Snake Cults, Mummies and Comic Con...oh my!

Here is some stuff that I did for Wizards. Its now in Dragon Magazine #365 Roll vs Roll. You can see it at http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dragon. Special thanks to Lucas for letting me reference him for the mummy's hand and Jessica for being my evil Snake Priestess.

Comic Con was a blast. I went Thursday, Friday and Saturday and got to hustle my portfolio to just about everyone I wanted to and got some amazing feedback from the Pro's. Special thanks to all the Pros I got to visit with at the Con. I'm going to try to apply all of the things you suggested to my work. I only regret on passing up on Sunday. Its not like I was tired or anything I could have gone one more day. I was just too cheap to pay for parking a fourth day and it turned out Greg Manchess demoed Sunday and I missed it! Also I forgot to beg him to see my portfolio and get his impute too. I also forgot to ask Shelly Wan to look at my portfolio as well and she was like 4 feet away from me two days in a row. Dammit!

At least there is a good chance ( I hope) from what I was told from Richard and Mari I should be getting more work from the Wizards people in other forms like their cards soon. (no whammies, no whammies, no whammies!) So I guess: mission accomplished.

On a side note go to http://www.spectrumfantasticart.com/ and check out that male model looking guy staring at the Rick Barry and Jon Foster Demos at the Con. I stood next to Jon Foster for like 10-15 minutes and he looked at my portfolio! Awesome.


-E

Believe the Hype!

I know I promised that I would be posting new art soon but since nobody reads this anyway it really doesn't matter. I've been too busy with work to make anything of my own in the first place so maybe next time.

Anyway, what I'm really posting to talk about is The Dark Knight. There are very few things in this world that ever live up to hype and heightened expectations but Chris Nolan's Dark Knight not only lived up to my expectations its renewed my faith in todays cinema. Lately there have been a few stinkers that have popped up and oddly the masses find them to be good films like The Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, Hellboy2 and the last Indian Jones film. I'm sorry but the saying "Its just a good popcorn film" is just no excuse for poor storytelling and the lack of emotional content in a film. Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and the original Terminator were considered popcorn films yet they still have good storytelling and gripping emotional content to motivate the audience and in fact those movies are now considered classics. The Dark Knight does this and not only does it do it, it does it in spades. I'd even have to say that Chris Nolan's Batman Begins and The Dark Knight are to Comic book movies what the Godfather 1 & 2 are to Gangster films and no doubt they will eventually become classics too. My faith in good popcorn movies were SO rejuvenated by the Dark Knight that it was almost like a christian who lost his faith and suddenly Jesus pops out of nowhere performs a few miracles, hands the guy a ice cream followed by a loving Bro grab and some kind words of "everything is gonna be ok" and then disappears.

Do you get the hint that I liked the Dark Knight? Do yourself a favor and go watch it. Better yet, call me up and I'll go with you.

-E

Dogs of War is out and Hellboy2

I posted this piece I did some time ago but I just went to a Borders today and saw that the book is out for sale. Go to my my website to see another piece that I did for the interior of the book. On a side note,I heard the artist who made the cover of this book is devilishly attractive as well as talented. (irony) Go buy it. :)

Also:

I just saw Hellboy 2 and I have to say that it kinda sucked.

Its not a terrible film by any measure. In fact the aesthetics were amazing. The art direction, the colors and the many cool shots were nice but much like a pretty girl with no brains or character Hellboy 2 was as shallow as a kiddie pool. It had many of the same things I didn't like about the first film only now it was louder and has prettier effects and art direction. Some parts were good with the occasionally funny chuckle out loud scene here and there but as a whole (minus the visuals) it was not good. It was OK-but not good.

In many ways this film is more of what I expect from Del Toro's films. A cool concept with great visuals and scenes but poor story cohesion and emotional connection with characters (and yes that includes Pans Labyrinth & Devils Backbone). If I had to describe Del Toro as a director I'd say he is becoming a lot like the Terry Gilliam of mexico which is actually a good thing only his films lack that little emotional connection that some of Gilliam's earlier films had. I'd also like to note that I did NOT have very high hopes for this film to begin with but I can also say I had the same low expectations for both Iron Man and the new Hulk films and yet I was surprisingly entertained by both of those. Its too bad this film didn't do the same. I now have absolutely no hopes for the up and coming Hobbit film if Del Toro is to continue to direct it. Go ahead and judge the movie for yourself but don't expect much past the prettiness of it. I give it 2 and a half or maybe a generous 3 stars out of 5.

Heres hoping Nolan's Dark Knight delivers.

More ART related updates coming soon.

-E