Friday, April 29, 2011

TORCHWOOD: MIRACLE DAY

Non-spoilery-type images from TORCHWOOD: MIRACLE DAY.





It premieres sometime this summer! I'm very excited!


I've been here and there. I've drawn a lot of pictures. I've written a bit, too. I'm not good at this self-promotion thing. Look, you want to know about me? just visit these websites. Okay?
www.mdjacksonart.weebly.com
http://mdjackson.deviantart.com
http://community.imaginefx.com/fxpose/mdjacksons%5Fportfolio

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

SWORDS OF FIRE AT AMAZON.COM!



Rage Machine Books anthology SWORDS OF FIRE will soon be available at Amazon.com! Look for it!

I've been here and there. I've drawn a lot of pictures. I've written a bit, too. I'm not good at this self-promotion thing. Look, you want to know about me? just visit these websites. Okay?
www.mdjacksonart.weebly.com
http://mdjackson.deviantart.com
http://community.imaginefx.com/fxpose/mdjacksons%5Fportfolio

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

THIS IS JUST ONE OF THE REASONS THAT SYFY SUCKS:




I haven't the words to describe the dread I feel about this...


I've been here and there. I've drawn a lot of pictures. I've written a bit, too. I'm not good at this self-promotion thing. Look, you want to know about me? just visit these websites. Okay?
www.mdjacksonart.weebly.com
http://mdjackson.deviantart.com
http://community.imaginefx.com/fxpose/mdjacksons%5Fportfolio

DARK WORLDS 6 SNEAK PEEK!

We're working to put together issue #6 of Dark Worlds as we speak. We have some great stories, particularly our lead story THE MORNING EDGE OF IRON by Everette Bell.


Here are a few previews of illustrations for that story:








I've been here and there. I've drawn a lot of pictures. I've written a bit, too. I'm not good at this self-promotion thing. Look, you want to know about me? just visit these websites. Okay?
www.mdjacksonart.weebly.com
http://mdjackson.deviantart.com
http://community.imaginefx.com/fxpose/mdjacksons%5Fportfolio

Monday, April 25, 2011

HAVE WE DONE JIM THE FISH?



DOCTOR WHO has been a British institution since the 1960's. Across the pond (especially in Canada) and around the world there was always a small core of fans that followed the show as well. Americans, for the most part, have always been rather cool on Doctor Who. It was always regarded as a "cult thing". Then it went away.

When it came back many more Americans began to sit up and take notice. Like a girl who goes away and then returns, blossomed into a great beauty that suddenly catches all the boys' eyes, Doctor Who came back and America began courting.

Now Doctor Who seems to have become receptive to America's advances. From Daleks in Manhatton (small bits of which were filmed in America) to The Impossible Astronaut which saw the main cast travel to Utah for extensive location filming, Doctor Who has fully embraced America.

Which leaves those of us who have been watching from the early days, Doctor Who's former suiters, standing around holding withered flowers, having been passed over for the captain of the football team. And we wonder, is our girl dressing differently for her new beau? Has she changed her style? Is she pandering to his tastes? Is she giggling overmuch and acting the coquette? Is she widening her eyes and playing the dumb blonde for her flashy new suitor with lots of cash?

In other words, is Doctor Who changing to try to appeal to the American Market?

The first episode of the new season seems to be heading in that direction, from the frenetic, action packed beginning to the ubiquitously American setting, the gushing emotions, even a little recap at the beginning to catch new viewers up to speed.

It's hard for me to watch Doctor Who tart itself up and dumb itself down to appeal to the new suitor. I stand here with my wilted flowers and my soggy jelly babies and my moth-eaten scarf and battered hat and I can't help feeling passed by.

Maybe this will just be a flavour of the week? A passing fancy? Will Doctor Who take back its mantle of Britishness that made me love it in the first place? Or will this new look, stetsons, jeans, and the American Flag be its new clarion call?

I guess, just like everybody else, I'll just have to wait until next week to see.

After all, ther's always Jim the Fish to look forward to.



I've been here and there. I've drawn a lot of pictures. I've written a bit, too. I'm not good at this self-promotion thing. Look, you want to know about me? just visit these websites. Okay?
www.mdjacksonart.weebly.com
http://mdjackson.deviantart.com
http://community.imaginefx.com/fxpose/mdjacksons%5Fportfolio

MONDAY MISCELLANEA - APRIL 25

A NOTE BEFORE WE BEGIN: My cold is pretty much gone now. It went from my head to my chest and when you have a big barrel chest like I do that can be as noisy and violent as a storm at sea. I thought I'd coughed up a lung at one point.

So it's back to our regularly scheduled programming for now, but there are some changes coming to my blog world fairly soon. I will detail them later when I have a firmer grasp of what's what.

So here we go, random pictures from my image morgue:
















I've been here and there. I've drawn a lot of pictures. I've written a bit, too. I'm not good at this self-promotion thing. Look, you want to know about me? just visit these websites. Okay?
www.mdjacksonart.weebly.com
http://mdjackson.deviantart.com
http://community.imaginefx.com/fxpose/mdjacksons%5Fportfolio

Friday, April 22, 2011

I LOVE THE SPACE CHANNEL


SPACE: The Imagination Station is the Canadian equivalent of the Syfy channel. Now, when I say "equivalent", what I really mean is that SPACE is the superior. What they do not have in $$$ they more than make up for in getting things right.

I'm home today with a terrible cold. I had to leave work early yesterday and today I'm spending most of the day in bed. I have kleenex and I have tea and a lot of over the counter medication.

Fortunately the SPACE channel is showing an Easter marathon of Doctor Who episodes, leading up to the premier of the new season tomorrow.


So, as long as I'm laid up, I might as well enjoy watching one of my favourite shows all day long. Thank you, SPACE!

I've been here and there. I've drawn a lot of pictures. I've written a bit, too. I'm not good at this self-promotion thing. Look, you want to know about me? just visit these websites. Okay?
www.mdjacksonart.weebly.com
http://mdjackson.deviantart.com
http://community.imaginefx.com/fxpose/mdjacksons%5Fportfolio

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

NAZI LOVE SLAVES!

...and other great pulp cover art.





















My thanks to Quicky over at Illustrateurs. I shamelessly swiped all these images from him. He has more, though, Check him out!


I've been here and there. I've drawn a lot of pictures. I've written a bit, too. I'm not good at this self-promotion thing. Look, you want to know about me? just visit these websites. Okay?
www.mdjacksonart.weebly.com
http://mdjackson.deviantart.com
http://community.imaginefx.com/fxpose/mdjacksons%5Fportfolio

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

ELISABETH SLADEN - 1948-2011






I was extremely saddened to learn about the death of Elisabeth Sladen. Sladen played Sarah Jane Smith, probably Doctor Who's most well-known and best loved companion from the early years of the series as well as in the recent spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures


She will be greatly missed


I've been here and there. I've drawn a lot of pictures. I've written a bit, too. I'm not good at this self-promotion thing. Look, you want to know about me? just visit these websites. Okay?
www.mdjacksonart.weebly.com
http://mdjackson.deviantart.com
http://community.imaginefx.com/fxpose/mdjacksons%5Fportfolio

A GAME OF THRONES





A GAME OF THRONES has been considered the Kwisatch Haderach of fantasy TV series. So many fantasy fans are looking to it and pinning their hopes on it. A lot of fantasy fans are hoping that it legitimizes fantasy as a genre, or that it somehow shows the mainstream audiences that fantasy is more than just wish fulfillment or "that crazy dragons and elves stuff". George R.R. Martin fans are looking for a kick-ass adaptation of his A Song of Fire and Ice series and Robert E. Howard fans are hoping for some crossover interest, given that one of the actors in this series, Jason Momoa, stars in the new Conan film being released this August.

I caught the first episode last night and, despite what the various camps may hope, the show is, above all, an HBO product.

It has the signature features of an HBO show -- lush, beautiful production values and a whole lotta in-your-face sex and violence.

Like HBO's landmark series, ROME, A GAME OF THRONES jumps out of the gate with all of these elements. There is a gruesome tableau of dessicated corpses (which very quickly come to life) there are two beheadings in the first fifteen minutes, one of which is thrown at you with grim and gory, blood-spurting detail.

The rest of the episode is back and forth between lush visuals, a lot of modern-day curse words and many naked breasts and bums (although in a show of remarkable restraint, they fall just shy of showing full frontal nudity).



The plot follows the GRRM novel fairly closely. It is as faithful an adaptation as one could hope for a television show. Martin should be very pleased. His work has certainly been better treated than Terry Goodkind's was with LEGEND OF THE SEEKER. As an adaptation of the novel for television, A GAME OF THRONES works very well.

As a fantasy series... well..

Fantasy is a big arena. There are almost as many types of fantasy as there are fantasy writers. This is only one type of fantasy. George R.R. Martin's Seven Kingdoms is a quasi-medievel world with a lot of Machiavellian plotting and scheming. Do fantasy fans really want this one type of fantasy to become fixed in the minds of the mainstream TV watching public? When we speak of fantasy do we want the great unwashed to nod their heads and say "Oh, yeah, I saw Game of Thrones. I know what you're talking about?



Can all the subtleties and varieties of western literature be encapsulated in LONESOME DOVE? Is the breadth of  excitement and action of comic book superheroes to be found in SMALLVILLE? Can the complexities and galaxy spanning diversity of science fiction be justly represented by BATTLESTAR GALACTICA?

Of course not, and here is the folly of pinning one's hopes of legitimacy on one TV series. Fantasy literature needs no more legitimacy than it already has. The idea that fantasy needs to be presented to a greater audience is folly. The lowest common denominator is not what fantasy fans should be striving for when they are exploring fantasy literature. Fantasy is meant to take you to surprising and wonderful places, and if it appeals to all, then that's great, but to try to shoe-horn it into a package that would be appealing to the masses is a task for MacDonald's, not George R. R, Martin or A Game of Thrones.



As a television series, based on the first episode, A GAME OF THRONES is good. There is much that is wonderful about it and much that is prosaic. I liked the title sequence. The performances are, for the most part, very good. There was not enough time in the first hour to get to know all of the characters. I would defy a watcher who has not read the book to name all five of Eddard Stark's children based on this first outing. Sean Bean was solid and likable as Eddard Stark (although a trifle more gruff than his literary counterpart). The actor playing Tyrion was very good, but again, his character has many subtleties and contradictions that could not be fully explored in one episode.

The complaints I have is that some things that should have been big and epic just seemed small and flat on the small screen. The Dothraki riders were not given the epic scope they deserved. Winterfell seemed small and claustrophobic. The modern language didn't do much to enhance the sense of being in another time or place. As with HBO's western series DEADWOOD, the modern vernacular, particularly the cursing, was jarring. It took me out of my sense of being in another time. HBO's ROME handled that aspect much much better. The language was raw but it was structured in a stylized way that fit appropriately with ancient Rome. The language of A GAME OF THRONES is prosaic and flat.

I will be watching the series and so, I suspect, will most fantasy fans. As for a wider audience I very much doubt it. I still maintain that the series will be lucky if it goes to a second season. If the first seasons covers the first book that would be nice. You'll have a nice adaptation of a first book in a series. But I don't believe there will be much more than that.

Fantasy as a literature does not need  HBO's A GAME OF THRONES, but at this point HBO needs the fantasy fans (and more) to keep tuning in order to continue.


UPDATE: This just in:
HBO announced the Game of Thrones will be picked up for a second season.
I guess I have been proved wrong. Good for fantasy fans and good for George R.R. Martin. Well done!

ve been here and there. I've drawn a lot of pictures. I've written a bit, too. I'm not good at this self-promotion thing. Look, you want to know about me? just visit these websites. Okay?
www.mdjacksonart.weebly.com
http://mdjackson.deviantart.com
http://community.imaginefx.com/fxpose/mdjacksons%5Fportfolio




Monday, April 18, 2011

SHATNER!

My wife sent this to me on my facebook:



My wife is the best. She loves me so much and knows how to appeal to the geek in me.

I've been here and there. I've drawn a lot of pictures. I've written a bit, too. I'm not good at this self-promotion thing. Look, you want to know about me? just visit these websites. Okay?
www.mdjacksonart.weebly.com
http://mdjackson.deviantart.com
http://community.imaginefx.com/fxpose/mdjacksons%5Fportfolio

MONDAY MISCELLANEA - APRIL 18, 2011

Despite waking up to 4 INCHES OF SNOW on the ground, (!) I have persevered and here present my weekly completely random collection of pictures from my image morgue.

















I've been here and there. I've drawn a lot of pictures. I've written a bit, too. I'm not good at this self-promotion thing. Look, you want to know about me? just visit these websites. Okay?
www.mdjacksonart.weebly.com
http://mdjackson.deviantart.com
http://community.imaginefx.com/fxpose/mdjacksons%5Fportfolio
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