Holiday wishes,2010 and 2009 in perspective.

Hello Everyone and a very Merry Holiday season and Happy New Year to you.

For those of you out there that follow my work and blogs will notice that I've been silent for a little while, even though I post artwork fairly regularly on my facebook page
Now while I've been very busy with everything from getting ready for a lot of conventions, private commissions,Silent Scream and special images for the Cons that I'm associated with, there's a bit more to it than that. This past year has been incredibly busy for me,sometimes taking on way too many different things at the sametime.

Just for example: I jumped headlong into a new site that we launched at www.bluntforcebeating.com cranking out one review after another,while still writing multiple blogs(myspace and my blogspot.com and doing interviews with artists for www.optimumwound.com and it's Masters Of Ink series and other articles) drawing non-stop( commissions,movie review images,etc), meanwhile I still have a day job.....It's a lot to undertake. Most people don't even understand how much I create while still having a family and a life outside of all of these other things I've mentioned before.....
At some point all of these things can burn you out, despite that possibility I never looked back or even slowed down, I just kept going.
Unfortunately bluntforce didn't last too long as most of us involved couldn't update as much as we would have liked to and with a small fanbase it just didn't seem to be worth the effort. If I could have devoted the time to the site I would have taken it over myself and become the administrator and built it up properly to a very decent fanbase. Okay so this would taken a while but I truly believe this site had the potential to become something so special it would have eventually eclipse most others out there. It saddened me greatly to say goodbye to the site as it invloved all of the things that I love: Movies,Comics and the Crime genre.

Last year (2009)I managed to build up my myspace blog to a decent following doing illustrated movie reviews from a zero weekly status perspective,that coupled with my experiences at Toronto's Fan Expo made me push myself even harder.
I started doing more conventions and soon realised that this was a really good way to meet a lot of new fans and show off all the new projects that I was working on,get feedback and see people's reactions up close. I'm always trying to improve as an artist and I think that's very important in any industry or profession.
I see so many other artists out there that never seem to improve or change over the course of years and that has always troubled me. That's fine for them but I know what I wanted for myself. Lately I've been attemping a lot of new illustrations that I never would have tried before and very soon I'll be taking some drawing classes led by a Master Artist that has worked for Marvel for many,many years.

Now some people seem to think I'm anti Marvel/DC/Big Companies. In reality I'm not. One day if I'm good enough maybe I'll do work for them and I don't hate supeheroes in general and I've always had a soft spot for them in my heart. I just truly believe that the comic's marketplace need variety and in the last few years I've been seeing more and more of this happening. This is a vey good thing. I've just felt I need to say these things out loud on the net as a lot of people have this certain notion that I'm a certain way and wanted to clear up any misconceptions as far as that and a few other things are concerned. I have no axe to grind with any Company per se, apart from being pushed aside sometimes because I'm an independant artist. Unfortunately this is something that will happen in the industry, this is just the way that it is.
Unless I work on a major character for a big Company this will continue to happen or I make my own characters become so popular that it leads to me being noticed in a positive way. I think there's a few choices I have to make this year and 2011 will be a very interesting one.

I've always been a very outspoken person in regards to what I consider to be unfair practices( such as being rude to fans or ignoring/bashing media/fanboy types). It's true that I can't stand when other artists consider themselves too good to talk to a fan or even show the smallest modicum of civility to anyone that approaches them. Don't get me wrong I'm a very private person but when I show up at a Con I want to interact with people and I think it's quite obvious when you meet me at a show.
If you don't want to interact with fans then why book a table at a Con for? All of you out there that read this need to know that YOU are the ones that provide an artist with his or her income and any artist or writer that doesn't treat you properly should be boycotted and his work should be as well. There's one artist in particular whose name I won't mention but has several websites apparently devoted to how much of a jerk this person is. I find this totally incredible, that this individual no matter how talented can continue to act so badly and still be given work. I think that things like this need to change in the industry.

Now a lot of things I've mentioned in this Blog hopefully makes a lot of people stop and think.

I'll also be doing a LOT more blogs on all types of subject matter. Covering everything from movies,comics and everything concerning the crime genre. Yes, all of my efforts that I was putting into BFB will be transferred here and as the New Year goes on I hope to be revealing quite a few new surprises.

Have a very Happy new Year everyone and may it be prosperous in all aspects of your life: love, money and creativity.

Future posts

Right now I'm working on several different projects. Some of them are for next year,while I have others that I'll be able to share with you very soon. Those that I can share will go up on myspace,twitter,facebook and here. I'll be catering each ptoject to the platform I launch them on. I'll also have a little column that I'll be talking to Jason about doing soon. If that comes to pass,it'll be interesting to say the least.

The fiture is going to be very,very busy. I hope everyone sticks around and checks out my posts.

There is one I can mention right off the bat and that's Zombie Survival School 101. It'll be a multi part look at a zombie attack and what you'll need to survive said attack. I'll be including everything from techniques based on military survival tactics to pure common sense,body armor and more.

I'll try and get the first chapter up this week.

It'll be fun. I'll aslo be throwing up a few movie reviews as well in the upcoming weeks.

I'll also be getting ready for another 2 Conventions in the next 2 months. One in November and another in December. Like I said it's going to be very busy for me. I'll also be drawing a few Star Wars pinups and maybe even a Manthing too.

Have a great week......

Be good.

Rich

7 days movie review

It's been a few weeks since my last Blog and I noticed that it flew by incredibly fast without me even realizing it. So I decided to do a Blog about a movie that I've been looking forward to since I first heard that it was being made.

The movie is called 7 days.

It's about a man and his wife whose daughter is raped, beaten and killed by a pedophile. The father being a doctor and a man with quite a bit of wealth, starts planning the abduction of the pedophile as he is being taken to prison until he can be tried for this horrific crime. He also equips a cabin in the middle of nowhere with all sorts of equipment to help facilitate the torture and killing of this individual. Just this premise alone had me totally mesmerized with the possibilities of the type of story that could be told. That is, if it was done properly.

This is one of those subject matters I feel incredibly strong about and have no sympathy for pedophiles or anyone of that nature that take away the innocence/life of a human being pure in nature and unsullied by life.

The movie starts off well and I was horrified that they actually showed the little girl's corpse as she was found by the police officers and her Father. It was a necessary part of the story as far as I was concerned. Still very unsettling. I think that for most people this opening 15 minutes of the movie would have most regular humans freaking out. Myself on the other hand is another completely different story.

There are a few scenes where the Father starts to torture the pedophile and then stops as he is incredibly disturbed by what he is doing. He is also suffering from an incredible amount of guilt and has a lot to deal with in his head.... The last time he saw his daughter before she died,she asked him to come with her as she had to deliver some invitations to her Birthday party in a few weeks. He was exhausted after finishing his shift as a surgeon and needed some time to sleep. If he had gone with his daughter she wouldn't have been abducted and would still be alive now. That kind of guilt will eat you alive and it becomes quite clear that the principal actor playing the Father( Claude Legault ) does a great job at bringing this point home to the viewer. His guilt has become a black hole and it threatens to devour everything close to him, including his marriage.

Each of the 7 days of the pedophile's torture is shown and I know some people once again might not be able to deal with subject matter this intense. Again, I was a bit disappointed with exactly how little the pedophile was tortured. If it was my child, God help that pedophile, because I have no forgiveness in my heart and certainly no conscience in exacting bloody revenge on someone like this.

I think back to Seven and what John Doe did to that pedophile, who he kept imprisoned for a year strapped to a bed and made him suffer a slow and painful existence. He cut off his hand, catalogued him as if he was a lab rat or experiment. All the while keeping him just barely alive as he slowly wasted away. Doe never allowed him to die until he felt that it was his time to do so. This takes an incredible amount of self control and discipline of a superhuman nature, it is quite impressive.

Maybe if someone like David Fincher would have directed this film I would have been satisfied with how it was done but honestly while there are very human emotions that are the primary focus of this film I think that the main point of what should have been done to the pedophile in question was secondary to everything else. To me this was a big mistake. Huge. I felt like it was an incredible anti climax to the whole film not having seen him being castrated and being tortured more in detail. A friend of mine read the book that this movie was based on and she had told me how incredibly brutal the book was with nothing but drawn out scenes of torture, just pure anger on the written page. The movie had a different tone.

Don't get me wrong this is a good film with solid performances from all involved and even though it's in French with English subtitles this was never an issue for me.

Maybe one day I'll get my wish and Hollywood will remake this film in English with Fincher helming it. I somehow doubt it though.

This a movie worth checking out even though it was far from perfect.

Cheers.

Richard Serrao

Optimum Wound Comics

Co-owner of http://www.optimumwound.com/

Creator,Writer and Artist of

Memento Mori and

Silent Scream

Book Of Eli movie review ( Illustrated)

Today's Blog will be about The Book Of Eli and I'll be adding in an illustration to convey my perception of this movie and it's subject matter.

Once again the Hughes Brothers have created another cinematic masterpiece with this highly underrated movie. Everything from the music score that flows seamlessly in and out of the film, to the pacing of each scene, the film flows and takes you along it's journey. The colouring scheme should be praised as well in it's lack of colour, giving a sense of a bleached,barren and desolate landscape inhospitable to most human beings.





Denzel Washington delivers another solid performance with class and enough screen presence that hearkens back to the days long gone.





Each actor or actress in this movie is perfectly cast. Ray Stevenson is awesome portraying a character that is as scary and single minded in his obedience to the town boss played with exceptional aplomb by Gary Oldman.
One of the biggest surprises was seeing Jennifer Beals as a beautiful blind woman whose daughter is also as equally stunning played by Mila Kunis. Both of these characters are indentured laborers whose owner Gary Oldman is obsessed with finding a special book. Of course it doesn't take very long to figure out exactly which book he's looking for, or why for that matter.

But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself in this review.

From the beginning of the movie you got the feeling that this "WAR" that happened was the end all and be all of wars. In other words the world is royally screwed up right now and it doesn't look like it'll get better anytime soon. When you see nuclear fallout snow falling from a burnt and depleted looking sky it stops you in your tracks and makes you think. There is no law, except survival of the fittest. Everyone is on their own.

The action sequences are brilliantly done and filmed with extremely deft and skilled vision on what it takes to craft an unforgettable action scene. I feel if I say too much more than that it'll give too much away and spoil some of the many surprises in this movie. The directors and Denzel Washington allow the viewer a rare chance to see some beautifully laid out scenes of carnage that just show what is happening without jumpo cutting in an mtv style that has permeated our culture and movies. Bravo guys, this is indeed a rare thing. Not only does it add depth to the film but shows how adept Washington's character is with a blade,his hands and anything els he can grab or use.





To me this movie stands toe to toe with some of my favorite post -apocalyptic films like Mad Max and The Road Warrior. There are many films that have tried in vain to live up to what was done by George Miller and Mel Gibson in these awesome movies.






Too many in fact.





This one though is not one of those and I say so with a big grin on my face.





I have gone back and re -watched this movie quite a few times already. Why? Because to me it says a lot of very personal things that makes me not just wonder about life in general but how we live our day to day lives, our beliefs and what kind of legacy we leave behind for our children.



Here's a little something I wrote after watching the Book Of Eli and hopefully it'll give you an idea of how powerful this movie was for me.





" During the last days of man, when all hope is lost, a stranger will come...He will be my prophet, he will be righteous and good, following the path I have laid down before him in this wasteland of lost souls. Be ye warned if you seek to do him harm I will unleash my wrath and woe unto you and yours. My wrath is limitless....So is my love. The time has come to stand up and choose sides."





If you have never seen Book Of Eli and want a different viewing experience then I highly urge you to check this movie out. It just might surprise you.





Richard Serrao


Optimum Wound Comics





Co-owner of http://www.optimumwound.com/


Creator,Writer and Artist of


Memento Mori Volume 1


Silent Scream





www.twitter.com/richardserrao


www.myspace.com/richardserrao


richard@optimumwound.com

Comics to movies (again)The Walking Dead.

Today's post is the 3rd type of Blog I've done like this about translating a comic property to film or tv.

The point of these Blog's are to show the times that Hollywood was faithful to the subject matter and how the public reacted,how the move/tv show did and the possible future for comic creators and their properties.

Today I'm gonna take a look at all that has happened so far concerning one of my personal favorite comics on the stands: The Walking Dead. For those of you out there that has never heard of The Walking Dead, shame on you. Okay,all kidding aside TWD is a great character driven story that apart from having zombies in it deals with a lot of different subject matter in every arc. All arcs have issues or topics that make each character identifiable to the average reader. It has great writing and great artwork. It's consistent in that the people involved have all shown their commitment by putting out the title for the most times around 12 issues a year. Just the fact that TWD is a black and white comic and since it began it's readership has grown continually and continues to do so.
In this day and age I find that pretty amazing. Most of the creators out there are always bitching about not enough work for everyone. Personally I've always believed that if you do your best work with the utmost passion and you show your commitment to whatever project you're attached to the readers will eventuallly follow. I know this is not a universal truth BUT there are a lot of times this is true.

More times than not.

I know that some of the great writers of our time didn't have any form of success until much later, sometimes after they have passed on they become huge. I find this unfortunate and unescessary. Unfortunately life is like that.

Getting back on topic of TWD - For a while we all had heard rumours of TWD tv show that was being developed and as images began to trickle out a lot of fans began to become hopeful that Hollywood wasn't going to screw this one up too like so many countless others. A very good sign indeed.

Then last week happened.

The Walking Dead trailer was put on the web. 4 minutes long and jaw dropping in it's overall depiction of Rick's story and TWD. By the end of the trailer my jaw was on the ground. The first season will be only 6 episodes but I can not wait for the fall( Halloween)

There is literally no other tv or movie that I'm looking forward to more,not even Machete that I've been dying to see can eclipse my excitement for TWD.

Anyone that still hasn't seen it yet trust me it isn't hard to find and it'll be so worth it.

This is showing a lot of creators out there several things: If you want to have Hollywood translate your idea you have 2 choices.
(1) Sell the idea,make your money but shut the hell up if the screw it up. Look at Alam Moore at least for the most part. Separate the comic from the show or movie.
(2) Fight with all of your might to make sure whoever in Hollywood is doing your idea that YOU have the final vitto or that you're on set as a consultant or at the very least hired as some kind of consultant to be involved with the production of your idea into whatever form it'll take.


My final word for today?

Things look really good for creators and their properties.

There is hope.

Have a great week.

Richard Serrao
Optimum Wound

Creator,Artist,Writer for
Memento Mori Volume 1
Silent Scream

Co-owner of www.optimumwound.com
www.myspace.com/richardserrao
www.twitter.com/richardserrao
richard@optimumwound.com

First week of vacation pt 1

Hey everyone,
I can't believe it's already been a few weeks since my last Blog,time really does fly by when you're busy.
I was getting ready to go on vacation for 2 weeks(which i needed really badly) and I'm still on vacation as I write this Blog.

My first week was simply awesome. We(the whole family) went to Lac St. Jean to stay at my Father-In-Law's chalet for the whole of last week. We were extremely lucky as the weather was beautiful for the most part. The private beach where we were was just gorgeous and got even more tanned from enjoying time outside playing with my son. Just going to the beach everyday was a treat as it was just 5 minutes away from where we were staying BUT we did so much more and I'll have a few awesome pics to show next Blog. There was one place we went to hike and check out a bat cave that was called Trou De la Fee (excuse my lack of accent on the proper words) which translates out to The Fairy's Hole( which I won't even make any jokes about but could).
We ended on some trails that while being incredibly beautiful was dangerous if you didn't look where you were hiking. A few times I slipped but managed to grab onto trees so that I didn't impersonate Arnold in Predator flying off the side of a mountain. Okay maybe I embellish things a bit but seriously when you see some of the pics and how high we ended up your jaw will drop. I hate heights and have a major case of vertigo but I toughed it out for the family and my son,which by the way I'm extremely proud of myself for doing that. All in all we spent bout an hour and a half hiking and unfortunately my son freaked when we got to the actual cave. I have to say I wasn't thrilled either about how close it looked inside of it but I was biting the bullet and just going with everything. I felt bad for him because after we started to head back he changed his mind and wanted to go back.
The only problem being is that we didn't have any hard hats and needed to be next to the guide so that he could make sure that we didn't bang our heads, so once we separated from him he we had no choice but to head out of the cave and couldn't go back to find him as it was forbidden to do so. my son learned a lesson that day about the choices that we make and sticking to them. I didn't like enforcing this life lesson but it was necessary as he sometimes has a habit of changing his mind after the fact. Parenting is never easy but when you have to be tough it gets even harder(sigh).

Later on in the week we ended up at a cousin of my wife for supper and had a great time talking,drinking and laughing. It's really too bad she doesn't live closer.

Lac St. Jean is a small town and is beautiful and a great place to enjoy nature. The people are friendly and very helpful. I know to me it's always funny when townspeople realise that I am English because I speak french( and while I'm not anywhere as good as my wife who is french btw) I think I do a damn good job. i think it also impresses them that I make the effort to speak another language that is not my first.

Staying with my Father-In-Law was relaxing as he does his best to make sure we're comfortable and never stresses us out. He allows us enough space when we need family time and I truly enjoy his company.

It's always sad when it comes time to leave though. The trip back to Montreal takes about 6 hours but this time around we left there around 2:30 and between all of the bathroom stops and supper we ended up back in town around 11:00 pm at night....We were all tired and while it was an awesome time it's good to be back home.

Next Blog I'll be showing off a few photos from the trip.

Rich.

Predators movie review

Today's Blog will be a bit lighter in tone than some of my others as I wanted to throw in my two cents on what everyone has been saying about this summer's Predators, hopefully you'll enjoy my review.

Predators movie review

By Richard Serrao

Directed by Nimrod Antal

Originally taken from a story idea written By Robert Rodriguez

Writers: Alex Litvak and Michael Finch

Actors: Adrien Brody: Royce

Topher Grace: Edwin

Alice Braga: Isabelle

Laurence Fishburne: Noland

Oleg Taktarov: Nikolai

Danny Trejo: Cuchillo

When I had heard that Robert Rodriguez was rebooting the Predator Franchise I was pretty excited for several reasons:

Pros:

(1) Rodriguez has a really good track record for doing his best work when he's involved on all levels

(2) He also has this incredible ability to get the most from whatever budget he has to work with.

(3) The ability to take things in a movie so over the top but it still never becomes a cliched thing to laugh at instead of being wowed.

Cons:

(1) When a big studio becomes involved the movie usually suffers. EG: Faculty,Once Upon A Time In Mexico

(2) I later found out he wasn't directing the reboot.

(3) Aliens Versus Predators (Nuff Said)

Okay so this was from my initial reaction to the news of the reboot.

Now let's jump into the actual review of the flick.

Predators starts up with Royce( Adrien Brody) free falling into the atmosphere from an unknown height and immediately I got the sense this wasn't going to be another Predator versus Aliens fiasco.

I originally had my doubts about Brody being able to play a bad ass mercenary. I'm happy to say Brody did surprise me quite a bit with his performance. He looked the part,having bulked up with some serious weight training and being stuck on location for several months while training 5-7 days a week and not being able to have sex. In an interview I read with Brody he said this helped him get into and maintain his character during the film's shoot and I have to agree with him on this. He acted like a thinking man's bad ass and not some half cocked steroid jock with no brains kinda hero.

The movie then begins introducing each character as they fall from the sky joining the cast. I personally liked each of the characters and actors that portrayed them, especially Alice Braga, who continues to surprise and endear herself more and more each time I see her in a movie. It was nice seeing Trejo in Predators unfortunately I felt he was highly underused but that's what happens when you have so many cool characters mixing it up. You just know that some of them are going to get the short end of the stick and this time around it was Trejo's Cuchillo.

I won't get into any more spoilers other than to say this movie follows the conventions and rules set by the original with Arnold. Sure there were a lot of homages to the classic. Honestly I was too busy enjoying the film to be nitpicking about something as mundane a problem as this. The jungle looks hot and dangerous,the Predators are awesome looking,even though I had read somewhere that someone had compared them to very angry vaginas. I don't know about you but if I saw a vagina that was that angry I think I would run for the hills. My next question would be where the hell are you guys sticking your penises?.....

Okay getting back on topic.

The idea of the hunting grounds or preserve being a planet where all types of soldiers and animals from various races are sent to help the Predators refine their skills is a natural evolution to the original. The action is well paced,directed with skill and I enjoyed each actors performance.

This is a summer flick just like the original and while Arnold isn't in it I feel it's a worthy sequel or reboot or however you want to phrase it. I enjoyed it and would go back and see it again in a heart beat. If you're a fan of the original check Predators out and see for yourself.