Career Day at Kaumana Elementary School

Today I went to my sons' class and did a small presentation for the kindergarteners. I must say that was so much fun. The reaction from the kids just make all this stuff worth it. I started off by talking a little about some of the projects that I did. The teachers Mrs. Michaud and Mrs. Kosaki were very nice, and they helped me set up a small projector to see the finished stuff I did which isn't big enough for the kids to see from where they were sitting. There were 2 other ladies there, probably teachers aides but they were nice too. After I talked a bit they asked me to draw a picture for them. I saw a bunch of markers on the dry erase board and immediately the 2 that jump out at me is the green and purple so I figure I'll draw the Incredible Hulk for them. It turned out... well?... very elementary appropriate especially since the purpl came out looking more pink than purple and the markers were running dry and I didn't want to use all their ink and it looked like it was done by a 7 year old, but the kids loved it. At the end I gave them all business cards which my wife made for me last year that had a picture I drew. They loved that too.

Coming from Hilo, something like this is pretty much out of left field, but to have this as an option for kids to aim for is to me pretty awesome. See I grew up having people telling me to stop drawing. Get your head out the clouds. All that stuff. And I actually did listen for a while. Until a twist of fate left me in bed for almost a year. A major car accident left me with a broken spine, not knowing if I'd be able to walk- let alone work. So I started drawing again. And long story short here I am. I wish I never stopped. To get to where I am now, even to get to where I want to be- I have to keep drawing. I had to draw myself here, and to progress I have to keep on drawing. Which I love to do so it's not like it's a terrible challenge. But trust me when I say this- it is a challenge. Life gets in the way. Bills need to get paid, family needs time to be family. And in the beginning the drawing had to take a backseat to all priorities, until it worked its way up that list.

Mrs. Michaud asked me if I had any tips and because I had little time so my best advice would be to keep drawing and draw what you like to draw. It's that love and interest that will push you to improve- to get better. If your drawing something you're not into then it feels like work and you'll burn out. But doing it because it's fun will create repetition. And after mastering one thing you'll want to add to it. That will spring new things. So the first part is just getting to a place where you are comfortable doing it all the time. Everything else comes after that. But this applies to not just drawing comics- whatever you want to do creatively almost always starts from drawing. People become painters, inkers, design artists, fashion designers, colorists, illustraters, all types of careers spring out from one thing- the love of drawing.

My son is the perfect example. He can stay at his art table for hours- literally. He draws on the kitchen table and most times we have to make him clean it up so we can eat. Last week for spring break they (my 3 kids) went with my in-laws (in Honolulu) who wanted to take them out. My son insisted on staying home(and by home I mean my in-laws house for spring break) so he could draw, or spend some quality time with his art table. I try to nourish that as much as possible. Had my parents known what I do now I'd probably be way ahead of where I am now. It's not that they didn't support me, they did. They just didn't know "how" or "why" this stuff was so important. With the right kind of support so many doors can be opened. If I can I'll open every door for "all" our kids here in Hilo. Sky is the limit. And they're gonna open even more doors for the generations after them.

Oriental heroes

Still thinking about that Dragon Tiger Gate. I had to draw something for it. The first comic book I ever bought was Oriental Heroes #5. The cover just blew me away. I had never seen anything like it before. Where American comics were using inks and press colors, Jademan was doing effects like airbrushes, dynamic colors over straight pencils-without inks on the covers. This was the attention grabber. I had to know what these characters were doing. And lo and behold they were fighting! Yes! My kind of book.

Oriental Heroes was the American version of Dragon Tiger Gate- a long running popular chinese kung fu comic. You could tell it was made in the 70's because of the style of clothes and cars and stuff. But since it was already published the American version was 2 of their issues condensed into one. Which made it a longer read at 64 pages. All of their titles at this time were doing that- Oriental Heroes, The Force of Buddhas Palm, Drunken Fist (these were drawn by Tony Wong) and Blood Sword (by the amazing Ma Wing Shing). Blood Sword Dynasty was 32 pages. But I think that was running at the same time as it was in China. Or sometime later since Blood Sword was the story about Hero, and Blood Sword Dynasty was the story about his son- Kim Hung.

Anyways here's picture of Tiger Wong- kicking, Gold Dragon (or Turbo Shek) with the scar on his face, Guy- monk dude, Red Whale- big guy with mohawk and beard, Jaws-other guy with mohawk, Fiery Fox- lower right corner, Jupiter- dude with headband at top, and Foufth Dragon Commander- next to Jupiter.

This may be a bit apremature but I feel the need to post this.

Coming soon.

Well not that soon. I got a shit loald of stuff to do. Like practice inking.

Bucky Cap. I think the costume is wrong but oh well. It's the markers that I had fun with.

Ok I did this before I moved to my new place. I can't wait to set up shop here. This is Lion-o from the Thunder Cats. Still learning the basics in photoshop so it's still coming slowly.

Dragon Tiger Gate

Ok I just saw this movie and I wanted to talk about it.

These are the things I lied about the movie;

The action is great. Donnie Yen does an awesome job with the fight choreography and the wire work in most sequences look good. Except for a few instances where it looks clumsy, but I have yet to see a martial arts movie that doesn't overdo the wire work.

There are little details for the fanboys of Oriental Heroes that they put into the movie. One of my favorites is the Gang of Four having face time- Baldy, One-Eyed Draco, 4-Eyed Ming, and Heartbreak Kid. Tony Wong even has a cameo in the movie. I was looking for Guy but unfortunately he wasn't in there.

The actors do a great job bringing these characters to life. NIcholas Tse plays Tiger Wong, Donnie Yen plays Dragon Wong, and Shawn Yue plays Turbo Shek (or Gold Dragon).

I was really impressed at Nicholas Tse's performance as Tiger Wong. He really brought the spirit of what makes Tiger Wong unique in the comics to the movie.

Shawn Yue really played up the likability and playfulness I remember from Gold Dragons character or Turbo Shek. I even heard that both he and Nicholas weren't true martial artists at the time but were trained by Donnie Yen for this movie. I wouldn't know the difference if not for the commentary.

And Donnie Yen plays Dragon Wong. I have nothing to compare that to so I really wouldn't know from a comics perspective if it's acurate or not but he really takes over the movie as the main character, I'll get to this later.

This is what I didn't like.

The story was, well? not badly written but they could have done better.

First of all they're making a movie that has created a huge fanbase from the comics and they should have given the audience what they wanted. The main characters of the comics are Tiger Wong and Gold Dragon. Here they put the emphasis on Dragon Wong, a character who dies early on in the series. The plus side to this is that now that they've got this out the gate it's a perfect set up for a sequel which I hope they'll make and this time get it right. This is what I'd do. I'd hire Donnie Yen as the choreographer and give him a cameo in the beginning as he dies setting up the story for Tiger Wong and Gold Dragon to take down the Lousha Gang (Global Cult). He could have the gnarliest death scene ever. This would bring out the acting chops for Nicholas Tse and Shawn Yue.

The next thing I didn't like was the writting didn't do much for the climax and conclusion of the story. It doesn't do a good job of building up their bad guys. There's a disconnect when Shibumi shows up. He's not developed enough. They give too much time to Tiger and Dragon Wongs relationship. They should have invested more time into making Shibumi dispicable and vial so when the ending battle takes place the audience wants him to be beaten.

The story starts off great with 2 back to back action scenes that rock, but after that the story kind of stalls in places. It gets choppy and the pacing suffers because of it. There's a long draggy area between the beginning and the ending with some cool things in between, but I think they could have paced it better just for balance. I think it's an asian thing but the emotional scenes are really heavy handed. I know it's the same for American movies as well and they serve to connect us to the characters, but here there's just way too many flashback scenes for Tiger and Dragon Wong. Then there's some flashback scenes with Dragon Wong and his girlfriend when they're young too. I see no reason why they had to do that, Dragon has so much screen time and Donnie Yen (to me) does so much with so little. His expressions, his mannerisms suggest so much more than bares saying. Being that he's a martial arts actor I usually don't take him for a serious actor but here he does a great job conveying things without saying them.

There's really no reason to care for ( or remember) the story. I mean there's the whole plaque deal, the gangs and anyone who knows anything about the comics will know that the gangs play a huge role in the story, and then the Gate. But the main point to the story is weakened because Dragon clearly looks and feels out of place in the gangs, so does Kun and his daughter. Here you have 3 good people on the wrong side of the fence. They're given a plaque to continue working with the Lousha Gang who's the top mafia style gang. Our heroes take the plaque, Dragon gets it back and Kun gives the plaque back to the Lousha Gang after having a change of heart. Why the hell is this interesting to us? Who cares just get to the fighting.

With that said though, this story is probably a hundred times better than the comics that would introduce new characters just because and they'd fight on and on and on with no resolution for long periods of time. I wonder if Tiger Wong and Chan Ou Wan ever fight, Does he get his revenge? Or is it like the rabbit and Lucky Charms- if we give him what he wants there's no reason to keep going on with the story. I don't know the American version Oriental Heroes cuts off at issue 55 and just leaves us hanging.

I still loved it. Tiger Wong and Gold Dragon on the big screen with todays technology and level of development. If you're a fan of the series you gotta watch it. Or if you're a kung fu movie fan it's a decent movie. Hopefully the creators will make a sequel that will give the fans who have been faithful to the books what they want- Tiger Wong and Gold Dragon front and center. Bring in Guy, White Sect, Red Sect- Jaws, Red Whale, Fiery Fox, Skeleton Secretary, and Chan Ou Wan and we're in business.

My computer is down and I'm so pissed. Nothing to show because all my stuff runs off the damn computer.