The Official Futureal Studio Blog

I am pretty sure it will be tough for you not to get your fix of updates on the site, but I’m sure you’ll manage.  Memorial Day is on the 26th for you non-American people.  As soon as I get back, though, I’ll start working on the Membership part of the site so that we can start serializing Adventures Into Digital Comics.  However, this is not the only thing I am working on for the membership site.  I don’t want you to believe that AIDC is the only thing planned after all but I don’t want to start talking about it now.  The anxiety would devour you until my return.

Head-Butt or Hug of the Day: I’ve spent a few posts telling you about how in France you’ll have to accept a job within 2 hours of your home, etc.  There was one detail I did not know: you will also have to accept a job even if it pays less than your previous work.  Another Head-Butt for the “France d’Apres.”  And another Head-Butt for Clinton.  If you really want to see the Democrats win in November, just give up, please.  It’s not even fun anymore.

The second teaser that was presented during a panel at San Diego Comic Con is now back online.  As for the previous teaser, you’ll get access to a series of links to learn more about what you see in this clip.  Enjoy.

Head-Butt or Hug of the Day: Ted Stanger is an American reporter who moved to Paris in 1993.  He started his career at the Miami Herald.  Stanger wrote a number of books on the French and the Americans and he has just released a new one on the White House and what a presidential campaign is.  I always like to listen to what he has to say on the radio and his point of view on the French-American relationship always fascinates me and is a real source of inspiration.  His new book is called “Sacrée Maison Blanche!” that I could probably translate “This Whacky White House!”  His titles are always whacky, like “Those Whacky French!” and so on.

On Friday I reached the mid-point of the script: 144 pages.  The same number of pages to go, I guess, to finish the script.  A major rewrite is already in order.  However, on Friday, it’s vacation time.  I don’t know if I’ll post anything during the two weeks, but if I don’t I’ll talk a lot about my impressions of the old continent.  We’ll spend the first week in Paris and I’ll tell you if I think that life has become super expensive, and so on.  Just brutally honest, especially as my observations will have everything to do with what I’m working on.  The second week, we’ll go on a booze cruise on the East side of the country.  It’s not really booze cruise, but more like wine cruise.  We’ll go from Dijon to Avignon to visit a few places here and there, try some food (Marie told me there was also a chocolate tasting session planned on the way to Avignon.)  Then, we’ll fly from Marseilles back to Paris then back to LA.

Head-Butt or Hug of the Day: I have a special Hug for Shrek, Fiona, Donkey and Puss who have recently become the best friends of our son who can’t get enough of Shrek 2.  He laughs a lot when we reach the dancing furniture scene and he is still scared when Skrek yells at Donkey on their way to the kingdom of Far, Far, Away.  I’m not sure he likes Mr. Shrek that much…

On Saturday I went to Geoffrey’s Comics in Gardena.  I hesitated a lot in the choice of the store.  At first, I wanted to go to more than one store, but we had to plan our upcoming trip to France, so I chose only one store in Gardena.  Geoffrey’s Comics is my favorite store in terms of Golden, Silver and Bronze Age.  I knew they had some sales going on for FCBD and I wanted to see which Fantastic Four back issues they had.  I was happy with what I found.  I was even happier when I discovered they had a Blackhawk Archive for 66& off (not too happy for DC, I guess I’ll die before seeing another Blackhawk Archive.)  I wonder why this book doesn’t sell well.  It has some early work by Will Eisner.  The store was packed and I saw a lot of kids.  They also gave me a package of free books: Hunter-Killer, Legion of Super-Heroes, Damn Nation and Spawn.

Head-Butt or Hug of the Day: A year ago, Sarkozysm was perceived as the possibility for France to really move into the 21st century (note the word perceived.) A year later, for 66% of the French population, it has become a bad word.

Tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day.  For the first time of my life, I might actually go somewhere.  Marie and Alex will go to a birthday party, so I thought it might be a nice occasion to do it.  Of course, I might as well crash on my bed while they’re gone.  That being said, I wanted to tell you about at least two events I was aware of.  Golden Apple on Melrose will have artists from Platinum Studios and Geoffrey’s Comics will have David Wohl and… Wolverine?  Yes, bub, the best one there is at what he’s doing

Head-Butt or Hug of the Day: I’ve got a big Head-Butt for Atlantism.  Atlantism is a word used a lot if France since Sarkozy’s election.  It is basically the concept of getting (too) close to the US in terms of politics.  It is somehow beautifully used especially by the opposition as a bad word, like freedom fries were used by the American senate during you know what.  However, someone will have to tell me one day why Atlantism is worse than let’s say Lybianism or Putinism.

If I use another title with the word “pirates,” am I going to be as successful with spammers as I was the first time?  Today is a day off in France.  I live in the US, but I thought I should do like my consulate and not work today.  Except that, if you noticed, I did not post anything yesterday, so I’ve just created the brand new day off a la French: the day off before the real day off.  Seriously, if you have ever lived in France in May, you’ll know why I’m trying to make fun of May, the month when you can spend more time hom than at work if you’re clever.

Head-Butt or Hug of the Day: Actually, for once, I’m going to Hug the IRS.  I actually made a mistake in my previous post.  I thought that George sent me my check to boost the economy, but it wasn’t the case.  I actually made a mistake in my tax return, and in all honesty, I was surprised that the IRS corrected my mistake to my advantage, which is the reason why I received a check with a higher amount I was expected.  It doesn’t happen that frequently.

Thank you, George, I’ve received your check yesterday.  I anxiously opened it and discovered a nice amount in it.  Now, I know that I’m supposed to use this money to spend it on shoes but I think that instead I’m going to pay back our one-year old TV set.  On one hand, I feel like I’m not doing exactly what I’m supposed to do with this money, on the other hand this was a basic “spending” credit with 0% interest for 18 months, but still ultimately I will have spent a certain amount of money on this TV set, so I’m kind of doing what I’m supposed to do with this money, right?  I don’t know anymore.  I guess I’m going to do with this check what most people are going to do: clean the mess a little bit.

Head-Butt or Hug of the Day: Or, I could spend this money to buy rice.  Rice is the new thing, after comic books, the Internet, the housing market, oil, let’s speculate on rice.  I wonder if one day I’ll be able to speculate on air.  That would be cool.

On Saturday we went to visit some of our friends who live in Monrovia.  As soon as we arrived on the 210 we saw the smoke coming out of a mountain.  As we were getting closer, we started to realize that the fire was not far from their place.  Actually, the only thing between their house and the fire was a hill.  On Saturday, the wind was blowing the other way, but late in the afternoon our friend John decided to take a look at the fire to see if they had reasons to worry.  He asked me if I wanted to come, so for the first time of my life I actually saw a wildfire with my own eyes.  I have to say it was rather impressive.  We could see the flames from the street, the planes and the helicopters. I’ve read this morning that around 1,000 people have been evacuated.  I hope they’ll be able to control this fire soon.

Head-Butt or Hug of the Day: A new episode of the French social wreck.  The government announced earlier today that 41 years of work will now bee needed to get a full retirement.  As some of you know, France still uses the old retirement partition system where the state takes care of paying for your retirement.  It is one of few countries in Europe to still use this system.  It is also one of few countries where retired people demonstrate because they don’t have enough money anymore.  A Head-Butt for this rusty system.

It was first reported here that an anonymous person has given the original artwork of Amazing Fantasy #15 (first appearance of Spider-Man) to the Libray of Congress.  It’s nice to see that such a piece of history will be made available to the public rather than finishing on eBay.

Head-Butt or Hug of the Day: I’m going to stay on the same topic and I will give a Hug to the anonymous owner.  If someone owns the original art of Fantastic Four #1, you know what to do now.

Yesterday I finally found the time to finish the third sequence of the script.  I make it sound like the script is not my priority even if it is, but I did not expect the sequence to last 38 pages or so.  It really looks now like I have enough material for two movies which is not my goal, so I’ve already taken a few notes on how to reduce the script — a lot — especially as I do not feel this is the type of movie that should last more than two hours.

Head-Butt or Hug of the Day: I wanted to Hug Ovid’s Metamorphoses.  The first time I read the book was around ten years ago when I was a art history student, and I remember I had been pretty impressed.  Now I’m back to reading it and I’m still totally fascinated, especially by the high level of violence and adult situations.  From incest to violent tongue removal, check out the life of the Gods and their interaction with mankind.