This was a hard one, guys. I’d seen plenty of visuals and references to Cape Fear, most noticeably on The Simpsons. I expected this to be a straight forward movie about a criminal getting vindictive revenge on a lawyer. I didn’t expect this to be a very realistic thriller about obsession, violence against women, paedophilia, and how rape is the worst crime against women, but the victims are always punished more heavily than the perpetrator. I could go on, but it’s all there in the movie. Gregory Peck as a helpless, petrified father is heart-breaking. Robert Mitchum is transformed from his usual goofy, charming-asshole-with-a-heart-of-gold character into a sleazy, greasy, creepy predator that was truly terrifying to watch. I’m not sure I can watch Sabrina for a while after this.
Holy shit, are you scary, Bobby.
Yesterday I touched on how the theme of child-loss is such a strong, true fear to stain a gore-streaked horror movie with. This is the other one. Mitchum’s character, Max Cady is a very REAL sort of fellow. There’s hundreds like him all over the world, maybe thousands, and the film reminds us, that for the most part, society won’t help us against them until it’s too late. Maybe not even then. So, yeah. This is probably one of the scariest movies I’ve seen for Carpe Scream. This totally counts as Horror.
This is streaming on TCM On Demand for a short time only. I feel the need to state: Trigger Warning: rape, abuse of women, child rape,
Once again, I’m challenging myself as an artist with Jake Parker’s Inktober challenge! the point of which is make an inked piece of artwork every day for 31 days. “Wait, Monica, aren’t you also doing Carpe Scream?” Yes. Yes. I am. I’m crazy.
DAY 1
INKTOBER DAY 1, 2017. SKELETON CREW EXCERPT BY MONICA MARIER copyright (c) 2017 Tangent Artists LLC
Sunday is (if I’ve had a bad week) the day I do Skeleton Crew Inks so I tried to really turn it up to eleven on this panel. I love Zomboy’s tacky hawaiin shirt and flip-up glasses, and that Weston is noe wearing a “Death Kompas” shirt. This was fun to really take my time on.
DAY 2
Kiyana by Monica Marier, copyright (c) 2017 Tangent Artists LLC
Today I decided to challenge myself in a different way. Usually, when I’m trying to ink I get big fat lines because my hand shakes. This is due to various factors like my daily meds and my coffee addiction, but it’s plagued me a bit. This was a simple drawing, but making it really tiny made me stop and really try to get control of the brush pen to get those teeny-weeny lines. My hand is killing me, but I’m pleased as punch!
IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN FOLKS! Welcome to this year’s Carpe Scream!
What is Carpe Scream? Carpe Scream is a self-inflicted movie challenge in which I watch one horror movie for every day in October and post my thoughts on it on my blog. That’s 31 movies in all.
Why are you doing this?In 2014, I had a strange revelation: I write and draw for a horror comic, but I hate horror movies. I had at that point only seen a few horror movies, and most of those were of the cheesey B-movie genre that weren’t very scary. That year, ever since, I’ve pushed myself to explore more deeply the artform that is the horror movie. I’ve seen about 100 horror movies (some repeats), some good, some bad, some now in my yearly favorites, and I think it’s helped me appreciate the craft and the genius behind GOOD horror.
Any Changes this year? This year, I’m going to try to post where I viewed the movie so that others can check them out with me. I’m also going to include links to wikipedia pages for people who (like me) might want to know more about the making of the films. As always, please feel free to post in the comments.
You get a two-fer for today, since yesterday was Sunday, here we go!
At last! At last! Pumpkin-head was on streaming this year! It’s so rare that I get to see the first movie in a series listed. This guy was on Amazon Prime Streaming, so I dove in while the getting was good.
Pumpkinhead is the directorial Debut of Special Effects wizard Stan Winston (the guy behind Edward Scissorhands, Batman 1&2, Predator, and Terminator2). I was already a huge fan, having followed the Stan Winston School on Facebook and drooling at all the courses I wish I could take. And, I mean, you can tell. Just check that monster out: GORGEOUS.
This movie deals with a theme, which is very much a REAL fear of mine, which is the loss of a child. That’s one that always punches me in the gut, as a parent, and is ten times more terrifying than zombies or werewolves. Pet Sematary is on my list for that reason too. (shudder).
And just look at this little Lipnicky-lookin’ guy! (photo property of MGM/UA)
So the whole thing kicks off when Big Daddy Ed loses his little guy, only reminder of his wife, etc. Who’s to blame? GEN-EXERS. So death to them. He seeks out the help of a witch named Haggis. I’M NOT KIDDING.
“They Call me Haggis because I was MISS HAGGIS of the Glasgow Sheep Festival in ’23!” (photo property of United Artists/MGM
Haggis helps him summon the demon of vengeance named “Pumpkinhead” to kill everyone who was within spitting distance of his son when ONE GUY ran him over on a dirt bike. Yeah, I’d be that mad too. Anyway, things go about as you’d expect. Overall it was a lovely bit of dark fantasy, with a familiar ring of the old fairytales of dark magic and evil servants whose help comes with a price. I was blown away by Winston’s special effects and makeup. Nothing like a Monster they actually SHOW you in glorious detail so you can marvel at the sculpt every time he’s on screen. Just wow.
From one special effects wizard to another, this one is the special effects playground of my secret idol, Rick Baker! his teamup with comedy legend John Landis makes this whole movie a delight.
PLUS RICK BAKER
I’ll be honest, it took me a while to work up my nerve for this one. I remember as a kid trying several times to watch this film (BECAUSE RICK BAKER) and failing. The gore makeup on Griffin Dunne (seen above) was incredibly realistic and it’s only taken over 100 movies for me to innoculate myself against squicking out and shutting off the telly.
This film follows your classic werewolf story, and even pays homage to the Lon Chaney Jr’s film. but with the added fun of the werewolf being haunted by his victims urging him to kill himself. Dark dark stuff, but with a peppy, iconic moon-related soundtrack, and Landis’ golden touch of irreverence and comedy.
But all of that takes a backseat to one of the most fantastic transformation sequences ever choreographed. I held my breath the whole time, marveling at how seamless and truly magical this sequence was. This was practical effects, by the way. All of this was painstakingly painted latex, and bladders, and rigs, and hair application.
TRULY ASTOUNDING. This movie won an Oscar for best makeup, by the way.
Rick Baker, (image via @TheRickBaker on Twitter)
Rick Baker is currently a judge on SyFy’s Face Off spin-off, “Game Face” on at 9pm EST on SyFy. I was in no way paid to say that, I’m just a huge fan. An America Werewolf is now streaming on Hulu.
So that’s today’s post and the first Carpe Scream. Also stay tuned this month for my Inktober posts, where I post a new ink drawing every day. Hope you enjoy getting spooky with me this month. Ta!
Okay, so the problem with working on TOP SECRET non-disclosure stuff is that YOU DON’T GET TO BLOG ABOUT IT!
So here’s some updates from me.
Just finished TWO big no-talky projects, one TBA, the other was that I was asked to do badges for KatsuCon! This guy got to be on a shirt!
So that was cool.
ALSO:
I’ve been working on consolidation the next collection of CRIT! Comics our “Second Edition will feature issues 4&5 in a mega-sized volume! Here’s the cover in progress.
I love that Miles is doing a Van Halen jump of the cliff. Reminder: This volume will feature the musical guests Eien Strife!
In other news, I’ve finally finished re-editing Must Love Dragons, and it’s off to the proofreader. BOY does it need proofreading. We hope to have it republished as a Tangent Artists book, which means it will fit a leeeeeeetle closer in with the CRIT! Universe, but still be on it’s own “trousers of time” timeline that doesn’t really interact. Here’s the working cover.
So, as you can see I have NOT been slacking off, I’ve just been very busy with a lot of hush-hush. There’s more but I can’t even really tell you.
Which brings me to my ironic next announcement,
Next week my kids start summer break. That means I’m taking NO NEW COMMISSIONS UNTIL AUGUST. If you desperately need something from me, PM me on my facebook author page ASAP and we’ll try to work something out!
(If you already have a standing contract with me, this does not apply.)
That being the case, I might be able to post more about intermediate stuff on my blog.
(HAW! RIGHT!)
Today, we meet another alien, a holographic computer interface: G.eotech L.abs I.ntelligent T.echnology C.ommunications H.ologram Model 3.1. Or as Henrik calls them, “Glitch” (G.L.I.T.C.H.). Glitch is not an interface created by humans; The G.L.I.T.C.H. interface was made by Flin Reli, an alien race with no genders. Glitch is a little ditzy, a little kooky, and when provoked, very sassy. It should be fun.
Glitch’s appearance was partly inspired by Jynx Monsoon a TV drag queen from Rupaul’s Drag Race, and partly by by Elroy from The Jetsons. This is my first non-binary character and I hope to do it some justice and make it fun.
Yep, I fell behind, but I’m just going to keep right on going. So, anyways, I was looking at some Buzzfeed videos when I came across a video about how Asians are very rarely cast as major characters in movies. It made me look at my cast and think about Henrik Cates. Henrik was going to be yet-another white straight male lead in my books, and I suddenly wondered if it wasn’t getting a little same-y. The character design especially looked a lot like Evelyn Kelly from Madame Bluestocking.
I decided it was time for a change. I talked to my kids (since this is a joint project) and said, “what would you think about Henrik being Asian?” My daughter asked why the change and I said, “I think it’s nice to switch things up, so kids from other backgrounds can have a turn seeing people like themselves in books.” Girl then piped up. “Can he look like Eugene from the Try Guys?”
So, here we go: Henrik Cates, Captain of the Fishing Vessel, Mallard.
Goodness, this is hard to keep up on weekends! Well, all I can do is my best. Sadly inspiration and energy seems to find me at 10:45pm, so it’s a scramble to finish before I collapse from exhaustion. I can’t keep doing it this way. I’m going to try to find a time in the day where my energy is at a better place.
Here’s Day 17, It’s Mama Maxie, the Carnival Tycoon from an upcoming game. Some severe proportion problems, but I will fix them. I like her dress in any case.
Mama Maxie by Monica Marier, copyright(c)2016 Tangent Artists
And here’s today’s ink. This is a concept design for Elanai, the Mechanic from my upcoming SciFi book. He’s a Luo-Drigue—basically a lilac-colored space elf, since my daughter loves my elf characters so much and she said we needed one. Who am I to argue. Elanai is a cantankerous Rimmer who hates the kids and everyone else on the ship, but they’re pretty much the only people in the galaxy who tolerate him.
Elanai by Monica Marier copyright(c)monica marier 2016
So much for doing my pre-novel research. Assignments are starting to call, so those are going to be featured more this month. Case in point: today’s Ink is from a Carnival-themed game that Tangent Artists is working on. Here’s UNCLE LUCKY.
Uncle Lucky, by Monica Marier copyright (c) 2016, Monica Marier
A bit uncanny, yeah? I get the feeling that he’s one of those clowns who doesn’t understand that people don’t like clowns. I think he’s blissfully unaware of how creepy he is.
Skipped another day, but that’s okay, I’m going strong. Here’s today’s ink, which is from a commission I’m working on (posted with permission). It’s Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas at the battle of Pelenor.
Battle of Pelenor (excerpt)
If you really are curious, this is all I managed yesterday. It’s a sammich.
Today’s Ink is for my Mythgard crew. It’s my elf, Vilori, and Corey Olsen’s guardian, Wigend. There’s sort of a running gag that Vilori is always very pessimistic about missions, perhaps because Wigend is grossly optimistic about them.
Monica Marier Author 