OK, you all will roll your eyes after I type out the 'bad news'. But it's just disheartening to have something you've been a fan of most of your life turned to crap before your and the World's eyes.
Growing up, like most kids, I liked comics. I got into Marvel comics, in fact, actually, the first comics that I started reading were Conan The Barbarian. My Father and his then girlfriend and I had gone to see the movie in the theater in 1982, so I was, wow, 10 years old?? I thought I would have been a little older... Anyhow, within the first minutes of the movie, Dad's girlfriend got up and walked out (Guess she wasn't impressed by the first couple of decapitations), minutes later my Dad followed her, probably more on not wanting to hear what would come with not following her out. So I watched the movie alone and it left a huge mark on me.
Like most kids, I grew up with Spiderman and the Super Friend's cartoon... I collected some Spiderman comics, but in truth, I was more of a fan of the artwork than the stories. Later i would ditch Marvel and DC comics for more violent and obscure comics (No, none of 'Image's' characters)... Todd Macfarlane's Spiderman was a huge advancement in comic art and though I had collected a few of those comics, again it was the art that was more interesting to me. But I'll come back to Spidey in a bit.
One comic from Marvel that did reel me in was 'The Punisher', he was a more violent and real 'hero' than most of the other heroes that all had mutant or gifted powers. Frank Castle was just a man hellbent on revenge. The Punisher War Journal was the first series that i was seriously interested in collecting... At one Summer camp, when I fell ill, I actually lost all my Conan and I think my first Punisher comics when they rushed me out at night and I forgot my comics that I'd stashed under my mattress on my bunkbed.... When it came time for my first tattoo, this is about the closest image to the tattoo on my arm:
I chose the Punisher, at the time, I stood behind his anti-drug message. I mean, I wasn't thinking about going and killing drug dealers, but after smoking some hash laced with angel dust, I stopped smoking drugs altogether, I had a very bad trip and it swore me off trying ANYTHING, other than drinking beer. Still, to this day, I've never done anything harder than pain meds and marijuana/hash. So the Punisher tattoo meant something to me... And it was a kick to the stomach when the first 'Punisher' film came out in 1989, with .... *sigh* Dolph Lundgren.... I mean, c'mon, he didn't even have the 'skull' emblem on his chest like the comic version, so I felt that most people who would see my tattoo would associate it with that stupid movie.... My next tattoo was Spiderman, based off of MacFarlane artwork... The Spiderman movies were never quite as awful as the first Punisher and I will admit that the next versions of the 'Punisher' movies which were the 2004 and 2008 being much better than that first one... But then again, there's a Captain America movie that was made in the 1990's that most people don't even know about
So in the early 1990's I came across a Japanese comic book, part of a Manga series called 'Alita - Battle Angel', created by Yukito Kishiro. I fell in love with the story and Alita and collected the comics and graphic novels. Mike Fields and I named a cat we adopted 'Alita', but had to give her up and then when I got my Siberian husky, I decided to call her 'Alita'...
Then around 2003/04, Fields and I went to a tattoo convention in Vancouver and on me I carried two designs that I hoped someone could pull off, one was a Pushead design and the other was this 'Alita' image:
Rumors of an 'Alita' movie, live action movie started to circulate around the late 1990's. Rumor had it that James Cameron was a huge fan and was waiting for the right technology to come along to really do the film justice. So for years, rumors came and went. Some "test" pieces of 'Alita' were leaked online.... Then a couple of years ago, the movie world announced that finally the time would come and the 'Alita' movie would be made.... Now I've seen many a great comic or novel ruined by film, we all have. Some of our favorite authors creations have been slaughtered by films.
Well, I just saw the trailer for 'Alita - Battle Angel' earlier this evening and was so sadly, unimpressed. My good friend Mike who works in the film industry blames it on the poor choice of the director... I don't know who to blame, but I wont sully my blog page with a photo or video from this atrocity. Why? Why couldn't they just make the movie like the Manga series? People over here would get it, they didn't need to "American-ize" it... They didn't need to make a girl with HUGE eyeballs just to make it look like the Japanese style character's the Japanese are famous for.... Sad, sad, sad... Another one of my 'Hero's' gets ruined and everyone who will ever see my tattoo after they see the movie and asks, "What's the tattoo of?" and I'll reply, 'Alita, Battle Angel'... and they'll first think of the horrible movie over having ANY knowledge of the amazing past that's inked in comics and graphic novels.
If Kishiro were dead, he'd be rolling in his grave. I almost can't imagine Jame Cameron being satisfied with this sham.... At least my other tattoo is an original creation that will never be tarnished by a bad movie.
Growing up, like most kids, I liked comics. I got into Marvel comics, in fact, actually, the first comics that I started reading were Conan The Barbarian. My Father and his then girlfriend and I had gone to see the movie in the theater in 1982, so I was, wow, 10 years old?? I thought I would have been a little older... Anyhow, within the first minutes of the movie, Dad's girlfriend got up and walked out (Guess she wasn't impressed by the first couple of decapitations), minutes later my Dad followed her, probably more on not wanting to hear what would come with not following her out. So I watched the movie alone and it left a huge mark on me.
Like most kids, I grew up with Spiderman and the Super Friend's cartoon... I collected some Spiderman comics, but in truth, I was more of a fan of the artwork than the stories. Later i would ditch Marvel and DC comics for more violent and obscure comics (No, none of 'Image's' characters)... Todd Macfarlane's Spiderman was a huge advancement in comic art and though I had collected a few of those comics, again it was the art that was more interesting to me. But I'll come back to Spidey in a bit.
One comic from Marvel that did reel me in was 'The Punisher', he was a more violent and real 'hero' than most of the other heroes that all had mutant or gifted powers. Frank Castle was just a man hellbent on revenge. The Punisher War Journal was the first series that i was seriously interested in collecting... At one Summer camp, when I fell ill, I actually lost all my Conan and I think my first Punisher comics when they rushed me out at night and I forgot my comics that I'd stashed under my mattress on my bunkbed.... When it came time for my first tattoo, this is about the closest image to the tattoo on my arm:
I chose the Punisher, at the time, I stood behind his anti-drug message. I mean, I wasn't thinking about going and killing drug dealers, but after smoking some hash laced with angel dust, I stopped smoking drugs altogether, I had a very bad trip and it swore me off trying ANYTHING, other than drinking beer. Still, to this day, I've never done anything harder than pain meds and marijuana/hash. So the Punisher tattoo meant something to me... And it was a kick to the stomach when the first 'Punisher' film came out in 1989, with .... *sigh* Dolph Lundgren.... I mean, c'mon, he didn't even have the 'skull' emblem on his chest like the comic version, so I felt that most people who would see my tattoo would associate it with that stupid movie.... My next tattoo was Spiderman, based off of MacFarlane artwork... The Spiderman movies were never quite as awful as the first Punisher and I will admit that the next versions of the 'Punisher' movies which were the 2004 and 2008 being much better than that first one... But then again, there's a Captain America movie that was made in the 1990's that most people don't even know about
So in the early 1990's I came across a Japanese comic book, part of a Manga series called 'Alita - Battle Angel', created by Yukito Kishiro. I fell in love with the story and Alita and collected the comics and graphic novels. Mike Fields and I named a cat we adopted 'Alita', but had to give her up and then when I got my Siberian husky, I decided to call her 'Alita'...
Then around 2003/04, Fields and I went to a tattoo convention in Vancouver and on me I carried two designs that I hoped someone could pull off, one was a Pushead design and the other was this 'Alita' image:
Sadly, I forget the artist I stumbled upon as I was perusing different artist's work. I saw he'd done an 'Alita' tattoo in his portfolio and immediately knew this was the guy to pull it off. It's of course still on my upper right arm to this day, right below Spidey.
Rumors of an 'Alita' movie, live action movie started to circulate around the late 1990's. Rumor had it that James Cameron was a huge fan and was waiting for the right technology to come along to really do the film justice. So for years, rumors came and went. Some "test" pieces of 'Alita' were leaked online.... Then a couple of years ago, the movie world announced that finally the time would come and the 'Alita' movie would be made.... Now I've seen many a great comic or novel ruined by film, we all have. Some of our favorite authors creations have been slaughtered by films.
Well, I just saw the trailer for 'Alita - Battle Angel' earlier this evening and was so sadly, unimpressed. My good friend Mike who works in the film industry blames it on the poor choice of the director... I don't know who to blame, but I wont sully my blog page with a photo or video from this atrocity. Why? Why couldn't they just make the movie like the Manga series? People over here would get it, they didn't need to "American-ize" it... They didn't need to make a girl with HUGE eyeballs just to make it look like the Japanese style character's the Japanese are famous for.... Sad, sad, sad... Another one of my 'Hero's' gets ruined and everyone who will ever see my tattoo after they see the movie and asks, "What's the tattoo of?" and I'll reply, 'Alita, Battle Angel'... and they'll first think of the horrible movie over having ANY knowledge of the amazing past that's inked in comics and graphic novels.
If Kishiro were dead, he'd be rolling in his grave. I almost can't imagine Jame Cameron being satisfied with this sham.... At least my other tattoo is an original creation that will never be tarnished by a bad movie.
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