I kind of like how I can post comics here and get comments on 'em, so I thought I'd continue doing it for a bit :)

Here's the latest episode of Destination Space, which I just finished this very minute.  If you want to read the rest of em, you can check them out at my website www.lairofthetwistedkitten.co.uk



I had fun as always with the psychedelic backgrounds.  The drawing isn't the best (I drew it up just after I'd exhausted myself with the 72-hour comic) but it does the job.

On a completely unrelated note, I saw an amazing painting by this guy called Benedict Ernst in a shop in Newtown on Sunday, and I've been very Inspired by it. 

Woot woot!  Here is the FINAL PAGE, page 5!  As ever, comments below :)

I should quickly say that if you haven't read the comic at all yet, you're better visiting my website where you'll shortly be able to read all 5 pages in order here.
 
And if you'd like to see it in print, get down to the University of New South Wales next week and pick up a copy of the latest Tharunka!



I'm pretty pleased with how the whole thing turned out.  The end is a liiittle bit Oprahesque, but hopefully it brings it all together well.  Thanks to my cheer squad- Craig, JT, Steve, J-Sun and Tessa, without whom I'd probably have got bored and tired and started drawing stick figures.

Now I'm going to get pissed and watch porn- or, more realistically, draw the next Destination Space and then do all the homework I should have been doing the last 3 days.

Korshi x

Friday 5:21pm and page 4 is finished!  Here is it, with, you guessed it, comments below:



If there's another comic where you can see an Anglican minister kiss an English Colonel while the minister's wife blasphemes naked in the background I'd like to know about it.  The Reverend Ernest Scruple certainly gets a lot of action in this comic... maybe he deserves his own story.

Only one more page to go... can I get it done by midnight tonight?  Only time will tell- but first, some chocolate!

    3am Friday and page 3 is finally finished... here it is with comments below:



It's amazing how much better it looks in colour... I guess my drawing is also starting to slip after almost 15 hours of constant comicking.  I think it does the job though.

As a DVD extra, here's the script for a little extra scene that would have preceded the second dinner.  It starts the morning after Reverend Scruple's amorous adventure:

Panel 31

VO:  I woke late; the events of the night before had been unusual, but I was enough a man of the world that it would have taken more to disturb my sleep.

He enters the drawing room.

Ivy:  Good morning, Lord Howard.  I had the servants set up breakfast for you earlier.  Sylvia also asked me to thank you for your kindness last night.  She said you would understand what she meant by that.

Loki: Ah, yes, Countess Aglovale.  I merely explained to her of an infallible rule for remembering French verbs, over dinner.

Panel 32

Ivy:  Call me Ivy, Countess is so formal.  My husband and the other gentlemen left at nine for a pheasant hunt.  He hoped you would join them when you were ready.

Loki:  I would be happy to.  You didn't want to join them, Reverend?

Mrs Scruple: Poor Ernest has been feeling unwell this morning.  He didn't sleep a wink last night.

Panel 33

VO: The man did look very tired.  I breakfasted, and then set off at once in the direction taken by the shooting party.

A shot whizzes by him.

Cyril (OS) :  Get down!  Get down!

Panel 34

Loki joins them crouching behind a knoll.

Colonel:  The earl seems to have gone mad!  He started yelling, calling us all the names under the sun-

Joseph:  He's shooting at us!

Colonel:  Nonsense!  Victor is a crackshot- I taught him myself.  If he wanted to hit us-

Panel 35

One of the hunting dogs is shot.

Victor:  I'll kill you all!  You bastards!

Panel 36

Victor collapses.

Panel 37

V.O:  Dinner was somewhat awkward that night.   After we carried him back to the castle, Victor awoke claiming no memory of his strange behaviour- indeed, he cried unashamedly when he learned that he had in fact shot his favourite hound.

Myrtle: I do nor approve of pheasant hunting in any case.  I cannot understand the fascination.

Cyril:  Quite right, indeed, I should be worried were a woman to express to much interest in so brutish a thing. I have always been of the opinion that the fairer sex should avoid anything likely to instil in them a familiarity with bloodshed-

Thursday 6:50pm; 8 hours work and page 2 is done.  Here it is with comments below:



I'm afraid that after the exciting layout of page 1, it's going to settle into a more regular 3 x 4 grid... hopefully it should still be less squashed up than some of the other Secrets of the Endless Night stories have become.

I think this is pretty much the first time sex has appeared in the series so far- and don't worry, there's even more to come!

So 3 more pages to go... these next ones will be just black and white.  If all goes to plan, page 3 will be up by 3am tonight...

11:56pm-After about 7 hours non stop drawin' page 1 is finished!  Here it is, with comments below:



I'm pretty pleased with it... luckily I only have to do the 1st two pages in colour, so 7 hours isn't too bad.  The ladies' costumes look a bit too American (it's set in Britain c. 1895) but I guess they may just be wearing clothes by American designers.  Anyway, I know the first page isn't the most interesting, but things start hotting up in the next one... get ready for some bodice ripping action!

I'm going to get some dinner now, and then do some work on page 2 before bed...

So I thought this might be kind of fun. 

I have a 5 page, 60-odd panel comic to draw for my uni magazine (Tharunka)- it's the latest one of my Secrets of the Endless Night series which means it's horror and mainly black and white, although this one is partly in colour.  I just finished dashing out the script for it yesterday, and here's the deal: I have til Friday to draw what would normally take me about 60 hours to draw... how the heck will I make it? 

I'll post each page online with some comments once it's done, and (if anyone reads it!) leave comments to cheer me on or point out that there's a spelling mistake or whatever :)

The story is called "The Fall of the House of Aglovale" and it's a Victorian horror story in the tradition of... well I dunno who but it's a bit like one of those films where there's a dinner party and shit starts happening.  You know what I mean.

The comic's plotted out, I have a supply of OJ and chocolate brownies, and I have a new nib for my worn out tablet pen...  see you in a few hours!

 Here's another podcast I thought I'd mention quickly.  It's called The Infidel Guy and the infidel in question, Reginald, is basically a self-proclaimed skeptic and atheist who hosts a show in which people visit to discuss issues like religion and science and. philosophy.  It skirts a little bit close to a kind of Atheist Fundamentalism/Barbarians at the Gates Complex for my liking sometimes, but there's no question that the host, guests and listeners (the ones that call in, at least) are very smart and the level of discussion is high.

In particular, there's one episode called What the Da Vinci Code Got Right (ie. not very much) where they discuss similar issues to the ones I mentioned in my previous post, but go into more detail... the guest speaker notices the same Batman/Riddler theme running in the book as I mentioned in my Angels and Demons Review.  (That's the REAL reason I'm writing this post, of course, so that I can point out the similarity before someone accuses me of plagiarism  ). 

Here's the link: http://www.infidelguy.com/index.php , although to be honest I'd advise you to go through I-Tunes if you want to download specific episodes since the website is a nightmare to navigate. 

If you like podcasts or don't, if you're interested in race or identity politics (I don't actually know what identity politics are, but it sounds good) or if you're not, check out these guys.  They are very funny, very with-it, and listening to them has made me examine a lot of my attitudes.

Here's the link http://www.addictedtorace.com/

Oh...

I should probably explain what it is quickly.  Basically, a couple of mixed-race American girls called Carmen and Jen discuss various issues from America (but which are generally universal) relating to race, racism and identity. 

What makes them excellent is the personal perspective and humour they bring, their sharp insight which spares no-one (but does it very funnily and kind of gently) and the equally smart guests they interview, mainly academics specialising in US history or race relations.  I'm not the kind of person who is usually that interested in listening long discussions about race (not that you'll believe me after I spend 20 minutes blogging about it), but this seriously rocks my world.  I've downloaded almost all their episodes from the last year and listened to them while comicking.

Try it!  You'll like it! :D

I wish I had something really, really funny to say about the Da Vinci Code, but I don't.  After Angel's and Demons, which as you may have picked up from my last review, was at once compelling (but car crash compelling) and shocking (your PE teacher dancing shocking), I thought that Dan Brown could do nothing right.  But then I read the Da Vinci Code and I discovered that it was... not bad.  Or at least, not too bad.  The characters are flimsy and stereotyped, the writing is at best painting by numbers, and given that the plot makes hardly any sense, and is pretty uneventful once you take out the cheap cliffhangers, I don't know why they thought this would make a good film.  (Well I do, but Hollywood Logic is a subject beyond the scope of this review.)

BUT.  There is a decent story.  There are some interesting little puzzles and even if the red herrings aren't too convincing, and the tension not quite taut enough, there's some mystery.  Like Harry Potter, it's an easy read, like  daytime TV or a strawberry thickshake distilled into book form. 

BUT.  My major gripe with this book is probably the reason why it's been so popular.  (I think that's ironic).  Dan Brown, in the Da Vinci Code explains the secret origins of the Catholic Church, a tangled web of lies and falsifications, sexism and a secret society called the Priory of Sion.  Yet despite his claim on the first page that "all descriptions blah blah blah are accurate", pretty much everything he says in the book is nonsense.  Type in "Da Vinci Code criticisms" in google and you'll find pages, and pages and yet more pages explaining why Dan Brown should either stick to fantasy or learn to do research.  Some of them (the position of Venus at the vernal equinox or whatever) are trivial, but when you realise Danny B is riffing freestyle about the origins of the most widely-followed world religion, or putting into the mouth of his fictional academics what Mr Crack Pipe has told him about  Da Vinci's Last Supper, it's a somewhat different matter.  Do we want to spread more misconceptions about what is at least an already a misunderstood and increasingly defensive faith?  Do we want people to be interested in works of art purely for their conspiracy theory value?  Why does he do this?  Why?  It annoys me.

Anyway, I'm gonna stop writing shortly because enough has already been said about this dead tree.  Read the Da Vinci Code if you like.  Enjoy it.  Believe nothing.   Look up the things it mentions on the internet/in books if you want the Truth.  It's fantasy, ok? Like the X-Men, the Care Bears or Santa Claus.  You'll get a more accurate picture of history and religion from The Life of Brian that you will from this book.

PS.  I'll just stress that again.  Believe absolutely NOTHING Dan Brown writes.

PPS.  The Life of Brian is probably one of the best historical films ever made.