Stupid little Mirror's Edge comic

Just another lazy comic I made while the majority of my creative energies are directed elsewhere. When I haven't been working, I've been astonishingly lazy, and two rainy days were spent starting (and, eventually, completing) the 2008 game Mirror's Edge. The painful protest from my left hand has made me vow I will never do such a long marathon ever again. But it was an interesting experience.
Those of my three readers not familiar with ME's unique game mechanics can get a taste thusly:



Like a shooter, it's experienced from a first-person perspective, but all you do is jump rooftops, do crazy Crouching Tiger gymnastics, and run from the cops. If you really want to shoot guns, you can shoot guns, but Mirror's Edge is uniquely non-aggressive in that respect - the 360 even gives you brownie points if you complete the game without firing a single shot. I chose the mad pursuit of unlocking the "Pacifist" achievement, but in doing so, an already tricky game became a never-ending punishment.



When you play ME, be ready to fail. A lot. And because failure often involves a too-short leap to another skyscraper, be ready to see your hideous death replayed before you eyes over and over again.
The first time this happened, I thought of Groundhog Day, where Bill Murray, having resigned himself to reliving the same day over and over again, begins to kill himself in a variety of exciting ways, including plunging off a skyscraper, just to see what it's like.
Mirror's Edge has ensured that I will never have that fantasy again.
You will be forced to repeat a run over and over again, until you know that you have to do a wall-run there, and have enough momentum for an extra jump there. Doing a successful run resembles an Olympic gymnastics routine, except when you slip up, you get shot, tasered, or fall to an untimely death.
Also, you'd hope that even in a totalitarian city-state that crunches down on free speech, they would still have modest comforts. You know. Like save points.
All grumbling aside, I had a lot of fun. The color scheme is gorgeous, and the Scandinavian-style ambient music is chill-tastic. Faith is a cool heroine. And even thought you die hundreds of times before you get past a gauntlet of snipers and cops, finally reaching that red door gives you a huge feeling of accomplishment.

I have passed the test, just like all the rest

Go on! Read more! You know you want to...

Not dead! Just working.

Yep, working. And being lazy. And completing Half Life 2. And watching Veronica Mars.
You know, busy! UP was good, I'll write more about it soon.
More drawings, too.

Come on now, sugar! (Bring it on, bring it on, yeah!)

Go on! Read more! You know you want to...

New photoshop piece, with a bit of Mucha.

I got an amazing book about Mucha when I was in Prague, so I whipped out a little something over the last week.
My productivity will be significantly decreased this week (finals, blergh), but hopefully I'll have more stuff ready by the time I get to the States. In the meantime, listen to this. If you're at all a fan of hip-hop or The Legend of Zelda, you'll dig it.

In a method that was leisurely

Go on! Read more! You know you want to...

The top 5 insanely awesome (and awesomely insane) music videos I'm watching right now

I've found myself watching a lot of music videos lately, some by bands I already liked, and some that are brand new to me. But recently I started thinking about how totally, utterly weird some of them are. But the weirdness doesn't hurt them - it makes me want to watch them over and over again. So I thought I'd share. Here are the top 5 insanely awesome (and awesomely insane) music videos I've watched recently.

Good Morning, by Kanye West


I was really tempted to put up the video for "Stronger," since it's basically one long Akira reference set to hip hop, and therefore ridiculous, but seeing as I can't find it, this'll do. I love stuff by Takashi Murakami, and this video has all of his signature flourishes - cute animals, bright colors, abstract patterns, and weird crap that's there for no reason. It also features the one thing from anime I wish could do in real life: rip off my clothes and reveal a brand new outfit underneath.

We Will Become Silhouettes, by the Postal Service


It's the apocalypse! Yay!
But seriously, the director of Napoleon Dynamite did this video, and it shows. He matched up the song's bouncy synthesizer perfectly with 70s-era, Logan's Run-esque visuals, complete with orange onesies and acid-wash jeans. It's a crazy song and I love it.

Teardrop, by José González


A cover of the classic song by Massive Attack (aka: the House theme song), Jose Gonzalez somehow makes the melody sound even creepier by making it acoustic. The crazy visuals in the music video only add to the effect, and the whole thing looks like a film you have to watch when you're indoctrinated into a cult. In fact, the first thing I thought of when I saw it was this creepy propaganda cartoon about Mormons. See what I mean?

Wanderlust, by Björk


Bjork is, like, the queen of weird music videos. You may not like her voice, but you have to give her props for all of the awesomeness she packs in these three-minute videos. (Want proof? Watch this one. Or this one. Or this!) But the relatively new video for "Wanderlust" takes it to a totally new level. You've got the staples of a typical Bjork video (namely, Bjork in some kind of weird outfit), but then you add stuff like a herd of Muppet yaks, a muderous backpack, and a lecherous river god, and you have... a Bjork music video.

But the winner is...

Carmensita, by Devendra Banhart


What is going on in this video? Why is a crappy Bollywood movie set to a samba? Why does the good guy shoot snakes out of his forehead while the bad guy pretends to twirl a drawn-on mustache? Why does Natalie Portman set herself on fire and turn into an octopus? God knows, but it's awesome, all five minutes of it.
Also? The guy who wrote the subtitles is a genius. Poorly-translated subtitles are always funny, but some of the lines in this video sound like Yugi-oh episodes, they're that bad. ("Fear not my sweet flower, I have obtained the powers of the Enochian ninth circuit.""Fools! No man has reached that circuit!")

Crystal bubbles will cremate our troubles!

Go on! Read more! You know you want to...

Geeky news...

Do you see this?



This is a photo taken by Edgar Wright. Yes, Shaun of the Dead's Edgar Wright. He takes photos on the set of the film he's making.

This is Kim Pine and she's playing the drums in the Scott Pilgrim movie that is being filmed RIGHT NOW.
Hells.
Yes.

In other news...



I pounded that picture out in an hour, and I don't even care. That's right, Adventure Time (below) is going to be a show! They even have a production blog, conveniently located here. I cannot wait.



If you think that's awesome, here's a treat: one more short, also by Pen Ward.



And finally, I'm super excited for Where The Wild Things Are:



That's all for now. It's a beautiful day right now - I think April is my new favorite month.

Should we break some bread?

Go on! Read more! You know you want to...

Last round of Videogame Classics!

That's right - this round adds it up to an even ten. Gosh, what a fun and creative time-waste that was.
First up, a hallowed classic...



I remember I actually had the idea for this one while I was traveling around. I kept thinking, "What if I could find an ancient marble statue and put a tiny worm head on it?" After all, the funniest thing about Earthworm Jim is his design. It's awesome.
So I went to the archive of Life photos (which you should all check out right now) and found a good photo to base the piece on. And the rest is Photoshop.



Ohhh... I played so much of this on the bus...



I realized as I was making this that this game was the first Zelda game I ever played. Once when I was 10, we went into a Target and they had Majora's Mask set up on a console, so I played it for five minutes while my mom shopped. It was the very beginning of the game, where the Skull Kid had turned Link into a Deku Scrub and he couldn't leave Clock Town? So for, like, two years, I thought Link looked was a weird little plant guy. Fun little trip down Memory Lane.

That's probably it on these. I have an idea for one more, but Olly Moss is probably coming after me with a tire iron as it is.

Why don't you play the game?

Go on! Read more! You know you want to...

More comics, comin' atcha!

The newest comic, hot off the press. This is about Slovakian food. Delicious, meaty, cholestorol-filled Slovakian food.



And one more that was forgotten in the archives. This was from January, I think.



One thing I noticed in Brno were posters for Watchmen, which I didn't expect. Of course there was no time to go see it. And of course I would come back hometo a roommate who said she watched "Watchmen" while in the UK. Just to spite me!
This will have to be corrected. More drawings soon.

John can give you cancer and he'll turn into a car

Go on! Read more! You know you want to...

Back from Slovakia!

More on my Flickr page here.
Comics soon!

Got more cars than a beach got sand

Go on! Read more! You know you want to...

More Classics!

So I'll be out of contact for the next two weeks, as I'll be cruising the Czech and Slovak Republics on a bus. Lots of photos and cool memories guaranteed, but blog posts are not.

In the meantime, I whipped up three more classic covers. I wish Blogspot didn't wash out the colors the way it did... the originals are much brighter and interesting. I'll try and fix that once I get back.



I think this is my new favorite - I might even make a wallpaper of it. Actually, I like the game's original cover a lot, too, but I like mine in a different way. Honestly, my favorite part of Katamari is the level where you get big enough to roll up entire countries and continents before you pick up the Earth head off to roll up some stars.



Has anyone played this? Sure, it's for the Gameboy, but I keep getting drawn to it now and then. It's really addictive!



Of course I would do Bioshock. To exclude this game from our collection of future classics is a crime. Imaginative, atmospheric, and downright scary. I might make a full jacket of this one so that Rocky can slip it in his copy. What do you think, Rock? Interested?

Once again, these are all based on the brilliant original works by Olly Moss. Check him out.

All right, I'm off to Eastern Europe! Be back soon!

Laaaa la la la la la la, la la Katamari Damashiiiii...

Go on! Read more! You know you want to...

More comics!

Looks like I've been accidentally depriving you of comics! Sorry about that, folks.





If it doesn't work out, give her half of my stuff

Go on! Read more! You know you want to...

Videogame Classics - Entering the Meme Game

While I was recovering from an incapacitating illness this weekend, I took to cruising around the internet, particularly my favorite art and design blogs. Probably the name I've seen recurring again and again is that of designer Olly Moss. His simple schematic-like illustrations are a lot of fun to look at, and if you get the chance, look at the film posters he created using only black, white and red.
But the thing that has really been making the rounds are these:



An admirer of the abstract covers such as those on on Penguin Classics paperbacks, Moss made a series of his own retro-ized covers for half a dozen classic video games. They don't just look classic, either - they look classy.



So, with little else to do during my convalescence, and feeling up to an artistic challenge, I decided to try my hand at a few of my own videogame covers. I'm hardly the first person, of course - in the last month they've become something of a meme. Kotaku even put up a nice gallery of covers that their readers submitted - but I tried to make my covers distinctive, if not unique.
I will say this - this was considerably challenging for me, and I realized early on that I was not used to breaking down an image or a concept to something simplistic and immediately eye-catching, like Moss's pieces do so effortlessly. Anyone who likes my stuff absolutely has to trace it back to Moss.

Let's see what I came up with:



I was pretty proud with the design I came up for this one. A little simplistic, maybe, but it evokes what the game's about. You've got the boy, the girl, and the evil castle, obviously, but there's also the the recurring light and darkness motif.



I never got to play this game all the way through, but watching the levels on YouTube show that this totally deserves to be a classic one day. Originally there was just the black spiral, but I wanted to add some white, so I added the white ripple effect. I was happy with it, but couldn't shake the feeling I'd seen it somewhere before...



Oops. Well, Moss said he got inspiration for that one from Saul Bass' amazing Vertigo poster, anyway. And for good reason - orange and white spirals is always visually striking.



I think I had the most difficulty with this one, because I didn't want to have too much black. Mirror's Edge is dominated by white, with bits of red, and the color scheme is crucial to the gameplay. Thought it turned out okay in the end, though. And finally...



I wanted some cake to be there from the beginning. That's the best part of the game! Circles were also something I wanted to incorporate, to evoke both the portals and the ever-watching eyes of GLaDOS. I like how organic the finished piece looks.

Am I thinking about these too much? Probably. But it's fun to break down what makes a game unique, and to try and get that across in a very simple illustration. I actually have plans for three more. Maybe I'll get those done this week.

One degree shy of sadistic

Go on! Read more! You know you want to...

Happy 10th Anniversary, Powerpuff Girls!

You read that correctly - the Powerpuff Girls have been around for ten years. Longer, if you count their original shorts on What A Cartoon! back in '97.
I have never felt so old in my life.



And it's still going strong! You still see them on TV, and you can still get knockoff belts with their melon-shaped heads as the buckles. One of the little girls I teach English to has a PPG watch, and last week we momentarily bonded over one of the few things that surpasses the language gap - whether you prefer Blossom, Bubbles, or Buttercup (Though as I understand it, Italian speakers know them as Lolly, Dolly, and Molly, le Superchicche).

But what little girl doesn't recognize this?



I still remember the newspaper articles, back when the show was red-hot, about how parents were concerned with the blatant violence on the show. I remember how they talked about it representing "girl power," and the encroaching influence of anime on America's Saturday mornings. They thought PPG got its weirdness from Japanese influences.
They might have been right, but they didn't know that eventually Japan would take it to a whooooole new level.
They didn't know about Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z.



Look at what you've done, Craig McCracken. You started this. You can never escape it.

But the PPG got a special tenth anniversary DVD set, and watching some of the old episodes made me remember that the show was genuinely good. It was funny. It was sweet. It was kickass.
But ten years old. Damn. A lot of things turn ten this year: Spongebob and Futurama, amongst them, but there's something special about the show that's now older than the protagonists the show is about.

Okay, take it easy. Enjoy some Apples in Stereo.



Or will you fly away before we count to one?

Go on! Read more! You know you want to...

Happy Birthday, Rocky!

Here's a little something for my brother's fifthteenth birthday. Quite a year!
Technically, I already got him a present, but when he told me he'd beaten Half-Life 2 the other day, I couldn't resist. Happy birthday, bud.


I've got another post in the pipeline soon. Sorry about this, the new semester's been a little crazy. But more soon, I promise.
Later days.

I took my boat for a car. I took that car for a ride.

Go on! Read more! You know you want to...

Tilt-shift photography experiment!

So my first post proper of the new year is a result of my many meanderings online. Thanks to boingboing, I learned about the wonders of tilt-shift photography, where manipulating the focus in your photos creates the illusion that everything in your photo is really really tiny. It's cool enough as photos, but when you recreate the effect on film, it's absolutely stunning. Check out this video of Sydney Harbor by Keith Loutit:


Bathtub II from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Isn't that great? Anyway, a featured site on boingboing today was one that allowed you to upload your photos and tweak them to create a faux tilt-shift effect. I pulled out the most promising pictures from my three academic travels. Here's what I created:









And my personal favorites...









Still not as cool as the real thing, which, speaking of which, have you seen what some photographers have been doing with real miniatures? There's this one guy in London who does amazing photos... I'll have to find him....
Anyway, hope you have a wonderful tiny new year.

Where the light bends at the cracks

Go on! Read more! You know you want to...

2008 Wrap-Up

Like last year, I've got a list summing up my favorite things. I'm grateful for all the wonderful things I got to experience this year, including the chance to explore not only Paris but Tokyo. What a year.

Favorite Music:
The Monkey: Journey to the West soundtrack, by Damon Albarn. Gorillaz is my favorite band, so listening to what sounds like the Gorillaz in a Chinese opera is awesome.
Anything by Hatsune Miku. Cute songs I have pull up on YouTube once in a while.
The Thing a Week albums by Jonathan Coulton. I first heard about him after hearing "Still Alive" in Portal, and now I'm hooked.
Flight of the Conchords's self-titled album. Those crazy New Zealanders!
Viva La Vida by Coldplay. I was a little worried after their last album, but this new one's really something. "Strawberry Swing" in particular.

Favorite Films:



Persepolis was fantastic. There's not too many black-and-white modern films out there; even fewer are animated. You forget how rich black-and-white can look.
The Dark Knight, for all the conventional reasons. I won't bore you with them.
Sweeney Todd, which I only just saw this year. I know. Shut up.
Iron Man, for Downey Junior. I love that man.
Wall-E. What more is there to say?

Favorite Games:
Portal is amazing. Even if I hopped on the train a bit late, I'm grateful that I got to play it.
Beautiful Katamari, if only for the level where you roll around the King of the Cosmos and listen to him go "Yay! Yay!" when you pick stuff up. He sounded like that guy on the Simpsons who goes "Yee-essssss!"

Favorite Books/Comics:

Last year was a bit of a cop-out, so I'm doing a bit of a better job this year.



Pluto by Naoki Urasawa. The official English translation has yet to come out, but reading it online has completely sucked me in. It's based on a well-known Astro Boy story from the sixties, but was remade into a thoughtful sci-fi murder mystery. In a way, it reminds me of Sandman and how it retold old DC stories.



The Great Outdoor Fight by Chris Onstad. The story itself is available for free on the website, but there's something so satisfying about holding the story in your hand, especially when it's the best Achewood story yet. What great writing.



Black Jack by Osamu Tezuka. Yeah, those books I won in that contest? Beautiful! All this medical drama makes me want to start watching House again.

And finally, the internet gave me a late Christmas present. It's an acoustic rendition of the Wind Waker theme by Fredrik Larsson, a 23-year old Swede. Tell me this isn't beautiful.



Happy new year, everybody.

It's such a perfect day

Go on! Read more! You know you want to...