Looks pretty. No prose or dialogue in the preview so I can’t tell how faithful David Hutchinson, the adapter, intends to be.
OzF5 – that’s Oz Force 5. I think.
The art is nice. Can’t say that that the premise looks very original.
I think I posted a link to this site (or at least a site previewing this comic) many months ago but today is a new Oz comics day so … there.
Interesting combo of movies this weekend. Nizzibet and I watched The Final Cut on Saturday. On Sunday we went to JayDogg and TwoM’s new place to see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind on their ginormous TV. Both movies feature a technology that deals with memory.
In Cut there is a biological implant that records the sights and sounds of a person’s life. The story concerns a cutter, a person who edits the recorded memories into a presentable “rememory” after the person’s death.
In Sunshine there is a doctor who has invented a technology that he uses to erase unwanted memories.
Both movies are basically set in the present. There are no other special technologies in the stories, no evidence that the stories take place in “The Future”. Of the two, Sunshine is the prize. Its characters are messed up in the way people I know are messed up. Its story deals with the implications of erasing memories in ways that are surprising and clever and very well thought out.
In contrast, Final Cut occurs like an early draft for a better story. I enjoyed it and I spent a good chunk of Sunday thinking of implications that the movie doesn’t consider. (I won’t go into the character of the protagonist. He’s a cutter. A man who takes the lives of others and edits them into brief good times highlights. Anybody guess that he is distanced from his own life, only alive in dealing with the recordings of the lives of others?) Thing is, the memory recorder implact has apparently been around for at least 50-60 years. But –
Only one company controls the technology.
The memories are only accessible after death.
Not likely. No technologies last 50 years without being hacked and copied and built on. The original premise is weird too. The implants are biological. They are put into the brains of the unborn at some unspecified time prior to birth. The memories are then accessible after death. In normal circumstances that means that the persons who decide to put in the implants will be dead by the time the implants recordings are available. It’s grandparents having themselves recorded for their grandchildren. That’s some interesting long term planning.
Humans are egotistical. Humans play with technology. In fifty years someone would have figured out ways to access and download the memories of living people. Wills and contracts would deal with memory ownership. “I give my children access to memories of their childhood but to my rotten ex-spouse – NOTHING!” There would be memory artists – people who live exciting lives for the rest of us to experience.
Strange Days deals with some criminal possibilities for memory technology. It’s also livelier film than Cut. Not necessarily better but definitely livelier.
Aside from world building I spent time considering what I would remember. And I spent little time considering what I would forget. There are things I’d be happy to forget but nothing that I need to forget enough to have somebody else hack my brain. Lots I’d like to remember more clearly than I do.
This set of chain questions is new to me. It’s been passed to me by my EsteemedBrother over at Lovesettlement. Apparently The Pink Bee started this particular set of questions. Who that is I have no idea but she lives in Kentucky. I have a fondness for Kentucky because Nizzibet had some good times there. (Bad times too but we won’t get into that right now.) There’s no explanation what The Stick is. I’m assuming this refers to passing a talking stick because, despite what is said about assuming things, it’s automatic to assume an explanation for something that seems obvious.
the Stick: You’re stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be?
Skook: Confession time. I’ve never read Fahrenheit 451. Never seen the movie or the play. Being culturally literate I do understand the question. My first choices all seem obvious, books or stories that someone else would already have chosen. And being a graphic novel is too problematic. The Word For World is Forest perhaps? Maybe the Little Fuzzy trilogy.
the Stick: Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Skook: All the time. Modesty Blaise. Mrs. Peel. The heroine of MFK Fisher’s Not Now But Now. Dorothy Gale. Mrs. Darling. Like all crushes they pass and are replaced by new ones.
the Stick: The last book you bought is:
Skook: It’s been a while. Mostly I buy movies. Because Rain City Video is constantly selling off their VHS tapes at a price lower than rental and because Nizzibet and I can share a movie more easily than a book. And I’m trying to reduce my book collection ever so slightly. I think the last book was Changes by Matt Howarth. Off ebay.
the Stick: The last book you read:
Skook: The Golem’s Mighty Swing by James Sturm. Checked it out from the library with a bagful of other graphic novels.
the Stick: What are you currently reading?
Skook: The Illuminatus Trilogy. I haven’t picked it up in a few months but, since I intend to get back to it “one of these days”, I tell myself I’m still reading it.
the Stick: Five books you would take to a deserted island:
Skook: I do like the first part of Luvset’s response – “One wonders whether one is marooned, thus these five would be the only books one will ever have resort to, or whether it’s just a nice island where there’s nothing to do but read.
If the former I’d start with a book of matches.”
I’m not really good at having favorites. I like so much. And it changes. The favorites don’t go away so much as gain the companions of new favorites. For the marooned island I’d like a blank book of a thousand pages to draw and write in. Two really useful survivalist manuals. A book on boat building.
For the pleasant island I’d have to look around. How long am I supposed to be there?
the Stick: Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons)? And Why?
Skook:
Schuyler, because I never answer her letters
Jenn, because I never write her
Nick, because I need to finish drawing that story
Holy crap. I just got an email from Lambiek.net asking me to submit biographical info so they can include me in their Comiclopedia. I’m speechless.
Either the things I’m thinking when I’m in front of the computer are too trivial to make it worth writing them down or they’re more complex than I think I’ve got time to type at the moment.
– A majority of us think that only somewhere between 1 and 5 million Americans live in poverty in the US.
– The actual number of Americans living at or below the poverty level is 33 million.
– 47% of us think the poverty level is $35,000 a year for a family of four.
– The actual poverty level for a family of four is $18,104 a year.
(Stolen from Long Story, Short Pier.)
Currently doing illustrations for –
Finnegan’s Brink – a graphic novel written by Sarah Byam. I’ll be doing that for the next couple of years.
The Black Seal #4. This is the Viet Nam issue. I’m illustrating an article on the Tcho-tcho and a short comic written by Nick Brownlow.
Miskatonic U Monographs – a few illustrations for one, more and larger illustrations for another.
Oz Squad – can’t say anything more specific at the moment.
The Sasquatch Chronicles – a huge overview of the sasquatch phenomenon written and edited by Christopher L. Murphy. I’m one of many illustrators working on this. Got to use illustrations since the darn critter is so camera shy.
Wild Nights in Oz – slowly, progress will be made.
I expect that I’ll do the occasional one off illustration for my own amusement (or that rare creature – money) but I’m not planning on taking any new projects beyond these for a while.
Added Dare I Read and Sex Harassment to the blogroll.
Removed fsckd and Louisaland because … like … they’re gone, man.
J-Dogg is gone. From this house at least. He and TwoM have moved into a house together. I think it’s a slightly larger place than this one is. It’s better maintained at least. It also has two bathrooms instead of our one. That’s important. He’s going to be sharing the house with three other people.
So Nizzibet and I are living alone for the first time since we moved up to Seattle. Then we only lived alone for about four months. We’ll be spending the next few months until our lease runs out reducing our number of possessions. Once we get it so that everything we own fits upstairs we’ll be ready to move into a little apartment.
