Star Wars Chibi

I look at this image and I can't help thinking to myself: this artist has caught the complete joy I used to feel when playing Star Wars on the playground or in the backyard of my house in the backwoods of that small Ontario town.
You can find more Star Wars Chibi at http://ericmerced.posterous.com/ -- including Luke and Vader. Normally, Luke would be my favorite because to me, when I watched Star Wars, Luke was the guy I felt a connection with. He WAS me, being drawn into a strange world he didn't understand, discovering it along with me, the viewer. (This element is something that was sadly lacking from the prequel trilogy.) But I just stared at Han solo for a while as I realized what this image really was. Eric drew a perfect melding what I SAW in my mind's eye when I was running around blasting Stormtroopers and what PEOPLE SAW with their own eyes when I was running around blasting Stormtroopers!

I'm excited to see what he does next in his series . . .

I will admit some bias: Eric was hired by my publisher, Zondervan, to illustrate the final two graphic novels in my TimeFlyz series.

But that doesn't change the fact that he's awesome.

~ Ben

UPDATE, July 20: Eric just added Chewbacca . . . and it's loads of awesome.

STAR TREK trailer

The new Star Trek trailer is now up. This is the trailer that actually shows what is going to be in the movie.

I have to say, I'm liking what I see.

Watch it here.

As a Star Trek fan since I was in grade school and watching the old school Star Trek downstairs on my parent's old black and white television that made everything in the top quarter of the screen enlongated (which created some very large foreheads) . . . I've realized that Star Trek was a big part of my adolescence. While Star Wars engaged my imagination, it was Star Trek that caused my imagination to reach out an explore. When I wrote and drew my own comics in elementary school and junior high, I had a handful of superheroes that I made up and I did Star Trek stories.

When I started writing fiction, the only "fan-fiction" I wrote in junior high and high school was Star Trek. (It wasn't fan fiction back then, it was just Star Trek stories.) I didn't do that with Star Wars or Superman. I mean, I loved Star Wars and Superman . . . but for some reason, it was Star Trek that actually seemed to encourage artistic creation for me.

I find that interesting.

Anyway, I hope this movie lives up to the promise. There's a great cast, some strong writers, and the guy who gave us Lost. Already, Trek fans around the world are nitpicking the heck outta this thing . . . some claiming that this new movie has ruined their childhood, others claiming this new movie is the science fiction equivalent of the Messiah.

As someone who has always preferred "Trekkie" over "Tre

kker" . . . I'm waiting and looking forward to seeing the movie. They've been saying things about how this will be a "positive" movie, and how it will be a different kind of movie in a landscape where The Dark Knight is breaking records.

We'll see . . .

~ Ben

The new version of the U.S.S. Enterprise, from Entertainment Weekly

Comics Worth Reading -- Star Wars: Vector

Okay, so the Clone Wars movie didn't excite me much. At all. Although I hear rumors the television series is better than the movie . . .

But here's something that got me excited about Star Wars again.

It's called "Vector" and it's a miniseries that crosses over a number of different Star Wars comics from Dark Horse. The different series all take place in different time periods, and that's what initially attracted me to the story. From a purely analytical POV, I wanted to see how they went about doing it.

But I stopped reading from an analytical POV with the first issue.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic #25
Vector Part 1, written by John Jackson Miller

I looked at that first cover and I saw Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, and two dudes I'd never heard of (although I assumed one of them is Luke's ancestor, because I at least knew enough about Star Wars: Legacy, one of the titles the crossover went into, to know it was about the grandson or grand-nephew or whatever of Luke).

In this first issue, we're introduced to a bunch of characters that have been established in this series: Knights of the Old Republic, which takes place generations (I think) before the movies. But the writer does a fairly good job of introducing the characters to new readers (like me).

But what gets me excited in this issue is the opening prophetic dream that has Luke, Darth, and the new Skywalker . . . and makes it known that something terrible is going to happen.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic #26
Vector Part 2, written by John Jackson Miller

And something terrible DOES happen. It's a plague, and it has something to do with the force, and I'm not going to get into the details too much because I recommend people read the series and enjoy and experience it for themselves.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic #27
Vector Part 3, written by John Jackson Miller

Now, other than the initial prophetic dream sequence, the characters I know and love don't appear in these first three issues of this story. And that's okay. The characters who DO appear are likable, and the story itself is intriguing.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic #28
Vector Part 4, written by John Jackson Miller

The first four issues of the "Vector" story make for a great first act. I really enjoyed it. I'm curious about the further adventures of those characters, and I'm curious about earlier adventures as well. The old pocket book may not let me actually read them, but I was pretty happy/satisfied with the story. And I was ready to get into some of the characters I DO know . . .

Star Wars: Dark Times #11
Vector Part 5, written by Mick Harrison

"Dark Times" is Dark Horse's Star Wars comic series about Darth Vader, during the time between Episode III (when he is "created") and the original Star Wars movie (still can't bring myself to call it Episode IV).

Again, I don't want to give away too much of the plot, but generations have gone by and Darth finds the ancient plague . . . and some other ancient evils . . .

Star Wars: Dark Times #12
Vector Part 6, written by Mick Harrison

. . . and we get to see Darth in some good old fashioned Jedi fighting.

There's much more to it than that. Again, I don't want to give too much away. But the writers of this crossover series do a nice job of finding a natural device, that makes sense in the context of the story, to move the action (and even some characters -- again, don't want to give too much away) generations ahead in time.

But as cool as it is to see Darth in action, he's not who I was waiting for.

Star Wars: Rebellion #15
Vector Part 7, written by Rob Williams

I was a pretty big fan of the Star Wars comics when they were being published by Marvel. In those days, we didn't have a VCR, so the Star Wars comics were all I had to fuel my Star Wars excitement between movies. As a result, I did get pretty fond of and attached to the original trilogy characters. (And I still think, as I said in my Clone Wars movie review, an animated series featuring those characters would be fun, but I'm biased.)

Star Wars: Rebellion #16
Vector Part 8, written by Rob Williams

Again, a nice, natural device is used to move the story from Darth's early years to Darth's later years is utilized. And it works. Putting on my analysts hat, this is one of the better crafted crossovers I've seen, and not a lot of absurd concepts have to be put into play to make it work. The Rebellion chapters and the Dark Times chapters flow together so seamlessly, you almsot don't notice it's two different titles the story just passed through.

Getting away from looking "under the hood" as a writer, and switching over to being a reader and a fan, I'm just enjoying seeing Luke and Leia in action again.

Sadly, Luke's chapter in the story is only two issues long out of the twelve. So far, that's my only complaint about the crossover.

Star Wars: Legacy #28
Vector Part 9, written by Rob Williams

What will the future bring? That's my only concern. Like the first four chapters, which dropped me into a series revolving around characters I know nothing about, these final four chapters are about the future "Legacy" of the Skywalker family -- and again, these are characters I don't know about.

Will the story sustain itself? I don't know.

But man, I've not gotten excited about reading a new Star Wars story in a while.

Ah, but here's the difference:

With Clone Wars, it felt like they were just doing a story with the Star Wars label and expecting you to like it because it's called "Star Wars", it has lightsabers, spaceships, and explosions.

With "Vector", it feels like they're trying to tell a good story and using Star Wars characters to do it. And they succeeded.

Dark Horse, and those four writers plus whatever editors and story consultants worked on this story have done a great job. This is how a crossover should be done.

~ Ben

Nano Film review #18 & 19 -- Star Wars: The Clone Wars and WALL*E

Let's compare and contrast two science fiction CGI animated movies.

First, this:

Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Animation: pretty okay. It's stylistic, not realistic, and I've been waiting for a stylized 3D animated movie that would work. This did.

Story: pretty okay. It didn't engage me.

Characters: The "little girl" Jedi, I liked. The baby Hutt, okay. Uncle Hutt, no way. Established characters, nothing new -- which was frustrating. Since we know their futures already, it felt like there needed to be more to it. Subtext? I'm not sure. I mean, the "little girl" Jedi is going to be killed. And Anakin is going to survive the war and become evil. And the "little girl" Jedi will die because of him.

Script: I did laugh at a couple lines. I groaned about more, though.

Overall: A great big "meh". A diversion. But it's sad that Star Wars, which at one time captured my imagination and made me want to create these kind of stories, has become something so unimpressive.

WALL*E

Animation: Beautiful. Simply gorgeous.

Story: engaging, although meandering. It felt like two movies in one. Both were good, but the WALL*E story was best.

Characters: So likable. WALL*E and EVE moreso than everyone else. These are cute characters that exist in their own world and make sense and make you like them. The "stock" cute/eccentric Pixar-type characters are there as well, and they're good, although not as fun as other Pixar supporting characters.

Script: Again, beautiful. Again, I felt like I was watching two movies as the second half of the movie moved away from WALL*E to make room for a whole new cast of characters and a related but different plot. But it's totally forgivable because the characters are likable. There wouldn't have to even BE a plot, and you'd still enjoy watching these characters.

Overall: One of my favorite movies ever. If I made a list of favorite movies . . . WALL*E would be on it. Like Star Wars did years ago, WALL*E ha inspired me to create fun, engaging stories.

Two notes:

1. For a look at an energetic, engaging Star Wars: The Clone Wars, check out:

Star Wars -- Clone Wars Vol. 1
and
Star Wars -- Clone Wars Vol. 2

These collections of a handful of short animated films are fun, energetic, stylistic, and, above all, enjoyable. I love them.

2. I really wish we'd move away from the Clone Wars/Star Wars Prequel movies period of time. How awesome would it be to have Star Wars movies in this style, but featuring Luke, Han, Leia, and Chewie? The actors are still alive and while they aren't young enough to act in movies like that . . . they could do voice overs for animation!

Sorry . . . fanboy moment.

~ Ben

I know I get a tiny percentage if someone orders something from Amazon from a link I put here . . . but I'm only going to link to the movie I actually recommend . . .