30 Days of Marvel

I recently found a 30 Days of Marvel Meme and have been doing it sporadically on my livejournal and decided to post it over here, in a more public venue.
I also decided to post sketches to go with my answers. The first day asked 'Who is your favorite Marvel Character?'
Day#1: Your Favorite Character: Well, I have more than one: My top Three MOST favorites are Kitty Pryde, Jean Grey and Warren Worthington III, followed closely by Gambit, Human Torch and Blink. I first was introduced to Kitty Pryde as part of an anthology of prose for the X-Men that I was given as a gift when I was a kid. She was on the cover of it, without her mask and I wondered who this girl was: I could identify everyone else but her. I read the book and in two stories she was introduced, one after the events of 'Mutant Massacre' the other before, and something about her character attracted me. She was equal parts strong and vulnerable, happy and melancholy. This was before internet was as prevalent as it is now so looking for her didn't come up with many results and then when I started reading back issues of Uncanny X-Men, she appeared! The more I read her in the pages of my Uncanny X-Men the more I loved her. People say she's a mary sue, something Claremont made to be his dream girl, but I think she's more than that. She was a girl character that was ahead of her time: praised for being intelligent, savvy in 'male only' fields like computers and sci-fi, courageous enough to sass Wolverine and kind enough to help the Rasputins feel at home in a country far from their childhood. She was everything I wanted to be: smart, brave, funny, courageous, loyal and devoted to her team. As I've read the comic following her growth from a 13 year old girl to a young woman who's faced aliens and Magneto, and evil beyond what any child should be exposed to, I've loved her all the more, and felt myself grow and learn from her.
Let's go to Jean Grey before I start waxing nostalgic and make us all groan with cheesiness. I admit it, for years and years, I didn't like Jean Grey at ALL. I thought she was 'oh sooo perfect!' with her looks and her powers and being the Phoenix and having all the men fall over themselves wanting her attentions, I thought, "I don't sympathize or relate to her' I didn't, not like I did with Kitty Pryde, and in fact it wasn't until I found out Scott cheated on her with Emma Frost that I started to like her. It's not a schedenfreude way, that I liked her being hurt or liked that she was 'taken down a peg' but that Scott did that to her, Emma did that to another woman, and I got mad on her part, and I felt I could understand her better. She, for all her looks and her powers, couldn't keep her husband from hurting her like that, and so I sympathized with her and went back to re-read my back issues, with new eyes and realized: hey, this woman is AWESOME. First X-Woman who held her own among men, who was kind to everyone, regardless of their past or their actions, even bad guys, who died to save her friends and ended up with a force inhabiting her that she never truly wanted(yes she asked for help and said she'd accept any terms, but when you're hurtling towards earth in a ramshackle rocket with high chances of being killed, you'll accept anyone's help) and she lost so much in the time she was gone, and when she returned, she had to start over from the ground up not only with her new powers but with her relationships and her life, and she smiled through it, and persevered and became a woman to be reckoned with, a woman to look at and say " I want HER in my corner." She's an extraordinary character, and I adore her.
Last but not least, is Warren Worthington. I first was introduced to him in the same book that I 'met' Kitty Pryde and was instantly taken with him, but alas! At the time, I couldn't find any issues or books with him, until I happened across a copy of 'Mutant Massacre' and in the same book that I got to know him, I had to watch him suffer the agony of losing his wings and nearly his life. I got more issues, going further back, to before Kitty Pryde and got to meet him again, as a young, winged Angel. Something about him draws me, he is, I admit, a generic character, a stereotype even, who fades behind the rest of the more vibrant X-Men, but his personality, steady and compassionate even in the face of what he's endured and what his friends have gone through, is attractive to me. If I lived in the pages of the X-Men, I'd follow him, and adore him, wanting to be his friend, his confidante. Jean has, or had, Scott, Hank and Bobby have each other, and Warren is the lone man who has to take to the sky to reconcile himself with his feelings. I'd want to be the one who listens to him unburden himself about his life and his worries. I don't even know if that's normal, but that's how I feel: He needs a friend.

APEcon 2010 Recap Part one

Quite a whiles after APEcon, I'm able to sit down and go through the various business cards, flyers and advertisements I'd picked up at the con. In alphabetical order, I'll discuss which sites/contents I like, and which ones I had personal interaction with in terms of the artists or creators behind the stuff presented on each site.

Business Cards:

*** 6th Circle Comics A webcomic about tattooists at the '6th Circle Tattoo Parlor' I haven't read it all, but in skimming through it, I can see it's a good read, underground humor about body modifications and tattoos. I met one of the maintainers, who was drawing a wicked sweet Darth Vader.

***** Jed Alexander I met this man and his wife. He's incredibly talented, and very kind. He has this wonderful Jean James-esque piece of elephants and a cityscape and if it weren't for the size of the poster I would have bought it. He drew me an elephant and I bought postcards, one of which has said elephants and cityscape. An incredibly talented and nice man. You can see the elephants and cityscape piece here.

Adrianna Bamber I don't recall seeing her table, so I might've gotten her card from the freebies table, but she does adorable animal paintings, I really enjoy her Unicorn family portrait, under 'Pony Portraits."

Aggie Cheung I really liked the art pieces she had at Apecon, so I picked up her card. Looking at her site, I'm awed by her different styles and techniques, and really like her "Couples' piece

***** Alain Norte This guy is talented and nice. I saw his pieces and he had a sign saying 'ask about con sketches' which I did. He agreed to do a BEAUTIFUL Jean Grey, and I love it so so much. I also love that he drew her as powerful and beautiful without going for cheesecake and fanservice.I was actually a little worried as I walked away after leaving my sketchbook with him considering his Powergirl in a swimsuit piece on prominent display on his table (although, let's be honest, it's kinda hard to draw PG without having to include fanservice isn't it?)but he drew her tastefully and beautifully. If I see him at another convention, I'll be begging him for another piece to add to my collection. He also does great zombies :3

Amy Martin Another table I didn't really look at, but looking at her site, she has comics she's made for sale and the artstyle looks crisp and clean. Not much else to say.

Andrew Mar Looking at his stuff, I keep thinking I'd stopped at his table and looked at his art, but I can't remember if I did or not, but I like his works, his asian women perspective studies are beautiful

The Anthology Project A collection of different artists and their own comics all combined together (hence the 'anthonlogy' in the name I suppose) with different ideas and talents. This site looks interesting and I'll be looking at it in more depth at another time. I don't recall what I saw at their booth, but I must've liked it enough to pick up their card.

Elle Johara Also does lesbiandrama, a webcomic I haven't read. Her stuff is pretty funny, although I can't remember how much of it I saw at APEcon.

Bees and Murderers I originally picked this up because, after all, how can you resist a card with a cute bee saying 'Bees and Murderers"? I didn't look at his stuff when I walked by, it didn't seem like something I'd like, and going to his site, I'm not able to read the comics easily, at least on my computer and I like some of his works, especially under the 'illustration' part, but overall, I'm a big fan of the title itself.

Brandon Bird OMG this guy. I saw him at last year's APEcon where my friend bought his 'Christopher Walken' poster and a set of his Law and Order valentines cards. He mixes realistic portraits of actors with surreal situations, like a wonderful piece of his of Sir Ian McKellen, as Magneto, with baby chicks all over him, or his piece of Nicholas Cage being embraced by a baboon or something like that. He's talented and offbeat.Said Sir Ian piece: here

Brianna Harden Originally I picked up her card for the cool bear painted on it, but looking at her site, she's immensely talented, I love her 'Something you can't return to' piece and her hairstyles piece from the front page.

Brynn Metheney She specializes in animal illustration, and even does realistic images of animals she's invented or altered.

Buluchu This woman shared the table with Aggie Cheung, and I actually remember her! She had these cute purses and a clever idea she'd made, of an bracelet.. thing with a hook, for keys, so you could put the band around your wrist, but it was covered in cute material, not like the spiral plastic that always pinches my skin. I was SO tempted to buy one of her wallet/purse things that folded over and over, but I was trying to conserve my money. I'll definitely be checking her site out and keeping an eye on her products.Looking at her shop, she has a traveler's organizer with room for the passport, credit cards, airline cards, airline tickets(I think?) a pen and it all zips so nothing falls out, I coulda used that when I went to Japan last summer!

Cat Farris Cute stuff, not my kind of thing, but someone might be into her stuff.

Danni Shinya I stood at her table in awe of her skills and her creations but walked away with nothing because I was trying to save money and also, incredibly, looking at her works, intimidated me. She does beautiful paintings and beautiful women and apparently she's done some covers for Marvel Comics of X-23. I liked the piece she did of the woman and the tiger.

DotsDotsDots Remember when you were a kid, you'd get these plastic beads and put them in a shape and use a hot iron to melt one side of it together so the other side had a picture? this guy makes them of your favorite video game character, or pokemon or character (he has a Nico Robin from One Piece! I love her so much, I wish I'd seen that at his table!) They're cute, they look like they leaped right from your old school Sega.

DuckaComic I don't remember seeing her stuff, but looking through her blogspot, she seems to have a great sense of humor and I actually just remembered, she must've been the woman with the neat rubber duckies we saw. Wow! She had cool stuff, I should take the time to look at her stuff if she comes to another APEcon.

Dusty Divine What an amazing name. Dusty Divine. And what an amazing talent. His renderings and paintings are beautiful and full of emotion and passion.

Eidolon Fine Arts I was captivated by some of the beautiful pieces they had at their table. Apparently this is a book seller or something? I don't know, but it was pretty crowded so I couldn't get in to look at anything, so I might've missed out on buying something wonderful (reading their site, they say at Comiccon 2010, they had Jean James' pieces for sale) but that's also a good sign: good stuff if the people crowded it.

Emily Martin Part of the Megamoth Studios, I didn't stop to browse the table, it was too crowded, so I scanned the art she had, liked it and grabbed a card. Not much else to say.

****Emma Sancartier Her stuff is beautiful, delicately rendered watercolors. I loved her Anglerfish couple and her firebird art, I was so tempted to splurge on the prints. She gets stars for doing anglerfish art.

Eunjung June Kim I passed her table, didn't stop to look, she was crowded, but the art on the back of her card had me picking it up and pocketing it. Her stuff is wonderful, and cheerful, I like her use of color and shadows.

Fiona Meng Interesting artstyle, and interesting in a good way. She does subjects that are both beautiful and unsettling in a way, like 'The Last Judgement' and also has some graphic novels. All I remember of her table is one girl dressed up like the woman drawn on the business card, with one pink eye.

*****Frederick the Great! The man was wearing a top hat and a nice coat, and doing free drawings of historical figures. He runs this site, about history,I haven't read it yet, I plan to though. He said he'd draw me Nathan Hale, but I had to leave early and he said he'd mail it to me. I'm still waiting for it, but if he mails it, he's got a fan for life, if he didn't, ah well, it was the thought that counted. It looks like it'll be a funny comic. EDIT: I got my Nathan Hale as well as a wonderful kind letter, he's every bit the gentleman he appears to be.

Grim Wilkins I wish I'd taken the time to look through his book, looking at his site, his art looks awesome and the title "Love Story in the Woods' sounds cool. If he's at the next APEcon I'll have to remember to check him out.

Hans Tseng Interesting art, I like his illustrations and his stuff is pretty.

Industrial Fairytale Steampunkish jewelery and art, I really admired the things they had for sale but it was out of my price range. I did love the 'Oh My Stars and Garters' cover and I like the robot stuff too. A site I'll be checking out often.

Jakc Designs Cute tees and blankets with cute images sewn on them, like ice cream cones and robots.

Jana Cook Looking at her site, I can't tell where she's going, and her stuff is kind of..generic. I'm not sure what to think of this site. But she has some funny ideas in her videos and comics.

Agent Scully redux

I used a reference I found online but I think the previous one looks more like the Agent Scully we all know.

Sketch A Day, part two

My first try at drawing Agent Scully while watching reruns of 'X-Files'.

Sketch your Life attempt one

I'm currently undertaking Michael Nobbs' Sketch Everyday challenge, and this is one of the pages. I recently found the third season of 'Bones' at Rasputins and was watching it. I adore the main character, Bones, so dang much, ADORE. So while watching ' Player Under Pressure' I made an attempt to sketch her face out, it seemed easy enough, she has very strong features (her jawline, her eyes) but it proved a lot harder than I'd hoped. Hopefully, for a first try, it looks enough like her that I can be proud. In the same episode there was a character with a distinctive and retro hairstyle, which I quickly jotted down, in the corner opposite Bones. I made an aborted try at Zach, my second favorite character, but he proved too hard to try, not without a still of him. (Oh man, The Pain in the Heart! :( ) In the very bottom, the PG is a try at designing a logo for Power Girl to go in the hole on her chest, but you know, her chest hole IS kinda her logo now huh? The rest are doodles, nothing too terribly amazing, but it feels nice to have something on paper, something to be working on instead of sitting idly watching my dvds.

Sketch Your Life-Michael Nobbs

So I recently downloaded Michael Nobbs' free ebook 'Start to Draw Your Life' (Here ) and his book gave me more ideas for what to do with this blog, hopefully this will breathe some new life here. I'll try to do what he suggests, drawing something from my life, something small and quick every day and upload it here, not quite every day, I start school again in a couple of weeks and I don't know how much time I'll have to mess with scanning and uploads and the like but I can at least try a massive weekend dump every week. I try to draw a bit every day but it usually results in sketches and detailed drawings of people and the like, not exactly super challenging stuff or stream of consciousness style sketches like Michael Nobbs is encouraging, so let's see if I can take up his challenge.

His blog, I plan to read through it and see what information I learn from it, is here.

Green Arrow II

So the last couple of days I've read the few graphic novels I have that feature Connor Hawke, Green Arrow II. And surfing the 'net for more fan stuff and pictures of him.

I think, somehow, almost without my knowing it, he became one of the top five favorite DC characters in my list.

He's the son of the original Green Arrow, a Buddhist monk, gentle, kind, polite, loving, forgiving, vegan, patient, loyal, and a hopeless romantic. On paper, he sounds perfect, too bad he's not real. Anyways, he came about in the 90s I believe, and I think he's Kyle Rayner's best friend, they did a lot of team ups in the 90s. I missed a LOT of his storylines, it wasn't until I got a copy of Green Arrow:Quiver in a library that I got to read him for the first time, so all my exposure is from the Kevin Smith-and the writers afterwards-run, so I'm hoping to find other books with him in it, he just seems like such a stand up guy, I want to read more about him.

Anyways, so basically Connor Hawke's just an interesting and unique character-not just because of his ethnicity(white, black and asian all in one package) but because he's so mild and even tempered when the rest of the cast are volatile and temperamental. He's even keeled in the face of his father's outbursts, and Mia's antics and Kyle's energy. I really look forward to finding out more about him and his storylines in the GNs of Green Arrow.

Survive Style +5

At Fanime 2010, a couple weeks ago, my friend Jenna and I got to see the Japanese film: "Survive Style +5".

It was amazing. An equal mix of drama and comedy, violence and romance, the movie has 5(six if we include the two jaded teen girls) stories that all seem separate but eventually merge and cumulate into a mind-blowing, head scratching visual feast known as "Survive Style +5"

The five stories are thus:

Story 1: Husband (played by popular actor Tadanobu Asano) and Wife (not sure who plays her, but she had such gorgeous clothes, the favorite being the one in the picture above.) Both are creative and unorthodox characters, as visualized from his car, painted with flowers, the clothes she wore, to the house they lived in, each room decorated in a 'theme' of sorts, a wonder house of different things to look at and observe. The house was almost a third character itself. But visual aspects aside, the story is this: For reasons unknown, Husband has gotten into the habit of killing Wife, who has, herself, gotten into the habit of coming back from the dead. She appears, attacks and in his self-defense, he kills her. Rinse. Repeat.

Story 2: A loving, happy family gets tickets to see a hypnotist, who hypnotizes the father into believing he is a bird, and when the hypnotist, due to the actions of the characters from Stories 4 and 5, is unable to return to his human self. The story then shows the family learning to accept their 'bird-dad'.

Story 3: Three young men have a hobby of breaking into houses and supposedly stealing things to sell, although they were only ever shown to play with the kids' toys and games. One of the three is in love with another of the three, and this story is more of the comedic variety.

Story 4: A self absorbed self-described 'genius' Ad Exec has ideas for the weirdest, lamest commercials, none of which are funny, and if we laughed, it was only because the ads were too weird to be believable. When she is insulted by the hypnotist from Story 2, she hires the characters from Story 5 to wipe him out, thus forming the connection between the characters of Stories 1-5. The least interesting, but most vital in how she causes the events to all merge and take place.

Story 5: An American assassin and his Japanese interpreter are hired by the woman from Story 4 to kill the hypnotist, causing the father from Story 2 to remain in his 'bird brain' state, as well as being hired by Husband to kill his wife. In the process of Story 5, the assassin also has a run-in with the three from Story 3, attacking one of them.

Story 6: I consider this another story, but the girls were pretty much side characters who only appeared three times, one girl getting more bandages with each appearance, and both girls having an unemotional exchange in which the bandaged girl explains that she was attacked by birds and then by a would be rapist, while the other girl continues to text.

I won't spoil the ending, but all I will say is that Bird-Dad and Husband finally meet and their respective stories overlap.

This movie was a blast to watch, visually stimulating, and a tear jerker in some places. I recommend seeing this movie.

Interdimension time travel talk

No, there isn't going to be any physics or any scientific talk here. What I know of science is from comic books and films.

But really, I've been thinking, if I had a choice between who I'd travel with, which would I pick? The doctor with his TARDIS and his sonic screwdriver and his need to help everyone and be involved in politics and altering time and history, or Ford Prefect and his thumb and his towel and his need to see the world and have fun and get lost in the past and drink dangerous alien alcoholic drinks?

I asked my dad this question and we both actually had to think. Either is just as dangerous as the other, the Doctor has enemies after him(the Master, the Daleks, etc) and there's no garauntee that you, as companion, would survive traveling with the Doctor (Rose-lost in another dimension, Donna-forgot everything about the Doctor and if she ever remembers her brain will burn out, Sarah Jane-waited forever for him to come home. Martha's the only one who walked away and got a normal life, but she'll never recover from the Doctor). And Ford Prefect, he makes enemies and friends everywhere he goes, he has no concept of self-preservation, much less looking out for his companions, he left Arthur Dent alone in the universe to figure out what to do. The Doctor at least worries and protects his companions, Ford Prefect just goes off on his own.

And then Dad pointed out that the Doctor controls time, or can manipulate it, so you could travel with him for years and centuries and decades and millineum and then he'd drop you right back at the second you left, and no one would be the wiser. Ford Prefect would take you to the end of the Galaxy, the end of Time itself and then say, 'well, how do we get back home?' and it'd be another adventure to get back, but no gaurantee that you'd make it to the world you knew.

(although technically, the world you knew was already destroyed, hence the whole getting onboard with Ford thing.)

I don't know. Ford seems to be more a partyer, going from planet to the next and just doing his own thing. The Doctor's just traveling because he has no where to go, so..

I suppose, in the end, I'd pick to go with the Doctor, even if it meant I got a bad ending.

Ford Prefect, his philosophy is amazing and inspiring, but he's freakin' nuts, I'm not trusting my life with a dude who got Arthur Dent lost in prehistoric Earth-2.

A fish story (Sirène Song)

I found this video while looking for something else and it's just so cute I couldn't resist.

Chris Evans time!

Aww lookit that face. I think Chris Evans is slowly becoming my second favorite actor. He'll never be my first favorite, but considering Sir Ian Mckellen is the one residing in #1, it's pretty dang good to get that high up. I first saw him in 'Not Another Teen Movie' when it first came out, with my friend Samantha. I remember, at the time, being so fascinated by his hair, it was so obviously dyed. He was pretty funny in that movie, and then I forgot about him. When he played Johnny Storm in the Fantastic Four series, I took notice of him, and I adore his protrayal of Johnny Storm. Maybe loving the movies isn't something to admit openly, not to comic book fans, but you know what? I consider the movies different from canon, an interpretation, so I can love both the comic and the movie versions. But anyways, I found his Johnny spot on. And then for a while, I only liked him as Johnny. And considering his role in Not Another Teen Movie, I started to think of him as a..I don't recall the term for an actor that only does one thing, but I considered him a one trick pony, he was GOOD at what he did, but I thought all he could do was comedy. When I heard he was going to play Captain America, I was concerned, because although I like Chris Evans and although I like Captain America, I couldn't get the image of well.. Johnny Storm as Steve Rogers out of my head. I thought perhaps he'd already been type cast. Then I caught the tail end of 'Cellular" and his role in that movie, well, it proved he could do drama just as well as comedy, and when The Losers came out, I'd already resolved to see it because it had Jeffery Dean Morgan and Zoe Saladana in it, he was just icing.

Well, he was the best part of the movie! At least for me. He was funny and dramatic and had the character down pat. Seriously, I was impressed. So now I've got Sunshine and Fierce People, and I plan to watch them to see how well he did those roles, and I am actually looking forward to seeing his portrayal of Steve Rogers/Captain America.

I might even go see Scott Pilgrim Vs The World since he's in it. I'm really leaning towards it.

Even though Michael Ceras is the star. I'm sorry but he creeps me out, always has since Arrested Development.

Wondercon 2010 Recap

Wow this is a few weeks late, I would have done this recap a lot sooner but I'd been waiting for pictures to come out of the whole thing and they haven't. But I have scans of art! And a screencap!

In my last post, I discussed getting to go see Kick-Ass a week or so before it

premiered and how much I loved it. My friend Jenna is actually showing up in the commercials for it! She's the one in pink who kicks at the camera. But when I was watching the commercial, I realized *I'M* in it too! I circled where we are in the pic

ture.

But anyways, back to Wondercon! So Jenna and I have been going to conventions for years as a pair, mostly APEcon and anime conventions, and last year's Wondercon was her first WC, and so this year she jumped at the chance to go again. I went with the express notion of meeting Amanda Connor and Jenna wanted to meet Peter Beagle, the writer of The Last Unicorn. We showed up and we went to the artist alley, where we try to get doodles, and Jenna got a cute sketch of a unicorn and I got a commision

of Boy Blue from this woman. Isn't it adorable? After her, we went by this table looking for the guy who played Chewbacca and ended up THISCLOSE to Adam Baldwin! HE IS TAAAALLLL.

We went by the artist alley again, where I got a doodle from FRANK CHO!

He was pretty nice, so I'm glad I worked up the nerve to talk to him. After Frank Cho, we swung by Amanda Connor's table but she wasn't there, so we went over to Peter Beagle's table. He was pretty nice and signed Jenna's copy of the movie of the Last Unicorn three times, plus a picture she bought from his table.

He was willing to sign my sketchbook too. That imprint you see on the paper is the Frank Cho sketch, so now I have two in one!

Jenna was so excited about Peter Beagle and her unicorn sketch that she ran over to this other booth to show off the autograph and it turned out the man running the booth was doing some sort of record breaking thing where he did as many sketches as he could for the whole weekend so Jenna got on board for a...unicorn. She had a unicorn full day.

I got on for a girl cowboy. After I got my girl cowboy, we decided to swing by the artist alley to see if Amanda Connor was there. She was! And she was so so nice! I'm an even bigger fan of hers than I was before. So much so I even went out the next day to my local comic book store (Flying Colors) and bought the Power Girl TPB with Amanda Connor's pencils. The cover and a place to buy it: Here. Anyways, promoting done, I stood in line and she asked if I was there for the writer and when I told her I was here for HER, she acted all surprised, and I got to tell her how much I love her art and how I love how she draws her women. I bought a Catwoman print(which I don't have a scan of, it's too big for my scanner) and she was just so nice and gracious. Definitely going on my list of people I adore. After her, we decided the con was a bust so after stopping by Trina Robbins' table to buy her new book, we went to dinner and came back for the movie 'Kick-Ass' which you all read about in my last post. Next year will be fun and I look forward to it!

Shut Up. Kick Ass

Wondercon was this past weekend and although I picked up some cards and freebies, as well as getting some sketches and getting to meet Amanda Connor face to face and telling her I love her art(OMG she is the nicest nicest person ever) it was all quickly and superbly overshadowed by an event that happened that night. My friend Jenna and I went to the Kick-Ass booth to see about getting tickets to get into the autographing booth for the movie because her favorite actor portrays Red Mist(the kid in red on the ads) but when we arrived, this older woman asked if it was just us two there and when we said yes, she asked if we wanted to be on a panel for the advance screening of Kick-Ass, which was even better (maybe) than getting autographs so we got to see the entire movie before its release on April 16. I'm not here to spoil it or review it, I'm here to say it was, indeed, awesome, the fight scenes featuring Hit Girl was extremely well executed and planned, I loved the cinematography and the way it was handled. As far as I'm concerned, Hit Girl is where the movie's at. The other actors were cool, I liked Kick Ass and Red Mist, I even liked Kick Ass's friend, not the one in glasses, the other one, he looked familiar but comparing them to Hit Girl's character, they all paled immensely. She was so ruthless but so devoted to her father and equal parts badass vigilante and adorable geek girl, helping Kick Ass while also taking him down a notch. If they release her as a doll or something, I'll be adding her to my collection.

Just Rhythm Emotion

If you were a teenager or a young adult in the late 90s and early 2000s who was into anime, you can probably surmise what this post is going to be about.

Gundam Wing is one of a long running series about pilot operated futuristic robots called Gundams. It's been around since, what, the 60s?

Out of all the different series and takes on the same mythology, GW seems to be the most popular in America, I think.

I'm not sure why, in comparison to other series, that GW was more popular. Perhaps it was timing, having been released in America right in the midst of the big boom in which everyone was suddenly clamoring for anime and manga or perhaps it was the infamous yaoi fanbase that propagated underground, or the intricate and diverse backstories of the cast of characters. Although, to be fair, it seems to me the Gundam series' have all had a tradition of having complex characters, so I can't say GW was the only Gundam series to have that. More likely, I suspect, it was timing. Or the fanbase.

Anyways, I'm not going to go into detail about the plot: I found it confusing and boring, it was too political for 15 year old me. The characters I liked, but to be true, the plot and their connections to the plot went over my head and I probably missed alot of information, and such, I like characters I shouldn't and dislike characters I should like, perhaps. I digress. To be concise, I liked Gundam Wing for the boys and the fanbase, not the show or the political intrigue. Perhaps now that I'm older, I can appreciate the more nuanced subtleties of the show. Perhaps now that I'm older and rewatching the series, I'll like it better and understand it better. Maybe.

But for now, I'll go from my memories.

I got into it through friends and through the online fanbase. I was reading summaries and stories about Trowa before I saw him in action-so to speak- and I was already madly madly in love with him. He was the silent and strong, serious but acrobatic type. He was like Dick Grayson, my first fictional love, only without the sparkly panties and the nonstop wise-cracking. I just adored him, the circus acrobat who piloted the flamboyant red Gundam and who followed the other four pilots silently.

The show did have interesting parts, for me, it was the characters. I loved the parts with Trowa and Catherine at the circus, and Trowa and Heero, Trowa and Quatre, Treize, Zechs, Duo and Heero, the parts that was them in day to day life, or in non Gundam space battles and non political debates, was interesting to me, enough to keep me going.

Right from the start, I adored adored ADORED Trowa, the one with the floofy collar in the top of the picture. He was silent, and stoic, and business like but still kind and in my mind, he was just shy. Although, yeah, because of his upbringing, more likely he was just socially awkward, what with never being allowed to be a kid, and always having to be a soldier.

I liked the villains too, they were more complicated and even as a squawking fifteen year old, I could appreciate complexity in characters. Treize was the more favorite one I think. And now, apparently, I love him all the more for having had an illegitimate bastard child.

Most of all, GW was more of a community to me,than a show. My friends and I had stories we shared about the GW people, we had drawings and conversations about the series and online a whole world was open to me, where I could find stories about Trowa, as a spy, as a pirate, as a prince, as a doctor. GW was my introduction to internet fanbases, to actual fanfic sites and shrines and music videos and doujinshis. Up til GW, I only knew of the Bobby Drake site, UnFrozen, which seems to be down now, unfortunately, and I thought that was it. Sites to read and absorb information passively. GW showed me that there's people on the other end, people to email and to write to, and to fangirl over the same common like, people who formed a community.

Sailor Moon got me into the internet, and GW got me to stay.

If Only We had Wings, We Might Fly Higher

Title is from a song lyric I read somewhere and liked. And I think it suits the topic today: The Cal Leandros series by Rob Thurman

In summary, the Cal Leandros series is about a half monster half human young man named Cal and his band of merry men(and women) as they try to keep New York and the world safe from Cal's monstrous relatives, the Auphe.

Basically, I read the first and second books last summer, and started the third, which I just finished recently, while on my trip to Japan last august. At first reading, they read like pretty well written fanfiction. The author has a great idea, a good grasp of mythology and seems to be enthusiastic about her characters and that feeling came across, so I was able to find enjoyment in slogging through her overuse of purple prose and nonsensical overdramatic wording. One line that came to mind is from the first book: "It took me a moment to realize that was a venomous version of a snake's wistful sigh". I'm sorry, but does that make sense to anyone? She spends too much time trying to be clever and poetical, when I prefer she spent time focusing on the story, it is a GOOD story. I found myself having a hard time reading her stuff, because her writing style was so jarring, I found myself more distracted by the wording, and so when I started the third book, I wasn't in a push to finish it. But I did recently, and I just started re-reading the first book. Let me tell you, the series is going on my list as top favorites, under 'Guilty Pleasure'. Some people have 'Twilight' some people have romances, I guess as far as guilty pleasures go, the Cal Leandros series isn't so bad.

Purple prose overkill aside, this is why I like this series. If you love 'Supernatural' this might be something up your alley. The main character, Cal, is half human half Auphe, a horrible, ruthless bloodthirsty race of monsters from another dimension. Ever since he was a teenager and was snatched away to the Auphe home dimension, he and his older brother, Niko, have been on the run from the Auphe. The bond between brothers is a favorite to be written about, and I love sibling stories, so having the two brothers be so close and so dear to each other, to the point where they will die for each other, is something I love having to read about.(Although, often, Rob Thurman will repeat that they are close brothers who love each other, rather than 'showing' it or accepting that we, the readers, already know and accept that they are awesome brothers..) Niko is pretty cool himself, a smart, self educated man in literature and martial arts, he's cool and collected and has more faith in Cal's humanity than Cal himself. Niko is also dating Promise, an older vampire heiress, who often accompanies the men on monster hunts. She's portrayed as cold but maternal. To be honest, I'm not getting much of a feel for her yet, even though it's been three books already. I'm not sure if I like her or am ambivalent about her. I guess being ambivalent about women characters is a step further than hating them. We get so many women characters who are shown as either perfect or bitchy that I can't help but hate the character for either being an unrealistic representation of women or for just being a jerk. So Promise, as an ambivalent character is ok for me. George, the young psychic that Cal is in love with(or at least until the third book...?) is the same way too. On one hand, I like her for being sassy, and strong and defiant in Cal's self-pitying sacrificial behavior, on the other, she's shown as a perfect girl, on a pedestial-in fact, Cal refers to her as his Red and Gold girl at some point, if I recall?-that I can't help but feel we are being pressured to view George in only one flat 2-d way. Even though it is through Cal's eyes that we are reading the story and such, through his eyes that we see and know George so that may very well be the reason why we only see her as the serene ever-loving girl of his dreams. Cal is pretty cool, in my book. I like him, but my favorite is the puck.

Robin Goodfellows, the immortal over-sexed charming lonely former god. The brothers Leandros met Robin at a used car lot. They blackmailed him into helping them get information on the Auphe. He got attacked because of it. But he came back. Cal saw his loneliness from endless years being the only one of his kind, and was willing to let him hang around. Over time, the two of them become friends and I totally want a later book to have the two of them go on a road trip and have wacky hijinks and high adventures culminating in a deep bro love bond like JD and Turk from 'Scrubs'. I don't know why it is Robin is my favorite, and it seems, from some cursory scanning the internet for Cal Leandro fanlove, he's a favorite of other fans too. Maybe it's because he serves as the comic relief in the story, maybe it's because he's the immortal with underground connections and who always backs the brothers up. Maybe it's because of his banter with Promise, Niko and Cal. I think, maybe, it's because when he shows up, we know something is about to go down, whether its someone's pants or a fight.

In short, the Cal Leandros series is a fun read to have in the hours before bedtime, in a comfy chair by a warm fire, or in a bubble bath. Just don't expect pulitzer level writing.

You can find her books at amazon.

"That's my good Girl'

Just recently got around to watching Supernatural's 'Abandon All Hope' episode and it left quite the impression on me.

* SPOILERS*

In the episode, Jo and Ellen Harvelle, a mother-daughter Hunter team show up and make their last stand and their finale is so heart wrenching and so tough and so amazing and perfect. They went out as heroes and as a family at the same time.

Jo, the daughter, is one of my favorite characters, I just love her independence and her sass. Even though she has the hots for Dean, and really, who doesn't? She still has enough self awareness and self esteem to not demean herself for his attention or sell herself short to be with him. I can respect a woman who would rather be a heroine than the lover, ya know?

Ellen, the mother, is just all kinds of ass kickery. She's a fierce mama bear not only to Jo but to Dean and Sam, and looks out for them all, while at the same time she doesn't cower in the corner and whimper about her babies being hurt.

In 'Abandon All Hope', Jo's mauled by a Hellhound while defending Dean and the others from these invisible monsters. She then accepts that she's going to die, tells the others to give her a way to hold the Hellhounds back, and when they try to argue with her, she shuts them down.

She's right, they need the Hellhounds to be disabled in order to reach Lucifer, and she's dying, so she might as well be the disabler.

However, Ellen is her mother, and she can't just leave her girl to do it alone. So they say their good-byes to the Winchesters and settle down to face the Hellhounds.

The following quotes that Ellen says to Jo is one of the best examples from Supernatural, if not from other media, of the love family can have and how family should be willing to sacrifice to help each other.

"Somebody's gotta let 'em in. Like you said, you're not movin'. You got me, Jo. And you're right. This is important. But I will not leave you here alone."

The men leave and Ellen's alone with her bleeding daughter. She goes on to tell her she loves her,always will.

But Jo's dead. Here we see Ellen break down. In previous appearances, she was firm, no nonsense. She would hit the men to get their attention, she didn't waste time crying or wishing things were different. She accepted it and dealt with it. To see her break down like this, seeing her realize she's outlived her only daughter, I felt so much for her. She shouldn't have lived longer than her daughter. She tells her daughter it will be ok, and sets the bombs.

She went out in a blaze, and took the Hellhounds with her.

That is how the Harvelles say good bye.

I hate that they had to die, I wish they could have made it to the end, to see all their work pay off, but if they had to go, I'm glad they went out like this. They gave the Winchesters a second chance, they gave Bobby more time. I only hope it was enough.

Seven Men, One Legend

Sol I was recently rewatching the first season of 'The Magnificent Seven' and soon I'll be watching the second season of it, but I digress.

I loved that show so so much when it was first on, even though I kept missing it, so some episodes are new to me. See, when it was on, the channel it was on kept changing the time and the night and then it wasn't on that channel, it was on a different channel, it was very frustrating and confusing, but I still loved that show so much I was willing to hunt it down and watch it.

Then it was cancelled.

So, that's the background story on the Magnificent Seven. Yes, it's a tv show based on the western movies which are in turn based on Kurosawa's Seven Samurai movie(s?) and yes, I do plan to watch them all. There's something about the theme of a group of disparate characters coming together for a common goal that appeals to me so much.

I loved that show and each character was so unique and so interesting to me, although I find that the characters I liked or disliked when I first watched it as a middle schooler have changed as a college student.

When I first watched the show, I loved loved loved Ezra, and I still do, but I liked Vin and JD next after him, and didn't care for Josiah and Buck. I still liked them, they had their moments but I was of the opinion that they were too 'weird' for me, and I hardly noticed Nathan, which is fair because they hardly seemed to give him any time at all, and Chris, well, who doesn't like Chris? When I was younger, I thought he was a jerk, but still cool, like...a bad boy with a cause, kind of thing. Wow that was the longest run on sentence ever. Vin seemed so cool back then, the casual tracker sharpshooter with a bounty on his head, that he often was my favorite character to watch but Ezra was my favorite character over all.

Now that I'm older, I still love Ezra, but I'm noticing the subtle nuances the actor put in him, the subtle eye expressions and the small smiles and frowns that I never thought of before and now Ezra, rather than the jovial devil may care con man character, is becoming the tragic but hiding it under a veneer of charm character and becoming more complex.

I don't care for JD as much, he needs to shut up and listen to the elders, and Buck and Josiah are becoming pretty cool old geezers, if you'll excuse the term. Chris is more sad than angry as I watch it more and am more familiar with people who have lost someone they cared for. Nathan still doesn't get as much screen time but Vin is becoming more of a regular guy and I find myself wondering why he doesn't just go back and fix his problems instead of running away? I guess now I just don't have patience for Vin complaining that he has a bounty but not neccessarily doing something to fix it.

So in short, I really liked that show, sure it was basic and formulaic and had some issues with the plots but come on! Cowboys! Not all of them good decent men. Even the PREACHER had issues and in a lot of ways, he was more intimidating than the whole of the rest put together.