the distillation of depth
got something new for you guys, something i’ve been kicking around. lately i’ve been playing with the style for the comic, new influences, new ideas of design, and it’s made me want to try something new. really flex my creative muscle. so, it’s with that that i’ve decided i want to try something new. fans of black and blue, that’s right, all 3 of you, don’t despair. i want to do this as a side project that won’t impact on the weekly updates, and keeping the quality on B&B high. well….. as high as it has been. but this is part of my commitment to improve my art, and you don’t get that much better at something by repetition. not as much as branching out.
so, i was sketching character designs, trying to find the style for a new short i want to do. the working title is ‘the dinner party’.
i think it will be a lot of fun. and spare time. not that i have a ton, but i’m gonna try to fit it in. uninstalling Overwatch on my computer has removed a huge time sink, and, bonus, i find i don’t hate people as much anymore. like, i still do, just less.
anyways, i’m hoping that people out there like it enough to support it as an extra endeavour. it’s kind of a departure from my regular style, but if i can get enough people who’d like to see more, i can take time off here and there to see little side projects like this through. i don’t have any real plan for funding or rewards, but i’m open to suggestions. for now, i have my patreon, (clicking on the pic will take you there) and i really hope you guys would like to see more of this kind of thing, and of course, more black and blue.
so, who else saw ‘Death Note (2017)’
ok, no surpise here, this is just another post from me, to you, about how someone tried to condense something big, into something smaller, and ruined it. i could just stop here.
but i won’t. i didn’t see the original, but i will now. if nothing else, this terrible adaptation has made alot of people righteously upset, and through the gnashing of teeth, and clenching of fists, i heard one thing loud and clear, the original is deep. so, i’m gonna give it a chance. can’t be worse, right?
*spoiler* the main character’s dad is the one person on earth, at random, who’s tasked with finding his son, this seemingly phantom killer. that’s just lazy writing. i mean, seems to me you could clean that that up with a few tossed in lines about ‘that’s why we chose you’. boom. is it good? no, but it’s not god awful and painfully forced to make a plot work. ok, less forced.
I haven’t seen the new one yet, so I can’t draw perfect parallels, but here’s my thought. The boy’s father hunting him down is a bad medium translation. In the series, it’s just luck that the main character finds the note, and that the main character’s father is the chief inspector of the police department for that region of Japan. As the death toll stacks, more and more of the police bail on the hunt for the killer, until this chief is one of a very small number still hunting him. Note: this takes about 12-14 episodes. Why the movie even incorporated that is a little beyond me, as a significant amount of time and character development went into the main character and his father’s relationship as time went on.
kinda just proves the point that with more time, you can build a nuanced story, that would feel forced in a 90 minute movie.
This looks fun. I’m always down for some macabre humor. Looking forward to the party.
Death Note just became this whole thing over in Japan. Like cultural icon or something. There are stage plays for pity’s sake!
it must have struck a ‘note’ there that it isn’t here. either it’s cultural, or translation. who knows?
The new designs have a classic Charles/Addams – Addams Family cartoon vibe. Are you thinking of single panels / short multi panel one offs or more of an ongoing serialized thing?
for starters, i was thinking about just doing a one shot 10 page short, and then see how well it’s received. but it’ll take time i figure.
As a lover or monsterous things (actual teratophile that I am), I find your dinner party guests absolutely charming! I just want to squeeze them to pieces! Definitely hope you find time to expand your creative genius in that direction!
Still haven’t seen the new Death Note. It’s been a while since I saw the show, but I think it was always his dad who was tasked with hunting him. He was a pretty meticulous little psycho, and I seem to remember an element of “Bwahaha! Nobody will ever suspect the son of the lead investigator!”
Since you plan on watching the original, I hope I can make you laugh by informing you that if you put boobs on L and dye his hair red you have practically met me. Right down to the barefootedness, dark circles, and
perching strangely on furniture!
thanks! i tend to bit off more than i can chew, and between my actual job, my webcomic, and…. life, i don’t have alot of free time. i want to do more, but i also have to stay open to paying gigs. this is unlikely to be that, but it is more appealing. i’m caught between responsibility and curiosity. at least i can honestly say i’m never really bored. that’s something.
i can’t just go putting boobs on random things magically. what do you take me for, some sort of mammarymancer? but that is quite a visual. i’m guessing alot of the nuance that sold the anime so well was completely lost in a 90 minute retelling. and that’s half the problem. i think tv lately has an appeal to fans of the slow boil, whereas movies are becoming the medium for those with short attention spans. sort of a change up. back in the day, episodics (to my mind) were silly and easily digestible, and movies were the think pieces.
MAMMARYMANCER!
thought you’d like that one.