Graham Chapman, probably best remembered from Monty Python as “the dead one”, writes and stars in the animated movie of his own life story, A Liar’s Autobiography. Although Chapman selfishly passed on, became no more, ceased to be, expired and went to meet his maker, became a stiff, went off the twig, kicked the bucket, shuffled off his mortal coil, run down the curtain, joined the bleedin’ choir invisible, and became an ex-Chapman in 1989, he had taken the trouble to record himself reading his autobiography — and those recordings have now ingeniously been used to provide Chapman’s voice for a 3D animated feature.
Not quite a documentary nor a Monty Python film, A Liar’s Autobiography is Chapman’s own take on his bizarre life and his search for self-knowledge, bringing Chapman back to life in an ingenious tour de force of animation, told through 17 different animation styles from 14 different animators. Fellow Pythons John Cleese, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Terry Gilliam also turn up, playing themselves and other characters, along with a few surprise guests.
Incredible, yes. Surreal, certainly. True? Who knows? At his memorial service, John Cleese called Chapman “a freeloading bastard”. Now, as the film re-unites Chapman with Cleese, Jones, Palin, and Gilliam for the first time in 23 years, he is set to earn a new title — the most prolific corpse since Elvis.
A Liar’s Autobiography — The Untrue Story of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman, will premiere on EPIX and in select U.S. theatres in 3D on November 2, 2012, and will be released in the UK by Trinity sometime in early 2013.
Everyone has their niche, their two inches of ivory that they work over so closely with a fine-haired brush. Some niches are larger than others — project manager, superhero artist, war apologist, social novelist — but they all bind, more or less, around the edges. Some artists fight against that niche, and some embrace it.
Guy Delisle is a cartoonist — originally Canadian, though resident in France for some time — whose niche is creating books about the strange foreign cities he finds himself living and working in. First was Shenzhen (see my review), about time spent working as an animation supervisor in that Chinese city. Then came Pyongyang (see my review), in which the same job took him to that very odd, constricted North Korean capital. And then there was Burma Chronicles(see my review), by which point Delisle had transitioned to a full-time long-form cartoonist, and was accompanying his partner (a Médecins Sans Frontières administrator) to the capital of the country that wants the rest of us to call it Myanmar. (Somewhere in between, he also published two books of unsettling, mostly sex-role related cartoons — Aline and the Others and Albert and the Others — which I also reviewed.)
Delisle’s work typically has a crisp, clean line — as one would expect from an animator working in France — with a good eye for detail and enough description and narration to allow the drawing to be simple; he doesn’t try to cram everything into either words or art.
Recently, Delisle’s wife was posted by MSF to Israel for a year, and so, eventually, that experience turned itself into his most recent book, Jerusalem. It’s larger and more diffuse than those previous books, over 300 pages long, and filled with lots of small stories about Delisle’s and his family’s life in a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem. (And that location is the first manifestation of what will be a major concern of Jerusalem: borders, both physical and mental, and how they interleave themselves, through walls and checkpoints and bus routes and roads and prejudices.)
Jerusalem doesn’t grapple directly with the legitimacy of the Israeli state, or of its treatment of Palestinians (or, conversely, with the actions of Palestinians and others against Israel), making it feel a bit politically naive at times. (Reading it in tandem with Sarah Glidden’s How to Understand Israel in 60 Days Or Less — see my review — would be interesting; Glidden was in Israel for a short time, on a tour, specifically as a tourist on a heritage tour designed to make her intensely pro-Israel, and intensively questioned the Palestinian situation, while Delisle lived in Israel for a year, mostly among vaguely pro-Palestinian expatriates, and lives the physical discomfort of the occupation without engaging with it on a theoretical level.)
Delisle’s job — besides writing books like Jerusalem — is a house-husband; he had two small children during that year, and just taking care of small children (even if they are in day-care part of the time) is massively time-consuming in ways that it’s hard to describe. When you wake up with a toddler, you get through the day somehow, and then wonder, at the end, what you actually did during the last sixteen hours. So Delisle isn’t as free to move around this year as he was in Shenzhen and Pyongyang — but, then again, those were shorter trips, so he had more time to immerse himself in Jerusalem (and, before that, in Burma), more time to live in those places rather than just passing through them.
Jerusalem is a discursive, rambling book, equally about daily life as an expatriate in East Jerusalem and the physical problems of just moving around so militarized and controlled a country [1] as it is about Delisle’s continuing attempts to sketch and draw and work on his cartoons when he has time away from his young children. It’s a long, looping story, circling back to those same few concerns — time to sketch, physical access, which day things will be open — and is more obsessed with time (the right day, the right time of day, enough time to do something while the kids are in day-care) than one would expect. Throughout, Delisle is an interesting and thoughtful guide to Israel, showing us the things he did and saw and thought, and what it was like to live in that place for that time. I expect some people will be unhappy at Delisle’s take on the Israel-Palestine situation — people on either end of that argument, because as much as he engages with it, he’s somewhere in the middle — but that’s an occupational hazard when you create books about your time in odd, contested, unlikely places. Delisle is always honest, and shows us what he sees and feels: you can’t ask for more than that.
[1] His partner was posted in Gaza for most of this trip, and the one crossing into Gaza is more tightly controlled than any other gate in Israel.
Marvel’s attempt to bring their characters into the world of anime didn’t fare terribly well as four series from Madhouse arrived and sank without much of a ripple. Conceived and vaguely interconnected from Warren Ellis, the projects had noble goals but failed to excite or even tell great stories.
You may have seen them on G4 since they weren’t important enough for the major animation channels or you might have caught Iron Man and X-Men when Sony Home Entertainment released them a few months back. Coming Tuesday are the final two, Blade and Wolverine, and these are no stronger than their predecessors. On the one hand, the color palette is nicely chosen to lend atmosphere to Blade, but then the animation is so stiff and limited vampires and people alike seem to be moving through sludge.
Wolverine, actually the second of the quartet to air from January 7 through March 25, 2011, concerns itself with a search of Mariko Yashida, gone an entire year, and winds up having him slice his way through the Yakuza and AIM. We learn that his paramour had been taken by her father so she could wed Hideki Kurohagi and we’re never given a good reason why it took so long for the canucklehead to figure out she was gone.
Structurally, each episode has fighting, chasing, talking and cliffhangers as the quest takes Wolverine from place to place in search of Mariko. As a result, each stop along the way features different threats and weapons but by episode seven it all starts feeling the same and you just want the story to get on to something fresh. Obvious foes, such as Omega Red turns up so in addition to bullets and knives we get Adamantium versus carbonadium but again, the animation limits just how much you can enjoy it.
Of course he and Yukio will endure all the obstacles and Ellis is wise to keep the tragic ending consistent with the comics although it’s far less effective after having been dragged out
The English voice cast is headed up by Milo Ventimiglia (Heroes) and does a credible job as the Canadian war machine. He’s backed by a lot of veteran vocal actors but no real names other than Scott Porter as Cyclops, who guest stars in one episode as a nod to the four series being interconnected (Wolverine returned the favor in both Iron Man and Blade).
The Blade storyline is less a quest and more a battle between the Daywalker and his eternal foe Deacon Frost. The final entry in the Marvel Anime Universe, it aired July 1 through September 16, 2011. In this case, Blade happens to be in Japan when he comes across a group of vampires that is known only as Existence. Episode one is a recap of who Blade is, which was wise for its audience, and then takes us to discos and vampire hangouts and lot so of murky stuff going on. There are young women being taken, blood farms, people who want the secret of Blade’s ability to walk in the sunlight, etc. Lots of chasing, fighting, biting and staking. My problem is that none of the characters were interesting enough to make me care and my mind kept wandering while vampires did their thing.
Here, the English vocal cast is headed up by Harold Perrineau (Lost) who does a surprisingly effective job.
I continue to find it laughable the vast differences in translation between the English dubbed soundtrack and the closed captioning since the word choices for the latter alter some of the meaning and characterization.
Both discs come with brief and not terribly informative pieces on the anime project and each character’s place in that world. They’re nice to have but totally superfluous. These are affordably priced two-disc DVDs that are good if you love the characters are anime or, preferably, both.
Veteran comics writer Roger Slifer is fighting for his life after being struck by a hit-and-run driver in Santa Monica, CA. it’s being reported on Twitter and elsewhere. Best known as the co-creator of Lobo, Slifer, 57, has worked as an editor and writer in the comics, animation and video game industries. According to reports, Slifer was struck by a white sedan at Fifth Street and Colorado Avenue early Saturday morning and taken to Ronald Regan UCLA Medical Center, where he remains in critical condition with a serious brain injury.
Friend Flint Dille has been updating the situation:
Okay, here’s what I know. We had originally thought of keeping this quiet, because Roger is a fairly private guy, but as word is out and time might be of the essence if we’re going to find the hit-and-run driver, I’ll post what I know.
Roger is in Ronald Reagan Hospital at UCLA (I have not been in to see him, but his friends Will and Barry have). He is in intensive care. The nurse on duty could only tell me that he was in critical condition with a brain injury. Will and Barry said that he was unresponsive, but was heavily medicated since they had to do some brain surgery. I think the truth is that nobody knows what will happen. Prayers would be a good thing.
On the criminal front, it would be a very good thing to find the driver, not only for reasons of justice, but also insurance. We have no idea what Roger Slifer’s insurance situation is, but we suspect that it would be extremely helpful for medical bills.
The problem at the moment is that the Santa Monica Police do not seem to be making as much progress as they should. Some phone calls might be helpful. I’ll put everything I know in the next entry.
Dille’s report continues in the above link. A search is currently underway for the hit-and-run vehicle. Although there are security cameras it’s not known if they captured the license plate or not. The flyer below has been put up:
Slifer’s situation is eerily and horribly reminiscent of his contemporary Bill Mantlo, who has never recovered from a similar accident.
Hopefully Slifer will have a full recovery and the driver who nearly killed him will be found.
I wonder if this will move Yahoo’s stock price. From the AP:
Yahoo said Wednesday it is expanding its original offerings, partnering with Liquid Comics to offer motion-comics. The two companies said they’ll make the first two titles — created by film directors Barry Sonnenfeld and Guy Ritchie — available online later this summer through Yahoo! Screen.
Motion comics blend elements of comic book art and animation, offering some movement and action but on a limited scale. It’s gained ground and popularity in recent years as publishers big and small experiment with the medium, which can viewed online or on devices like tablets and iPads.
“This is compelling content from great storytellers, and we are excited to be adding Liquid Comics to our robust slate of premium content partners,” said Erin McPherson, vice president and head of video for Yahoo.
By partnering with Liquid Comics and focusing on animation, she said Yahoo is enhancing its premium original content.
Together with Tom Hanks’ new animated Web series, “Electric City,” ”motion comics are the start of a unique animated offering on Yahoo,” McPherson said.
Sonnenfeld’s offering is “Dinosaurs vs. Aliens.” The director of the “Men In Black” films tells the story of aliens invading earth in prehistoric times only to face off against dinosaurs.
Ritchie, whose films include “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” and the recent “Sherlock Holmes,” will have his “Gamekeeper” transformed into a motion-comic written by Andy Diggle. It focuses on groundskeeper whose life is turned upside down by mercenaries.
Sharad Devarajan, CEO of Liquid Comics, said the titles, along with plans for more, will help expand the reach of graphic novels and comics.
“Yahoo’s impressive global reach will greatly enhance Liquid’s goal of pushing the boundaries of comic books through digital platforms and technology and enabling our creative partners to share their stories with audiences worldwide,” he said.
Just to refresh your memory: Liquid Comics is what’s left of the former Virgin Comics line, a joint venture between Richard Branson and Deepak Chopra, which originally published Gamekeeper.
BURBANK, Calif. (June 15, 2012) – Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS) announced today that “Paperman,” a groundbreaking short film combining the best of the computer-generated and hand-drawn animation worlds, will make its theatrical debut in front of Wreck-It Ralph, a hilarious, arcade-game-hopping adventure that hits theaters nationwide on Nov. 2, 2012. The short will play in front of Wreck-It Ralph for most international markets (release dates vary by market). Taking the art of animation in a bold new direction, “Paperman” is directed by John Kahrs and produced by Kristina Reed.
Using a minimalist black-and-white style, the short follows the story of a lonely young man in mid-century New York City, whose destiny takes an unexpected turn after a chance meeting with a beautiful woman on his morning commute. Convinced the girl of his dreams is gone forever, he gets a second chance when he spots her in a skyscraper window across the avenue from his office. With only his heart, imagination and a stack of papers to get her attention, his efforts are no match for what fate has in store for him.
Kahrs, a veteran animator who joined WDAS in 2007, led an innovative team of 2D and CG artists who used a proprietary program called Meander to create the short. Employing a technique called final line advection, artists were able to add a level of grace and expressiveness never before seen in an animated film.
The world premiere of the short took place on the opening night of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, June 4, 2012. Its U.S. premiere is slated for the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 17, 2012.
Award-winning comics writer Joe Kelly has crafted an engaging, thought-provoking, action-packed thriller in adapting his 2001 Action Comics #775 classic tale (“What’s So Funny About Truth, Justice & the American Way”) into Superman vs. the Elite, the latest DC Comics Premiere Movie.
Produced by Warner Premiere, DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation, the all-new, PG-13 rated Superman vs. the Elite arrives TODAY – June 12, 2012 – from Warner Home Video as a Blu-ray™ Combo Pack and DVD, On Demand and for Download. Both the Blu-ray™ Combo Pack and DVD will include an UltraViolet™ Digital Copy.
In Superman vs. the Elite, Superman’s effectiveness as a super hero comes into question when a new group of super powerful crusaders, known as “The Elite,” appear on the scene. As super heroes, the Elite know no bounds, and are more than willing to kill, even on a massive scale, to stop villainy — putting them on a collision course with the ever-ethical and decidedly non-lethal Man of Steel.
“What’s So Funny About Truth, Justice & the American Way” was lauded by Wizard Magazine as the “Greatest Superman Story of All Time,” and the magazine ranked the epic tale at No. 21 on its list of the “Top 100 Comics of the last 30 years.” It is arguably Kelly’s masterwork from a career of notable comics, including such titles as Deadpool, Uncanny X-Men, Action Comics and JLA.
Today, Kelly is one-fourth of the comics-oriented quartet known as Man of Action Studios. The group are superstars in the comic and TV animation/action world already as the creators/producers and writers of the megahit, Ben 10. Their Ben 10 empire has generated over three billion dollars in sales based on their four television series and merchandising and now Joel Silver is producing a feature film adaptation of their creation. Ben 10, arguably the most successful youth brand and superhero franchise of the last decade, has also launched two live-action TV movies and is seen in more than 168 countries and 312 million households. Man of Action Studios also created Generator Rex, write/produce Ultimate Spider-Man on Disney XD, and they create/write/produce video games, TV shows, films, comic books, graphic novels, stage productions, etc. Joining Kelly at Man of Action Studios, which began in 2000, are renowned writers Duncan Rouleau, Joe Casey and Steven T. Seagle. The quartet are now in development/production on numerous TV and film projects including The Great Unknown, Kafka, Disco Destroyer and, of course, Superman vs. The Elite. They proudly have their own Man of Action imprint at Image Comics, where they continue to flourish in the creator-owned comics world.
Kelly spoke about the creation of the film, the transition from page to screen, and his favorite scenes in a chat late last week. Here’s what the wordsmith had to say …
Question: For the uninitiated, what was the genesis for the original story of this comic?
Joe Kelly: The germ for the story really came from a very visceral reaction I had to a comic I was reading at the time – The Authority. It was a dark anti-hero comic. I really like the Authority and its characters, but there was an issue in particular that felt like it had pushed the boundaries of what makes a hero and what makes anti-hero. I found myself getting ‘fanboy mad,’ which I don’t normally get. We had an anniversary issue, and I asked Eddie (Berganza) if we could directly address those characters. I wanted Superman to take those characters on. And that became the germ for Action Comics #775.
Question: As Action Comics #775 was a single issue, how much did you need to add to the story to make it a full-length film?
Kelly: We wrote a lot of new content for the film, and it was funny looking back at the comic because I forgot how much is discussed rather than shown. There’s so much going on between the panels. So it was very exciting to get to see the action sequences that were just hinted at. I’d always seen them in my head, now I get to see them played out in animation.
Question: What was the purpose of adding the Atomic Skull to the story
Kelly: We knew we needed a villain or a character that would externalize Manchester Black’s argument against the revolving door jail policy. We wanted that parallel to be personal and easily identifiable. Originally it was the Parasite, but he’d been used in a recent previous film, so it became the Atomic Skull. And I really thought the Atomic Skull came out very cool. He worked well visually and for the story. Not having Parasite meant we lost a smidgen of the thematic approach – the Parasite really fit well in terms of his name and what he does to the people around him. But that’s just being picky.
Question: Do you have a favorite scene in Superman vs. the Elite?
Kelly: I’m especially proud of the quiet scenes. It’s very difficult to get quiet emotion in animation and to let the silence actually play on screen. But when you look at the quiet scenes in this film — Pa Kent and Clark on the porch, or Lois and Clark on the couch – those scenes really give us the chance to see Superman questioning himself with the people he trusts the most. And those scenes play beautifully in the film.
It’s like in one of my favorite scenes – just before the Elite takes over the airwaves and makes their grand announcement. I think it’s in the original, but it really came to life for me in the film. Lois and Clark are having a little debate, and he asks if she believes that criminals deserve the Elite’s sense of justice and punishment. And she says “Some days I think they do.” That’s just like a punch in the gut. It’s really an awesome scene, especially because it’s one of those moments in animation that you don’t expect. The big battle with the Atomic Skull is pretty great, too. And the finale is awesome. But I love the quiet moments.
Question: Whose sense of justice do you side with: the Elite or Superman?
Kelly: I’m definitely more in the Superman camp. There are plenty of people I get angry about, and the eye-for-an-eye mentality does flash though my head. I think it does for anybody. But at the end of the day, I do believe we need to aspire to higher ideals. Maybe I’m being naïve, and I may not be able to achieve those ideals myself, but we must make the attempt. You’ve got to try. My dad was a cop and he had very strong opinions about this stuff, but he would straddle the line. He had his days when he’d think “kill them all and let God sort them out,” but there were far more days where he believed that the law is the law, even if its broken, and we live in the best country on Earth because of those laws. So that definitely informed my weird sense of justice.
Question: Did the voices of the actors portraying these characters match the voices in your head while writing the film?
Kelly: The voice acting is so good in this film. Robin (Atkin Downes) is such a good Manchester. He’s got all the snark and all the personality, and his line deliveries are so spot on for that guy. It’s funny because everybody says the same thing: you can’t do an actual Manchester accent and expect to be understood, but Robin’s modified Mancunian accent is awesome. And understandable. The rest of the Elite’s voices are perfect: Menagerie is scary and sexy; Coldcast wears his “angry man” on his sleeve; and everyone giggles when The Hat comes on. I can’t say enough about George (Newbern) – I had heard his acting before, and he does such a great Superman. It’s terrific to see George portray the range of emotion he gets to do in this story. And Pauley (Perrette) so knocked it out of the park – I was immediately in love with Lois. Pauley gets all the smarts of the character. The two of them as a partnership really comes across, which is critical to the story. Lois keeps Clark grounded, and she’s literally the only one that can tug on Superman’s cape. Lois can bust his chops, and that comes through in Pauley’s voice. She’s terrific in the quiet moments, as well. Pauley sells it all so, so well.
Question: Are there other stories you’ve written as comics that you could see adapting to animation?
Kelly: In the DC realm, I’m very proud of Justice League Elite because the characters that pick up from this story are darker and very layered. It’s all about how messy you can get before you become a monster. I love that theme. If we could ever pull off Justice League ObsidianAge, that would be amazing – it’s just an insane, gigantic epic, and to see those characters animated would be incredible.
This is not the kind of book that lends itself to a detailed, in-depth review, but that’s just fine: it’s about what I need on a night when I want to keep up a string of daily review posts but feel too lethargic for overly energetic thinking and typing. (I was up at 5:15 for the bi-weekly global 8 AM meeting, so it’s already been a long day.)
Charuca is a character illustrator and designer from Barcelona; kawaii is a Japanese word for a very Japanese term — a super-“cute” style of art, all rounded lines, neotenic features, and massively anthropomorphized everything; and I Love Kawaii is a collection of art from kawaii artists from all over the world, each with four to eight pages of their art, contact and website information, and a short descriptive paragraph by Charuca.
No one ever says so explicitly, but kawaii looks like a style driven almost entirely by female artists. (There may be some seminal men lurking in the background, but I hope not; I want the women to have this movement for their own, just because.) It’s usually bright, full of saturated colors and crisp vector graphics, though there are some artists here who mix goth or folk art of classic childrens-book illustration styles into their kawaii, which gives I Love Kawaii more variety and visual interest than it otherwise would have.
The artists profiled here work in animation, in licensed-character design, in the production of vinyl figures — in short, in just about every niche of illustration you can think of other than “fine art” — since kawaii is a style meant to be produced, either mass or in small batches, and sent out into the world in waves. Their work is lovely and fun and bouncy and energetic and lovely and occasionally (just occasionally!) so sweet that it will rot all of the teeth out of your head in a second.
Strong willed, intelligent, feisty, relentless, outspoken. You’d be speaking of Lois Lane or Pauley Perrette?
Actually, both – which made the NCIS star the perfect match as the voice of the resourceful reporter for Superman vs. the Elite, the latest DC Comics Premiere Movie coming June 12 courtesy of Warner Home Video.
Perrette’s raspy vocal tones and spunky, never-back-down approach gives a new-yet-familiar perspective to the animated Lois Lane, particularly playing opposite the strong, traditional performance of Justice League veteran George Newbern in reprising his role as Superman.
Over nine seasons and more than 200 episodes, Perrette has mesmerized audiences with her portrayal of Gothy forensic specialist Abby Sciuto on NCIS, regularly the top rated drama series on primetime television. The role has elevated Paulette’s popularity into are air – in August 2011, she registered the top Q-score in all of primetime television. Not only was she the only female to rank among the Top 10 TV actors, her score matched that of feature film luminaries like Tom Hanks.
In addition to NCIS, Perrette has appeared in feature films like The Ring and Almost Famous, and had recurring roles on The Drew Carey Show, Jesse, Dawson’s Creek, 24 and Murder One. For the 2009 indie short To Comfort You, Perrette earned the award for Best Female Performance at the Beverly Hills Film Festival in the Short Film Drama category.
And while Perrette doesn’t boast a large amount of experience in animation, this isn’t her first time in the Bruce Timm pool – having given voice to a police officer in an episode of Batman Beyond.
In Superman vs. the Elite, Superman’s effectiveness as a super hero comes into question when a new group of super powerful crusaders, known as “The Elite,” appear on the scene. As super heroes, the Elite know no bounds, and are more than willing to kill, even on a massive scale, to stop villainy — putting them on a collision course with the ever-ethical and decidedly non-lethal Man of Steel.
Produced by Warner Premiere, DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation, the all-new, PG-13 rated film arrives June 12, 2012 from Warner Home Video as a Blu-ray™ Combo Pack and DVD, On Demand and for Download. Both the Blu-ray™ Combo Pack and DVD will include an UltraViolet™ Digital Copy.
The ever-gracious Perrette spent some time after her initial recording session to chat about her love of Superman and Abraham Lincoln, her hatred of bad guys, her own super heroic efforts on behalf of numerous human rights charities, and the benefits of a criminal science collegiate background in acting today. Please read on and, wherever available, watch the video clips of Ms. P’s interview.
QUESTION: Was there any special personal significance for you to act in a Superman movie?
PAULEY PERRETTE: When I was little, I think that I wanted Superman to be my boyfriend. So this is the next best thing. I get to pretend to be Superman’s girlfriend. Although the older I’ve become, I’ve sort of decided that I would rather be Superman myself. So I’m trying (she snickers).
But even my first memory of a super hero was of Superman, because I had a crush on him. Well, it was on Clark Kent, Superman and Christopher Reeve, all rolled into one.
QUESTION: Did you have any preconceived ideas of how you wanted to play Lois Lane?
PERRETTE: When you’re doing voice work, and I said it right when I came in the door, I said, ‘I’m very obedient, and I will take direction.” Because the people who have written this, and the ones who have been envisioning the animation in their head, they have such a specific concept on what they want, that it’s good for me to say, “Give it to me. Give me every piece of direction you want. I’ll do it 10 different ways. Whatever you want.” It’s their vision, and I want to achieve that. If I get an idea while I’m doing a voice, I will offer it … “Hey, can we try this?” But it’s still up to them.
QUESTION: Your emphasis in college was rooted in studying subjects like sociology, psychology and criminal science. How do you think that’s benefitted you as an actress and, in particular, has it lent new perspective on Lois Lane?
PERRETTE: I do think my background in sociology, psychology and criminal science has helped me as an actor because I spent years and a years and years studying human behavior as a science, and as an actor — in approaching a role like Lois Lane or any character – it’s always fascinating to me to try to figure them out psychologically and sociologically. In many ways, acting is really like a science to me to figure out the human behavior of any character that I’m playing.
QUESTION: Now we know how you come to understand your characters. Do you have any acting tricks to then convert that information into a portrayal?
PERRETTE: I always tell myself that when you’re playing a character, pretend like they’re on trial and you’re giving the best witness of their life. You really need to think about every element of the character and represent them properly, as if they were a real person. You want to give 100 percent of what they’re worth and what they deserve as people.
QUESTION: Do you see Lois Lane as an important role model for girls, and who inspired you as a kid?
PERRETTE: Lois Lane is an inspirational character because she’s a smart and powerful woman. Even when she’s with Superman, she has no problem putting him in his place, and giving her opinion. It’s quite an honor to give voice to Lois Lane and be part of that legacy. My personal inspirations were a lot of the smart women throughout history, like Marie Curie and Eleanor Roosevelt and Amelia Earhart. Those are the ones that really inspired me. And the love of my life, Abraham Lincoln.
QUESTION: It seems as though you spend almost as much time volunteering for charities as you do on set. With as much charity work as you do, aren’t you a bit of a super hero yourself?
PERRETTE: My life outside of work is pretty much about charities. I have a big passion about civil rights for everyone – whoever is being downtrodden at the moment, it doesn’t matter: racial discrimination or sexual orientation or gender. Whatever it is, I’m there. I think I was a born civil rights activist. I can’t stand the smashing of a community. It’s not fair and it’s not right. We’re supposed to be here for liberty and justice for all, right?
QUESTION: Is there a geek within Pauley Perrette?
PERRETTE: My geekiness is in science and math. So if I had an ultimate geek role to play, I’d be a super scientist who was also a crime fighter. But on NCIS, I’m actually playing a crime-fighting super scientist right now, so maybe all my geeky dreams have come true!
As a child growing up, I loved cartoons. At that time (the 1950s and early 1960s), that’s a bit like saying that I loved breathing. There were cartoons on Saturday morning, and cartoons every afternoon. The movie theater near my Grandmother’s house had Saturday matinees that were three hours of cartoons.
But I loved comic books more.
My husband, John Tebbel, was the first animation maven I ever met. He not only knew the difference between Disney and Warner Brothers, but he knew the individual directors, and quickly taught me how to spot Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnson. He explained who the Fleischer Studio was and why I should care.
We went to animation festivals in Ottawa, Canada and Annecy, France. I saw films by George Dunning that weren’t Yellow Submarine. I met Bill Scott and June Foray. We would go to the Jay Ward store when we were in Los Angeles.
Naturally, I tried to share my love of comic books. My success rate was lower. He liked Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman. He loved Kyle Baker. Milk and Cheese made him laugh out loud. Still, he never quite got the superhero thing.
I’m not writing to celebrate two geeks in love. I’m writing about how sometimes, we let our differences divide us. Do you like Marvel or DC? The Big Two or independents? Broadcast or cable?
We defined our affection for two art forms that were graphic storytelling. One moved and one didn’t. One had finite time limits and one didn’t. Each of us, with our affection for our chosen art, could appreciate the other’s favorite.
I would like our political discourse to work at this level, but that isn’t going to happen as long as there is so much money and power involved. However, if there is anything that would make my husband’s life more significant, it would be if we could each of us share our love for pop culture with the rest of the world. Instead of fighting over which piece of the pie is the biggest or the best, we could have more pie.
Graham Chapman, probably best remembered from Monty Python as “the dead one”, writes and stars in the animated movie of his own life story, A Liar’s Autobiography. Although Chapman selfishly passed on, became no more, ceased to be, expired and went to meet his maker, became a stiff, went off the twig, kicked the bucket, shuffled off his mortal coil, run down the curtain, joined the bleedin’ choir invisible, and became an ex-Chapman in 1989, he had taken the trouble to record himself reading his autobiography — and those recordings have now ingeniously been used to provide Chapman’s voice for a 3D animated feature.
Everyone has their niche, their two inches of ivory that they work over so closely with a fine-haired brush. Some niches are larger than others — project manager, superhero artist, war apologist, social novelist — but they all bind, more or less, around the edges. Some artists fight against that niche, and some embrace it.
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. It’s larger and more diffuse than those previous books, over 300 pages long, and filled with lots of small stories about Delisle’s and his family’s life in a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem. (And that location is the first manifestation of what will be a major concern of Jerusalem: borders, both physical and mental, and how they interleave themselves, through walls and checkpoints and bus routes and roads and prejudices.)
This is not the kind of book that lends itself to a detailed, in-depth review, but that’s just fine: it’s about what I need on a night when I want to keep up a string of daily review posts but feel too lethargic for overly energetic thinking and typing. (I was up at 5:15 for the bi-weekly global 8 AM meeting, so it’s already been a long day.)
is a collection of art from kawaii artists from all over the world, each with four to eight pages of their art, contact and website information, and a short descriptive paragraph by Charuca.
