Gnarlee of the Galaxy

When I saw Guardians of the Galaxy last week, I knew I'd enjoy it. It has all my favourite things. Adventure, fantasy, an epic scope and a fun dynamic of characters... Still, it was dangerous to make the assumption I'd have a good time. That's a good to set yourself up disappointment. But I wasn't disappointed. I really did enjoy it! Now the danger is that I'm setting everyone else up for disappointment. Sorry.

Still, for all the praise I'm giving it I'm not above a little nit-picking. Spoilers ahead.

For a movie that billed itself as being so oddball, it had a standard plot. Stop evil, retrieve the macguffin. But it's easy to forgive simple plots when the reason you're in the cinema is for the adventure and characters. Speaking of, Gamora wasn't quite the lethal, savage warrior I was hoping for. She gave a sly, knowing smile in the trailer and I thought "Oh, you gotta be careful around her." NOPE. She had to be saved, twice. Counter to that, Drax was more entertaining than I thought he would be for a 'token strong guy'. Peter Quill, the main protagonist, was just as much the smart-mouthed, rough and tumble, goofy anti-hero as promised. There's nothing I can say that Marvel haven't already 170 million dollars to tell you. That said, for anti-heroes, the team were putting in a lot of effort to do something they wouldn't be rewarded for. I suppose that gets answered though when Rocket asks why Quill why he would want to save the Galaxy and he responds "'cos I'm one of the idiots that lives in it!"

Surprisingly, I didn't find the talking raccoon the most enjoyable character. It was Groot, the talking tree. "Talking" might be a generous way to describe him actually, considering he's only capable of 3 words. And yet, he got the biggest laughs and gave the most emotional performance. Sorry Quill, your dead mother ain't quite cutting it.

I found myself quoting Groot the most, so here's a pic of me, being Groot but not really, with Rocket Raccoon hitching a ride.

Wolverine Slices Up a Tin Can

I really liked the new X-Men movie, Days of Future Past. So much so that Wolverine was the next thing I drew. I didn't mean for it to become a fully coloured thing, yet here we are.

Days of Future Past is what the movies should've been this whole time: big. I really liked the first films but I felt like they had a small scope, feeling much more like TV episodes than movies. Although, they had to be like that in the beginning.

When the first X-Men movie came out in 2000, superhero movies weren't the cinematic trend that they are now. There'd been superhero movies before of course, everyone knew who Superman and Batman was. They'd happily buy a ticket for them. But only comic fans knew who the X-Men were, or kids like me who got most of their knowledge of X-Men from the 90s cartoon. Let's take a moment to listen to that perfect intro.

The filmmakers couldn't rush into this high concept and assume the broader public would want to see it. They had to introduce this very carefully. I was 15 in the year the first movie came out. I was at an age where I still valued the fun of superheroes and all the visuals, but I wanted them presented more maturely. So this approach by Bryan Singer to turn the X-Men intro something a larger audience would enjoy suited me just fine.

This wasn't men and women in bright costumes trying to save the world from a cackling villain. This was a smarter, cooler look at people with powers. This was real people, with real dialogue and real conflicts; and yet all the fun and visuals were still there. I loved it. I expected as time went on the franchise would become braver and do bigger things. But they never did. They explored other areas of the X-Men world and I enjoyed the sequels, but I still felt they weren't doing as much as they could.

Finally, with Days of Future Past, it feels like they're letting loose. Maybe it was The Avengers that helped them do that. Joss Whedon created a massive, unapologetic superhero film. Bright costumes saving the world from a cackling villain. It certainly made me realise you don't need to be so real all the time. Maybe it taught Fox too. So on top of the X-Men's character focused, thoughtful atmosphere, we got the high concepts of giant robots and time travel. It was everything I wanted.

Minor spoiler ahead.

I am slightly disappointed that the next film, X-Men: Apocalypse, is going to be another prequel. I feel the original X-Men cast was perfect. James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender are great as young Xavier and Magneto. But I want to see more Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen playing those roles. I definitely want more Kelsey Grammer as Beast. You know that final scene at the end of Future Past, where Wolverine was walking through the school and saw Cyclops, Jean, Storm, and the rest of the X-Men? I want to watch a film about that school, those characters, on the same scale as what Future Past was. Especially if the next film is about their greatest villain.

COLOURED! The Royal Statue

It's finished! Every illustration from last year's Fantasy Week has been coloured and I'm ending it the same way I did back then: with this scene of a traveler standing before a statue of a kneeling king.


I was going to end with a short story about the traveler finding the statue and describing what he thought about it. But when I posted this in May 2013, I said the point was to arouse questions in the viewer's mind, not give them answers. So I'll stick with that. Still, maybe I shouldn't assume people have the same interest in my scribbles that I do.

I do want to say that the reason I decided to have the statue bowing is because that's not something statues do. They're usually standing tall and firm, for worship. I wanted something different, a King who remembers that worship should only come if you serve the people well.

There's other possibilities for why he's in that position though. Maybe he's bowing because the traveler is the next King. Or maybe he's bowing because he died of stomach cramps. Either way, it's probably written on that gold plaque, in that language I enjoyed making up.

I may do a new Fantasy Week before this year is out, with new illustrations!

COLOURED! Hunter

As I said when I first drew this, I didn't mean to give him an assault rifle. I imagined a charming, traditional weapon. Something colonial. Either way, this character is still shooting animals and cutting off their feet for trophies so maybe 'charming' was a futile word. You may ask 'why didn't you just do an internet search for colonial weapons?' Because it's only now, as I'm writing this blog post, that I realise 'colonial' is the description I meant.

It's strange seeing a modern element in a fantasy setting. Fantasy and sci-fi works, sure. That's epic. That's magic and robots. That's Star Wars! But fantasy and modern day? That's Gandalf listening to an ipod. Ruins the mood. Although I suppose Harry Potter's tale of fantasy and modern day had a bit of success.

Regardless, I like how this came out. It's easy to imagine he's using an assault rifle for a creature that needs to take heavy damage, like a Rhinoceratops or Justin Bieber's face.

And I like to imagine the four creatures those feet belonged to. From left to right, they could be a giant bird, a sea monster, a bear and a red dragon. Or, I suppose, it could be one weird creature with four different feet.

This was the 6th drawing I've coloured from Fantasy Week. One more to go!

COLOURED! Demon

5th colouring from last year's Fantasy Week! Red seemed like the obvious choice for a demon, and sometimes it's okay to be obvious. I wasn't going to make him pink for the sake of being clever and unexpected. After all, London wasn't expecting a fire in 1666 and no one thought that was clever.

Demons are generally depicted in two ways: a humanoid trying to convince innocent people to do bad things, or a monstrous beast. If this beast wanted the humanoid's job, he'd need to wear a very convincing tie.

I don't believe in the afterlife but I like the concept. I like the idea of two metaphysical realms, one of pure goodness and one of pure evil, trying to influence what happens in reality. Although I do wonder, what do demons do all day? Torture humans? Even if you really like doing it, surely it'll get dull after an eternity or two. I mean, I really like chocolate but even I get bored after the 17th bar. Angels must get bored too, all the fun stuff is a sin. Except chocolate, hence why the Pearly Gates are so wide.

An infinity of fluffy clouds or an infinity of fire pits... no wonder Heaven and Hell spend so much time with us.

COLOURED! Air Beast Rider

I actually tried to colour this last year but gave up when I couldn't figure out what colour the rider's bits of clothing should be. He was simultaneously shirtless whilst wearing bits of pads, metal and feathers. What the hell is the theme?! I couldn't run this time, so I just blew through my worries. Now it's hard to imagine what I was worried about. I should do that more often.

When I first drew that mask, I imagined it was to help the rider breath at high altitude. But that'd be cold, so why go shirtless? So now I imagine he operates in the desert, low altitude, and the mask filters any sand in the air. Can probably make some bird screeches through it too.

I haven't come up with anything for the beast, I'm not a nerd.

I'm now over half-way through colouring the illustrations from Fantasy Week, so it may be time for me to admit that I'm colouring all the illustrations from Fantasy Week. I can't pretend this is a whim anymore, this is an actual task I'm doing. I hate telling people that I'm going to do something, they always get this weird expectation that I'll do it.

Three to go.

COLOURED! Monkey Magic

What started out as one spontaneous colouring of an old drawing has now turned to three. Were I a more organised man, I could have turned the previous three days into an event. "On the first anniversary of my hugely succesful Fantasy Week," I'd have began, lying "I breath fresh life into my hugely popular characters by imbuing them with the brightest colours picked from the strongest rainbows." I've have ended, transforming my lie intro quite the most poetic bullshit.

The third piece is this magic monkey which I insist on titling Monkey Magic:

This could be a monkey that knows magic or a monkey that knows how to steal from a wizard's cupboard, either way you gotta admit it's a cool trick to simultaneously have grey hair and brown fur.

Maybe I'll go on to colour the rest of the drawings from Fantasy Week. Or maybe I'll do something else, I don't know. I've really got to start organising my spontaneity.