We forge our friendship by saving the world

Review comics for The Dark Knight Rises! As always, SPOILERS.

I had the Holy Musical B@man soundtrack stuck in my head ALL DAY Thursday before watching the movie.  It was hilarious how many of the jokes and themes from the play made appearances in the movie.  Most relevant:

Anyway, on to the comics!

It reminded me of Goldmember’s ridiculous flexibility.  Was that really Anne kicking that high, or was there a prop leg?! xD

There was a 2-ish-minute stretch while Batman was chasing down Talia al Ghul where I completely spaced out and couldn’t tell you what I’d just seen.  Bleh.  A bit is good but more than 30 seconds of people punching each other or shooting or whatever without breaks and my brain shuts off.

I didn’t actually cry, but a lot of people in my theater did. I didn’t believe for a second that he was really dead (I called ‘everyone thinks he’s dead but he’s really alive and training the next generation like in The Dark Knight Returns’ while my brothers and I were placing bets in line), but it was still a moving scene.

I looooved the movie.  From the complaints I’ve heard from friends, it sounds like the main difference between us is that I WANT neat, happy endings.  That’s exactly what I like (Dickens fan!).  The darker and more pessimistic the story, the more satisfying it is when I actually get a happy ending.  And this was the neatest, happiest possible ending for the DARK GRITTY trilogy, so I was extremely satisfied.

Last, here are my notes from the premiere if you are interested.  A lot of these got cut or altered on their way to the comics:

Have you listened to me lately

New Facepalm French Adventure:

I’ve been studying French for a year and a half now.  My mom and I recently discovered the podcast Coffee Break French, and it’s been a really wonderful supplement to our class.  It makes me think in French for 30-60 minutes a day (I usually listen to one lesson on my way to work and one on the way home), which has helped me gain some more confidence to speak in class.  I definitely notice that words and sentences come to me more quickly since I started listening a few weeks ago. 
And this has nothing to do with anything, but Mark and Anna’s Scottish accents are so cuuute!

Where them bloggers at

Two pieces of news:

1)  I’m going to Anaheim for ALA at the end of the month.  My dad will be there promoting The Marvels of Money, and I’m going to accompany him and help run the booth.  Please swing by if you’ll be there!
2)  I have a few new watercolor paintings in a First Thursday gallery this week.  The French Alliance is hosting an open house with wine, cheese, information about their French courses, and artwork from several local artists.

I’ve been a little quiet here lately.  You can take that as a good sign–work has been relentless (which is, you know, a good thing for a freelance artist).  When the dust settles I believe I will have extended the amount of time I can devote to creator-owned projects by a considerable amount.

Guess I’m doing something right

I drew Wolverine this weekend for the latest Gutters page!  Would you believe this is the first time I have ever drawn him?  Rest assured, it will not be the last.  His character design is great and he is really fun to draw!  Now I know.

In other news, I saw My Neighbors the Yamadas tonight.  It was the last Ghibli movie I hadn’t seen, and it was fantastic!  There were several times I was laughing so hard I was embarrassed for myself.

In other other news, this song is fantastic.  So is the new Garbage album and Holy Musical B@man!

This is what I want to be

^Some sketches to prepare for TCAF con sketches:

 

 

 

 

Stumptown 2012 wrap-up

This year was great!  You can see some really nice photos from oceanyamaha and Comics Alliance.

Major kudos to Erika Moen for this comparison:

(photo by Anna Jaye)

I was teetering on the edge of sick all weekend, and decided to go home each night after the show.  I would have really liked to attend the after-hours programming (the comic art battle looked hilarious…!), but I am conserving my strength for the Avenger’s premiere and flying to Toronto for TCAF 6 hours later. @_@

I got help from my gentleman friends Terry and Mike during move-in and move-out, and really appreciated it.  I got to sit near a ton of people I like, and traffic was good on Saturday.  I sold things–broke a personal record for Stumptown!–and got to talk to lots of awesome people.  Here are some things I drew:

Yup, another good year.  I’ll keep coming back as long as Stumptown and I are in Portland!  (Also see: 2011, 2010, 2009)

And I like sometimes to wave it high

TCAF is this weekend!! Please do come and say ‘hi’ if you are in the area; the show is free and I will have several cool freebies for you.

Oh man, I am going to have trouble staying at my table…so many awesome people I want to go see and buy things from!

Table 248 with Emi Lenox.  Here’s a map.

Ugh French

New comic: Facepalm French Adventures!

For the record, it’s a ‘sac à main’, and I will never forget it.  (And my French class is AWESOME; this is just some silliness that needed to be shared.)

Soon we’ll be found

Portland got 2 consecutive days of sun this week and so we have entered the magical, annual sprouting phase, where every patch of earth suddenly explodes in bright fresh, SATURATED green things. It’s lovely!

The Periscope whiteboard is infamous for sprouting horrors, but this is the worst one yet:

I’ll let that sink in for a moment.

I am kind of hoping this will become an insert-able rage face, but I’m afraid its short/fatness makes it difficult to impose over photos. This is the best I could do, and it’s awful:

Feel free to try your own. Tomorrow, if I remember, I’ll take a photo of what’s falling into its mouth on the whiteboard.

I’ll be waiting here for you

Art dump!
2 sketches for friends and 1 comic about bacon: