Between Friends Blog

Virtual Book Launch Party

My friend, Brian Fies is hosting a virtual book launch party on Saturday night. . . 

Nothing you can imagine doing this Saturday night could possibly be more interesting and fun than attending an online virtual launch party to celebrate the upcoming release of Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow! Nothing! Why, there'll be talking, and reading, and drawing, and . . . more talking. Exciting prizes. Plus a Special Guest who actually hasn't cancelled yet!

When:

Saturday, May 30

6 p.m. Pacific
7 p.m. Mountain

8 p.m. Central

9 p.m. Eastern

10 p.m. Ronniecat

and elsewhen elsewhere.

Where:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/whttwot-launch-party

 

 

For more information, click here.  It's a very interesting idea!  I'm having company on Saturday night so I'm hoping it will be recorded for future viewing.  (Another cartoon party I'm missing . . . sigh)

Have fun, Brian!!!

Congratulations Reuben winners!

The annual NCS Reuben Awards weekend has passed and I wasn't there...again.  That's two years in a row.  I try to go at least every other year and I had fully intended on attending the convention in Hollywood this year . . . but other stuff came up and this other stuff had to come first.

Sounds like it was another great weekend and I wanted to extend my congratulations to Dave Coverly, creator of the panel Speedbump, for winning Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year.  Also, a well deserved tip of the hat to the talented Mark Tatulli for winning Best Strip of the Year for Lio and to the equally talented Mark Parisi for Best Panel of the Year, Off the Mark.

There are a whole list of categories so I'll link you to the blog of my buddy, Mike Lynch, for the complete rundown.

You can also see a few photos at theEdison Lee blog and at Tom Richmond's Mad blog.

See what I missed?  Dang...I'll be there next year if I have to crawl there.

Throw the Bum out now!!!

My favourite character is Maeve.  I think I feel less restricted with her because she isn't a mother.  By far, she always manages to generate the most mail and the strongest opinions. 

Lately, she's been involved in an ongoing story line with her ex-husband, Simon.  He's lost his job and, feeling sorry for him, has allowed him to move in with her while he gets his act together.  Readers are not impressed . . .

 I've been meaning to email you about how much I want to 
smack this guy! I think it's the arrogance factor. . . this guy is just aggravatingly  narcissistic!

***********

I AM A DAILY READER OF YOUR COMIC STRIP AND I AM ONE OF YOUR BIGGEST FANS.  BUT, I HATE THE STORY LINE ABOUT MAEVE AND HER EX.  IT IS AN INSULT TO ALL WOMEN THE WAY HER EX CAN BULLY HER INTO ALLOWING HIM TO NOT ONLY MOVE IN, AND CHANGE HER LIVING ARRANGEMENTS.  I WOULD HOPE THAT A WOMAN OF HER AGE WOULD HAVE ENOUGH OF A BACK BONE AND SELF WORTH TO TELL HIM TO TAKE A LONG WALK OFF A SHORT PIER.

 PLEASE HAVE MAEVE WAKE UP AND THROW THE BUM OUT NOW!!!!!!!

************

If I ever get to throttle someone... I want that to be the human leech, Simon. This is how he repays Maeve's kindness and compassion - by intruding into her private life and controlling her communications? I hope he gets his richly deserved comeuppance some day! He should be thrown out on his ears from Maeve's home.
 
I am very irritated right now. I wish I could say he is a work of fiction, but the sad fact is that I have known such people elsewhere.

*************

 I have a dear friend who last week let her ex move back in because he lost the house they both used to live in (divorced her remortgaged and bought all the toys he ever wanted - you know the story) and she actually felt sorry for him.  This week things changed as his old stripes are showing...

************* 

You can still catch up on most of the back-story by clicking on the motion widget in the top right corner of my blog.  It will take you to Comics Kingdom and my strip, Between  Friends.  Under the strip there is a calendar.  Click on this and go to April 27th.  You can back read the story from there.

There is also an e-mail feature to the left of the calendar so you can send any strip to a friend.

Have a great weekend!  Off to work . . .

Something for your Cappuccino break

It's been a busy week here . . . here's a little Youtube video to watch during your coffee break.  I get a kick out of it every time I watch it! . . . love Clay Aiken's voice!

Not your average Stiletto

 

Now this is cool.  My cartooning girlfriend, Stephanie Piro (the Saturday chick of the comic strip Six Chix) painted this huge stiletto heel.

From her Six Chix blog post:

Rochester used to be famous for shoe manufacturing and artstream wanted to celebrate this history with giant shoe sculptures. The shoes would be sponsored by local businesses and then installed around town for the summer. And every sculpture would have its own poem created by an Art Esprit poet member. A great idea, right? . . .  So, I happened to attend a meeting at artstream and said “wouldn’t it be fun if one of the sculptures was a giant stiletto ?” They said, “will you paint it?” and I said “Of course”.

Go and visit the Six Chix blog and take a look at Stephanie's post about painting her stiletto.  She has a ton of photos from start to finish!

Boobs, Mammograms and Between Friends

Remember  last winter I mentioned that I was working on something cool?  Well this is it:

To coincide with Mother's Day, the  Canadian Cancer Society  has launched a campaign to promote the importance of having regular mammograms in the early detection of breast cancer.

I was very pleased to assist with this campaign by creating a series of three Between Friends comic strips that address some of the concerns that women have about getting a mammogram.

    

You can see the series by visiting the Thing-a-ma-boob web site here.  (What's a Thing-a-ma-boob, you ask?  It's a little key-chain type gadget that explains very simply how having regular mammograms can detect lumps at an early stage. )  The cartoons are flash-animated and were voiced by volunteers from Actra.

  

When I was approached to help out with this campaign, I was excited for a couple of reasons.  One, of course, was because I thought it was a valuable message.  Secondly, I thought the fit was perfect.  Between Friends is very women-focused and I felt the targeted audience would relate very well to my characters.  And lastly, because it was an opportunity to stretch a bit and do something a bit new and challenging ... all within the comfort zone of my "area of expertise."

I have to admit, I was a bit nervous about coming up with the little story line for the Mammogram message.  It was very important to me to do a good job for the Canadian Cancer Society.  As it turned out, it wasn't really all that difficult because it wasn't that much of a stretch from the way I normally work.

I was given a variety of images to help me with the art.  (The mammogram machine...hmm...that's probably not what a technician would call it, was a little tough to draw)  I was also given written information about breast cancer and mammograms in the form of previously published magazine articles, health info, women's stories, etc.  Most important was the time I spent chatting with Jane who coordinated the campaign between me and the Cancer Society.  We spent a good deal of time chatting on the phone and just generally discussing a myriad of points that the Cancer Society wanted to get across.  We also discussed the concerns that women generally have about going for a mammogram.  They gave me a general outline of how the strips would be used and the sizes and format they would need.  This was important because it helped me decide just how much art and how many words I could use to make the strip work visually.  Then I was given a free rein to put something together.  Gathering information, points, ideas and then sitting down and writing a little story is pretty  much how I write my Between Friends strips every week.  Something must have worked because everyone seemed to be happy with the strips I came up with.

  Helen is the star of the show in these strips.  I picked her as the protagonist because she's older than Susan, Maeve or Kim and the campaign is focused on women ages 50-69.  Of course, that meant that Maeve was the friend who encourages and provides moral support because Helen and Maeve work together.  Maeve is also the type to be a driving force.

I think the absolute coolest thing for me was attending the recording session in Toronto where volunteers from Actra did the voice-overs for my characters.  The actors and the technical people were amazing.  They worked so fast.  It was particulary interesting to me to hear the actors being given guidance on the inflection in their voices...and how different they could make things sound by changing their tone or where they would accent points.  The actors brought copies of the poster* into the recording area so they could see the expression of my characters in my artwork.  The actor who voiced Helen completely cracked me up in the second strip series where Helen actually has a mammogram.  It's a good thing they were in a sound-proof room or I would have ruined the recording.

* In addition to the online flash-animated series, the strips have been printed on a poster as well as on a display case of  Thing-a-ma-boobs that are being distributed to doctors' offices in Ontario.

  

Cool or what, eh?

Go and visit http://Thingamaboob.ca and watch the animated strips . . . and then send them to a friend to remind them about the importance of having regular mammograms.  Pass it on!

For your coffee break enjoyment . . .

Wolverine

Tim and I went to see Wolverine on the weekend.

Sigh.

I was SO looking forward to seeing this movie . . .  and I enjoyed it for the most part.  There are some awesome scenes in  the film.  The best had to be when Logan is infused with the adamantium.  And Hugh Jackman . . . well, he is just incredible.  Loved him.  And Liev Schrieber who plays Victor Creed (later to become Sabretooth) is absolutely sensational. 

If you're an X-men fan, a Wolverine fan or even just a Hugh Jackman fan ( "just" as in you're a fan of Hugh Jackman and not the X-men) you have to go and see this movie.  I enjoyed it and I'm glad I went.

But . . . there are a few things that bother me about the movie.  The biggest irritant for me was the ending.  There are some spoilers ahead so if you don't want to read them, stop here.  I will say though, if you're going to see the movie, STAY  UNTIL THE VERY END OF THE CREDITS. 

 

First of all, I've never read the X-men comics and I'm not one of those people who knows all the background on the characters.  That may be why I didn't understand some things. 

1.  Logan wants to kill Creed because he believes Creed killed his girlfriend.  He is about to do just that when Gambit intercepts and Creed gets away.  Gambit is supposed to have escaped from Three Mile Island where Stryker has imprisoned and is experimenting on mutant children to create a super mutant.  Creed is helping him to capture the mutant children.  Why would Gambit stop Logan from killing Creed?  Wouldn't he, of all people, want Creed dead?  Unless Gambit intercepts the killing by accident but it didn't come across that way to me.  And after Gambit and Logan fight it out, Gambit says to Logan, "You mean you were really going to kill him?" (meaning Creed)  I don't know.  That whole scene didn't make sense to me.  Maybe someone out there can explain it to me.

2.  I know the action scenes are over the top in these super hero films.  I love that.  But still, they have to have some semblance of realism  . . . in that over the top type of way if you know what I mean.  Logan, befriended by an elderly couple in their farm house is ambushed by a helicopter full of heavy duty firearms and explosives.  The elderly couple is killed and Logan is fleeing on a motorcycle . . . on a wide-open road . . . and the helicopter guys never even ding Logan or the motorcycle.  At one point, he is zipping through the cover of the forest . . . that makes sense.  But overall, it just seemed like Goliath and the ant and the ant wins. 

(Of course, when Logan first gets to the farmhouse and the farmer finds him in the barn, Logan is totally starkers.  And trust me, Hugh Jackman is a fine specimen indeed . . . so . . . I guess that makes up for what I felt were inadequacies in the action scene.)

3.  Okay, so even with my grievances above, I would say Wolverine was definitely worth the price of admission.  Not as good as Iron Man but a must-see.  Hugh Jackman and Liev Schreiber were AWESOME.  My biggest complaint with the movie and the thing that spoiled it for me was the ending. 

At the end of the movie, after an amazing fight scene between Logan/Creed and the super-mutant, Weapon XI,  Charles Xavier shows up in the precise nick of time to pick up the escaping mutant children and fly them away to safety.  I found that to be rather convenient but the guy reads minds so ...okay.

Wolverine has decapitated Weapon XI, Creed has exited.Stryker shows up and shoots Logan in the brainwith adamantium bullets.  These don't kill him but they erase his memory.  Yada, yada, yada, Logan declines help from Gambit in leaving Three Mile Island and sets out on his own path.  Fine.  This works.  Credits roll.

Then . . . a few credits in, we see Stryker walking, his shoes worn out, his feet bleeding.  He was instructed to do this as a punishment by Silver Fox just before she dies.  (Silver Fox was Logan's girlfriend, the one he was misled to believe Creed murdered.  She has the power to impose her will on people when she's touching them)  Some MP's show up and arrest Stryker and tell him he's wanted for questioning in the murder of a general.  Then the credits roll again.

All the way home from the movie, I complained to Tim about what a TOTALLY LAME ENDING the movie had.  Arresting Stryker for questioning of the murder of some general we see for mere minutes in the film is the ending?  THAT'S supposed to have film-goers on the edge of their seat waiting for the next Wolverine movie????  Talk about ANTI-CLIMATIC.  They should have ended it with Wolverine wandering off on his own.  Not great for an ending but better than the Stryker scene. 

I mean . . . sheesh . . . at the end of Iron Man when Robert Downey says " I'M IRON MAN" . . . now THAT was an ending!

But wait . . . here's what makes me feel ripped off even more than that crappy ending:  THAT WASN'T THE END.

Reading a synopsis of the movie this morning at IMDb, I find out that the REAL ending came even later in the credits. . .

Out of the rubble emerges one of the blades, followed by the arm of Weapon XI, which then reaches down to pick up it's severed head. As the eyes open we notice that the mouth is no longer fused shut and opens only to utter a single sound, "Shhhhh..." - Fade to black.

Oh, how I wish I had seen that.  It would have made the whole movie complete.  THAT was the perfect ending.  That would have left me dying to see the next Wolverine movie.

The thing is, they left that scene far too late.   And because they showed the Stryker scene after the credits began rolling, the majority of people are going to think that that's it.  They're not going to wait for another bonus scene to show up even later in the credits.  I know because I missed it and I'm one of those people who wait a bit at the end of a movie just to avoid the exiting crowds.  In fact, two-third of the theatre had left even before Tim and I did.  Very bad timing . . . a punchline about 8 beats too late.

So . . . I gotta say, I feel a bit ripped off.

Rating:    I won't pay to go and see it again even though I'd love to see that last scene.  I'll wait for the dvd rental.  But if you're an X-men fan you have to go and see it.  Just wait until the very end of the credits before you leave.

 

Thought for the Weekend

Okay, so today's "Thought for the Weekend" isn't really one of those inspirational-type quotes that I usually post but it is one of my all-time favourite quotes from a member of the female gender.  (Carolyn Parrish was a member of the Canadian federal Liberal government and I'm providing a brief bit of back-story to put the quote in context)

On May 19, 2005, Paul Martin's Liberal government faced two votes of confidence on its 2005-06 budget legislation. In the days leading up to the vote, Parrish said that she would support the government despite her difficulties with Martin's administration. Her support was critical to the government's survival, given the even division in the house. On the morning of the vote, Parrish informed a media representative that she was suffering from severe pain due to a medical ailment (there was speculation at the time that this was appenditicitis or an ovarian cyst, though informed sources now indicate that it likely was kidney stones). Some media sources speculated that she could be forced to miss the vote, but Parrish denied this, claiming,

Come hell or high water, there's no frigging way I'm going to let one ovary bring the government down.

She attended the vote, which the government won by one vote.