MOONLIGHT SERENADE PAGE 5

Does anyone care about Moonlight anymore? It's gone. Dead and buried. It's frolicking with dodos and playing cards with dinosaurs. But I have a duty to myself to post this thing. So like some sort of necromancer, I'm reaching into the deep dark past to bring you the brain eating undead monster that is Moonlight Serenade page 5.

But maybe I've just got Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter on the brain. I just read the first three books and enjoyed the hell out of it. I don't want to sounds sexist, but if I had to guess, it's really easy to tell that it's written by a woman (which I believe is what makes it so fresh in a rather stale genre). How can I tell? Well she goes into almost meticulous detail as to what Anita and everyone else wears. This is cool if the descriptions of the outfits weren't so vivid as to definitely date the books in the early to mid nineties. Other than that I heartily recommend them. Books 1 and 3 are good, but book 2 is a kicker.


Have a look. If you have any questions about Moonlight post them in the comments section.

Anyway, what were we talking about? My brain isn't quite firing on all cylinders as it's aged a fair bit between the MONTH between posts. A month?! God. I suck. But I've heaps of stuff to show you.

I just finished Zero G, the 4 issue graphic novel for Spacedog written by Alex Zamm. I'm just doing the final corrections, but there's no new pages or covers to draw. It's like a huge load off my back. Poor Annette still has to finish colouring.

I planned on using my free time to check out London and do some commissions.


Let's go through the list:

I have a cover for Kelly Compeau's masterpiece, THE BLACK TOWER coming up. Kelly's a huge HEROES fan so fans of it should give this a look.

I also have five covers for Balance and Grace, which is the re-release of the Innocents with an all new ending. I can't wait to do these. I love drawing Grace. Go check out the labels of the INNOCENTS for my previous covers.

I've got an AVP picture for a friend in Melbourne that has been more patient that god.

A picture of an old school Aussie adventure hero for another very patient friend.

I'm designing two animated characters for an upcoming film pitch.

A cover for a set of ebooks called "Wraiths and Worlds".

A redo of the movie poster for American Psycho for Noo (who you will meet later).

A fair list, right?

But then it all went to hell when I got the best/worst email today.

Frank, my editor for HEROES asked me if I'd be available for a three part upcoming story debuting on the 2nd of June. They wanted one artist for the gig and he wanted to know if I was available.

There was a small debate which raged inside my head. Would I use my spare time to wander around London or wander around the HEROES universe?

I looked at the god-awesome list above and replied to Frank with two words, "Game on!"

What's the point of living if you can't make it tough for yourself?



LONDON AND NOO

Noo is a SARMY member who is a good friend of Sheindie and Ororo. She got in contact with me and wanted to buy a sketchbook. I sent it back along with the original pencil layouts for Moonlight Serenade page 1. I noticed she didn't live too far from London and organised to meet up. Noo not only has the good taste and heart to be a SARMY member, but she's also a senior localised tester for Rockstar Games. You may have heard of them. They put out a little game recently called Grand Theft Auto 4. Anyway, this is Noo and I on the bank of the Thames with the Houses of Parliament in teh background. Slightly out of shot to the right is Big Ben. Oh yeah, I shaved my head. I got sick of my hair.

So suggesting something a bit different, Noo recommended the London Aquarium. In doing so, she got to learn something about me. I'm terrified of sharks. Terrified to the point that I don't swim in the ocean, and only recently was able to swim in pools. What possible problem could I have with pools, you ask? Well remember, I'm a kid with an over-active imagination. I've seen James Bond films where the seemingly harmless pool looks all nice and comforting, then the trap door slides aside AND A HORDE OF BLOODTHIRSTY HUNGRY SHARKS SWIMS OUT TO EAT ME!!!

I didn't say my phobia was rational.

So the shark above is a Sand Tiger Shark. Mean looking guy, huh? They have these psycho eyes that just freaked me out. Apparently they look so scary cos they're related to the great white shark. You know, JAWS. This one's probably a little over two meters long. And look at these teeth:

But get this, the Sand Tiger Shark isn't the one you want to worry about. It's this guy:
I have no idea what sort of shark he is. Let's just call him Dopey. Dopey looks like the sort of shark you let mind your kids and does tricks for fish. But Dopey will RIP YOU APART UNTIL YOU'RE A SCREAMING, BLEEDING, WAILING AND PAINFULLY DYING GRIZZLED MESS HOPELESSLY CHOKING ON SEAWATER RED WITH YOUR OWN BLOOD.

We listened to a lady from the Aquarium talking to a bunch of kids. And once I got past her sing-song voice I learnt that the tiger shark has 5 rows of teeth (check the photo) which slash it's food. But if it can't swallow the meal in one go, the teeth just slide off you and you can swim limping away. Dopey's teeth are serrated like a combat knife and dig into flesh allowing Dopey to thrash and tear chunks off you so you bleed to death while the smiley looking bastard drags you down to Davey Jone's Locker.

Who says I don't teach you anything.

Don't swim, don't go near the water and carry a large gun - just in case there are flying sharks.

You can never be too careful with sharks.

The next day, Noo and I met up again (she had Monday and Tuesday off) to go see the Dali exhibition which we noticed as we left the Aquarium. I'm a huge Dali fan as the man can draw the pants off me, and then portray it through a lens so consistent, convincing and brilliant to become my epitome of Surrealism. We took 3 hours to walk through this thing. The man can do everything. Paint, sketch, etch, lithographs, inks as well as sculpt in bronze, wood, stone, glass, plastic and pretty much anything else he could find. Dali was a prolific genius who broke my head and smelted my brain into a low calorie ooze that seeped out my left nostril.

But what's a day with Jas without comic book references. Above the Aquarium was the Movieum (which we're checking out Sunday with fellow SARMY member, Natalie). The Movieum is a museum collecting props and going behind the scenes of a bunch of films and tv made in London. These include Superman, Alien, Dr. Who and did I mention Superman? And outside the Movieum is:

He's without cape as I think it blew away or tore.

And then a ways down the road well away from the Movieum, as we're walking back to the station we see this:
Unfortunately I didn't see the Scooby Gang as I totally wanted to check out Daphne.