife…Jerk.

So instead, we have a picture from someone else who decided to join in on this craziness. Raul (remember him from a few post’s ago?) decided to draw this:

It’s the Green Hornet (Harvey, Now, Acme, AC comics) Versus The Spirit (by Will Eisner).  They fight because they look very much a like only one is green and the other blue.  One of the reasons Raul drew this was because he didn’t think we had thought to put these guys on our list.  He was right.

So here’s my drawing for the week:

I’m cheating today. This is an original idea and not a “comic book versus” idea. It’s the image of a High Fantasy Western.  The week I drew this, I wanted  to try my hand at something different.  I was driving home from work and I was trying to come up with story ideas just for the heck of it.  One of the story ideas (or in this case just a random concept) came to me with a fun little image, so I thought I’d try to draw it.  This is the first time I’ve attempted a drawing like this. I want to learn to do animated feature “development drawing”. This is my first stab at one.  It’s heavily flawed.  Especially since I rushed through the drawing of the background, plus I really didn’t make much of an attempt to smooth out the pencil strokes (among other things). I’m only partially happy with it.   The idea was to put the generic fantasy archetypes in a western setting.  The Native American looking guy being the Warrior. The elf woman in the center would be a Ranger/tracker with a magical, rune encrusted, prosthetic, machine arm. Behind her is the wizard who is also a bit of a Rogue since he’s a Gambler.  They’re in the forest trying to track down a dragon that’s sneaking up on them from behind.  This was all drawn with some hard and soft pencils on regular old animation paper.  I really need to practice this a lot more. I also need to have more patience.  I really got tired of the drawing after a while and began rushing it at the end.  It looks very sloppy.

My inspiration for this drawing were artist’s like:

• Marcelo Vignali - a good friend of Paul’s who I got to meet one day when I went to The Sony Feature Animation Studios (when they still existed) where Paul was working one year during hiatus.  He’s as a great guy and showed me all the drawings he was doing on the movie they were working on.  I was a fan of his work before I met him so I was geeking out.  I think that helped get me on his good side. He’s amazing. He’s worked almost everywhere in the industry.
• Richie Chavez - another friend of Paul’s and an good acquaintance of mine, ever since we took a Kung Fu class together.  He was the art director on Prince of Egypt and he also worked over at Sony when Paul was there.  This is another guy that’s worked almost everywhere in the industry.  He doesn’t have a website though. One of his drawings is posted in this website: CLICK HERE.
• Paul Felix- he was one of my drawing teachers.  He worked over at Disney Feature and TV developing movies and shows. He’s awesome too. He doesn’t have a website but you can look at some of his drawing on this post HERE.

Those three guys are just amazing artists.  Talk about being able to draw anything and draw it awesome.

MY WEEK

Saturday I was out in the cold without a jacket. The next day I woke up with a crazy cold.  It knocked me out.  I managed to make it to Church with Dante but once I got back, my body went into shut down mode.  I was in bed the rest of the day. When I wasn’t sleeping, I was reading some of the comics I had gotten a few weeks ago, so it wasn’t all bad.  Still, I wish I could have stayed home Monday to recover but I really needed to get my work done. Whatever it takes to keep my job.

Thankfully, by Tuesday, I was feeling much better, so it turned out that my cold didn’t last for very long.

If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.

Comments are appreciated as well.

I also have a store. Click Here and check it out.

If you would like to have a text ad on my site, click on the red BUY LINKS button under the Archives list.

And while you’re at it, please Digg me too.

Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

I was a bit stressed out this weekend because of what happened at work Friday.  Friday afternoon I got called back in to be told that the original plans they had laid out for me were changing.  The new crew I was going to work with, I no longer was going to work with.  Instead, I was put on another crew.  Which is fine. The thing is, the new crew is the second show of the new season. Which is actually REALLY great.  Maybe I won’t go on hiatus at all and I could work straight through the year.

So why was I stressed out?  Well, because things are changing again.  As of the time of this writing, I’m not allowed to explain how, since most of the crew doesn’t know, but I will say that our job has now gotten a little more intense.  The reason this was stressing me out is not because I thought it was bad or anything.  The reason I was  stressing out was for the same reason I always stress out when a new situation arises, namely: I don’t have a method of dealing with the situation since I’m not in it and therefore I couldn’t have a plan of attack to deal with the problem. Without being in the new situation and actually dealing with the new changes, I felt nervous and stressed.

Matters got a bit worse when, on Monday, I was told that I wasn’t going to start on the new crew until Tuesday.  I helped out on the last of Lance’s show on Monday and on Tuesday, I started on the new crew.  We had a crew meeting that morning where we were told what the situation was and how we were going to handle it.  Once all that was done, I felt much better, mostly because now I had some control of what I could do.   It’s almost like I’m back on the movie again.  In fact, some of the people I’m working with in this crew where the people I worked with on the Fox lot during the movie.  Including the editor that’s working with us. It was good to see him again.

Funny how that is.  As a layout artist on the show, we never really get to know any editors. We are our own department and we don’t really leave it, but during the movie at the Fox lot, when working on the story reels, many different department were all working together in the same rooms to get the job done and we found ourselves getting to know different people from different parts of the process. That was one of the unique parts about working on the movie.

In lighter news…

Another drawing of superheroes. I don’t have a drawing from Tommy this time, again.  As last time, I’m not sure it’s appropriate for my site.  If you want to check it out on HIS site, click HERE. Paul asked me NOT to put his drawing up because he’s planning to print a Sketchbook of his drawings. In fact, there is another drawing he did that falls under the same “please don’t post that drawing because I’m planning to publish it in my Sketchbook” rule, that I can’t put up.  So enjoy the drawings that are here.  I’ll tell you what he drew though.

Martian Manhunter (DC comics) versus Marvin the Martian (Warner Brothers).  Though technically Marvin isn’t a “comic book character” there are such things as Looney Toon comics so…

Besides, it’s funny.  They fight because they are both Martians. Wanna see it? You’ll have to buy Paul’s Sketchbook when he’s finally done with it and publishes it.

I drew Black Adam (DC comics) versus Namor (Marvel Comics). They fight because they are often drawn exactly the same.  I went out of my way to make them look different but in most comics, if it wasn’t for their costumes, they generally look like the same person.  And of course, they both have pointy ears.  I also tried drawing  Zachary Quinto in there since he’s playing Spock in the new Star Trek movie.  Not sure if I quite got his likeness, but I gave it a shot anyway.

COMIC BOOKS

Since I’ve been drawing all these superhero comics, I’ve been getting back to reading comics again. It’s been a month or so since I was really able to read any.  I’m really behind on my comic continuity.  Mostly because I can’t really afford to buy comics.  Luckily, I’m rescued from this comic Limbo by none other than comic book artist Drew Johnson.

Drew comes into the studio often.  He’s married to the director of our retakes crew and they’ve recently had a baby. Sometimes he brings a box of comics he doesn’t want and leaves it in the studio “kitchen”.

Ever seen a bunch of hungry hyenas fight over a fresh carcass? Ever seen one of them beat the heck out of all the other ones to get the choice meat? That’s me. Snarling, growling and biting my way to the comics I want.  “My Superman! Mine! Mine!” “Don’t you dare touch that Final Crisis!”  The last time, I left with so many comics, I could barely hold them using both arms.  Then, like the dog I am, I peed on them to mark them as mine…okay…maybe not, but I would pace back and forth in my cubicle giving people the evil eye who even looked in the direction of my stack of comics.  “My own…my…preciousssss.

In any case, this is the only way I can get caught up on my comic reading.  I always look forward to the next box of comics he brings in, just because I finally can get caught up on all the things I’m missing  out on in the DC universe. Most of the comics he brings are a year of two old.  This doesn’t bother me since I’m that far behind anyway. Although sometimes there is one or two that are pretty current.

Now if only I can find someone who works at Marvel and get free comics from them…

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Happy Easter everyone!

He is risen…

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Stressing out this week.  This is my last week on this particular crew before I go on to the next one.  We need to get done with this show this week, no exceptions.  We are officially two weeks late on it.  It either gets done this week or it gets done this week.  Meanwhile I’m making up the hours I missed because I had to stay home on Monday with the kids.  Daycare was closed on Monday.  If it doesn’t seem like I’m going to get done, I need to stay and do overtime.  We aren’t in a good place right now. Man, I hate the pressure.

Meanwhile, our crazy superhero drawing thing continues.  Here are some more drawings we did a few weeks ago.  I’m not putting up Tommy’s  drawing because I wasn’t sure it was appropriate for my blog but if you want to check it out you can go to his by clicking here.

Paul  drew Man Thing (Marvel Comics) Vs. Swamp Thing (DC comics).  Not too sure what exactly is going on but I think they are trying to squeeze each other’s hands real tight.  They fight because they are pretty much the same archetype.  Both are swamp monsters with the word Thing in their name.

I drew Dr. Fate (DC comics) Vs. Dr. Strange (Marvel Comics). Again, these guys are fighting because they are also the same archetype.  They are the masters of magic in their respective universes and both have a Doctorate.  I always wanted to draw these guys and this was a great excuse.  After trying to figure out what I could have them doing, this obvious silly idea struck me.  Most of the gags we’ve come up with haven’t really been all that funny, but we actually care less about the gag and more about the excuse to draw the characters.  Technically I could just draw them actually fighting without the gag, but it’s just not as entertaining for me.  I want to tell a story, even if it’s a light hearted one. 

Wanted to draw some pretty women for this one.  Black Cat (Marvel Comics) Vs. Catwoman (DC comics). Same archetype (ex-female cat burglars with a cat themed costume, who turned into good guys. Or at least aren’t exactly bad guys anymore).  This drawing was a complete failure on my part as far as getting the idea of what’s going on across.  This was meant to represent them both coming into frame at the exact same time and being surprised that the other person was there grabbing the same thing.  Unfortunately, the drawing doesn’t read that way at all.

FAMILY

This was the first Easter that my daughter was aware it was Easter.  She had a blast.  Saturday, we woke up early, went to a park and went on an Easter egg hunt that was organized for little kids there. It was my sister-in-law, Deborah’s, idea.  My mom and dad where there as well.  Munchkin had a lot of fun. Dante didn’t really know what was going on.  He hung around and looked around.  He mostly just got tired.  I came away with the realization that I need to take Munchkin to more parks.  She was so happy just running around on the grass and seemed to find all kinds of thing that would entertain her.

Later that night, after coming home from my parent’s house (which is were we went back to, in order to have lunch).  Alesha went to Easter Vigil Mass while I stayed and took care of the kids.  Three hours later, she came home with a big smile on her face.  By then the kids where asleep and I was at home watching The Passion of the Christ.  A movie I should have watched on Friday but I didn’t get around to.

The next day, Munchkin and I went to Mass together.  On Good Friday, when she discovered I was going to church, Munchkin asked if  she could come along.  I told her she couldn’t, mostly because if was almost her bed time, but I did tell her she could come with me next time if she wanted.  Well, Easter Sunday, she said she wanted to come with me so we went. The Mass was an hour and a half long and by the end of it, she was ready to leave the church but she was pretty well behaved through out most of the Mass.  She especially likes the “kiss of peace” because she likes shaking everyone’s hands. She’s asked to go to church with me three times now and one time, when we were playing with her toys, she played that her toys left the house to go to church. I wonder what’s going on in her two year old head?

Later that day, we went to the house of one of my Wife’s best friends and Munchkin spent her time there Easter egg hunting, playing and eating candy.  We left in the afternoon in order to give Dante and chance to nap.  We went to my aunts house where we spent Easter with my family.  There, Munchkin spent her time Easter egg hunting, playing, and eating candy.  She had a great time and was crazy high on sugar all day.  Dante was miserable because he was tired and uncomfortable. Mostly because he’s teething again, his gums were swollen and he had a blister on his tongue.  Poor kid.  I spent pretty much the entire time taking care of him.

The poor boy has had quite  a difficult weekend.  Monday night was a terrible night for him.  He’s slowly getting better now. Still, I feel so bad for him. Dante didn’t have a good Easter.  Maybe next year.

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THE SIMPSONS NEWS

I’ve been really enjoying my job the last few days. Mostly because of the non-job related drawing I’ve been doing during my free time (see last week’s post).  Somehow, after all that other drawing, when I get back to doing work, it’s a lot more fun.  It feels like I’m drawing the characters in a new way, or maybe doing the other stuff has helped me approach the characters different.  In anycase, I’ve found myself enjoying drawing the Simpsons characters immensely.So here are some more drawings my friends and I did:

Tommy drew Submariner (Marvel Comics) vs Aquaman (DC comics). They’re fighting because the are both fish controlling, Kings of Atlantis archtypes.  Ironically, Aquaman is more famous but Submariner is actually a much older character.

Paul drew a Mad Magazine inspired drawing of Green Arrow (DC comics) vs. Hawkeye (Marvel Comics).  They’re fighting because they are basically the same arrow shooting superhero archtype.  I like the way that Green Arrow’s arrow went through Hawkeye even thought it was his boxing glove arrow.

I drew Silver Surfer (Marvel Comics) vs. Dr. Manhattan (DC comics).  They fight because they are both naked, cosmic, bald guys.  Silver Surfer doesn’t quite appreciate Dr. Manhattan’s  exibitionism. Not quite sure why I don’t like this drawing much.

My next drawing was of The Hulk (Marvel Comics) vs. Solomon Grundy (DC comics)  They fight because they are both the big, strong, dumb, monster archetype. While drawing this one, I made a small brake through on how I could best approach drawing hands.

Tuesday I was told that Friday the 17th was my last day at work. After that day I would be on hiatus.  Couldn’t have come at a worse time.  A few weeks ago, I spent a lot of money because one of our cars needed a tune up and then two weeks later I ended up paying our property tax.  Our bank account hasn’t recovered yet and the next two paychecks weren’t going to help at all.  They won’t even get us out of the red.  Like I said, it couldn’t have come at a worse time.  I was told they will try to find me some work if they can.

The next day, I got an e-mail from the show’s new producer asking me if I can jump on another show.  I told her I could. Man, that was just too close.  Guess the praying I did the day before helped out a bit.

FAMILY

Had a good time the last few weekends with the kids.  The weekend before, I took out their little electricity powered Hummer my Father-in-law got them (click HERE to see what happened the last time) and they rode around the housing complex. It was very funny to see them driving around in that car so I took video of them. They ended their drive by the playground, got out, and played for an hour or so.   They had a great time.

Last weekend I took them to the playground again and on the way back, I told Munchkin that, if the weather was nice the next day, we could go swimming at the pool.  The next day (Palm Sunday) was a very hot sunny day and Alesha, Munchkin, Dante and I went swimming.  Munchkin was very excited.  Unfortunately the pool water was freezing.  It was so cold that no matter what we did, our bodies couldn’t get used to it.  We ended up spending the whole time in the jacuzzi.  THAT water was boiling hot, but we were at least able to get used to it.  Dante loved the water. He couldn’t get enough swimming.  Munchkin, is usually afraid of the water but she became very brave this time around and walked around in the jacuzzi.  She even asked to get picked up so we could help her “swim”, which consists of us holding her up and moving her around. This is something she hasn’t ever done before.

She even had a scary moment in the pool. She was walking around the jacuzzi, which has a step all around for sitting which is just right for her to walk on, and she took a step off it.  At that moment I happen to be looking away at Dante “swimming” with his mommy. When I turned back to look at her, I saw her go under, in that very same second, I gently picked her out of the water.  I didn’t make a big deal out of it. She just stared blankly not realizing what had just happened.  I held her and told her it was okay and that I had her.  I wiped the water from her face and carried her back to the jacuzzi steps.  I thought she was going to start crying or something.  She just began coughing. It was all an act. She’s a bit of a drama queen.  It was obviously fake coughing.  After I put her on the stairs, I waited, expecting her to leave the pool or at the very least, not leave the stairs. To my surprise, she got up, went back into the jacuzzi and began walking around again.  She was a little shaken, but overall, she was okay.  I’m very proud of her.

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THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Wednesday evening of last week, my friend Paul, came over to my desk and handed me a drawing. It was a copy of a drawing he had done of Hellboy (Dark Horse comics) filing down the horns of The Demon Atrigan (DC comics) while he struggled to get away. It was a very silly drawing.  He then explained to me that the day before he and Tommy (my friend and my Assistant Director), had gone to lunch and started talking about how there are a lot of comic book characters from different companies who either looked a lot alike, where of the same archetype, or who had similar names.  They thought it would be fun to draw them fighting each other in some way. They even went so far as to write up a list. The drawing he had given me was the first drawing he had thought up to do.  He then asked me to join in. I thought it sounded like fun so I did.

It’s funny how the same idea can get interpreted in different ways.  Tommy was taking his drawings very seriously.  He wanted to have the characters he drew, fighting each other in a very dramatic fashion.  Meanwhile, Paul was all about being silly.  He wanted to find the humors side to the conflicts.  I sided more on Paul’s side than Tommy’s.  If I was going to join in, I wanted to find the humor in the situation.

Little did I know how much I was going to get into doing the drawings.  Something about the “assignment” really sparked my imagination.  During my initial conversation with Paul, and after I had seen the list, I had noticed after looking at the 67 couples they had thought up, they were missing Superman (DC Comics) vs The Sentry (Marvel Comics), which I thought would have been an obvious one.  Paul told me I should probably draw that one.  I spent the rest of the day thinking about  how to draw them.  In fact, I spent the rest of the day trying to come up with ways to draw many of the characters I had seen on the list.  I ended up coming up with quite a few ideas and by the time I got to work the next day, I couldn’t wait to start drawing some of them.

For the rest of the next two days, whenever I had a break or some time (like during lunch), I would spend that time drawing something up.  I quickly found myself at once enjoying the process and getting frustrated at how limited my drawing abilities where.  My first drawing was the most painful, mostly because I was trying to get the hang of drawing in a completely different style than I’m used to.  Also, I need to come up with the shorthand I needed to be able to produce a drawing in a “comic book style” quickly. When I was finally done with the first drawing, I was a bit disappointed with myself. Mostly because, (1) it didn’t come out the way I wanted it to and (2) it felt a bit stiff.   I had intended to make the drawing a bit more exaggerated and cartoony but  somewhere along the way, is went a bit too far in the other direction.  What I ended up with is a weird drawing that is not quite cartoony and not quite realistic, and for some strange reason, The Sentry’s proportions don’t look quite right. Also, the hands I drew are a bit wonky.  You can always tell the quality of an artist’s draftsmanship by how well they draw heads, hands and feet.  These are the most difficult part of the body to master.  In the end, the result was a drawing that I was not too happy with, but it was a drawing that helped me gauge where I was at artistically and where I  wanted to take the next drawing.

I was much happier with the next drawing. Not only do I think it works much better, not only did I draw what I intended, but I also drew it in a shorter amount of time AND I learned a lot drawing it.  Suddenly, all I wanted to do was draw this stuff all day.  I didn’t want to go back to doing my work (although I did).  I haven’t had this much fun drawing in a long time.  I’m most likely going to be putting these drawings up on the blog for the next couple of weeks.  And if you notice that I’m not writing as much, it’s probably because I’m spending more of my time drawing the silly superhero drawings than writing on the blog.  I’m actually in the mood to draw again. That’s just amazing to me.  I better ride this wave while I can.  I don’t know how long it’s going to last and I’m learning and improving more with every drawing I do.

So here are some of the drawings we did this week:

Tommy’s first drawing was Captain Marvel (DC comics) versus Captain Marvel (Marvel Comics). They have to fight because they share a name.

Paul’s first drawing was Hellboy (Dark Horse comics) versus The Demon Atrigan (DC comics). They fight because they are both demons.

My first lousy drawing was Superman (DC Comics) versus The Sentry (Marvel Comics). They have to fight because they are practically the same character.  Even down to the fact that they get their power from the sun.

My second drawing that day and the one I was a lot more happy with, was The Question (DC comics) versus Rorschach (…er…DC comics. Okay so this is a cheat but at least they are from different comic books universes). They have to fight because they are pretty much the same character as well.

Okay, that’s enough out of me, I gotta draw.

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THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Well, not much to report for this week.  Just working on finishing up the show on paper.  It’s good to be back drawing on paper but I miss the ability to  time my own scene and look at how it will work with the dialogue.  Still, it’s fine.  I’m having fun.  Hope this job lasts a bit longer ’cause I don’t want to be laid off anytime soon.

FAMILY

Dante has started walking now. He’s very proud of himself.  On Monday, he mostly did it between spaces that he could see a definite end point.  Such as, from the couch to the living room table, or from the living room table to  one of us.  If he would take a few steps and see everything  he might be able to walk to was more than ten steps away, he immediately would go back on his hands and knees and begins to crawl.

By mid week, he was confidently walking toward nothing, then he would look around, stop and walk in another direction. He would then crawl if he lost his balance. It’s great to  see him get more and more confident. It’s also darn funny to watch him walk too.  I’m sure  by Friday of next week, he won’t be crawling at all.

FAMILY

Munchkin has gotten into wanting to watch Superman and Justice League Cartoons.  I don’t know why.  She suddenly decided she wanted to watch them.  She went over to the DVD shelf, pointed to the Superman and Justice League cartoons, looked up at me an said, “Supaman, Supaman?”

I think her favorite heroes so far are Superman and Batman. She likes Superman because he can fly and Batman because…well…I have no idea why she likes Batman.  Maybe because she’s played with a Batman action figure before. I’m not exactly sure what she finds so entertaining about the cartoons either. This weekend she watched two seasons worth of Superman Cartoons and one DVD worth of Justice League cartoons. By “watched”, I mean, she had them playing in the background while she played with her toys. She would occasionally look up and watch for about five minutes before going back and playing.  Although, when she grew tired of playing with me or her toys, she would sit down and watch an entire episode. Even though she wasn’t watching them all the time, the moment one of the DVDs ended, she insisted on putting on another.

The cartoons are not anywhere near the kind of thing she’s used to watching.  They are very action oriented cartoons.  Lots of superhero fights in them.  Lots of life or death situations with many things at stake and very serious themes. Very complicated stories that would just go ever her head.  I think she has gotten used to watching action oriented cartoons from watching Disney cartoons like, Tarzan, Treasure Planet and Lilo & Stitch. Little by little, she’s learning the names of all the Superheroes in the show.  She now knows that Hawkgirl’s name is Hawkgirl. Although, every hero that talks with a gruff voice, she insists on calling Batman.  I find it funny and strange, yet I can’t help but feel a bit proud of her for being such a geek.  That’s my daughter.

COMIC BOOKS

Speaking of Superheroes, I was thinking of maybe buying Munchkin some Superhero comics because she likes the cartoons so much.  Lucky for me, both DC and Marvel have started coming out with kids comics.

Now you maybe saying to yourself, “Hey Luis, aren’t ALL comic books for kids? DC and Marvel ONLY do kids comics”.  To which I would reply, “You haven’t read any modern comic, have you?”  By no means are modern comic for kids.  In fact, if most comic would be given a movie rating, they would mostly be PG13 and up. Comics are full of sex and violence, and in many of them, the superheroes are about as immoral as the villains they fight. There are very few comics that I would say are “kid appropriate” and even those would be dealing with themes that would go over a little kid’s head.

DC and Marvel have come to realize that they no longer have comics that would appeal to young readers (and therefore are not getting new readers), which is the reason why they have developed a line of comics especially for them. This is great news for me, since now I have some comics I could get my kids.  So I was thinking maybe I’d get her a Superfriends comic and see how it goes.  Maybe I’ll take her to the comic shop next week and pick one up.

Guess I’m raising a geek.

MOVIES

(The following, is a spoiler free review of the Watchmen movie)

Alesha really wanted to go watch Watchmen last weekend, so we did.  I didn’t own the Watchmen comic until a few weeks ago.  I had read Watchmen in high school when a friend of mine had lent me his copy. I remembered the book, so I knew what it was all about.  At the time I read it though, I didn’t really truly “get it”. The book is very deep and brings up a lot of philosophical questions about human nature and the problem of evil.  It’s also one of those comics I was talking about above that are in no way meant to be read by kids.  It’s a very “Adult” book.

Alesha wanted to see it because she had heard so much about the comic.  Which in turn, made her bug me to go buy the comic so she could read it, which she did, after I bought it.  She enjoyed the book and then got even more excited about going to see the movie.  I began re-reading the comic myself but only got half way through the 200 or so pages before we went to see the movie.  As of the time of this writing, I’m still making my way through the rest of it.  Taking my time, in order to “soak it in”.

So what do I think about the movie? Well, I thought it was an incredibly faithful rendition of this epic comic book. I’ve read many reviews of the movie that say, they didn’t like the protagonists.  They where all unlikeable.  Well, that’s because the protagonist in the book where not very likable either.  In fact, the protagonist in the movie where far more likable than their book counterparts.  Watchmen is not a movie about good, superheroes. It’s a movie about messed up superheroes that are really screwed up in the head.  Many people hate what they call the “juvenile view on humanity” the movie has. I saw one person say it was a “hippie movie”. I think it’s great that it pushes people’s buttons.  That’s why the book is so interesting to begin with. I also read a review of a guy who took his son to go see it. He left the theater very upset and even told the theater owner that he should be ashamed at playing the movie.  Which I think is ridiculous.  The movie is rated R for a reason.  Why blame the theater owner? It was the father’s responsibility to find out what the movie was about before taking his son to go see it. Especially if it’s rated R. He shouldn’t blame anyone else.  I think he thought it would be okay to watch because it was a “superhero movie”.  Well, wake up.  Comics aren’t for kids anymore dude.  Watchmen (which was written in 1985) was one of the comics that where responsible for making the comic medium grow up.

Do I agree with the world view the book and movie puts forth?  Not completely, but I will say that part of the view point put forth, is no different than what Blaise Pascal puts forth in his book Pensées.  Of course, Pascal’s solution to the problems is much different and much wiser than it is in Watchmen. The solution to the problem put forth in the movie is quite evil and would be, at best, temporary.    I think that perhaps most people just don’t want to be told that there is a problem at all, or at least, be reminded there is.

So what’s the movie about? It’s a murder mystery. In an alternate 1985, where Nixon is president and America won the Vietnam war (thanks to one of the superheroes in the movie), someone has killed a superhero (the Comedian) and another hero (named Rorschach) is trying to figure out why.

There is a lot to this movie and I recommend it.  BUT it’s by no means perfect.  If I have one real complaint about the movie it’s that the violence and sex in the movie is gratuitous.  The comic was pretty violent, so I expected to see the atrocities in the book, but I didn’t expect them to be enhanced. Nor did I expect them to add more violence when there was no need to. The stuff in the book was bad enough without adding more.  Also, the book had sex in it but the movie seemed to relish in making the sex scenes go on forever. Both these things where unnecessary and just plain took you out of the movie.

Oh, and one more thing…having read the book, I expected this, but if you haven’t, this might take you aback.  There is a character in the book named Dr. Manhattan, who is a super being. He stopped being human a long time ago and therefore no longer feels shame, or embarrassment,  nor does he feel heat or cold. This means that, whenever he’s not out in public, he’s naked and, just like in the comic, he is shown in “all his glory”.  Most people I talked to at work said that the audience they saw the movie with, didn’t react at all to this, but the audience I saw the movie with, had some giggling girls/women in it and I heard a friend of mine say he heard some guys giggle in his theater.

You’ve been warned.  Remember, this movie is rated R.  You want to know what you’re getting into before watch the movie? Read the comic.

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