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Recently I was reminded of the very cool-looking Rocketo, the comic series by Frank Espinosa. (Recalled how Lauren had, I think, made a drawing of Rocketo mid-flight for one of the doors in her fancy-schmance computery office.) I've only read an issue or two of Rocketo, but I liked the style. A nice old-fashioned fantasy adventure story, done in a flighty brushpen style. I like the colours too, somehow giving the impression of age and sepia without being drab. I think it's set in the future, perhaps? It has a good sprawling universe to play around in, lots of fun sci-fi cultures and crazy names for things. And is that a robot I spy in there? I am going through a robot phase at the moment.

Oh also! the most exciting thing is that the comic is stapled sideways, opening landscape. Makes it like a picture book rather than a comic, so to speak. I don't know why they don't do that more often.







Rocketo is published by Image Comics, and I think they just put out a collected edition of Journey to the Hidden Sea.

EnthuZINEasm: Part II

Hey kids, guess what madly exciting thing has just arrived upon the zine scene? That's right, it is ISSUE TWO of our wonderful publication ENTHUSIASM.

Topics covered in Issue 2 include: the proper music to listen to in the autumn, the fun of sending letters, the fact that reading is sexy, GK Chesterton and Frank Herbert, whether lesbianism may be a suitable lifestyle choice for you and your friends, and the Isle of Man.

View above a crappy photograph of the front cover because I do not have a scanner, and below is the back cover, with a sea monster and our new email address. They both look way better in real life.


Please email or comment if you want a copy, because our only desire is to spread the love. The next issue is due out at Xmas, so contributions are very welcome, provided you are literate, enthusiastic and not an idiot. Which I am sure you are not.

Check out the beauty of issue one here.

Cookies Plus Napoleon = Awesome

Do you find this freaking hilarious? Of course you do, you're a sensible person. Head straight over to Kate Beaton's homepage for more, or check out her livejournal which has just about everything she's ever drawn, as far as I can tell.

Kate Beaton draws comics about historical figures, being Canadian, working with lunkheaded old men, fat shetland ponies, and many other amusing things. My favourites involve a big round Napoleon eating cookies and crying, and also Beaton hanging out with her hyperactive younger self.

Cities and the Sky

Oh my god, guys, I just saw the BEST MOVIE EVER. For reals. It's called City of Ember, it's basically a kid's movie, it has got no press and fairly lukewarm reviews. It doesn't bode well, I know. But the aesthetic of the movie is so inventive and wonderful that even if the acting and plot sucked it would be worth seeing. Luckily the action is understated and intelligent and the acting is uniformly fine. It's a no-brainer. GO SEE IT.

The film is about an underground city built as a haven for humankind following some unspecified worldwide disaster. The city is powered by an enormous generator (see below), which is slowly running down after 200 years. Hundreds of electric lamps hang above the city, and the whole place has a grimy, gadgety, old-fashioned, buzzing lightbulb kind of feel to it. It is very steampunk. The story follows two kids who try to find a way up into the light before everything powers down, hampered on their quest by corrupt officials and the institutionalized and complacent mentality of the populace.

The design is uniformly thoughtful and inventive, down to the packaging of the tinned food they have as supplies and the posters on the walls. The particulars of this underground world are subtly evoked, and at no point are you hit over the head with obvious plot points or morals. It's as if they don't consider their audience to be idiots, or something.




So despite this annoyingly over-emphatic and preachy post, you should absolutely see this film. Because the sad thing is that no one else will. Honestly, some advertiser out there sucks at their job.

Ooh, and then watch The Iron Giant!!

Iron Giant Pretty Links

Eeeee! The extremely cool Animations Backgrounds blog, which, as the name suggests, collects backgrounds from animated movies and cartoons (mostly Disney and Disney-similar), has featured one of my favourite movies ever, The Iron Giant.

Here is the post Part One:


Here is the post Part Two:


I especially loved the autumn-tinged colour palette in The Iron Giant, and you also know I am a sucker for folksy American suburban charm. Look at Hogarth's cute little house up there! And the cute little diner where the squirrel-down-pants scene takes place!

Animation Backgrounds is great fun, by the way, especially if you are a Disney fan. Which a surprisingly high number of my friends are. Your DVD collections are rife with Disney movies, and approximately 75% of you have an inappropriate crush on the Disney version of Robin Hood's character. "He's a fox in more ways than one!" you cry. It is disturbing to me. Anyhow, the backgrounds to animation are often surprisingly beautiful on their own, and seeing stills without the characters in reveals just how much care has been taken with the scenery. I also find them a little eerie and sad sometimes, I have to admit. Without the frenetic action of wacky cartoon characters, their environments seem markedly empty. In a cool way, however. Not like all the characters have been murdered by a chainsaw-wielding crazy duck, leaving Disneyville a tragic ghost town. Not like that at all.

I have previously gushed about The Iron Giant here. And written a zine page about it. God, I just love that movie.

Skippity-Hop

I haven't been posting lately, and this is partly because I haven't had internet connection until recently, and partly because I just didn't feel like it, you know? Emo, emo. (Emo as Claire Bennett in season 3 of Heroes: "I just can't feel anything anymore! I'm going to jump in front of a train, and then future me will have brunette hair, because blonde people don't have as many feeelings!") To bring me out of my depressing blogging slump, I do what I always do, which is turn to the wonderful people in my life so they can deliver an inspirational message.

Here we have Kaia in one of the many beautiful Cambridge colleges, strolling amongst the flower beds. Through her example we learn to wander through the gardens of life, smelling the flowers (of life and experience and beauty or whatever), savouring the simple joy of the universe and having a jolly good unstressful time. So this will be my approach to life and blogging. And soon I will actually post some art stuff, since this is what this blog seems to be about.





I know this post totally sounds like I'm taking the piss, but I'm really not. I am genuinely charmed by Kaia enjoying herself and stopping to smell the roses, would that I could approach every day with the same attitude! That's the trouble with being a cynical sarcastic so-and-so all day long, sincerity becomes a minefield. A minefield, I say!!!