Sgt. Angle Reporting for Duty!

In just a few days, you maggots will be slugging yourselves down in front of your fancy television sets for a few hours to watch the NFL Kickoff. After that, your weekends the next few months will no doubt, like mine, be taken up with several hour spells in front of the same television, elbow deep in barbecue flavored potato skins, the frothy head of beer coating our already frazzled mustaches while the ol’ pigskin gets tossed and run around over 100 yards of pure green grass-tro-turf.

With the oncoming season already embedded in your calendars, I’d hope you have some time here and there to remember what makes football so great to watch, whether in reality, or in the fictional world blown big on the silver screen (silver screen would be an awesome name for a crazy good offensive play, wouldn’t it?). Below I give you some of the best of the best in Football Films.

There’s two kinds of football films, really, just as every cinematic genre can play two sides to the same tonal coin: the TEAM stories, (speaking of teams, how about the team of James Ninness and Jed Soriano? You can get to know them and their work better when you purchase Mythoi Book One: Birth here) and the REDEMPTIVE or INDIVIDUAL stories. Sometimes these types overlap, but most of the time you can pinpoint what kind of sports film you’re watching. For me, TEAM stories tend to evoke more participation on my part, as an INDIVIDUAL tale is more often than not a sort of biopic.

RUDY, for instance, is a REDEMPTIVE story — our main character carries the weight of the plot, against all odds as the weakling with a single dream. We’re not following a football tossed to and fro, characters weaving in and out of focus, and because it’s Notre-Freakin’-Dame, we don’t have to worry about the W-L percentage. What we’re more interested in is seeing an underdog simply get on the field, to go against all odds and just play, simply to fulfill his dream. Four out of Five Rifles.

THE EXPRESS is another REDEMPTION football story. The lead character, Ernie Davis, was the first black footballer to win the coveted Heisman Trophy. He also died before he could play in the NFL, and his success and good nature helped pave the way for integrating college football teams in the 1960s. The movie version of his life is labored most of the time, a cliche tale of “we know he’ll succeed and we’re watching what we expect to see.” The “conflicts” are based solely on race and little else — we’re watching Syracuse make a run for a championship, so the TEAM doesn’t matter as much. The story is all about Ernie changing the lives of the people around him, yes, including his teammates. But the success we want is not for the victory, but for the change to happen. Halftime speech here. Three out of Five Rifles.

VARSITY BLUES. Another ME over TEAM film, this time about a high school quarterback who unexpectedly takes the reins of leading his team away from the coach, played by a brilliant Jon Voight. We get a lot of the QB’s life outside of school, outside of the sport, and want him to stand up to his father, want him to take that leadership role that’s so important. Off the field, the other players don’t make too much of a dent. Their personalities don’t shine, and we’re again shown a movie about a dude, not about the team. Four out of Five Rifles.

Now this is not meant to imply that these “individual” football stories don’t work — they do, and usually quite well. But it’s important to know what kind of movie you like, what kind of movie you’re going to be viewing, and then what kind of movies you would recommend. Inspiration comes in all sizes, mostly from “individual” tales, but more often, from the stories about entire teams who learn to care more about each other than the victory that tends to always be out of reach.

THE REPLACEMENTS. A bit corny, and blessed cursed by the presence of Keanu Reeves, this late 90’s entry into the genre focused mainly on the team, the camaraderie of a band of kooky gents taking over during a pro-NFL strike. While we focus mainly on Keanu’s redemption, there is more screen time spent with the team than without. We are also handed plenty of scenes with head coach Gene Hackman, again emphasizing the team, the effects of decisions “on the guys.” Four out of Five Rifles.

NECESSARY ROUGHNESS. Oddly, this TEAM-focused movie also spends most of its’ screen time on its quarterback, an aging Scott Bakula, who has one year of eligibility left in college ball. But, like The Replacements, Roughness gives us a heavy dose of the coaches behind the scenes, and almost every scene plays around the team as a whole rather than just Bakula’s past mistakes. Three out of Five Rifles.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS. I’ve shined on this film in prior posts (mainly the TV show), but it’s worth mentioning again and again. It’s a TEAM movie in the largest sense of the word — not a single player becomes the “focus” of the story, and even the coach is more of a presence than a focal point, so that by the end of it all, when the championship game is played and the players move on, we come to realize we’re watching more than a movie about a team, and much more than a movie about any one individual. We’re watching an American past time embodied and infused with life, a cultural moment in the history of sports and people. Five out of Five Rifles.

(You’ll notice that the clips above all contain speeches from the respective films. I’ve heard tell that the speech in Any Given Sunday is one of the best inspirational speeches in recent film history. Judge for yourself:

Got a favorite sports movie? A favorite football film? Give me your own briefing in the comments below.

You are dismissed!

Sgt. Angle

Howdy, kids. Welcome back to The Book Report.

This week, I want to talk briefly about a genre of books that some snobby readers might feel as being too juvenile: comic books. More specifically, the graphic novel. Here at Semantink the publishers have been doing their best to promote the hell out of the Mythoi: Birth graphic novel, and while Ben’s Comicopea takes a look at comics and the comic industry in a very knowledgeable way, I thought I’d address the issue for people who don’t read comics because they “only read serious books” (or some other smarmy, elitist comment).
So what I thought I’d do is recommend three graphic novels in three different genres that I own and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend to people.

1. The Psychological Thriller

As the only graphic novel appearing on Time Magazine’s “Top 100 Novels of all time” (since 1923), Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons Watchmen is truly a feat of literary genius. Drawing its title from Roman poet and satirist Juvenal’s question “Who watches the watchmen?” the initial premise of the story is a look at what superheroes would be like in real life. Of course, in order to support such a premise, the book also needs a close examination of what type of person might feel the need to put on a costume and fight crime. Watchmen certainly does not shy away from its obligations. As the story unfolds and the single murder of a costumed crime-fighter begins to have global ramifications, Moore and Gibbons deconstruct the concept of the superhuman from two angles: the people who need to be heroes and the people who need others to be heroic. Gripping, gritty, and at times very disturbing, after its completed run in 1987, Watchmen changed the way authors wrote heroes and also the way people read them.

2. The Action/Adventure

Okay, at first glance, a trio of pin-up models in sexy action poses may not look like “literature”, but roll with me here for a second. For more than fifty years the James Bond/Jack Ryan/Jason Bourne (what’s with the J names?) spy thrillers have made their way onto many a book shelf in houses all over the world. The basic premise of Danger Girl is exactly the same, except where in those spy novels the “Bond Girl” is little more than a sexy female for the hero to save, these girls are kicking ass all over the place. And, yes, looking incredible while they do. Right from page one this book burns at full throttle, and the action doesn’t let up one bit.
Equal parts James Bond, Indiana Jones, and a generous helping of curves, the Danger Girls are intelligent, independent, and incredibly sexy. But then, everyone in this comic is sexy from the main heroes and villains to the background characters. It’s what creators J. Scott Campbell and Andy Hartnell do. They could make Quazimodo look sexy. Plus, the comic has got enough puns to satisfy even the most rabid punster.

3. The Romantic Thriller

One of the reasons I don’t like the Twilight series might be because of this book. At one point in Meyer’s series, the main character’s love leaves her, and so she shuts down emotionally for six months. Of course, given the lack of individuality and vapid helplessness of the main character, that sort of shut down makes sense. But if there is a book that shows more rage, heartache, and longing at the loss of a loved one than The Crow, I haven’t read it. The story was inspired by a news report of a couple who was murdered for a $20 engagement ring, and written as a way for the author to deal with his own loss. In 1978, author James O’Barr’s fiancee was killed by a drunk driver, and while I’m not saying someone who’s never felt that kind of loss couldn’t write that book, I think you can see every bit of the pain, rage, and heartbreak from that loss show up in every drop of ink.
The book is incredibly violent, but there is a sense of heart-wrenching poetry in each bullet, each blood spatter. The kind of emotional depth that Twilight never even scratches the surface of.

---

That’s it for me this week, folks. You can catch pretty decent (even excellent) movie adaptations of Watchmen and The Crow, and there’s been talk of a Danger Girl movie for years (though there is a Playstation video game adaptation) for those who are curious about other media formats for these books.

Until next time,
Still paddlin’ the old knew…
_-Akatzen-_

Sgt. Angle reporting for duty!

Looking at the fantastic cover for the Mythoi Book One: Birth book that is due out later this year, written by James Ninnes (buy it here!), I noticed a beautiful creature that deserves to have a film made about it.

Then, just the other day, I was off-duty from a grueling set of rounds, and I therefore had more than a brief moment of time to peruse the cable channels for something fantastic to stimulate my visual senses. Thus I came across the SyFy channel (no relation to syphilis), and the wondrous plethora of low-budget “monster” movies that are upcoming and/or already screening, and I thought, how is it that these movies can get made, and I can’t get promoted above Sgt. in my ranks?

Folks, the movie and television industries are truly magnificent creatures in their own rights, because you can work for years to earn that million-dollar paycheck for a silly idea that is high-concept (Get Him to the Greek), or make just a few thousand dollars for another high-concept story that is sold to a cable channel (Attack of the Sabretooth). But really, which is more fun: drunk Russell Brand or a sabretooth f**king tiger?!

But there’s more than meets the eye happening at SyFy over the next year or two. Below is a look at some of their original movies, the B-grade and the (possible) A-grade, as well as a glimpse of their series development, and an interesting-only-after-you-think-about-its’-long-term-potential idea.

WYVERN: “When global warming unearths an ancient dragon, a small Alaskan town will be destroyed, unless Hell freezes over in time.” (That is the actual tagline from the website.)

MEGA PIRANHA: “When a science experiment goes horribly wrong, gigantic fish gain appetites for human flesh.” And air-cycling, it seems:

DINOCROC VS. SUPERGATER: “Two giant creatures terrorize tourists on the Big Island.” (The doctor’s breasts — real or fake?)

In an interview at shocktillyoudrop.com in February of this year, EVP of Programming Thomas Vitale explained that monster and creature movies are a specified genre of film that, for decades, have been around on Saturday nights to thrill, scare, and cause uncomfortable laughter in audiences across the US and beyond. Because of filmmakers like Roger Corman (I’ll shine a spotlight on that genius in a few short weeks), who always want to take a chance on a different story if there’s any way to turn a profit, the SyFy channel has been able to re-brand itself to be the mainstay for the return of Saturday Night Movies to bring its’ status above and beyond the typical science fiction flare (AKA Star Trek, Stargate, and gold-star show Battlestar Galactica).

Another upcoming project on SyFy’s plate is to take classic fairy tales and give them a “contemporary twist”. For example, the descendant of Little Red Riding Hood discovers that her family secretly hunts werewolves; Hansel returns to the woods after many years to seek revenge. These movies already began in February with Beauty and the Beast (see the trailer below).

You’ve got to give SyFy credit for twisting itself in some interesting ways — movies made as international co-productions for $2 million, gaining an audience of 2 million each premier, and re-inventing classic stories despite low-budgets). The channel is taking free risks with familiar material to reign in an audience beyond their typical viewers, and is doing so in such a way to target a very niche market with each new film experience. The network’s Ghost Hunters series was just picked up for another season, “Eureka” maintains credibility as a family-friendly science fiction based show about a small town where everyone’s a genius, and you can always catch a “Twilight Zone” rerun if you’re a night owl.

Finally, the good folks at the SyFy network are teaming IGN to bring cheesy monster-movie filmmaking to you, the viewer. Over the next 15 months, viewers will vote on every aspect of production — from the concept to the wardrobe, to the dialogue and arbitrary character deaths. Enjoy being a stay-at-home producer.

SyFy, despite your bizarre rendering of your own channel name, I salute you, and look forward to watching Malibu Shark Attack soon.…

Dismissed!

Sgt. Angle

Well hello again…

James Ninness here.  WonderCon is just a few days away and Semantink is packing our bags for San Francisco!  Once there, we’ll be giving away some very pretty cards for all WonderCon attendees that give them not only the link to the MYTHOI Birth Series (which has, and always will be, free), but as a special treat, a secret link to a site where they can see issue #1 of MYTHOI proper — absolutely free!  To get the ball rolling, Semantink will be giving you a sneak peak at the character cards they’ve put together each day with a look into the characters themselves, written by yours truly.  Next on the list is the youngest, both in looks and in age, Vito!

Pre–Twilight, vampires were some of the scariest, sexiest mo-fo’s around.  Of all the blood-sucker stories I’ve read, my favorite series is Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles — all of them.  I saw the Interview with a Vampire in theaters when I was 12 and I loved it.  Seven years later, while on a trip with some friends in Europe, I picked up the books and got through them all (I read Blackwood Farm when it came out, but haven’t gotten to Blood Canticle) within a few weeks.  I think it’s fair to say that Anne Rice (whether she’d like it or not) is responsible for my infatuation with vampires.  I realize that the mythology goes much, much deeper and I have read Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla and several other stories, but to me Lestat will always be my favorite.

Having said that, Vito is not Lestat.  Vito is a child through and through.  Turned as a child and without anyone to raise him, MYTHOI’s Vito is a naive boy looking for adventure in America, “the land of opportunity.”  Having lived the last few hundred years on Westerns and cowboy books, Vito is looking to make a name for himself in the West.  He isn’t ashamed of being a vampire, nor has he fallen into the cliche-traps in which most modern vampires suffer.  He’s a 100 year-old boy — it just so happens he’s a vampire.  As the mythology of Vito is concerned, Vito is ripped from (parts of) Stoker’s piece.  I would tell you how, but it would ruin the fun of reading this (for FREE)!  Unlike the rest of the characters  in MYTHOI, Vito isn’t looking for anyone, or anything in particular.  He’s along for the ride, and enjoying the adventure.  His journey is not external, but internal.  He’s spent the last 100+ years alone and now he’s caught up with four new “friends” in the last great adventure on Earth.  Yeehaw.

Thanks again for checking out MYTHOI.  See you this weekend?

James Ninness

Greetings readers! If you have been checking out our site this week, you might have noticed that we have begun running our blogs in a slightly different manner. I know that change can be scary, so I just wanted to give you a run down of what you can be expecting from us here at Semantink every week:

Every Monday you will get to read the newest strip in our web-comic, THE UNDERGROUNDS. You can also find an archive of all posted UNDERGROUNDS strips at the-undergrounds.com.

Tuesdays still give you Sgt. Angle and his weekly Cinegasms column, dealing with all things movie.

On Wednesdays Akatzen regails you with his weekly Book Report delving into the world of books that don’t have pretty pictures.

Mr. Wolff still owns Thursday with his Hump Day Rant.

Friday sees new Semantink blogger Dr. Cellus delve into all things paranormal on his blog Cognitive Alchemy.

Saturday gives you Admiral Eo’s Soft Shoe Diaries, wherein the good Admiral looks into the world of theater.

Sunday, you will be stuck with me as I talk comics in my weekly Comicopea column.

Not a bad line up right? Well our new blog schedule is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of news here at Semantink. Over the next few months, our site will be getting a bit of a face lift courtesy of the fine gentlemen at SanBox Inc. All of the content that you love will still be here, but the whole place will be prettier and easier to navigate.

For our MYTHOI lovers, I have some great news, our latest issue of the MYTHOI Birth series, TAROS will be out this week. Here is the cover art to the upcoming issue to whet your appetite:

April is going to see the last issue of MYTHOI Births, TOUCH, hit the internet. As always, MYTHOI will be brought to by the electrifying team of James Ninness and Jed Soriano.

The MYTHOI Birth series coming to a close means two things, 1) MYTHOI proper will pick up again in June with issue #2, and 2)the MYTHOI Birth graphic novel will be available around the same time. All of our MYTHOI issues are available for digital download, but this graphic novel will be the only place you can find the whole Birth series collected in in one place. The GN will be chock full of original content as well, so make sure you pick up a copy when it comes out!

This fall we will be launching two new series, THE HEAVEN’S and SIM-I. THE HEAVEN’S will be written by James Ninness and illustrated by spectacular newcomer Turbo Qualls! THE HEAVEN’S is a steampunk power struggle set on the alien desert world of Terra. Joe Pezzula will be writing SIMI-I, the madcap tale of a super intelligent monkey trying to evade vaporization. I will have more information and pretty picture-tude on these soon.

Next month is also the start of convention season for us here at Semantink. We will be at WonderCon and Wizard World Anaheim in April, The Phoenix Comicon in May, the world famous San Diego Comic Con in July, and the Alternative Press Expo and Long Beach Comic con in October.

So, to make a long story short (too late), 2010 is an exciting year for us here at Semantink, and I just want to say thank you for being a part of it. Keep an eye out here for more details on our upcoming projects, and if you have any questions you can always drop me a line.

Benjamin Glibert

Happy Sunday Semantinkists!

I was up late into the night with the Semantink design team, working hard on the trade dress for our first MYTHOI graphic novel. Now, before you get too excited, the first GN is still several months away, but it is going to look awesome. The reason I bring all this up is because I wanted to talk about all the hard work that goes into designing the beautiful books you flip through when you are killing time at the local book store.

The biggest step in the design process is the overall layout of the book. Where will all the elements go? Will the cover have one large piece of artwork, or several smaller ones? Will the art wrap around to the back or end on the front? There is an ungodly amount of design decisions that could mean success or failure on the stands. Let’s look at the front cover first.

The standard for front covers on graphic novels, especially superhero books, is to have one large image adorning the front cover with the book title scrawled across the top of book. Having this large image is a great attention grabber, but lacking in originality. Here are a few examples of the straight forward cover layout:

While the single large image is a great way to get attention, some books strive originality in their design, hoping to grab attention with design instead of pictures. Y: THE LAST MAN and HELLBOY are great examples of emphasizing design over artwork.

Whatever the layout, the cover has to be exciting enough to draw readers in. Just as I wont talk to an ugly girl, no matter how wonderful her personality, if a cover doesn’t grab me, I’m not going to open the book.

Another design element that is a key to sales success is the book spine. When graphic novels are all lined up in the book store with only the spines showing, how does one grab a new reader?

The run of the mill spine will contain the books title, volume (if necessary), publisher, and creators. This is all usually set with a single color and an attention grabbing typeface. Books like SANDMAN will use bands of color to make the book stick out on the shelf. For books that are part of a large series, it’s important to have to have continuity between volumes. THE WALKING DEAD has the same typeface and text placement on each spine, but a different color for each volume.

Finally, there is the back cover. The back cover contains odds and ends that just don’t fit anywhere else. Some of the things commonly found on the back cover are quotes from other professionals, a story synopsis, and the bar code. Sometimes art will grace the back cover, but from a design standpoint, its the red headed step child of the book.

If the layout of a graphic novel is it’s skeleton, then the art used on the book is the muscle and skin. No matter how good the layout is, a bad piece of cover art can kill it. By the same token, even if a GN layout isn’t great, a spectacular piece of art can save it. The key to the best covers is to make an image that will pop off the shelves at readers and tell a story at the same time. As an example, let’s take a look at one of the most well respected graphic novels of all time, WATCHMEN:

WATCHMEN’s cover doesn’t just ask to be read, it smacks you in the face and says ” Take me home or I’ll break a bottle on your head.” The art isn’t even very complex, but the bright color and the rather disturbing blood stain draws the reader in. As an example of a graphic novel that doesn’t work as well, let’s take a look at THE TEEN TITANS: JUDAS CONTRACT

To be fair, this was made in the 1980’s, but looking at this cover doesn’t make you want to buy it, it makes you want to throw up a little bit. The image is overly busy and the color is (for lack of a better word) yucky. Also, the more iconic your image is, the better. Just about any comic book fan can spot that WATCHMEN cover and know that it’s the Watchmen, but without the title, many would have no idea what the TEEN TITANS is.

One final element to consider when putting together a trade paperback is the typeface that will be used. Will you use a standard font, or create your own? THE WALKING DEAD has a unique font that sticks out and fits the book well, while BATMAN: YEAR ONE has a standard font, that doesn’t pop as much, but still fits the book.

The most important thing about selecting typeface is making sure that it fits the book. A heavy Gothic font doesn’t fit with a futuristic cop story. While it’s important to have your title pop out at people it still has to fit the book.

Creating a good looking trade dress is a lot of work, but the results can be spectacular. When I look at books like WATCHMEN  and THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS (another iconic trade) I think about how good a TPB can look, and I get excited for our own Semantink trades. That’s it for today folks, thanks for stopping in. If you haven’t gotten a chance yet, check out our latest issue of MYTHOI, MYTHOI Births: YUKI. And if you haven’t checked out the other MYTHOI Birth issues (also free!) do so now!

Good morning!

The next exciting installment of the MYTHOI saga is now available! We here at Semantink are proud to present MYTHOI Birth: YUKI from the creative team of James Ninness and Jed Soriano. The best part? It is absolutely free!

You can find a downloadable PDF on our MYTHOI site here, along with the first two parts of MYTHOI Births (also free). However, for the best viewing experience possible, I recommend checking out YUKI through issuu, which you can do here.

From all of us here at Semantink, we hope you enjoy the issue, and if you did, feel free to tell a friend, get the word out, share the MYTHOI love!

Thanks for stopping in folks, enjoy the comic and check back in tomorrow for another book report with Akatzen.

Greetings Semantinkers!

Ben was kind enough to let me share the exciting news — Vito is here!  Jed and I have been working very, very hard to push ourselves with each issue and we’re both very proud of MYTHOI Birth: Vito — I hope you like it!  Vito is the smallest of the MYTHOI gang, but he’s also the most gruesome…  If you like vampires, Gothic culture, or anything Brahm Stoker, I think you’ll find Vito an entertaining read!  If you like Twilight, well…  I’m sorry?

There are a few viewing options at your disposal here.  Option 1: Go here and download your very own copy of Vito as a pdf — for free!  Or for the viewing method preferred by many of us here at Semantink, you can go here and check it out on ISSUU!  Either way, be sure to check it out and as always: LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!  The best publicity is word of mouth.  We want you guys to enjoy it and tell your friends, remember: it’s 100% free!

I’m honored that you’ve taken the time to check out the beginning of a story I’ve invested the last four years of my life into.  It’s very exciting to see Jed breathe life into these characters and even more so to hear back from you guys about the good times your having reading them. You guys are the best.

Benjamin’s also asked me to mention that Semantink is currently being “re-imagined.”  I’m not privy to all the details, but I do know that the site will be relaunching with all new designs and a complete interface overhaul.  I think I’m allowed to tell you that they’ve just finished negotiations with a new team of bloggers to be producing new content every day, as well as production on a yet-to-be-titled web comic, released every Monday.  All of this coming to you in mid-February…  So stay tuned and hold on to your butts — good stuff’s a-comin’.

Keep on keepin’ on!

James Ninness

PS: In case you haven’t figured it out already, there is something else going on between the pages — here’s a hint: read the ads.  Have fun!

Semantink.com