Hey...read this before you scroll down

Why on EARTH did you want to read MY blog of all the blogs in cyberspace???
If you want to be bored do death with my neverending obsession about movies
and never - to - be - completed comic projects, go ahead...knock yourself dead..

Sagar Alias Jacky teaser poster

Teaser for the upcoming 'Sagar Alias Jacky'. Just fooling around in Photoshop.
Click to view the actual size.

The Dark Knight Sequel

Hi guys. I'm too tired to post anything significant today. So you'll have to do with this...
This is a fan made (no kidding!) teaser poster for the upcoming Dark Knight sequel. And if you look closely, the villain has been indicated as the riddler. Although official sources haven't commented on this or even a sequel in the works, fan boards are buzzing with activity over Christopher Nolan's next sequel already. So I'll leave you with this poster and some fan art material to whet your appetite till the next one arrives...

Ciao

A sad day for comics

I accidentally happened to come across this article in Publishers Weekly about Virgin comics being shut down. Just to make sure its not a rumour, I did a bit of searching and found that many other sources - including the New York Times and Wikipedia had reported the same. According to CEO Sharad Devarajan, the company was “restructuring” and would relocate to new and as yet unspecified offices in Los Angeles. But in fact all the 8 employees at its New York office had been laid off, which is giving rise to escalating fears of dissolution of the venture. The reason for this step is unclear. In case you're not too familiar with Virgin comics, here's the Wikipedia link. And here's the link to the official website, which, however is still online and running.
This is definitely a sad time for the comics industry, and specially, the Indian comics industry. With quality titles like Devi, Ramayan 3392 A.D., its sequel Ramayan Reloaded, Snake Woman, and its regular mythology series - India Authentic along with mainstream comics like Voodoo child, 7 brothers, Gamekeeper, and of late, a revamped version of UK superhero Dan Dare and Nowhere Man with a stunning aray of contributors including everyone from spiritual guru Deepak Chopra to movie industry veterans Shekhar Kapoor, John Woo, and Nicholas Cage to comic book heavyweights like Garth Ennis, Sir Richard Branson's Virgin entertainment had almost succeeded in their mission of bringing stories rooted in Indian cultutre and the best talent from the Indian subcontinent to mainstream comics. With a huge fanbase, it was doing the kind of business Manga does all over the world. Too bad things had to end like this. All we can do is hope that Virgin recovers and wont be remembered as just another flash in the pan.

Update - Chennai underground

Update #1 : OK folks - here are some concept sketches for 4 of the 5 'Chennai Underground' characters. Remember, the characters may look nothing like the versions in the movies (especially Iyer) cos' I've taken some creative control over their looks. Plus, the sketches shown are the characters in their 'vigilante' avatars. The unmasked versions would resemble their big screen counterparts closer. I'm really sorry for the poor quality of the images as I was limited to using MS Paint as a touch-up tool. Hopefully, I'll have a version of Photoshop by the next post...
These are just the preliminary designs. The looks will definitely be undergoing a radical change during the detailing phase. In the next 'Underground' update, I'll try to include some full-sized views of the characters...
Update #2: A little bit of googling has brought me to the fifth character which has fortunately turned out to be from the Telugu industry...and no, its not Chiranjeevi... I guess most Andhra-ites might be familiar with the Junior NTR starrer 'Yamadonga' - about the guy who cheated death himself. Well, to be honest I'm a recent but BIG fan of the junior tiger (the guy is THE God of dance - check out this video to find out why) and think that his character in the movie - Raja, has ample scope to be developed into a full fledged superhero. Concept sketches will be posted soon.
In other news : The Children of Light pages are still pending. I'll try to shake off the lazy bug and have an update for you tomorrow.

Thats all for today, folks!!!!

Ciao...

Blog readability level

I found this on my colleague Fathima's blog. I dont know how great it is to get a high school rating. Nor do i know how many ratings there are above this. All I know is.......
I BEAT FATHIMA!!!!!!!! MUHUHUHUHUHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Sorry about that...

Anyways, thanks Fathima.

I'm back

Hey!!! how u doing? new post after a long time.

Allrite....

Now that things have settled down, I think I'll break out of the current slump and get some work done. There are certain projects that I've been playing around with in this gap and if I'm consistent with the development process, I suppose I'll be able to get it off the ground. I bet you didn't get a word of what I was talking about...
Anyways, what I was talking about are some of the comic book projects that have not been put into paper yet. The ones that are still too abstract to have a solid plot and dialogues and stuff.

• The major one is the 'Chennai underground' project (obviously requiring a major rechristening). What is it? well, you could call it a kind of a 'super-team'( JLA,X-Men,etc..) of sorts, but with Indian characters instead of American. So, whats new in this? whats the usp? Well, all the major characters are gonna be extremely recognizable people/characters that fit the 'superhero' profile from the gamut of movies the south Indian film industry has given us. The same with other supporting characters.Its a team of five and i've zeroed in on four of the five characters. Sivaji, Indian, Anniyan and Iyer the great. The first three figments of director Shankar's imagination from the Tamil industry. I bet most people know about the first three characters. Iyer the great was a cult movie diredcted by ace director Bhadran in the 80s starring Kerala's very own Mammootty as an Iyer who gets bestowed with amazing psychic powers after an accident. And I'd like the fifth to be from either the Kannada (forget it...) or the Telugu industry. That would create a well rounded team. And i've decided to emphasise on the humour content equally with the action with most of the humour arising from well targeted puns and situational spoofs aimed at the cliches each industry and character has to offer. As part of phase1, i,ve decided to do some character sketches. I'll be sharing them with you guys asap. Watch this space...
  
• Another major assignment is 3 pages of Tommy Flick's much delayed (courtesy me) but worth-the-wait community project called Children of Light. Its been delayed by a huge amount of time but I think I'm not going to disappoint Tommy any more. I'll keep you guys posted on the developments.

Well I think that covers the quota of commitments this week. Hopefully I'll be able to do atleast a third of these. Lets wait and watch...

Ciao