Neolithic Phantom Goblins

Another two weeks, another Free Times, another installment of The Joint, by Lidge, another illustration.



MAN, do I love sneaking in the old Skullface mask to these when I get the chance, and I actually think to while I'm working on them. That rat mask is new, but maybe it'll become something I go back to. There's enough rats in these stories to warrant it, and I'm actually surprised it took me this long to figure that one out. I spent some time with this one, shooting to get it done early but then opting to just work on it a lot longer than usual. So, yeah, go pick up a Free Times.

My Samurai Movie watching experience is going well. I recently watched Akira Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress. I had seen it before, in the theater actually (with Big Granny and Noony!). The Cinematheque had a Kurosawa series a few years ago. It's a fairly amazing film, with what has to be the best spear fight ever. It also has a pretty happy ending. There was a special feature of George Lucas talking about how influencial the film was to Star Wars, and he even mentions how Toshiro Mifune was considered for the role of Obi Wan Kenobi. What a different world we would live in if that had actually happened.

Next was Incident at Blood Pass, which also starred Mifune, this time as the very familiar Yojimbo character. It ALSO stars one of Japan's other awesome Samurai actors, Katsu Shintaro, and a third recognizable Japanese cinematic legend Ishihara Yujiro. The movie takes place at a tea house on the pass over a mountain road where these characters all converge for an incident. It's sort of a convoluted plot that ends in buckwild disaster, but I liked just watching the characters all have at it.

The third of my recent quest to watch all Samurai films was the first of the Lone Wolf and Cub series, Sword of Vengeance. Holy Fucking Shit. I've only read a couple of the comics by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima that this is based on, but from what I can tell it's really faithful. I'm glad I opted to watch this instead of the re-edited version called Shogun Assassin, eventhough that's where the Rza got a lot of samples for Gza's Liquid Swords.

Anyway, back to the drawing board for a couple more flyers, and finally some motherfucking comics.