Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie is shaping up to be an interesting mix of “Ewwwww!’s” as well as “Awwwww’s.”

His latest stop-motion gothic-fest (rendered in 1950s-style black-and-white as well as 3-D) tells the story of a little boy named Victor, who loves his pet dog Sparky more than anything in the world. Naturally — or rather, unnaturally — Victor decides to use his science kit to bring the pup back from the grave after an accident claims the pooch’s life.

As with Mary Shelley’s original 1818 tale of men playing god and science run amok, pandemonium follows the creation of the “monster,” who in this case is just a stitched-up, resurrected undead buddy.

Many know that Burton lost his job as an artist at The Walt Disney Co. for making this dark comedy as a live-action short in 1984, but few know the true story from Burton’s past that inspired it. As Halloween approaches, EW reveals that long-ago tale, along with first-look stills from the movie.

Well, I think I am looking very forward to this movie!

TORONTO DRAWS TINTIN is a month long art show at Steamwhistle Brewery’s gallery space, with an exciting opening-night party on Wednesday November 2^nd. The show will hang for the month of November, and then close out with a a jam-packed celebration of comics, illustration, and art on Sunday November 27^th! First, join French creator Stanislas as he travels from Paris to Toronto for the official English-language launch of The Adventures of Herge, the graphic novel biography of the Tintin creator from Drawn & Quarterly. Peter Birkemoe, owner of The Beguiling, will direct an informative Q&A with Stanislas about this exciting work. All proceeds from the event will go to support the Canadian Comic Legends Legal Defense Fund, an organization fighting against censorship and for the rights of Canadian comics readers, artists, and publishers. For more information please visit http://www.clldf.ca/.

More information on the events will go live at http://torontodrawstintin/ in the coming days, and the site will also include previews of pieces that will be available for auction, a list of participating artists, and much more. This event is sponsored by The Beguiling Books & Art, Steamwhistle Brewery, and the French Consulate in Toronto.

What a great way to start the school year. Comics were some of the first things I started reading and also a big reason why I got into art and drawing.

You can check their awesome site here.

Little Island Comics is the first kids comic book store in North America–maybe even the world! Owned and operated by international comics institution The Beguiling–celebrating their 25th Anniversary in 2012–the store features thousands of comics, graphic novels and manga, and a great lineup of programming and events with kids comic and book authors from around the world!

Little Island Comics
742 Bathurst Street
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M5S 2R6
Phone: 416-901-7489
E-mail: mail@littleislandcomics.com

Great song, great art. Very nice work Mr. Kolb!

For $200, all I am going to say is, sold! I’ll leave the rest to Wacom’s marketing:

The Inkling digital sketch pen captures a digital likeness of your work while you sketch with its ballpoint tip on any sketchbook or standard piece of paper. Designed for rough concepting and creative brainstorming, Inkling is ideal for the front end of the creative process. Later, refine your work on your computer using an Intuos4 tablet or Cintiq interactive pen display.

In addition to capturing your sketch, stroke by stroke, Inkling allows you to create layers in digital files while you sketch on paper. Digital files are transferred to your computer using the Inkling Sketch Manager software, and later, exported to applications such as Adobe® Photoshop® and Illustrator®. Files can also be opened with the included Inkling Sketch Manager software to edit, delete, add layers or change file formats.

FanExpo was a bit of a cluster fuck last year. Super long lines and way too small a space but this year promises to be different. They are now in the south building of the convention centre which is much bigger and they seem more prepared for the onslaught of people.

I went on Thursday and was impressed. I mostly go for Artist Alley but there were a ton of interesting things. I have a weekend pass so I will be going Friday, Saturday and Sunday too. Must remember not to spend too much money!

Here we go. Sunday is the first game of the 2011/2012 season for AS Roma. I’m not going to mention any new players, coaches or owners in this post. I almost feel like mentioning ANYTHING about Roma is just going to jinx the season. I can’t handle another season like the last one. Just can’t.

FORZA ROMA!

Now we have this beauty. According to a USA Today opinion piece from Eagles drummer and singer Don Henley, blocking and banning any site that breaks copyright laws (in this case, illegally downloading Henley songs) from Google and credit card payments is something that should be supported… and if you don’t supported, well you are either a terrorist or a criminal yourself.  He is referring to the PROTECT IP Act.

Critics of this pending legislation need to be honest about the company they keep and why they essentially aid and abet these criminal endeavors. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a civil liberties group, claims such a bill would “break the Internet,” while Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt says it sets “a disastrous precedent” for freedom of speech. No one has the freedom to commit or abet crimes on the Internet. Stopping crime on the Internet is not, as EFF says, “censorship.” There is no First Amendment right to infringe intellectual property rights.

Luckily, EFF ( Electronic Frontier Foundation) board member Brad Templeton (yes, brother of famous Canadian comic artist/writer Ty Templeton, whom I mention often in this blog) wrote an amusing response to Don Henley:

Take it Easy, Don. There’s a New Kid in Town, and it’s called the Internet. Get Over It. I Can’t Tell you Why, but in The Long Run, there isn’t going to be a Heartache Tonight. One of these Nights I hope you’ll you understand that for search engines to Take it To the Limit, they can’t be forced to police every search result.

Internet companies only grow when living Life in the Fast Lane, able to operate, innovate and design products without needing to check for permission from the music industry. If every time you wrote a song you had to worry about what every user who plays it and every store that sells it might do with it, you would lose your Peaceful, Easy Feeling quickly. Big companies might run filters, but if the small ones had needed to they would be Already Gone.

When will the music industry learn?