Last week I went to the 2009 Bristol Comic Convention and got another twenty-four sketches for my collection. I've added them to the archive and it's great to see quite a few from previous artists. One of the reasons I started the hobby of collecting sketches was so that I could have more than one from each artist to show a wide variety of work.

 

Since Christmas, I've been doing a lot of development work for Dinamo, helping to put together pitches for a couple of animation projects that came in one after the other. It's been good to do a mix of our own development work and service work, although it's frustrating that the excellent designs and animation that were put together have to remain hidden under non-disclosure agreements. I've also started on the next series of Grandpa in my Pocket, which will begin shooting in late July. The scripts have been trickling through the past few weeks and I've reviewed them all for the necessary vfx information. There'll be more challenging shots this time round and we're keen to do more moving shots and complex comps. I've always been critical of shows that fix the camera every time a vfx shot appears and I think it would be great to show that even a children's show can feature vfx that match seamlessly with the live action. Although we have to be more... efficient this time around, that's no reason not to rise to the challenge.

 

In other comic-related news, I went to London a few weeks ago to get an advance copy of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: 1910 signed by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill. I spent three and a half hours on the train there and back, two and a half hours in the blazing sun and god knows how much on food just to spend a couple of minutes getting my books signed. Am I getting a little obsessed with this comics thing? Still, it's good to have a hobby!

 

On the movie radar this month are Star Trek, which I enjoyed very much, Wolverine, which I would gladly take up drink to erase the memories, and Angels and Demon, which I also enjoyed for what it was. I've been seeing plenty of older films on Blu-ray, such as the much under-rated Speed Racer, and Wanted, which certainly wasn't. Mad Men has been my series of choice, followed by The Mentalist and the finale of The Wire. I've long come round to the thinking that TV is now the superior artform to film. Although film has the budget for big spectacle, the length and depth of a TV series gives far more pleasure and better developed characters. That said, I wouldn't pass up the chance of making a film if it gave me the opportunity to make something that could measure up to the complexity of The Wire. Perhaps I'll get a chance to make The Player of Games one day.