Review: Ghost Rider - Lena Semenkova Feature

by NDK Creative Artist

When I look at Psychobitchua’s Ghost Rider, an image Lena and I never talked about, I think of a certain Texan leaping his war horse with its flaming mane over the graves of all the people he’s sent to their deaths, against the backdrop of a blood-red moon. His face is the pasty gaunt skull of death, and his garb is black like his mount, whose face, like his, is a skull devoid of flesh and expression. However, the horse’s skull is wreathed in flame that extends into the mane.

The Ghost Rider is an iconic image of immense power that sears its way into your mind and is reminiscent of western movies and in some odd way the Marlboro Man. Must be the smoke.

When I look at this I see a movie poster, and I guess I must have Bush-on-the-brain because the American Western is so often filmed in Texas and it seems to me these days that America rides the dark horse of death towards the Apocalypse. I wish it were otherwise. Ghost Rider would make a great T-shirt.

When I did talk to Lena about this image, it was when she was reviewing what had been written prior to publication and she introduced me to the famous Johnny Blaze. I felt like I’d been living under a rock, if only briefly. My comic reading days are long past, though I’m in need of a revival and am glad to hear that Marvel has taken its comic art online. It turns out at that Nicholas Cage starred in this movie and I do remember seeing the original movie poster for it, but not, unfortunately, the movie. DVD, definitely.

Lena: I wouldn’t want to give the fucked politics the face of Bush. He’s a fucker of all fuckers, but I don’t like giving politics a particular recognizable face. Because people tend to automatically start to blame that face and only that face forgetting to blame themselves. Ghost Rider was a comic and later a movie which was hated by everybody and loved by me.

TFA: Why did you love it so much?

Lena: It’s a good idea, with good visual images and characters. They put the demon of water, the demon of wind and the demon of earth as the three main villains. They were led by satanic creature obviously representing fire. I found it very smart and the demons were visually cool.

TFA: And why did people hate it?

Lena: Fans always hate the movie version of their favorite comics or videogame. Plus, people tend to hate B-movies in general. Bryan Singer was an exception when he made the movie adaptation of X-Men comics. But X-Men has an exceptionally social storyline itself, plus Singer is an Oscar-winning director who can make the stupidest character human and believable. I can forgive much if I like the general message of the images. I saw Elizabeth: the Golden Age today, and it’s visually perfect. I mean, perfection, each scene is like a painting. While the plot is sometimes absent.

If Lena wants to go into the movie poster business or expand her talents into the area of creating graphic novels, I foresee a bright future ahead.

Feature Index

1. Lena Semenkova - Camouflage of Contradictions
2. Digital Art and Photomanipulation
3. Review: The Imitator
4. Review: The Waiting
5. Review: Superstar
6. Interview Part 1
7. Review: The Kingdom
8. Review: Like a Bird
9. Interview Part 2
10. Review: Ghost Rider
11. Review: All the snowflakes must die
12. Interview Part 3
13. Review: Red Skull
14. Review: Prisoner of Conscience
15. Review: War
16. Conclusion

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If you'd rather we did all the hard work, you're in luck. Here's a list of articles that are related to this one:

• Review: Red Skull - Lena Semenkova Feature
• Review: Like a Bird - Lena Semenkova Feature
• Review: The Waiting - Lena Semenkova Feature
• Review: Superstar - Lena Semenkova Feature
• Review: Prisoner of Conscience - Lena Semenkova Feature