I made this illustration in Photoshop using a Wacom tablet and a photograph of clouds. All images on this website retain original copyright by me, Michelle Lopes.

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Here is the website of some of my favourite comic book people, Jim Balent and Holly GoLightly. Always good to the fans, with plenty of cheesecake art (lil' bosoms need not apply!) in their titles such as Tarot (where big busted witches do right), Three Little Kittens (where big busted kitty cosplay spies kick bad guy booty), among others...how can I praise them more highly? The books they write are always campy good fun, and as addictive as chocolate. Plus, they got married in a Star Wars themed wedding - Darth Vader and Princess Leia - the ideal incestuous match! I am extremely envious; what utter fun. Apparently I (in my sweat-drenched, makeup melted, hair slicked, water retaining phase of uber bloatiness) will end up in the back of a new book 'cause Jim took a picture of me at the San Diego Comic Con - if my pursed puss hasn't been published yet already. O.K., O.K., so I need to go buy a ton of comics - I have a list, and if my pic is in one, I probably should buy it. However, I'm not sure which title it will pop up in - let me know if you (my faithful readers) find out first.

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As in intern in the art department of a 3D animated film, I am doing a lot of the following: researching material on the internet that could be used as art references, assembling documents in Adobe InDesign (a fabulous program that I wish I could afford to help my zine along!), and printing artwork out. Also, I scan and photocopy - but that's par for the art department course. What - that doesn't sound insanely fascinating and artistic?!?! Well, it is, actually. In my small, distinct little way I am shaping the film's look; which is absolutely a warm, tickly feeling in my nostrils. Ah, no, that's just the incessant allergies.

The interesting thing is that I've become so good at InDesign that projects that should (I guess) take me hours to complete take me about half an hour to an hour, leaving me a lot of spare time...hence this post. What do I do in all this heaping spare time? What is driving my soul with passion, love, and fire?

Shh, it's a secret, come in close.

I'm taking a keen interest in bookbinding.

That's right! I've just ordered some Davey book boards (supposedly some of the best quality boards from my research) on ebay, and I'm about to become a bookbinding fool! Be warned - I will probably post images of these books in the future and gabble incessantly.

Of course, I'll still work on my own animated short - but my internship has put that on hiatus, and all my computer time has lately started a craving in me to make something with my hands. I painted a couple of weeks ago, and that was satisfying, but then I ran out of canvas and I'm low on a few crucial colors (in my art world, black is a crucial paint color, despite the stern looks from teachers). I'll post a pic of my painting soon. Prepare to be astounded! You will love my art!!!

I would drink coffee right now to wake me up, but it makes me ill half the time, so I'm taking a walk around and spying on the animation work. Man, this is going to be one beautiful feature film.

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I have been immoderately absent. To rectify this, here is a brief listing of some of the utterly sweet and buzzworthy biz from this year's San Diego Comic Convention.

Pan's Labyrinth - go see it. A live action flick that resembles a grotesque fairy tale (and the sequel to Devil's Backbone) in its previews, you simply must watch it. There was a panel with the amazingly funny and likable Guillermo del Toro, whose charm and use of crass language instantly endeared him to me.

Speaking of fairy tales, you need to read Alan Moore's Lost Girls. If you didn't know, Alan Moore is one of the many gods of comic books. They recently adapted his classic V for Vendetta, but there is so much more to his repetoire, including The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and, of course, the incomparable The Watchmen. If that isn't enough, realize that Lost Girls, which is a collaborative pornographic graphic (in the future I'll just shorten that to pornoGRAPHIC novel) novel made with his fiancee Melinda Gebbie, chronicles the sexual awakenings of characters from classic fairy tales. Dear lord you need this book.

The hipster Shag spoke at a panel. I got him to sign my limited edition Disneyland bowling bag that he designed, and learned lots of fun things like: he (used to?) be a Mormon, and went on a mission to Germany; he drinks now; he's done a ton of band album covers, and joined bands in order to design even more covers; he's done covers for Rob Zombie - including Head Shrinking Fun!. Good times. He was very nice, which made me profoundly happy.

Of course I went to The Animation Show and Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation. I much preferred the former, as the later involved a voting system where shorts were voted off the Spike and Mike's DVD a la Survivor according to the volume of boos, hisses, shouts, etcetera the crowd could muster. And indeed did they muster. It made viewing the films a pain. I pity the fool who submits to them. (That may be me in the future, by the way - self-pity!). I would highly recommend you go see something Dr. Tran related, as those shorts were the only thing that made Spike and Mike's salvageable at times. Interestingly enough, I'd already seen the majority of shorts that went into this years The Animation Show, but the program is worth seeing again. The films are solid, and that's not just cuz I'm working as an intern on one of the shorts-turned-feature.

And how, pray tell, is my internship going? Wonderfully. I feel appreciated and useful, and I'm not running around picking up anyone's dry cleaning or answering phones. I am in internship nirvana.

The pic is of me with one of my fave comic book writers, Jim Balent. I'll write a whole thing just about his stuff next post.

Good night.

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