MAY OLD ACQUAINTANCE BE FORGOT...

Is it that time already? 2011 sure went fast. This certainly was a memorable year for me, in both good ways and bad. I'd like to think that the good outweighs the bad though, and has actually laid the groundwork for a great 2012. I won't go into the bad points of 2011, mainly because some of them hit a little too close to home. On the brighter side, I had a fun trip to Wizard World back in April, got my first Pro badge for Comic Con in July, and had a great trip to the Long Beach Comic Con in October, where I also had a pro badge. As an artist, I grew leaps and bounds and gained enough confidence in myself that I'm now preparing collected volumes of my work, and believe me when I say I'm not doing this on an ego trip. People have actually asked me for printed copies! The future looks bright, and I can't wait to show all of you the great comics and cartoons that I have in store for 2012.

Anyway, that's enough yammering for now. There's only two days left in the year, so let's end this sucker with a bang! I present to you the first in what I hope to be a new series of postings that I call GREAT SONG, CRAPPY MOVIE, the premise being a horrible movie that inexplicably had a great soundtrack. And since this is the very first installment, I present the epic cheese fest from 1980, Flash Gordon!

The less said about this movie the better. All I'll say, and you probably figured it out yourself already, was that this movie was made in an effort to cash in on the Star Wars craze that swept through the world in the late 70's and early 80's. Terrible acting, terrible story and special effects so bad, they're actually kind of funny is the best way to describe this polished turd. The movie's lone saving grace was the incredible musical score and soundtrack provided by Queen. It's because of the music that this film is actually tolerable.

It could be coincidence, but I've always felt it was quite odd that so many bad movies have awesome soundtracks, while so many good movies have really weak soundtracks. If anything, a strong soundtrack is probably a just a tool to help mask the shortcomings of a bad film. Ironically enough, George Lucas had wanted to do a Flash Gordon movie back in the mid 70's after American Graffiti had become such a huge success. Lucas, however, could never secure the film rights, so he decided to do his own space epic instead. Unfortunately, Lucas didn't have Queen to help make the Star Wars prequels more watchable.

Well, that's all for 2011 folks. May you all have a safe and happy time tomorrow and try not to party too hard. We really don't need to start the year off with any tragedies. Take care and I'll catch y'all in 2012. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

-Jon