1) Back in Canada, saw Gainsbourg on the plane (great, lots of nice Sfar drawings inside and I felt somewhat embarrassed for watching it in between kids and old people thanks to A LOT of nude things), as well as the terrible Alice movie, and now its time to get work and become a normal citizen.

2) Scanned old and new sketchbook things, here are some news ones:

(drawn during the Argentina vs Germany game in New York)

And I put some new photographs of of past ones here, looking like this:

3) I`m also working on the digital version of my comics and I`m thinking about a general overhaul of this site.

Here is a test version from two days ago:

4) ET PLUS

(The rest can be found HERE)

Hope everyone has a great rest-week ahead!

Indeed!

Happy jumping times begin NOW and everyone looks just as exited as I am!

I will do some reprints of the diploma later this year and I will sell them probably at tcaf.
(And Ms. tiff, you will get a super special version FOR SURE!)

Oh, and I did this comic for the fun guys of SENFGURKE, their theme was Struwwelpeter and I took THIS GUY that was the main reason for nightmares as a kid (sorry, only German):

Now too my parents house to get some sleep and THEN BACK TO MONTREAL, yay!

And some sketches + jokes that did not get used

ASWELLAS:
- I`m watching BONUS CONTENT of Dvd`s like crazy. Name me a directors commentary and I will watch it (even of movies like Sex and the City)
- I just discovered “The Larry Sanders Show”
- as well as joy of making your own Ramen

AND
I`ve added a button for people that do not want to write but clap in appreciation of posts.
Just click this and CLAP FOR IT! (the same button also shows up after clicking on the comments section)
EDIT
I`m trying something different, the clap things works weird. Lets try a like button!
Its down here:

First some things for Issue #2 of NARAKA, containing stories about Portland, Montreal and more “personal stuff”

Then some drawings made for a friend to add some spice into a presentation about a specific bone:

And random hip looking people:

ETPLUS:
- Iron Man 2 was OK but felt too long
- I have a COLD! and that seems cosmically unfair considering the unbelievable summer weather here in Montreal
- The new albums by THE NATIONAL and Hannah Georgas are fun!
- Valve just releases Half-Life 2 with its episodes for the mac!
- I`m reading Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace and it is hard to put down

Monsters vs. Aliens

After liking “Kung Fu Panda” and REALLY liking “How to Train Your Dragon” I wanted to give another Dream Works animated Movie a shot at winning my heart. But OH BOY, this one was terrible.

And the big problem is not the boring story or the uninspired character design. The problem is really the animation itself. Feeling rushed, feeling done while doing too many other thing and way too LOUD!

The whole movie is like a book that ONLY USES CAPSLOCKS. FOR EVERY WORD, EVERY SENTENCE, EVERY EVERYTHING. There is no subtle emotion, no small gesture.. its all about being as broad and loud as possible.

I wonder how quality control works at Dream Works. How did this happen?

Did it just SLIP BY?; was it rushed?; was there too much “suit” interference”

OHWELLS!

On to nicer things:

I saw “Pixar Is In the House | Story Story Story“.

Here is the selling point:

“Join award winner animation director Roger Allers and Pixar Story Artists Ted Mathot, Scott Morse, Bill Presing, and Derek Thompson, in this rare opportunity as they discuss Pixar’s unique and exciting Story Development process.”

All of those people are awesome, famous and interesting. It takes them some minutes to “warm up” but once they get going, information spills out of them.

I was blown away by the AMOUNT of story boards they had on Wall-E.

A normal Pixar movie has around 50.000 boards, Wall-E had 127.000!

Worth watching!

Apart from this, Mark Kennedy`s blog “Temple of the Seven Golden Camels” had a great post about “APPEAL“.

All of his recent “A Kick in the Head” posts are superb, but this one hit a special spot.

I`m currently not very interested in drawing things realistically or in laboring over small details.. but what a drawing really should be is APPEALING.

I`d rather write a small up beat song that everyone wants to whistle, then a big symphony or an dramatic Progressive rock piece of 15 minutes.

So yeah, I`ve been thinking about this a lot but really there is not that much to say that Mr. Kennedy has not already spoken about.

I think it is important to KNOW what your drawing/work should convey and then work on saying it clearer and clearer.

It bugs me somewhat that my own stuff is not as pretty as I want it to be.. but I guess that just means to keep on drawing and to have fun doing it!

“You have 10,000 bad drawings in your hand and you just have to do them”

INDEED!

+ On the next episode, finally some more photographs!