rich and matt and johnny raygun

okay...

as i said, rich (woodall) is making things easy for me as he continues to send cool, creepy stories that i just hafta copy up here. here's another one he sent the other day. enjoy!

I have to believe some of it was just my childhood
> imagination. My dad was really big into letting me
> watch horror movies and telling me scary stories.
> One Halloween night my dad took my brother and I to
> a friends house (again, we lived in Arkansas, so
> it's all backwoods Evil Dead looking places) and he
> had a really old truck, and the gas gauge didn't
> work, so he's tellin' us about Ghouls and Zombies
> and how they only come out on Halloween night and
> they eat the flesh of the living... he knows he has
> us scared to death. So he starts pumping the gas...
> "uh oh guys, we're running out of gas" my brother
> and I aren't that concerned at this point, but when
> he rolls to a stop right in front of a grave yard we
> start to panic. He tells us to calm down and he's
> going to go up the road and get some gas from
> someone, but he wants us to be quiet and sit in the
> floorboard of the truck. So we do. We peek over the
> dashboard and watch him walk around the corner and
> out of site. So here we are, I'm 5 or 6 and my
> brother's 2 years younger. We are scared to death
> that if we talk a zombie's going to come and eat us.
> About 10 minutes pass and all of the sudden
> something jumps in the bed of the truck and starts
> pounding on the roof of the truck... I piss myself
> and we scream like crazy. Then we hear my dad
> laughing his ass off. He had doubled around in the
> woods and jumped in the truck to scare us... it
> worked. He loved doing that stuff. I have many more
> stories about my dad scaring my brother and I... I
> won't bore you with them right now, but it helped
> mold who I am today that's for sure.
>
> -Rich

and here, making it even easier than that, is the BEAUTIFUL perhapanauts pin-up rich and matt (talbot) did for the upcoming perhapanauts trade, due out in august! as i mentioned in the last blog, rich and matt do this wonderfully fun comic called JOHNNY RAYGUN that, if ya haven't already, you should check out. thanks for the pic, you guys it's AWESOME!
oh, and the colors on this bad boy were done by rockin' ray dillon of golden goat studio! thanks to you too, ray!
todd

3 tales from rich

okay...

a couple years ago i had the pleasure of meeting these two friends of craigs, rich woodall and matt talbot, at a small comics show in boston.. rich and matt, artists both, write and draw this fun little book called JOHNNY RAYGUN. i don't say "little" to be condescending in any way, only in the sense of its small press, indy, low-profile standing. JOHNNY is published sporadically by jetpack press (our pal ralph dibernardo) and while the print and distribution may be small, the scope of this book is anything but! johnny's enthralling intergalactic adventures--as well as his intergalactic friends--are what comics should be all about! fun! fun! and fun! these are the kindsa tales i used to thrill to when i was a kid trying to fill my head with as much wonder as i could find! if you get a chance--pick up an issue and check it out! i guarantee, you'll want the rest!

so, anyway, i know these guys. we chat. (they are, by the way, doing a gorgeous pin-up for us in the upcoming perhapanauts trade. actually, it's done. i'll post it here in a few days--it's incredible...!)

so after my loss of momentum on this blog--which i spoke about last time--rich goes back and checks it out and sends me some waaaaay cool/weird/unexplained stories of his own. which i told him i'm gonna post right now.

here they are.

I just read that you liked Communion, my parents
> live up in Laconia and my Mom swears she saw
> a UFO up there. I've always loved this stuff too...
> I've got 3 creepy stories...
> when I was a kid (around
> 8-9ish) during a walk w/ my parents around our
> neighborhood. I have no idea what it was, but it was
> night, really dark out, and we're walkin' by a house
> and behind the house standing next to a tree was
> something, I don't know what, but I could see a
> shadow in the darkness... you don't think black
> could get any blacker, but it was there, big, black
> thing... looked like it was watching us. I was so
> scared...
>
> And then there was the time(again as a kid in
> Arkansas) I was at a friends house and we were
> playing in his room and I went to open his closet
> door and it was locked, so I asked him why it was
> locked and he said it was a door to hell (now I'm a
> Baptist, so I take hell very serious) so in the
> middle of the night, I'm sleeping in the living
> room, and my friend is in his room, I wake up and I
> see his f$%#in' closet door open. That was it...
> very scary...
>
> The last one happened when I was 20 living in an
> apartment in Nashua. I had 2 roommates, I was the
> only one that had a job, so I had to go to bed at a
> reasonable hour. So it's like 11 or so and I hit the
> sack. Like 10 minutes pass and I hear my roommates
> fighting like crazy in the living room, so I yell at
> them to shut up. they shut up and I start to fall a
> sleep... then I can feel my blanket being pulled off
> of me, and I can't move, I was frozen, really
> freaking out, I could look around, but I couldn't
> move my body... then I fell asleep... woke up in the
> morning w/ no covers very strange.. so I ask my room
> mates about them fighting and they tell me that they
> took off right after I went to bed and they didn't
> have a fight... then about 2 weeks later my room
> mate asks me if I came into his room in the middle
> of the night and sat on his bed. I told him I didn't
> and then told him my story, and he said that he
> swears that someone came in and sat on his bed and
> touched his leg. Freaked me out!
>
> Anyway, thought I'd share my little creepy bits...
> also living in Arkansas, I lived near Boggy Creek,
> my dad would tell me stories about the swamp and
> witches that lived in them... no wonder I'm so
> screwed up now :)

man!
cool!
thanks, rich!
as i was posting this, he sent me another one...
i'll post that on friday.

take care~~
todd

nothin'...

well, mostly 'cause i just haven't had anything to say...

that's the answer i've given to my friends and family (you know who you are...) when they ask me why i haven't put anything up on the blog in, what, a week? and for those who know me (and you know who you are...) hear that, they just laugh their asses off. because, if you know me...and i think you do...i ALWAYS have something to say. i am always talking, always asking questions, always telling stories--you can't shut me up. many have tried. can't be done.

but lately, i just really haven't thought that i've had anything that anyone else would really want to hear. every time i sat down to write about something i was interested in or saw on tv or found funny, i've allowed that little editor in the back of my brain talk me out of it. "bor-ring!" "who cares!" "don't waste their time!"

so i got nothin'.

well, maybe not nothing. i notice that on everybody's blogs they list the stuff they're reading, watching, listening to. and maybe that's it. everything i'm reading, watching, listening to is old stuff--good stuff--but stuff i've already read, watched, and heard. i've been re-reading the dc comics/paradox press big books--all of 'em--in order. cool, fascinating stuff, but been there, read that. this past week i watched saving private ryan (for the, like, 5th time!), kill bill vol.s I and II (for the 3rd time!) and the green mile (prob'ly the 4th time). last night it was my name is earl, the office, and ER--so that was kinda new. and i haven't been listening to a lot of music 'cause i've been listening to "harry potter and the half-blood prince" in the car. (for the second time! but while we're on this; if you haven't heard any of the harry potter books on audio, you're missing a real treat! jim dale is just INCREDIBLE! there is no one--hands down!--more gifted at reading and lending voices to characters as this guy! he's won a slew of awards for it and deserves even more!) don't miss out! they're--and he's--great!(okay, so i can get excited about that...)

so anyway, here's what i'm seeing. winter, cold, i become withdrawn, curl up and watch and read things that are comfortable, familiar, soothing. that's okay, but now, obviously, i'm kinda lethargic. i'm not challenging myself with new information, new stimuli, new adventures. i'm totally zoned out. and all because i'm not exercising my brain.

i gotta get out. go hiking with jake.
get a new book.
or two!
or three!
rent some new movies!
or buy 'em!
interact with some people and have some stimulating conversation!
what am i wasting my time writing this for!
i'm outta here!

and i suggest you do the same.
(and you know who you are...)

todd

so--what's everybody watching, reading, listening to.
i need some suggestions.

is mercury in retrograde...?

man!!

i have been having the absolute worst luck with anything technology based these past few days. the blog won't load, i can't return e-mails ("delivery failure" notices from yahoo--sorry, kojee, sorry josh--i'll get 'em out to ya when i can...), and the other night i melted my butter dish when i put it down on the burner on my stove. okay, so that last one is just me being an idiot...

but things just aren't running smoothly.

and mercury might just be the answer. my best friend/ex-girlfriend, dani, used to let me know when this was going to happen because, apparently, in the celestial alignment of things (planets) when the other planets get too far behind mercury in their movements around the sun, communication (of all types; verbal, electronic, tech, emotional) get totally "f___ed" up. i originally dismissed it as a loada hooey, but over the years...it's true, it's TRUE!

now this usually happens two or three times a year and lasts for about 7 to 10 days. sometimes dani would tell me ahead of time and i'd just say, "well, i'm noticing it 'cause i'm looking for it." but it was the times she'd tell me AFTER the fact, when i'd look back at all the chaos of the previous week or so that made me believe. "oh, yeah, "she'd say, "mercury was in retrograde."
crazy.

so i'm guessing it must be now, 'cause things are goin' blooey. i apologize for not being able to get back to you josh. i'll keep trying and hope the stars don't get in my way.

actually, i hope this loads.

take care.
later
todd

the fail-safe

okay....
apparently, if you don't post for, like, a week or so, this blog shuts down and denies access to everybody. not a bad motivator, actually, for a deadbeat like me. hafta remember that.

and apologies to everyone who tried and found themselves locked out. i was locked out too as a matter of fact. i was both busy and uninspired--not much of an excuse, sorry--and everyday would try to think of yet another way that i could write something that not only YOU, but I would be excited about. news on the perhapanauts front is good--we're going to be moving ahead and the next 4 issue series is in production as we speak (type), but, well...it's the state of the industry that's kinda got me guessing. not only are sales fairly low on the perhapanauts, but in this current market, it's just so hard to even get noticed. i dunno, i don't mean to brag or anything, but i think we have a fun little book here. but with marvel and dc glutting the shelves with this new wave of crossover madness (isn't that what killed us last time?!), little books like ours are just getting trampled. maybe that fact got me down a little and made me fall away from my blog requirements. for that i am truly sorry.

(also, i thought that the only person reading this was kojee and he and i had drifted into a more e-mail correspondence...)

anyway, i am sorry all. if you're reading this, please don't hesitate to comment and let me know you're there. or if you're shy, drop me an 'e' at todd@perhapanauts.com.

so my apologies again! thanks to brian for 'e'ing me and letting me know that the blog was down.
hopefully this got it back up and running. here's a cool picture by craig!
see ya soon!
todd