Doutzen Kroes

Here's a drawing I did of super gorgeous model Doutzen Kroes.

Diablo Cody

Here's a drawing I did of Diablo.

Heroes

Here are some Heroes sketch cards I did for Topps a couple of months ago. I think the set is coming out soon. When it does, I will get the six color cards back. If anyone is interested in getting one from me, shoot me an e-mail.

More Hong Kong Photos

Here are some more photos from the 8th International Comic Artist Conference that super cool artists Rain and Kenny Chua sent me.

left to right: me, Rain, and Randy

Opening ceremony photo

Seated (left to right) drunk French guy, Didier, Tan, me, Randy. Standing (left to right) Malaysian artist, Kenny, and another Malaysian artist

Here I am giving a speech. It was supposed to be about the current state of the U.S. comics market, but instead I recited the speech Cyrus gave in the classic movie "The Warriors". When I got to the "Can you dig it?!" part of the speech, all the artists stormed the stage and beat the crap out of me.

2007 Howard M. Shum Awards

Yes, it’s that time again for the most prestigious and sought after award by those who are cool. Here’s the best of 2007:

Best Film - Hot Fuzz directed by Edgar Wright, written by Edgar Wright & Simon Pegg. I know what some of you are thinking, “Howard, you come off as this pretentious, pseudo-intellectual snob. Why did you choose a populist type of film instead of something like No Country for Old Men, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, or Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead?” To which I reply, “Say that to my face, bitch! I’ll do you like Michael Vick did Iggy! Wu-Tang!”

Ahem.

You can see the love of film and filmmaking that Wright and Pegg have in Hot Fuzz. It’s cleverly written and made. It’s a joy to watch and hilarious.

While I also like No Country for Old Men, I can’t get beyond its ending. I’m not against ambiguous or unhappy endings - I tend to write those myself. I am opposed to endings where I think it just stops awkwardly. While watching the ending to No Country, I thought we were in a transition scene and was eager for a character to stop yapping so we didn’t lose momentum and get to the ending. Little did I know the scene to follow this was credits.

Creepiest Film - The Orphanage. What an amazing debut by writer Sergio Sanchez and director Juan Antonio Bayona. This is a suspenseful movie where you’re not sure if the paranormal exists or if it’s just in the character’s head - quite like what Henry James did in his book The Turn of the Screw. The film has great atmosphere and mood. You need to see this film in a big dark theater. I don’t care how big a TV screen you have. Watching this at home won’t have the same effect. I predict continued strong work from these two talented Spanish filmmakers.

Musical - Once. Once is not a typical musical where characters break out into song for no apparent reason. It’s about a boy and girl in Ireland who are musicians. They meet cute and the singing comes mostly through the process of song writing or making a CD. My description probably sounds boring, but it is really a good and entertaining film plus the music is well done.

Director - Joe Wright (Atonement) - How and why is cinema different than other art forms? Wright shows the reasons in Atonement.

Cinematographer (Atonement) - Seamus McGarvey. Great lighting and beautiful shots. Simple, right? If it was that easy everyone would do it. McGarvey is a master.

Comeback Filmmaker - Tamara Jenkins. I liked The Slums of Beverly Hills when I first saw it around nine years ago and was eager to see what its writer-director would do next. Nothing came from Tamara. What happened to her, I wondered. A super bad case of writer’s block? Too busy clubbing with her frenemies: Paris, Britney, and Lindsay? One hit wonder? Decided to become a recluse like J.D. Salinger? Well it turned out Tamara was spending her time with Paris, Britney, and Lindsay, but managed somehow to squeeze in a new film with The Savages. I’m glad she did and hope she won’t take as long with the next one.

Actor - Johnny Depp (Sweeney Todd). Not only is Johnny Depp the coolest guy I have ever met (yeah that’s right, I dropped Johnny’s name - so that makes me cool by association - oh, wait I’m surrounded by comic nerds so that negates it. Damn nerds.), but he’s also the greatest actor of his generation.

Actress - Ellen Page (Juno). She won’t have to do tripe like X3 anymore.

Screenwriter - Diablo Cody (Juno). Diablo kicks major ass. I love how she doesn’t follow Hollywood rules and formulas.

Television Show (comedy) - Extras. Ricky Gervais is brilliant. He shows that from pain and sadness can come great comedy. He is a rare true genius.

Television Show (drama) - Lost. A strong season this year. I honestly think the writers are actually going somewhere and have a point to it all. I like how they apparently don’t care what their fans think (they shouldn’t). On an earlier episode in the spring, I thought a Hurley episode was filler and had nothing to do with the overall story and was glad to be proven wrong. The mythology on this story is pretty intricate and to do this on episodic TV and to do it well is difficult. This is all very impressive. Kudos to the writers!

Animated TV Show - South Park. Still great after all these years with no drop-off. No one can match Trey Parker and Matt Stone with their cutting satire.

President - Nicolas Sarkozy (France). I have no idea what his policies are or even if he’s doing a good job. I do know that he’s dating Carla Bruni which makes him Kennedyesque.

New Musical Act - Paramore. My drawing is of lead singer Hayley Williams. I think other chicks should follow her lead and wear T-shirts with my signature on it (sorry no fatties).

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

8th International Comics Artist Conference

Last month I was invited to give a speech and participate in the 8th International Comics Artist Conference in Hong Kong. My friend and fellow artist Randy Green came along to help me represent the mighty U.S.A. If you are a professional comic book artist, I highly recommend attending this fun event. We had a great time and were treated amazingly. Next year's conference will be held in Kyoto. A big thanks to Alan Wan and Adeline Ho for all they did for me.

Here are some photos from my camera. I still have another roll to develop. Yes, I still shoot on film. I'm not opposed to digital, but I like shooting with SLR cameras and a digital equivalent to mine is out of my range at the moment. If Canon wants to give me one for free, by all means do so.

Here's Randy, Tony Wong (big time Hong Kong publisher) and me at the opening ceremony.

Randy and Tan Eng Huat (Silver Surfer artist) drawing on the panda mascot

Can you spot my drawing?

Randy was excited when we went to a 5-star restaurant and he saw a complementary hat on his plate. He cried when I told him it was a napkin.

Look it's me on the big screen getting an award. The award was for "stupidest comic creator who attempts to make comics for cool people as opposed to fat nerds."

Didier Pasamonik and me holding our awards. Bad focus by Randy.

Here I am outside the Cyperport waiting for a boat to take us to a restaurant on an island. Little did we know the boat took us instead to a secret island where they forced us to compete in a deadly martial arts tournament. Luckily we survived, but Randy now has a life long scar from a sword across his right thigh and is married to the island chief's daughter (don't tell his wife and kids back in the U.S.).

Atonement

Atonement is the most beautiful film I have seen this year. It's directed by Joe Wright, written by Christopher Hampton, based on a novel by Ian McEwan, and the D.P. is Seamus McGarvey. It stars James McAvoy and Keira Knightley. It about how a misunderstanding of events (or also could be viewed as lying) ruins the lives of two people. Joe Wright shows the power of cinema with his use of visuals and sound. It's not often enough where filmmakers show the uniqueness of the medium and it's good to see Wright command it.

Arwen and Juno

Here's a recent Arwen commission I did.

If you're looking for a good new film, check out Juno written by Diablo Cody and directed by Jason Reitman. It's a funny movie about a teenage girl (Ellen Page) who gets pregnant and thinks about letting a yuppie couple adopt her baby. Diablo Cody is a writer to keep your eyes on. Her script is clever and her dialogue is sharp and witty especially Juno's which is full of sarcasm. I like stories where it's not obvious what will happen and I'm happy the characters didn't fall into or become cliches. I like that Juno's best friend is a cheerleader because in a typical Hollywood movie they would be enemies. That stuff is boring and been done to death. That's why Diablo is cool.

Ellen Page's performance is strong and she will surely get numerous acting award nominations. She deserves to win them too. There's good acting all around by the rest of the cast as well: Michael Cera, Jason Bateman, J.K. Simmons, and Olivia Thirlby.

Beauty

If there is someone in the world more beautiful than Natalia Vodianova, I would like to see her.

Sarah Polley

Happy Thanksgiving, to my fellow Americans and Happy Thursday, to the rest of you!

Here's actress Sarah Polley who recently wrote and directed Away from Her. My favorite film that she acted in is Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.

Bette Franke

One of the reasons Bette is one of my favorite models is that oftentimes backstage before a show she can be found reading a book. I just find that to be so cool.

Vote Alpha Monkey

My buddy and co-creator of Alpha Monkey Bobby Rubio did these drawings earlier today.

http://zudacomics.com/alpha_monkey

Revenge of the Sith and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

Aw, poor Mace Windu. At least he went out like a man and not some punk. Here are a couple Revenge of the Sith cards where I erased my previous pencil sketch and was commissioned to do a new image in color. Initially it was just supposed to be the one card with Mace, but after the collector saw it he wanted Palpatine and Anakin on a second card.

I saw "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" directed by master filmmaker Sidney Lumet and written by Kelly Masterson earlier tonight. It's a powerful film about two brothers and a robbery gone bad. Lumet is still at the top of his game. It's cleverly written and acted. Wonderful performances by Ethan Hawke, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Marisa Tomei. I think the reason Lumet is still able to make good movies at his age and in such quick succession while other guys who've been at it for a while can't match his quality and output because he isn't afraid of new technology (this one was shot with a Panavision Genesis hi-def camera) and he isn't afraid to take chances. Fear leads to weakness and complacency.

Alpha Monkey

I have a new comic up on DC's online site. It's a comedy-adventure strip called Alpha Monkey. It's penciled by Matteo Scalera, colored by Oscar Celestini (yes, my talented crew from Hyperkinetic), co-created by Bobby Rubio, and written and inked by me.

Check it out and vote for it if you like it.

http://zudacomics.com/alpha_monkey

Happy Halloween

Konichiwa Kenny and I hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween!

Keep an eye out for everyone's new favorite comic -- Alpha Monkey. More info on that next week.

In the Zone

I'm not sure one can quite understand the feeling of being in the zone if one is not an athlete, artist, or writer. If you're an athlete, you can score at will and no defense can stop you. As an artist, your lines are going down effortlessly and better than you expected. When writing, scenes come out better than in your head and dialogue is coming out cleverly and fast. You can't put yourself in the zone. It just happens. Sometimes when I'm in that state when writing or inking, I'll lose track of time and forget to stop and eat and stuff like that.

I was in the zone when penciling this drawing of Emma Watson as Hermione yesterday afternoon. Then I went to a screening and party. I wasn't in the zone when I inked and colored it. I like the drawing, but I wonder how much better it could have been if I finished it in the zone.

Milla

Here's Milla Jovovich from Resident Evil: Extinction.

Doctor Who

Here are some Doctor Who sketch cards I did for Strictly Ink in the summer.