As I'm fond of telling people, I'm a bit like the G1 Decepticon Ravage. If you don't hear from me much, that's okay, it means I'm up to no good. And that has certainly been the case lately.

Been hard at work to get my book finished, and my goal is to have a completed manuscript of FOLLOWING THE SUN: A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO EGYPTIAN RELIGION by the end of the calendar year. Early next year I'll start shopping around for a publisher (and Lewellyn can kiss my afterburners). I've actually had to give myself a break for a few days lately because I've been at it so non-stop.

Thinking back over the first ten months of this year, I've gotten so much done already: a comic book issue completed and printed, four more prints, got a movie poster design of mine printed up (it's really something to see your work blown up to poster-size), the final installment of the Roommate Manga, three different works registered to the Writers' Guild...I could go on. And there's still two months left to go this year!

One little thing that I just finished I'm quite proud of, for the technical victory it represents more than the finished art. I just uploaded my first three-second piece of Flash Animation to my Gallery, so check it out. The visuals are crude, though I'm proud of the Decepticon symbol itself because I drew it using Flash tools and a mouse, rather than my handy little Wacom.

Working on animation is also forcing me to look around on the Internet not only to find tutorials for Flash but also to see what other tools are out there. I'm finding that a lot of ideas I'd had about doing traditional-style animation and having people in far-flung places all being part of a studio are shared by other animators who are already doing it. This is encouraging because it means there's a whole lot out there that I can still learn and try on my own. And I'm sharing this with my DA watchers (my ' peeps', as I like to call you guys) because it means that you guys can try it too. I just got turned on to a really awesome site called toonboom.com that has some free learning trials of their software, which is professional-grade; put it this way, when I can incorporate Golden Age Productions hopefully early next year, this software will be on my company wish list! So go check out their free trial versions, use it to toy with your own stuff, and eventually we could all use the Pro version to do some other work. No harm in checking it out!

And I'm still going to promote our voice-actor friends for the upcoming INUYASHA stuff where possible. I stumbled across one last signed Sesshomaru print in my inventory, and that will be going up on eBay along with a blurb about contacting Viz to keep the same English voice cast. It may sound like I'm just promotion-crazy about these sorts of things, but without promotion a lot of things in that business just don't get done. To think of it another way, videos don't go viral unless everybody tells their friends about it and links it to them. That's "show biz" as well!

So tally ho!

Yesterday was David Kaye's birthday, so last night we gave him a call to wish him a happy one. Call it life imitating art or art imitating life, but he was enjoying yet more California wine, which makes me of Treize Khushrenada--how often do we see him onscreen or in production art contemplating a glass of wine...?

Well, Daryn had the presence of mind to ask Dave about the new "Inuyasha" series coming up. And here you have it, straight from the youkai's mouth! David Kaye said he would LOVE to do more "Inuyasha" episodes, because it was a great gig and fun to do. He hasn't heard anything on it yet, but if he gets contacted again he'd be happy to do it.

So, all you fellow raving, Fluffy-craving Sesshie fans--because you know I'm right there among you!--we can have him back doing Sesshomaru, all we gotta do is speak up! Not only that, but I told Dave I would rally as many other fans as I could, and he said that would be GREAT. We have his blessing!!! So come on, let's pester the hell out of Viz and Ocean Group, and tell them that if David Kaye isn't doing Sesshomaru's voice for the English version then they will FACE OUR WRATH!!!!

I will be posting links to places to go in the comments to this journal, so check back here periodically. Do it for Sesshomaru!!!

Ever hear or see something that kinda makes your stomach do a knot? Even if you're not sure if it's true in your mind, your gut just says, "OH, F--K".

Got that feeling a few minutes ago, and if you're an Inuyasha fan and CERTAINLY if you're a Sesshie fan, you'll need to pay attention to this one.

As you may know, they're doing new episodes of Inuyasha in Japan and so it's only a matter of time before they hit our shores in English. Great news! Right? Well, there's just one problem.

You see, our dear voice of Sesshomaru, David 'Ate-Too-Much-Tourist-Food-in-Louisiana' Kaye, is now living in Los Angeles. Recording for Inuyasha is done in his former home of Vancouver, B.C., Canada. So guess who might not be there to record all that wonderful new material for Sesshomaru?
This sticks out in my brain as so *wrong*, I have to reiterate it: GUESS WHO MIGHT NOT BE THERE TO RECORD FOR SESSHOMARU?!?!?!?!?!

The very idea that somebody else's English voice could come out of Sesshomaru's mouth is simply heartbreaking to me. But I refuse to cry on plush Sesshomaru's pelt in silence! So I am hereby calling upon every Sesshie fan within sight of this journal to join me! Here's what you can do:

-David Kaye has a website, [link], from which you should be able to email him. (I did, that's how I first got ahold of him in '03!) Go there, email him, and tell him how much it would mean to you if he reprised his role as Sesshomaru! He didn't know how much of an impact his character had until I gave him my essay this summer; but he's read it, and every bit of fan mail he gets from you guys will simply back up the message!

-He had a publicist in Vancouver through whom I sent several packages. I will check and make sure he's still with Hollywords Publicity, and I will post that address here as well. (I would now, but it's in my files at home, so I have to look it up.) Bug him electronically and via snail mail!

-He also has some 500-odd friends on Facebook, so if you happen to be on there his username is David Hope Kaye. A little bird told you this!

Remember, the least we can do is try. Sesshomaru is such a great character just as he is, he's certainly worth the effort!

SPOILER ALERT: Watch before you read, unless you don't care about knowing all the surprises. FURTHER NOTE: If you're as die-hard a Joe fan as I am a Transformers fan, you'll probably disagree with several of my points. Or maybe not. Read and find out!

I may have gone into "Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen" ready to shred it apart, but this weekend I went in to see "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" toting a mental blender set on 'high'. To put it another way, a friend of mine called during dinner prior to the movie and I told her I was about to indulge in 'train-wreck syndrome' by going to see it. As hideously maladapted as the live-action adapted Transformers have been--the few exceptions being covered in my review of "Revenge of the Fallen"--I was convinced that a live-action rendition of Hasbro's companion 1980's toy and cartoon line would be equally grotesque.
Boy, was I surprised.
For starters, "G.I. Joe" has something that the (lovingly nicknamed) Bay-Formers movies miss like a rainstorm in Death Valley: plot AND suspense. I actually did not know what was going to happen next as the movie went along. Sure, the premise still asks for a good bit of suspended disbelief; if America's military-industrial complex can't equip its soldiers with newer body armor, how in the world could they afford a secret training base in the Sahara, complete with multiple levels and underwater courses? But then again, it wouldn't be the first time that taxpayers have unknowingly footed the bill for something outlandishly high-tech (think the Stealth Bomber). Other bits of technological wizardry in "G.I. Joe" represent either a fantastic elaboration of ideas already in development, such as the nanomites; or else were a flight of pure imagination that was at least visually appealing, such as the underwater M.A.R.S. base or the unnecessary-but-fun-to-watch sequence to weaponize a nanomite warhead. When I heard that the same director for the "Mummy" franchise was doing "G.I. Joe", I was more than a little skeptical. But to his credit, "Rise of Cobra" managed to present plenty of action that was still enjoyable to watch, furthered the story and didn't devolve into clutter being thrown at the screen, a' la Bay-Formers.
I have to give "Rise of Cobra" another unexpected high mark in its translation of classic concepts and characters. Frankly, I could only wish that Bay-Formers had done so well, but unfortunately that crew still can't figure out how to treat robots as real *characters* instead of just walking, talking special effects. The "G.I. Joe" filmmakers, by contrast, knew they were dealing with human characters that had to be made believable. While this new incarnation does take some liberties, especially with the Baroness, it manages to weave those liberties in well enough that discussing them is more akin to comparing the pros and cons of different intepretations of Batman, as opposed to a point-by-point list of where the filmmakers screwed up (as in the aforementioned property). Rival ninjas Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes were handled with true grace, Duke and Scarlett had more depth than I was expecting, Zartan was made both fairly believable and fun--how many people realized they were seeing him at the President's desk at film's end?--and Destro's backstory was used to great effect as the major plot thrust. Canon elements such as the sexual tension between Destro and the Baroness, phrases like "Knowing is half the battle" and even "Yo, Joe!" were incorporated deftly into the story. I came away from this movie with the distinct sense that its writers genuinely cared about the original property--again, unlike the vultures clustered around Transformers. "Rise of Cobra" even managed to use an element from that god-awful 1986 G.I. Joe movie by making Cobra Commander a scientist. I kept guessing who the partially-masked evil scientist working with Destro/James McLellan was. 'Is that Cobra Commander? No, it must be Dr. Mindbender!' I, like probably much of the Gen-Xers in the audience, was kept off-balance about his identity until the very end of the movie. When he finally donned a full face mask and announced himself as Cobra Commander, I wanted to cheer but was too busy catching my breath. And while I can reluctantly admit that the Darth Vader-esque voice seems to work for the dear Commander, I still miss the acidic rasp he originally had through Chris Latta, and rue the apparent fact that nobody has the *cajones* to try to pull it off today. As my viewing partner and partner-in-crime Daryn said, to hear the Commander say, "Sssssitizens of the world!" would be 'like Christmas for me'.
The only characterization quibble I have, as alluded to previously, was with the Baroness. In the original cartoon and comic she was a spoiled European heiress with a Zsa Zsa Gabor accent thick enough to serve on Chinet, so I can appreciate the filmmakers wanting to move away from something that cliche'd and give her more depth. Tying her backstory in with Duke's also added a new twist that will surely be used in the sequels that are destined to come. My one complaint is this: our society seems incapable of letting a woman be evil simply because she's a bitch. Here, we discover that the Baroness was a treacherous sex kitten because her brother, who allowed her to believe that he was dead, manipulated her with his nanomites and then used her as a pawn. While it certainly makes her brother a suitably evil bastard, it says little for female empowerment. It implies that women could never have enough impetus or free will to *choose*, actively and voluntarily, a life of treachery. The real world has entirely too many women in it who do just that, even if they don't dress in cleavage-baring black vinyl and tote pulse guns. I would appreciate the catharsis of watching a femme fatale pursue evil--that is not tied to her sexuality--for its own sake, then cheering her inevitable downfall. Especially because the "G.I. Joe" franchise offers strong and heroic women like Scarlett, and hopefully in coming films Lady Jay (my personal favorite of the two), having a truly evil Baroness to counterpoint them would not be sexist in the slightest.
But the greatest virtue that "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" has comes long after the credits finish rolling. The next afternoon following our viewing, Daryn and I saw a friend of ours, just out of high school, who had also gone to see the movie. She had several questions for us to the effect of, "what did this mean?" and "what was that all about?" She was vaguely familiar with G.I. Joe, but had never seen any of the original cartoon nor read any of the comics. "The Rise of Cobra" ended up sparking a half-hour conversation between a teenager, myself and Daryn, and another thirty-something friend who seldom had enough common interest to join in our other discussions. This movie bridged a gap between generations and spheres of interest, and again it did so with a smoothness that the live-action Transformers films have yet to accomplish. I don't have to grimace and tell my younger friends, "Well, it's nothing like the original." With "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra", we all have something to enjoy, compare, and share. And that is the greatest aim that any film adaptation can accomplish.

I know some of my Deviant ' peeps' (I love that word more than I probably should) are aspiring writers like myself, so I'm going to share a link that offers some really handy advice to listen to and take to heart.

Just click on over the the Writers' Guild - West at [link] and click to view their "Angle On" video. They have an interview with a senior writer from "Saving Grace" who has some tremendous insights on 'the biz'. Oh yeah, and there are plenty of other helpful links and FAQs and things on the site if you nose around.

I've actually got some stuff I need to get registered with them. I'm also back to work on my book project, which also tends to involve reading other material for comparison--some of it very good and stimulating, some of it a running comedy of the ridiculous.

On that note, I have a link I'd like to share because it's that laugh out loud pathetic. But first, I must ask: is anyone up for some good MST3K or other vicious parodying action? If so, I can hook you up....

And on that note, I must away for the time being. Stay Deviant, my friends...!