I painted:

And took some photos

The houses in the above painting from a different angle.

Yeah, I took a photograph of this oft-photographed building. Sue me. I actually like this.

Rockport is a lot of fun. It's extraordinarily touristy, but that's okay sometimes.

Interestingly, I think this might make a better film as the focus should be on the stuff I really enjoyed and not the bits that dragged on a bit.

It's good, just not as good as it could have been or as good as the other two entries in the series.

I'll have a lot more info about the event as I get it. For now? Inky goodness.

If you're not familiar, the scene is from Infernal Affairs, a film I adore. The scene is one of my favorite from the film and, for me, it captures the very essence of the film. This is the first really tight ink drawing I've done in a couple of years. It was fun. Hopefully it'll bring in a lot of money for the Brattle.

Part of that for me is the nature of the mystery. The combination of the extended locked room mystery, the family secrets bubbling beneath the surface and the incredible payoff of the first book, pretty much anything that follows will pale in comparison and in this case the very nature of the mystery has changed. It's like picking up one of those serial killer series and all of a sudden the protagonist is out hunting down white collar criminals for embezzlement. Sure, the "men who hate women" angle of the original book's Swedish title is heavily at play in this volume, but the focus shifts from the personal, and much more satisfying, individual stories of Dragon to a "meta" story of governments, conspiracies and defectors. It's like switching from Thomas Harris to John Le Carre or something. Not necessarily bad but not what you'd expect or want.

Okay, enough comparisons… Taken on its own merits, this is still a damn fine book. The characters are fascinating and the complex mystery is enough to keep the pages turning. So, if you go in with slightly lowered expectations, you'll have a winner on your hands.