Lately I've been playing quite a bit of guitar and have even composed a few tracks. Nothing fancy - I can't be bothered to polish things to death - but honest!
Today I typed up a series of ideas that had been bobbing around in my head for a few days. Quite a few of them, as it turns out, for Batman.
I have a few files with just random ideas that I have in some of my favourite characters (those are the ones where ideas for stories come about...). I don't know if I'll ever write a Batman comic, or an X-Men, Wolverine, Hulk, Daredevil, Superman or whatnot but, if I ever do, I'll have stuff I can look up and quite possibly use. You see, I'm always aiming at stuff that is as atemporal as possible. Ie, I try that the plots are never technology dependent. More often than not, plots that are technology dependent simply bore me. As soon as I read them they become self-centred and dated.
In any case, I typed a couple of pages with synopsis and plots as well as some notes on the character and stuff I'd like to see Bats go through.
I also made some notes for the expansion of a short story I've posted here a while ago (Legacy) into a proper book.
Besides that, a couple more ideas for an post-apocalyptic story. I don't know where these will fit but, since I have quite a few post-apocalyptic scenarios thought out, I'm sure they'll fit in somewhere...
If possible today I'd like to at least write half of a review for Starman vol.02 Night And Day - which is as far as I've read so far. I'm just adoring this comic. And I want to write about it as much as possible since, if I ever do something in comics, it will be very similar to what James Robinson tried to do here. Not in terms of plot, story or characters, but perhaps quite similar in terms of inner truth, feeling of closeness and complicity with the reader. Similar in the objectives James had towards the story and the readership. Something that I'm finding increasingly important.
If you haven't read it my advice is that you do read it. Even if you don't like superheroes stuff. It is a boy's comic, in a way (it has lots of adventures and most characters are male) but it's so much more than that. And that's precisely what makes this book tick and awe.
Read it!
peace!
Showing posts with label graphic novels reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label graphic novels reviews. Show all posts
Thursday, 19 August 2010
Friday, 18 June 2010
Land Of Fog Revision
Well today was an ups and downs day with this whole revising business.
I woke up relatively late (9.30am) and proceeded to revise another Invincible volume (7). I also read part of another graphic novel: Criminal Macabre by Steve Niles (a great, promising intro but that didn't deliver all that much for me in the end) and Ben Templesmith (really dig his art but sometimes I just can't understand what the heck's happening...)
Then I started revising.
And it was going well.
Until people started wanting my attention.
Which was fine.
For the first three hours.
Then I started getting somewhat upset at it because I couldn't focus for more than 5 minutes at a time...
So I did what I thought was best. I listened until I found that there was nothing else that I needed to listen, until there was nothing else left to be said.
And I excused myself.
Amidst all this I finished that Niles/Templesmith comic, the Invincible review, started another, read a bit of Scalped: The Gravel In Your Guts (now that's a GREAT comic - toes and thumbs up).
I began to revise...
And it felt good.
I really need these moments where I can focus at will and my mind just wanders.
You see, one of the reasons I started getting angry was because today really felt one of those GOOD REVISION days. And there aren't that many of them. I'd kept my momentum going as soon as my attention started being sapped and, after a while I couldn't stop but think at the great opportunity I was missing.
I still revised a couple of short chapters today. And I did finish yesterday's.
I'm on day six. Afternoon.
And tomorrow is a new revision day... well... until 2pm it is...
peace!
I woke up relatively late (9.30am) and proceeded to revise another Invincible volume (7). I also read part of another graphic novel: Criminal Macabre by Steve Niles (a great, promising intro but that didn't deliver all that much for me in the end) and Ben Templesmith (really dig his art but sometimes I just can't understand what the heck's happening...)
Then I started revising.
And it was going well.
Until people started wanting my attention.
Which was fine.
For the first three hours.
Then I started getting somewhat upset at it because I couldn't focus for more than 5 minutes at a time...
So I did what I thought was best. I listened until I found that there was nothing else that I needed to listen, until there was nothing else left to be said.
And I excused myself.
Amidst all this I finished that Niles/Templesmith comic, the Invincible review, started another, read a bit of Scalped: The Gravel In Your Guts (now that's a GREAT comic - toes and thumbs up).
I began to revise...
And it felt good.
I really need these moments where I can focus at will and my mind just wanders.
You see, one of the reasons I started getting angry was because today really felt one of those GOOD REVISION days. And there aren't that many of them. I'd kept my momentum going as soon as my attention started being sapped and, after a while I couldn't stop but think at the great opportunity I was missing.
I still revised a couple of short chapters today. And I did finish yesterday's.
I'm on day six. Afternoon.
And tomorrow is a new revision day... well... until 2pm it is...
peace!
Friday, 2 October 2009
Two girls, a gravedigger and someone that knows the dead better than the living...
I arrived home later than I expected but eager to get my mittens on those pages...
I didn't do that many pages (only 7) but i still manage to re-write 3 chapters.
The first one was about two friends that chat in Bairro Alto about decisions and the unwillingness of the past to go away.
The second one is about an old lady that spends more time with the dead than with the living. Obviously a chat with a gravedigger is more or less in order...
The third one is about the gravedigger himself, as he fills yet another grave, taking pride in his work - even if the living don't care anymore.
These are short chapters (especially the last two) but I think all of them round up the story more by giving the reader a clearer picture of the characters. I want a feeling of completeness to exude from this book. I think it is important and makes sense in the broader scope i'm aiming this book towards.
Before all this however, I read Grant Morrison's and Klaus Janson's Batman: Gothic.
I think I read it many years ago, when i was 16 or 17, quite possibly in a Brazilian edition bought in Portugal. I remembered the story only vaguely but enough to know that this had been one of those comics that had shifted my perspective about them.
Even after all this time, it was still a very powerful journey.
I wrote a review about it as well. Also to be posted in the near future...
Tomorrow may well be another long day at work but I'm determined to sink my teeth in another chapter or two as soon as I get home...
Until then...
peace
I didn't do that many pages (only 7) but i still manage to re-write 3 chapters.
The first one was about two friends that chat in Bairro Alto about decisions and the unwillingness of the past to go away.
The second one is about an old lady that spends more time with the dead than with the living. Obviously a chat with a gravedigger is more or less in order...
The third one is about the gravedigger himself, as he fills yet another grave, taking pride in his work - even if the living don't care anymore.
These are short chapters (especially the last two) but I think all of them round up the story more by giving the reader a clearer picture of the characters. I want a feeling of completeness to exude from this book. I think it is important and makes sense in the broader scope i'm aiming this book towards.
Before all this however, I read Grant Morrison's and Klaus Janson's Batman: Gothic.
I think I read it many years ago, when i was 16 or 17, quite possibly in a Brazilian edition bought in Portugal. I remembered the story only vaguely but enough to know that this had been one of those comics that had shifted my perspective about them.
Even after all this time, it was still a very powerful journey.
I wrote a review about it as well. Also to be posted in the near future...
Tomorrow may well be another long day at work but I'm determined to sink my teeth in another chapter or two as soon as I get home...
Until then...
peace
Tuesday, 29 September 2009
Teachers and Friends
Just a quick word on today's writing activities.
Like I said yesterday, I worked on the teacher's chapter. It was a difficult one and I realised I had to alter some of the stuff that I had written yesterday. It wasn't realistic enough.
I was suprised to find some eerie but interesting overtones on the teachers ramblings... still don't know if I should make them clearer or simply leave them that way. Suffice to say that it reminded me a bit of what William Golding does on his sea trilogy. Insinuating rather than revealing and leaving words open to interpretation that depends more upon the reader rather than my personal intentions. This was definitely something that I had not planned but it does make a lot of sense. The clues are there, throughout the story. And that I'll perhaps reinforce from now on...
In any case I moved to a chapter where a friend of his, a girl, is confronted with the second birthday of his death. it's almost like, after his death, they grow closer and, to a certain extent, she starts replacing him.
Or him her.
(i'm really enjoying some of the things that are happening here...)
I managed to finish that one and the next. Which is with another girl that's having a somewhat disturbing dream. Disturbing on what happens but, especially on how that makes her feel.
Amidst all this I also read a graphic novel by Brad Meltzer (writer) and Ed Benes (penciller) called JLA The Tornado's Path. Also did the review for that which I will post in the GNRG community webpage at some point in the future... I enjoyed it somehow but not nearly as much as I had anticipated. It didn't really add anything to either the characters or storytelling. I guess I'm getting too old for covers with lots of people in super tights...
(there's the writing and then the revising... and I still need to finish another series first...)
I think all the chapters with his friends are going to have the theme of sex. And of mirrors when it concerns women. I won't venture any interpretations but there sure are a few out there.
The great thing about this is that at the same that i feel I'm closer than ever to this story, I'm finally beginning to feel more distance between myself and this story. It feels good. Somehow I'm getting there.
I'm on page 32. Still have 35 more before I finish this section. Don't know if I can do it tomorrow, even though I think there will be a chapter or two that I'm simply going to eliminate.
But I also have to more or less re-write a whole chapter. This guy just talks about politics and that's more or less out of the loop now...
Now it's sexuality my friends...
peace.
Like I said yesterday, I worked on the teacher's chapter. It was a difficult one and I realised I had to alter some of the stuff that I had written yesterday. It wasn't realistic enough.
I was suprised to find some eerie but interesting overtones on the teachers ramblings... still don't know if I should make them clearer or simply leave them that way. Suffice to say that it reminded me a bit of what William Golding does on his sea trilogy. Insinuating rather than revealing and leaving words open to interpretation that depends more upon the reader rather than my personal intentions. This was definitely something that I had not planned but it does make a lot of sense. The clues are there, throughout the story. And that I'll perhaps reinforce from now on...
In any case I moved to a chapter where a friend of his, a girl, is confronted with the second birthday of his death. it's almost like, after his death, they grow closer and, to a certain extent, she starts replacing him.
Or him her.
(i'm really enjoying some of the things that are happening here...)
I managed to finish that one and the next. Which is with another girl that's having a somewhat disturbing dream. Disturbing on what happens but, especially on how that makes her feel.
Amidst all this I also read a graphic novel by Brad Meltzer (writer) and Ed Benes (penciller) called JLA The Tornado's Path. Also did the review for that which I will post in the GNRG community webpage at some point in the future... I enjoyed it somehow but not nearly as much as I had anticipated. It didn't really add anything to either the characters or storytelling. I guess I'm getting too old for covers with lots of people in super tights...
(there's the writing and then the revising... and I still need to finish another series first...)
I think all the chapters with his friends are going to have the theme of sex. And of mirrors when it concerns women. I won't venture any interpretations but there sure are a few out there.
The great thing about this is that at the same that i feel I'm closer than ever to this story, I'm finally beginning to feel more distance between myself and this story. It feels good. Somehow I'm getting there.
I'm on page 32. Still have 35 more before I finish this section. Don't know if I can do it tomorrow, even though I think there will be a chapter or two that I'm simply going to eliminate.
But I also have to more or less re-write a whole chapter. This guy just talks about politics and that's more or less out of the loop now...
Now it's sexuality my friends...
peace.
Friday, 5 June 2009
May Days
May is gone...
And after April's rush it feels like I haven't done anything for a month...
Truth is, I can't even remember what I did. It does seems like I didn't produce a single completed piece of writing.
But I lie.
The only thing I did do throughout this month were a few comics reviews and some poems/lyrics/spoken word for a pet project of mine with my cousin Pietro Casella.
I did scribble down a few more ideas for other projects but nothing more than this. It was work mostly during this month and I have to admit that I kind of got carried away by it (too much to do) putting almost everything else aside.
It had been a while since I had felt that. Getting home and not being able to switch off the mind from what had happened during the day.
Suffice to say that I was quite stressed during most of the time.
And eager for my mini-break in portugal just last week.
I was eager for it because I knew that as soon as I had it, I could step out and come back with a different approach.
Which is what I did.
I read quite a bit while I was away (The Plato Papers by Peter Ackroyd and The Player Of Games by Iain M. Banks) and that really helped me get some focus for what I want to do (mainly) this next month and a half.
Which is to revise Land Of Fog and Morto (dead).
Easy, innit?!
Let's just see how it goes and if I can actually write more than a post a month...
peace
And after April's rush it feels like I haven't done anything for a month...
Truth is, I can't even remember what I did. It does seems like I didn't produce a single completed piece of writing.
But I lie.
The only thing I did do throughout this month were a few comics reviews and some poems/lyrics/spoken word for a pet project of mine with my cousin Pietro Casella.
I did scribble down a few more ideas for other projects but nothing more than this. It was work mostly during this month and I have to admit that I kind of got carried away by it (too much to do) putting almost everything else aside.
It had been a while since I had felt that. Getting home and not being able to switch off the mind from what had happened during the day.
Suffice to say that I was quite stressed during most of the time.
And eager for my mini-break in portugal just last week.
I was eager for it because I knew that as soon as I had it, I could step out and come back with a different approach.
Which is what I did.
I read quite a bit while I was away (The Plato Papers by Peter Ackroyd and The Player Of Games by Iain M. Banks) and that really helped me get some focus for what I want to do (mainly) this next month and a half.
Which is to revise Land Of Fog and Morto (dead).
Easy, innit?!
Let's just see how it goes and if I can actually write more than a post a month...
peace
Tuesday, 4 November 2008
Comics Script - The World As We Know It
I've just realised that's been way over a week since I last posted here.
What the heck happens to time? I mean, where does it go? Does somebody keep it inside their pockets or something? Is there a place filled with so much time no one can actually get there?!
(these could actually be some ideas for a short story...)
In any case, on saturday the 25th I kept my plan and continued writing LAND OF FOG. This has actually been my major project in the intervening days.
On the sunday I kept revising and added some new scenes. Don't really recall which (perhaps I should start making a note of that as well) but I do know that I focussed a lot on the characters of Anubia, Rikar, Terry and Tchan. Some weird stories came through and I think Old Ed's role in the whole shennanigan is now stronger than ever. I've been planting seeds so to speak...
I also started writing a synopsis for another comics series idea that i had and that I think will be quite easy to get some funding to do. But i'll keep it a mystery. For now...
Also wrote a bit more on AYOOLA. Still need quite a bit more of text but at least what's coming through is already somewhat solid. This story will have momentum either I like it or not!
The 27th was about getting a bit more structure into LAND OF FOG (still don't know how I'm going to work this one out, but I may just keep it in chronological order - i think it will work this way and I'm a bit afraid that if I jumble the structure further it will become more difficult to get into without really adding any more to the story... don't know... I'll have to see it as soon as it is all revised). Also did some more panels for A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN.
on tuesday i merely revised a bit more of LAND OF FOG. Revising is really the toughest thing for me to do. But also, towards its end, the most rewarding. Feeling that something is completed or steadily approaching its completion is really good!
On wednesday I had a couple of ideas for scripts. One is called THE DOWSER and is the story of a guy searching for the ideal place to live. It's a short story that i initially wanted to do almost completely silent. Now I think I'll have to think hard in order to keep it as silent as possible...
DEAD ZONE is actually not an idea of mine but of one of my flatmates. Still, he wants me to write it... i don't know if i have time to delve into someone else's dystopia but I suggested a few ideas in order to make it more cohesive. It kind of made sense us to be talking about it after a long chat about Brian Wood's DMZ.
The other idea was THE PIANO TEACHER which is basically a love story between two people 25 years of difference. This has been a theme that I've wanted to touch upon for many years, especially since I read Sam Keith's ZERO GIRL. Which turns out to be quite autobiographical, only in reverse. ZERO GIRL tells the story of a high school girl that falls in love with her teacher. He in turn falls for her but nothing happens apart from the weirdness and solitude she experiences in her head. But it has a happy ending. In any case, the most moving part of the whole book was actually Sam's account of how he met his wife when he was 15 and she 30. How they waited until he was 18 and started living together. Up until then, more than 10 years after. The whole book is a tribute to her, her patience, guidance and love and a genuine testimony that love knows no barriers. It's a somewhat controversial theme, i know but I, for one, am happy that someone has decided to talk about the good things about it, not just the bad ones...
Thursday i was home and so LAND OF FOG became the centre of the day. I also wrote some more on a huge story arc for the INCREDIBLE HULK that I've had in my head for years. To me this is the definitive take on the HULK. I still am to read a HULK story that completely satisfies me and this is definitely the thing that comes the closest to it. There will be plenty of destruction but the majority will be internal...
From friday the 31st to the 2nd of november i was away on a roleplaying game in essex. Due to the intensity of said CTHULHU horror fantasy mystery i did not write anything (apart from the synopsis for a short crime noir story) until sunday evening. I was still more or less in character, tired and spaced out and couldn't write as much as I wanted. Still, since NANOWRIMO is on, i started with MORTIMER LANSKY and started writing the intro and some guidelines to the book and the reader.
But because i was feeling some longing for LAND OF FOG there i went to check up on things and add a few tidbits more...
Monday I had more excuses but wrote some more on MORTIMER LANSKY and revised a bit more on LAND OF FOG.
Also on sunday and monday i revised a few graphic novels. Namely Paul Karasik's and David Mazzucchelli's adaptation of Paul Auster's CITY OF GLASS and Frank Miller's and Geof Darrow's iconic HARD BOILED. These are soon to be posted on the livejournal webpage.
I'm considering if i should start posting them here but i'm not so keen on repeating stuff... we'll see...
Today I'm eager to get home and type some of the crazy ideas i've been having so far for MORTIMER LANSKY and get some more revising done on LAND OF FOG. It would be nice if i could finish the first draft of the prior and complete the latter before this month ends. Especially because I'm going to portugal on the 27th. And to Luxembourg on the 20th...
We all want to keep ahead of the curve anyway...
Peace
What the heck happens to time? I mean, where does it go? Does somebody keep it inside their pockets or something? Is there a place filled with so much time no one can actually get there?!
(these could actually be some ideas for a short story...)
In any case, on saturday the 25th I kept my plan and continued writing LAND OF FOG. This has actually been my major project in the intervening days.
On the sunday I kept revising and added some new scenes. Don't really recall which (perhaps I should start making a note of that as well) but I do know that I focussed a lot on the characters of Anubia, Rikar, Terry and Tchan. Some weird stories came through and I think Old Ed's role in the whole shennanigan is now stronger than ever. I've been planting seeds so to speak...
I also started writing a synopsis for another comics series idea that i had and that I think will be quite easy to get some funding to do. But i'll keep it a mystery. For now...
Also wrote a bit more on AYOOLA. Still need quite a bit more of text but at least what's coming through is already somewhat solid. This story will have momentum either I like it or not!
The 27th was about getting a bit more structure into LAND OF FOG (still don't know how I'm going to work this one out, but I may just keep it in chronological order - i think it will work this way and I'm a bit afraid that if I jumble the structure further it will become more difficult to get into without really adding any more to the story... don't know... I'll have to see it as soon as it is all revised). Also did some more panels for A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN.
on tuesday i merely revised a bit more of LAND OF FOG. Revising is really the toughest thing for me to do. But also, towards its end, the most rewarding. Feeling that something is completed or steadily approaching its completion is really good!
On wednesday I had a couple of ideas for scripts. One is called THE DOWSER and is the story of a guy searching for the ideal place to live. It's a short story that i initially wanted to do almost completely silent. Now I think I'll have to think hard in order to keep it as silent as possible...
DEAD ZONE is actually not an idea of mine but of one of my flatmates. Still, he wants me to write it... i don't know if i have time to delve into someone else's dystopia but I suggested a few ideas in order to make it more cohesive. It kind of made sense us to be talking about it after a long chat about Brian Wood's DMZ.
The other idea was THE PIANO TEACHER which is basically a love story between two people 25 years of difference. This has been a theme that I've wanted to touch upon for many years, especially since I read Sam Keith's ZERO GIRL. Which turns out to be quite autobiographical, only in reverse. ZERO GIRL tells the story of a high school girl that falls in love with her teacher. He in turn falls for her but nothing happens apart from the weirdness and solitude she experiences in her head. But it has a happy ending. In any case, the most moving part of the whole book was actually Sam's account of how he met his wife when he was 15 and she 30. How they waited until he was 18 and started living together. Up until then, more than 10 years after. The whole book is a tribute to her, her patience, guidance and love and a genuine testimony that love knows no barriers. It's a somewhat controversial theme, i know but I, for one, am happy that someone has decided to talk about the good things about it, not just the bad ones...
Thursday i was home and so LAND OF FOG became the centre of the day. I also wrote some more on a huge story arc for the INCREDIBLE HULK that I've had in my head for years. To me this is the definitive take on the HULK. I still am to read a HULK story that completely satisfies me and this is definitely the thing that comes the closest to it. There will be plenty of destruction but the majority will be internal...
From friday the 31st to the 2nd of november i was away on a roleplaying game in essex. Due to the intensity of said CTHULHU horror fantasy mystery i did not write anything (apart from the synopsis for a short crime noir story) until sunday evening. I was still more or less in character, tired and spaced out and couldn't write as much as I wanted. Still, since NANOWRIMO is on, i started with MORTIMER LANSKY and started writing the intro and some guidelines to the book and the reader.
But because i was feeling some longing for LAND OF FOG there i went to check up on things and add a few tidbits more...
Monday I had more excuses but wrote some more on MORTIMER LANSKY and revised a bit more on LAND OF FOG.
Also on sunday and monday i revised a few graphic novels. Namely Paul Karasik's and David Mazzucchelli's adaptation of Paul Auster's CITY OF GLASS and Frank Miller's and Geof Darrow's iconic HARD BOILED. These are soon to be posted on the livejournal webpage.
I'm considering if i should start posting them here but i'm not so keen on repeating stuff... we'll see...
Today I'm eager to get home and type some of the crazy ideas i've been having so far for MORTIMER LANSKY and get some more revising done on LAND OF FOG. It would be nice if i could finish the first draft of the prior and complete the latter before this month ends. Especially because I'm going to portugal on the 27th. And to Luxembourg on the 20th...
We all want to keep ahead of the curve anyway...
Peace
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