Afterlife Artist Quest XIV

Some very very last minute samples. We hope to make a final decision by tomorrow.

The first is by Juan Pablo Milito:And the next two are from Carlos Hernandez:



Whoops... and let's not forget Wenberg with another two page sample.

Republicans Hate Romney!

Republicans hate Romney. That's why McCain won the Florida primary, a vote many people (mostly referring to pollsters, pundits, and media analysts) felt he would have trouble winning because only Republicans could vote and much of the support that put McCain over the edge in New Hampshire came from independents. But even without the independent voters, McCain still won by a margin of five percent. (McCain = 36% / Romney = 31% / Giuliani = 15% (taken from the L.A. Times.))

Even crazier, McCain won at a time when Americans are reporting the economy as their number one concern and McCain recently admitted he didn't know much about the economy! (Although he quickly backpedaled on that one, Tim Russert dug out the quote and confronted McCain with his own words on last Sundays Meet the Press.) Romney, a successful businessman with a degree from Harvard Business School, who has successfully run several companies and outspent McCain -- still lost!

So why do Republicans hate Romney? Oh, let me count the ways. 1. He's a Mormon (when I think 40% of the base are Evangelicals). 2. They don't know if they can trust him since he's flip-flopped on some of their key "value" issues: abortion and gay rights, not to mention he's lied about owning a gun, exaggerated his hunting experience and flip-flopped again on (gasp) immigration. 3. They're very unsure if he can win against the Democratic nominee. 4. The other candidates hate him because he has such deep pockets and doesn't need to run around the country conducting fund raisers. 5. And finally, did I mention he's a Mormon?

Aside from the above points, however, I think there is a much more basic psychological component. McCain is soft-spoken, affable and looks like grandpa. We all know he served in the military and though, just like every politician, he's flip-flopped, lied, and switched positions over the years, he's still considered a straight shooter.

Romney, however, is the symbol of the slick, successful CEO that everyone hates. Yes, he's successful, trim, handsome, and surrounded by an adoring family, but Americans love an underdog (how else do you explain George W., one of the biggest losers in the world winning the highest office in the land) and Romney is too successful, too polished, his family too happy and his hair too shiny. In other words, he just seems fake.

Obviously, not all Republicans hate him or he wouldn't be doing as well as he is. But, generally speaking, Romney supporters probably aren't as excited or passionate about their candidate the way McCain, Clinton and Obama supporters feel about their candidate. Instead, he's kind of like Kerry was for the Democrats in 2004 -- reasonably competent, insanely rich, and they figure he can't possibly do worse than his predecessor.

Given the choice between Romney and McCain, my bet is that Republicans will eventually choose McCain. After all, how can you not like grandpa?

Afterlife Artist Quest XIII

I wanted to wait until the weekend was over to make sure everyone who wanted to submit could get their last minute work done. I think this is most likely our last entry. Regardless, we've narrowed the field down to five artists who will be notified by e-m. We'll then decide if we need to see any more work (though at this point I think we've seen enough excellent work from many talented artists) and pick a finalist no later than the end of the week. I'd like to thank everyone for submitting such fine work and I'm proud to display so many different talents on my blog.

Stay tuned...

Erin Manga provided this take of pages 16-17:




Pedro Maldonado created two pages of his own:

Afterlife Artist Quest XII

Vidonm Medina created this detailed splash:Joe Largent comes through again with an impressive looking page 16.

Afterlife Artist Quest XI

Oz Capristo submitted the following:

Collage

I told Philipp S. Neundorf that his style didn't work for the book, but that I enjoyed the sketches he did. He put them all together in this fun collage.

Afterlife Artist Quest X

Typing the heading made me realize that if I had divided the entries up more, maybe we could have reached 30 entries, or XXX. Then this blog would appear on porn searches. Imagine the surprise of some horndog clicking the link expecting naked women and instead finding the images of horror and despair from the Afterlife. Meanwhile, back to the artwork!

Joe Largent created this impressive splash:

Rich Fuscia (see entry V) put together this scene sample:

Revised page:







And another one from Nando

WGA Rant

A friend of mine who is an animation writer posted this on his blog tonight:

From the WGA today-

In order to make absolutely clear our commitment to bringing a speedy conclusion to negotiations, we have decided to withdraw our proposals on... animation.

Not surprising. Annoying, but not surprising. Even with a President who's been involved with animation writing for the past decade, the Guild still couldn't get anything done.

Not surprised. Just annoyed.

The following was my reply:

I just saw your blog "venting" about the withdrawal of animation from the list of demands. This is just so unbelievable. Is it any wonder why no one respects fucking writers in this town?! The Guild has taken it up the ass for decades and when they finally get the balls to come forward, hat in hand, asking for a tiny pittance to buy some additional coal for the winter, we get spit on, booted, and then expected to stay on the job.

Almost every news report that I've seen covering the strike focuses on the few actors who come out to support us because no one gives a shit about the writers. I actually read a comment on some idiotic forum that said (I'm paraphrasing from memory): "Screw the writers, they make too much anyway." Maybe if this asshole was talking about William Goldman or Eric Roth, but we all know that most writers are out of work most of the time.

Of course, it doesn't help that we ask for so little. No wonder the corporations have so much contempt for us. These guys are used to negotiating billion dollar deals with equally shrewd backbiting con men willing to sell lead painted toys to make an extra buck. Then some group of disheveled, bespectacled (yes, I'm stereotyping, leave me alone) schmucks come forward saying, "Hey, we'd like a few extra cents on DVD sales and a tiny pittance if something we write gets played on the internet." No wonder they scoffed. They knew they had us from the beginning. And already, we're buckling, removing a few LONG overdue cards from the table, hoping that maybe two decades hence we can ask again (by then CGI will probably be as prominent as reality programming is today and they'll just bypass the three remaining WGA members entirely).

It's time to realize that we're the architects of this town. After all, we're supposed to be "above the line" and yet I know a lot of people below the line who make more than us. Do they deserve to make their money? Of course! But we deserve to make more! Because they don't work unless we do. Casting agents can't cast, producers can't budget, actors can't act, directors can't direct and cameras cannot roll until a script is ready. Michael Bay can't stage his 800 explosions until some form of framework is written down, even if it does only take a monkey tapping on a laptop.

If anyone can hold this place hostage, it's us. So instead of asking for pennies, let's stand tall and try to negotiate for something of substance. Otherwise, we deserve to be treated as the second class citizens that they think we are.

By the way, in the interest of full disclosure, I'm not even a member of the WGA! But I know how this town works and it's ridiculous how writers are treated here.

Afterlife Artist Quest IX

Pedro Maldonado submitted the following:




Ethan Wenberg (see Afterlife Artist Quest II) worked up these two pages from the script sample:


Marco Marco sent in this one:
Gustavo Rubio did a sketch and then reinterprets three pages from the first chapter of the first volume.



Aren Manga did the following four sketches:


Juan Man. Silva did this sketch...

Afterlife Artist Quest VIII

A few artists requested a script sample (others, as you can see, came up with their own scripts!) Sarah Arai was one of those who looked over a short scene from chapter four, volume two and submitted her take on the page (we'll probably be seeing some other versions of this same scene soon). This is just the penciled version so consider it a rough draft.
This artist seems to be drawing for a different Afterlife project:
Joe Largent submitted this:
Nando created these three pics:

Afterlife Artist Quest VII

Kyle Morton created the following series of sketches and a fully grey-toned pinup.