OptimusFrimal

Yep that's right guys and gals, I'm not dead! Well, not quite anyway.
First things first though, he says leaving the above line to linger in your minds, apologies to all those who I owe various bits and pieces to, mainly replies but also the odd piece of work, as I've been somewhat indisposed for the last couple of months.
As some of you may now I have type 1 diabetes which, whilst irritating, is not usually all that bothersome. Not so over the last couple of months unfortunately. On the 8th September my blood sugars dropped to particularly low levels and I lost consciousness as a result of it. "Oh dear, but that doesn't sound tooooo bad." I hear you think, but I neglected to mention that I passed out whilst at the top of my 20 or so steps staircase. Whoops. Sorta needless to say, but the ensuing slide down the staircase can at best be described as having unpleasant side effects which mostly resulted in me drifting in and out of consciousness for the majority of September. October was then mostly spent in a haze as I went through various anti-pain drugs and consultations on how better to control my diabetes, despire this whole thing being the only one of its nature for at least a year and a bit. Unfortunately not all of these drugs agreed with my body which decided to throw a hissy fit of sorts and caused my blood sugars to yo-yo like a er... yo-yo I guess. This meant I spent a lot of October checking myself in and out of hospital as if it were a hotel.
Luckily I'm pretty much past all of the above now other than a few sore joints and some minor aches and pains and I am now looking forward to catching up on all that I've missed across the internet and also catching up with everything I owe people around here, so if I owe you a response or what have you then expect to see one surface over the next few days, if not hours

Ooh! One last thing I want to mention, I FINALLY have another Mosaic script on its way towards completion Line art has been done by my friend and all around great guy Shane Anderson ( andersonh1.deviantart.com/ ) and its just about to be sent off to the colourist, so hopefully it'll be making the rounds over on the Mosaics page soon-ish

I was looking through Comic Book Resources earlier when I stumbled across this little article here:

www.comicbookresources.com/?pa…

So yeah, as the title says, holy expletives Batman!

For those who happen to be too lazy to click the above link I'll briefly summarise it by saying Mark "Ultimates/Kick Ass/Nemesis" Millar is accepting open submissions from writer/artist teams which he will then look through personally before deciding on the best of them to be printed in his new Comic/Magazine hybrid "Clint".

First off then, Mark Millar is basically a comic writing God in my eyes after having written my favourite all time comics in his and Bryan Hitch's "The Ultimates 1&2". As such, I've been feeling pretty excited for the launch of Clint in September given that it will be printing Millar's Kick Ass 2 and comics work from Jonathan "Turf" Ross and my current favourite comedian, Frankie Boyle.

Secondly, I don't think I shall be sleeping all that much tonight because I physically NEED to come up with an idea worth pitching to Millar. Then I, perhaps simultaneously, need to learn how to draw, ink and letter something more advanced than black and white stick figures... Or, should any of my fellow Deviants feel up to collaborating with me on a pitch then leave me a message here or shoot me a PM. I'm more than open to bouncing ideas around for a story with any interested artists and would love to hear ideas for what kind of stuff you'd enjoy getting to draw in a script

Of course, should any of you clever artsy types feel you've got strong enough writing skills to go it alone then, by all means, go for it! I know for a fact there are some brilliant artists on here who also happen to possess insane writing skills in adition to their dazzling skill with a pencil (Can ya feel the jealousy oozing out of me! ). Plus, should you manage to get yourselves printed then I can always give myself props for pointing you in the right direction

So, yeah! Ooh! Excitement!

So, yesterday I went to go see M. Night Shyamalan's "The Last Airbender" despite reading many a negative review and never really getting beyond a meh at the trailers I saw. I figured the cartoon which the film is adapted from is one of my most favourite things ever, so how bad can a live action film adaptation REALLY be?
ANSWER:
Really bad. Really, really bad. Really, really, really bad. No, that's not quite right. Hmmm... Ok, to get a clear picture of just how bad this film was I want you to take the time to clearly imagine the following:

You wake up at 5AM on a Monday morning. Your alarm clock has gone off 4 hours too early for your job and unfortunately you're one of those people who find it impossible to get back to sleep once woken. You curse the alarm clock and then roll over to hug/kiss/whatever your girlfriend/boyfriend/husband/wife, just for the lovely warm feeling it gives you. BUT, shock/horror, they're not there! Instead there's a note on the pillow. You read the note in which your partner describes how they've never loved you and have been in fact having an affair with your best friend for the entirety of your relationship. Not only that, but they've ran off with said former best friend and stolen all your money and your favourite chair. Suddenly you remember the child the two of you had and run into its room, terrified she's taken the kid too. Thankfully the kid's still there. You sneak back out of their room and make your way downstairs where you promptly stand on your child's skateboard and are sent hurtling down your stairs, you crash down to the bottom and are thrown, face first, off the skateboard into a nearby wall. You then turn around and stumble forward in a daze where you promptly walk onto the end of a rake, which then flips up and smacks the handle of said rake into your face. You move the rake out of the way and head into your kitchen to make your favourite drink and try to figure out what you're going to do now only to discover that your ex-partner has stolen said favourite drink and instead replaced it with dirt, which you fail to notice until swallowing a large mouth-full of it. You then realise you've not turned any lights on and are stumbling around in the dark for no real reason. You head over to the light switch and turn the lights on. The light bulb flickers to life and promptly goes out with a pop! You curse loudly, and upon hearing your distress, your child has clambered out of bed and is making their way towards the stairs. They walk onto the first step and promptly trip over the tassels on their dressing gown! They go hurtling down every step and end up in a bloodied, crumpled heap at the bottom of the stairs. You rush to the kid and quickly bundle them into your car and rush off to the hospital. You then receive a text on your mobile phone. It’s your boss. Turns out the business you work for has just gone bust and you now have no job and as such no source of income. Your kid then awakes from his fall induced state of unconsciousness and looks at you with their big, teary puppy dog eyes and asks you "Where's mummy/daddy?" You look down at the kid, pity etched over your face. Unfortunately though in your haste you've driven through a part of town controlled by a local gang who are embroiled in a shoot out! One of the bullets strikes a rear tire on your car and you spin out of control into a wall at the side of the road. Your car is ruined and you can hardly move. Then a steamroller crashes onto you and a large airplane crashes into your car. Somehow though you manage to survive all this and in the ensuing plane induced explosion you are sent hurtling to the other side of the road. You are unable to move and every single bone in your body is broken. All seems hopeless when you see a figure rushing towards you from the distance. The figure gets closer and you can make out, through the blood pouring over your eyes, that the figure is in fact a young man. Then you realise who it is! Its hot shot movie director/producer/writer M. Night Shyamalan! A personal favourite of yours and one of your heroes. Surely he'll take care of you! M. Night has now ran over to you and is standing over you, assessing your various injuries. He then proceeds to drop his trousers and pants and then takes the longest, largest dump known to man over you before going over to the lifeless body of your kid and kicking it before using one of its hands to wipe his ass.

And still I don't think I've truly done justice to The Last Airbender, the first and, if I have any sense, last M. Night Shyamalan film I ever see.

The film begins with four people "bending" the four elements (earth, water, fire, air for those not in the know) in a manner reminiscent of the opening credits of the cartoon minus the narration from Katara. We then get a "Star Wars" text crawl explaining the basic background of the film world. And already I'm bored. Even the opening text crawl is boring. The film then opens with Sokka (pronounced "So - ka" in the film, but should be pronounced "Sock - a) and his sister Katara out hunting for food. Just like the opening scenes of the first cartoon episode. Yet EVERYTHING that made these characters, especially Sokka, so loveable and engaging is missing from this opening and the rest of the film for that matter. Fans of the cartoon will know that Sokka is, to begin with at least, an incompetent warrior and will always have a witty remark on hand to lighten bad moods. Not so in this film, why no, Sokka is actually a master warrior and entirely devoid of personality, with his favourite line seeming to be "I'll kill them" whenever asked well... anything really. It probably doesn't help that Jackson Rathbone, of Twilight infamy, seems incapable of acting anything other than dull surprise, and he even seems to struggle with that.
And this isn't even the film's biggest sin as it falls prey to simply telling us what happens rather than showing us. This is done with a series of voice-overs from the fairly capable Katara which all effectively go "Then we did this, this and that and Aang (pronounced "Ung" or "Oong" although it should actually be pronounced Aang, oddly enough...) told us this, this and that." I mean seriously, could we not have just had a scene in which we saw Aang tell Katara and Sokka this stuff? You know, get some character interaction? PLEASE? And of course we have Zuko who mostly speaks in expositionary dialogue to the effect of "Blah blah blah and then this bad thing happened to me and blah blah so I must do this and blah blah blah" I mean seriously M. Night I WANT TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS. I don't want to hear what happens, I want to SEE it. With my eyes!
Next is the horribly mis-cast Admiral Zhao and Fire lord Ozai, both of whom should be huge, imposing characters. These are two merciless men. Basically they are total bad asses. Not according to M though. No in fact the Fire lord is a rather chubby Asian man who can't do anything then speak monotonously and look bored. Zhao meanwhile is now a bumbling, nasally Asian wimp. Speaking of the bad guys being Asian, let's just make it clear I have no problem with Asian's being cast in the film or problems with Asian's at all.
HOWEVER, I just want to draw attention to the ethnicity of the characters in the cartoon and in the film. Now, in the cartoon all the characters are Asian, they live in world heavily inspired by Asian mythology, thus it makes sense that they are all Asian and it works. Not once in the cartoon did I ever think "Gee, wouldn't it be more awesome if all the good guys were actually white Americans." Evidently M. Night Shyamalan did though because all the good guys in the film are now white Americans. Luckily though all the bad guys are still Asian. Good save M! *Facepalm* I'm sure that M didn't mean for his film to come across as implying all Asian people are bad guys and its lucky we've all got white Americans to save us, but sweet Science almighty, it can come across like that.

Of course, if you're British then you can at least get a chuckle out of lines such as "We must find the source of all these benders..." and "Ever since I found out you were a bender I knew this day would come."

Now, I could go on and on forever about the film's flaws such as the clunky dialogue ("I am Prince Zuko, give me all your elderly!"), the horrible exposition (To paraphrase "Grandma, tell us about the Spirit World!" "Well, no human has ever been there, but allow me to list some encyclopaedic knowledge of the place whilst using this map of it...") and the mispronunciation of pretty much everything ("Avatar" should be pronounced "Av - a - tar" not "Aw - va - tar". "Iroh" should be pronounced "Eye - Row" not "Eee - Row" and the complete and utter lack of character depth/motivation and all around direction, but I won't. Because just thinking of the film is annoying me...

So, in summary. M. Night Shyamalan's "The Last Airbender" is awful. Avoid it like you would your Grandma at a swinger's party.

First things first, I am dissapointed in you fellow deviants! Normally with the release of the latest blockbuster I'll see a multitude of journals coming out and offering different thoughts and feelings about said aforementioned blockbuster and 9/10 I'll enjoy reading these thoughts and feelings. And so it was with great anticipation that I awaited the release of TOY STORY 3, mostly because I've waited 11 YEARS for this film, but also because I was looking forward to seeing how other people with many of the same interests as myself received the film... And then nobody says ANYTHING about it! What have you all been doing? Hiding in a cave? Inflicting some kind of personal torture by not going to see the film and thus leaving you incapable of commenting on it??!! I mean, come on people! This isn't your typical stealin-- I mean er... "repurposing" of other peoples' ideas splashed in a glossy looking coat of 3D beauty *Cough* Avatar *Cough* No, this is PIXAR'S TOY STORY 3 and as such it NEEDS to be talked about! So get to it Deviants! Tell me what you thought of TOY STORY 3, a film so amazing it must be capitalised whenever typed

Now then, speaking of TOY STORY 3, you MUST see this film! It is perfect, no wait, it is beyond perfect! So beyond perfect in fact that words shall never be able to accurately describe just how beyond perfect this film is. Now, before I gush further love all over this journal, I just want to say that upon the release of the original Toy Story I was 1 year old, or well on the way to it anyway and yet, although I never saw it at the cinema, I can oh so very clearly remember sitting in my pushchair as my parents took me shopping, at the local Asda in Southampton to be precise, where I then picked out a poster comic type thing which I then had for many years before the pages died from over-use. Not only this, but I listened to an audio tape for Toy Story every night as I went to sleep until I was about ten. Pretty sure the tape was a part of a read along package with a book, both of which have been long since lost to the realms of the attic, so if anyone happens to have an audio file or recording or whatever of the tape I would LOVE to be able to hear it again as it has huge sentimental value to me
Aaaaaanyway, quick sidetracking aside there, my basic point is that the Toy Story franchise is very, very close to my heart and with the more or less real time aging of the characters between films I've pretty much aged in tandem with the characters in it. So yes, these films mean a lot to me.
So it is with great relief that I point out just how amazing TOY STORY 3 is. Just take the very first seen for example (SPOILERS BELOW. SPOILERS BELOW. SPOILERS BELOW).


The first five or so minutes of the film gave me goosebumps. For the ENTIRE five minutes. There was also a huge, beaming smile plastered across my whole face as everything I ever dreamed of actually seeing happen... happens. Basically these first five minutes are the opening scene from Toy Story when Andy is playing with the toys, but from Woody and co's point of views. So we've got Doctor Pork Chop! Attack Dog With A Built In Force Field! Dinosaur That Eats Force Field Dogs! And, as an additional bonus, a Death By Monkeys button! We have a train chase, a HUGE exploding bridge, endangered orphans and so, so much more.
Oh! And don't even get me STARTED on the end which is the most perfectly bittersweet moment in history, both real and fictional. I sat there, in the cinema, with a fairly large group of my friends with a huge satisfied smile and tears rolling down my eyes during the closing scenes with Andy.

(END OF SPOILERS. END OF SPOILERS. END OF SPOILERS.)

Basically, YOU MUST SEE THIS FILM NO MATTER WHAT. What's that you say? Little Timmy's fallen down the well again? Leave him there and go watch TOY STORY 3 instead. The darn kid shouldn't have been playing near the well after the last dozen+ times....

Now for the "Dreams" part of the title. Basically watching TOY STORY 3 made me realise EXACTLY what I want to eventually do with my life. It made me realise that I NEED to work for Pixar in some form that doesn't involve me specifically making animation because, well my "skills" in that department leave a lot to be desired... So I was wondering if anyone on here knows someone who works in the "ideas" side of Pixar E.g. Writing, directing etc. And if so, if they might be able to get me in contact with them so that I might be able to get advice from them to someday realise this dream. Also, if anyone has any general advice for me on this matter, then please feel free to leave a message

So it's been nearly two years since I last posted a journal! Quite how I managed to get so out of touch with DeviantArt I'm not even vaguely sure, but suffice it to say I am planning on making myself a more regular presence around these parts.

I'm going to be doing that primarily through my latest piece of Transformers fiction "Twilight's Last Gleaming" which is a tale set in an alternate Bay Transformers Movie universe where Sam failed in killing Megatron with the Allspark and the Decepticons won. If this all sounds familiar to you then that's probably because it is familiar to you because the story is based upon a tale of the same name and basic premise that was presented in the UK exclusive Titan comic and was written by Simon Furman. Expect the first two or so chapters of it to not deviate too much from what Furman did but after that the story will be the same in name and concept only. So why not take a look at the prologue that's already posted in my gallery and let me know what you think of it

I've got a couple of projects that I either want to get started on or that I want to keep going.
Firstly, and hopefully most easy to achieve, are my plans to get rid of my incredible backlog of Mosaic scripts which must be well into double figures by now and not all that far off triple figures. The individual scripts span pretty much every continuity of Transformers and feature a bajillion characters (give or take a bit) so if any of you magic artistic types feel like helping me out here please either leave a comment in this journal or send me a note specifying which character/s and continuity you'd like a script for and I'll be more than happy to see if I have anything you'd like to draw.
Secondly I have a small 5 page Beast Wars short story that I would love to have bought to life in comic form. As far as the script goes, it is essentially a modified version of my 5 page Dark Glass preview script in my gallery. All that's really changed is that the 5 pages are now just a stand alone tale that isn't going to be followed by the main Dark Glass story. So if you'd quite like the chance to stretch your artistic muscles over 5 pages of pure, unadulterated Beast Wars fun then please either leave a message with this journal entry or send me a note and once more I will be more than happy to send you a script.
Thirdly, my joint project with Shane Anderson and Overcracker called "Beast Era still desperately needs an artist as well as a colourist. If you happen to be both then that's even better. Beast Era is essentially a continuation of the Beast Wars/Beast Machines story and picks up one year after the end of Beast Machines. Story wise we follow all of the Maximals lucky enough to survive Beast Machines as well as introducing some new characters that have only appeared in either the Japanese cartoons or the IDW comics. We also follow the new villains of the story quite closely, although I wouldn't exactly classify them as straight up villains which is interesting because it presents a story where both sides could potentialy be on the side of right or wrong depending on your own views. There's also lots of stuff going on in the background and more than a few twists to enjoy. So again, if this sounds interesting to you as an artist, and I really hope it does because I feel like we have a really good story building up, then drop me a message either in this journal or through a note. Please don't make me get down on my knees and beg (although I will resort to such methods if it gets any of you artists onboard with the project).

And lastly I'm also interested in getting some kind of continuation comic going for Transformers Animated and at the moment I like the idea of doing it in a similar manner to how Dark Horse have been doing their Buffy comic. So for this project I will need a team of volunteers who hopefully love this series as much as I do. For this team I'm hoping to get at least two other writers on board to help me out with story arcs and contribute ideas as well as writing actual scripts and I will also need some artists to help out. So if you're a writer and you have ideas for future stories in the Animated universe or if your an artist and feel the same way then get in contact with me!

As a footer for all of my pleas for help here, I am unable to pay for any services offered and am looking at working with people who want to work on these projects because they love the subject matter and are enthusiastic about it. For any interested artists though, remember that Mosiacs in particular are great to include and to show off in your portfolios Also, if something I've mentioned in here peaks you're interest but you're not quite convinced you want to help yet then send me a note and I'll be more than happy to answer any queries you might have.

Also, with all that said I now physically NEED to mention the amazing Kick Ass movie. I've not been able to hunt down the graphic novel yet, but if it is even half as good as the movie was then it will be the greatest comic I'll have ever read. Basically, if you've heard all the hype surrounding the movie I want you to ignore every single piece of it because none of it comes even close to describing the amazingness (which is a word as of this moment) on display here. If you love yourself then not only will you go and see this movie, you will see it multiple times.