Invictus Joyeux Noel!

Hi Everybody!
I may not be the master of my soul or the captain of my fate, but I love sports movies like INVICTUS. Clint Eastwood is the most colorblind of our major directors, and his long partnership with Morgan Freeman is enduring proof of his taste level in actors. While Eastwood has often cast amateurs in his movies, clearly Freeman has been his go-to guy for over a decade, and for obvious reasons.
With the end of Aparteid in his rearview mirror, Eastwood uses South Africa to deliver a rousing ode to brotherhood without the usual sermon which has plagued other such efforts. It is in the small touches where Eastwood shines: how the rugby captain's maid is invited to the World Cup, how a street begger listens to the game on a police unit's radio, how Mandela's estranged daughter ends up rooting for the despised Bokke team despite herself.
The last 20 minutes of the movie is essentially an escalating montage and, again, it is Eastwood's storytelling that makes it effective and not incoherant. Eastwood may direct with a stopwatch but, particularly in a movie with so many crowd scenes, he prevents his extras from mugging and sometimes catches something close to authenticity.
Freeman's professionalism along with his genuine warmth keeps the movie entertaining, while Matt Damon throwing himself physically into the Rugby field allows us to have a real actor delivering his ground-level lines with authority.
Eastwood makes it look easy, but most major directors flub the small moments that become the heart of this film. Another big winner from Clint, and you can stick that in your GRAN TORINO!
Merry Christmas to you all and be good, for goodness' sake! Talk to you, soon!
Brad

Up, Up In The Air!

Hi Everybody!
First, a quick update:
Since I have gotten no reply from the publisher concerning by JSA: THE MODERN idea, I've set that project aside and have fortified my SANTA: WOO WOO book to include three smaller stories featuring WOODY, POCAHONTAS and WONDER WOMAN. These will be short, regular-sized books for young readers featuring double-paged spreads and simple verse to tell the stories. Even though they each have a Christmas theme, I hope they can be enjoyed at any time of the year!
Now, I just saw UP IN THE AIR, and it's one of "those" movies. It could have been a character study of a downsizing expert (George Clooney) who himself gets downsized, but no. It could have been a mentor/mentee movie about how Clooney trains his replacement (Anna Kendrick) and how they combine forces to defeat a common foe, but no. It could have been how an isolated Clooney makes a deep connection with a fellow air travel addict (Vera Farmiga) and reprioritizes his life, but no. Like its' protagonist Clooney, the movie ultimately refuses to commit to anything more than a day-in-the-life, when it could have gone after bigger game. Like a seatbelt that is not quite long enough to fasten shut, this movie simply floats off the screen, squandoring a charming Clooney, a disarming Farmiga, and a crisp Kendrick.
Happy shopping, be good!
Brad

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