New & Improved JamesPurefoy.us

http://www.jamespurefoy.us

Thought it would be a good idea to post a little blog entry today since I have not gone live with the new JamesPurefoy.us. A few little kinks have cropped up after moving all of the files in to the main directory, but I’m fixing those issues right now. For whatever reason, 2 of the galleries didn’t make it. I’ve checked all of them now and as far as I can tell everything else made it alright. But if anyone happens to see this message and when browsing the new site notices anything wrong, please send me a message so I can fix it.

Prior to this site I was completely clueless about CSS, Spry and only moderately knowledgeable about HTML code. I was able to skimp by using the visual editing capabilities of Dreamweaver. But, switching to DW CS4 forced me (and I’m glad it did) to learn CSS and expand my overall knowledge of web design. Granted, this new knowledge, which I’m still gaining and struggling to master, is going to have me busy migrating all of the other sites I manage into CS4, which requires knowledge of CSS to use. I manage sites both personally and professionally, so wow, I sure do have a HUGE amount of work ahead of me. But JP.us has been my trial by fire, my practice site.

I might have decided to do one of my other sites first to practice on. But I felt it important to get JP.us up to par since James is going to have several films coming out and I wanted his site to be up to par with his costars. I feel very good about what I’ve achieved. I’m sure as I continue to learn I’ll be making tweaks and improvements to the site. But overall, it’s so much better. Better organized, better laid out, easier to navigate and not so cluttered up.

It is also nice that I had a bit of new content to include with the launch. I know I gave a deadline on Facebook for fans to submit new works (art, wallpapers, etc) but if you didn’t make that deadline please don’t hesitate to send along anything you do. This is a site for the fans, by the fans, and I love sharing all of the brilliant things you guys create and come up with.

I hope to add some more gifs and audio clips as well. Nettie and I are WAY overdue for new videos. We have ideas, but we feel we need to finally (month’s late) get our personal UK trip video edited and posted before doing any fan videos. Since I’ve been so absorbed in the site changes for the past weeks (literally spending all of my free time on it) other things have taken a backseat. But now what it’s done, I’m hoping to get other things moving again.

Anyway, I’ve rambled enough here. Hope everyone enjoys the new site and thanks to all of you for your wonderful support!! <3

Gettin’ Artsy over John Carter of Mars

I’ve been so fired up about James starring in John Carter of Mars that I’ve immersed myself in the entire Mars series by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I love these stories and the characters. So, attempting to do more artwork and keep my skills from waning any worse than they have been, I’ve done some digital paintings. First I’ll share the James Purefoy as Kantos Kan painting I did in ArtRage2:

I’m not totally happy with the above image, but overall like it. Some of my skills are so very rusty it’s harder to get the vision in my head to come out right. But it’s slowly.. oh so slowly, coming back to me.

Next is my image of John Carter’s faithful “hound” Woola. Inspired by the scene in book 1 “A Princess of Mars” where JC demonstrates affection to the “hideous creature” for the first time. Woola is just bursting with utter joy. LOL

And lastly, created in Photoshop CS4, my painting of Ghek from Chessmen of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. A very bizarre and rather creepy character that I just love.

It will be very interesting to see how Disney / Pixar interprets the wonderful visions created by ERB. I’ve sure enjoyed painting them up how I see them when I read his marvelous stories. ~Khanada

Solomon Kane vs Van Helsing: Setting the Record Straight

There is only one MAIN reason why the new Solomon Kane film keeps getting compared to Hugh Jackman’s Van Helsing—and that’s because Van Helsing’s look was completely ripped off from Solomon Kane.

For those of you who don’t know already, Solomon Kane is not a new character, he’s not even originally a comic book character. Solomon Kane was created by Robert E. Howard, who also created Conan and Solomon Kane’s very first story, “Red Shadows,” came out in Weird Tales magazine way back in August of 1928.

Yes the character of Van Helsing has been around a long time, too. But Van Helsing was not an all around “hunt down evil and destroy it” character until he was “re-imagined” by Stephen Sommers (writer and director of Van Helsing). And it seems Sommers liked Solomon Kane’s look and motivations so much he decided to make his own character, using another existing character’s name, sort of (the original Van Helsing’s first name was Abram, while Hugh Jackman’s version was Gabrial. It was hinted at that he was the angel Gabriel). But Sommers didn’t really care whether someday someone might decide to make an actual Solomon Kane film and that forever those unaware of the origins of Kane would compare Kane to Van Helsing—to the utter irritation of those like me who see NO REAL comparison.

Most Solomon Kane fans discovered him via comic books. I have both the original Weird Tales stories as well as two full sets of comics. I love them all! I’m a new Kane fan, admittedly, but that doesn’t matter to me because Solomon Kane is precisely the kind of character—and his stories are precisely the kinds of stories, that I’ve always gravitated to and counted as my favorites.

Bottom line, comparing the new Solomon Kane film to Van Helsing is just ridiculous. Other than the outfit and the stolen identity, there is no similarities at all. Van Helsing was, by all accounts, a live action cartoon. It was overloaded with characters, filled with hokey events, corny jokes, amusing melodrama, and sped along like some Halloween Horror Nights roller coaster ride. Van Helsing was not even trying to be well acted, well written, or taken seriously.

Now, when it comes to Solomon Kane, I admit I have not seen it yet. I’ve only seen the trailer and read a lot about it. I also have contact with a few people who are involved in the production, so despite not seeing the film yet, I do know enough to say for an absolute fact, that whether you like the film or not when you see it, it is NOT in ANY WAY another of Van Helsing movie!!!

Solomon Kane is a film that takes itself seriously. It is not a parody of itself. It is not a wacky roller coaster ride. It is very well acted and intelligently made. But, this article is not written for the purpose of raving about the Solomon Kane film. That blog will come once I’ve had opportunity to see it. This blog is simply written for the purpose of STOPPING the stupid comparisons to Van Helsing!

And on that thought let me just say that anytime I see anyone make that infuriating comparison, I will send a link to this blog and repost if necessary. So, you may just see this again, and again, and again, until the mindless comparisons are finally silenced. You have been warned.

Solomon Kane @ Fantastic Fest Today

So, today Michael Bassett and Paul Berrow are in Austin where Solomon Kane will be showing at Fantastic Fest! I’m a bit frustrated that I couldn’t go, but tickets were impossible to get and time off from work after just taking 2 weeks for our UK trip was also quite difficult to achieve. We had wanted to gather up our friends here and make it a road trip… but now we’ll have to wait until the actual release (unless something new pops up that we can make it to).

James Purefoy was unable to attend the screening in Austin due to his schedule. He starts filming Ironclad very soon, which I’m just ticked pink over. Knight’s Templar, chain mail, BIG swords…  Yep, that’s right up my alley! I’m hoping he has a great experience during the production and that he doesn’t hurt himself on set. LOL! There are stunt men for a reason, dear James. Take GOOD care of you, please. We need to enjoy watching you for many years to come and you need to keep your darling self in one piece.

Learning my way around…

I’ve been creating and updating JamesPurefoy.us for years now… managing his MySpace page for about as long, just started his Facebook page recently and also my Twitter, which primarily updates for James Purefoy fans, but have not really had a blog to accompany the site before. I’m a bit lost here at WordPress thus far, but as soon as I get the hang of it I’ll put the word out that it’s here and get it all linked up.

Over the coming weeks I’ll be doing as much promo for Solomon Kane as I can here. Trying to really get attention for it here in the states. Statewide attention and a distributor here will have a direct effect on other countries, such as Australia and New Zealand, when it comes to getting the film released everywhere. Seems Europe is covered, so now it’s our turn. Any help anyone can give when it comes to spreading the word, places that would be good to link up to and network with, etc, please message me directly or email me from http://www.jamespurefoy.us so I can consider your suggestions. Hope you enjoy this blog. ~Khanada

Welcome to the Blog for JamesPurefoy.us

This blog will become the replacement for the James Journal as it’s been on the site for the past few years. I hope you enjoy it.