Glen Cadigan, who together the very excellent Titans Companion Vol. 1 is at it again with Vol. 2. He picks up where he left off, so there's a little bit of me and George as well as all the teams that have followed in our wake. If you want to see what's in Vol 2, CLICK HERE. I haven't seen the book yet as it comes out June 18th, but I trust you will enjoy it.

Labels: Titans Companion #2

Okay, I've got to be honest. I'm a child of the 50s, growing up as I did with all those terrible old TV shows that I used to love like nobody's business. And though I'm not the most nostalgic person in the world - I fully recognize most of the stuff I loved as a six year old probably wasn't all that deep, I couldn't help but buy an incredible new 9 1/2 hour DVD collection called "Hiya, Kids!! A 50s Saturday Morning." This is a grand collection of all my favorite old crap and a few shows I never even heard of.

Here's a full list. Disc 1: Kukla, Fran and Ollie, Howdy Doody, Lassie, Annie Oakley. Disc 2: Flash Gordon, Ding Dong School, Time For Beany, The Paul Winchell Show, The Roy Rogers Show, Captain Z-RO. Disc 3: The Rootie Kazootie Club. Disk two: Winky, Dink and You, Super Circus, Andy's Gang, The Cisco Kid, Sky King. Disc 4: The Magic Clown, Kids and Company, Juvenile Jury, The Pinky Lee Show, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.

As I say there are shows here I never heard of, but for the grand total of 28 bucks, the price you can get this slap in the face down memory lane, from amazon.com, I simply had to have it. And maybe someone out there in Blogland, USA, will want it, too. If so, click on the following link: Hiya Kids

Labels: A 50s Saturday Morning

For Canadian fans, debuting June 6th at 8PM on IFC Canada will be the first of a ten-part series called INK: ALTER-EGOS EXPOSED, that will be analyzing comics and their creators. It will then be rebroadcast Saturday at 7 & 9 AM and Sunday at 11AM.

Extensively interviewed for the show were such notables as Stan Lee, Joe Kubert, Mike Mignola, Mark Waid, Grant Morrison, Gail Simone, Jaime Hernandez and others, including, in a giant lapse of judgment, me.

In their words: "A ten-part documentary series, "INK: ALTER EGOS EXPOSED" explores comics through a different issue or theme for each episode. From "Politics" to "Death in Comics," to the "Alternative Press" , from "Heroes," to "Villains" and "The Creators," each half-hour is a unique opportunity for a wide array of talents and opinions to collide and contrast. Each subsequent episode will air weekly, same bat-time, same bat-channel.

The show does not yet have an American distributor but they do hope to shortly. If you're Canadian, please take a look at the show, record it if possible, and let me know what you think. They've promised me a set of DVD's but you know how long those things can take and I'd love to see the show sooner than later.

Labels: INK

I've mentioned before that as a hobby I love to make what I call Venusian Masks. They are masks built on a paper mache body, like the real Venetian masks, but instead of jesters and other such characters as you'd find in Italy, I make mine into robots. I've even featured a pic or two from time. Among the gifts Noel got me for my birthday a week or so back was a photo tent set-up that would allow me to take much better looking mask photos. The tent worked perfectly, diffusing the light and letting me finally get some good pictures. Here are a few.

Labels: Venusian Masks

Most of you know that Gene Colan, my frequent collaborator on books as far ranging as Tomb of Dracula, Goofy, Night Force, Curse of Dracula and The Simpsons, among others, is ill and he can use all of our help. To that end Clifford Meth is organizing a benefit auction and I will definitely be sending scripts and such to help raise much needed money. To learn all the details, CLICK HERE.

Labels: Gene Colan

Labels: Maui Wowie

ANOTHER GOLD MEDAL FOR HOMELAND!

The Gold Medal 2008 Independent Publishers Book Award, IPPY, has been awarded to HOMELAND in the category of Multicultural Non-Fiction for Juveniles, Teens and Young Adults.

The IPPY recognizes the best independently published books. Out of 3,175 entries, HOMELAND is one of 64 books that received Gold Medals. The judging panel includes experts from the fields of editing, design, reviewing, bookselling and library services.

If you're interested in seeing what the hooplah is all about (Homeland's won a ton of awards) click on the Amazon.com link at the top right of this page and order it.

Labels: IPPY

A little while ago I mentioned I was miffed with the new paid version Apple's iMovie taking out some of the great features they used to give away free. Well, if I say something bad I should also say something nice. I've been learning the new Leopard OS and one of the places I check for info is Apple's online video tips. They give behind the scenes info on those cool little programs that Apple throws into its computer that they don't tell you about. If you want to check out the online tips, CLICK HERE.

So what kinds of tips am I talking about? Well, if you're on the web or even if you're just reading some document, and you see a word you don't know, or want to know more about, or want to find some website dealing with the word, highlight it then click both control and the mouse at the same time and it will open a dictionary for its definition, or bring you to a website for further info.  Another cool program occurs when you open your address book in order to copy the address to paste it into Mapquest for directions. But all you actually need to do is control/mouse click on the address and Google Maps will open up and automatically give you those directions. Two real cool bits you'd never normally know about. So if you've got a Mac, try out their video tips. You'll be amazed by what's already built into your machine.

Labels: Apple tips

I know I've been going on and on about my New Zealand trip, and I swear this will be my last blog about it. I put together a 3-4 minute video and have put it on my vacation photos link to the right or you can see the video, as well as my still photos, HERE.  To see the photos, click on the words Photo, Photos 2 or 3. For the video, click on New Zealand April. I hope you enjoy them.

Labels: New Zealand Video

This is to give everyone a head's up. I've written an episode for the new Speed Racer, The Next Generation TV show now on the air and my episode, entitled "Be Cruel To Your School" airs this coming Friday, May 16th, on Nicktoons. Check your local listing for time and channel number.

Labels: Speed Racer The Next Generation

As I'm sure many of you know by now, artist Gene Colan is ill. I worked with Gene for many years, starting with a story for Tower of Shadows, then Tomb of Dracula, Night Force, Curse of Dracula, Goofy (yes, Goofy!) and most recently a story for The Simpsons. Every job Gene did was not only wonderfully illustrated, but brilliantly told. Gene is a master craftsman.

But then I knew that long before Gene and I worked together. I was a fan of his when he was drawing at Warren Magazines, then a fan of this Iron Man artist I never heard of whose credit was Adam Austin, because Gene, who was working at DC, wasn't supposed to be working at Marvel, too. Gene just drew better than anyone else and his unique style popped off the page.

Gene's art has always been singular in comics. You see hundreds of Kirby imitators, lots of Buscema clones, those who try to mimic Jim Lee or name an artist, but nobody has ever tried to copy Gene's work, because it's truly unique in so many, many ways. You can always tell when Gene draws a page. His characters have personality, emotion, and somehow when you look at them, you feel they have a past as well. They are people who have lived. Who have weight and gravitas. His work on Tomb of Dracula among others is filled with human emotion. His characters appear to be photographic, but what makes Gene special is they aren't. They are so real but at the same time they are a pure artist's vision. I've talked in the past about a scene I remember reading when I was just a fan of Gene's before we worked together. I can't tell you which book it was in, but the drawings has always stuck in my mind. Gene did a photo-realistic version of a car speeding through the city. At least it looked photo-realistic until you truly analyzed it. To give the car a sense of speed, the car was not only driving off the pavement but the metal of the car was actually bent in a way that made it seem it was speeding faster than you can imagine. Yet, again, when you looked at it it seemed like a piece of beautiful advertising illustration. Gene is an illustrator as well as a cartoonist. He is an artist who made you feel that what you saw was 100% real, but to achieve that effect he bent physics to his whim.

Every month when we worked together on Tomb of Dracula or later Night Force or Curse of Dracula, or whatever, Gene would call me after he received the plot or script and ask questions about the story. He was involved and he cared about making the story work as best he could. The wonder of Gene's magic is that every time I did a story with him, it looked so much better than I ever could have imagined.

As an artist Gene has always been truly special. But even more importantly, Gene is a great person, humble, and open to everyone who comes by his convention table. Behind the scenes Gene is the same. As I said above, we spoke all the time whenever we worked together, and Gene's friendship as well as his commitment to his work is unparalleled.

Gene has enriched all our lives with his incredible body of work, now let's return the favor and give him all our very best wishes.

Labels: Gene Colan

My sphincter tightened so hard my eyeballs got sucked in.

Labels: A Walk An The Park

Barack Obama has been on an amazing trajectory for someone who was barely known two years ago. I voted for him in the California primaries basically because although his policies and Hillary's were pretty much identical I didn't care for Hillary's nasty campaign tactics. I've been hoping for a candidate to take the high road for decades now, and for the most part Obama seems to have done so. But this blog isn't about him. It's about his campaign.

The Clintons have been in politics for decades. I voted twice for Bill and would do so again if it were legal to do so. They have perfected a great machine, as all politicians have to do in order to get nominated let alone elected. What I'd like to know is how Obama created his machine. How did a relative unknown junior Senator put together such a strong and focused group that could work so successfully on a National election with such finesse. Back in the past we used to have books after each Presidential election which were titled, "The Making of the Presidency, (add year)". I would be fascinated to read about this campaign. In this day where the internet rules, where you need millions to even think of declaring yourself a candidate, where every moment of your life is instantly put on the net for all to see your mistakes, where the 24/7 news cycle takes apart every clause of every sentence you utter, how did Obama make it over the seasoned politicians with decades of campaign successes? Giving a message of hope isn't enough. There needs to be expert backdoor politics going on, and I'd love to learn about that. To me that would be a fascinating story to read, and I hope someone with some inside knowledge does it.

Labels: 2008, The Making Of The Presidency

A quick note to remind everyone that DC Special: RAVEN 3 is on sale this week. I am extremely pleased with the story and would love to get some feedback on it.

Labels: Raven #3

Well, Iron Man the movie is breaking box office records in many ways and destroying all the pundits who swore it would do no more than 40 mil, proving once more that William Goldman was right, nobody knows anything. Robert Downy Jr. is the movie in every possible way and every moment he's on screen it comes alive. The direction is near perfect and the script is wonderful. I do have severe problems with the final fight scene - it is reduced to a senseless battle that has no set up or logic attached - but aside from that, and it's actually a fairly small thing - the movie is really good. Some have said it's the best super-hero comics movie yet, but I think that still goes to a tie between Spider-Man 2 and Batman Begins. Still, Iron Man is very, very close to the top of the list.

I've been catching up with all the TV I missed while in New Zealand. My Slingbox was working so I could have watched everything I TiVoed from there, but the internet rates in one of my hotels was, no joke - $2.50 a minute. And NZ's internet speed isn't up to snuff, either, so there was little buffering which resulted in a choppy look. But ultimately it wasn't worth that much to catch up on that night's Daily Show. I used my Treo to get my email and I went to internet cafes which were only $3.00 for an hour for my regular internet surfing, so I kept up on friend's blogs as well as the news. At any rate I'm mostly caught up.

Now I'm fully back to work and cutting my New Zealand video on iMovie in my spare time. I've always said wonderful things about Apple, and their inclusion of iMovie in their OS is one of them, but now I can actually say something bad about them, too. I've upgraded my OS to whatever the animal of the day is and also picked up their new iLife 2008 which upgrades my iWeb, iPhoto, iMovie and my iDon'trememberwhatelse software. But the new iMovie, although it looks better than the old one I used, is actually inferior in most ways. What's worse is that in this paid version Apple actually took away some of the best features that they gave you free before. In the previous iMovie, which cost nothing, they had an entire video effects suite of programs that let you do all manner of things with special EFX, including reversing the video, speeding it up or slowing it down, etc. That's gone. They also had something called themes which let you create a special look to the opening of your movie. That's gone, too.

At first I thought I just couldn't find it, but I went on Apple's iMovie board and asked where it was hiding. Within minutes I was told everything I had been looking for was removed. But I couldn't believe it so I went to my local Apple store and said, say it ain't so, Joe. But, sadly, it was. Why would they remove programs from their paid version when they already had them in their free one? So as I edit my video I am using my old iMovie, but I'm grumbling that in this case at least Apple made a big, big mistake.

Labels: Apples, etc., Iron Man

While I put together my video, I've been trying to figure out how to put up on the web all the really cool pictures I took in New Zealand then I realized my Mac already can do that. When you buy something called .Mac you get a load of goodies. One of them is iWeb which gives you a website I've never needed to use because I have this one. Another is the ability to create slideshows on that website. So I've now uploaded all the photos to my iWeb site (to save bandwidth on this one). I had to split up the photos over three pages, but you can easily navigate through them (ease is something Mac does better than anyone). To see my photo slideshow CLICK HERE. Then when you have time go to page two and page three. The photos last on screen about five seconds. As far as I know I can't speed them up any faster. If you prefer, however, you can double-click on the small photos and they will get large enough for you to see. I hope you enjoy them. Let me know, okay?

Labels: New Zealand Photos

I'm home, jetlagged and tired. Soon as I can open my eyes for more than a few hours, I'll blog again. You've been warned.

Labels: Home