Daily Monsterism #X

Monster: Cookie Monster
Movie: Elmo in Grouchland

Was I the only person over the age of 5 in the cinema? Yes. Do you think I care? No. Cookie Monster just flat out rocks madcore.

Daily Monsterism Double Shot #2

For reasons of cruddy internetness, I was unable to post a monsterism last night. To make up for it, here's a double shot!

Monster: The Spinosaur
Movie: Jurassic Park III

Pat and I saw Jurassic Park III the day it came out. The cinema was nowhere near as crowded as it was for the first too, but this one is probably my favourite out of the lot. Why? Simply because it's pretty much a no-brainer, choc-o-block full of awesome dinosaurage. So many memorable sequences without the science talk in the middle to slow things down (not that I mind any of that - the first two Jurassic Parks are still two of my favourite movies), but this moment captured above was one of my favourites. There's this terrifying pause were this monstrous creature is just standing there sizing them up. The CGI on this thing was great and it kicked the T-Rex's arse pretty solidly, which makes him pretty hardcore.

Monster: Freddy Krueger

Movie: Freddy Vs. Jason

I didn't really like this movie. It was a lot of promise that just turned into some fanboy wankery in a Godzilla VS (insert monster here) way. This movie could have been the slasher thriller horror movie to end all, but instead it was something like watching a wrestling match with a few bits of each character's histories thrown in to please the crowds. There were two moments however that really stood out in my mind, visually at least. The moment above was the one that I like most. This is how Freddy should look all the time. He looks fuckin' evil, like there's no way you'd want to mess with him. In his original form (which is, admittedly, twenty something years old) he's not entirely threatening visually. This I really like though. The other will probably appear in as a later monsterism...

Daily Monsterism #7

Monster: Zuul
Movie: Ghostbusters

Ghostbusters has probably had a bigger influence on me than any other film this side of The Dark Crystal. This awesome looking beast actually comes about in a rather odd fashion, but one trhat scarred my brother horribly. The first time you see Zuul in the movie, it's running around inside Dana Barrett's (Sigourney Weaver) fridge. That's right. Eventually things take a much more sinister turn, but the build up to Zuul, Vinz Clortho (the other terror dog seen in the back) and Gozer is really well plotted, and by the time they come around they manage to provide some genuinely frightening moments... of course, being a movie with Bill Murray, Rick Moranis, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, there's a fair deal of comedy to balance out the horror - especially when Vinz Clortho arrives in our dimension! Still, these are awesomely designed creatures, who made a couple of brief appearances in the animated series and were schedule to appear in the now-defunct Ghostbusters comic by 88mph Studios (GIVE ME MY BOOK DAMMIT!).

Daily Monsterism #6

Monster: Bull Dragon
Movie: Reign of Fire

I think I was the only person in the cinema who really enjoyed this movie when we saw it, but I still say it has the best goddamn dragons ever put to the big screen, and this male bull was awesome to watch. The design was fantastic and the CGI was even better, it's just a pity that the movie seems to get the reactions it does, because even though it's not perfect, it's still a hell of a lot of fun and does a great job of building the suspense with it's dragons. Christian Bale is also my favourite actor, so it gets bonus points for that!

Daily Monsterism Double Shot

Okay, so I missed one. To make up for it, here's a double shot of Monsterism...

Monster: Pygmy Mummy
Movie: The Mummy Returns

Okay, so, The Mummy Returns was a bit of a naff movie. It's one of those ones where you REALLY have to switch off to all reasonable logic and suspend all disbelief because the CGI is terrible and the story itself is nothing spesh. However, it does present a couple of really cool ideas, and the one I liked most was the Pygmy Mummies. They're these nasty little bastards hiding out in the oasis jungle, kinda what you'd get if you took the Velociraptors from Jurassic Park II and mixed them with Gremlins from, well... Gremlins. Anyway, these guys kicked arse and had a neat design. Thumbs up from me in a thumbs down movie (sorry if you liked it though).

Monster: Tetsuo
Movie: Akira

Few movies are as mind-bendingly awesome as Akira. It's the anime that pretty much set the standards for animation and is still unbelievable to watch. What's even more unbelievable is that the whole thing is completely unaided by CGI, which makes the animation even more incredible. Anyway, in the climax of the film, one of the characters mutates into a horrifying mess which is so masterfully animated and so bizarre in design that it pretty much sears itself into one's memory for eternity.

Peace!

Daily Monsterism #3

Monster: Gojira (aka: Godzilla)
Movie: The Return of Gorija aka The Return of Godzilla

Why: Godzilla/Gojira really is king of the monsters. Simple as that. The Return of Godzilla was one of the first movies I remember seeing, and would rent it as religiously as Ghostbusters back in the day (if anyone is familiar with Roadshow Home Video on Whitehorse Rd in Box Hill, it used to be over where Dark Zone is now - that's how far back I'm talking). Treated more as a force of nature than a monster, The Return of Godzilla also threw away all those wacky sequels featuring other monsters that plagued the 60's and 70's and acted as a straight up sequel to the original Gojira/Godzilla of 1954. Just like the original, there were two versions of this movie, a terrible Western dub/re-edit, featuring Raymond Burr, which, while tolerable in it's own right, is absolutely NOTHING compared to the Japanese original edit.

Daily Monsterism #2

Monster: Kali
Film: The Golden Voyage of Sinbad

This is still easily one of the coolest sequences ever put to film. Ray Harryhausen's stop motion work is legendary, and this, in my mind, is some of his best, second only to the army of skeletons from Jason and the Argonauts. The full fight sequence is ridiculously well choreographed and it truly does look as though Sinbad and his crew are fighting a living, six-armed statue. This is one of those monster moments that's been seared into my childhood memory and every time I watch it, I feel exactly the way I did the first time I saw it. Few films have such resonance for me.

Daily Monsterism

Everyone seems to have some sort of regular thing on their blogs, usually something meaningful and thought provoking... but this is my blog and I love monsters, so let's have some fun!

Ladies and Gentlemen, the first Daily Monsterism - Presenting the gremlin from The Twilight Zone Movie's "Nightmare at 20 000 Feet!"

Best News in Ages

Musically speaking, my life has had a big hole in it since the break up of UK rock outfit Reef. They were, and still are, my favourite band of all time. I was shattered when the Stone Temple Pilots split, but I saw it coming - that same year Reef split, and my two favourite bands were no more. STP became Velvet Revolver and Army of Anyone, both very good bands in their own rights, and while their efforts are definitely kick arse, I still wanted my Reef, or some semblance of it. Low and behold, through my random checking of wikipedia, I discover this:

www.themisme.com

Gary Stringer and Jack Bessant, the vocalist and the bass player from Reef have put together a new band. I am fuckin' ecstatic!

In other news, I bought the first season of the 80's Twilight Zone today, which is something I'd hang out for every Friday and Saturday night at midnight when it was airing here on cable television YEARS ago. It's almost hilarious seeing all these big stars from the 80's in these episodes, and seeing Bruce Willis - with hair - in his younger days (especially after having just seen Live Free or Die Hard). Anyone remember an actor named William Atherton? He played Walter Peck in Ghostbusters. He's another one featured in the show! Anyway enough of my nerd-ranting and geeking out.

At the moment, I'm reworking the proposal to the sequel to Tales of the TMNT #36, so pray for that one with me peeps, and I've got to go in for another round of bloodtests tomorrow. Fun and games.

Important People In My Life - Stephen Murphy

This is a man I look up to a great deal. He gave me my break into the world of comics and for that I am both eternally grateful and in his debt... something which I'll never be able to repay in full.

Bad News for Tales #36 Sequel, Other Comic News

Just got a bit of bad news. The sequel idea I proposed to Mirage to follow on from last month's Tales of the TMNT #36 was knocked back. Wasn't told why, but it's a bummer because I thought there were some cool ideas in there and it tied up all the loose ends from "To Serve and Protect"
and if I knew what was liked and what wasn't I could rework it. Oh well, fear not, I have plenty of stories up my sleeve! Just anyone holding out for further exploration of ideas brought up in #36 will have to wait a while longer...

I have, however, been asked to write up another Fast Forward story for the UK! It'll be called Two Heads Are Better Than Three, and will see Triple Threat busting out of incarceration to bust up those responsible for getting him busted in the first bus- I mean place: the TMNT! Not only do they have that to deal with, but Raph and Mike have been fused together through another of Don and Cody's scientific experiments! Due in about three weeks, but not sure when it'll see print (it's usually pretty soon after I finish the draft).

In the mean time, I've started working on some non-TMNT projects I'm hoping lead somewhere. If you like dinosaurs, then watch this space...

SDCC Treasure #2 - Terry Dodson TMNT sketch

Here's the Dodson sketch. Terry Dodson is easily one of the coolest people I've ever met, really great guy! Hopefully one day I'll get to meet him again (praying one day I'll work with him!)...

SDCC Treasure #1 - Bruce Timm TMNT sketch

I'm back in Australia and have been crook as a dog the past few, also kinda busy with a few things, hence my delay in posting more goodies. Sorry about that! Here's something I think a few people out there would dig seeing: Raphael, by the legendary Bruce Timm! It's off to the framers tomorrow, along with the Usagi sketch by Stan Sakai and Terry Dodson's Michelangelo (watch this space tomorrow)!

Image Fest

Nobody steps on a church in my town!

55 Central Park West. Aka. The Shandor Building from Ghostbusters. Oh yeah. I'm a nerd.

Dad at San Diego Airport

Our hotel room in Northampton...

I like Gorillas, it's just a shame this one isn't real.

HA! TIKI!

I don't think anyone knows how long I have waited to see this.

This really surprised me. I always imagined pleiseosaurs to be larger. The Elasmosaur along the roof wouldn't fit into a photo unfortunately. I would have shat myself had they still existed and I ever faced one though.

Nothing but pure awesome. This thing was huge!

Evan and I on the way to the airport. 6 in the morning.

Airport Brekky. Nummy num!

Oh yeah! It's real. I went there. I'm a nerd. Watcha gondoo abowdit?!

Best food ever. Blurry photo taken by Italian lady. Thanks Italian lady!

Crocs in San Diego Zoo. Tell me this bastard doesn't look like Godzilla in The Return of Godzilla (aka Godzilla 1984)!

This lizard is awesome. More lizards should be like this.

Most exciting announcement at SDCC... For me at least.

Corza cleverly disguising mullet-hunting.

Bizarre Japanese gameshow on airplane.

Response to aforementioned game show.

Turtles in San Diego Zoo.

Yes, this snake has two heads, but the son of a bitch wouldn't come out from behind the damn rock! I waited twenty minutes and this was the best I could get.

Flamingo!

Dad enjoys chairlift.

More later... sorry for the random ordering too. It's late.

Mirage Studios

Last night, I was fortunate enough to meet three very incredible people. It's no big secret that I want to be a comic book writer, and during my time here in the US, I've had a chance to see both DC Comics HQ and Marvel HQ (admittedly, this was simply from the outside), but yesterday we made the trip out to Northampton to visit the studio that has meant the most to me personally: Mirage Studios.

To be completely honest, I had no idea what to expect upon arrival. I'd heard and read all the stories in interviews and magazines about the place, so I wasn't expecting this big place brimming with people and artists, but at the same time, I wasn't expecting it to be as big as it was. If I had've been five years old and gone in there, I would have been in heaven. All the Turtle's stuff was mindblowing, and I was given the opportunity to tour the creative offices, even caught a glimpse of what Jim Lawson is currently working on.

My father and I were greeted by Steve Murphy - the man largely responsible for Tales of the TMNT Vol.2, and now the head of licensing there at Mirage, who took us around the Studio and introduced us to Gary Richardson, CEO of Mirage, and Dan Berger, who is now the in charge of editorial duties at Mirage Publishing (and still webmaster there).

Gary's a really great guy, who, bizarrely enough, immediately found common ground with Dad when he explained that he'd visited Melbourne a couple of years ago and had the (mis)fortune(?) of going to an Aussie Rules match whilst staying there. The bizarre thing was that it was a Richmond match. First game of the season, and a Richmond match. I haven't explained this yet, but my Dad is one of those Richmond fans that gets way too involved from the couch. Our dog (may she rest in peace) used to know, as soon as the football came on (even BEFORE the match began) to get the Hell outta that room, because she knew Dad would eventually get too riled up and she could never handle it. Anyway, back on track, Gary was lucky enough to have corporate viewing and was able to enjoy the finer aspects of the MCG (the few, the proud), though he did admit he would have liked to have sat down in the main seating area with the true fans, have a beer and a meat pie and see the game the way it should be seen. Gary, if you ever read this, let me know when/if you're ever back in town, we'll show you the real way to see Melbourne!

Dan Berger is also an incredibly nice guy! It felt a little weird at first for me, like meeting a new boss for the first time, but as with all those meetings, any trepidations or worries were quickly blown away. I got to see his work area (he and Steve keep the neatest offices ;) ) and was very happy to see how keen he was to eat (I was pretty damn hungry as it was) and that he'd be joining us for dinner. What was also really, really cool was finding out he was into Steve Purcell's work and that both he and Steve knew the Joker story I was hunting down at San Diego -- Dad and I were a little worried (Dad moreso) that they perhaps wouldn't quite be AS into comics as they were! But dinner was great, there wasn't much talk of comics or business, which I'm pretty sure was a relief to all at the table, and the food was absolutely fantastic. I've also got to reitterate how thankful Dad and I are too, so thanks again Steve and Gary (you guys know why)!

So, in one day, not only had I met two of my most influential talents in the comic book industry, but also had a fantastic dinner and lengthy conversations with both. I think it was really great for my old man too, as I was worried he might feel a little out of place.

Northampton itself is a wonderful place. The food here is great, even the pancakes at Jake's - though simple - were delicious. We were kinda bummed we didn't get to hang around longer, as Crowded House were playing at a small pub in town!

There was a neat little manga shop where I found a couple of neat gems to read, along with a comic shop that had a great selection of collections! But I tell ya - if I had've known the extreme amount of TMNT gear that was laying around Mirage, I would've prepared some kinda list and said weight restrictions be damned!

So again, thank you for a wonderful evening Dan, Gary and Steve, and Dad and I are both truly sorry for keeping you as late as we did last night Steve! We didn't even realise there was a storm hitting until we were part way back to the hotel! And thanks again for signing Umbra!

I'm sure more will come to me in the coming days, and I'll post them here in my blog as they return, but for now, that's all!

Meeeeh-mor-reeez!

I'm a Nerd. A Nerd in a sea of Nerds.

Dad meets his idol: Sergio Aragones, who signed his Groo #1. Neither look genuinely impressed here, but somehow I managed to capture the split second neither were smiling properly the whole five minutes they were talking. Sorry Dad!

Super Mario sighting. July 25th, 2007, San Diego Convention Centre.

My main man Jarrod. And a horrendous mullet.

Unworthy Fanboy - Nicest Man On Earth

More photos to come. Here are some. Oh, what fun!

Just a quick update for now... big one following shortly.

I've arrived in Northampton, which really is a beautiful place (especially after spending the past few days in the sweltering city of New York!). I'm about to meet Steve Murphy, the man to whom I owe too much, at Mirage Studios.

I managed to find TMNT for the GBA in a supermarket here! Couldn't believe it! I searched high and low, all over Melbourne for this game and I find it here in a supermarket of all places.

We head back to NYC after breakfast tomorrow. Times Square is ridiculous. The city is unbelievable. I've geeked out at far too many Ghostbusters shooting locations and the Museum of Natural History is awesome!

I also drink far too many smoothies from Jamba Juice there. It's the Aussie equivalent of a Boost Juice - but better! WAY better!

Anyway, gotta run!

Photos from SDCC, San Diego Zoo, and NYC will be coming shortly. Meanwhile, look here:

http://usagiyojimbo.com/conventions/sdcc-2007-stan.html