Monday, April 26, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Hana
Not counting the JoshTierney.com site itself, The Untitled Saga of Hana was my first large project, begun in the summer of 2007 and brought to something resembling a conclusion in early 2009. Comprised of two whole volumes of episodes -- about 300 pages altogether --, The Untitled Saga of Hana concerns a young girl named Hana who is capable of making things out of her dandruff. This strange power comes in handy when Hana and her friends -- James and Henri -- are confronted by a barrage of bizarre creatures and foes in the form of a kappa, kidnapping lobsters, a giant chicken, a giant dandruff lizard, a boy made out of Brussels sprouts and many, many others.
Hana was my first project to involve a consistent illustrator in addition to a different featured artist for each episode. Alison Berry created an illustration for each episode of Volume 1 while Victoria Assanelli (aka Toia Bates) provided illustrations for the first half of Volume 2. The featured artists for the two volumes were (let's take a deep breath): Afu Chan, Timothy Weaver, Bettina M. George, Secil Cokan, Soe, Alice Zheng, Stephanie Holmes, Francesca C., Sarah Ferrick, Joan Casaramona, Ramon Sierra, Mel Stringer, Angie Hoffmeister, Basia Konczarek, Gabrielle Durán (now Gabrielle Rose), John Wilkins, Danielle 'Knee' Estefan, Maaike Verwijs, Nina Fides Garcia, Cinanti Astria Johansjah, Lo Ning Wong, Jake Hill and Olivier Pichard.
In 2008 Joel Hentges designed a Volume 1 book using Alison Berry's illustrations for the interior and one of Afu Chan's featured illustrations for the cover. Hana is the girl playing the Spera RPG in one of Afu Chan's pieces for Spera-Comic.com.
Hana was originally going to be a short story. The thought process during the brainstorming session went like this: what is the strangest thing I can possibly come up with? I scratched my head and the answer fell onto my lap. I figured the idea was worth about ten pages and opened up Word.
The Untitled Saga of Hana still holds a great, big, dandruffy place in my heart. I made many wonderful, true friends on it. Its story of friendship and long summer days is one I still very much believe in. I hope readers will continue to give it a chance.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Videogames As Art
Once again this has become a popular debate amongst my fellow nerds. What follows is a comment I posted on The Auteurs:
For the most part, Hollywood films are products created with the intention of pleasing as many people as possible, so that they can make that much money through ticket sales. Videogames are even more of a product than Hollywood films — if the gameplay is not enjoyable, the game is considered unplayable. To add to this, the most ambitious game developers aim to create experiences as close as possible to Hollywood films, which — again, for the most part — are really just crowd-pleasing entertainment, like going to a small circus or amusement park. The most well-liked contemporary videogame at the moment is possibly Uncharted 2, which comes across as even more empty and impersonal than the brand of film it attempts to emulate.
Gamers don’t want to be challenged (and I do mean in a different way than level difficulty) by videogames in the same way that the casual moviegoing public do not want to be challenged by art films. They paid their money and want to be entertained. They do not want their dollars to be challenged by someone’s singular artistic vision — they want to be engrossed in an experience made by a company to appeal to not only them but those enjoying the game with them. One of the only instances of artistic alienation in videogames was masterminded by Hideo Kojima with the midway point and ending of Metal Gear Solid 2, a postmodern game that comments on the gamer as much as it comments on its own in-game events. Because of this it was met with a huge backlash from fans. Hideo Kojima learned his lesson. He would not make games that alienated his audience, because gamers do not want their games to be art. They merely want their games to be considered art so that they are no longer questioned with why they spend so much time and money on their hobby.
Why is there so rarely a narrative game that does not involve killing? Why does ‘videogame’ seem to automatically mean shooting someone in the head? There is some wonderful and intelligent dialogue in the film Yi Yi about this. There is no wonderful and intelligent dialogue in a game that comments on either itself or any other medium. It is a closed-off world of meaningless rules, relentless depictions of murder and hackneyed attempts at emotion which rarely reach beyond melodrama or sentiment. There are games that are artistic but there are no games that are honest. One day this may change, but until then we are left with nothing but charming vessels of instant gratification.
My five favourite games:
1. Landstalker
2. Shenmue
3. Metal Gear Solid
4. Super Mario Galaxy
5. Jet Set Radio Future
For the most part, Hollywood films are products created with the intention of pleasing as many people as possible, so that they can make that much money through ticket sales. Videogames are even more of a product than Hollywood films — if the gameplay is not enjoyable, the game is considered unplayable. To add to this, the most ambitious game developers aim to create experiences as close as possible to Hollywood films, which — again, for the most part — are really just crowd-pleasing entertainment, like going to a small circus or amusement park. The most well-liked contemporary videogame at the moment is possibly Uncharted 2, which comes across as even more empty and impersonal than the brand of film it attempts to emulate.
Gamers don’t want to be challenged (and I do mean in a different way than level difficulty) by videogames in the same way that the casual moviegoing public do not want to be challenged by art films. They paid their money and want to be entertained. They do not want their dollars to be challenged by someone’s singular artistic vision — they want to be engrossed in an experience made by a company to appeal to not only them but those enjoying the game with them. One of the only instances of artistic alienation in videogames was masterminded by Hideo Kojima with the midway point and ending of Metal Gear Solid 2, a postmodern game that comments on the gamer as much as it comments on its own in-game events. Because of this it was met with a huge backlash from fans. Hideo Kojima learned his lesson. He would not make games that alienated his audience, because gamers do not want their games to be art. They merely want their games to be considered art so that they are no longer questioned with why they spend so much time and money on their hobby.
Why is there so rarely a narrative game that does not involve killing? Why does ‘videogame’ seem to automatically mean shooting someone in the head? There is some wonderful and intelligent dialogue in the film Yi Yi about this. There is no wonderful and intelligent dialogue in a game that comments on either itself or any other medium. It is a closed-off world of meaningless rules, relentless depictions of murder and hackneyed attempts at emotion which rarely reach beyond melodrama or sentiment. There are games that are artistic but there are no games that are honest. One day this may change, but until then we are left with nothing but charming vessels of instant gratification.
My five favourite games:
1. Landstalker
2. Shenmue
3. Metal Gear Solid
4. Super Mario Galaxy
5. Jet Set Radio Future
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
The Many Faces of Heph and Yonder
Heph / Yonder of Spera-Comic.com as seen through the eyes of Sarah Ferrick, Ray Jones, Matt Houston, Joanna Krótka, Afu Chan, Sourya Sihachakr, Angie Hoffmeister, Timothy Weaver, Bettina M. George, Mikkel Sommer, Muura, Sam Beck, Kristin Mukai, Luke Pearson, Eva Vercauteren, Stephanie Holmes, Hotcoffee, Julia Scott, Jack Teagle, Katri Kallio, Christina Siravo, Ramón Sierra with Gisel Gonzalez, Gabrielle Rose, J. Arashi Hara, Olivier Pichard, Michael Dialynas, Oliver Hull, Cynthia Lim, David Grimshaw, Valerie Chua, Dado de Guzman, Vlad Gusev and Paul Maybury.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Spera Faces
The princesses of Spera-Comic.com as seen through the eyes of Sarah Ferrick, Ray Jones, Matt Houston, Joanna Krótka, Afu Chan, Sourya Sihachakr, Angie Hoffmeister, Timothy Weaver, Bettina M. George, Mikkel Sommer, Muura, Sam Beck, Kristin Mukai, Luke Pearson, Eva Vercauteren, Stephanie Holmes, Hotcoffee, Julia Scott, Jack Teagle, Katri Kallio, Christina Siravo, Ramón Sierra with Gisel Gonzalez, Gabrielle Rose, J. Arashi Hara, Olivier Pichard, Michael Dialynas, Oliver Hull, Cynthia Lim, David Grimshaw, Valerie Chua, Dado de Guzman, Vlad Gusev and Paul Maybury.
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