Here’s today’s Inktober and this might be my favorite one this year. I’m watching Sweeney Todd for Carpe Scream and I started thinking about a picture of Sweeney Todd I’d drawn when I was in college (about 1999). I’d never SEEN Sweeney Todd, I only had the soundtrack, so in my head I had to imagine what everyone looked like. In my head, Sweeney was thin as a rail and blond. Everyone was like “what?” but I thought it was cool. Anyways, here’s an updated pic of both Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett. It was done with Faber-Castell pen and a Crayola red washable marker.
I’m sick today and my hand’s shaky so I just played around with a black brush tip Copic marker and a Sakura white gel pen on a piece of purple construction paper. I screwed up some of the light, and I’m not happy with the sky, but I am happy about the tree bark and the illusion of depth. Not bad for shaky hands, I say. See you all tomorrow under more favorable circumstances, hopefully.
The Old Cemetary, by Monica Marier 2015, ink and gel pen on construction paper.
Feeling sick today, so this will be a quick one. Today I watched The Brothers Grimm.
The Brothers Grimm, MGM Pictures, 2005
This movie has the rare distinction of being a completed Terry Gilliam movie. And right from the get-go it’s told to us in no uncertain terms, that this movie is a fairytale, a gothic, beautiful, funny fairytale. So don’t ask why this guy is cartoonishly evil, don’t ask how we have all these anochronistic inventions, don’t ask how a kiss can cure multiple puncture wounds. No. That’s not what this movie is for. This is for Matt Damon and Jude Law playing a Croby/Hope comedy team next to a swanning evil Johnathon Pryce.
My only annoyance was that there was (yet again) another shoehorned love interest with no real chemistry or reason to like either of the main characters and whose sole purpose was to be a hostage in need of rescuing or a kamikaze in need of talking down. At least they twisted the ending a bit concerning her. Anyways. Great movie. Great fun. I’m going to bed now.
We’re in the final week of Carpe Scream and today’s movie is a great one to watch after 24 days of horror movies: Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil
Tucker and Dale VS. Evil, Magnet Releasing, 2010
I’ve wanted to watch this one for a while, but it required a brew and a bunch of Friends. Well the stars finally aligned and I was treated to a hilarious, fun, bloody, treat. Alan Tudyk, Tyler Labine, and Katrina Bowden had fantastic chemistry, timing, and some great comic acting chops to boot. This movie takes horror movie tropes, hangs a lampshade on them, whacks them with a hammer, and then invites them to have a cup of tea and talk about their feelings.
“I notice your collar is up. Do you want to talk about that?”
The premise is: two unassuming hillbillies are having a vacation weekend in their new cabin when suddenly a group of college students start freaking out around them and subsequently dropping dead.
A comedy of errors worthy of Abbot and Costello ensues, with over-the-top violence, hilarious one-liners and huggable characters you just want to invite over for a cookout and PBR.
I highly recommend it to all horror fans: it’s great for hard-core enthusiasts who can spot all the references or for light horror fans looking for a good time that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Check out the trailer, if your curious. It’s currently streaming on Amazon and Netflix.
Today I’m at a meeting with a neon pink post-it note and one pen, so I doodled this today. It’s kind of 80’s graphic style, like you’d see on a tee-shirt or hotel art.
Today I watch a great gothic anime Movie, Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust.
Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust, 2001 Madhouse Animation
I’ll just start off by saying, Oh My God Madhouse,
Oh My God Madhouse,
Oh My God Madhouse.
This is SO visually gorgeous, I love this. Every second is eyeball candy. The writing’s pretty punchy and very entertaining, voiced perfectly by wonderful voice actors. The only thing is that there’s so much obvious world-building behind this series that I sometimes get a bit lost and have to hit Wikipedia. We also get very little of everyone’s story, so unfortunately the story is not as compelling because we don’t get to ride in any one character’s head. The vampire hunters, come kind of close, but they’re not really the main characters either.
So for a beautiful, scary, gory, creepy, vampire festival from the classiest neighborhood of Hell, I highly recommend Bloodlust. Just don’t ask me a lot of the story, because I still don’t know. (Apparently the books are like this too).
And now it’s time for my yearly, “I’ve been inking comics, so I don’t have time for new material” inktober. Here’s a panel from this week’s Skeleton Crew featuring Shelly the Frankensteinian construct and Zomboy the zombie.
Today I watch a cult classic that sort of missed me in its heyday: Monster Squad
The Monster Squad, 1987, TriStar Pictures
To be fair this is back when Hollywood was specifically making Rated R movies specifically designed for kids who sneak into R-rated movies or have oblivious parents rent R-rated movies for them regularly. And I think I have the same problem with this as I do with most “boys movies” of the 80’s, in that there doesn’t seem to be any real consistent tone. Kids are yelling shit and making jokes about sex and virgins and “the gays” (Boy, the 80’s was different, wasn’t it?) and yet we have a sweet little-girl Frankenstein friendship-is-magic, a sweet German refugee who makes them pie, and a little boy whose crayon letter to the army is answered.
I love this movie. I laughed so hard at the jokes (I finally get why kids in elementary school were yelling “Wolfman’s got NARDS!”
I loved the sweet “Creepy German Guy” and all the clues they gave us about him. I cried at the “Don’t Go Frankenstein!” moment and cheered for the little sister.
AWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!
I’m just REALLY pissed off that I can’t show ANY of this good stuff to my kids. Maybe in a few years, yeah, but if just a few things were cut out, this would have made a GREAT family film for Halloween. For now, though, it’s going to have to sit on the shelf along with Goonies, and E.T. What the crap, 80’s?
Here’s Inktober Day 22, featuring Miles Reyner the Entertainer from CRIT! This is yet another pic that will be on the new CRIT! banner. He will be holding a 6-sided die.
Monica Marier Author 