The Legend of Korra

From nearest to farthest: Avatar Korra , Pabu the fire Ferret, Bolin,
his brother Mako and Master Tenzin.

So the first two episodes of The Legend of Korra were just released earlier this night online for a limited amount of time which will then be gone until April 14th. They were so good that I ended up watching them both twice late into the night!

Avatar Aang from the second sea-
son of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

For those who don’t have a clue as to what I’m talking about, The Legend of Korra is the follow up to Avatar: The Last Airbender, a television show that takes place in a world with four major civilizations: the Water Tribe, the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation and the Air Nomads. In each respected country you can find people who can “bend” or manipulate the elements using movements inspired by traditional Chinese martial arts. In Avatar: The Last Airbender or ATLA, the story centers around a young airbender named Aang who also happens to be the Avatar (While normal benders can only bend one element depending on where they come from, the Avatar has the ability to learn all four elements. Also, the Avatar power is reincarnated with a new host after the previous Avatar dies, passing on the experience and wisdom of all the past Avatars). For a hundred years, Aang was frozen in an iceberg, sustained by the power of the Avatar spirit. When he is awakened, he finds out that during that time, the Fire Nation has been at war with everyone else and that his people, the Air Nomads, had been wiped out.  So it becomes his duty to learn the rest of the elements and defeat the Fire Lord to bring balance back.

The first promotional art for The Legend of
Korra that was released nearly two years ago.

The Legend of Korra takes place many years after the defeat of the Fire Lord, in which time Avatar Aang passes away and a new Avatar is born in the southern Water Tribe named Korra. Korra shows a natural talent with water, earth and firebending at a very young age. Years later, Korra has mastered the previously mentioned elements but must still learn air. So she travels to Republic City to learn from Tenzin, the son of Aang who is the Master of Air Temple Isle off the coast of the city. This new municipality is very different from anything before seen in ATLA. Whereas in ATLA, the time period could be comparable to the 1800’s, (only with the exception of guns and an increase in mechanical technology) Republic City is pretty much the booming 20’s. You’ve got amazing music that is best described as Chinese jazz, towering skyscrapers with great zeppelins souring between and “Sato-mobiles”  being driven all over the place! Another thing that I absolutely loved about the city is that it was inspired by two real life cities: Shanghai, China and Vancouver, Canada. Last year I visited Vancouver for a week and I love how it's integrated so well with the design of Republic City. The mountains by the sea and the layout of the bustling metropolis makes me almost feel like I was back there.

A statue of Avatar Aang stands at the entrance of Republic City

Though there are major changes that have been made between ATLA and Korra, there is still that same energy and incredible art/animation that won me over in the beginning. If anyone is interested, check out http://www.korranation.com/. The episodes will stay on the site until Sunday night so if you want to get your geek fix in before April 14th, I suggest you hurry and check it out!

John Carter of. . .Who Knows?

So I found out a while ago that the new John Carter movie has flopped in the box office and the worst part is that it was a really good movie! Sure there were some cinematic corners cut to fit the first book into a two hour movie, but it stayed true to the source and had everything needed to deliver an outstanding film…except for the title.

                I was disappointed to see that the show was called, simply, “John Carter” using bland, block font without any real hook to grab people’s attention. I mean, if I’d never read the books by Edgar Rice Burroughs, I wouldn’t have had the foggiest idea of what this movie was about. It’s like painting gold nuggets brown and throwing them in a rock quarry. Everyone would pass them by not knowing the worth behind the paint, which is exactly what happened with this movie. You had action, romance, an amazing tale from a master storyteller and cutting edge CGI, but the first thing people see is John Carter and they end up confused; not intrigued or curious, just confused.

     If I were at the reins of the advertisement for this movie, here’s what I’d have done differently: First off, instead of calling it John Carter, I’d have gone with "Barsoom: A Princess of Mars". In case you haven’t either read the books or watched the movie, Barsoom is the name of Mars in the Martian language and is the title heading of the chronicles written by E.R.B., while the first book of the series was A Princess of Mars. Both parts of the name would draw much more curiosity and intrigue than John Carter ever could. Would you have been just as interested in Pirates of the Caribbean if it were called Will Turner? And, of Course, I’d change the font into something more captivating and, dare I say, Boisterous instead of a font that figuratively hides back in the corner.

                Secondly, I would have republished the first three books of the Barsoom series a year in advance to gain a following with the newer generations. Look at how Harry Potter and, more recently, The Hunger Games, have driven such a devoted fanbase. Republishing those first three books (A Princess of Mars, The Gods of Mars and Warlord of Mars) would have completely changed the game opening weekend.

                 Another thing that ought to be considered is that movies based on older books don’t always do well at the first go because there isn’t a huge fan base accumulated yet. Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings:The Fellowship of the Ring, though did very well in theatres, was completely eclipsed by the following two films because of the inflated fan base. Then again, New Line Cinema rereleased the trilogy in bookstores which helped to bolster fans, unlike Disney who’ve seemed to turn a blind eye to the concept entirely with this movie.

Monster Mash

You know when you have an idea and you just can’t seem to get rid of it until you put it out on paper? Well I’ve had this idea running through my head for about two weeks now that I’ve been sketching and creating story for whenever I got the chance. It’s kind of out there, but it’s been bouncing off the walls of my skull for a while now.

Until I come up with a better name, the idea’s called Monster Mash, yeah, like the song. You’ve pretty much got the entire pantheon of Halloween characters existing within a fictitious city called Walgrimm (name also in the works). The story revolves around four kids. Here's some descriptions and sketches I've made for it.

Franklin- The first and main character is named Franklin. He is a flesh construct or ‘golem’ created by the eccentric scientist, alchemist and Kabbalah practitioner, Doctor Barone. Unlike golems created by past alchemists, Franklin is self-aware and, with the exception of his sown on body parts and above average strength, is your typical twelve year old who loves baseball and making friends. Another fact about Franklin is that he was named after Benjamin Franklin and not Frankenstein.

Jezebel- Unable to remember hardly anything of her past life, Jezebel is a quiet yet dangerous vampire without pity or remorse. She is part of a sect of vampires making an “existence” in Walgrimm. She is a skilled fencer and attends a private school for girls where Mistress D’Agonia—leader of the Vampires in Walgrimm—poses as principle.

Natilee- Only eight years old, Natilee has already begun to feel the effects of her ancestral curse. Her father is a werewolf and so was her mother before she was killed by witch-hunters two years ago. Leaving the dangers of their homeland behind, Dmitri Volkov brought his daughter to Walgrimm to begin a new life. Unfortunately, the trauma Natilee experienced awoke the wolf within her early on causing trouble for both of them as well as the people of Walgrimm.

Dodger – A mischievous poltergeist with a flair for the dramatic, Dodger is the result of a séance gone wrong where the medium couldn’t control the summoning and accidently manifested the ghost of a thirteen year old boy into the physical world. Able to interact with the physical world, Dodger has been having the time of his after-life zooming around the city pulling pranks.

Right now I’ve been working out the bad guys to this idea. A society of witch-hunters is one idea that I will be using later on, but for now I’d like to focus more on Franklin’s story, his history and the source of his consciousness. My idea for the first bad guy will be another alchemist like Dr. Barone, only he wants to steal Franklin and dissect him to find the source of his self-awareness.

I want to try making this an online comic. I really don’t have a whole lot of experience with that but I’ll try drawing up a few pages and see how it goes. 

Also, I really hate the set up on Blogger. I can't get these pictures organized to save my life!