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Oh yeah… Duffman…!! Well this is the dream come true story of the female comic artist from Canada, N. Matsumoto aka spacecoyote who drew a Japanese manga version of The Simpsons. She submitted the artwork at www.deviantart.com on January 5, 2007 under her DA account spacecoyote. As you can already see the amazing artwork in the images shown above, this work made to the top pages of DA within days and even faster then that the artwork was circulated throughout the internet. Soon it ended up on the digg.com as well as ABC News Australia and various other blogs and websites.

This was just the beginning of a never ending glory. Soon enough the big people sitting at the Simpsons end noticed her artwork and contacted her. Bongo comics, the brain child of Matt Groening offered her to work on a manga style version of the Simpsons. Also she was contacted by 20th Century Fox to work on the upcoming relaunch of Futurama! Woo hoo… this article is actually about many news, but its more about the success story of a simple girl, who is an artist at heart.

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This artwork doesn’t represent her awesome talent, so do make it sure to check out her DA gallery which has amazing comic artworks. Matsumoto has already done the manga versions of Futurama and a pencil portrait of Sideshow Bob. Also make sure to check out her website and her own comic strip (all the links have been provided at the end of the article).

Talking about the art and talent, many people are using her artworks as their own over the net. Well you will find numerous avatars and signatures made out of her artworks, but worst are those people who are using her artworks as their own. So, if you see any of her artworks under somebody else’s name, don’t let yourself being fooled and do raise a voice against the art theft. All the artworks drawn by Matsumoto are her intellectual property and she deserves a proper credit given to her. This also means a request to the readers of TAP who will be reading this article and saving these images on their systems. If you ever decide to use her artworks, don’t forget to give her the whole credit.

Congratulations to spacecoyote from me and the whole angrypixel team for making it. Some of us do end up painting our dreams in the sky. Mmm…..sky….

N. Matsumoto’s personal site
N. Matsumoto @ DeviantArt
N. Matsumoto’s webcomic - “Saturnalia”

Every single Indian rocker knows that Parikrama opened for Iron Maiden in Bangalore on 17th March. That was some news, but nobody knows about the kind of impact that show left on everybody from the lands of rock that day. The Maidens themselves paid the Parikrama a visit back stage to congratulate them on their unique blend of Indian classical and retro rock of the 70s. Parikrama wasn’t even expecting to see the Maidens, let alone their coming to them personally. Well to sum it all it was an awesome experience for the band that has been singing for more then 14 years and that too without a single album to their credit.. some nerve..

Noticeably Parikrama performed all original set at the gig and also played two new songs. The success of the show and the impact it had was blatantly projected in the article “Maiden India” by Ed Vulliamy which was released online on the Observer Guardian Unlimited on Sunday, April 22, 2007. This is the official say:

“If the support band, Parikrama, don’t soon make inroads in the West, the A&R system is malfunctioning badly. During an entrancing instrumental called ‘The Open Sky’, the violinist, Imran Khan, played a hypnotic solo entwining heavy rock, Paganini and the chromatics of Ravi Shankar, while a huge, majestic but appropriately ominous jet-black house crow hovered above the stage.

Offstage, Parikrama’s vocalist Nitin Malik says with a knowing look: ‘Yes, that number can often change the weather.’ He explains that ‘heavy rock in India has been the preserve of the young intelligentsia until now. But it is filtering down to the blue-collar workers, becoming the music of a new generation in a new kind of country. But,’ he adds, ‘there is nothing in the world like playing on the same stage as Iron Maiden.’

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The stale news is that the oriental postmodern (or vice versa) comic The Sadhu from the house of “Virgins” will be turned into a movie. This amazing comic series that Virgin Comics started under the name of The Sadhu is a hit as far as its artworks and storyline goes, just like any other comic series from the house of Virgin. This news should have made me jump off my chair.. it did indeed… but when I read about the protagonist who is going to act the part of Sadhu, I sank deeper into the oblivion of my chair. This guy… this guy who is going to be the protagonist of this not-so-highly-anticipated movie anymore, has the ability to ruin a very good plot and amazing scripts. This guy has done it before, and he will.. probably.. do it again… this guy is none other then… well… Nicolas Cage… I liked him in Lord of War, but never had an interest in his ghost busting acting capabilities. Anyways, I shouldn’t be biased, but just cant help it.

Okay lets move on, lets not talk about Cage. Moving on, Shekhar Kapoor is directing the movie. Of course he will. He and Deepak Chopra’s son Batman.. sorry Gotham Chopra run Virgin Comics. Lets count our odds.. Shekhar Kapoor… recently divorced… known for his moody behavior… kinda psycho… busy schedules… okay.. the chances are astronomical that this movie will never get made. Nevertheless, the team has officially announced that they will start shooting in India in 2008. I thought we just had enough of Jolie and Brat.. sorry Brad.

The official release said that "Nick chose Shekhar to direct the film. The Sadhu is an iconic character"… I really want to laugh my ass out on this.. so much that at the end of my laughing spree, I’d want to cry… may I? He chose? Hello..!! I reckon he also chose Ivan Reitman to direct The Ghostbusters. Well, it says that Cage became interested in the project after reading the comic last year.

Whatever comes out of this, I hope it doesn’t affect the great comic series that Virgin has launched. These comic books have some of the great artworks that ever existed in India, and for once, Indians can proudly present some cult comic art to the world. Finally we will be known for something else then illustrated Kamasutra and M. F. Hussain.