GAMEWORLD ADVENTURE #2

The second strip of the amateur comic I'm writing with my son is now up on the GAMEWORLD ADVENTURE blog site.

Check it out!

http://gameworldcomics.blogspot.ca/

THE AVENGERS

So yeah, I'm like a month late seeing THE AVENGERS and no one really cares about reviews of it anymore because practically everyone in the world has seen it already (if ticket sales are any indication).

But so what.

Here is my two cents on the whole thing and also a little complaint I have about the movie going experience of late.

My favourite superhero movie of all time, the watermark for perfection remains THE DARK KNIGHT. That was such an incredible piece of cinematic amazingness that I doubt anything will dethrone it, other than THE DARK KNIGHT RISES which will soon be upon us.

Just slightly below TDK I would place the Ironman movies, THE GREEN LANTERN, THOR, the Hulk flicks (yeah, I liked both of them!). I would have put Raimi's Spiderman trilogy among this group but after watching them again recently they seemed to miss the mark, and that may be because I've been reading a bunch of Spiderman comics lately.

Anyway, below that group I would place the X-Men stuff, with X-MEN: FIRST CLASS being the bottom of the barrel, the dreck of dreck.

This is long winded way of saying THE AVENGERS, to me, ranks just below TDK. I enjoyed the heck out of it and I don't see any way they could have made it any more bombasticly fun than they did without Batman brooding somewhere in the background.

I think all of the actors play there roles incredibly well, even if it still irks me a bit that Chris Evans is Captain America AND Johnny Storm within the Marvel movie universe. Robert Downey Jr. rocks and so does Mark Ruffalo, who I thought played a terrific Bruce Banner. One thing I liked was how his Hulk was very reminiscent of the way the original Hulk looked in the comics. Whether this was done intentionally or it's just the way Ruffalo's face Hulk morphs I don't know, but I dug it.

So yeah, once again Joss Whedon proves he is a pop culture genius and the ultimate geek. If you haven't seen THE AVENGERS yet, and you're into this kind of thing, definitely check it out. It's a lot of fun.

Now, my complaint.

There have been a few wonderful improvements to the movie going experience lately. More comfortable seats, better, louder, sound systems. The option to pre-order the exact seat you want to sit in before you even leave your house. Most recently at the theatre close to me they have introduced what is called D-BOX that, from what I gather, adds a whole new level to your movie going experience. The seat shakes and all that. Whatever.

But the one thing that irks me, is this new interactive cell phone game they make you sit through before starting the movie. Here, folks that have the cells phones permanently implanted to their hands can now play a little interactive game with the movie screen before the movie starts.

I find the five minutes waiting for this stupid game to end very, very, annoying. Here we are in an environment where the last thing you want is folks taking out their phones to start playing with them. And here the theatre is encouraging them to do it right before the movie is going to start!

Now instead of ten minutes of ads and ten minutes of trailers, we have to sit and wait while a bunch of cell phone obsessed dweebs play on their phones.

Give me a break!

IMAGINE A PLACE

IMAGINE A PLACE is part of a trilogy of children's books by Sarah L. Thomson and Rob Gonsalves. This book is spectacular, especially Gonsalves incredibly wonderful paintings.

IMAGINE A PLACE is just the kind of kids book that I love. It speaks directly to your wild imagination and takes you away to places fantastical and wondrous.

Each image plays with, bends and plays tricks with reality, showing you a whole other world that is as close as the corner of your eye.

These are the kind of paintings I gaze at long after I have read the words to my children and wish there was some magical way I could transport inside them to explore more of their streets and strange rooms.

If you love the work of Chris Van Allsburg you will absolutely dig this book! Go to your library, take it out and show yourself and your kids truly imaginative and magical places.

I can't wait to read IMAGINE A DAY and IMAGINE A NIGHT.

THE WOLVES IN THE WALLS

THE WOLVES IN THE WALLS was my latest excursion through the children's book work of fantasist Neil Gaiman.

Unfortunately, it's another book that did little for me. Not even Dave McKean's quirky art can keep this fairly uninteresting story about a girl who believes there are wolves in her walls from falling flat.

The basic idea is a pretty cool one, I must admit. I mean, if I heard wolves in my walls I would freak. And I could probably imagine a hundred ways this story could go. But after the original idea, Gaiman seems to mail the rest of the story in. It simply becomes boring and tired.

About the only thing it was good for was putting my daughter to sleep. Halfway through she was yawning and by the end she had rolled over and gone to sleep. I tiredly muttered the final few pages aloud and then joined her.

THE DANGEROUS ALPHABET & THE BLUEBERRY GIRL

Like I said a few days ago in my review of INSTRUCTIONS, Neil Gaiman is a major hit and miss with me. INSTRUCTIONS, a children's book about a fox making his way through a fairy tale world, impressed me so much I sought out more of Gaiman's youthful writings.

THE DANGEROUS ALPHABET is wonderfully illustrated by the grim Gris Grimly. For the illustrations alone you should skip on over to your local library and take out a copy. 

You and your kids will have great fun going over the quirky and darkly crafted drawings. Inside you will find all sorts of ruffian shenanigans and monsters as two children sneak past their father and go on an adventure beneath the city streets.

While the story is okay, it truly is the illustrations that shine here. It's unfortunate that Gaiman's words were not a little more magical to go along with Grimly's great pictures. Check out Gris Grimly's stuff right HERE.

BLUEBERRY GIRL really did nothing for me. The story is mediocre, never really giving this reader or listener that special feeling that comes from reading a truly magical children's book. Even the drawings by INSTRUCTIONS illustrator Charles Vess, failed to take me away.

I would probably pass on BLUEBERRY GIRL if you are looking for a children's book by Neil Gaiman.

Next up is another Neil Gaiman offering called THE WOLVES IN THE WALLS, illustrated by Dave McKean.

GAMEWORLD ADVENTURE

Hey Wormies!

I wanted to give you a link to a summer project I'm doing with my son, Aidan. It's a comic strip and it's called GAMEWORLD ADVENTURE.

It's something the two of us have been talking about doing for a few months and we finally got started on it last week. We have done a lot story planning and sketching and hope to be able to bring a new strip every Tuesday evening through the summer months, comprising the first part of the story.

The story surrounds three young boys named Aidan, Elijah and Jackk, who are suddenly teleported to an alternate world filled with monsters, weird wizards and all sorts of strange beings.

This is not your glossy, weekly, computer enhanced Spiderman or Aquaman pickup from your comic book store. GAMEWORLD ADVENTURE is going to be raw, youthful, comic book story telling. The colours are done with plain old pencil crayons and outlined in Sharpie ink.

Hope you enjoy!

http://gameworldcomics.blogspot.ca/

INSTRUCTIONS by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess

Aidan, Dani and I took a trip to the local library yesterday and I happened upon this little gem of a book.

Neil Gaiman has always been a bit of hit and miss for me. I like some of his work and dislike some of it.

This one I really, really, enjoyed.

Instructions is a quick reading children's book about a fox that wanders down a path into a fantasy world, at once easily recognizable but also unique in it's own magical way.

The words on the page mesh magnificently with Charles Vess' extraordinary, fantastical, illustrations.

If you have a little fantasy lover in your home, or simply a fan of either of these two magicians, Instructions is the perfect bedtime magic carpet ride.

HAVE YOU MET DANI?

Something that I've been working on this week, which has been helping a little bit to keep me centered, is working on a children's book for my daughter, Dani.

It's called HAVE YOU MET DANI?

Dani is seven and one of the shining lights in my life. She is my middle child and our only daughter. She loves being silly and dressing up and pretending she is Rapunzel from the movie Tangled (I tie a long scarf in her hair so that she can pretend that she has really really really long hair) (she also sings the songs beautifully from heart).

Anyway, working on this story has been a lot of fun. I'm really just getting started but what I've shown to her, she just loves. Seeing the absolute joyous smile on her face that came with me reading this story about her, well, it's just what life is all about.

It's not about getting pissed about people being late or something the garbage man did. It's not about money and what kind of stupid car you buy, or control or any of that garbage.

It's about the smile of a young child, her love and how making her happiness makes me happy.

And don't get me wrong. I'm not a cold block of ice. I've always enjoyed my daughter's happiness. But truly, you don't enjoy that happiness, it doesn't lift your spirit the way it should, if you have all that other meaningless trash cluttering up your heart and soul.

Andrew

P.S. Today I had onions on my veggie sub!!