Doctor Aphra Vol. 3 - War Of The Bounty Hunters

Doctor Aphra is the only reason I read Star Wars comics. Bought War of the Bounty Hunters series and companion because I didn’t want to miss anything Doctor Aphra related. You don’t need to read War of the Bounty Hunters for Aphra. Her appearance in series is completely in this volume. One issue in companion might be useful but this volume doesn’t get that far. You probably enjoy main series and companion if you like Doctor Aphra. I did.

Even when I enjoyed main series and companion Doctor Aphra is best part of War of the Bounty Hunters. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this. In Vader Down Doctor Aphra’s and her companions’ role was to fight with movie counter parts. It was basically fan service. Luckily War of the Bounty Hunters doesn’t do the same. Doctor Aphra’s connection to main story arc is she shows up and sees two characters from main story. Everything else has nothing to do with main story arc. This could have happened on any underworld meeting.

This is basically heist story. Aphra is after one item which has nothing to do with War of the Bounty Hunters. Item just happens to be in same place. Team doesn’t meet characters from other books or main players of War of the Bounty hunters after it is introduced this happens during War of the Bounty Hunters. I was bit surprised of that. Probably less serious Doctor Aphra doesn’t work well with more serious characters. Which is fine. I don’t want Aphra to run into movies’ or other comics’ characters.

Considering how little Aphra had to do with War of the Bounty Hunters it seem to have huge impact on her comic. One issue of companion introduced new characters and this one sets new storyline in motion. There is five issue Crimson Reign miniseries continuing what started in War of the Bounty Hunters. I hope it doesn’t mean there will be crossovers in near future.

My main issue with this was it was so short. I read it on one sitting and now I have to wait few months for next one. Considering reading all Doctor Aphra comics starting from Darth Vader where she was introduced. I need more of this.

It is that time of the year again

It is time when people make resolutions only to break them in couple weeks. I don’t believe into starting something on first of January. However this is good time to check goal and make plans. My plan for year 2022 is to spend less money on everything. There have been times when I haven’t had money and now when I do I have spent it like preparing for times when I don’t have it. Have thought what I might want to do when I have less money and more time. This has lead to having lot of everything. Trying to get rid of this habit.

Habit has lead me to have good video and music making setups, big music library and lot of digital comics which I haven’t had time or energy to use, read or what ever. Not going to stop buying but concentrating on getting limited setups instead of getting everything I might want to use when I don’t have money. I could have got studio setup to point where I don’t need to buy any music gear on 2022. But don’t want to get everything at once just to have new year’s resolution.

The point is trying not to use all available money on something I might want to use in future. It won’t start 2022. I have done it before but will do more systematically on 2022. That is closest thing I have for new year’s resolution this time. Drawing and music courses continue. Trying to get more into doing than taking courses sometime during 2022. For drawing it should be current course and two or four more courses. Will not stop taking drawing courses after it but taking them slower and spend more time on drawing something. Should happen on first half of 2022.

For music it is more complicated. I don’t have as structured plan there. I want to learn good habits. That is why I have spent so much time taking courses instead of doing something same time. On music side I am trying a new thing which should unblock creativity. I’m not good playing keyboards. I can do it based on what I know from playing guitar but I am really bad at it. I bought Linnstrument 128. I should be able to play it with what I know from playing guitar and bass. Every scale I learn on guitar should be easy to apply on Linnstrument. Considered full sized Linnstrument but couldn’t justify price and size difference. Maybe I regret not getting full sized when I get good at playing it but at this time shorter was better option.

For videos I have no plans. Not for 2022 at least. Want to get back to making them but not sure what kind of videos. Have few ideas but there is long way to go before getting anything ready. Current pandemic doesn’t urge to go outside shooting videos and my flat ain’t cinematic. Talking about pandemic. I will be coming out of it better than going in. When ever it will end. Have lost lot of weight and had time to learn drawing and music. Still need to lose weight and learn but it is not over yet.

Robot factory 20211219

This is one of those pictures I am not sure if I should publish. I am at the beginning of drawing faces course and still figuring stuff out. I can draw faces you should guess which gender they are supposed to be. Can’t do that from side yet. Original idea was to have female face from front and side. Couldn’t make side profile to look like female so I did man and female head from front which I can to do some extent. Everything went worse when I tried to do shadows. So no shadows or shading this time.

You will get to see some other pictures from robot factory in future. Robot factory is good setting for heads with out bodies. It doesn’t get too weird or disturbing. My heads don’t have too much life or emotion yet. So robot heads.

I mentioned taking another figure drawing course. That wasn’t too good. At least not what I wanted. Will watch the videos later if there is something I can pick but probably not doing it as a course as I usually do. Went to take face drawing course I had bought from sale long time ago. It seems to be what I needed. It improved my head drawing from get go. Can’t go it as fast as previous courses and have to watch some videos twice to get everything but information is really good.

I realized how long way to go I still have. First I need to learn to draw different genders and the get the consistency to draw same character again and again. Then learn to give them different expressions. All the previous stuff has been easier. Now I understand why figure drawing course spent little time on faces and told us to figure it out by ourselves..

Metro 2033

My Russian science fiction is always very optimistic. Tarkovsky’s Solaris and Stalker are not at all about people lost all hope wondering something philosophical. Roadside Picnic had people living next to alien landing site changing them into something else. This time it is world after apocalyptic war and last survivors who live in Moscow metro network. I have seen couple Soviet era movies which were closer to Star Trek but those seem to be harder to come by than books or movies where almost all hope is lost.

Book follows 24 old Artyom’s journey from one metro station through metro network and ultimately to confrontation against threat his station introduced at the beginning. Sounds like hero’s journey but this isn’t your western story. This is closer to those role playing games where you don’t necessary get the good ending. Artyom is like bad player who game needs to hand hold towards ending. This makes middle third bit drag. Book spends lot of time building world. It gets really good on last third when they go above ground first time and real plot starts. First two thirds are spent to getting to metro station where the story really starts.

Metro 2033 suffers from phasing issues. It spends too much time building the world while getting to metro station where the story really begins. World building doesn’t end there. It gets more interesting when we learn how apocalypse has changed the world and more interesting aspects of this world are introduced. Last third is really good. It makes listening or reading Metro 2033 worth it. Won’t go into spoilers but Metro 2033 has one of the best twists I have experienced.

Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters Companion

War of the Bounty Hunters Companion collects one issue spin-offs. War of the Bounty Hunters is happening background. First issue introduces bounty hunter Deva Lompop who have small cameo or bigger role in each issue. It felt like she is built to be important character later. It would be weird if this much build up doesn’t lead into anything. She is interesting character. Don’t know if comic books already have enough baddest ever bounty hunters. I would read comics with her in them. At least if she was written like in first issue.

War of the Bounty Hunters Companion is pretty much what I want from Star Wars. Stories in Star Wars world without trying to connect them to the movies. Jabba and Baba were in the movies but this doesn’t bring anything from movies to them. IG-88 was in Empire Strikes Back. He was one of the robots which stood on background and was sold as action figure later. His issue made him more interesting character. Interesting enough to carry one issue maybe few more. Probably wouldn’t work in long run but his issue left me wanting to know what happens next.

Boushh’s issue added more to Doctor Aphra than War of the Bounty Hunters series. He and his gang worked for one issue, Think they are good addition to Doctor Aphra’s cast. They are only ones who clearly seem to have role in near future Star Wars comics. IG-88 was left on distant planet to wonder what happens next. Deva Lompop was introduces without hinting where she goes next. 4-LOM and Zuckuss had open ending without connecting it to anything. Their issues wasn’t on bar with other issues for several reasons. Their issue diminished what happened to them in main series and story wasn’t that good.

Overall War of the Bounty Hunters Companion was as good as I hoped. Three good issues and one not so good was better than I expected. Short length worked for stories. Stories weren’t too tightly connected to main story arch. You can read this without reading main series. Only first issue added something meaningful to main story. Last one adds small detour to main story but it doesn’t change anything.

Barbarian 20211207

Got through muscle section of online figure drawing course. Wanted to draw muscles. I am better drawing back muscles. Got idea for this from one Cartoonist Kayfabe video. They were analyzing comic which had panel when guy walked to door way behind which was something supernatural. This is barbarian walking towards door to another world. It let me draw muscular character from back. Not planning to draw many of these in future. This celebrates me getting through muscle section of the course.

I thought I was using really dark colors but it didn’t turn out to be that dark. Maybe I should start to use black more. Idea was to have this door at the end of dark room. Picture benefitted greatly from last week’s experiments. Last week I learned a lot which I used this week. With planning black lines worked with this kind of coloring. Now last weeks picture feels even worse but it was useful experiment.

I am almost at the end of figure drawing course. Plan was to take face drawing course next but I think I will take another figure drawing course before it. Current course wasn’t exactly what I wanted. It spend way too much time on bones. Muscles were ok but face and action posing weren’t that good. Face was almost last section and only four minutes longer than pelvis section. Almost quarter of the time was spent drawing face from weird angle. If you wonder why I don’t draw faces reason is this course had face section at the end and it wasn’t that good to be honest. It basically told us to figure it out by ourselves after giving some basic tools. This was fourth course I took from same instructor. Others were better than this one.

I don’t say the course was complete waste of time but after watching almost 40 hours of videos and spending more time drawing based on those videos I should not have to take another figure drawing course just to have enough basics to draw what I want. Next course is figure drawing course which spends almost three times more time on head and more than few minutes on hands. Probably should have taken that first place rather than one I took. Don’t understand why course I took spend so much time on bones when that knowledge wasn’t used later to extent which justifies how much time it spent on them.