Playlist: Mars Volta - Francis the Mute & Amputechure, At the Drive-In - In Casino Out, Mastadon - Crack the Skye, Zwan - misc. live stuff, Kyuss - Welcome to Sky Valley, IAMX - Kingdom of Welcome Addiction.

Progress on the List is pretty good. I have decided on the thumbnails of the first few pages and have been working on the first two pages. Here are the first two pages of Volume 03. I think they’re coming along, but I’ll either modify parts of it or redo the pages entirely to get them just right.

I want to put more time into the pages of this volume. I thought with the last volume it could have benefited with better composition/design/layout. It was adequate, and the drawings were good and detailed, but that doesn’t cut it when it’s a comic. A comic needs all elements to be good, and not just pretty pictures in boxes. 

A lot of comikers either don’t know this or they don’t care they make shit sequentials. A comic has to be functional as well as balancing aesthetics to complement storytelling. I dislike a lot of comics pure illustrators/painters do because they don’t put thought into it. Pages look horrible despite individual panels looking nice.The most important thing is to notice what you’re doing wrong and fix it. 

Henry

Now, I don’t intend to use this blog to bore you with my personal life, but this is probably an exception. I went to the Penfolds Grange 10 Year Anniversary Dinner last night with some friends. I’ll just concentrate on what I thought were the highlights of the dinner.

Surprise was the Gewurztraminer, which I quite enjoyed, but the meal that accompanied it didn’t really suit it I found. I was served with sliced raw swordfish, and the wine really overpowered it, so I don’t think they complemented each other well.
I preferred the 2008 bin 311 Chardonnay over the 2007 Reserve Bin 07A. I thought the 2007 was a bit young, and very citrus-y. The Morton bay bugs and scampi souffle that accompanied it was really good.
Now the best part of the dinner: The Main with 4 Granges. Fuck yeah. The 1983 Grange was my favourite. I didn’t like the 1989 Grange as much as I thought I would, a few of us at the table found it a bit too sweet, but then there were some who preferred it; it is a personal preference thing. The 1999 Grange, and the only straight shiraz of the lot, was alright. I liked the 2004 Grange. It’s relatively new, and still has a lot of room for aging, but it was good.
The main dish was wagyu tenderloin, which is a meat I have always been disappointed by. It has always had too much fat or just dry (it doesn’t matter if it’s aged or not), and frankly I prefer a good old black Angus rib eye. Last night’s wagyu was one of the best steaks I’ve had. It was perfectly cooked medium-rare with a layer of foie gras on top served on top of mushrooms and Penfolds Grange jus. Fucking A. It’s funny, because the Grange dinner is at the same restaurant that I usually try wagyu. I guess they went all out last night. I doubt I’ll ever have a steak that good again anytime soon.
As a consequence my mouth went entirely purple. Unfortunately, despite the amounts of alcohol and my best efforts, I did not get drunk nor even tipsy. Fucking tolerance to alcohol went up again. I drank about 4 bottles worth of wine dammit. Probably the food absorbed it or something.
Peter Gago chief winemaker was there and I even got him to sign the complementary book. He recommended a few other underrated Granges, which I will save to get one day. I took home an empty bottle of 1983 Grange as a memento.