Watchmen Prequel - It’s official. The Watchmen Prequels are coming. The creative teams and books are:
- Dr. Manhattan by J. Michael Straczynski and Adam Hughes
- Nite Owl by J. Michael Straczynski and Adam and Andy Kubert (although the article incorrectly names Joe Kubert as one of the siblings, he’s their dad).
- Ozymandias by Len Wein and Jae Lee
- Rorschach by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo
- Minutemen by Darwyn Cooke (writing and drawing this)
- Comedian by Brian Azzarello and J.G Jones
- Silk Spectre by Darwyn Cooke and Amanda Conner
All of the talent involved are clearly A list talent, with the sole exception of Amanda Conner, who’s great in her own right, but I wouldn’t necessarily put her in the same league as these guys…but I’m quietly excited for her.
The first issue of Cerebral Interviews is out. All those that subscribed, please check your spam folders just in case you got a confirmation email, or the email itself in there. For this first issue, I’m going to be posting it around the same time. In the future, this will only be posted onto the site 1 month after the newsletter.
So if you’re looking to get your fix early, go subscribe.
Cerebral Interviews
Issue 01 - Vol 01 - Jan 2012
A Word In Your Ear
Cerebral Interviews attempts to capture the pop culture zeitgeist throughout the month. Published at the end of every month. 12 newsletters in 2012. No more, no less.
If you’ve got any comments or want to share, you can contact me via twitter or by replying directly to this email. You can also continue the discussion of any of the points below on the dedicated Facebook page.
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Thanks for reading,
Khaled Abou Alfa
January 2012
www.brokenkode.com
The Year of the Dragon
Chinese new years was celebrated on the 23rd of January, which began the year of the dragon. As there are 12 animals to cycle through, this event comes along once every 12 years. So go celebrate…by making some dragon babies.
App of the Month
Reading Trainer is an app which improves your reading speed and information retention. The more you use it the better you become.
Architecture
This museum by Daniel Libeskind caught my eye, although probably not for all the right reasons.
Animation
DC Nation Aardman short indent for the Cartoon Network block of cartoons based on DC Comics characters - cute.
Books
The Someday Funnies is finally in print (even says so on the cover as well). This is the long-awaited collection of comic strips created in the early 1970s by world-famous artists and writers such as C. C. Beck, René Goscinny, Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Kirby, Moebius, Art Spiegelman, and Gahan Wilson.
Comics
DC Comics has updated their logo, with a definite departure from their previous mark. While the long standing DC Bullet logo was replaced with a refresh in 2005, this update is very different. The original leaked designs didn’t show how this logo would ultimately be used, however once the official designs were presented, the reviews have been mostly positive. Finally, one of my design heroes, Rhian Hughes weighs in on the redesign as well.
Maybe not as high profile, and with a nod to their previous logo, indie comics publisher Oni Press has also updated their logo. Here’s a poster treatment that I thought was very bold and strong.
Design
How do you follow up leading the Apple stores that are now scattered across the world? You become the CEO of JCPenny’s of course. At least that’s the route that former Apple SVP Ron Johnson took. He’s been at the helm for 3 months now, and the fruits of his labour are now starting to appear. This advert is seen by many as Ron’s ‘Think Different’ campaign. Here’s an interview with Ron. And then there’s that new logo.
Football
Thierry Henry returns to Arsenal, and scores in his opening match. Not so sure about that beard.
Formula One
Speaking of comebacks, we got to see Kimi Räikkönen back in a Formula 1 car. Will his comeback be as lukewarm as Michael Schumacher’s? At least he didn’t grow a beard.
The Caterham F1 team were the first to reveal what the new 2012 spec Formula 1 cars might look like (more photos here, and here). Here’s an interview with Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne and team owner Tony Fernandes.
Gadgets
This iPad stand caught my eye as something Apple would (or even should) have created.
Movies
Tintin won ‘Best Animated Feature Film’ at the Golden Globe awards…and Spielberg forgot to thank Hergé …twat.
The Oscar 2012 nominations are in. As expected ‘The Artist’ got a ton of nominations (scoring 10 nominations), but surprisingly, so did ‘Hugo’ (claiming 11 nominations). Hugo is directed by Martin Scorsese.
Software
Apple has released their iBook creation tool, iBooks Author. Here is a run down of the various features that you should be aware of, but beware of the Apple EULA (End User License Agreement) and make sure you understand what you’re signing up for. If you’re happy to jump in but wondering what to write about, here’s a list of ideas for you to consider.
Tech
Kodak files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. and has set up a website detailing it’s future course. For more on what Chapter 11 Bankruptcy means, obviously head on over to wikipedia. I remember when Marvel comics filed for Chapter 11 in the mid 90s (December 1996 to be exact). They eventually came out much much stronger, by creating Marvel Studios and then were sold off to Disney. So there might be a silver lining for Kodak in the future. It definitely has the brand name behind it.
RIM finally replaces both CEOs. This is only really relevant as it could either mark the beginning of the end of RIM and all it’s Blackberry devices, or it could pave the way for a bold new era. Personally, I don’t care either way, but I’m not very optimistic about the future of RIM, and I’m not alone.
Tennis
Novak Djokovic (and that carpet of hair he’s got on his head) beat Rafa Nadal at the Australian Open after a thrilling 6 hour long match - longest in Grand Slam history). His fifth grand slam.
Websites
DuckDuckGo is a relative newcomer to the world of search (been out and about for a few years now). The logo is ugly as sin, and I find that the colour palette they’ve chosen is pretty..stark, but there’s something about these guys that reminds of Google back in the good old days; you know, before they became too big for their boots. The founder Gabriel Weinberg can be found on his site.
I’ve finally launched a Tumblog. Head on over to Distorted Lenses for a stream of images to feed your imagination.
Cerebral Interviews copyright © 2012 Khaled Abou Alfa
Distorted Lenses - is my latest site, best described as “Broken Kode for images”. Originally I used to use the excellent Asaph, but have transitioned over to Tumblr due to the lack of development on Asaph and the addition of a community via Tumblr.
I only got a chance to put this together over the weekend, so it’s still rough around the edges, but hopefully I’ll be sorting those edges out in due course. The design also gives a clear indication of what Broken Kode will be looking like in the not too distant future.
Arup Design Yearbook 2011 - is out. As always there’s some pretty interesting project in there. Some of my favourites images from this yearbook are:
It’s taken me a while to get to this point, but I think I’m finally there. If I go back to my first computer (but not including the borrowed computer I used from Richard in University), it’s taken 10 years to get to this point, but I can finally say that I’m finally comfortable with the software setup on my machine to achieve the tasks that I want to do.
Text Editors
- Byword - is my distraction free environment for writing. After I’ve written things in here, I export them and save them into the Notational Velocity folder. The formatting is better here. mainly because of it’s Markdown features. Easily previewed. Can change from dark to light themes in an instant. Can export to anything which is awesome as well. Much has been written about this text editor, but it’s worth your time and money.
- Notational Velocity - The de facto text editor for syncing everything and finding things instantly. It liberated my notes, so that they’re with me always (either in the cloud and synced with Simplenote, or on my iPhone).
- Textwrangler. This is more of a great to have. If I want to quickly edit some code, without opening up Coda then this is great, with a great price.
- Coda. For all my website needs. Great all rounder.
- iA Writer. I don’t actually need this any more. I think Byword is the way forward. Could have saved myself a little bit of money. It’s a great little editor, but honestly it’s just not as great as Byword.
Pixel Creators
- Pixelmator. This product has finally matured enough for it to replace my favourite version of Photoshop. The things that I need are now part of the actual product with version 2.0 they’ve moved into that realm that it works for me. They constantly update it, so it’s also great for me.
- Artboard. I’ve not had any time to play around this, but it definitely seems to be a pretty solid application for vector.
Information Managers
- Together - I actually bought a copy of the other major information manager on the Mac (Yojimbo), first but what made me buy Together instead is the fact that you really can import ANYTHING you want into this application, unlike Yojimbo which takes only PDFs, Images, Notes, Web Archives, Bookmarks. The great thing about Together is that EVERYTHING gets chucked into there. Everything. And that’s a powerful thing to have. EPSs, PSDs, EPUB files, everything can be put into one place.
- Littlesnapper - This is my go to applications to track how my website looks and also taking snapshots of websites that inspire me.
Miscellaneous
- Quicksilver. I really need to learn how to use this application, because it really is super powerful as an application to get things done.
- Bettersnaptool
- Preview
- Minutes
- Soulver
- Delicious Library
- Textexpander
- Movist
- Sparrow
- Twitter for Mac
- Safari and Chrome - I can’t decide which I like more.
- uTorrent
- Dropbox
The only thing missing from here at the moment is a good spreadsheet application, but I’m still not convinced about Numbers from Apple, and Excel on a Mac is seriously lacking.
The best way to describe 2011 was that it was bipolar - with such amazing highs and some serious lows.
Life
The year didn’t end on a massive high, as I was made redundant from work. What this means is that for the first 3 months of 2012, there is a transition period that is not really completely within my control. Obviously I have been working methodically since the day I received the news to try and find alternative suitable work and thankfully I have been very lucky with the responses so far. However it’s a very big decision that may mean uprooting myself (and now family of 1) to another country. The timing is interesting as it frames the next stage in my life really from the start of this year.
Creatively
Creatively I would classify this year generally as good. Not great, but then again in the year that I got married, I really couldn’t expect much more than what I achieved. There was some client web design work. There was a redesign of this site which has not gone live, but that’s because my preferred CMS does not exist at the moment (I’ll hopefully have some news of this in the new year). I got to design our wedding cards.
However the biggest achievement of 2011 for me creatively was a little cartoon strip that I have been drawing consistently since the summer. The characters were created before then (and even have their early life on my iPhone). I’m excited by the work I’ve done on this, as I slowly (painfully sometimes) build this world that these character live in.
Many of the projects that I started in 2011, will only bear fruit in 2012 and that’s fine by me. I’d rather have solid work come out when it comes out rather than just push stuff out the door.
Projects in 2012
Releasing my first online cartooning strip. This is months in the making and it’s something that I talk with Yasmine (my wife) about all the time. Some people in my family have seen bits of this but mainly I’ve kept this under wraps until I’m ready. It’s a definite departure from the type of cartooning/drawing that I usually do, but then again I’ve never written and drawn this much in my life, so obviously I must be doing something correctly.
Releasing our first iOS application. Again this has been months in the making. However these things take time, and it’s being created in my spare time. I’m excited to use this application and seeing where this road takes us.
I’d like to rebuild this website. Writing on my site is a muscle. I never stopped writing, I only stopped posting. There are hundreds of drafts on my computer with various ideas ready to be published once I’ve got my workflow sorted, which currently I do not.
The problem is that my graphic novel has taken a little bit of a seat back, as I do all these other projects. Some of them are personal and important to me, some of them hopefully will provide an added revenue stream. Others offer quick creative release. My graphic novel is a slow burn project. I’m not technically ready for it, however if I continue this way I’ll never be ready for it. So what’s the solution? The idea is to aim low, but stay consistent. So ultimately what I would like to try and do is draw 1 page every month as a minimum. A fully completed and inked page of work. I know that’s only 12 pages a year.
However I can see failure in the year ahead. That’s normal. My path is unclear at the moment and some of these projects might not get completed - and I’m okay with that. As long as I actually complete a few projects in 2012 that I can look back on and frame the year with, I’ll consider it as a success.
Joao Ruas - The clear successor to James Jean as one of those outstanding artists. When he first replaced Jean on Fables as the cover artist, I was sceptical. After this latest image, I no longer am sceptical. This is one of my favourite artists working in comics right now.
The statistic I have heard was at least once in a person’s professional career, you are made redundant. I’ve been moderately immune to this over my years as an engineer at Arup, even though there were a great many rounds of redundancy over my years there, but yesterday it finally happened and the grim reaper of jobs caught up with me at my latest company.
After several months of things going downhill at the office, I was called in and got the message that things were getting worse and that unfortunately my time at PDP was going to be cut shorter than originally anticipated.
I was honestly feeling a bit held back living and working in Lebanon. Most of these reasons weren’t unexpected, it’s just anticipating a series of events is very different to living the reality and seeing how you feel or react.
There is a sense of optimism at the moment that I’ve not felt in a while. The world is all heading in all various directions and jobs are getting harder and harder to get by, however I am incredibly upbeat about the whole situation, liberated.
Now hunting for job is an incredibly frustrating ordeal that I thought I didn’t have to go through for a little while, however to be honest, I could see this coming a mile away…so much so that I had my CV completed the morning of the day I was told. I came prepared.