Kiss Kiss Bang Bang!

Hi everybody!
Just came up with an idea for a children's Santa Claus book; more on that, later!
I finally came across a copy of KISS KISS BANG BANG by Pauline Kael, and am reminded of what a complete film critic she was.
The New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael was actually bron in California. She was preceeded in film criticism by novelist Graham Greene, and her contemporary competition was Andrew Sarris, but in short order Kael became the nation's pre-imminent film critic. Kael brought vigorous, exhaustive and compulsive discipline to an ill-defined art.
In KISS KISS BANG BANG, Kael actually observed the whole process of putting the film THE GROUP (1966) together. In Kael's capable hands, it's like watching the scene in WITNESS when the Amish are putting up a barn from scratch. But Kael adds in slave labor, termite-ridden wood, rusty nails, splinters; in short, she de-glamorizes arguably the most glamorous industry ever.
Kael was not a perfect critic: she completely conflates the successes of BONNIE AND CLYDE, for example. However, few critics could articulate the glories of 1930s B movies while extolling the virtues of 1960s renegade filmmakers with more evident flourish than our lady Kael.
She tries to explain what happened to the careers of Marlon Brando and Orson Welles, but self-destructiveness has its' own tragic logic.
I cherish all of Kael's books and cannot recommend them enough!
Too tired to keep on rambling: gotta go! Be good!
Brad

Brad At The Movies!

Hi everybody!
Sorry to have been away, I've been beefing up my MySpace page and talking about my POCAHONTAS: SECRET LIFE book over there, while neglecting Wonder Woman Project updates with you.
First, let's go over some movies that I've seen. BRIGHT STAR with Abbie Cornish is a terrific 3 hanky movie, and Cornish is excellent in it. I understand that she is training for an action picture, if so, she'd be a terrific addition the the Wonder Woman trilogy cast! (If she can navigate Keats, she'll have no problem with Barnes!)
BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF NEW ORLEANS with Nick Cage is a diverting study in behavior from fellow Long Beach native Cage, but particular props to American Idol alum Katie Chonacas for giving the right jolt of hedonism and craft that this picture desperately needed, as a lot of acting newbies were given parts too big for them to handle.
Much love to THE BLIND SPOT with Sandra Bullock, an unabashedly uplifting biopic in which blond Bullock kicks every quip and quarry through the goalpost without missing a beat. If you want to see a big star in a part that fits them like a second skin, see THE BLIND SPOT! (I'm actually seeing Bullock as Athena in the Wonder Woman Project, right now!)
THE MESSENGER, with Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson and Samantha Morton, starts off strong and fritters away. However, Morton remains one of the great actresses in the English speaking world: more Morton, please! (She'd be a great Etta Candy, actually!)
I'm pulling together photo references and such in preparation for completing my WOODY: THE HERO OF ZIRCON CITY! graphic novel. I've also come across a lot of Wonder Woman poses that I can use in the 3 Year Calendar that I'm planning.
I've made some new friends, reconnected with some old ones, and all the lights seem to be "green" for the foreseeable future, so I've got to take advantage of these opportunities. I've created 4 new adventures for WOODY and was reminded that I've completed the first 45 pages for POCAHONTAS, so I need to finish packaging those and getting them in the mail to be published by someone who will pay me.
That's all for now! Be good!
Brad

Thesis panels: A panel discussion!

Hi Everybody!
Merry Christmas and happy holidays!
Following up on my last post, I wanted to zero-in on the three most important superheroes ever created; BATMAN, SUPERMAN and WONDER WOMAN; and the early panels which defined their adventures.
Swiping a panel from Hal Foster's run on TARZAN, artist/creator Bob Kane had Batman strike a strange pose and writer/co-creator Bill Finger intone, "And thus is born this weird figure of the dark... this avenger of evil...THE BATMAN!"
When Batman gives a strong left hook to a corrupt CEO who was firing at him, leading the CEO to fall into a tank of acid, Batman crisply observes that this was, "A fitting end for his kind."
Batman was conceived as a bloody pulp character with lethal methods, but; particularly after the introduction of Robin The Boy Wonder the 2nd year; became more derring-do than deadly dangerous. That's what becomes an icon!
Written by creator Joe Siegel and drawn by co-creator Joe Shuster, mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent is dismissed by co-worker Lois Lane as a simp, "You asked me earlier in the evening why I avoid you, I'll tell you why now: because you're a spineless, unbearable COWARD!"
Rescuing her as Superman from thugs, he leans into Lois like a lion looking at raw meat, but he tells the startled Lois, "You needn't be afraid of me. I won't harm you."
Having later rescued Lois from a firing squad, she catches Superman's shoulder, asking absurdly and hopefully, "But when will I see you again?" Superman is coy, "Who knows? Perhaps tomorrow -- perhaps never!"
Thus began the longest running false romantic triangle in popular fiction, culminating in Lois marrying Clark/Superman in 1995.
Calibrating the shyness of Clark Kent and the chivalry of Superman took decades to perfect, while the harshness of Lois took almost 50 years to evolve into professionalism and warmth.
Wonder Woman first appears costumed in a silent panel by the usually verbose William Moulton Marston in her debut story, drawn by H. G. Peter.
The closing panel in her first issue has Wonder Woman musing about her purchased civilian I.D., her gender politics and her romance with Steve Trevor, "So I'm my own rival, eh? That's funny... if mother could only see me now... as a very feminine woman... a nurse, no less, in a world full of men, and in love, too - with MYSELF as a rival!"
A fine example of the double game Marston was playing with this comic was Diana Prince switching into her Wonder Woman outfit, saying, "Lucky this outfit was in my bag. I can do better with fewer clothes!"
What 13 year old boy in the heart of the Depression is going to argue with that sentiment?
The wobbly psychology and woozy romanticism is already present in these early Wonder Woman comics. However, the gap between Amazon and American cultures did not preoccupy Marston as it should have, and the title has struggled with this core contradiction ever since.
Clearly, Marston never intended for Wonder Woman to actually marry, but Steve Trevor did not succeed as a romantic placeholder as Lois did for Superman because Amazons; as defined by Marston; had no tradition of marriage. Superman was born of a mother and a father on Krypton, Wonder Woman was made out of sacred clay on Paradise Island.
In popular culture, Wonder Woman continues as an ocean of ambiguities without answers. Our Wonder Woman Project will change all that, believe it!
We must put on our ethno-historian turckers cap to justify Wonder Woman's mission in this modern age. Otherwise, she'll be parading around like Diana Ross in THE WIZ; too old to believe, too dumb to accept, but with a dazzling smile.
That's all for now! Be good!
Brad

Thesis panels: A panel discussion!

A Bit About WOODY

Hi everybody!
I am working on my graphic novel WOODY: THE HERO OF ZIRCON CITY, and I wanted to talk a bit about the format. The story is told in 3 vertical panels over 3 pages.
The usual comics page is a 9 box grid. The reason for this is that the natural length to tell a comics story is 9 panels: 3 to establish the story, 3 to add some flavor, and 3 to bring it to a full conclusion.
The 3 godfathers of the comic strip are Hal Foster, Alex Raymond and Milton Caniff. On TARZAN, Hal Foster used a strict 9 panel grid, as he was adapting ERB's novel. Alex Raymond certainly used the same format with FLASH GORDON. And Milton Caniff did the same with TERRY AND THE PIRATES.
My vertical panels each represent 3 events, depicted by a single integrated illustration, so I'm elongating the drawing while compressing the narrative. Why? Because comics have started to EXTEND the narrative and MAGNIFY the illustration, which is ridiculous. There is a natural balance between words and pictures, which is the format that WOODY employs.
That's all for now! Be good!
Brad

Monetize, Lads and Lasses!

Hi Everybody!
I have decided to submit my WOODY: THE HERO OF ZIRCON CITY pages initially to IMAGE COMICS and DARK HORSE COMICS, instead.
I figure since I'm going to put a heck'of'a'lot of effort into making these pages great, I might as well try to get paid, as well.
It is intriguing that many comics publishers are not soliciting original material or accepting submissions.
I was reading some comments by Jim Steranko about his working relationship with Stan Lee back in the 1960s, where Steranko produced some of the most enduring comic pages ever. Stan Lee was resistant to Steranko's innovations but, to this day, Steranko's pages are reproduced as prime examples of comics art; as much as Jack Kirby and Neal Adams. Steranko only produced about 25 comics in his career, compared to the thousands by Kirby and the hundreds by Adams, but Steranko always makes the reprint cut.
WOODY is part of my 4-tiered process to get Brad Product into the mainstream, along with my novel POCAHONTAS: SECRET LIFE, JSA: THE MODERN and, of course, THE WONDER WOMAN PROJECT.
My POCAHONTAS book is about how without Pocahontas, the Democratic Experiment of America might never have taken hold. More on that, later!
The JSA: The Modern essay will review how the recent Justice Society of America relaunch by DC Comics produced the best superhero team up book ever. As an avid comic book collector, it's good to put my critic's hat on now and again. We'll see how that pans out!
Basically, I've been in print, before. Getting paid is the goal, now, bringing value to the marketplace!
I hope to have 6 pages of WOODY done by month's end so I can send them out to IMAGE and DARK HORSE to review. Please with me luck, thank you!
Hope that all is going well with you, out there! Be good!
Brad

Christmas is Over, Ho Ho Ho!

Hi Everybody!
I got the Christmas card drawn, ho ho ho! It's benifited from the works of J.C. Leydecker, Andrew Loomis and Windsor McCay, because I am the good thief! If any of you want a Christmas card attachment sent to you, please let me know! :)
Now, I am working on my superhero comic strip called WOODY, which is based on a character I created back in high school. I had shown it to Geoff Boucher of the herocomplex webpage at the L.A. Times several months back and I hope that when I finally finish the first series of comics his offer to post them still stands!
Having studied everything from The Yellow Kid to The Rocketeer, I've decided that the best way to draw WOODY is on a series of 7x10" Bristol paper pages which will probably be shrunk down about 75% to fit on the webpage. I'm looking forward to some Steranko, lots of Good Girl art and the wittiness that has won me legions of blank stares all the world over!
You may be thinking I should be working on the Wonder Woman Project instead of these other things, but I'm just too talented to be tied to just one woman! :)
More good stuff coming soon, be good!
Brad