Monthly Archives: August 2017

General

The Confederacy

Apropos of the latest news coming from, among other places, Charlottesville, a personal observation.

I’ve mentioned before that I was born in a communist country which my parents fled from.  I spent my formative early years in a country that could best be described as having a system very close to European Socialism.  I then moved to a country that was a right winger’s wet dream: A country that had almost no taxes and therefore no civil services to speak of, was heavily catholic and outlawed abortion, and was incredibly, depressingly, terrible.

I then moved to and settled into the United States, which I’ve always felt had the best of all worlds.

But when I first moved to the U.S. and was enrolled in a boarding school in Jacksonville, Florida, I was taken aback when I saw things like this…

Image result for confederate flag on pickup truck images

This is not, by the way, a photograph I took back then, but it represents the type of things I saw.  Not everywhere, mind you, but enough to wonder why.

For to me, my entire life up until the moment I enrolled in that sophomore year of High School, the Confederacy was always viewed -I thought anyway!- the wrong side of history in the years leading up and after to the Civil War.

They were, after all, fighting for one thing: The ability to keep owning slaves.  That couldn’t be viewed as a good thing to people, right?

So why was it that I was seeing people hanging the Confederate Flag here and there and displaying it on their pickup trucks/cars?

And I wondered, young though I was, how the African American population must feel upon seeing these flags here and there.

Times have changed, thankfully, since then.  I’ve been to Jacksonville very recently and I don’t see these types of displays at all.  Then again, I’m not living there so whatever I’ve seen has been based on sticking around the city a few days at a time.

Later on I came to understood the mythology built around the “lost cause” of the Confederacy.  But this mythology avoided mention of the issue of slavery and, instead, focused on the Civil War being somehow about “state rights”.

It was still bewildering because I impossible to not associate the Confederacy with slavery.

Today, as the “alt-right” and the Nazi’s have much of the nation’s attention, I’m finding it interesting to see the push back.  I suppose the old physics notion of every action having an equal and opposite reaction applies to people as well.

So yesterday some people took aim at a statue commemorating “the boys who wore gray” (the article is by David A. Graham and is found on The Atlantic):

Durham’s Confederate Statue Comes Down

Here’s the full video of the event as it happened:

The backlash to the backlash.

Interesting times.

E. R. Torre Art

Sketchin’ 13 and 14

A few days back I talked about the proverbial “light at the end of the tunnel”.  Over the past four days, that light’s gotten much brighter thanks to taking care of my other daughter, who was moving into a new apartment.

It was a brutal series of days, renting a U-Haul to move all her stuff (and, by the Gods, has she accumulated a lot of it!) to the new apartment but by Saturday we were done and on Sunday we drove back home and today I sit here eager and ready to get back to some serious writing.

In the meantime, I managed to produce two more inked sketches using the iPad and Procreate (the art app).

Here’s the first one, and I’m mighty proud of it:

The picture is of Deborah Harry, the singer of the band Blondie, in all her majesty.  Blondie was/is a terrific band and Ms. Harry was, for many years, a great crush of mine.  Not to get all shallow, but she is easily one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever had the pleasure to see, if only through the TV or pictures.

Rock on, Ms. Harry!

Next up is another woman, an actress in this case, that I feel is among the most beautiful to ever exist.  Alas, my attempt at making her picture fell, IMHO, flat…

So here’s the deal: Since beginning these pictures, I’ve at times hit “home runs” and at other times did a decent enough job but felt I could’ve done better.  Of the pieces I’ve done, the one I’m probably most disappointed with remains the Lauren Bacall piece (you can see it here).  This one, alas, is also a disappointment.

However, and paradoxically, I think this picture actually isn’t all that bad “as is”.  But as a picture of the absolutely stunning and luminous actress Susan George… it just doesn’t work.

Though she’s been in some really dark films -none darker than the original Straw Dogs– I’ve always pictured Ms. George as accented in bright lights, her pale skin, beautiful blonde hair, and bright big eyes front and center and her entire being sexy as hell.

Alas, in this piece I’ve presented someone who looks like they belong in a noir feature and whose features are way too hidden in dark shadow.

Don’t know why it turned out that way but I knew I was in trouble when I erased the face, re-tried it, didn’t like what I was doing, erased again and re-tried it again and, after doing the same four times, gave up.  It just wasn’t working the way I wanted it to.

Again, however, I feel the picture itself turned out perfectly fine… if my subject was someone other than Susan George.

Oh well, on to the next piece!

General

Charlottesville…

It’s tempting to say the usual lamentations and pointed criticisms…

But its also mind-boggling to witness the news regarding Charlottesville over the weekend along with the response from our “President” afterwards.

One life was lost when angry, ugly rhetoric gave way to -yes, oh yes– a terrorist act.  Our “President”, so quick to condemn any act, whether terrorist or not, that has even the faintest association with other nationalities or cultures, nonetheless found it near impossible to condemn Neo-Nazis that were marching over the weekend and, specifically, the Neo-Nazi who was responsible for killing Heather Heyer.

It’s… there just aren’t words.

No words at all.

To the family of Ms. Heyer, my sincerest condolences, for what its worth.

There remain a lot of good people out there and it remains my fervent hope that this darkness plaguing us will lift.

Soon, hopefully.

General, Movies

Great timing…

Getting political here, again…

So yesterday our President had some hair raising things to say about North Korea… words that made him sound a lot like North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, the man who his words were directed at!

And coincidentally and over on the cable channel Starz, they happened to be playing Dr. Strangelove Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb.

Seeing Sterling Hayden’s insane General Jack D. Ripper had me in a cold sweat.

Suddenly, the film wasn’t quite as funny as before.

Comic Books/Graphic Novels, Movies

Doc Savage movie… on hold?

Many years ago I stumbled upon a book in -I think- a used bookstore (remember those?) and the cover image blew me away.  Because it was part of a very long series, I can’t recall which book it was exactly, but the cover most likely was a James Bama illustrated one like this:

Image result for doc savage james bama

For those who don’t know who Doc Savage is, he was/is arguably the first ever “superhero”.  His adventures were mostly written by a man named Lester Dent along with a few others and under the pseudonym Kenneth Robeson.  The original stories were presented in short novel form and in pulp magazines…

Image result for doc savage fortress of solitude pulp magazine cover

The Bantam reprints of the Doc Savage books were a hit though I suspect a great deal of credit goes to James Bama’s re-imagining of Doc Savage’s “look” (the two images presented above are the original cover to the story Fortress of Solitude, with Doc looking like a typical 1930’s hunky movie star, and the James Bama one, where he looks like an odd, mysterious, almost mutant-like being).  James Bama eventually left the reprint series but the subsequent books featured artists who emulated his style, especially his “take” on the character of Doc Savage…

Image result for doc savage covers

Recently all 181 Doc Savage novels were reprinted -beautifully, I might add- in a prestige magazine format…

Image result for doc savage vintage library

To say I’m a fan of Doc Savage is an understatement.  I find the original novels fun, intriguing, and, while dated, exciting as hell.

No doubt in large part thanks to the success of the Bantam reprints, in 1975 a film version of Doc Savage was made.  It featured Ron Ely in the title role.  Strap yourselves in if you haven’t “experienced” this before…

To say the movie -to a fan of Doc Savage like myself- was a disappointment is pretty much the king of understatements.  While the cast was pretty good and Ron Ely, IMHO, was a good choice for the titular role, the film suffered from a lack of a consistent tone and at times too cheesy -and jokey- presentation.

The movie was a flop yet interest in Doc Savage remained.  Over the many years since that movie’s release, a number of directors, including such luminaries as James Cameron, have attached themselves to a new film version.  None, however, were able to seal the deal and get the film actually made.

The latest in this line was/is Shane Black, best known for his screenplays to, among others, Lethal Weapon (the original), or acting in films such as Predator, or directing/writing films such as Iron Man 3 or last year’s The Nice Guys.  Mr. Black’s version of Doc Savage, it was further reported, drew the interest of Dwayne Johnson which is a coup considering how popular an actor he is.

That news, alas, didn’t thrill me so much.  While I like Mr. Johnson and feel he’s very good -and charismatic- in a number of movies, I just didn’t feel he was the right choice for the role of Doc Savage.

Regardless, back in July Shane Black was asked about progress on the Doc Savage film and it appears the movie may be stalled right now.  The below link is to the article -again, from July, so take the information with that grain of salt- by David Kozlowski and presented on lrmonline.com:

Shane Black Provides Update on Doc Savage Movie

The bottom line is that Shane Black is currently very busy with the editing of the new Predator movie, which he also directed, and Dwayne Johnson is very busy making his twenty to fifty plus movies each year, so Mr. Black is basically telling everyone to not hold their breaths regarding the new Doc Savage film.  At this point it’s a matter of finding the time for all parties to be freed up and able to get together and that may not happen -if at all- for a while.

Sure, I’d love to see a new Doc Savage movie.  But I’d be lying if I said this news of its stalled nature depressed me.  Though some of the interviews with Shane Black regarding Doc Savage gave the impression he was a big fan of the character and wanted to make a respectful movie from the source material, I continued to have doubts about Mr. Johnson in the lead role (again, I like his work, but until I see him do it, I just can’t envision him in that role) and therefore can’t be too unhappy this particular project might not come to fruition.

Oh well!

Books/Literature

Corrosive Knights, a 8/7/17 update

I’m seeing the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.

Don’t misunderstand me: I’m not yet close to finishing book #7 in the Corrosive Knights series.  In fact, there are still several months of work to be done and my hope is that it will be completed and released by later this year or, if worse comes to worse, the beginnings of next year.

No, the light at the end of the tunnel I’m referring to is the end of summer.

How I long for it to finally end!

I love my daughters but, both being in college means working on the places they live in.  The last week we headed out to where my younger daughter is going to College and went in two cars filled to the brim with her stuff (not to brag, but when I was a young ‘un, all I needed fit into a suitcase!).

We unloaded the material, had a one day mini-vacation, then spent a full wasted day waiting for an IKEA delivery that never showed up.  The next day, our last in those northern lands, forced us to rent a van and haul hundreds of pounds worth of to-be-put-together furniture from the warehouse that was supposed to deliver it to us (they screwed up, plain and simply, and couldn’t deliver on our last day there), then take said furniture up a flight of stairs (no elevator at my daughter’s apartment), and put it all together in time to then drive the five hours back home where I needed to be because by the next morning at the bright and early hour of 6 A.M. I needed to take my wife in for a medical exam.  To those worried, don’t be… it was a routine exam and everything was perfect.

The past week is an encapsulation of the summer in general, where I feel I’ve made progress on my writing but am seemingly always being pushed into other endeavors.

As someone who prides himself on writing a certain amount each day, its frustrating as hell but, on the positive side, its sometimes good to “step back” from what you’re working on, give your brain a chance to not think about what you’ve been writing, to then return to it later and find yourself far more “fresh” and energized.

I’m hoping that’ll be the case.

School starts for them both in the next couple of weeks and then, until Thanksgiving and unless something else happens, it’ll be just me and the computer.

There’s not a whole heck of a lot more writing to be done before I can start revising the book in earnest and I’m just dying to get there.  Corrosive Knights Book #7 is the conclusion to the Corrosive Knights Saga and I want to make sure I’ll give everyone out there their money’s worth.

And as I said before, just because the story ends there doesn’t mean there won’t be at least one more book set in that universe.  Indeed, I’ve already got Book #8 of the series written (at least a full first draft) and it will serve as an “epilogue” to the series and, best of all, because I’ve already written such a fully formed first draft, it will be out very soon after #7 is released.

That much I guarantee you!

E. R. Torre Art

Sketchin’ 11

The beauty of doing these images on an iPad (I swear I’m not getting any money for talking about this) is that its giving me far more freedom to experiment with my art than I’ve had before.  Back in the 1990’s and when I worked in comics as an inker, while doing so using brush and on paper, I had to get everything done “right” for if I didn’t or screwed up, it was a pain to white out large and small areas to correct any errors.

Thus and as mentioned, I wasn’t prone to experiment too much which, I worried, stifled my art.

Now, by doing this using the iPad, I can easily erase any areas I’m not happy with and can also try out new things… different line thickness and blotchier blacks.  Truly the sky is the limit.

In this latest sketch, I used an image of Paul Newman -an odd one as he had a beard and fairly long hair- and, after inking it, colored it using bright, Moebius (Jean Girard) inspired colors. Fun stuff!

General

When can I get my Model 3…?

The Tesla Model 3, their least expensive/most affordable electric vehicle, has hit the streets!  Well, 30 of them, anyway.

For those who haven’t seen them, they look like this:

Image result for tesla model 3

The fact that 30 vehicles have been released may not sound like much but Elon Musk, the CEO of the company, boldly predicts we’ll be getting much more of the vehicles in the coming months.

He better hope this will be the case because, according to this article by Seth Fiegerman and presented on CNN…

Tesla now averaging more than 1800 Model 3 reservations a day

Its easy to be cynical and knock the limp numbers (so far) of Model 3’s available but, according to the article, Mr. Musk anticipates 1500 more vehicles produced in the third quarter (which we’re in) and, following this, 10,000 vehicles per week through the end of the year and into the next.

Which still means that if you’re pre-ordering the car, it will take a while to get your hands on it.  There are reportedly 450,000 pre-orders and, with the new orders coming in and assuming you decide to pre-order yours, you’ve got to wait through to the 4th quarter and, further assuming the 10,000 vehicles per week thing winds up being right, you’ll have to wait another 44 or so weeks before getting your own Model 3.

What’s most encouraging about all this is that there sure seems to be a big demand for these vehicles.

As I’ve said before, I’m happy with anything that’ll get us off combustion engines.

E. R. Torre Art

Sketchin’ 10

I have to say, I’m having incredible fun doing these pictures.  Here, for picture #10, I’m going back to the 1986 really intense thriller featuring Rutger Hauer as a seemingly unstoppable killer whose life mission is to make C. Thomas Howell’s life miserable.

Ladies and gentlemen, The Hitcher!

In 2007 the film was remade with the protagonist/hero of the feature being Sophia Bush versus C. Thomas Howell.  Getting Sean Bean to play the Hitcher wasn’t the worst idea, IMHO.  I thought he was a good choice but the film itself…

…well…

Stick with the original.