Election campaign (posters)

The Singapore GE is coming. Remind your parents to vote on Elections Day!

Renovated lift

Unglam shots

Sports unglam photos: Jose Mourinho

Jose Mourinho is my favourite football manager; he's so adorable when he pouts! He doesn't play soccor, but there's already tons of unglam photos. ok, so I'll show you when his glam shots first.

Yes, so he's pretty good looking.. Now for the unglam.

Unglam? Who? Me?

Mourinho looks like Mr Bean doing a  Sumo or Ninja stance here. Agreed? Agreed.

Jose Mourinho and John Terry (newly reappointed England captain)

Sports: Unglam photos: Part 1

Carlos Tevez and Rio Ferdinand in a recent Manchester derby. Hmm.... What's going on?!

  A friend/junior (let's call me T) sent tagged me in this photo on Facebook. We basically laughed our heads off. It's pretty juvenile humor and pretty mean-spirited but, well, it's funny, you're going have to admit that. It has epic expressions and um, depicts a questionable moment?
 But really, it's not what you think at first glance. Here's the profile view.

So maybe it's still ambiguous....

This was taken moments before that uh-hum shot. It shows Ferdinand falling, so he probably used Tevez as a fall-breaker. From the Sun's website:
'Rio said: "It's when he fouled me. It certainly looks like foul play doesn't it? It's good for him, not for me so much. He'll be proud of it. He's got one up on me for it."

Aww... Brotherly love. Anyway, when T sent me the link on Saturday, I still hadn't any solid ideas for this week's strip, so I used it as a starting point. The strip is done as I type this, so look out for it.

Don't get me wrong, Sports is a admirable pursuit and you do get very beautiful shots of athletes in their games that crystallizes the spirit of passion, willpower, endurance, sportsmanship, etc. It's just that sometimes, well, there are not so beautiful moments too. Like that few moments above.

Jiong ge zi snails

For those who don't know what's happening:

And images that are even funnier.

April's fool!

Japan tsunami

Last strip before March Holidays

Tution woes

Ball of paper

Yet another satire at education.

Calculator handphone

Chocolate CNY goodies

angbow 3 choose 1

囧格子CNY series complete

I don't own all the images here, especially xiao ling's one.

Book recommendation: The book of bunny suicides

Well, it's the year of the rabbit. Happy Chinese New year.

CNY greetings Jay, emokia

(top): 杰
(below): emokia

chinese new year (1)

2011 banzhang's resolution

Courtney Crumrin

Courtney Crumin is a thriller/fantasy/dark comics series by Ted Naifeh. The entire series is played out in a witching community in Hillsborogh. Our main character is Courtney, a rather gusty, 'don't mess-with-me-or-you-will-pay', smart ass girl. Exceptionally talented and matured for her age, Courtney is rather antisocial and looks up to her Uncle Aloysius, a retired warlock of great power. Courtney is forced to go to school to gain 'practical' education(people skills), but that doesn't stop her from engaging in some monster-bashing, evil-whacking adventures. Heck, she's more comfortable in Hillborough's creepy woods and the world of night things than her classmates.

Though witchcraft, magical creatures roam the book and cause much of the chaos, Naifeh reveals to us that most of the scheming, manipulation, back-stabbing and evil comes within humans. Even the Coven and Council that rules the supposed wiser witch population(as compared to us humans), we see how humans prove fallible to petty politics and selfish personal gains. when Courtney expresses her outrage and anger at the foolishness and hypocrisy of adults, we empathize with her and even support her sometimes morally questionable attempts to rectify the situation.

 Another beautiful plot feature is Courtney's dilemma of growing up too fast(learning the true nature, ugliness of people, losing innocence) and her desire to know more(so as to protect ppl/things she loves) It's a age old dichotomy, but so seldom explored. Naifeh chooses to shun from the romanticized ideal of childhood and faces the experience of growing up with great honesty. Naifeh also reveals to readers that sometimes, adults are also just helpless children, stupid souls trapped in big bodies.

Despite all the gloominess and negativity of humanity, Naifeh slips in silvers of positive human traits like hope, love, friendship, loyalty that shows readers how much humans can be good too.

Naifeh's characters are superbly fleshed out; even his creatures are believable, possessing human traits. (One of his most frightening creatures, Tommy Bloodbones, has a sense of humour and has no qualms about getting back on his previous master for summoning him to do dirty work) Characters are never exclusively good nor bad; Aloysius, the seemingly morally sound and wise uncle of Courtney's also has his flaws as his old friend reveals. Though Aloysius takes it as his responsibility to protect his fellow witches, warlocks and wizards, he has also 'alienated a lot of people over the years.'

The series is fleshed out in black and white, a style Naifeh handles very masterfully to create a magical world of sorcery and fantastical creatures. Hatching is a pretty common feature in the comic. It's a American styled comic though the cutesy elements are atypical of the genre. Panelling is also great and smooth, though in the action scenes I might venture some manga-elements may be seen.

In comics math, this Courthey Crumrin would be a cross between Grimm's Fairy tales and Harry potter. f you were a fan of Hellboy, this would suit you, except taht it is less violent and action packed with no Nazis whatsoever. If you love twisted fairy tales, this is for you too. And if you are a fan of Paul Magrs' 'Never teh Bride' series(the one with Frankenstein's bride), you'll definitely love this comic series too.