SEROKS: PALADIN(S) CHARACTER DESIGN CONTEST

Greetings, Earthlings.

If you haven’t heard, my latest Visprint title, SEROKS Iteration 1: Mirror Man can now be found on the shelves of the country’s leading bookstores. (And if you don’t see it on the shelves, please ask for it.)

If you haven’t picked it up, please do. It features story illustrations by the mighty fine Alan Navarra, so picking up the book will make him happy too.

And if you already have a copy, have a particularly vivid imagination, and are an artist (or happen to know one), then we’ve got a contest for you.

We’re now accepting entries for a “Paladin(s) Character Design” contest.

The rules are simple: send in your costume design of either--or both--of the Paladin characters featured in SEROKS Iteration 1: Mirror Man (that would be Paladin/Roqué and Paladin Jr./Taylor), based on the descriptions given in the featured stories.

And what do you get out of it, you may ask.

Well, should you win, you’ll get bragging rights, for starters.

And, if the Queen of All Visprint is nice, she’ll also award you with an autographed copy of SEROKS Iteration 2: Once in a Lifetime, once it’s released.

You’ll be getting a personalized copy of Iteration 2 because, lo and behold, we’ll be running the winning character designs in its pages!

Think in color and submit your entry in color as well; it doesn’t have to be fancy coloring, I just need to know what the costume’s color scheme is. Remember, I’ll be taking a look at the overall design, and not how fancily you computer-colored it.

Sure, Roqué’s decked out in black leather, but Taylor’s uniform has a color scheme and that’s what I’m curious to see. I have an image in my head of what they look like, but I want to see these characters filtered through your artistic and creative sensibilities.

Take the descriptions in the text of Iteration 1, and go from there. Use them as a foundation and a jumping-off point and feel free to run wild.

Let’s see some awesome superhero spandex, people!

But also, and this is equally important, though you’re thinking in color, also execute that design as a black-and-white pin-up, which will be how your entry will appear in SEROKS Iteration 2, should it be chosen as the best.

And again, you can submit a costume design for only one, or if you prefer, both Paladins appearing in Iteration 1. (If you choose to submit designs for both, each design will be considered as a separate entry, so it’s possible that you may win for one, and not for both.)

That said, limit yourself to one costume design per character, so you really have to send in your best.

It’s preferred that all entries be submitted in 5.5 inches x 8.5 inches size (regular bond paper size, folded in half, or 1650 X 2550 in Photoshop-speak), or any proportional size thereof.

Note that there’s also a second, quasi-corollary contest, specifically for any artists out there who may be interested in collaborating on a comic book with yours truly.

If you’re interested in working on a comic book, then check the post right after this one for further details.

Now, the contest opens up as soon as this announcement goes online and will run all the way till April 27, 2013.

For further announcements as that date approaches; hit up the Visprint Facebook page or right back here.

Also, if you have any questions that I failed to address here, please hit up the Comments section of this blog post and I’ll do my best to answer them there.

While we will be accepting entries throughout the contest period via email (address appears below), we will also be accepting them at this year’s Summer Komikon (April 13 at the Bayanihan Center on Pioneer St).

Just come up to me--you should find me at either the Visprint or Alamat tables--say “Hi,” and submit your entries to me.

If you can’t make it to Summer Kon (or would be too hard-pressed to complete your entries in the time left), then email your submissions to bakemono68@yahoo.co.uk (Subject Heading: SEROKS CONTEST) on or before April 27, 2013, and you’ll get an email acknowledging receipt of your entry.

Afterwards, you’ll only receive another email should your entry be chosen as the winner.

(And keep in mind, that’s dot-co-dot-uk, not dot-com, lest your entries end up in someone else’s bewildered and befuddled Inbox.)

Please include the following information: Name; Age; Address (Real World and Email); Contact Number (Landline and Mobile); plus, any links to online galleries of your art (if you have any, like a deviantart page).

Hurm. I think that should be all for now.

Again, if you’ve got a very specific and particular image in your head as to how Iteration 1’s Paladins look, then send that image in.

We’d love to see it.

Best of luck to all the entrants, and for those of you who’ll be dropping by, see you at the Summer Kon!

you can’t drink just six,

Dave

PARANORMAN

(August 2012)

"Oh, man, that [old graveyard] is baaad news. It’s like, total slasher movie vibe. Why’d [Norman] go up there?”

Laika, the studio owned by Nike co-founder and Chairman Phil Knight and run by his son, Travis, brought us Henry Selick’s excellent adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline in 2009.

Coraline was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film at the 2010 Oscars* and now, Laika’s second stop-motion feature, Paranorman, is also an Oscar nominee in the same category.

Not a bad Oscar batting average, if I may say so myself.

Written by Chris Butler (who worked on storyboards for Coraline and Corpse Bride), and co-directed by Butler with Sam Fell (director of Flushed Away and The Tale of Despereaux), Paranorman is a crazy-awesome ride that horror fans should get a massive kick out of.

“It’s not supposed to be [historically accurate]! It’s supposed to sell postcards and key chains.”

Norman Babcock (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is the town freak, which is bad enough.

But when you live in a town like Blithe Hollow (“A Great Place to Hang!”), where a tragic death that happened centuries ago has become the core of its economy and tourism, and you’re someone who can actually see and speak with the dead, then it’s so.

Much.

Worse.

Blithe Hollow is a town with establishments like The Lucky Witch Casino, Trick or Trim, Hung and Dried, and Witchy Wieners, and whose denizens, sadly, look strangely at the weird kid.

And it’s a town that Norman reluctantly finds himself needing to save when the fit hits the shan.

“Son! Step away from the zombies!”

With a brilliantly stylized, off-kilter look to its world and characters and a great voice cast which includes John Goodman, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Casey Affleck, Paranorman is a funny and touching tale that is a warm, heartfelt love letter to horror fans and misfits everywhere.   

Thanx, Laika. Seriously.

This is putting all that Nike cash to awesome use.

“Perfect. Now the geeks are in charge.”

* Coraline was up against Wes Anderson’s brilliant Fantastic Mr. Fox, among others, but the 2010 Best Animated Feature Film Oscar was ultimately brought home by Pixar’s Up.

(Paranorman OS’ courtesy of impawards.com.)

¡Qué horror! 2013

Candidate #7

JOHN DIES AT THE END

(January 2012)

It’s been awhile since Don Coscarelli’s Masters of Horror episode, “Incident On and Off a Mountain Road,” but he’s back now with the wildest and most gonzo ¡Qué horror!  2013 Candidate thus far: his adaptation of Jason Pargin’s John Dies at the End.

There’s a whole lotta crawesome weird shit here, yo! And any attempt on my part to give you a taste of this film’s strangeness would just be counter-productive.

Let’s just say if you love bizarro cinema, you should check this out.

Not to mention that the supporting cast ain’t nothin’ to sneeze at either: Paul Giamatti (who doubles down as Executive Producer), Clancy Brown (Best. Luthor. Voice. Ever.), The Tall Man himself, Angus Scrimm (as Father Shellnut!), and Doug Jones.

Oh, and Bark Lee, too!

Before this, I already loved Coscarelli for A) scaring the crap out of the 11-year old me with Phantasm, and then B) giving us the tough yet sensitive, animal-loving barbarian who is The Beastmaster.

And now, he’s given me John Dies at the End.

Brilliant!

Don’t forget: The Soy Sauce chooses you.

(John Dies at the End OS’ courtesy of impawards.com.)

¡Qué horror! 2013

Candidate #6

ANTIVIRAL

(May 2012)

Welcome to the nation’s exclusive provider of A-list celebrity biomodification experiences. Enhance your life with a deeply chemical connection — like no other. Uncover a new relationship with your special someone today.

--from The Lucas Clinic website

Celebrity worship descends into madness in Brandon Cronenberg’s feature debut, Antiviral, where we are introduced to a world where--among other things--fans achieve “biological communion” with their idols by paying to be infected with viruses harvested from their famous bodies (for which the “celebrity hosts” are in turn paid by establishments like The Lucas Clinic).

“Mr. Lucas, how do you respond to critics who say the disease you’re really selling is a cultural one?”

--Talk Show Host

Antiviral (some of whose roots lie in the award-winning 2008 short film, Broken Tulips) is an astoundingly self-assured debut by Cronenberg, who possibly knows a thing or two about celebrity, being the son of David Cronenberg.

Like Jennifer Lynch, Brandon Cronenberg is the talented offspring of a noted writer/director who has gone on to follow in Father’s footsteps, and old school body horror Cronenberg can most definitely be seen in Antiviral.

There are also shades of Videodrome here, as a not-really-sympathetic protagonist gets sucked into shadowy and potentially lethal maneuverings.

“I’m afraid you’ve become involved in something sinister.”

--Dr. Abendroth

Caleb Landry Jones (who may be familiar from Daniel Stamm’s The Last Exorcism and Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class) brings just the right level of pale, sickly creepiness to the role of Lucas Clinic Technician Syd March, the aforementioned not-really-sympathetic protagonist, whose dealings with celebrity host Hannah Geist (Sarah Gadon, who also appears in the elder Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method and Cosmopolis, as well as Mary Harron’s The Moth Diaries) trigger the dire situations he finds himself in over the course of Antiviral’s running time.

We’ve also got the exquisite Malcolm McDowell here as Geist’s personal physician, Dr. Abendroth, as well as some other Cronenbergs in the film’s crew (Brandon’s aunt, Denise Cronenberg, and his sister, Caitlin).

The range of [viral] offerings [from The Lucas Clinic] spans common skin infections and colds, to our more intense and lengthy experiences with communicable and rare forms of acute disease.

--from The Lucas Clinic website

This is powerful stuff (some may very well say revolting and repellent), as Cronenberg runs his cinematic scalpel deep into society’s celebrity obsessions and how our very own fixations and fascinations make us complicit in the widespread sickness that riddles the body cultural.

And yes, like old school David Cronenberg, this is transformative and transgressive cinema, so you have been duly warned.

“Celebrity is not an accomplishment. Not at all. It’s more like a collaboration that we choose to take part in. Celebrities are not people. They’re group hallucinations.”

--Dorian Lucas

(Antiviral OS courtesy of impawards.com.)

BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO

(June 2012)

"It's like putting tracing paper over the horror movie, taking its highs and lows and getting the same response from the audience without actually showing anything horrific.”

-- Peter Strickland

Writer/director Peter Strickland’s second feature, Berberian Sound Studio is one of those titles whose “horror” status some may question, so I’m mentioning it here, outside of the ¡Qué horror!  crush.

In it, we’re transported to Italy, 1976, where Toby Jones plays British sound engineer Gilderoy, who’s been hired to work on Il Vortice Equestre (The Equestrian Vortex), what turns out to be a lurid giallo chockfull of torture and violence, which we quickly discover, is not quite Gilderoy’s cup of tea.

“Horror was the starting point but I would never call it a horror in a million years. I guess the rule was to bounce off that genre – to immediately say, no blood, no murder – but still make it scary. What was exciting about that genre was it has its own history, rules and regulations that you can manipulate and mess around with. There’s something very gratifying in taking a template and turning it into something very personal.”

-- Peter Strickland

Not only does the film, A) send a knowing nod to the heyday of giallo, and B) give a behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of old school analogue sound recording (and by extension, display just how vital sound design is to the entire cinematic experience), but also, C) manage to do the job many a full-on contemporary horror movie fails to pull off--build a sense of true disquiet and dread.

And what are some of the weapons Strickland has in his arsenal to achieve said sense? Vegetables, homesickness, difficulties in the work environment, and Jones’ fine performance.

Tellingly, we are never shown a single frame of Il Vortice Equestre, save for its brilliant opening credits (courtesy of Julian House). We’re left to imagine what atrocities Gilderoy is forced to view in order to do his job, the sound of vegetables being shredded and stabbed, and the putrescent texture of their decaying remains exquisitely heightening our fevered imaginings.

Berberian Sound Studio is an enigmatic experience that proves that tone is such a crucial element of the horror genre and can succeed in disturbing an audience far more effectively than gallons of fake blood and gore.

“Genre is a starting point for me, that is my personal taste. I love to screw around with it. Of course, there were many giallo references, but it's more about people making giallo, rather than becoming so itself. We pay lip service now and again in the way we use certain shots, certain zooms, but we wanted to depart from it too. It was the bombastic, rock and roll element that drew me. I mean, I don't see Argento's Suspiria as cinema: it's more like psychedelia to me. I'm not interested in showing horror. But I am interested in the effects of it. Berberian Sound Studio is a meditation on sound as much as it is a meditation on violence.”

-- Peter Strickland

Parting Shot: Berberian Sound Studio took home the following awards from 2012’s BIFAs: Best Director; Best Actor (for Toby Jones); Best Technical Achievement – Sound Design (Joakim Sundström and Stevie Haywood); and Best Achievement in Production.

The film was also nominated for Best Screenplay; Best Technical Achievement – Cinematographer (Nic Knowland); and Best British Independent Film (the award for which was ultimately taken home by Rufus Norris’ Broken).

(Berberian Sound Studio UK quad courtesy of impawards.com.)

PIMP MY STUFF
SEROKS Iteration 1: Mirror Man
 
And now, copies of SEROKS Iteration 1: Mirror Man have been spotted at National Book Store, Greenbelt.
I can only assume that it's also to be found (or soon to be found) in other NBS branches across this great land of ours as well. And again, if you don't see it on the shelves, then please, ask for it.

SEROKS Iteration 1: Mirror Man, from Visprint, is a collection of linked short stories all set in a dystopic future world where everything can be pirated, even people, a world first seen in my Palanca-honored SF short story, "Kaming Mga Seroks."

It's got illustrations by the mighty fine Alan Navarra, and, as can be construed from the full title, it's also the first in a series of SEROKS collections.

For those who are interested in reading the original Palanca awarded short story, it can be found online here, at the mighty fine InterNova, run by the mighty fine Michael Iwoleit. (Look! Downloadable as a PDF!)

PIMP MY STUFF
SEROKS Iteration 1: Mirror Man
 
I've just received some intel indicating that copies of SEROKS Iteration 1: Mirror Man have been spotted at Fully Booked.
I can only assume that it's also to be found (or soon to be found) in other bookstores across this great land of ours as well. And if you don't see it on the shelves, then please, ask for it.
That's SEROKS Iteration 1: Mirror Man, from Visprint.
It's a collection of linked short stories all set in a dystopic future world where everything can be pirated, even people, a world first seen in my Palanca-honored SF short story, "Kaming Mga Seroks."

It's got illustrations by the mighty fine Alan Navarra, and, as can be construed from the full title, it's also the first in a series of SEROKS collections.

For those who are interested in reading the original Palanca awarded short story, it can be found online here, at the mighty fine InterNova, run by the mighty fine Michael Iwoleit. (Look! Downloadable as a PDF!)