The Home of the Creative Mind

Welcome to PooBahSpiel, the online voice and home of the creative mind of Mark Monlux, Illustrator Extraordinaire. Prepare yourself for an endless regaling of art directly from the hand of this stellar artist. And brace yourself against his mighty wind of pontification. Updates are kinda weekly and show daily sketches, current projects, and other really nifty stuff.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

The Comic Critic's Review of Forrest Gump


I struggled with this review of Forrest Gump for a long time. It would have been too easy to fill all the panels with the mountains of catch phrases this movie introduced into the popular lexicon. I toyed with the idea of pairing two commentaries on each panel: one on love and one on country. But it didn’t take. My “country” theme kept hop-scotching from historical moments to pop-culture fads. And I was also struggling with the “love” theme. I grouched about my efforts to my wife. She responded, “It’s not a movie about love; it’s a movie about friendship.” I then remembered Milton’s essay on Friendship. The gist of it was how friendship, unlike love, is a bond created by choice. And it’s the strength of that choice that creates an element to life of unequaled depth and transcendence. I thanked my best friend in the world for her insight. The strip quickly fell into place.

Winner of six Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Fans, I'm going to be taking some time off from the drawing board. I'm scheduled to attending the Denver Comiccon, Olympia Comic Book Festival, and the Silverdale Comic Book Show. I will be back in two weeks.