DOGVILLE - a comment

This film happened to express some recent thoughts I’ve been having regarding sin and the nature of forgiveness as well as regarding the possibility of an idyllic small town life. The smaller the number of variables, the more chance of effecting a utopian ideal you might think. The same weaknesses exist everywhere and in all of us. I don’t make Grace’s mistakes as much anymore. I’m not out to change the world or martyr myself for the greater good. I just do what I can with what I have and try not to be a rat’s ass (see quote from last post).

The way the movie is filmed is fascinating. Even though it’s stafe-like, you’d still have to shoot it on film for it to work. Brilliant. Dogville is like America seen through the eyes of the brilliant Shirley Jackson.

Anyway, the format of my commentaries is still in flux. I hope it’s not too incoherent.

Comments

FLESH + BLOOD mini-review (Rutger Hauer, Verhoeven)

I'm trying out a new format for talking about movies.

It's a work in progress. I actually want to do more illustration and the sketch of Jennifer Jason Leigh doesn't do her any justice. Once I turned on this movie, I wanted to look into Susan Tyrrell as she always plays highly-interesting broken characters. I plan to rewatch her in Angel (1984) sometime soon.
She has a great quote on IMDB:
I'm a loner. I don't like beautiful people, but I find beauty in the grotesque. And in the sweet soul inside someone who has been able to get through their life without being a rat's ass. I love all the connections that I listed up here. Hauer is one of my absolute favorite actors and I can't believe I waited so long to see him in this. Or maybe I saw the casting and ran far away, cuz this is some bizarre casting!

Verhoeven is a very interesting director as in he's not afraid to do things differently. He apparently experimented while making this film and wasn't ha…

Ninjas vs Cowboys, Top 10 Cowboy Manga

I talk about US ninja comics and Japanese cowboy comics on Tim Young's Deconstructing Comics.
Listen to it here!

I based on the lecture I gave last year at the Koshi Manga Museum.
Here are my Top 10 Cowboy Manga:

10.Bullet Tommy 『弾丸トミー』by Shige SUGIURA
This is a classic, one of the earliest comics. It's a "gag manga" for kids and so pokes fun at the various Western movie tropes. The art resembles Shoney's Big Boy, doesn't it?

9. The Cactus Kid 『サボテン君』by Osamu TEZUKA
This is one of Tezuka's early Western manga when he had only seen a few westerns at the time. I like the idea of a guy who wants to turn his parents' saloon into a milk bar.

8.The Belle Starr Gang 『ベル☆スタア強盗団』by Akihiro ITO
Ito is known for his Geobreeders saga, but this is his take on the real-life outlaw Belle Starr and her gang. I like the art and the attempt to incorporate real-life events into the comic.

7.Isamu of the Wastelands 『荒野の少年イサム』by Noboru KAWASAKI
A popular manga in Shonen J…

Chūbu Printing akahon "Carefree Journey"

Welcome back to my blog!
Chances are it’s only your first or second time to visit and how could I blame you? This blog has been all over the place since I first started it way back when. I use it to talk about my art, my writing, my charity work, and my adventures in and around Japan. Since right around the time of the Kumamoto Earthquake, I’ve been introduced to a whole new world - the world of comics scholarship. I gave my first lecture in May 2016, which was on horror comics history, at Kumamoto University. It went over well and once the Kōshi Manga Museum was opened in 2017, I gave a shorter version of the same lecture combined with a fun workshop there. Based on that I was invited to give a series of 6 monthly lectures at the museum starting in Spring of 2018. I continue to find comics history and scholarship fascinating and so, for the time being, you can expect more posts on comics.
Akahon comic Carefree Journey
Without further ado, Here’s a rare manga (likely can be considered …

patokon blog

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