Richard Ben Cramer: What It Takes: The Way to the White House
BradyGames: World of Warcraft Master Guide, Second Edition (World of Warcraft)
David Halberstam: Coldest Winter, The: America and the Korean War
David Pietrusza: 1960--LBJ vs. JFK vs. Nixon: The Epic Campaign That Forged Three Presidencies
The first five of my MM2 Artist Proofs, fresh off of approval from Marvel:
Drawn with Micron pens and Prismacolor markers/colored pencils.
Thanks to everyone who laid down cash for these babies. I hope you enjoy them.
More soon.
-Otis
Do yourself a favor and go for the HD 1080p version. There's a lot to see in that trailer.
Oh, and just for the heck of it:
-Otis
Okay, let's get this out of the way right off the bat . . . this movie is not Casino Royale. It couldn't be that film and it doesn't even try to be. Marc Forster has a very different visual and narrative style than Martin Campbell and this film reflects their respective approaches to the craft.
But . . .
Narratively, I'd definitely call this Casino Royale 1.5. It essentially serves as a coda to that film's story while at the same time setting up a larger framework for 007 stories to come.
Did I like Quantum?
Absolutely.
The film starts with a bang and the action throughout is intense. And yet, this is a quieter film that Casino in many ways. Bond is very reflective in the story, as he attempts to tie up loose ends, both personally and professionally. Story and character still loom large in the entry, an aspect of Casino that made it stand out from the rest of the series. But I'm left with the impression that the films on either side of this one will be the ones to re-watch as the years go by. That being said, this is still an important entry in the new narrative being established for the Daniel Craig episodes.
The highlights of the film for me . . .
My only real disappointment with the film is a minor one, and it's this; the iconic image you see at the beginning of this review (and saw in the trailers) is nowhere to be found in the movie. It was clearly created solely for promotional purposes, because you won't see it in Quantum of Solace.
Oh well. Like I said, very minor.
I'm already looking forward to the next one. 2010 can't come soon enough.
-Otis
I picked up The Clone Wars feature film on Blu-Ray yesterday (a Veterans Day gift from my wife). I brought it home,
popped it in the player and put on my Bose headphones, since I knew my wife
didn't have any interest in seeing or hearing it.
As I sat watching the beautiful, crystal-clear images unfold on my big
ol' plasma, I noticed that my wife (who was sitting next to me doing
some Cinema 4D training on her laptop) was watching the movie. She
couldn't keep her eyes off of the screen. I took off my headphones and
asked:
"Would you like me to turn the audio on so you can hear?"
"Yes." she replied.
She watched the rest of the movie with me and genuinely enjoyed it,
never having taken a liking to the live action SW films. She laughed at
the Battle Droids, started asking me questions about the back story and thoroughly enjoyed the new music for the show.
If you know someone with a plasma and a Blu-Ray player, get in
front of it and watch this movie. Seeing it in the theater and seeing it
as it was meant to be see is like night and day. What a difference presentation makes. I know I say it a lot, but film is dead to me. Theaters are simply not the best place to see a film now. Why waste time and money on a washed out, muddy, dirty, flickering film print when you can see a film in all of its 1080p glory?
Anyway . . . beautiful film, The Clone Wars is (sorry for the Yodaism, I couldn't help myself). I wish I'd waited to see it like this for my first
time.
And . . . I've finally seen the first two episodes of the regualr series from Cartoon Network.
Looooooooooooooooving this show.
Thank you, Dave Filoni and Company, for making Star Wars great again.
By the way . . . there's a great preview of all the episodes on the new
Blu-Ray of The Clone Wars. Each little preview ends on a
mini-cliffhanger, which is a great tease. I can't wait to see more of the show and the eventual Blu-Ray release of the series sometime next year.
-Otis
Coming in 2010:
As soon as I saw this, I immediately became 5 years old again, spinning this 45:
Speaking of Peanuts, you can now view the last 50 years of the strip for free online.
And you should.
-Otis
First Steps from Otis Frampton on Vimeo.
Starring Leigh Frampton as "The Hapless Victim".
Created by Otis & Leigh Frampton using After Effects and Premiere Pro.
-Otis
Well, here we go again . . . another book, another production journal!
Matt, Marc and I are hard at work bringing Spellbinder to life and the pages are looking great, if I do say so myself. I think that this book is coming closer to what I saw in my head when I wrote the script than any other project I've ever worked on. And that's a credit to Matt, who is not simply interpreting the script as given, but seems to be channeling my imagination as well. I've had the characters and events of this story in my head for so many years . . . it's wonderful to be able to see them come to life exactly as I saw them.
That being said, I thought I'd get the production journal off and running by sharing some images from the book. Here are some pages showing the progession from Matt's pencils to Marc's inks to my colors. Sorry, no word balloons. Can't give away everything this early.
(Click the images for larger versions)
Eventually, I'll be posting a free online preview of the first 20 (or so) pages. Until then, I'll keep sharing these "process" previews for all to see.
Enjoy and I'll be back with more soon!
-Otis
Just finished these. Some more waaaaaaaaaaaaaay overdue sketch cards for some collectors:
Once again . . . sorry for the delay, folks.
These personal sketch cards measure 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches each and were drawn with micron pens and Prismacolor markers/pencils.
-Otis
I'm very excited about the new animated Batman series that debuts on Cartoon Network on November 14th. I'm a Batman fan. I can remember with fondness watching the Adam West series as a child . . . reading The Dark Knight Returns for the first time . . . the Bat-mania of the summer of 1989 and Tim Burton's wonderful film. But lately, I've been going through Bat-withdrawl. The Bruce Timm produced animated adventures have ended and Christian Bale is, to put it kindly, is not my cup of tea.
So when I saw the trailer for Batman: The Brave and The Bold, I became very excited. From my Comic-Con table this last July, I had a view of a large video screen that played the trailer on a loop, and the images were very appealing to me. It's a bit campier than I would prefer (The Dark Knight Returns and the Bruce Timm version being my favorite versions of Batman), but this new show looks like fun.
And it looks like Batman. As opposed to the most recent live action film, which felt more like S.W.A.T.man to me.
Anyway, check out the trailer for the new show. It looks like a winner:
I started a new script while I was in Gettysburg a couple of months ago.
It's for a project that is still a few years away from happening.
It's got a "what if Arthur C. Clarke wrote a film for Alfred Hitchcock" vibe to it.
It's not for a new graphic novel.
This script will be the first live action feature that I direct.
There. I've said it.
Now comes the "make it happen" part.
-Otis
First pics from the new Trek film have hit the interweb.
My first impression?
It feels more like fans pretending to be the
characters, rather than actors playing the characters. They look like
very impressive Comic-Con attendees. It's almost similar to the way I
felt about Ledger's Joker when I first saw pics of him in the make-up.
I'm starting to lean toward "it was a bad idea to re-cast these parts with new actors".
The Original Series was not like Batman or Zorro or Sherlock Holmes. These characters
are linked with specific actors in a way that makes re-casting a
dangerous game.
I dunno. I'll see it for sure and hope for the best. I really miss
Trek. A lot. So when I say I hope for the best, I mean it. I'm a Trek
fan all the way. I love every TV series in different ways.
But I fear that when I leave the theater after seeing this film the
first thing I'll want to do is watch "Amok Time" or "The Trouble With
Tribbles" to mentally re-boot.
-Otis
Some waaaaaaaaaaaaaay overdue sketch cards for some collectors:
Sorry for the delay, folks.
These personal sketch cards measure 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches each and were drawn with micron pens and Prismacolor markers/pencils.
-Otis
I think this photo says it all:
Leigh and I had a great time at the show last weekend. Thanks to everyone who stopped by to say hello and buy a book. And a special thank you to Molly, Alexa and Aaron for coming out to see us.
-Otis
Last week I received the first pages for two new original graphic novel projects, so I thought it was a good time to announce each of them and talk them up a bit . . .
The first book is called Gaijin Girl. It was written by me and is being illustrated by the amazing Nicc Balce, creator of Random Encounter and artist on the recently released Vendor. Gaijin Girl tells the story of 15 year old Alice Gallahger, an american girl who has just moved to Tokyo, Japan with her mother. Alice hates having to move away from her home in the United States and resents her mother for taking her so far away from her friends. But through a strange series of events, Alice's life is turned upside down and she begins to see Japan in a way she never thought possible.
Gaijin Girl will be two books in one. I'll talk more about that aspect a little later . . . I don't want to give too much away right now.
The other book is called Spellbinder. I've spoken about this book before, many times. And I'm happy to say that after a few false starts, I've finally found a penciller to join me and inker Marc Deering on this project. The artist in question is Matt Hebb and when I saw his first page last week, I knew that the book was in the right hands. In addition to script duties, I'll be coloring this one, as well.
Spellbinder is a tale of magic and mystery set in the old west. It is the story of Dr. A. Q. Pendleton, a U.S. Special Service Marshall who works directly for the President and is charged with investigating matters of "devilry and the supernatural world". When Pendleton is sent by President Grant to track down the man who previously held the post, our hero discovers that he may be the key to an apocalyptic prophecy.
I can't wait to start posting preview pages for these new projects. What I've seen so far from Nicc and Matt has exceeded my expectations. They're both knocking their respective books out of the park and I'm proud to call them my collaborators.
I'm the luckiest writer and colorist in the world, I tells ya.
-Otis
