Up, close and personal

Well, I haven't written much lately, basically because I haven't done much lately beside working and, at some point of the day, watching TV or, rather, DVDs, as there is not much on TV to watch. So, today I just decided to go through some anime I've been on these days. Did you ever start to watch this japanese cartoon show and think, "this is quite a kiddie thing" just to, after a few episodes, thank God you never got your nieces to actually watch it? This is anime for you, guys!



First, there is Bleach. The underlying concept is pretty ordinary; you get these gods of death, or shinigami, basically in charge of collecting the souls of dead people just after their demise. If they don't, these souls may become what they call hollows, the bad guys from the show. They carry these really large swords they can modify with their inner force and most of them can use martial arts and even magic -kido- at some extent. The show starts when Ichigo, the main character, helps this shinigami Rukia girl defeat some hollows by borrowing her sword and, with it, most her powers. Now he is stuck with her job and hollows seems to be everywhere. He is also stuck with Rukia, as she can not return to her world without powers, and she is not very familiar with this world either. Plus there is this mistery plot around the shinigami that everyone is involved into, yet knows nothing about. Even though the key concept is pretty usual, the series are nifty -at least during season one- mostly because of the secondary characters and the underlying humour. Ichigo is basically the tormented teenager, but his friends, Orihime, the quincy and Urahara are hilarious, and, once in the Seritei, captains like Shunshui, the 11th squad or Kuukaku and her brother really made my day. There are also pretty cool combat scenes, but I'd stick to Yoruichi and SoiFon shunpo combat, in pure jiajutsu style, without swords and toys, basically because you get to see most of the hits. And the intro sequences are the best design I've seen in anime. Too bad they decided to switch to a different style in the stupid, stupid bounto saga, where all you get is angst and emo characters and none of the absurdity and weirdness of season one. Just like Dragon Ball a decade ago. Maybe the hollow saga is better, but I haven't gathered the resolution to go back to the series after the bounto fiasco.



Now, something different: Great Teacher Onizuka. This Onizuka guy used to be the leader of a gang of bikers when he was a teen, but now he is older and supposed to do something with his life. He decides to become a teacher, mostly because he will get to see lot of girls in short skirts: too bad he does not have the qualifications. Still, Onizuka has something that most teachers don't: an understanding of the students. During a work interview, the director of a school notices that and decides to hire him ... to teach the hardest group in the place. These guys have already sent into depression 4 or 5 teachers and none lasted more than 2 months, but Onizuka manages to win them one by one and to discover the secret behind the class behavior, and, at the same time, solves their problems and makes a fool of himself again and again and again in front of (one among many) the girl he likes (sometimes). This anime is fun, fun, fun and some of the episodes are really good at storytelling.



Back to fantasy, but no swords, Full Metal Alchemy has a nifty plot. These guys, Alfonz and Edward, start to dabble with alchemy to impress their mom after their dad, a very famous alchemist, leaves one day. Too bad her mom gets sick and dies, because they decide to bring her back from the dead using alchemy, but forget about its most important rule: equivalent exchange. In order to get something, you must pay with something of the same value. The experiment is a disaster: their mother returns as a horrible creature that explodes later, Ed loses an arm and a leg and Alfonz's body evaporates and his soul gets bonded to a golem armor to prevent him from dying. Wenry, the kid's neighbour and a hot shot at mechanics (go engineers,go!), provides some limbs for Ed and her granny takes them into their home, but in time they decide to leave and join the army so they can become alchemists and find the philosopher stone. Their goal is to use it to recreate Alfonz's body, but it is easier said than done. First, the army is not as clean as one might (or might not :)) think. Then, there is something really disturbing about the stone and anyone involved with it. Also, there is this strange murderer after alchemists. And, besides, who are the very mysterious homunculus? In this case, a simple plot that turns out not to be so simple after a few chapters and becomes rather complex, but coherent. Plus secondary characters are great, as usual, and the art is pretty good.



If you want to look for something really weird, try Dokuro Chan. She is a guardian angel from the future who comes to the current days with her bat Excaliborg to ... help(???) the main character, a shy teenager who likes a school mate (and any other female in the series, he's a teen, after all). Her help basically consists of killing him in the goriest possible way to bring him back to life later each time he does or say (or whatever) something that displeases her. There is also Sabatto-chan, the evil angel from the future who is supposed to kill the guy, but she is so useless when compared to murderous Dokuro that she gives pity. Plus everthing bad in the series not happening to the main character will most likely go her way. This anime might not be your choice, there are some scenes I laught at, but all in all I can't exactly get in the mood to watch this. It is like Bobobo, you either like it or hate it, only I don't like Bobobo at all: too strange for my taste.



Finally, Monster is one of the best series I've seen. It goes about this hot shot surgeon who likes life easy and won't quarrel with anyone, rather sheepishly obeying his boss and girlfriend, until one of these orders make him choose between the life of a rich man and a poor worker who had, in fact, arrived earlier. After thinking on how his ideals went corrupt, he has a second choice: the major of the town or a 7-years old kid with a gun shot on the head. This time he goes for the kid and the major dies. He loses his job, girlfriend and social position ... until his boss and superiors die poisoned that very same night and he is chosen head or surgery. It turns out 10 years later that the kid was, in fact, already a very dangerous sociopath and he had saved his life, so he is, in part, responsible for the many people he had killed in the last decade ... and will kill in the future. Again, he has to make a decision: leave the hospital and go find the killer, Johann, to finish him ... if he is capable of. From this point on, the anime becomes a superb road movie with hundreds of secondary characters and a very dark underlying story.



Not too bad for someone who only watched three anime series as a teen: Dragon Ball (of course), Saint Seiya (tea time) and Sailor Moon (they ran it during breakfast, guess stomach rules my TV :D). Dragon Ball was pretty cool during the first dozen episodes, up until the first martial arts competition. I laughted and laughted with the secondary characters and Goku's ignorance about practically anything. However, as soon as it became a neverending circle of "get more power - smash your fiend - find someone stronger to beat you up" and back again, I hated it. The deepest character in the series at the point was probably Goku's bo. Saint Seiya was pretty cool, with the armors, and the fights and everything, only it was always the same: Athena got captured by some unknown enemy that put her into a deadly trap and gave the saints 24 hours to free her. These guys would go against the baddies one by one, rather than smashing them together. Seiya's technique would basically be to let the others beat him up until they were too tired or too disgusted with his blood to go on and then finish them. Eventually, they'd free Athena and unmask the bad guy, who would vanish in thin air. The first time, it worked for me. The second -Asgard saga- was even better in terms of character development (the baddies were not that bad and such), but it was exactly the same. At Poseidon saga, I decided to just give up. Sailor Moon is a different matter, I can't recall much about the plot, because I only caught parts of the episodes with my coffe and cookies, but I just could not help by laugth with the transformations and little speeches of this main character, the Moon Warrior or whatever. I still remember her in the middle of a concert where the cello had gone nuts (and alive, of course) and massacred equally the band and the bystanders, but she would not do anything until the thing accidentally steps on a pot and then it goes like "For killing that little innocent flower, I won't forgive you. Moon, give me your powers!!" HAHAHAHA! It's true, unlike people flowers are really cool xDxD



I'm thinking about Samurai Champloo or Death Mask next ...

Just when you were thinking about giving up on TV comedies, you get something new and fresh like this!

Spaced is a comedy by Simon "Shaun of the dead" Pegg and Jessica Stevenson, who are forced to pretend they are a couple to rent an apartment. It must be like the freakiest thing I've seen in years, and it is beautifully filmed (up to the point I actually noticed), plus all actors are superb (specially the leading two, but never forget about the supporting cast). There are references to basically every film, TV series, comic and book I like and in some episodes (still need to watch season 2) I just could not stop laughing through two or three scenes in a row.

What can I say, I even love its music! If you liked IT Crowd, you'll love Spaced (not the same at all, but take my word for it). Go watch it now!

After barely 15 years of waiting, I finally got Federico Mendelsson Bartholdy full adventures in hard cover and all! Okay, I had them all in strips back from the time when they were published in CIMOC (that I conveniently bougth second hand in Madrid), but handling a few kilos to read them all in a row was not the best choice. I still need to get biceps to read the Narnia deluxe edition with illustrations and everything ... :D

And that's my fault for watching the morning news every day. Today we get an all nice strike on the judicial system. Wanna know why? Some time ago, a judge (or so he claims) -Rafael Tirado- lets this child molester go free even though he was convicted. The reasons he would plead later? Because he had too much work. Me, I have too much work and need to go for extra-hours. A judge can simply let people walk by, guilty or not, and go home happily. Whatever the reasons, the guy does not waste time, moves to the south and kidnaps and kills a 5 years old girl. Now, they realize that he should not have been free (not morally speaking here, LEGALLY) at the time and they ask for responsibilities to this judge guy. He just says that he had too much work, as commented, and his fellow judges decide that he should get some punishment. The price for getting a kid killed? 1500 EUR, it seems justice is on sale, lately. But ok, you just think for yourself justice is a f**** sh** in this country and go on with your life. Only yesterday vicepresident de la Vega dares to say that the judge should have had a harder punishment ... and guess what? NOW the judicial power IS MOBILIZED. On strike. Because they think that we should not have an opinion on how they work to avoid putting pressure on them!! Or maybe they mean "expressing" an opinion, because after the 1500 EUR sentence, I guess they don't give a s* about what we think. The same guys who spend hours giving their own opinion on politics and government on TV, even though they are supposed to be a separare power!!! And they'll tell us how much work they have later ... What a country

Wanted

... better than expected. True, I was not expecting much, but it was fun anyway. FX left aside (which was good), there was a story and everything. It had not much to do with the comics, but it was ok. However, Jolie looks so thin in the movie that is not amazing that she can dodge bullets -



3:10 to Yuma
This flick had one big attraction point to me: Christian Bale. And, yep, he does a cool anti-hero. Crowe is cool too, in his role as outlaw. This is, obviously, a remake, so nothing new under the sun. It is a bit slow, also, but all in all, ok. In this kind of western, I stick to LAST TRAIN TO GUN HILL (1959), with Kirk Douglas, which goes on the same lines (train to be reached with strong opposition to get a criminal to justice, small town to wait for it ...) but, somehow, has more action from my humble point of view. It does not have Bale, though :P

I wanna see Nim and maybe Mirrors now ...

This one goes in spanish because there are some gags that only local readers will catch. Sorry guys, I'll switch back to english next time :)

Pongamonos en situacion ... Tarde de rol en casa, 5 amiguetes, dos botellas de refrescos, 12 bolsas de patatas fritas y un puñao de dados de esos con muchas caras.

-¿Hoy a que jugamos?
-¡Al 5 anillos!
-No, eso ya fue la semana pasada
-Pues al Cthulhu
-No, que no encaja con mi proximo bestseller
-Pues al ... Indiana Jones
-Mira, eso puede valer. ¿Que personaje quieres ser?
-Voy a ser un PJ pedante, magnifico en su area, cargado de desden para la gente que lo rodea y, en general, encantado de conocerse a si mismo.
-Vale, pos ereeeeees ... una experta hacker millonaria y despreciativa.
-Puedo ser un personaje masculino?
-Como quieras, total, lo voy a tratar igual ...
-Bueno, pues el resto seran mis amigos, que, por alguna razon, me adoran y admiran y son muy buenos en lo suyo, aunque no tanto como yo.
-Vale, mientras tengan algun rasgo folklorico-festivo que ayude en la partida.
-Ok, esta es monja, este marine colonial y el otro sobrino de Fu-man-chu y cinturon celeste de Jeet Kung Do
-Si, puede funcionar. Vamos a ver, como te motivo para salir de tu acomodada vida. Tienes algun pariente a que salvarle el pellejo? Te aburres mortalmente? Tienes dificultades economicas?
-Si, vale, lo primero me vale
-Pues recibes un mensaje muy angustiado de tu primo segundo, escrito en una clave rarisima que nadie puede leer, salvo tu, cuando saques un critico en entender claves ...
-Critico!
-Pues eso, que te pide que lo ayudes, que lo ha secuestrado un nucleo de antiguos pobladores de la Isla de Pascua que adoran al dios de Mauna Loa -uno de los volcanes más activos en las Islas Hawaianas y uno de los cinco volcanes que forman la isla de Hawai junto con los volcanes Mauna Kea, Hualalai, Kohala y Kilauea-
-Eso no tiene sentido!
-Tu dame diez minutos con la wikipedia y veras como consido encontrarlo
-Bueeeenoooo, pues me pido 7 dias de asuntos propios, liquido mis bonos del tesoro, le doy cerrojazo a casa, regalo el gato y me saco una tarjeta de millas de Iberia, que pa mi que voy a viajar.
-No se te olvide llevarte a tus amigos, que tu no tienes las habilidades de Buscar libros, Arqueologia Aplicada y Caza de Mariposas a topos
-¿Caza de Mariposas a topoooos?
-(Ya veras, ya, cuando descubras que Ghengis Khan tatuo media solucion del enigma en las alas de un morpho (mariposa tropical iridiscente de la familia Nymphalidae que es nativa de Centro y Sudamérica.)

Pues esto, que parece una partida de rol de lo mas normalita, no es mas que el comienzo ... de otro libro de Matilde Asensi!!!
No es broma, hasta ahora me he leido El Ultimo Caton, el Origen Perdido y ahora estoy con Todo Bajo el Cielo y casi convencida de que esta mujer escribe asi. No me quejo, que me gustan sus libros mucho mas que los del pazguato del Dan Brown que cuando se le habla de documentacion, saca el carnet de identidad. Quitando que todos sus protagonistas me caen mal, sus libros son bastante entretenidos y estan mas que bien documentados (a veces quizas en exceso, pero mas vale que sobre ...). Vamos, que son como el libro gordo de Petete en version novela historica. Eso si, sus personajes tienen los mejores criticos en dados que nunca he visto en partida alguna. ¡¡Vaya partidas les salen!!

Me vuelvo con Todo bajo el cielo :D:D

Okidoki, I've been to the cinema these last months and I can't say I'm much impressed.
Let's start with the good staff: Batman. This film is amazing and Nowlan is superb; he seems to be the only director that actually has read the comics before
shooting the film. There are these references to classics like Year One, Full Circle, Killing Joke ... And most characters, we are familiar with, even though I
don't know why they renamed Montoya as Ramirez. The cartoon shorts prior to the film were also a good idea to get into the story smoothly and, then, the Joker was
great. I was not much into Ledger -and, let's acknowledge, I always had a thing for Bale and I did not like all merit going to other guy- but he did a perfect, scary Joker and even gave the Clown the black humour twist that was needed at the hospital scene. The script was seamless and the story smooth. Loved it.



Wall-e was also (not surprisingly) pleasant. Along with the perfect technical quality Pixar has us used to, the story was sweet, it has some hilarious moments and characters were very solid. You progressively grow up to like them and care about them, which is something that can not be said for most of the films I watched this summer. All in all, I liked Nemo better, but I'm thinking about building a Wall-e for myself :)



And, now, everything else:

Hancock, for example. What was it all about? Was there really a script int that movie? Did not look like, I'd say. Despite the quite obvious revelation about the two main characters (I'm trying not to be spoily, but never mind, you'll guess it after five minutes), the rest was like "look how nice are my FX", something quite usual lately. Have all good writers gone to TV recently? Ok, Will Smith looks good, specially with the rowdy aspect, but that's basically it (and Theron for you, guys).



Kung Fu Panda was another dissappointment, mostly because I did not like any character. If not for Pixar, we would be back to the time when cartoons were only for kids and, hence, The film goes like most in this genre: you get the main character, who knows nothing at all about kung fu, has no training and no physique to fight, and, just for pure chance, turn him into a hero foreseen in an old prophecy, so he has to grow into his shoes. Sometimes, the way of telling the story makes it big. This is not one of those. After this film, I replayed Disney's Mulan in the DVD and, once more, loved every minute. I think I'll stick just to Pixar and DC cartoons until they remember how to shoot stories without real actors.



Mamma mia was marginally enjoyable. Meryl Streep was not much my idea of the main character, but the three guys were okay and music was fun. I rather preferred the theater version, though, but it was the only movie they played at the beach were I was not constantly checking my watch to go back home.



The biggest dissappointment was Hellboy and the Golden Army, though. As a fan of Hellboy from the beginning, one can only wonder how Mignola let them mess with continuity like that. Money, most likely, as sad as it sounds. Why on earth would he have the (disfunctional) family composed by Abe, Liz, Kate and the rest loose meaning just to have a (quite poor) romance on the screen? It was bad in the first movie, in this one is unacceptable. Plus Hellboy looks like a rebel (and rather spoiled) teenager rather than a grown-up. Responsability goes straight away to Liz, as Abe seems to be quite lost and Manning looks bipolar or something . Since when has Liz been the poster girl for stability?? As many friends told me, the film looks pretty, specially when there are fairies on screen, but it would have been better without the Bureau, as they all are out of character. This is a Del Toro movie where they stuffed Hellboy by sheer force, and that's the best I can say about it.



And finally, on DVD, there are these two flicks one can live without:

The seed of evil: a thai movie about a mythical monster created by ill employed dark arts. The monster is not that scary, but the first part of the film, on kid prostitution in Bangkok, is really creepy. And, sadly, quite realistic.



Tideland, by Terry Gilliam, is a totally different thingy. Author movies might work sometimes for me, but this one was disturbing and disgusting. It focus on the depressing live of a ten year kid, only daughter of a couple of junkies (Jeff Bridges in the rol of daddy). After the mom (Jenniffer Tilly) dies from overdose, Bridges and the kid move to a very isolated area in the country side, where his mother had an old farm house. There, of course, Bridges gets overdosed as well and the kid is left alone to her fantasies. As usual with Giliam, a descent into madness from an unusual point of view. Nothing I'd advise someone with my movie tastes to watch, I warn you.



On the other hand, Galactica Razor was quite cool. We get the whole cast shortly after the Pegasus goes under Adama control. If you have not seen season 2, I'd advise you not to read any further, mind you. When Cain is murdered by poor, tortured Number-6, her crew is adrift, now under command of young Lee, who has not a strong position after command has been granted by his dad. Lee makes a smart move and selects one of Cain's trusted officers as second in command. The problem is that the woman is mentally damaged after obeying the commands that led to a civil massacre in Scylla when Cain wanted the FTL motors stolen from the ships. After a small crew gets lost while scouting around and Adama recalls that Cylons were experimenting with vivisection back during the first war, rescue will put this woman and Starbuck into an uneasy alliance. Plus we get to learn why Cain was always so pissed during the two Pegasus episodes.



Next time, we go to TV series! Cheers from the Caribe!!

Hey, readers (if there are any :D)
I've been grounded in Granada this last month so I pretty much just read the four Song of Fire and Ice books by G.R.R. Martin that I bought from Amazon in July, and, hey, were they good! True to myself, I rather liked second line characters like Asha Greyjoy or the Dorne Viper better that the main ones. My fav among the main cast, though, were to be expected (Arya and Brienne, mostly) except for one: Jaime, which I grew pretty fond of as soon as the second book. Compulsive as I am, I decided to make my own film cast for the books and wasted enough time to draw quite a few of them, which I'm posting in my art blog. I'm leaving some here, though, so you can try to guess who are they based on :)

Dany Targaryen (dragons are a giveaway :D)


The pretty pair, aka Jaime and Cersei


"Brave but not brain" Ned Stark


"Bring on the party" King Robert


Survivalist Arya Stark



Just a bit of guessing on book five ahead so read no more if you have not read a Feast of Crows to keep spoilers a-bay
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It is obvious (at least from my POV) that Jon is the son of Rhaegar and (willing) Lyanna Stark, so he'd be one of the dragons heads along with Dany. But ... who's the third? Is there any suspicious unclaimed bastard in the book who might have survived the War with his/her Targaryen blood safely inside his/her body? Could be he/she is hidden in plain view, just like the Sarella/Alleras girl, but I can't find! Theories welcomed, friends!

Last saturday I was invited to Loreena McKennit's last concert in Spain this summer. I had already been to one of her concerts years ago, but she never fails to amaze me with this heavenly voice of her



I got lucky and got almost every favorite song of mine played. The best known ones, like the Highway Man and some less popular like Tango to Evora. Not much from the last record, though, but there is a new one in the oven for Xmas :)

Yesterday, it was one of those days where everything looks weird around and it looks as if you have walked into a different dimension with alternate versions of the people you know. Must be the heat or something. However, the remarkable thing was that I went to Madeleine Peyroux's concert during Terral'08 (Malaga). Does she have a cool live show!! She ended her perfomance, just before the bis, with my fav song "Dance me to the end of love", with enough variations from the CD to make it a new experience and she even sang a couple of new songs. Now, if I could just make it to a Marlango concert ...

Well, I'm not much into soccer myself, but beating Italy and Germany is well worth a post here! Go, boys!

Just a couple of pictures to update a bit. These are from a little island close to Singapore coast, where I almost drove a bike into a large, large reptile. It was its fault, it crossed the road without looking around :P
Cool natural coconut milk, though :)

I just got the Hellboy Companion from Previews and I'm heavily updating my map of weird Hellboy events while awaiting the movie :)


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The unspeakable vault of doom!! It's not the first time I drop by, and yet they keep making me laught all the time :D Of course, I'm a Cthulhu fan, you see, so I lean towards this kind of humour :)

Have I ever commented how much I love art? This gallery is one of those places that makes me keep interest on the thing, even when I have no time to surf around. Jose Carlos has still no physical expo of his paintings, but I'm really looking forwards to see one. You should really pay him a visit and, if you've been here for a while, you know that I do not recommend so many things :) Superb!

I've been trying to catch on, after many weeks of travelling, and I did it as usual: extremely. I've watched four movies in less than 10 days: Indiana Jones and the crystal Skull, The mist, Casual Day and Iron Man.



Let's start Indy. I love Indy, that's just it. I like all four movies and he is my favorite action character. True, I like more the first and the third film, like your everyday average jane, but I don't know why people just talk so bad about this one. It's Indy, as usual! The film occurs at the 50s and, from that point on, the script is justified. Action is cool, dialogues are fun and we get Marion back! Plus I really like Mutt, he is a laugh. Not as much as the paranormal russian expert (she was the real thing), but a laugh anyways!

The Mist was a film I found bored. Just to be on the safe side, most of the people liked exactly what I did not: too much dialogue, not so much action. The characters are your basic Stephen King prototypes: the old, reliable teacher, the artist who lives in a small town, the loser who has never left town ... nothing new here. The script sort of reminded me of Halflife, like Deep Blue Sea, but DBS was much faster and fun and they both got my fav thing in the film: Thomas Jane. I guess it was too slow for me, that's it.


Casual day: something I could have watched on TV, and I think that briefs it. Not bad, but nothing special. Actors are ok, but everything in the script is to be expected and nothing special really happens. It goes basically about a "casual day" at work, where everyone has to go to activities and talk about their things and play paintball with the fellows and such. If you don't have anything else to do, not bad to spend some time.



Maybe I was not expecting much of this film, but, boy, did I enjoy it! I'm no big fan of Iron Man and I don't particularly like the actors in the movie, but they were perfect here. Plus I loved every bit of technology in the flick, specially those amazing Augmented Reality toys that Tony keeps handling all the time! This was the best superhero movie since Batman Begins, and that one was starred by my beloved, so I was leant to like it :) Do not miss this one, you'll have a good time!

If you get to this Banff lake ...

And climb all the way up to Six Glaciers plain (not in shorts, if you can avoid it :P)

You'll most likely meet many of these :)

... in this tiny island in the mediterranean, just on the border between Corsica and Sardegnia. Of the 4 people in the picture, two actually did not even jump in later. Guess who? :D

A few days ago, I was coming back to Malaga by plane when I read this in Iberia's journal:



It seems that there is something as cool as a Lost Brittlestar City below the antartic sea :)
More news on the subject can be found on Environmental Graffiti and the Underwater times. Too bad that with a current 50 times larger than all the water flowing in all the rivers of the world and a depth ranging from 850 meters below surface to 90 meters below at its peak, no dry suit is getting us there. Probably for best :)

Plunder, plunder,
How I wonder
How'd ya get
So doggone pretty.

Home to sailers,
Barbers, tailors.
And Puerto Pollo
Your capital city.



Because life is cool that way :P

Because lately I don't have that much to tell, I'll just upload a list of strange things to eat (and drink) that I have at home :P

-Tea: Jasmine Tenfu (China), Zouk (Egypt) Fleur de Geisha and Fruits du Tibet (Palais du the), Mint (UK)

-Burratta, mozzarella di bufala & pie de buey (Piccoli piaccere, Rome)

-Chocolats Pierre Marcolini: blac poivre et epicé, origine madagascar (Brussels) Godiva, and Sampaka (azafran, mora, epices), Martiniquese (black fondant), Oaxaqueño (black fondant), Crackania mango & canela (Chocolat factory)

-Rum pope (Sta Clara, Mexico), Limoncello (Sorrento, Italy), Meloncello Antichi Sappori (Amalfi, Italy)

-Cafe la tazza de Oro (Rome, Italy) Volio (Costa Rica)

-Cane sugar (Martinique)

-Almogrote cheese and green mojo (Gomera, Canary Islands), Torta del Casar (Extremadura, Spain)

-Home made salty beef

-Spices (morocco, thai, italian)

-Red hot pepper (Martinique)

-Mole negro (Oaxaca)

And, right now, I think this is it. So much to eat and my stomach does not cooperate ... :(

I may hate planes, but I know well my geography ;)

... and finally I've managed to upload videos to Youtube. Talk about tech-disability here! :P

Two flight flicks from a helicopter in Grand Canyon (Colorado) on october, 2007.

Cambodia rulz!!

Hi, people,
With Hellboy's new film almost ready on the oven, I've decided to give a different format to my collection of references to every BPRD case in the books:


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Not finished, but I'll keep working ;)

This text is translated into english at the end of the post for non spanish speakers' convenience. (Esto lo escribi hace algun tiempo para un fanzine y lo he encontrado en mi viejo disco duro. Espero que os guste)

Desde hace ya bastante tiempo ha destacado con luz propia en el mundo del comic el estilo de Mike Mignola, maestro de las sombras y el claro-oscuro. Mignola ha evolucionado con los años hacia un trazo simple y efectista y su estilo se ha comentado ampliamente [12][13], por lo que este artículo va a tratar sobre un aspecto distinto del autor: su trabajo como guionista y las influencias del terror clásico en sus historias.

Después de trabajar varios años para las compañías más importantes del panorama americano, a Mignola se le ofreció la oportunidad de crear su propio personaje bajo unas condiciones mucho más flexibles bajo la línea Legend, de Dark Horse, en la que ya se encontraban autores de renombre como Frank Miller, Art Adams o John Byrne. Éste consideró que era el momento de dedicarse a dibujar los temas que le
gustaban y así nació Hellboy.




Después de una serie de apariciones sueltas con la temática común de 'Hellboy machaca [introduzca aquí su monstruo favorito]' y básicamente publicadas en sucesivos Dark Horse Presents, la primera miniserie de Hellboy [1] fue guionizada por John Byrne sobre una idea del propio Mignola, pero según las palabras de éste, al final ejerció mucho más control sobre el producto final del que se suponía en un principio y, a partir de ahí, tomó las riendas de sus historias. 'Semilla de Destrucción' introduce el origen del personaje y las bases que guiarán su desarrollo.




La referencia más obvia en las páginas de Hellboy al terror clásico es la existencia de un infierno, de acuerdo a la concepción cristiana de éste, habitado por demonios. De acuerdo a las costumbres del Sabbat [14], el héroe es el fruto de la impía unión de una bruja con uno de éstos [10], lo que hace de Hellboy el típico personaje empozoñado por una mitad oscura con la que se encuentra en contínua pugna. La idea es bastante común en la narrativa actual, pero puede remontarse hasta la literatura inglesa medieval, cuando Beowülf, hijo del diablo y de una princesa engañada, consagra su vida a combatir los designios de su progenitor. Este tipo de héroes suelen heredar determinados poderes, pero también una sed de sangre que a duras penas logran contener, si es que no son decididamente malignos, como en el caso de La Profecía. En este aspecto, Hellboy no está tan sujeto a este tipo de instintos como a su inexorable destino como destructor de naciones [1][7][9], para el que fué invocado por Rasputín, el brujo.



Aparte de la aparición de Rasputín, personaje histórico de la Rusia de los zares que alcanzó cierto poder como hombre santo sólo para ser traicionado y asesinado por su amigo Yusopov, la mayoría de las influencias que subyacen al hilo argumental básico son puramente lovecraftianas. Es necesario notar, no obstante, que Mignola trabaja sobre una amalgama entre el infierno según la tradición cristiana y la mitología del autor H.P. Lovecraft. Mientas que Abe Sapiens, un compañero de Hellboy, cuadra bastante bien en el perfil del tritón atlántico [14], es innegable que los ayudantes de Rasputín guardan un claro parecido con los Profundos, una raza servidora menor vagamente antropoide pero con características notablemente anfibias [4]. Es de notar el hecho de que Lovecraft describe la posibilidad de transmutar en rana a entidades de este tipo, lo que explicaría el papel de éstas a lo largo de la primera miniserie.



Las influencias de la cosmogonía lovecraftiana se aprecian asimismo en la invocación de Rasputín que a punto está de despertar a un conjunto de seres atemporales que duermen en el espacio exterior. Aparentemente, la venida de estos seres marcará el fin del mundo tal como se conoce. Mignola hace referencia a los siete, número que no encaja ni con los cinco dioses exteriores ni con los 12 primigenios. Numéricamente, podría tratarse más bien de éstos últimos, ya que los más conocidos son sólo siete: Cthugha, Cthulhu, Hastur, Ithaqua, Nyogtha, Shudde M'ell y Tsathogghua. No obstante, los primigenios no reposaban en el espacio, sino en tumbas esparcidas a lo largo y ancho del planeta. Además, en otra historia [15] aparece una invocación a Suggor Yogeroth, un ser ancestral cuyo nombre es un claro anagrama de Yog-Sothoth, uno de los dioses exteriores.

Es también notable el hecho de que cuando Rasputín y el monstruo con tentáculos son encontrados, ambos hacen honor a una de las más conocidas frases del Necronomicón [4]:
'No está muerto aquello que puede dormir toda la eternidad y, con los extraños eones, tal vez hasta la propia muerte perezca'. El propio Rasputín recibe un tratamiento más en la línea del hechicero típico de los Mitos que del clásico brujo tradicional, y cabe destacar la curiosa mezcla de tecnología y magia que utiliza, presente tanto en dichos Mitos como en la obra posterior del autor Fritz Leiber.

Una nueva referencia a la literatura de terror es la existencia del BPRD, una organización consagrada a lidiar con temas paranormales en bien de la humanidad. Organizaciones de este tipo ya aparecen en la obra Lovecraft, como la Fundación Wilmarth [5], cuyos miembros se autodefinen como "cazadores de horrores" a nivel casi mundial. Al igual que en estas sociedades, entre los miembros del Bureau se encuentran profesores universitarios, como Kate Corrigan [6][8] o Anastasia Bruntsfield [3], individuos con poderes psíquicos, como Liz Sherman [1][7][8] o Garret Omatta [11], y seres claramente inhumanos, como Abe Sapiens [1][7][11] o el propio Hellboy.



Mignola utiliza además en sus relatos personajes clásicos de la literatura de terror. Por ejemplo, en la miniserie "Despierta al Diablo" [7] aparecen dos claros ejemplos de este tipo: Giurescu el vampiro y Roger el golem. El vampirismo se remonta a tiempos de los antiguos egipcios, asignándosele el dudoso honor de ser la primera de éstas criaturas a Lilith, la esposa que Adán tuvo antes que Eva. Giurescu es, no obstante, un vampiro en la línea del magiar wampyr, más típico de la literatura romántica. Curiosamente, en lugar de ser mordido por otro de su especie, Giurescu es resucitado de la muerte a la no-vida por otro monstruo clásico, la diosa Hécate, que no es otra que la lamia de la mitología griega. Afinando un poco más, la forma de resucitar a Giurescu es muy similar al uso que se hace en la mitología celta del caldero de Clyddno Eiddyn, que también resucita a los muertos, aunque no en estado vampírico.



Por su parte, el golem es una figura de barro animada supuestamente creada alrededor del 1590 por el rabino Low Ben Nezael para proteger a los judíos de Praga contra los ataques cristianos. Tanto en [7] como en [8] se define a Roger con el término "homúnculo", probablemente por el hecho de haber sido creado en el taller de un alquimista y no mediante la palabra sagrada shem tradicional [14]. No obstante, los homúnculos, que se atribuyen al científico alemán Paracelso (1940-1541), presentan un tamaño mucho menor y serían más parecidos a las criaturas que secuestran a Kate en [8].




Otro elemento clave en muchas historias es el fantasma según la concepción romántica: espíritus de personas muertas que aparecen en forma visible y son en general inofensivos [14]. En este aspecto, en Hellboy se trata con tipos de fantasmas: los condenados a vagar por sus acciones o por alguna maldición [6], los que dejaron asuntos pendientes [1][8] y las sombras del pasado [10].



Además de relaciones marginales con clásicos del cine de terror como 'La Noche de los Muertos Vivientes' o 'La Momia' [3], en las historias de Mignola hay múltiples referencias a relatos tradicionales. En 'El cadaver y zapatos de hierro' [10], Mignola utiliza un cuento corto del folklore irlandés, 'Teig O'Kane y el cadáver', al que añade un puñado de elementos de otras leyendas locales. Por ejemplo, en la tradición irlandesa, el Pueblo, o comunidad de las hadas, pierde la capacidad de procrear ante la incremental pérdida de fe de los humanos en su raza. A efectos de evitar su extinción, en ocasiones se mezclaban con humanos, pero lo más habitual era secuestrar bebés de sus cunas para transformarlos en hadas.


Estos bebes eran reemplazados con lo que se denominaba 'cambiantes' (changelings), un tipo de duende que presentaba el mismo aspecto que el niño y que eventualmente fingía su muerte para volver con los suyos. Los cambiantes, al igual que el resto del Pueblo, eran vulnerables al hierro.



Los duendes que aparecen en ésta historia son probablemente, de acuerdo a su apariencia, cluricauns, habituales de las bodegas y amigos de los borrachos [14]. La tradición de enterrar un cadaver antes de la salida del sol es típica de la tradición celta, ya que en caso contrario el alma del muerto quedaba atrapada vagando sobre la tierra. Juanita Dientesverdes es un monstruo tradicional de los ríos de Yorkshire que se alimenta de carne humana. Existen tradiciones similares en otros lugares, como Marga Powler, del río Tees [2]. Por último, Zapatos de Hierro es claramente un boggart.



Otras historias cortas con un fuerte componente floklórico son 'Baba Yaga' y 'Navidades bajo Tierra' [10]. En la primera se relata el primer encuentro de Hellboy con Baba Yaga, la más famosa bruja rusa que ya había aparecido brevemente en 'Despierta al diablo' [7]. Entre otras peculiaridades, vivía en una casa móvil sobre patas de pollo y volaba en un mortero para contar las cucharas de los hogares rusos. El segundo relato está inspirado en un cuento antiguo sobre una joven que encuentra bajo un arbusto unas escaleras que conducen a un palacio subterráneo, donde se enamora de un príncipe invisible. Según Mignola, el palacio le pareció un símbolo de una tumba y de ahí el componente macabro de la historia, que incluye la clásica tradición vampírica de morder a los individuos que han significado algo para la criatura.



'El ataud encadenado' [10] es otro ejemplo de historia tradicional inglesa adaptada para encajarse en la historia de Hellboy. Como curiosidad, el detalle de los ganchos que atraviesan el cuerpo de la bruja moribunda y que Clive Barker utilizaría en Hellraiser ya se encontraba en la fábula original.



Probablemente, los fantasmas chinos de 'Cabezas' están inspirados en los K'uei [14], aunque en este caso la referencia no es tan clara. 'Los Lobos de St. Augusto' [6] está inspirado en la predicación de San Patricio, patrón de Irlanda y evangelizador de dicha tierra. En su época, aún primaban las religiones celtas y existe una leyenda sobre como el santo maldijo a Verecio, rey de Gales, por reírse de sus palabras de forma que cada 7 años se transformaría en lobos [14]. Por supuesto, el rey Lykos se le adelanto unos siglos y dio origen a la palabra licantropo. 'Casi un Coloso' [8] toma como referencia 'El Coloso de Ylourgne', de Clark Ashton Smith, aunque no puede evitarse observar similitudes con el 'Frankenstein' de Mary Shelley, especialmente en la estática de las películas de James Whale.




Sea cual sea la inspiracion de Mignola, no cabe duda de que seguira asombrandonos y maravillandonos mientras Hellboy y los suyos nos acompañen.

[1] J. Byrne, M. Mignola, "Semilla de Destrucción", #1-4, Dark Horse, 1994
[2] B. Froud, A. Lee, "Hadas", Ed. Montena, S.A., 1983
[3] C. Golden, M. Mignola, "The Lost Army", Dark Horse, 1997
[4] H.P. Lovecraft y otros, "Los Mitos de Cthulhu", Ed. Alianza, 1969
[5] B. Lumley, "Los que Acechan en el Abismo", Ed. Edaf, 1992
[6] M. Mignola, "Los Lobos de San Augusto", Dark Horse Presents #88-91, Dark Horse, 1994
[7] M. Mignola, "Despierta al Diablo", #1-5, Dark Horse, 1996
[8] M. Mignola, "Almost Colossus", #1-2, Dark Horse, 1997
[9] M. Mignola, "La Mano del Destino", DHP Annual, Dark Horse, 1998
[10] M. Mignola, "The Chained Coffin and Others", Dark Horse, 1998
[11] M. Mignola, B. McDonald, D. Thompson, "Abe Sapiens: Drums of the Dead", Dark Horse, 1999
[12]Ref. Kaleidoskope Sp Mignola, 1
[13]Ref. Kaleidoskope Sp Mignola, 2
[14] M. Page, R. Ingpen, "Enciclopedia de las Cosas que Nunca Existieron", Ed.Anaya, 1986
[15] J. Robinson, M. Mignola, "Batman, Hellboy, Starman", DC & Dark Horse, 1999
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Everyday is Halloween! Mike Mignola and the horror genre

It’s been a while since Mignola, master or light and shadows, and his style started to shine with its own light in the comic scene. Mignola evolved his pencils to an effective, elegant and simple line and his art has been widely commented [12][13]. This essay, hence, focuses in his work as a writer and on the influence of classic horror on his stories.

After working several years for the best known companies in american comicbook scene, Mignola got the chance to create his own character subjected to more flexible conditions under Dark Horse Legend stamp, where famous authors like Frank Miller, Art Adams or John Byrne wew already working. He decided that it was time to do what he liked and, thus, Hellboy was born.

After a few short stories on the common premise “Hellboy stomps [insert your favorite monster here]”, basically published in “Dark Horse Presents”, the first long Hellboy story [1] was written by John Byrne, from an idea by Mignola himself. According to his own words, Mignola played a progressively more important role as a writer on the story than inititally planned and, from then on, took control over his own scripts. “Seed of destruction” introduces the main characters and the bases of its future development.

The most obvious reference in Hellboy with respect to classic terror is the existence of (a) Hell, as portayed in Christian religion, inhabited by demons. As usual in Sabbath [14], our hero is the child of the impious mating of a witch with one of these demons [10]. This makes Hellboy the classic character tainted by his dark side and in continuous struggle with his dark nature. This idea is quite common in current literature but can be tracked all the way back to medieval literature, when Beowulf, son of the devil and a fooled princess, consecrates his life to fight his father’s plans. This type of heroes usually inherit some special gift, but also a bloodlust that they hardly manage to control. Ocassionally, they are definitively evil from the very beginning, like in the Omen. In our case, Hellboy is not as enslaved by this kind of instincts as by his apparently unavoidable destiny as nations slayer [1][7][9], as decided by Rasputin, his summoner.

Leaving Rasputin, a historic character dating from the tsars Russia who reached some power as a holy man just to be betrayed and killed by his friend Yusopov, most influences in the basic story guideline are purely Lovecraft. It is necessary to note, though that Mignola works with an amalgam of the christian hell and Lovecraft’s cosmology. While Abe Sapiens, Hellboy’s mate, looks quite lime an atlantic merman [14], it can not be denied that Rasputin’s minions look like the deep ones, a minor race vaguely antropoid but with clear amphibian features [4]. It is important to note that Lovecraft already described the possibility of transforming these things into frogs, a fact that could explain their role in the first miniseries.

Lovecraft’s cosmogony influences can also be appreciated in Rasputin’s summoning, almost awakening some beings out of time who sleep in outer space. Apparently, their awakening would be related to the end of the world as is. Mignola makes a reference to the Seven, a number that does not match neither the five outer gods nor the twelve primigenians. Quantitetively, the seven would likely be primigenians, as the best known ones are only seven: Cthugha, Cthulhu, Hastur, Ithaqua, Nyogtha, Shudde M'ell and Tsathogghua. However, primigenians did not sleep in space but in tombs spreaded along our world. Besides, in another story [15], there is a clear invocation to Suggor Yogeroth, an ancestral being whose name is clearly an anagram of Yog-Sothoth, one of the external gods.

It is also interesting that Rasputin and his tentacled friend are found in a state that recalls one of the Necronomicon [4] best known cites: “That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die
Rasputin himself and his spells look more like a Cthulhu myths warlock than like your typical storybook wizard, appearing both in Lovecraft’s and, later, Fritz Leiber’s work.

Another reference to horror literature is the BPRD institution, an organization created to deal with paranormal events on behalf of humanity. These organizations were already operating in Lovecraft’s works, e.g. the Wilmarth foundation [5], whose members define themselves as horror hunters at almost planet level. Members of the bureau also include university professors like Kate Corrigan [6][8] or Anastasia Bruntsfield [3], psych guys, like Liz Sherman [1][7][8] or Garret Omatta [11], and unhuman beings like Abe Sapiens [1][7][11] or Hellboy himself.

Mignola alos uses classic horror characters from literature. For example, in the “Wake the devil” miniseries [7], there are two clear examples: Giurescu the vampire and Roger, the golem. Vampires gow all the way back to Ancient Egypt. The dubious honor of being the first vampire could be given to Lilith, Adam’s first wife before he married Eve. Giurescu os, nevetheless, a vampire in the line of magyar wampyr, more typical in romantic literature. Curiously, Giurescu is not turned by another vampire, but brought to his no-life by another classic monster: Hecate. Hecate, the goddess, is, indeed, a mosnter from classic Greece, the lamia. If we dig a little further, Giurescu is brought back to life by throwing him into a cauldron, like Clyddno Eiddyn in the celtic myths.

The golem is a clay figure presumedly created in 1590 by rabbi Low Ben Nezael to protect jews in Prague againts the christians’ attack. Roger is defined in [7-8} like an homunculus, probably because he has been created in al alchemist workshop and not by means of the traditional holy word shem [14]. Nevertheless, homunculi, presumedly created by Paracelso (1940-1541), are supposed to be smaller and far more similar to the creatures that kidnapped Kate in [8].

Another key element in several stories is the classic ghost: a dead person’s soul that appears in intangible state and are usually inoffensive [14]. There are different types of ghosts in Hellboy: the damned souls, who are bound to pay for their actions or for some curse [1][8], and shadows of the past [10].

If we go over marginal refernces to classic cult movies like “Night of the Living Dead” or The mummy” [3], Mignola has more obscure references to folklore. In “The Corpse and Ironshoes” [10]. Mignola uses a short irish tale, ‘Teig O’Kane and the corpse’, adding a bunch of elements borrowed from other local myths- For example, in irish stories the Fair Ones or faeries lose their breeding capacities due to the loss of belief of humans on their race. In order to avoid extinction, sometimes they bred with humans bur, more often, they stole babies from their cribs to raise them as their own. These babies were replaced by changellings, a type of fairy that had the same look than the kio and who, eventually, faked its own death to return to their own. Changellings, like their people, were sensitive to iron. Dwarves in this story were, most likely, according to their appearance, cluricauns, inhabitants of cellars and friends to drunken fellas [14}. The tradition of having corpses bried before sunrise is typical among the celts, as souls would be trapped into eternal wandering between worlds otherwise. Jenny Greenteeth is a traditional monster living in Yorkshire rivers who feed on human flesh. There are similar traditions in other places, like Marga Powler, from Tees river[2}. Finally, ironshoes is clearly a boggart, a household spirit which causes things to disappear, milk to sour, and dogs to go lame.

Other short stories with a strong folklore component include “Baba Yaga” and “Xmas underworld” [10]. In the first onw, Baba Yaga fights Hellboy for the first time. Baba Yaga is the most famous witch in russian folklore and she hsd already appeared briefly in “Wake the Devil” [7]. Among other pecularities, she lived in a hut with chicken legs and flew with a mortar to count spoons in russian houses. The second tale is inspired on a short piece on a young woman who finds a set of stairs into a subterranean world, where she falls in love with an invisible prince. According to Mignola, the palace was as symbol of a grave and, so, the story had a macabre touch, that included the traditional bite to turn the most loved ones into vampires.

“The chained coffin” [10] is another example of traditional english tales tailored into Hellboy. As a curiosity, the hooks biting into the old witch’s body, later used by Clive Barker in Hellraiser, were already written into the original fable. Probably, chinese ghosts in “Heads” are freely inspired in the K’uei [14}. “Wolves of St August” [6] are inspired in St Patrick, the best known irish saint who evangelized the island. There is a legend on his travels when he met welsh king Verence and cursed him for laugthing at his words: he would become a wolf every 7 years [14]- Of course, king Lykos did the same a few centuries before and gave birth to the word “lycantrhopus”. “Almost Colossus” [8] inspires on Clark Aston Smith’s “The colossus of Ylourgne”, even though it is impossible not to observe similarities with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as portrayed by James Whale.

Whatever is inspiration, might be, there is no doubt that Mignola will keep amazing and astonishing usas long as Hellboy and his friends walk among us.

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