The Spirit

I knew this was coming ever since I first saw the commercial for it WAY back in like March (or somewhere around there).  The Spirit has shown us that Frank Miller writes damn fine comics and little else.

	This is the original Spirit by Will Eisner.
	This is the Miller version.
	This is the movie version.
Which version do you think most closely resembles the movie?

It was originally titled Will Eisner’s The Spirit, but has been abbreviated to just The Spirit for obvious reasons: this version has very little to do with Will Eisner.  Much like Miller’s Daredevil run in the 80s, this is just a sounding board for Miller’s idea that everything should be a crime novel (sometimes it works.  It worked for Daredevil, it worked for Batman, it worked – to a lesser extent – with Ronin and Wolverine.  It did not work with Spawn or Robocop or most of the Sin City trades).  It looks almost exactly like Miller’s Sin City comics – one color (sometimes two), stark contrasts, all the women look exactly the same, etc.; it has same silhouettes, the same odd on-again, off-again super-powers, and the hero even wears the same shoes as his Sin City counterparts.  It looks nothing like Eisner’s original (in every sense of the word) four-color creation: an everyman who somehow saves that day time and again.

To be honest, I really enjoy both Eisner and Miller comics.  I think, for their respective times, each had a unique outlook that ushered in the next wave of creativity that would eventually dwindle – like all things do in the comic business – into mediocrity: Eisner with The Spirit, Miller with Daredevil; Eisner with A Contract with God, Miller with The Dark Knight.  It’s for this reason that I picked up the two-day conversation Eisner/Miller from Dark Horse Books.  In it, Eisner talks about how he would never want any of his creations brought to a movie format because he believed people would screw it up.  Most of his conversation with Miller circles around the fact that Eisner enjoys the intimacy of a comic page, where a movie has to be completed with hundreds of people making individual sacrifices and compromises about the core idea.  As a matter of fact, he seems to abhor Hollywood, “Comics artists do what comes first… Movies adapt, they’re not creative.  They [Hollywood] take a comic book and adapt it to film.”    He even asks Miller at one point if he would like to see Sin City made into a movie: “You just said it.  Too precious.  I like that.  It’s precious to you.  You don’t want to see [Sin City] warped into a movie.”  Miller then goes on to talk about the technology currently being developed that might make a comic book better looking on screen.  It’s obvious from reading this that Miller intended to go ahead with the Sin City movie.  After seeing The Spirit, it’s also obvious that he believes any comic can be adapted to a movie, given the right director and/or crime-based drama.  Or maybe he really did misread his friend’s wishes and thought Eisner would love a Sin City comic called The Spirit. 

One big mistake that Miller makes is the number of  “subtle homages” he makes to other comics.  It’s what killed the latest Hulk movie.  The Spirit is filled with these comic book “winks.”  A character says “the hard goodbye” (a Sin City reference) for no apparent reason.  Another character says “ten minutes of a man’s life” (a Spirit reference) with the same motivation.  At one point we see an EC comic, in another part we see “Ditko’s Speedy Delivery.”  There’s a character named Donenfeld and another named Liebowitz, both of whom are DC Comics founders.  It wouldn’t be so bad if they were simply inserted naturally (I remember the phrase “the east side of Lairdman Island” from the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie) but they weren’t.  They were horribly forced.  Much like my wife was when I told her what we were going to the movies to see.

I could go on. I could talk about how I wasn’t sure if certain parts were supposed to be funny or if I was just laughing because they were bad; I could talk about how Miller seemed to want to try and capture the fun of Burton’s Batman; I could even talk about how The Spirit somehow takes the worst aspects of Batman & Robin, Dick Tracy, The Rocketeer, and The Shadow, but I won’t. I think the movie can best be summed up in one scene (after which, I asked The Wife if she wanted to sneak out and go see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The way I figure it, I paid for two hours of seat time, but – bless her heart – she said she thought she’d be cheating the theater if she were to attend a movie that she didn’t pay for): Frank Miller plays a cop buddy of the Spirit.  He gets beheaded by the Octopus and the Octopus proceeds to beat the Spirit with the head of Frank Miller.

I think that one scene says everything that I cannot.

Page Fore-Teen

Take a look-ee:

New Pics on Facebook

Don’t get too excited.  If you go to my Facebook page, you’ll see the same panels from the podcasts and photocasts from the currently-published Tiny Life: l(a.  I just thought it might be cool to see how this Facebook thing worked.

• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5

I also have some stuff from the upcoming Tiny Life: left.

• Chapter 1 Pencils

First Cover of the First Chapter of the First Book

It’s been a while.

See, the first book, l(a, took a long time to do because neither I nor Colacitti really knew what we were doing.  I mean, I had a vague idea of what inking was about and he had a vague idea of how to draw according to a script, but we each made a ton of mistakes (I made a LOT more than he did as evidenced by our conversation earlier today).  I changed the lettering of the entire book twice, I changed my word balloons, I even changed the appearance of zip-a-tone from one chapter to the next.  I uploaded to various printers several times, I changed the website a handful times… basically, I wasted a lot of time.

I guess, when I think about it, I didn’t so much “waste” it as I did “learn from” it.  This next book is going to fly by.

Colacitti sent me an email saying that the first ten pages are on their way and should arrive here in about a week.  In anticipation of their arrival, I’ve decided to draw a little bit.  This way I can get used to inking again.  This way, the first few pages won’t be absolute shit.

I also thought about something else: the last book was intended to be a five-issue series, which meant that Colacitti drew five covers that only a handful of people have seen.  Instead of wasting his time with these, I think maybe I’ll draw these covers.  This way he can get more done quickly and we can get left into your hands that much sooner.

Plus, I miss the feeling of filling a blank page.

Here’s what I have so far for the first chapter of left.  

Click to enlarge.

New Pics!

It’s not a huge deal since it’s sort of buried (you have to go to “creator” on the left navigation pane, then click on “pictures” at the bottom of that page), but there are new pics up.

Click on a thumbnail to view it.

I think I’m going to try and use some of my other resources to have people see this stuff (Facebook, ComicSpace, etc.).  It’s kind of a pain on html.

A Pound of Flesh (Seven, Actually)

I don't think I played a video game since "Super Mario World" before the Wii came out.

This past weekend I went to my mom’s house for Christmas.  It was fun.  My brothers were there and my niece was there and we played Rock Band on the greatest video game system ever (Wii).  I got a Seinfeld DVD season and a 30 Rock DVD season and a sawhorse to finish staining the trim. 

After unwrapping presents, we all went to see a movie.  I wanted to see The Day the Earth Stood Still, but since I heard the movie sucks all kinds of ass, we all decided to see Seven Pounds instead.

I don’t know if the movie makers simply don’t give the movie-going public enough credit, or if I’m super smart, but I figured out this entire movie about 12 minutes in.  First of all, it’s called Seven Pounds, which means the lead character did something wrong and has to make up for it seven times.  In the first few seconds of the movie, we see a quick scene of a car crash (it’s only a few frames), which means the lead character caused a car accident.  He then names seven people, which brings us back to the title and the number of people who died in the accident.  He also talks about suicide in the first few seconds, which means he’s going to kill himself and make up for the seven people he killed.  The only thing I didn’t know was how he was going to kill himself.  A few more minutes into the movie, the lead character does a mysterious voice-over (the only one he has in the entire film) where he talks about how a jellyfish is the deadliest creature on earth, which means he’s going to kill himself by letting a jellyfish sting him. 

The next 90 minutes was spent watching my predictions unfold: he falls in love with the beautiful lady who ironically needs a new heart, he’s testing the blind guy who can ironically see the good in people, he gives his house to a woman who is strong enough to defend her children against attack, but who ironically cannot defend herself. 

I’m hoping I can make Tiny Life a little more enthralling.  I think I’m doing a good job so far.  The predictions I’ve gotten from people have been WAY off (the one that springs to mind is that Jed controls his assassin friend Dave and the black-box narrator is actually a mind-controlling vampire).  

Page 12

Here’s a quick look at page 12. I’m thinking two (or maybe three) panels have to be redone. The first one is my fault; I never explained what Jed’s mom should look like. The second one doesn’t need to be done, but it should for continuity. Anyway, guess which panels will change:

The Bell Jar

I’ve been trying to read more lately.  Well, more than my usual none.

See, there are certain aspects of certain books in the Tiny Life series that I haven’t written yet.  For instance, in the book coming out sometime in the next year, left, there are a few instances where I’ve changed what characters have said dozens of times because it never sounds quite right.  In left I’m introducing something like five new characters so I’m still trying to find some of their voices (later on in the series I seem to have them down pretty well, but this was the book where they were first invented and it can take some time, so I have to go back and change things).  The best way to think of some new ideas is to see some new perspectives.  The best way to do that is to read a lot.

Over the last few days I’ve read The Bell Jar.  I gotta say that Plath is probably one of the most minimalistic voices I’ve ever read.  She says in just one sentence what most writers would take pages to explain.  I can’t find the page, but she explains how it feels to pass out and describes the entire experience in three lines.  As a writer, I want to be like that; as a comic writer, a REALLY want to be like that.

While I was reading it, I couldn’t help but feel her pain.  I think we’ve all felt that, logically, it just doesn’t make ay sense to get up in the morning.  You take a shower (you’ll just have to do it again tomorrow), you go to work (you’ll just have to do it again tomorrow), you eat lunch (you’ll just have to do it again tomorrow), maybe you come home to a loved one (you’ll just have to do it again tomorrow).  I can, however, see the criticisms of the book.

This album got me through a lot of imagined heartache.

I felt the most like this as a teenager.  I remember thinking that everything was meaningless and Trent Reznor really understood my pain.  I remember telling people this and I remember them telling me I was just a whiney teen.

 

These crazy MFs buy a lot of shit.

Hopefully Tiny Life doesn’t come off like this.  I want to make it seem real and full of life (I imagine, much like Plath wanted to make The Bell Jar feel very real).  I don’t want people to mistake what I have to say for teenage whining. 

 

But then again, if you take a look at the number of Mangas sold and the number of Emo albums sold, that might not be such a bad thing.

Sliver and the Power of Zero

It’s getting to the point where I actually have to start keeping some files.

See, I’m of the mind that one should never worry about money.  I don’t balance a checkbook, I don’t have massive debt, and I don’t buy things that I don’t need.  Basically, I spend what I believe I can cover.  I do the approximate math in my head, and if my debt is even close to my take-home pay, I don’t spend any money.  It’s a good way to live because every once in a while, you forget that you’re “going without” a little bit each month and after a season goes by, suddenly you have a bit of money you never intended to save.

I planned on doing something like that with Sliver ltd. as well.  I planned on simply having a ballpark figure of Sliver assets in my head and hopefully, after some time went by, I would suddenly be sitting on a pile of cash.  That’s not how it works, though (especially when there’s a limit on how much is actually brought into the business).

I always told myself that I would spend $5000 on this endeavor.  If I ever ran out of cash, I would stop doing the book. 

So, when cash starts to get close to where the business induces a self-imposed bankruptcy, it’s important to start looking at the numbers.  After crunching the numbers, I’ve come to realize that I don’t believe Diamond has paid me for the books yet (although, to be perfectly fair, it has been less than a month, so they still have time.  I was just thinking that they already paid me, which gave me a lot more money in my head).

Since I sold a couple hundred through them, it puts a bit of a dent in the comic’s pocketbook.  If it had pockets and a book where it keeps its money (although, having a pocketbook would either make it a girl-comic or a possibly-gay-comic). 

I should probably call them.  Sliver ltd. might be much closer to zero than I thought.

Innocence

I was talking with a female friend of mine and the subject of homosexuality came up.  She is 30 years old and single and wanted to know how “they have sex.”  I thought this was adorable.

This woman is so innocent, she has no idea about any type of alternative to any of her traditions.  Christmas can only mean one thing (presents and time with family); a career can only mean one thing (something you’re good at and grudgingly go to); sex can mean only one thing (a loving exchange of fluids between a man and a woman). 

I think it’s utterly refreshing to know that in this day and age – where everything is over-complicated, available, and perverted – that someone still has no idea about anything “dirty.”

I only bring it up because of the sex scene Colacittii so awesomely made frightening and disturbing in some of the early pages of left.  

That and it’s adorable.