Elysium

Ian and I have both recently been to see Elysium at the cinema! Since we are living in different countries, we have had to see it separately and commence all our squeeing via the medium of email! I really wanted to share these as I love Ian's opinion of the film. He is much, much cleverer than I! I love his writing, especially when he is excited about something! I hope that if you loved Elysium too then you will find something you can relate to in his words. 

We love sitting around chatting about films. 

***OMGSPOILERS***I must mention that if you haven't seen the film yet then this blog post is not for you! Please don't read any further ^-^***OMGSPOILERS***

Anyway, here are the emails, unedited (and badly spelled on my part!) and RAWR:  

Ian:

FUUUUUUUUUH-HUUUUUUUUCKKKK, YEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THAT FILM WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!
Obvs it's late and I'm tired and need to go to bed, but I had to boot up and log in to mail you about how awesome it was! Christ, I loved every split second of it. It's so gritty and credible but full of awesome tech. I love the story and the characters and how everything pans out in the end. Just perfect. All the actors are great. Not a bad performance in it. I can see why people would complain at the shaky cam, but I think it lent a shot of adrenaline to the fight sequences perfectly and had me gritting my teeth with excitement. The weapons were so satisfying, and when he was using the ChemRail from Elysium's armoury to take that merc dude apart, I nearly cried at how perfect it was.
Plus, the whole film is Blade Runner beautiful, and that's saying something.
It's a D9 beater for me. And, dare I say it, also a Pacific Rim beater too!!! One of the best films I've seen, stat! :D
Totally ordering the book too. I neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed it Dani!

Dani:

 Yes! YES! YEEEEEESSS!! Finally I can have a conversation with someone about Elysium that won't just dismiss it as 'not D9!' Can we Skype about it on Sat evening? 

I loved it too! And the whole world can fuck off with its nit-picky-unfounded-criticisms of Jodie Foster because I LOVED her! She was horrible! Just as greedy and as elitist as today's leaders but multiplied by a 100+ years! I thought she was perfect!
The scenes on earth were harrowing. When he gets trapped in that radiationy-chamber-thingy god I hated every human being on the planet at that moment! I love his character arc so much. The whole movie is very simple, but it's so beautiful and violent and horrible and bleak but ultimately good! I don't know where I'd rather live - Elysium or Earth - both were wretched!
And KRUGER. Fucking hell what a bad guy. When he strokes the face of Frey I crossed my legs so tight! Eeeek! He's the stinking cancer of the film and I looooooved him.
I loved the tech! My friends say that Elysium didn't have a 'holy fuck that's AWESOME mech' moment (just like D9 snooooze get a new line) but I argue that's because there's fucking awesome mech the entire way through! It's easy to ignore the police because they fit in so well but they're all ROBOTS! Yeeeaaaahhh! And the Exo suit hurt me to watch! So awesome!
Argh I'm so glad you loved it! I know I've been saying blah blah stop moaning its not D9 all the way through, but I have to say, it's not a D9 beater for me. But it's right up there. It was exactly what I was hoping and expecting! I love them both for different reasons but Wikus as a character trumps Max I'm afraid, and what happens to him is awful and tragic and awesome and enthralling and I saw it with no expectations and I think it will always be my favourite (Blomkamp) film! I just can't wait to see what he does next?! His ideas seem to come straight out of my own head. He makes these films for meeeeee! :D I wrote Elysium when I was like, 9. I bet we all did. But I never thought it could be so fricking awwwwweesome.
I wish I saw it with you! I bet the drive back would have been an excited conversation! :,) 

Ian:

Yep, in total agreement. Nothing wrong with Jodie Foster or her accent whatsoever. In the first scene with her ordering Kruger to shoot the ships down, there's a close up shot of her which looks like it was ADRed, and I think that might explain the issue, but after that it was all fine. I also think that her accent squarely identified her as of the elite classes of Elysium. Listen to William Fitchner also (the dude who plays the owner of the company that Max works for and who is a class actor in everything I've ever seen him in) and he also effects a similar accent. So for me, it was an 'in film' detail.
I also agree that Wikus is a more endearing/charming character (and yeah, I like him more than Max), but I like Max also. You see a charming side to him when he's asking Frey out for a coffee in the hospital. Obvs I love D9, but I think it's viewed with rose tinted glasses because it came out of nowhere to conquer us all. It was a total sleeper hit from an unknown director and with a great viral marketing campaign. An awesome underdog story and who doesn't love on of them. But D9 doesn't deliver a satisfying conclusion to me. I'm talking less about Wikus' fate and more about the thematic element - it did a great job of setting up this veiled idea of a racial divide and then made no comment on it whatsoever. Whereas I feel that the conclusion to Elysium rounds out both Max's story arc and the social commentary/class divide themes in a satisfying way at exactly the same time.
Also, the shift from surveillance footage in D9 to normal film/shot construction threw me when I saw it in the cinema, but the filmic techniques in Elysium were spot on. I loved the intense shaky cam during the fighty/action sequences. Like a dose of adrenaline it made me feel like I was the one in the fight. I can understand why people complained that they couldn't keep up, but would you be able to keep up in fight with Kruger/droid/person/firefight etc etc? If all you can see reliably is the occasional detail - i.e. a hand reaching for a blade, a fist coming at you - amongst a blur of confusion, then I'd say that's a pretty good approximation of the panic of a conflict. So that technique really worked for me.
Anyway D9 is still an unbelievably awesome film, but Elysium irons out those one or two minor issues I had with D9, to make it perfect. Love love loved it!

END.

If you agree or don't agree, I'd love to hear! One of the most fun things I did was put an opinion about Prometheus on Facebook that sparked such an amazing discussion! I love talking about what I like and don't like with others. It's so much fun :D 

Mako Mori

Pacific Rim is awesome yo. Yeh, yeh, yeh monsters. Yes, yes, yes robots. My favourite bit was the CHICK THAT KICKED ALL THE ASS. Mako Mori. ^-^ 

Worry Wart #29

I spent a day in therapy.
A whole 6 hours learning about my thinking. It has been the best thing I could have done. I have been slowly but surely making amazing steps these past few months. Infact: 2013 in general is going to be such a landmark year for me when I look back. A few different techniques, in combination with each other, coupled with unrivalled love and support have meant that I feel like I've finally, finally cracked it. This anxiety thing. This shit thing!

So this is the beginning of the end of Worry Wart. Thank you for all the amazing messages of support and all the incredible conversations that have been as a result of me baring my soul to you in comic strip form (sort of :p) I don't know how many pages it will take me to end the comic, but it will have a happy ending! I am so, so, soooo much better now. It will contain my experiences of hypnotherapy, ASMR, nutrition therapy, stress and mood management courses, CBT, meditation and my (hopefully) final visit to the doctor.

I have never felt so over this.
I don't believe anxiety has the power to ever scare me again. I know what it is. I know exactly what it is. It doesn't mean I can stop it from happening, but when it does? I am sure it will hold no where near as much power over me as it did all those years ago.
This has been a 5 year battle. It is so hard to relay that in a short comic. And it will be hard to finish it properly. But finish it I must.

Because this comic, or rather the making of this comic, is no longer beneficial to me. And that was always what it was intended for, to be beneficial to me. I am now so far removed from the character in these pages. I don't need to relive these memories. But it will always be here, to remind me just how far I have come. How many steps I took. How I never gave up, no matter how loudly I threatened to. How much I have learned.

I hope that you will always enjoy reading it. One day, if I can figure out how to stitch some sort of narrative into it's tangled mess, I would love to print it ^-^ I would also love to redraw it! Hah!

And you should give yourself a hug every once in awhile! Because, no matter what, we are always trying! And that's the shitting most anyone can ask of us, ever!

To read Worry Wart from the beginning click here!

Squishy Head: Milk

Squishy Head: Toy Day

Squishy Head: Tongue

Squishy Head: Kiss Chase

Squishy Head: Lunch

Squishy Head: Sex

Worry Wart #28

To read Worry Wart from the beginning click here!

Squishy Head: Skin

Worry Wart #27

I know I have touched on this before, eliminating foods, but it really was such a psychologically massive part of my life around 2010-2011. I wouldn't eat anywhere. There was only bread left in my diet at one point... HO BOY WAS THAT AN ERROR. The comic will reveal why soon enough, but for now here is page 27! Wow, 27 pages! Good going, bintykins. I wish I hadn't have bloody lied to the CBT lady, or to everyone else for that matter. I didn't even tell my partner at the time. Having no one to talk to makes EVERYTHING worse. You just have this internal war all day long. I have learned a very valuable lesson. But some behaviours prevail, unfortunately. Not eating before I have a journey/event/meeting/interview is one of them. I have starved myself for days before a train journey just to make sure I'm 'empty.' Not healthy at all. To read Worry Wart from the beginning click here!

Squishy Head: Friend

Worry Wart has a cover! And a page #26!

What do you think? :D

To read Worry Wart from the beginning click here!

Squishy Head

Axa

Here is a drawing of Axa that I coloured up as a birthday pressie for a very good friend of mine. I have included the stages as I find it so interesting when I see other artists breakdowns! I am trying to really push my colouring lately! I hope I'm getting better :D

Also: here's a cheeky bit of reference I used! It's not even Axa! :D Mmmmmm Xena...

Dexter's Half Dozen pin-up

Dexters Half Dozen is one of my abso fave UK Indie titles! They have 8 issues out and are currently collecting them together to print as trades. When artist David Clifford asked me to do a pin up to print in the back of one of their books I almost jumped on him! I was so excited! So here she is! I think it's my bestest work ever, I am so happy with it! I've collected the baddies from The Pit of Pestilence issues (#5 and #6) and thrown Walpurgis in for good measure. I love a bad girl, me, and DHD is full of them! Anna cons the soliders into following her to their certain doom. She says 'Do you know what it is like, to lose everyone you ever loved?' Tricksy bitch!

I bloody love Dave's artwork! And I never thought I could get so sucked into a WWII story quite so much as I am with this series! It is written by Jamie Lambert and he is one funny dude! I hope you can see just how much I love this comic in my pin up. It doesn't do the series justice though: CHECK IT OOOOUT!

Commission: Instruction signage!

I recently had a brief to create some instruction sheets for some equipment used in a stop-motion animation studio! Specifically in the puppet making department and, even more specifically, for a cool bit of kit called a Vacuum Chamber!
Here is my finished work:

I got the chance to use it too! Watching air being sucked out of silicone is coooool!

I am currently open for commissions!

Need some 'toons? You let me know, yeah!? I am so contactable it's almost sad! I work digitally. Full colour, B&W, character art, comics pages, whatever your project needs! Get in touch and we can talk quotes! I can work to suit all budgets!

Hope you enjoyed the sketch dump! I have been busy preparing for, travelling to, enjoying and selling at and eventually, getting over Bristol Comic Expo 2013! What a blast! We sold 90 comics! That's amazing - it's only our second con and we are over the mooooon! You can buy one or both issues of RAZARHAWK over at our Comicsy Store! Woo woo!

Worry Wart #25

You can find out everything you need to from www.moodpanda.com
I downloaded it from the app store on my iPhone back when I was doing CBT. It's great for recording your mood as a numerical value so you can remember for later. The best thing about it is seeing all your Happy and Sad updates in one place, so you can spot patterns. If you can spot a pattern then you are more likely to make changes and stick to them - it's tailored, it works for you.
I became so in love with moodpanda I even designed the sites avatars :)

Here are some of the avatars I drew!

It also offers a community of like minded people, all over the world. More often than not, someone will be feeling exactly the same as you - and they can let you know in the form of virtual hugs! It's recently featured on American telly too! On NBC! Not bad for a free app created in Bristol!

If you don't want hugs then you can make it entirely private too! But who doesn't like hugs!?

I know I sound like a sales rep, but I really can't tell you how much moodpanda has dragged me through some awful times. And I don't really need to sell it, if you feel like me then you'll know how useful it could be.

I love tech!

To read Worry Wart from the beginning click here!