Paper Moon

In case you need cheering up:

18 Days is being reprinted by Dynamite Entertainment. Still a hardcover, though, and still only $25. In case you missed it the first time, here's your second chance. This book is gorgeous.

This Sheltie has very particular taste in music. As Shelties tend to have very particular tastes in everything.

Feferi hugs all the trolls. This is one of the most beautiful pieces of Homestuck fanart. Ever.

ASDFGHJKL;ASDFGHJKL;

More coherent post coming later. But some initial reactions:

1. FUCK YEAH.

2. The cover says "Grant Morrison's 18 Days." Mukesh Singh's name is nowhere on the cover. Yeah, uh, I'm just going to come out and say this: Among the small target audience actually interested in this book, I don't think that any of us are buying it because of Grant Morrison's involvement. Mukesh Singh's artwork is the real selling point on this book and I wish that Liquid had capitalized more on that.

3. Oh my god, the actual screenplay part of the book is kind of deliciously terrible.

4. In the very back of the book there is some written commentary by Mukesh Singh about some of the paintings. It's very telling Singh's few short paragraphs of writing are much more insightful, interesting, and true to the Mahabharata than all of Grant Morrison's 100 pages of brain droppings combined. For example, Singh describing a painting of Krishna: "Krishna is not Rama. He wears his godliness on his sleeve yet is more of an idea man than an idealistic one."

5. Now that I have the entire book and can tell who all of the characters are, I'm completely in love with Singh's character designs. He has awesome designs for all of the Pandava brothers, and when he draws Karna with his armor off it is so tragically apparent that Karna is related to the Pandavas that it's heartbreaking. I will say, however, that I am not terribly fond of Singh's decision to give Krishna pointy ears and long white hair, because now he just looks like an elf.

Probably a longer post coming later.

At Newsarama.

Oh thank God for that interview. At least Grant Morrison sounds like he knows what he's talking about this time.

Also, yaaaay cover reveal! Arjuna and Karna are front and center on the cover of the book.

Uh, wow. Arjuna has a lot of hair.

Via Saurav Mohapatra's twitter:

An advertisement for 18 Days printed in The Boys #42.

So the book is going to be just Grant Morrison's script, not a proper comic?

Both the advertisement and the 18 Days website claim that an animated version will be available in "Spring 2010":

18 Days will be available in Full Hi-Def and in a variety of formats: 2 x 90 minute TV movies, 6 x 30 episodes, extended 200 minute DVD release and as 18 x 10 minute web episodes. It will be supported by on-line and console gaming products, mobile content and other L&M licenses.

18 Days will be available in Spring 2010.

Yeah, sure. I'll believe it when I see it.

(Still nervous about Grant Morrison's involvement. Hey, you know what's really, really awesome? Grant Morrison writing the current Batman storyline with Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne. You know what's really, really NOT awesome? Everything else that Grant Morrison has ever written having to do with mining other cultures for stories, pretty much ever.)

...only now, the title has been changed to "18 Days." (Warning: trailer autoplays!) Frankly I think that the new name is a huge improvement over "MBX."

Oh hey look it's a shiny new website! By which I actually mean "shiny new URL" instead of "shiny new website," since this is the exact same website, no change whatsoever, that Virgin Comics used to host. Although the trailer is new-ish... Well, there's a little bit of new footage, and a lot of new narration, but it's still basically the same trailer that we saw a year ago, waaaaay back in August 2008. Man, has it really been that long?

Whether this is going to rock or suck, I will say that the 90's comic book version of Karna still looks freakin' awesome.

Of course, my usual reservations about Grant Morrison writing anything other than Batman or Superman applies here, especially in light of his recent epic Japanese!culture!FAIL. But we'll see. The "Notes from Grant" section has some lulzy passages, but nothing that's actually pinging my fail-dar yet. Then again it's the exact same "Notes from Grant" that I read in August last year, so I dunno. I think maybe I'm willing to forgive a lot of simplification, dumbing-down, and overselling (a "psychedelic Lord of the Rings" ORLY GRANT?!) considering that the three-headed Morrison/Perspective/Liquid Comics monster is trying to sell this story to an audience of (presumed white) comic book fanboys, who are extremely unlikely to be at all familiar with the source material or original culture. But then again I'm a white girl, so none of these sins are mine to forgive in the first place.

If I could give one piece of armchair-quarterback advice to the three-headed monster, however, I would say this: Stop assuming that your only target audience for this project is white and/or male.

Putting shirtless dudes in your trailer was a good start.

(It's nice to know that the whole KMHK "I'm sure that this tiny strap of leather across my shoulder will protect my entire chest from this incoming rain of deadly arrows!" school of warrior fashion is still alive and well.)

http://www.mbxanimation.com/

Lots of material and notes from Grant Morrison uploaded.

(*reads notes*)

Uh, zhinxy, what was that you said about Grant Morrison going crazy?

About the time that he started describing the Gita as a "Singularity" (capital S) in space and time, my brain melted.

Here are my reactions, in no particular order:

--Narration will start with Gita and then intersperse 18-day war with flashbacks to pre-war storyline. Okay. That's a solid approach. Dunno if you want to smack Western viewers in the face with the Gita right away, though.

---Set in 10,000 BC. Ummmmmmmm. Bharat is Pangea. Attempts to include references to Biblical floods. (Um, okay.) Elephants are actually mastadons with plated armor and "gas masks." Mastadons. Drona wears battle armor. Oh, god, please don't tell me the "battle armor" is the giant robots in the preview.

---Click on "Concept Art." Oh Jesus Christ ILU Mukesh Singh. But who are these people? Arjuna is immediately identifiable because a) he's labeled and b) GANDIVA. Nobody else is labeled. Two characters frequently appear with Arjuna, one big and badass, the other older with a constipated expression on his face. Probably Bhima and Yudhisthira. OH HEY I FOUND KARNA he's the dude with the giant cyborg arm and the earrings. I think. Where is Krishna? Where is Duryodhana? I only see one identifiable elder, is he supposed to be Bhisma or Drona or what?

---Teaser trailer is still the same one posted on the Perspective Studios website.

---Behind the Scenes. Okay, they're using motion-capture animation to capture real martial arts fights. This looks potentially awesome. Some guy says it will be "contemporary and psychedelic." You've got some tough competition from Ekta in the "psychedelic" category, guys.

PS - I ordered the MBX Sketchbook from the Virgin Comics store last month. If experience has taught me anything, I'm sure that I'll be seeing it show up sometime in November.

Mmmmm. Must watch more Ektabharat episodes. The power of Nakula's hair compels me.

1. Stunning Catwoman doll by Takara:


Click for high-res

Part of the Cool Girls line.

2. Grant Morrison will be giving out an MBX Sketchbook to the lucky bastards at SDCC.

Not like I'm dying to see the character designs and his personal notes, or anything. (*dies*)