S K Y L A R K I N G: October 2010

Saturday, October 30, 2010

EVERY DAY IS LIKE SUNDAY

Morrissey - Every Day Is Like Sunday
Uploaded by jpdc11. - Watch more music videos, in HD!

Back in the 1980's Morrissey could do no wrong... or so he thought. Then he left his band, The Smiths and tried a solo career. As one rock journalist put it, Morrissey went from Godhead to Dickhead in the space of a year.

Still, this song is one of my favourites. It captures that feeling of existential angst that we make fun of these days. My daughter loves this song as well. She actually caught the reference to Neville Shute's novel ON THE BEACH which went over most people's heads.

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

DRACULA LIVES!

Hey! Cruise on over to Joshua Reynold's blog and check out the first chapter of his novel DRACULA LIVES! Cover looks great, doesn't it? Wonder who did the artwork? ;) ;).

Then head on over to the Pulpwork Press website and buy a copy because it is a fabulous book!

Tell 'em M.D. sent ya.

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, October 29, 2010

WUNDER BABE

This is the third piece in my series of twisted super heroine costumes. As I've said before the idea is a prostitute trying her luck at a comic-con event. This one looks like she has found a paying client.

Corel Painter X. Five hours.

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

Thursday, October 28, 2010

SYFY CANCELS CAPRICA

Colour me unsurprised. And vindicated.

CAPRICA, for those who do not know, is the prequel series to SYFY's re-imagined Battlestar Galactica. BSG ran for four seasons and garnered a decent sized audience and a very enthusiastic fan base. Caprica has garnered neither. Despite being well reviewed by the critics, Caprica has not had the same kind of response from viewers as BSG did. And there is a good reason for that.

Ronald D. Moore, the executive producer of BSG and Caprica stated that the original reason for doing the prequel series was to try to expand the show's audience. In other words what he wanted to do was to appeal to an audience other than science fiction fans. So he wanted to keep his core audience nut also gain a wider audience of people who may have been "put off" from watching Battlestar Galactica because of the name or the spaceships or the killer robots.

"Caprica however leans heavier on the kitchen sink drama than any sci-fi show ever." explained a web story at the time the series debuted. "This makes Caprica a much different animal, but from an entry point this is something beyond sci-fi and as a result a wider audience will be able to enjoy Caprica." Something "beyond" sci-fi? Yeah. Right.

This stated intention corresponded with the Sci-fi channel re-branding itself as Syfy and trying to broaden its appeal beyond the core audience. Or, as one headline put it: "Sci Fi Channel Aims to Shed Geeky Image With New Name". To further ad salt to the wound Tim Brooks, one of the founders of the sci-fi channel went on record with: “The name Sci Fi has been associated with geeks and dysfunctional, antisocial boys in their basements with video games and stuff like that, as opposed to the general public and the female audience in particular.”

Way to alienate your core audience. And to seriously misjudge and mischaracterize a growing female science fiction audience.

Of course the whole thing was wrongheaded from the beginning and Caprica's dwindling audience and recent cancellation only serves to underscore that fact. Most fans of science fiction television tune in to these shows specifically for the spaceships and robots and rayguns. When you make the mistake of thinking that your material is somehow "better" than the genre and try to scrub it clean of all that "silly sci-fi" stuff... well, then in my view you have made a major misjudgement.

This is one of my "hot-button topics" and it will usually get me on a rant where I will rail against authors like Margaret Atwood or Cormac MaCarthy who do not understand science fiction but feel that they can single handedly "save" the genre, pulling it out of the gutter and transforming it into something wonderful and literary, when all they end up doing is diluting it, repackaging it and missing the point along the way. Don't get me started.

This is the arrogant mistake that Ronald D. Moore made. That seems pretty obvious now with Caprica's cancellation and the fact that Syfy has given the greenlight to another Battlestar Galactica series: Adama: Blood and Chrome, which is set during the Cylon-Human war. Spaceships. Killer Robots. Ray guns. And they're going ahead without Ronald D. Moore.

But that's what happens when you consider yourself to be better than your audience and say so in public.

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, October 27, 2010

POLAR

Here is a piece of interior art for Encounters #4. It illustrates a story called POLAR.

SWIMMING WITH SHARKS

I figure it's okay to post this now that the book has come out. Here is the cover art for Encounters #4. It illustrates the issue's feature story Swimming With Sharks.

Monday, October 25, 2010

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY and DISCUSSION

My daughter went to see PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2 last night. She enjoyed it for the goofy horror movie that it was and as I drove her home from the theater she asked me: "What would you do if you had to deal with someone who was possessed by demons?"

I immediately answered "I would contact the Reverend Sean Manchester."

My daughter nodded sagely at this response because she knows very well that The traditionalist Right Reverend Seán Manchester, the Bishop of Glastonbury (bishop in the Old Catholic Church, not the Roman Catholic or Anglican Church) is an author, exorcist and demonologist. Bishop Manchester gained fame when he headed up the investigation into a string of bizarre happenings which plagued Highgate Cemetery beginning in 1967 and ending in 1982.

My daughter agreed that would be a good idea. When we got home we asked my wife what she would do. My wife rolled her eyes and said "Can we please, for once, talk about something that makes sense?"

We said no more about the subject except to agree that my wife would probably kick the demon's ass.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

ENCOUNTERS #4

The PDF edition of this magazine has just been released. I know the thumbnail is small but guess who did the artwork for the cover? You guessed it! I also did all the interior illustrations. The stories are really good especially "I Regret That I Must Eat You" by Tom Barlowe.

Pick up a copy if you can. It's well worth it. You can find out more about it here.

Or just check out this preview:

Open publication - Free publishing - More fantasy

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

THE REAL REASON I'M SAVING TO GO TO EUROPE

This fella isn't getting any younger. I'd like to see it before it's gone.

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

THIS IS WHY I PLAN TO VISIT EUROPE

Monday, October 18, 2010

BATGIRL HO!

The second in a series. My wife says these ladies look like prostitutes trying their luck at a comic-con event, which struck me as really funny. I will probably do more as I get time between assignments. They're fun. This one was done in Corel Painter X and took about four hours.

Here's the previous one.

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, October 12, 2010

JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS

You know that planet that astronomers recently discovered? Turns out it wasn't there at all.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/10/12/supposed-new-planet-20-light-years-away-has-been-undiscovered/

That's what you get for rushing the story without checking your data.

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, October 11, 2010

THANKSGIVING

Today is the Thanksgiving holiday in Canada. Why does our thanksgiving happen a full month before the same holiday in the U.S.? Well, according to twilightbridge.com:

In Canada Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday in October. Unlike the American tradition of remembering Pilgrims and settling in the New World, Canadians give thanks for a successful harvest. The harvest season falls earlier in Canada compared to the United States due to the simple fact that Canada is further north.

The history of Thanksgiving in Canada goes back to an English explorer, Martin Frobisher, who had been trying to find a northern passage to the Orient. He did not succeed but he did establish a settlement in Northern America. In the year 1578, he held a formal ceremony, in what is now called Newfoundland, to give thanks for surviving the long journey. This is considered the first Canadian Thanksgiving. Other settlers arrived and continued these ceremonies. He was later knighted and had an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in northern Canada named after him - Frobisher Bay.

In our house this year we are feasting on the traditional Thanksgiving Mango Chicken Masala with curried vegetables and roti. Well, it's actually not a tradition but our family is a little scattered this year and can't get together for the holiday.

One of the Thanksgiving Traditions in our house is sitting around the dinner table and telling each other what we are thankful for.

Right now I would just like to let anyone reading this know that I am very thankful that you have taken the time to pay attention to what I have written or come by to look at the pictures that I have drawn. I am also very thankful to my regular followers and particularly to those who leave comments. I am honoured by your interest and doubly honoured by those who join the conversation, scant as it it sometimes compared to others.

Thus I raise a virtual glass of spirits to all those who have wandered this way. May your homes and lives be filled with warmth, love and happiness.

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

Thursday, October 7, 2010

YOUR FREMEN NAME

Cal over at the Cave of Cool wrote a post about his Fremen name. The Fremen are, of course, the natives of the planet Arrakis from Frank Herbert's Dune.

So I was calling my daughter last night and I called her J'lel. She looked at me and said. "That's my Fremen name". I laughed and agreed.

My daughter is a huge Dune fan, both of the books and of the TV movies (she has not yet watched the David Lynch version) and we talk about it a lot. I decided that J'lel in the Fremen language is the name of a desert creature that is compelled to investigate all the little nooks, crannies and holes. My daughter thought that was appropriate.

I asked what her mother's Fremen name should be. Frances said she wasn't Fremen, she was Bene Gesserit and my daughter and I couldn't argue with that.

So I gues that makes me M'kel, which means one who draws marks in the sand.

Now if only we could get a hold of some spice and get those funky blue-within-blue-eyes...

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

SUPERTRAMP

Saturday, October 2, 2010

SWORDS OF FIRE Sampler

I just wanted to remind you all that Swords of Fire, a fantastic sword and sorcery anthology, is still available for purchase. Here is a sampling of the excitement that awaits you between its pages:

Open publication - Free publishing - More swords

You can purchase a print copy or an electronic copy by visiting www.lulu.com/ragemachinebooks.

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, October 1, 2010

MASTERS OF ADVENTURE

Just wanted to remind you all that Masters of Adventure Issue 1 is still available for purchase. Here is a sampling of the excitement that awaits you between its pages:

Open publication - Free publishing - More john buchan

You can purchase a print copy or an electronic copy by visiting www.lulu.com/ragemachinebooks.