Christoph3r

"My opinion is that Robbie is an inspiration to all of us as human beings. I think that he’s paving..."

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 12:36:03 -0700

““My opinion is that Robbie is an inspiration to all of us as human beings. I think that he’s paving the way for not only gay, lesbian, transgender, bisexual people and athletes, but for all of us to be okay with who we are.””

- Landon Donovan (regarding openly gay soccer player Robbie Rogers) ~ source: LA Galaxy Insider

We don't walk away

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 16:11:00 -0700

So, yesterday, for the fourth or fifth time in the past couple of months, I almost got in a fight on the public transit.

Seems to usually happen when some crazy person is threatening a woman. One time, though it was some guy yelling at a little old man.

Yesterday, a weird (possibly drunk) man started yelling at the lady bus driver. He was all up in her face, with spit flying out of his mouth. I sat in the back and thought to myself, “Stay out of it… but if he touches her, I’m getting up”.

Suddenly he grabbed her shoulder and started to pull her.

I stood up,
put my backpack on
and started to rush forward.

She was apparently a trainee, because in a seat right near her, another bus driver guy got out of his seat and got between her and the crazy guy. The crazy dude finally sat down after yelling expletives at the both of them.

My stop came, and feeling the supervisor had it under control, I felt okay stepping off.

I’m not a violent person. I feel violence should always be a last resort. But when that happened, I kept thinking of the Doctor Who episode the other night, and something he said pretty much summed up my feelings in situations like that…

Listen, there is one thing you need to know about traveling with me.
Well, one thing apart from the blue box and the two hearts.
We don’t walk away.

I have a bad feeling I’m gonna end up actually having to do something some time if this keeps up. So far all I’ve had to do is get in between people, or tell them to step back. What sucks is that aside from this time, every other time something like this has happened on the train or bus, I’ve been the only one moving forward to do something.

But I can’t just sit by and let it happen.
I can’t just leave someone in danger.

“We don’t walk away.”

People's Response To...

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 11:15:34 -0700

Skinny Girl Eating Salad: Omg stop dieting! You're sooo skinny!
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themeatkitchen: This is unbelievable. tothisdayproject: To...

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 14:01:53 -0800

themeatkitchen:

This is unbelievable.

tothisdayproject:

To This Day Project

When I was young I was invincible. I found myself not thinking...

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 13:48:17 -0800

When I was young I was invincible.
I found myself not thinking twice.
I never thought about no future,
It’s just a roll of the dice.
But the day may come when you’ve got something to lose
And just when you think you’re done paying dues
You say to yourself, ‘Dear God, What Have I done?’
And hope it’s not too late ‘cause tomorrow may never come

Reach for the sky…
‘cause tomorrow may never come.

"From Two Trains Running, some thoughts for Inauguration Day: 1959 October 06 Tuesday 18:29 “You..."

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 13:30:47 -0800

“From Two Trains Running, some thoughts for Inauguration Day:

1959 October 06 Tuesday 18:29

“You know what a pilgrimage is?” Rufus said.

“A holy journey,” Moses answered, as if he had been expecting the question.

“That’s right,” Rufus said, surprised. “And I took mine on September 3, 1955. On that day, I went to Chicago. So I could see that little boy, Emmett Till. See him in the coffin where the white man had put him.”

“I remember that.”

“His mother left the casket open so people could see—so the whole world could see—how they had tortured her child before they murdered him,” Rufus said, his voice throbbing. “It was supposed to be because the boy had whistled at a white woman. Not raped her, not killed her—whistled at her. Men came in the night and took him; didn’t make no secret about it. Everybody knew who they were. And they bragged about it all over town, too. Took some cracker jury about ten minutes to find them not guilty. Probably some of them on that jury, they were along for the ride that night themselves.”

“Mississippi,” Moses said.

“Yeah, Mississippi. And then the men who did it, they got paid for it. I read it in Look magazine, the whole thing. After that jury cut them loose, some reporter paid them to tell the true story, because you can’t try a man twice for the same crime. Every cracker’s dream, kill a black boy and get paid for it, too. Like a bounty on niggers.”

“I read that story,” Moses said, evenly.

“Didn’t it make you want to … kill a whole lot of whites?” “I don’t believe in killing by color.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, if I could pick, there’d be a whole lot of whites I’ve met in my life that needed killing. But I wouldn’t go kill a bunch of white men for what some other white men did.”

“You mean, like they do us?” Rufus said, every syllable a challenge.

“That’s not why they kill us,” Moses said, a teacher correcting a pupil. “Not for anything we ever did. That’s just their excuse. Like that ‘wolf whistle’ the Till boy was supposed to have done to that white woman.”

“There’s plenty of them would kill all of us, they had the chance,” Rufus said.

“Sure. Or put us back on the plantations. Or ship us back to Africa. But no matter how much they hate us, things is never going back to the way they was—the way they liked it.”

”

-

Two Trains Running (2005), by Andrew Vachss

(via andrewvachss)

For my Grandpa.

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 11:54:59 -0800

My grandpa passed away in his sleep last night. He was 91 years old.

My mom called at 4am to let me know. After I got off the phone with my mom, I went back to bed and began to think back on my memories of him. I immediately recalled a few times when my grandma and I would go visit him during his lunch breaks at work. I remembered a particular day when, for some reason, my grandma dropped me off and just he and I had lunch together alone.

We sat in the cab of his truck, outside some large factories in an industrial area of town. We ate baloney sandwiches together, and he pointed out to the railroad tracks in front of us. “I remember a Popeye episode where Bluto tied Olive Oil up to some train tracks like those and Popeye had to rescue her. Have you seen that one?” He asked. “I think so,” I said. He then told me about the cartoon and how Popeye saved the day by eating his spinach. I asked him to tell me another Popeye story.

Grandma was a bit late picking me up, so he obliged and told me another Popeye story. I asked him to tell me another, but then he said it was my turn. I should tell him a Popeye story. So I thought back to some episodes I’d seen and told him all about what happened in one.

We took turns and then even started making up our own Popeye stories.

That’s always been one of my favorite memories of him. Just the two of us. Eating sandwiches in his truck on his lunch hour, making up stories together.

Thinking back on that, I smiled as I was laying in bed last night. Then I closed my eyes and whispered:

“Tell me another story, Papa.”

Photo

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 10:24:21 -0700

R.I.P. Joe Kubert

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 15:54:00 -0700

We’ve lost another legend. Joe Kubert was one of those artists whose work I always keep within arms reach of my drawing table. A constant source of reference and inspiration. When drawing, I often find myself asking, “What would Joe do?”

I have a few tutorials he put out that I read like gospel. He was more than just a great creator, he was “the teacher”. He has inspired generations of artists through his work and his legacy. And through his art school, actually taught and guided so many artists directly. He gave so much to this industry.

We owe him such a great debt of gratitude.

Thank you for everything, sir.

Dark Horse Comics has put a free comic of his online, in honor of his passing.
Check it out.

RIP Moebius

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 08:47:00 -0800

I am not Moebius. I learned that very early in my art career.

No matter how much I wanted to be, I was not and never will be him. To call him an artistic hero of mine would diminish his greatness. He is more than a hero…

Moebius is the north star.
Something I will forever gaze upward to,
a guiding light,
a beacon,
a dream,
a mystery.

Bright and brilliant and strange and beautiful,
forever beyond my reach, but always in my sights.

I first discovered his work through his Spaghetti Western comic series “Blueberry”. I studied every stray line, no matter how randomly they seemed to be put there, each seemed to have it’s place. I copied his art, trying to unlock it’s secrets.

Then I saw his sci-fi/fantasy work and my mind exploded. Moebius was my gateway drug. Before I ever regarded anything be Will Eisner or Bill Sienkewicz, it was Jean Giraud a.k.a. Moebius who showed me that comic book art could be elevated to something greater. Something more than commercial art, something that could truly be considered fine art.

He mentioned in an interview once that as a youth he had the idea of using different pen names for his different styles of art. Sometimes he’d go by his full name, Jean Giraud. Other times he’d go by Gir. And for the truly outrageous stuff, he’d go by “Moebius”.

He was like a rock star. Just going by one name like Sting, Bono, Cher or Madonna.

I loved that idea. I decided that in my career I would use different pen names for my different styles of work. Using my full name only for the most “serious” of work. Going by only “Christopher” for all-ages/whimsical work. Maybe even mixing up my initials and making my first name last, “H.A. Christopher” for poetry and prose. I got as far as just using my first name. It kinda stuck.

As a teenager I developed my own western comic idea, another one of the dozen graphic novels that still swirl about my head, haunting my dreams and my waking hours, begging me to make them real if not for pesky real life getting in my way. But when I was young and 19, I was all ambition. I knew what I wanted to do and I’d be damned if anything was going to stop me.

I took my art to a comic book convention and wanted to find someone who’d take a look at it. Someone who would take one look at my magnificant ideas and say, “I want to publish this!” or “My stars! You are amazing, let me take you under my wing as my apprentice!”. So I stood in the Jim Lee autograph line. I decided that I would impress Jim Lee. He would see my talents and help me become the breakout star I was destined to be.

Jim Lee took one look at my pencils and, I could tell, struggled to find something nice to say. I don’t recall his first words. Probably something about my art being too “loose”. Working on anatomy. Figure drawing. The usual. But then he pointed out my line work. “I don’t like how thin these lines are here…”

I was infuriated! I broke the number one rule of asking for an art review. I argued with the reviewer!!!!

“That’s what Moebius does!” I yelled at Jim Lee.

He was shocked. Then, he leaned forward and very sternly told me, “You’re not Moebius.”

And he was right.

I was not Moebius. I never will be. Moebius was a rare one-of-a-kind talent that graced this world, and now he is gone. There will never be another Moebius.

But I will always gaze up
and look to the stars
in awe and wonder.

And there will be one star
shining brighter and more
radiant than all the others.

And he will forever be a guide
across artistic and creative waters.

hugleikurdagsson: fame.

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:47:57 -0800

hugleikurdagsson:

fame.

graphicly: Galactus says, trick or treat. lulubonanza: Drawn...

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 10:08:58 -0700

graphicly:

Galactus says, trick or treat.

lulubonanza:

Drawn By
Adam Ford

Site

"People who alter or destroy works of art and our cultural heritage for profit or as an exercise of..."

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 11:51:00 -0700

“People who alter or destroy works of art and our cultural heritage for profit or as an exercise of power are barbarians… In the future it will become even easier for old negatives to become lost and be ‘replaced’ by new altered negatives. This would be a great loss to our society. Our cultural history must not be allowed to be rewritten.”

- George Lucas (1988)

"Well I tell you my friend This might seem like the end But the continuation Is yours for the..."

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 09:43:00 -0700

“Well I tell you my friend
This might seem like the end
But the continuation
Is yours for the making…
Yes you’re a hero.”

- Queen, “The Hero”

"Anyone who knows me knows I would never read a comic book."

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 13:00:41 -0700

“Anyone who knows me knows I would never read a comic book.”

- Tim Burton

A hero like me

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 13:51:00 -0700

I believe in heroes. I always have.

I’ve always enjoyed reading fantastic stories about heroism and chivalry. As a child I loved King Arthur, Robin Hood and The Three Musketeers. So when I first discovered superhero comic books, of course, I was hooked. My first comics were Marvel comics, “The Incredible Hulk” and “Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man”. I still have those issues. They are sealed and saved away and precious to me.

Then, “Superman the Movie” came out. I don’t think any movie has ever had a bigger impact on me than that movie. Christopher Reeve’s earnest portrayal of the Man of Steel and his lines like, “I never lie, Lois” laid out the template for the man I wanted to become and to this day still strive to be.

But being a half-Hispanic, half-Navajo kid, the one thing that kinda bummed me out was that my heroes didn’t look like me. Or, rather that I didn’t look like them. But that was never their fault. It was mine, I thought. I blamed myself for not being white. I hated not being white. As a minority kid in white suburbia, quite frankly, it was embarrassing.

I was raised by a Hispanic mother and white step-father. My step-brother is white. No one believed we were brothers when I said silly things like, “This is my brother.” Once, on a bus, my brother started to ask my mom a question, but just as he was saying, “Hey mom…?” a woman next to us looked at our mom, sneered, looked down at him and said, “SHE’S not your mom!”

My mom says it felt like someone stuck a dagger in her chest. She felt a fire rage inside as she snapped back, “YES I AM!”

In school, I felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb because I didn’t look like everyone else. I recall being in gym class one day and the entire class was doing sit-ups. I was getting tired and didn’t think I could do any more. I stopped to rest for a second.

My gym teacher walked over and with a disgusted look on his face, stared down at me and asked, “Wassa matter? Been eating too many burritos?”

I wanted to die.

I went home that day and when I was in the shower, I started to scrub my arms with soap and as it began to lather, covering my arms with white foam I saw what I might look like as a white kid. “I’m turning white!”

I scrubbed my arms…
  wishing…
   wishing…
   wishing…
   to wash the brown off.

But as the water poured over my arms, the soap dripped off and the momentary illusion washed away. Frustrated, I decided to turn up the heat. Imagining some super hero origin moment. Perhaps with extreme heat and wishing hard enough I could wash the brown off, I could transform. And as the soap washed away, I just turned the heat up, hotter… and hotter… AND HOTTER.

Nope. Burning myself in the shower didn’t work. I was still me.

But in that heat, a new superhero was born. I imagined a hero who looked like me under the mask. His name was “Firebird”. I began to draw sketches of him. I imagined my hero meeting up with my gym teacher and punching his lights out. Pow!

I had to create a hero who looked like me, because in all the comics and tv shows and movies I watched, there was no one else.

And so it went. Whatever. I was always gonna be a brown kid, looking up to my white heroes. That’s just how it was. And, hey, there was always Zorro, right? I dressed up like him for Halloween once. I LOVED that there was at least one Mexican hero in pop culture I could identify with.

Over the years there have been a few minority characters in comics. Storm, Black Panther, Luke Cage, Bishop. Okay, usually always black heroes, I don’t recall many hispanic ones, but I liked that they existed and that there was some semblance of diversity.

But generally just minor characters and sidekicks. The main guys were always gonna be the same.

Then, this week… something MAJOR happened.

Last month in Marvel’s “Ultimate” comics line, they killed off Spider-Man. And now, it was revealed that a new kid would step in to fill Peter Parker’s shoes:

13 year old Miles Morales. A half-hispanic, half-black kid.

Woah! The internets went nuts. Some fans were excited. Some fans decided to remain skeptically optimistic. Others… were outraged. If there’s one thing comic book fans hate, it’s change.

Me. I was overjoyed.

Maybe Spider-Man wasn’t the hero who looked like me, but for the first time I felt like it could be me. Now more than ever. And this isn’t a sidekick. A minor character. This… is Spider-Man. An icon. One of the big guys!

What would 9 year old me have thought?
What does a 9 year old kid think about it today?

Hey, they didn’t make Peter Parker black. It’s not some character switcheroo. Petey is who he is, was who he was. This is a new kid. And I think it’s a wonderful idea.

They could have left Spider-Man dead. Introduced a new hero. Could have had anybody be the new Spidey. Another white kid, a girl, who knows. The point is, they could have made anybody step up and put on the mask and they chose to make it this kid.

And I’m so thankful that the folks at Marvel were willing to do this. And despite any conspiracy theorists claims, this isn’t some part of an “agenda”. It comes from a place far more simple and innocent:

During the pre-production of the new “Amazing Spider-Man” movie, black actor Donald Glover had the balls to say, “I’d like to be Peter Parker.” An internet campaign was started up in support of the idea. The second season premiere of “Community” featured an inside joke which featured Glover’s character waking up wearing Spider-Man pajamas. And when Spider-Man writer Brian Michael Bendis caught wind of it all, and saw the image, he thought, “I would read that book.” So when he had the opportunity to write about a new character to take up the mantle of Spider-Man, he thought back on that image of Donald Glover in Spidey pj’s and was open minded enough to think, “why not?”

That’s it. Not some subversive Marvel/Disney masterplot aimed at dispiriting white people. Not a push by the Obama administration. Not a marketing scheme. Just a writer with a willingness to trying something new.

My local comic shop owner calls it a gimmick. Says in the end it won’t increase sales and just become a flop. But I know of one comic book fan who has become interested. I’m setting up a new “pull list” and this book is going on it. I can’t wait to meet the new kid.

I’ve been reading the storyline, almost teared up a few times during Peter Parkers funeral. Then on the train to work this morning, I read the first appearance of the Miles Morales Spidey. I had a huge grin on my face.

Wow. For me, this ranks right up there with the Sammy Davis Jr kiss on “All In The Family” or Captain Kirk kissing Uhura on “Star Trek”. This is some groundbreaking, watershed moment stuff.

Ultimate Marvel universe, regular Marvel universe… regardless, for everyone that thinks it doesn’t really matter… the backlash only proves that it DOES. If it didn’t mean anything, people wouldn’t so pissed off.

We’d all like to think we now live in a post-racist society. But I’ve stumbled across some of these ACTUAL FOR REALLY REALS comments on da internets on the matter:

- “Re: Miles Morales: Marketing to blacks and Hispanics – precisely blacks and Hispanics – is the new strategy. McDonalds brought it in last year. Marvel is just the latest corporation to jump on the bandwagon.”

- “Making Nick Fury black is one thing, not Spider-Man. How about you create NEW characters who are black instead of taking white ones and just switching the skin color. Oh wait, I know why, because it’s a proven fact that black and Hispanic children DO NOT READ COMICS.”

- “I think it’s great that the new Spider-Man is black. I just hope he doesn’t blame all his problems on Peter Parker.”

- “Q: Hey Spidey, why you web slinging so fast? A: KFC closin’ in a few minutes.”

- “Peter Parker could not be whiter. A black boy under the mask just don’t look right. This opens up a whole new story line with a whole new set of problems. Who is going to believe a black man in a mask is out for the good of man kind?”

I’ve also heard the term “Spigger-Man” has been created.
That’s out there. That exists. That’s a thing.
That’s the world we live in.

I am reminded of that woman on the bus who told my brother, “SHE’S not your mom!” and I can hear her in my head.

I can hear her saying “HE’S not Spider-Man!”

And I can hear my mom, my real life hero answering back:

“Yes. He is.”

Why soccer can beat comic books

Sat, 30 Jul 2011 10:40:00 -0700

This is happening, right now…

Somewhere. In a comic book shop, on an internet forum, I don’t know, somewhere… two comic book fans are arguing. The source of their debate: “Who would win in a fight: Batman or Captain America?” Or maybe it’s: “Superman vs. The Hulk?”

It’s an age old comics geek cliché. And trust me, they can get very passionate about their opinions. It’ll get heated. Yelling will ensue. (Or at least typing IN ALL CAPS!)

And at the end of the day, no one will end up with a solid answer. It’s just one of those unanswerable questions. Sure, the comics companies have tried to dangle the carrot in front of fans in the past, with promises of some type of answer. A company crossover between DC Comics and Marvel Comics! But the story usually ends up being the same old thing: The two heroes meet, for some reason they think the other is a villain, they trade a few blows, each gets a decent hit or two in, but then they realize… waitaminute… we’re both heroes. We’ve been duped! Let’s team up to fight the REAL bad guy. The end. Each company ultimately wants to protect their property. Why would DC let anyone whup Batman’s ass?

And the fans are not really left with an answer. The debates rage on.

But in sports, and more specifically in soccer, you can sometimes get a real opportunity to see two teams from different leagues clash in a battle royale. Your Batman vs. Captain America, if you will.

Just recently I saw my beloved LA Galaxy take on Manchester City. See, that’s kind of cool because the Galaxy play in the U.S. soccer league (MLS) while Manchester City play in the English Premiere League (EPL). It’s like a real life crossover event!

I’m proud to say that my LA Galaxy fought Man City to a draw until the game had to be decided on penalty kicks. Grr. Then Manchester City won. BUT Manchester City was expected to crush us, just as easily as Superman could squish Spider-Man’s head like a grape. Take that Soccer-Eurosnobs! We held our own! (And yeah, I say “we” even though I was just sitting in the stands drinking a beer, but it’s MY home team and they can’t win without my supportive chants and various superstitious gameday rituals, so “nyeh!”)

Okay, granted, it was just a “friendly” match, nothing really at stake. And each team had like a billion substitutions they were allowed to make so that “everyone plays” like in some Under-7 AYSO game. And yeah, yeah, Manchester City was just on a pre-season tour and not in 100% gameday form and fitness so the Galaxy were expected to have a somewhat of an edge being that they were in mid-season, match fit, etc. etc. blah blah.

BUT, the Galaxy had just come off of a VERY congested schedule, playing games every 3 days with little rest for the past month and we were also missing Landon Donovan, “the greatest American soccer player ever (TM)” and our super badass goalkeeper Donovan Rickets is out injured with a broken arm. So, we both had our disadvantages. Okay?!?!

Oh man, I’m doing it. The geek debate:
“But can Batman use his utility belt? Will Cap have his shield?”

HEY! At least it happened! At least we got some sort of answer. On top of that we also recently got to see the LA Galaxy take on Spanish League giants Real Madrid (and got our asses handed to us).

But you know what? In the middle of the game, the two teams didn’t “come to their senses” and team up to take on the referees. Like athletes, each team had some sense of pride at stake, and their competitive natures drove them on. When these guys put on their colorful costumes, they go out with a desire to win, not make friends or try and find out “Who is REALLY behind this?”

Say what you will about friendly competitions between club teams in separate leagues. At least in soccer, you get to watch real life mega crossover events take place right before your eyes and get the satisfaction of gloating to your soccer friends afterward that: the Red Bulls just beat Paris Saint-Germaine (yeah, this happened this morning)! Or, have to humbly slink away knowing that, yeah Manchester United just made fools out of the MLS All-Star team.

Sure, the fans will debate. “We were just playing our reserve squad”, “This game doesn’t mean anything anyway”.

But it actually happens. It’s not a hoax. Not an imaginary story.

It’s something you can REALLY watch. We can really find out:

Who would win if…?

That’s something that is so rad about soccer.

Tomorrow the New York Red Bulls (MLS- USA) are taking on Arsenal (EPL- England) in a friendly inter-league tournament in London. I’ll be pulling for the Red Bulls for the sake of American soccer pride, while my buddy Cody will be cheering for Arsenal ‘cause that’s HIS team. Monday we can argue all we want about the game, but in the end, the two teams will have faced off and one will walk away a winner.

Um… unless it’s a tie, I guess.

Oh, and for the record. I love Captain America, but I think Batman would totally win if they ever had to duke it out.

Sorry Cap.

"I could never stop working. You know how a shark can never stop swimming? I have too many ideas. I..."

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 09:58:36 -0700

“I could never stop working. You know how a shark can never stop swimming? I have too many ideas. I can’t just sit on a beach and enjoy the surf and the sun; I’m always creating. I’m an idea factory.”

- Jim Steranko

"There is no mistaking a Gene Colan-drawn comic, they’re like dreams on paper, real yet..."

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 10:41:26 -0700

“There is no mistaking a Gene Colan-drawn comic, they’re like dreams on paper, real yet surreal, glimpses to a world only he could provide access to.”

- Evan Dorkin

R.I.P. Gene Colan Going to bed last night, I was heartbroken to...

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 09:55:24 -0700

R.I.P. Gene Colan

Going to bed last night, I was heartbroken to find out that we lost Gene Colan. He was truly one of the all time great comic book artists. His horror comic artwork is such an inspiration to me.

More info: Gene Colan obituary (AP/msnbc.com)