It's just a few short weeks til my 23rd birthday, so thought I'd let yous all know about my upcoming party!  It's gonna be on Saturday 26th May, hosted by myself and my awesome housemates.  If you know where it is, come along, if you don't... text or message me and I'll tell you where it is.  It's pretty much open, so the more the merrier, come along even if you don't know me that well and bring all your (hot/interesting) friends and relatives.

As you should know, I'm obsessed with comics, so the that's the theme... come dressed as your fave superhero or villain (or even civilian bystander if you're feeling really lame).  And yes, Manga are comics, but no, Astroboy is already taken, and WTF, I mean 26th May is like mid-winter and student houses have no central heating, so really, what were you thinking?  There'll be prizes for best costume, something along the lines of a mini-keg or my firstborn child.

There should be some alcohol and food provided, but I'm a lazy little mofo so I haven't figured out all the fine details, anyone want to help?  Also, I'm thinking of getting a DJ in the house, so if you are/know a good one let me know and I can provide free drinks or whatever arrangement suits ya.

So see ya then, peace all!
korshi x

PS. Here's a poster to inspire you:

It's probably just because I take comics a lot more seriously than a 22 year old should, but I'm always disappointed when I see films with superheroes in them.  For the two hours or so they last, I kind of enjoy the suspension of belief, the people flying around exploding things and getting thrown through walls, but afterwards I feel... empty.  A prime example being The Fantastic 4, which I saw last night in the last throes of my DVD orgy (or not last throes, since it'll probably last another week with my weekend DVD kleptomania).

I admit the Fantastic 4 has eye candy.  You get to see a guy on fire rocketing around New York shedding firebolts, the Thing's costume is way better than it looks in the photos and both Jessica Alba and Chris Evans spent a bit of screen time nekkid.  But the plot is so ridiculously lazy that the cast, who are all good actors, perform with all the conviction of Marilyn Manson taking holy communion.  It's amazing that after millions of dollars, and billions of man hours nobody noticed how badly it sucked.  I guess films just build their own momentum, and by the time the people involved realise the quagmire they're in  it's too late, and they just go on, heads down, and fafterwards forget it as quickly as possible.

The Fantastic 4 aside, even the relatively good superhero films are still pretty mediocre judged by normal film standards.   I found Spiderman embarrasingly reminiscent of an expensive episode of Power Rangers; Hellboy and Sin City were ok, but that's because they're based on mind-fuckingly good comics, and some of the awesomeness had to transfer to the big screen.  The Batman films were ok, but I haven't really seen them since I was like 14 so maybe I just wasn't smart enough to critique them yet...

The X-Men...? Well, they're watchable.  I liked X-Men 2 best of the three, but again the scene where Iceman 'comes out' to his parents was a bit much; the similarities between being gay and being a mutant aren't really that close when you think about it, and I think Marvel have always played up the social relevance of the X-Men too far, to make it seem respectable. 

The biggest problem with the X-Men series, and the thing that made the last movie almost unwatchable for me is the way they try to cram all the fucking characters into a ridiculously short length of time.  "Hey, this is Professor X.  Ok, he's dead now.  This is Calypso, she has two lines.  Now she's dead.  Now Angel is going to walk through the coridoor, and cut to Wolverine brushing his teeth."  They had to kill off half their cast just to make the numbers manageable.  The X-Men as a comic was more of a soap-opera than a film (and they were careful to have no more than 6 or so main characters in each arc), which is why it made a good cartoon, but an awkward film.

And the plots!  Magneto planning to kill every non-mutant on earth is only one step above sharks with laser beams on their heads.  How about instead of coming up with shitty plotlines that make no sense they use their actual source material.  There are so many good plotlines in the comics they're supposed to be based on; the issues where Jean Grey became the Phoenix were a bit out there, but they were moving, they were believable (in their own terms) and they were memorable.  Or the episodes following Storm's return from space, where she goes crazy, kills her plants, starts dressing like a punk and having knife-fights, and falls out with her protege, Kitty Pryde.  Or the plotline where Wolverine is the one character fighting against an extraterrestrial invasion, with an alien embryo inside him and the other X-Men trapped in their own hallunications.  Not very subtle, but fucking dramatic stuff.

They had character development, they had drama, they had soul.  And as we speak quality, socially relevant, imaginative stories aimed at adults are being churned out by all the main comics producers at an even faster rate than Hollywood can rape them.  Why is it that these idiots making the films seem to think that if they're basing a film on a comic it means that normal rules of character and plausability and story telling go out the fucking window?

Anyway, before I start on the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and choke on my own bile, I thought I'd mention two superhero films I liked.

Superman Returns was pretty good.  It reminded me of the classic Supes films, the old fashioned look, innocence and values that he represents, updated to ask the kind of questions about superheroes that all comics these days have to ask- the repercussions of having a guy who can fly around the world and make time go backwards and whatever else, and the morality and implications of relying on heroes.  I was worried when they started hinting that the unneccessarily cutesy kid might be Superman's son, but they handled it pretty well in the end.  And I found Luthor's comedy sidekick a little bit funnier than I probably should have :)

But the greatest, or maybe only great superhero film ever made, has to be The Incredibles.  From the awesome retro look, to the perfectly designed characters who just ooze personality, to the hilarious little Edna Mole and the awesome soundtrack, this film made me so happy.  I can even forgive it for stealing half the plot of Watchmen, since if that was ever made into a film it would probably be crap anyway.  The Incredibles does the Fantastic 4 way better than the film based on 'em, showing the family squabbles and depicting super-powers just like I've always imagined them. Plus, the CGI gets around the unspoken secret which we all know deep down: that grown men dressed in spandex hitting each other look pretty bloody stupid.

...And my website's back up!  Cheers mum for letting me use your credit card :)

All the comics, pics and stories are back here http://www.lairofthetwistedkitten.co.uk/

And brace yourself for more cool stuff to be added in the next few weeks... once my computer gets over its current not-working-phase.

Every now and then you hear stories about the mind-blowingly racist cartoons Disney, Warner Brothers and the other animation studios used to make, and the guys at my favourite podcast have actually found one... it's called Coal Black and the Sebben Dwarfs: you can watch it, and then read their analysis of it, which is pretty good.

It's one of those things like a train-wreck, horrifying and gripping all at once. It would be funny if the history behind it wasn't so sad. The past really is another country...

Crap... well my website is down because I've gone over my data transfer limit... I think that's a good thing, since it means lots of people have been looking at it.  Unfortunately, this also means that you won't be able to visit it , and the pics in my blog which were hosted there will disappear too. 

I probably won't be able to get my website online again til early December but in the meantime if anyone has any requests for stuff they'd like to see, let me know and I can post it in my Myspace pictures I guess. 

For my final illustration and rendering project at uni i decided to illustrate "The Tyger" by William Blake.  I just finished it yesterday, and it looks really good printed out (although my lecturer wants me to draw more over it now... grrr)... thought I'd share it:

    I was going to do this as a regular segment but got bored after I wrote this first one.  But I thought you guys might still enjoy it.  May I present...

Laugh Along At Korshi
Part 1

 I'm a bit of a hoarder.  The main thing I hoard are the various drawings I seem to spend most of my time doing.  Because I can't easily bear to throw them away there has developed a large pile in my wardrobe, which would weigh roughly the same as me if it wasn't for the occasional grudging cleanout.  Why do I do this?  For posterity, I guess, material for future Korshi museums, but mainly so that I can raid them for ideas when I'm old and have writer's/artist's block. 

Some of the comics I have in my pile go way back to the age of 12 or so, when I first started comicking.  Most of them aren't finished; some are only really outlines or scripts.  Back then I figured all I had to do was come up with the ideas, and my older, more talented self would then do the drawing, and hey presto I'd be rich and famous!  What young me didn't realize that 2006 me would be unwilling to act as slave labour for a plagiarising 12 year old.  So they remain unfinished.

I thought it would be funny to look through some of my old stuff and make fun of it.  There's some real gems there- I'm saving for later the letter I drafted to the BBC telling them exactly how to revive Doctor Who.  That the letter was never sent is one of history's tragedies.

THE AVENGING FIRE MOTH!

The Avenging Fire Moth is the earliest comic I could find.  Surprisingly, she's one of the most imaginative heroes I was to create at that early stage… more so than the Gecko, who stuck to walls and swung around buildings using his tongue.  It's a shame she only appears in a short 9 pager.  Natalie Lawrence, AKA Fire Moth, had the ability to fly, hurl fireballs from projectors on her wrists, and inexplicably survive direct hits from machine guns.

 Her cameo appearance, in Child of Flames (part 1) is a sweeping tale only a 12 year old  could have conceived.  It starts with her as an infant being suspended by her mother over a burning fire.  Why?!  How?!  Who?!  It is quickly apparent that her father, who has some sort of lump on his head, is the ringleader.  "She really likes it," he claims.  Yeah.  I'm sure she loves being thrust into a deadly pile of flaming logs.  Not!  Last time I checked babies don't!

 

I wonder who it is also.  Could it be the child protection agents?  That's who turned up last time I was torturing babies. 

Ah, the first plot twist.  Looks like whoever it is wants money.  So that makes it either gangsters or Riding for the Disabled.  From the tall guy's hat and mustache, I'm guessing gangsters.  Please note, all aspiring writers, the skillful use of suggestion in the second panel.  Rather than showing us the horrible murders of Nat's parents, we are left to imagine the gruesome details.  I like how the policeman seems uncertain whether to listen to the radio or hit himself in the head with it.

20 years pass, Nat grows up and proves the adage that the fruit never falls far from the tree.  Like her twisted parents, she loves nothing more than to watch fire consume people and their possessions.  Yes Nat, I call you morbid.  As we can see, this mustachioed fella finds her sadism a turn on, and after 2 presumably very kinky years, they decide to get married.  But where did he get the money from?!!! 

Yup, the very same loanshark.  "Knock, knock".  "Let us in". "Oh No!"  The moment of recognition is priceless.  First her parents, now her fiancé?  Nat is NOT impressed. 

 Watch her kick ass! 

 And this was pre-Tomb Raider!  The idea that women could react to threatened violence with a response that didn't involve fainting in their petticoats was radical!  Cut to Nat's escape, and her recap of what happened on the last 2 pages, in case you've somehow already forgotten.  Talk about writing down.  Anyway, Nat picks up the most lazily drawn gun ever, and decides to take her revenge on the little gangster.

Check out the scintillating dialogue!  He thinks all they want is cigarettes- but they want all the money too!  It's a stick up!  But he's stopped by Nat- please note that somehow she knew he was going to rob THAT store, at THAT exact moment.  Hmm.  Moving swiftly on, the little gangster recognizes Nat and says:

What?  What exactly did she do? 

Okay, she punched knocked your cigar out your mouth.  Boohoo.  Let's see what Nat has to say about that:

I think she wins the "who'll pay for what" competition.  Nat then kills one of the two big goons, and seeing as they're being faced with a very pissed off pyromaniac the little gangster and his surviving crony get the fuck out of there.  But they aren't getting away that easy!

I know what you're thinking.  She took along a gun and only loaded one bullet?  Apparently yes.  Geez, 12 year old Korshi, have some cement for your PLOT HOLES.  Predictably, Nat gets shot, falls off a building, and, as the little gangster puts it:

But he's wrong- dead wrong!  Check this out:

 Classic.  Worryingly, I use quite a similar sequence in Children of Mars (look at the bottom of the page). 

There follows quite a funny, but very lazily drawn series of panels which I'll describe for you:  Nat gets mugged, kicks the mugger in the crotch ("Ouch!") and uses her newfound flying powers to fight off the second mugger.  Or possibly an innocent passerby, the comic isn't very clear on who she's beating up.  But what is certain is that instead of calling the cops, or, given who we're talking about, setting the muggers on fire and raping them, Nat decides to rifle their pockets, and finds that they have a couple of bracelets that shoot fireballs.  Which she takes.

On the subject of inexplicable, she also has a big bullethole in her chest during this whole encounter.  But instead of dying, or visiting a hospital like a normal person, she decides to go home and put on her giant moth costume.  I guess… she has some sort of… mutant healing factor…?

Anyway, now she can fly, shoot fireballs, and possibly recover from fatal injuries, what is she possibly going to do?  Yep, you guessed it:

 But not very far.  Somehow she once again unerringly locates the little gangster, who is innocently arranging the assassination of a cop who is about to "blab".  Imagine the little guy's surprise when a chick dressed as a moth appears outside his window and starts chucking fireballs!  Classic!

Aaaand that's where the comic ends.  You may still have some unanswered questions.  "How can she fly?" some may ask.  "What the fuck do muggers, or anyone, for that matter, need wrist-mounted flame throwers for?" others may cry.  To them, I say, "who doesn't?"

Whoo!  Episode 21 of Destination Space!  The last episode of the season, and the crew take a well earned break.



I think this is one of the best ones, maybe second after Episode 3.  For some reason, I find Mel being abused and humiliated very funny   Vavoom was going to make an appearance, but was last seen heading to his hotel room with a large bag of sugar.

So that's Destination Space... for now.  I'm going to work hard on my exams for the next few weeks, then try to finish off part 2 of Children of Mars... but season 2 of DS should be happening soon... the magazine it appears in (Blitz) will start running again next February, so get ready for pirates, alien masterminds and more robot-abuse!

   I just finished the latest episode of destination space... here it is:



As you can see, this ep was guest written by the always excellent Alex Hernandez of Imp Comics.  The idea of memetic warfare is very Alex and pretty cool.  I was happy to have an appearance from Mel (the robot)... he's fun to draw with his expressionless face that somehow seems more emotive than all the rest of the crew.  He's based a bit on the neurotic-looking aliens of Basil Wolverton.  I'm pleased with the pirate too... shame he only gets to appear in one panel.  I'm sure he'll somehow survive to wreak his revenge...

If you want to read the other 19 episodes of Destination Space, you can check 'em out here.