BY TOUTATIS!

Yup, another one of the few great comics that I grew up with. 

It being from a different cartoonist. It was a completely new experience from the Tintin comics. From the story line, to the time that it was set in. Even to the use of magic have been thrown in from time to time. Hell, even Julius Cesar and Cleopetra are ACTUAL characters in this series.

Speaking of characters, the characters would be drawn in a stylistic way, with most characters having really big feet and noses. To the point where even the way the characters get into a fist fight would be all stylised. Plus the rich, bright colors that help makes the characters stand out more. The comic panels are slightly bigger and wider than the Tintin comics and there a lot more comedic moments than the Tintin series. 

The character chemistry between one another is probably one of their strong points.

Mix all of that and you get yourself 48 colored pages of Asterix goodness.

The Many, Many Adventures of Tintin

Remember in the Garfield post where I said that the other reasons gets their own review? Well, this is one of them. Yup, it's Tintin. The young orange-haired reporter with his trusty white dog named Snowy. 

Back in Primary School, I didn't have many friends and often times, I would spend my recess time all by myself. So, I had my Garfield comic with me right? Yup but after reading it over the weeks, I thought maybe I could find more Garfield comics in the school library. And it was air-con, so I figured  Hey,why not?

I got there but I couldn't find any Garfield comics anywhere. But I did find this GIGANTIC A3-sized comic book with the title "THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN THE SECRET OF THE UNICORN".

And back then, I was probably the first time I've seen a book that big. I flipped through it and I noticed that it wasn't a three-panel comic like Garfield. It had many panels with really detailed buildings and backgrounds. It has action scenes, gunfights, car chases. It has this realistic-cartoonish tone to it? Kinda like a own 'style' to it. Flushed out characters. Good chemistry between the characters. And a really good story to back it up. Things that I wouldn't see in a Garfield-comic. 

I grew to love it over time as I spend my many recesses in the library, reading Tintin comics.

The Lazy, Fat but Lovable cat, Garfield

Garfield. He's lazy. He's fat. He's grouchy. He loves no one but himself. But he's probably one the few reasons why I'm into an animation stream now. The other reasons? They'll get their own posts.

Back in Primary School, I didn't like reading books, maybe it was because the thickness of the books would put me off. And also, our Primary School kept emphasizing that it was very important to read books as it helps with the Vocabulary and Pronunciation. So, whenever we have the chance, our teachers would ask to take out our books to read. 

But no, I didn't wanna do that, I didn't wanna read books like the Hardy Boys or Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I wanted something with pictures to tell a story. 

I wanted something different from a story book or a picture book.

And so at the starting of a new school year, my English teacher took out a box of books from the cupboard for us to read every time we have English lesson. And I found a small white rectangular Garfield book at the very top of the box. It wasn't too thick nor was it too thin. I flipped through and I found this three-panel comic with Garfield in it. It was in the box that my ENGLISH TEACHER CHOSE. So why not? I thought.

I began reading page by page, day by day. 

FA1101C '11

FA1101C. What could I talk about this class? Well everything actually. 

To start things off, I guess we are close as one because of what we loved to do, and that was drawing. Many of us had different ways of drawing, some of us had this Japanese 'style', some of had a western 'style' of drawing, some could draw Grafiti kind of art, some could do body art and some had their own 'stylised' style to it.  All in all, in the class itself, we would have a WIDE range of drawing styles to learn from. And we were pretty open about it. We would learn from each other and at times, we would give our own personal feedback to the drawing. 

We were pretty wild actually. Not in a beserk kinda way. And we weren't those goody too shoes class either. 

I mean for example, sometimes our lecturer would show a movie for us to study drawing fundamentals, as the movie progressed, we would start making funny voices during scenes, laugh at the'serious' faces that the actor was making, or just disturbing each other in the movie. 

And also we had the awesomest...is that even a word? Yes it is now. Anyway, we had the most awesomest, quirkiest lectures who thought us the principles of animation, figure drawing, the human anatomy, character design, storyboarding, sculpting and all things animation basically!

I miss you guys. 

Holidays, please come faster already.