Henry and Kristl enter the Mists of Avalon (2001)

"So ever read the book?" Henry asked, "Seems like the kind of book you
would have read, in your days..."

Kristl frowned, "My days? Sounds like I have outlived my shelf live. "

"Eh.. Well I mean, from when you were younger. When you read these
books. Fantasy and such."

Kristl gave Henry a look, "Gosh, you are starting to scare me."

"Scare you?"

"Well, you are actually right, I have not read much fantasy for a long
time. I got a bit tired with the copy and paste books that flooded the
market. And we did not have the internet then to figure out the good
from the bad. Or even the mediocre from the bad. You had to read the
blurb and page through the book. Hundreds of them."

"See.. I can listen," Henry smiled sanguinely.

"Oh.. ah.. Well, we might even make a good woman out of you yet."

"Let's not go overboard now."

"But the answer is no. I picked it up once as it had intriguing cover
of a woman riding a horse and holding something up. A staff I think.
Like a magic user."

"And?"

"I gave it a try but never got past the first few pages. Perhaps I had
lost interest in the whole Arthur legend at that time. The Arthur
legend was another dead horse that was beaten ad nausea."

"But did you read it , Henry?" Kristl asked.

"Nuu.. Fantasy is not my kind of thing."

"So what do you think of this women movie."

"Well.. it is a bit quaint."

"Quaint?" Kristl said.

"Well it was nice to see eh the woman side of it all, but it was kind
of uneventful."

"No kick ass girls in this one."

"And full of 'functional' sex and even incest. I mean. It was as if the
whole woman side of the Arthur legend consisted of scheming,
backstabbing, incest and sex."

"Apparently."

"I wonder if it was written by a man.. a misogynistic one, " Henry
said.

Kristl laughed, "I was told Marion Zimmer Bradley was a woman. Perhaps
the book gives a more favorable angle on the story. Turning a book into
a movie usually means that the story has to be condensed and suffer."

"Yeah."

"I wonder if you can follow the story if you do not have some
background information. Like it is never quite explained why Lot hates
Arthur."

"Some things are also strange. Like when Uther Pendragon sneaks into
the castle of Gorlois, disguised as Gorlois, and beds Igraine she gets
knocked up and then marries Pendragon, " Henry said.

"Hmm," Kristl said.

"Strange is also the decision of Morgause to spare Mordred. She first
wants to kill him when he is a newborn baby but when the delirious
Morgaine blurts out he is actually Arthur's son, she spares him..But
why? They say that when Arthur has no sons, they are next in line for
the throne. So why let Mordred live?"

"I got the feeling that much what was in the book could not be put into
the movie and thus we lack events that probably would make the story
more 'sensible'," Kristl said.

"Another strange thing is the passivity of Morgaine. I mean it seems
like almost everything is happening to her and she is a bit helpless in
the face of it. Like oh, right I am taken away to this Island to become
a priestess. Oh right, I have to have sex with this guy in some ancient
ritual. Oh right, I am to be married off to king Uriens."

"Oh wow, that was one of the dumbest scene ever. Arthur discussing with
Uriens to arrange for a wedding and then when they ask Morgaine if she
wants to marry this 'royal person' from Wales, they forget to mention
that is was the father Uriens they meant and not his son. That was so
lame. As if such political decisions were done in such a offhand
manner. I would grant that Morgaine would probably have had no choice,
but the movie suggests it was a mistake and that she could not back out
after it had been arranged for fear of Uriens losing face."

"So?" Henry said.

"To wrap it up?" Krisl queried.

"Still a reasonable movie to watch, I think. Just for the story line."

"And the acting is decent. Not very good, but passable."

"Yeah. But the fighting and magic is lame. It is as if people are
afraid of hurting each other. And that absurd way of fighting of
Mordred. Did he travel to China to learn that tactic?" Henry said and
continued, "And did it not strike you as odd that Morgaine at one time
suddenly became this killer fighter? Throughout the whole movie we see
her never touch a sword and then when she gets ambushed she kills half
a dozen of these Saxon raiders. Wow. Way to go girl."

"I think fighting came natural to women in those days. Men had to work
hard for it," Kristl smiled.

"Yeah.. right. As 'natural' as in that women always hit something when
they park their cars backwards."

"Not much of a 'skill'. And not true at all. A fable. A persistent
recurring one. I wonder if we are still claimed to bump into things
while parking when flying spacecrafts."

"Well fables tend to linger on.. so I guess you are stuck with it one
way or another. It just morphs into something new."

"And no doubt we will be seeing another Arthur legend.. maybe next time
it will be about gay relations."

"Or aliens."

"Or gay aliens."

"Now that is an idea."

Book review: Elke raaf pikt by Jean-Pierre Gibrat(Each Raven picks)

Elke raaf pikt by Jean-Pierre Gibrat
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Introduction

Welcome to my, hopefully short, review of the graphical novel 'Elke raaf pikt' made by Jean-Pierre Gibrat, the title of which could be translated as: each raven picks, the latter word being used as meaning 'to steal' and at the same time as 'the picking of a bird'.
I write this in English incidentally even though this is a Dutch book translated from French. I am not sure if there is an English version out there, but if there is none, it ought to be made as it is a fine example of graphical storytelling.

Below will follow a review in three parts: the story, the graphics and a conclusion. The story part will have a spoiler as I have to say something about the end of the novel, however I will arrange that in a separate section that is at the end of the part discussing the story.

Jeanne and Francois

The story
The story and the characters are neatly done. There are not that many characters in this story and that is actually a pre as now there is time to give each their individuality. The people are also normal people, with their good sides and bad sides and without superpowers or gung ho shoot-em up mentalities. And nobody is dressing in oddly colored tights to fly through the air and beat up the Jerries.
There is even very little violence in this comic and if there is any it is done realistically.

The story tells about Jeanne who gets arrested by the French police. It is 1944 and the allies have just landed in France, but Paris is still occupied and Jeanne is a fix because she belongs to the communist resistance. There is a danger this will be discovered and she will be handed over to the Germans. In the police prison she meet Francois, a small time thief, trickster and crook who helps her escape and arranges a hideout for the two of them.
The hideout is actually a boat called Himalaya which is owned by a family of three. The boat is at the center of the story for most of the time.
The bulk of the story revolves around two issues: Jeanne's search for her sister, who has disappeared and the question who has betrayed her to the police.
In the mean time, Jeanne and Francois develop an attraction for each other.
Gibrat is good at mixing various elements in make an engaging story and he does it quite right, never overdoing it, or having people do unbelievable things.

But there are a few problems with the story(spoiler alerts).

At some point the boat on which Jeanne hides is ordered by the Germans to transport things for them. A soldier is put on board to oversee the activities. This soldier is from Strassbourg, a part of France that was added to Germany. He speaks French therefore even though he is a German. He also has been in Stalingrad and plagues by nightmares, he is also on a boat with the pretty Jeanne. The story seems poised for an very interesting development, with this soldier maybe having conflicting emotions serving the Germans and finding himself on the losing side, but basically nothing comes of it. And that is a pity.

Other characters

Also, at various moments in the story, Gibrat decides to keep the story going by using ‘convenient moments’. For instance at some point the police commissioner who has had Jeanne arrested at the start of the story pops up later in the story to move it forward by helping Jeanne to get into prison so she can meet Francois there, who has been captured by the Germans. It is very strange behavior for a man who previously was depicted as being a coward and opportunist and I find it hard to believe such a person would suddenly decide to help Jeanne. He might have had a volte-face because he needed to switch sides due to the German retreat, but this change of heart fits ill with him also becoming brave enough to help Jeanne while the Germans are still in control.
Another very convenient moment is that at one time allied fighters strafe the boat without killing anyone, but they manage to hit the dead body a German soldier that has been killed by Jeanne previously. So now they can claim he died because of the allied attack, thus having a believable story to give to the Germans about the death of that soldier.
Yet a third strange moment is that Jeanne's sister suddenly appears out of the blue somewhat into the story. As if Gibrat was getting bored with the search or just wanted it to finish so has Jeanne's sister appear at the boat.
Another strange thing is that Jeanne at some point in the story loses a shoe and she walks about with just one shoe for a very long time, even though it would be logical for her to have her shoe replaced.

A last criticism I have is the end of the story. The last page should have been left out. The page before ends with Jeanne alone in snowy cold Paris anxious about the fate of Francois, who has been deported to a camp. Then the last page explains that he managed to escape the camp and is probably Switzerland. It is almost as if this last page was pasted on to the story to make a move happy ending. For the page before it could be that Francois was dead, while the last page makes it unlikely. It is as someone said to Gibrat: look this ending with Jeanne in wintry Paris is not very positive, so let's add another page to give it a more happy ending.

Landscape shots. Note the similarity of the men in the picture at the bottom.

Graphics
The comic is neatly drawn and Gibrat really likes his main character Jeanne who is in the picture most of the time. She is pretty, but he gives her a crooked smile which gives her a kind of unique personality. Gibrat does not shy away from offering detailed pictures of Paris and bars and such. It must have been a lot of work to make some of these drawings.
However Gibrat seems is also somewhat conventional. He keeps the camera mostly level and does not experiment much with unusual angles. He keeps everything in focus. Nor does he go beyond the constraints of the picture. You will not see him for instance use several pictures next to each other to depict one scene. Or have a picture in picture effect. It is neatly arrange, conventional and not very experimental or imaginative.
Another thing is that he seems to stick to a certain of man that comes back all the time, Francois, the german soldier, michel and most men seem more of less have the same overall shape. It is as if he defaults to this shape if he does not need to draw a more typical shape.
There are more typical things like this. Like most german soldiers wear the same kind of outfit. Only in the last page the germans have long coats. It is as if he has drawn a kind of template that he uses most of the time, but only diverts from it when that is needed.
However all of these are just minor points in my opinion.



Conclusion
I really liked this graphic novel. It has believable likeable characters. The occurrences are believable even though there are a lot that are too convenient at times. It is a story that I belief could have happened and very well depicted.

However I hesitate to give it a five stars. This is mostly because I find there are too many convenient moments in the story. In addition Gibrat is just a tad too conventional in his drawings. In all I decided to give it a 4.5 out of 5, which is a 4, round down

This review will also appear on my blog and website where I will add some images from the novel to illustrate some points.

www.meritcoba.com

View all my reviews

Stories of the unreal: Wildlife

Wildlife

A picture I made using Osgrid, Secondlife and real life pictures. The set is made in OSgrid. The animals are from OSgrid. The statues to the right have been made by Laughton Mc.Cry using sculptris. The fish are from the public domain and the advertisement  is from the Library of Congress. The avatar and the spot lights are from second life.  For my next step I want to be able to merge pictures from various sources into an overall picture. That way I won’t be depended on one source.

Henry and Kristl did not last to see 13 Assassins

"Gosh," said Henry.

He and Kristl were both gaping at the large screen that adorned one
side of the wall and which had, mercifully, gone black. A soft sound of
static emitted from the screen. It was the only sound in the otherwise
silent room.

Kristl pressed a button on her wrist watch and glanced at the display.

"Fifteen minutes."

"That long?" Henry gasped.

Kristl nodded.

"Maybe we can skip to the fight, you know the one that is claimed to be
the best since.. Kill Bill?", Henry said.

"I somehow got the feeling that it will be as brutal, sadistic,
gruesome and otherwise revolting as the part of the movie that we have
seen up till now. In fact; I would not want to chance it, even if there
was a small chance that it will turn out to be otherwise."

"Uhm?"

"You think it will?" Kristl stared at him.

"I lost you there... Yet, you know, Kill Bill. It was a great fight
scene. I assume that they mean the fight between the bride and the 99."

"Well the suggestion is there. Assumption and all that."

"It makes me so curious. Just to see if it is really that great."

"The filmmakers would be happy then. They got you hooked by just
alluding to Kill Bill. You immediately draw comparisons. It creates
expectations without actually promising much and thus you want to watch
the movie.Smart advertising."

Henry nodded.

"But just think of this. How many of the movies we have seen started
out one way and then turned into something completely different along
the way?"

"Well.. not that many."

"So what is the likelihood that a movie starting out with one sickening
scene after the other, done in drab colors, populated with
interchangeable characters, done in an unremarkable style and devoid of
humor, will become the opposite in the end? Will become to resemble
Kill Bill?"

"Not very likely..."

"So why should I want to suffer all that just in the forlorn hope that
it might turn out to be different?"

"Eh.. because maybe it will?"

"Okay.. I can not stop you from trying, but I rather watch something
that I like to watch and I think might be watchable till the end. Let's
pop in another movie?"

"We got Azumi and Azumi 2?," Henry smiled at Kristl.

"More Japanese swordplay?"

"Yes. Was that not the reason we actually wanted to watch this one in
the first place: to compare them?"

"That is true."

"Besides.. it has a girl as the lead and.."

"...you like kick-ass girls.." Kristl sighed.

"Nothing wrong with that."

"Only that it is sexist."

"At least it is not grisly."

"As if the one precludes the other."

"Uh? What do you mean?"

"There are some twisted people out there."

"Yeah."

"I hope they remain out there and out of my mind. I find those twisted
images and thoughts disturbing."

"Right."

"One more reason not to watch this movie."

"If you think so. I wish it had a sassy fighter girl..I would have
watched it.. In a skirt that is almost to short.. Like Azumi."

"Pervert."

"Thanks sooo much."

"You are welcome."

www.meritcoba.com

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1436045/

Two Nekos do Second Life -1: Insilico

I recently was in Insilico in Second Life to make a profile picture for Merit. Insilico is a role play place set in a cyberpunk world. For those who do not know what cyberpunk is: it is the world of blade runner.  It is  near future world where advanced technology has become part of human life, but society slowly falls apart. The individual becomes dominant and community suffers. Governments change from providing central services to all, to becoming repressive and undemocratic. On the face of it society still pays lip-service to democracy and equality, but in reality wealth and power determines everything. Central to cyberpunk is the notion that government tasks are being provided by mega corporations. They provide shelter, social services, security, health services, but only to their own employees. Their community is the community of the company and not of society of nationality. Ironically this world does not know discrimination on basis of race, gender, sexual behavior, religion or culture. The only thing that counts is whether one is a employee or not.

While this sounds like a bad world, it is also a world of opportunity. Enterprising individuals can carve out a destiny for themselves and there is still the possibility that the degrading of society can be reversed. Usually cyberpunk world assumes that space exploration has progressed and often planets like Mars have been colonized and often also the larger moons of various solar planets. Intergalactic space travel has not yet been achieved, but space travel in the solar system is well developed and expanding.

This then is the world where Insilico is based. It represent a large megapolis that is reminiscent of the city in Blade Runner, and the cities in Deus Ex, for those who are familiar with these games.  Insilico is truly a beautiful example of what one can do in Second Life and especially with the introduction of mesh the place has achieved a remarkable outlook.

Here are some pictures from Insilico.

This is my avatar Merit. I had her dressed up in a kind of cyberpunk look. This is a Hexatile look from Elixir.

A street at Insilico. Through blade runner the combination of these dark, empty streets combined with the bright  signs have become a kind of trademark. The contrast between the shiny colors and the dark grey streets dominated by towering dark mega buildings create an estranged feeling. It is like this single light bulb in an otherwise dark room. Typical Cyberpunk are the many signs with symbols that  convey no meaning. It is like the Asian text on the signs. People can not read them, they convey no meaning for them.
In Cyberpunk communications have improved, but at the same time it has not.

A bar somewhere in Insilico. Well I needed a closeup from Merit.

Typical Cyberpunk.. A robot looking like an insect is the barman at the Blue Ant bar. Don't you love that.

Somewhere in Insilico is the 7 Seas restaurant.

The inside of the restaurant is made to look like it is underwater. Look at the fishies. I am going to eat you little fishies!

In front of the entrance of the Seven Seas restaurant there are these two blue dragons circles around a large bubble.

Cyberpunk exist of mixing the old with the new, nature with technology. Maybe you remember the artificial snake  from bladerunner? Here is a statue of en elephant. The benches are located underneath a blue ultra modern looking device. No idea what it was for.

The Buddha Bowl is Noodle Bar in Insilico. The mesh stool degraded, but just imagine they are floating. In blade runner there is noodle bar scene. And thus the noodle bar has become a stock item in the cyberpunk world. The dragon like display in the back was beautiful.

Noodle bar close up.

Buddha Bowl Noodle bar.

Atomix Comic a shop for all tastes.. at least as far as the sign above the entrance seems to be saying. An interior shot with a mesh dude standing guard.

Street scenes in Insilico. The makers did their best to capture the mood of a cyberpunk city. Darkness all around, but always offset by sudden bright signs. Perhaps you recall that in Blade Runner there rain seems to fall making the street even more drearier.

At this point I had bought myself some cool cyberpunk glasses.

Even darker and therefore even brighter. A cyberpunk place is actually also a good environment for vampires.


Well uh, a lot of pictures. I hope you liked them. I even got more, but I put them on my website at: www.meritcoba.net.