EXTRA!!! The Montauk Monster!!!

okay...

several people 'e'd me this photo yesterday morning and the rumors were flying; true, hoax, ad campaign...

you know me--i WANT it to be true...

later on, wendy sent me this piece from new york magazine online.

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2008/07/the_monster_of_montauk.html

DAILY INTEL

Intel
7/30/08 6:40 pm
Investigating the Montauk Monster: The Story Deepens!

Photo: Courtesy of Alanna Nevitski
Yesterday, Gawker ran what appeared to be a photo of a bloated, leathery animal corpse — only it was like no animal anyone had seen before. A stout, hairless creature with a beak, claws, and the almond-shaped eyes familiar from renderings of space aliens, it looked, in short, like a monster. Hence the headline: "Dead Monster Washes Ashore in Montauk." The photo had come over e-mail to Anna Holmes, the managing editor at Jezebel, from an employee at Evolutionary Media Group, in Los Angeles; Holmes passed it on to Gawker. Because it came from a marketing company, Gawker surmised, "our guess is that it's viral marketing for something." They later pointed to a Cartoon Network show, Cryptids Are Real, which features similar-looking chubby monsters. We called Evolutionary, where a woman named Alanna Navitski, who claimed to be responsible for the tip, swore it was not a viral-marketing campaign. "This is what happened," she said.
"I got this e-mail and opened it from my girlfriend who works at Harris Publications, which has nothing to do with anything. Anyway, my girlfriend's sister was there with her friends and one of them took the picture. And we were like, 'This is the scariest shit we've ever seen.' And so — I'm in marketing — were like, 'Maybe we should send it to a few blogs and see if anyone else is as freaked out as we are.' We had no idea that it would turn into this. Now it's literally a beast of its own. But it has nothing to do with any kind of campaign."

In fact, this turned out to be true. A number of eyewitnesses say they saw the monster with their own eyes. "I saw the monster," says Michael Meehan, a 22-year-old waiter at the Surfside Inn, which sits above the beach where the monster washed up. "I just came walking down the beach and everyone was looking at it. No one knew what it was. It kind of looked like a dog, but it had this crazy-looking beak. I mean, I would freak out if something like that popped up next to me in the water."

So did anyone there, you know, do anything about it?

"This woman kept calling animal control," said Meehan. "She wanted to name it after herself. I think they came and got it. The carcass. Whatever it was."

But did they? The East Hampton branch of animal control referred Daily Intel to a supervisor who did not return calls for comment. And Navitski, of Evolutionary Media Group, says her friend's sister (who doesn't want to talk to the press, though Plum TV will host another woman, Jenna Hewitt, who claims she took a photo, tomorrow) says animal control never came. "They say an old guy came and carted it away," she said. "He said, 'I'm going to mount it on my wall.'"


but isn't that what you would EXPECT them to say if they were covering up a hoax...?
again, i WANT it to be true!
but, really, i could make up a story about having been there and seen it with my own eyes...


"Jake Dezago, 19, of Elizaville, NY, was eyewitness to the find as well. "My friend, John, and I were camping up in the dunes when we heard the commotion down on the beach. By the time we got there, there were already, like, eight or ten people there and everyone was gathered around this thing and everyone was on their cells. I thought that it was a body first, but when I got close enough to look, I was totally shocked. Everyone's calling it a sea creature, but with that beak and those claws, I think it looks more like it was designed for digging."


i dunno.
i hope it's real.
smell ya later!
todd

monsters and zombies

okay...

so, we'll see how that whole monatauk monster thing develops.
did an old guy with a shopping cart just come along and wheel that thing away?

here's the thing; though both my parents grew up in my hometown of rhinebeck ny, i spent the first 8 or 9 years as a kid in the town of hicksville, long island, while my dad was a cop in the city and my mom was an elementary school teacher--well, until my brother and i came along. hicksville was one of the levittown communities ("rows of houses that are all the same...") and we had a great time there in the 60's, going to salisbury/eisenhower park, wantaugh park, jones beach, and, in the summers, when my dad would get a weeks vacation, we would go camping out on the very tip of long island in montauk. this worked out real well 'cause my dad and his buddies could sleep all day and go surf fishing all night and all us kids and the moms could spend the entire day at the beach! as a kid of 6, 7, 8, it was great! plus, we got to see a lot of hippies!

my brother and i were just talking about taking a drive down there to see if there was anything left of what we remember. probably the lighthouse and maybe a few other permanent landmarks...maybe...but we just thought it would be a fun trip.

we were gonna go down on the 12th, but some prior commitments made us have to put it off.

missed the monster by that much.

damn.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


one of the reasons i really wish i lived closer to matt and christian is because of the zombies.

as a kid--i'll admit it now--i went through a period where i was a bit of a wuss when it came to horror movies. i remember our babysitter, debbie reismueller, getting me all freaked out when "attack of the 50 foot woman" was gonna be on--and then she paid for it when i called from my bed all night long that she had to turn the sound down, i could still hear it. i had an incredibly over-active imagination and i saw scary stuff everywhere! to this day, i get the chills thinking about the "old lady with her eye hanging out" that i supposedly saw in our neighbor's attic window!

anyway, i got braver--and more fascinated--and then obsessed with horror movies in the 80's when all the slasher flicks started becoming so popular. i loved the suspense, i loved the gore, and i loved learning how they did that stuff (enter fangoria magazine!) but mostly, i remember taking my girlfriend to see the first "friday the 13th" and thinking, "man, is she gonna shriek like this and dig her nails into my arm and bury her face in my chest at every horror movie...? then we're gonna see them all!!"

and we did.

besides karen--that screaming, nail-digging, face-burying girlfriend--i had another friend, my best friend, dennis, who loved the hack-'em-ups as much as i did. we went to anything and everything we could and would travel quite a distance just to see a horror movie that didn't make it to our local cinemas. good times.

but dennis and karen are long gone and most horror films are straight to dvd these days. and i don't really have anybody nearby that appreciates the thrill and the excitement that comes with going to--or popping in--some low budget masterpiece that's definitely gonna make me squirm and reel and, later, wonder how they did it. (without actually decapitating someone, i mean...)

matt and christian are those guys. they get together every now and then to go catch the latest bloodfest on the big screen of check out a new release dvd. they discuss it at great length and have fun just reveling in the gore and the horror. they are horror buddies and, man, i wish i lived closer.


christian sent me this awesome playground picture about a month ago. i love it!



and here is a cool/funny/creepy website that matt sent me the other day...




http://www.zombieharmony.com/?speed=0&speed=0&limbs=0&speed=0&groaning=on#

thanks, you guys!
all i can say is
braaaaaains....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

here are your
"five for friday"

1. who wrote and directed the classic "night of the living dead"?

2. who wrote and starred in the zom-com shawn of the dead?

3. what character did stephen king play in the mini-series adaptation of his best-selling novel, the stand?

4. what award-winning make-up effects legend provided the splatterrific gore for dawn of the dead and day of the dead?

5. pets

a. what was the name of ross' pet monkey on friends?
b. what was the nickname the crew gave the giant mechanical shark on the set of jaws?
c. what was meredith and derek's dog's name on grey's anatomy?
d. what was the name of the cat that alf was always eager to eat on alf?
e. what was the name of the partridge family's dog?

have a great weekend!
smell ya later!
todd

interview thoughts from roger ash

okay...

a few months back, realizing that my schedule was getting a bit overbooked and hoping to keep this three-times-a-week blog on such a schedule, i put out the call to anyone within the sound of my voice offering a shot at being a guest blogger (and thereby giving me a chance to get some actual perhapanauts work done...!). while the response wasn't what i'd call overwhelming, i was grateful to my pal, roger ash and kc carlson for offering to help in any way possible! kc and roger are both wisconsin boys, both huge comics fans, and both well respected, seasoned interviewers. here, roger takes us on a walk through some of the lessons that he's learned in his long career as an inquiring journalist...



When Todd asked for people to write guest blogs, I emailed him and offered to write one about things I’ve learned as an interviewer. He liked the idea and here we are. Before we begin, you’re probably wondering why you should even listen to me. I’m not sure of that either, but let me give you some of my credentials. I’ve been doing interviews for Westfield Comics since 1994. My first was with Todd McFarlane about the Spawn/Batman crossover he did with Frank Miller. The past few years, I’ve usually done two or three interviews a month. That adds up to a heck of a lot of interviews. I’ve also written a number of pieces for TwoMorrow’s Back Issue magazine (including the Ann Nocenti/Arthur Adams interview in the current issue); interviewed Walter Simonson for his Modern Masters book; and, earlier this year, interviewed Mike Ploog for a Modern Masters volume that will be out in October, which, given the work that Mr Ploog is best known for, is highly appropriate. Both of the Modern Masters books were edited by series creator, Eric Nolen-Weathington. So, if you’ve enjoyed any of those, you might like this.
The first thing I learned, I actually learned years before I ever did my first interview. Back in the 80s, when I was in college, I read a profile in Playboy of musician Little Richard written by film maker John Waters. By the end of the article, I knew more about how John Waters felt about Little Richard than I did about Little Richard himself. That may well have been the intent of Playboy’s editor, given the fact that Waters is a strong personality, but it made me mad. I wanted to learn about Little Richard, and I didn’t. That lead me to realize that people read interviews to learn about the person who is being interviewed, not the person doing the interviewing. I don’t care who you are, how famous you are, or how clever you think you are, the spotlight should shine on the person being profiled. To that end, I try to make myself as unobtrusive as possible when I’m doing an interview.
This doesn’t mean, however, that your personality won’t come through. I used to think that I didn’t have an interview style. Most of my interviews for Westfield are short and to the point. There was no room for personality there. When I interviewed Walter Simonson, which was my first long interview, I learned differently. As I was proofreading it, I realized that it read like one of my short interviews, only longer. My personality comes through in the questions I ask and what I ask about. The questions are ones that I think to ask and are phrased in the way I think. I emphasize things that interest me and downplay things that don’t. I believe that’s true of anyone. Another interviewer could have gotten the same information from Walter that I did, but it would have read very differently.
The next thing I learned is to do your research. This is of major importance. We’ve all read or seen interviews where it’s obvious that the interviewer doesn’t know what they’re talking about. It’s painful and it’s embarrassing. When I worked on the Modern Masters interviews, I read every piece of work by both Simonson and Ploog that I could lay my hands on. I read old interviews with them. With Ploog, I even watched some of the movies that he worked on. Even though I love, for example, Simonson’s run on Thor and Ploog’s work on Man-Thing, I didn’t remember everything about them. Research is absolutely essential. Do I over research? Maybe, but I think that the end result is worth it.
This comes with a warning. You’ve just done all this research, so you know a great deal about the work of the person you’re interviewing. Don’t assume your audience knows as much as you do, because they probably don’t. Make sure that others can follow what’s going on in the interview and that you don’t skip necessary details. Something that can help is to ask yourself two questions: “what do I want to know?” and “what to I think my readers want to know?” For example, when I was researching the Simonson Modern Masters, I read enough about Walter’s run on Thor to know about the creation of Beta Ray Bill. I still needed to ask him about that because people reading the book might not know that, and it’s an important part of his Thor. Readers would want to know that. While doing the research, I realized that Sif, as drawn by Walter, looked quite a lot like Sigourney Weaver and I was curious if he used her as a model. I asked him about that because it was a question to which I wanted to know the answer. Asking questions both you and your readers want to know the answers to makes for a well-rounded interview.
Another good way to make sure your interview is understandable is to have someone proofread it. (Hi KC!) They can point out things that don’t make sense to them and you can make the appropriate changes to fix it.
The next thing I learned tripped me up recently, and it probably will again. Don’t go into an interview expecting a certain response to your questions. This can lead to disappointment. What the person you’re interviewing actually says is a lot more interesting than what you think they will say. Remember that while we love comics, to the people being interviewed, it was a job. How well do you remember something that happened at your job 20 years ago? Just think of all the pages that crossed Jack Kirby’s drawing table during his lifetime. He probably didn’t remember them all equally well. It’s best to ask the questions, listen, and react to what you’re being told. It’s amazing how much you’ll learn.
Finally, remember the purpose of your interview. You usually don’t have the luxury of making the interview as long as you want. Most of the time you’re working with a word count limit. That being the case, if I was interviewing Todd for a new project he’s working on, while I could ask him about dialoguing Daydreamers, I wouldn’t. I would want to focus as much as possible on the project at hand. This seems like a no brainer, but I often read interviews where people don’t pay attention to this and the interview wanders and doesn’t cover anything in-depth. Digressions are fun, but they should be the exception rather than the rule.
There are other things I’ve learned, I’m learning new things all the time, but these are the biggies. I hope you found this interesting and, if you read any of the interviews I’ve done, I hope you enjoy them.



to see more of roger in action, of course, check out the walt simonson modern masters and the all-new mike ploog modern masters out next month!




and, of course, thanks, roger!
for your wonderful insights and the day off! : )

smell ya later!
todd

---perhapa-blog EXTRA!!!---talking with tim!!!---

okay...

one of the things i had planned to post yesterday was a link (or, since i seem to suck at creating links, at least a 'cut and paste'...) to the interview i did last week with comics reporter/web journalist/perhapanauts supporter tim o'shea.

and i forgot...

i had the post all put together and i even had a note to myself here on my desk about putting the link up there, but i also had a note that i had to pick up my nephew and spend the day trying to keep him out of trouble--and vice versa--since both of his parents were busy running summer camp sports programs.

anyway, i did pick up tyler, but i completely forgot tim's link.

so as an extra bonus tuesday perhapa-post, here is the link to "talking with tim."

enjoy!





http://talkingwithtim.com/wordpress/2008/07/24/todd-dezago-on-the-perhapanauts/



also, here are three raccoons!
smell ya later!
todd

the monster pile-up!

okay...

so with all of our thanking of all the great artists who helped us out with perhapanauts 3 last week, we didn't really get a chance to throw out the noise that the MONSTER PILE-UP arrived in stores last week! originally conceived to be a sorta IMAGE COMICS SAMPLER of some of images spookier books, PROOF writer alex grecian and i thought it would be cool if we put it out for halloween. boo! but when we hooked up with our pal, robert kirkman, he said, "dude! convention season!", and so we all hustled to get our respective five pages done!

for those of you who haven't seen it, The MONSTER PILE-UP features all-new, original five page stories from four of your favorite IMAGE comics; The ASTOUNDING WOLF-MAN by robert kirkman and jason howard, FIREBREATHER by phil hester and andy kuhn, PROOF by alex grecian and riley rossmo, and The PERHAPANAUTS by, well...us! ours is, of course, the best one (kidding<) and contains some clues about some of our characters that you wouldn't want to miss!



can't show you much, but here's the first page...!



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

my latest obsession(s)

well, not really obsessions, as compulsions--at the beginning of the summer, i said that my two reading goals--besides finishing a novel or two--would be to chow down on the grant morrison-rich case doom patrol trades that rich was so nice to send me back in the spring! well, i'm about halfway through the eight books he sent and, i gotta tell ya, they are as freaky and bizarre as i remember them and if it's a crazy head-trip you're looking for, this is your el dorado!

and i am taking it in turns to read chunks of my pal, fred hembeck's massive tome, the essential fred hembeck! this thing is huge and i really don't want to devour it all at once--one of those things i'm going to be sad to see end. but fred's stuff is brilliant and i have a feeling that he'll be making more... ; )

my third obsession, for these past couple of weeks is grey's anatomy.
sharon had been a fan since before i met her and had the series on dvd (i actually bought her the last two, but had never seen the show.) anyway, i had always been interested and she had always been eager for me to see it, so, in these days of summer re-runs and contrived summer fill-in shows, we've been having our own steady grey's anatomy marathon each night, getting in about 8 or 9 episodes in this weekend alone! we're only at the end of season 2, so i got a lot of catching up to do on you grey's anatomy fans, but i'm loving this series and finding the writing to be so crips and original--there are lots of great moments and combinations that i didn't see coming! what a great show!
(thanks, shay!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

wendy sent me this the other day.
we think that people would've noticed a stray elephant wandering around the lake after or prior to this photo being taken, so...





March 9, 2006—Throwing a bit of cold water onto the legend of Loch Ness, paleontologist and painter Neil Clark says the monster was perhaps a paddling pachyderm.
Clark noticed similarities in the hump-and-trunk silhouettes of swimming Indian elephants and the serpentine shapes of 1930s Nessie descriptions and photographs, such as the famous 1934 image shown as an inset above.
Why would an elephant be swimming in a chilly Scottish lake? "The reason why we see elephants in Loch Ness is that circuses used to go along the road to Inverness and have a little rest at the side of the loch and allow the animals to go and have a little swim around," Clark told CBS News.
And there's one more wrinkle in this elephantine mystery. In 1933 a circus promoter in the area—acting perhaps on inside information that the monster was really a big top beast—offered a rich reward for Nessie's capture, says Clark, a curator at the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery in Glasgow.
Clark's theory is published in the current edition of the journal of the Open University Geological Society.
See also: "Loch Ness Sea Monster Fossil a Hoax, Say Scientists."
—Ted Chamberlain
Painting by and courtesy Neil Clark, photograph from Getty Images

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

answers to the
"five for friday"

1. what was the stage name of hungarian born, ehrich weiss?

harry houdini

2. what is soylent green made from?

people

3. what #1 hit by the police was written as a song about a stalker?

"every breath you take"

4. what is the name of the new zealand duo who rock the house with their eclectic novelty songs and hbo series?

"flight of the conchords"

5. throughout the history of rock & roll, some bands have been fortunate enough to recognized simply by their initials. here are the initials of some bands from the 70's, 80's, and 90's--see how you do...

a. BTO--bachman turner overdrive
b. CCR--creedence clearwater revival
c. OMD--orchestral maneuvers in the dark
d. ELP--emerson lake and palmer
e. ELO--electric light orchestra
f. CSNY--crosby stills nash and young
g. GnR--guns 'n roses
h. BOC--blue oyster cult

gotta run!
smell ya later!
todd

rico, blake, dean, and jason!

okay...

SPOILER ALERT!
just wanted you to know that, in my quest to heap tons of praise on all four of our colorists from issue 3, i've posted a double page spread from that issue waaaaaay down at the bottom of this page by rico that just transcends description. it is glorious! so, if you haven't seen it yet (and what's up with that? get out there and get one!) and don't want to, stop at the trivia questions, 'kay?

so let's talk for a moment about our guest colorists, shall we...?
(as i said, i'm saving rico for last...)

first off, we have dean trippe and jason horn on "the merrow's tale", a tender little tale of romance that, personally, i thought kelly outdid himself on. my hope is to make these back-up stories, while contributing in some way to the main storyline or character development, unique, to pair the right artist with the right character with the right colorist. when craig and i talked about this story, craig mentioned dean trippe, whose own work--and comic strip "butterfly"--we had been diggin' on for quite a while. craig had been talking with dean and he was up for it.

here's some of dean's work--



and be sure to check out more--and "butterfly"-- at http://www.deantrippe.com/

jason horn, who assisted dean on the merrow job, i, sadly, knew nothing of, until i had the chance to meet both of them in person at heroescon last month! jason, too has a fine body of work as well with his highly-acclaimed book "gruff"--a comic book re-telling of the three billy goats gruff fairy tale--and his strip "ninjasaur"!


i think that they did some wonderful work on "the merrow's tale", capturing the fantasy elements of the glade in the wood, the soft, yes, romantic, lighting inside the tent, the lush shadows and textures as peter and katherine entwined about each other. beautiful.
rest assured that we'll be seeing more of both these guys in future issues of the perhapanauts! thanks, guys!

when it came time to color tad stones' fun and frantic gremlins story, craig and i wanted someone who could add to that energy without losing all the hilarious details that tad threw in. not an easy job--there is a LOT going on on those pages!! but blake made it look easy! he highlighted the important stuff without dulling the rest and gave the whole thing a crazy cartoon quality that was exactly what we were looking for! so thanks, too, to blake wilkie! really nice job! thanks for being part of the team!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the other day my friend wendy sent me this cool video. wendy is a friend from way back in my college days and she and i re-connected, probably about a year ago, through myspace. she quickly became a perhapanauts fan (yea, wendy!) and would 'e' me every once in a while about the latest issue or some weird thing she had heard or read about--she digs the paranormal too! : ) then she gathered up our entire old gang (theater and college newspaper nerds)--well, we're still missing a couple--on facebook a couple months ago and we've been having a virtual reunion ever since. we even got together last weekend for a real live happy hour/reunion (those in the area and those that chanced to make the drive...) it was fantastic!

so wendy will probably be here once in a while and i'll probably be passing on some of the cool links that she sets me up with!
this one is both neat and a little spooky and not just 'cause its' from sean hannity's show--check it out!

http://www.comcast.net/data/fan/html/popup.html?v=799115379

thanks, wendy!
keep 'em comin'!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

moments after i posted this blog, i read my mail and got this video from mike estelle (heywood). i loved it so much that i had to run back and include it in today's blog, so that you'll all have it to share and think about over the weekend.
thanks, mike!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adYbFQFXG0U

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"five for friday"

1. what was the stage name of hungarian born, ehrich weiss?

2. what is soylent green made from?

3. what #1 hit by the police was written as a song about a stalker?

4. what is the name of the new zealand duo who rock the house with their eclectic novelty songs and hbo series?

5. throughout the history of rock & roll, some bands have been fortunate enough to recognized simply by their initials. here are the initials of some bands from the 70's, 80's, and 90's--see how you do...

a. BTO
b. CCR
c. OMD
d. ELP
e. ELO
f. CSNY
g. GnR
h. BOC





and, of course, we have the rico!
i know i've said here rather often that putting together each issue of the perhapanauts is quite a job and we all scramble around to get our various jobs done. we don't make any money at this--hopefully it will all pay off farther down the line, either in the trades or other collections or, if we're really lucky, someone decides that it would make a great animated movie or series...(which, y'know...it would.)
anyway, craig and i work to get the book all done, but, as you know, we have both been fortunate lately to've picked up actual paying work in the business, me on some wolverine and marvel adventures spider-man and craig on spider-man loves mary jane and some dc licensing jobs. these other jobs make it a rush to get the perhapanauts in on time and, sadly, it seems that we're always rushing rico. sorry, pal.
but it does get done and rico always brings his 'A' game! we were really rushing him on issue three, but somehow, he was able to produce this magic!
when it came through, it honestly took my breath away.
i hope it did yours.

thanks, rico--for issue after issue of awesome colors!



have a great weekend, everybody!
smell ya later!
todd

tad stones!

okay...

what can i say about tad stones that you can't read on wikipedia...?

well, okay, how about what a really nice guy he is, how much fun it is to chat with him--and educational!, what a giving collaborator he is, and how very exciting it is to see his pages spring to life before your eyes! as a seasoned animator, having been in the business for the past 20 years or so, he is a master storyteller and managed to fit so so so much more into the little story i gave him! in those six short pages, he taught craig and i more tricks of the trade than ether of us have learned in our combined careers! you've seen it--look for yourself!

craig had been in touch with tad first, being a huge hellboy and animation fan and...well, craig just knows EVERYBODY! he and tad got talking and craig strong-armed tad into doing a story for us, one craig and i both knew needed to take as much advantage of tad's incredible storytelling as possible! i have to admit, i was a bit scared when i sent over the pages, knowing that that second page, the one with all the gremlins, would scare away even the most weathered illustrators! (well, maybe not george perez, but he's crazy...)

tad didn't even blink.

...and sent over one of the funnest, funniest, coolest pages ever! i love it! i get lost in that page! (also, i want one of those little donut-looking hovercrafts--that's the bomb!)



aside from all of his animation credits--the hellboy animateds, many of the disney tv series--chip n dale rescue rangers, aladdin, and my favorite, buzz lightyear of star command--plus, he freaking created darkwing duck!!!--tad is also working on his own comic book called emmaryn which craig and i have had the pleasure of getting an early peek at and it's awesome! (i'd post some pages of that too, but i'm late today and haven't gotten tad's permission...sorry...)

anyway, here are some more pages of taads choopie story. enjoy!

and thanks, tad! thanks for bringing the fun!







~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

our old friend, john "figaro" norris, from those long gone days of the tellos message boards, has posted his family-friendly review of perhapanauts 3 over on his column "the cat's meow" on the comics in the classroom site, a parent-friendly site aimed at pointing out kid-friendly comics. check it out!

http://www.comicsintheclassroom.net/2008/catsmeow/July21.htm

and thanks, fig, for the glowing review...and the naked truth. ; )

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

and last but not least, with all of this dark knight hubbub (i'm going tonight...) and the release of that awesome watchmen trailer, have you checked out the watchmen motion comic over on itunes?
i highly recommend actually reading it for the first time, but if you've read it already, this is a fun and entertaining new format to check it out in...
whatever...

lettering to do!
see ya friday!
smell ya later!
todd

our pal, kelly!

okay...

with perhapanauts 3 finally out on the stands (and this time i'm told it's everywhere...!) and everybody's had a chance to read it, it's time to sing the praises of our fine guest artists and colorists!

first on the hit list is our old pal, kelly yates! now i refer to a lot of people as "my pal" and "our pal" and yadda yadda, but the truth is, people are just so darn friendly in this business! we're all going through the similar--and often lonely--experience of sitting at home in our tiny little studios or offices, writing or drawing our hearts out and dreaming, hoping, praying, that someone out there will like it. you meet at conventions, have a chat at your booth or table, or a drink later at the hotel bar, and, presto! you're friends!
mike introduced my to kelly...what, kel, 10, 11 years ago...? at a show in detroit. mike said that kelly was a great artist. i wondered why he wasn't a male model, he was so pretty. mike told me that kelly had a great portfolio, but that, while the editors he showed it to liked his stuff, they just weren't giving him any work. i told him it was 'cause they were intimidated and felt threatened--he was just so pretty.
anyway, kelly eventually did get work, doing a couple projects at dc (and even did a gorgeous serra story with me in tales of tellos #1!) and done a lot of work in advertising and licensing. you've seen his stuff all over the place, you just don't know it!

not only did kelly and his lovely wife, leanne, just welcome a little baby into the family--their first, isaac!--but kelly will soon be publishing his own creator-owned title through image called AMBER ATOMS! (see, kelly's smart and realized that the best way to do that would be to have the whole thing finished before he began publishing it, that way an issue will never be late.)


anyway, when it came time to share some of our perhapa-gang with any of our friends, kelly's name was top of the list! we love him and we love his stuff and he did such a wonderfully fantastic job with this romantic little fairy story! i really wanted this story to be something special, to capture a certain atmosphere and energy, and kelly nailed it in every panel! thanks so much, kel! enjoy san diego!

you can see a whole lot more of kelly's work at

www.kellyyatesart.com

but here's a few samples i stole from there to whet your whistle...










and here are a couple of the great tellos pages kelly did





baltimore, 2007--i told kelly to give me a pose and he went for the superman about to blast me with heat vision...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

and here are the
answers to the
"five for friday"
i'll make a list of 3
and you tell me what
or who they have
in common...

1. eldorado, a new world record, out of the blue

electric light orchestra ELO

2. ink, beak, tentacle

an octopus

3. bill and ted, hectic planet, milk and cheese

evan dorkin

4. john goodman, mark addy, alan reed

fred flintstone

5. let it bleed, good fellas, the departed

gimme shelter by the rolling stones
(one of the most powerful and compelling songs in rock and roll history! and scorcese knows how to use it!)


gotta run!
smell ya later!
todd

may you live in interesting times...

okay...

well, it seems like there is an awful lot going on this week, the least of which is not the release of PERHAPANAUTS 3!
hope you got it, hope you liked it--there are no spoilers here. i said on the letters page that i would thank and give a little background on our guest artists and friends here on the blog, and i will on monday. but today i thought i'd let everyone catch up and give you the weekend so that everyone's read it.
(but i finally went and picked up a copy with scott and terry austin yesterday and i gotta say, i looks really nice...!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

got home from volleyball late last night and there was this flurry of activity on my email between matt and suzanne and craig and christian and don and i was like, what's all this about...?!

this was what it was about.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/watchmen/



i'll admit that i was really worried when i saw the costumes a couple months ago--they looked very joel schumacher/batman and robin shiny and wrong.

this trailer gave me chills.

and that smashing pumpkins song is seriously perfect for it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

and as if that all wasn't exciting enough...you HAVE been checking out dr. horrible, haven't you? i mean, you ARE watching, right? and you are singing-along...? i am. this is so much great fun and clever and it even got me to laugh out loud a few times! love neil patrick harris! love nathan fillion! love felicia day! love joss whedon!



don't miss this!
act 1 premiered tuesday! act 2 on thursday! act 3 is tomorrow! get in!

http://www.drhorrible.com/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

actually, i do have a bit of a spoiler here.
or rather, brian does.

as you all know, our pal and award-winning boothboy, brian, is also a character in our little book, appearing as CRICKET lieutenant mulcahy. since his debut however, brian has begged us to hook him up with his favorite character, molly. very persistent we finally explained to brian that not only was molly roughly about 16 years old, but that we already have plans in place that wouldn't fit with his dreams.
heartbroken, brian fell into a deep depression.
shortly thereafter, with the introduction of the merrow, brian's hopes rose once again...
but after reading issue three the other day, his frustration and rage could not be contained.

here, then, is the e-mail we received the other night.
sorry, brian--sometimes things just don't work out.

as i said, brian's letter does contain a minor spoiler, so if you haven't read the book yet, feel free to skip...



Dear Todd and Craig,

You know a man works and slaves over a hot 'Haps booth at countless shows - we'll, actually, you can count them on one hand, but I'm on a roll here, so you can't expect something like reality to slow me down - invents innumerable on-line identites to flog the book - again on a roll here, so, facts, we don't need no stinking facts - and purchased multiple copies of the Second Trade Paperback - yeah, I know, I know, I was in it, but so were a few other cats, including the two of you, and I bet YOU didn't buy multiple copies, now did you - so I felt a great surge of excitment when I got panel 4 on page 10 and read that the Merrow, wonderful, beautiful Merrow, had feelings for someone at Bedlam. Yeah baby, I said to myself, finally all that hard work will be rewarded, all that heart ache over losing Molly to Keith will be wiped away when the Merrow expresses her love for . . . . PETER! PETER! WTF man? PETER! You have got to be kidding me.

Then I say to myself, Self, I says, Peter has five letters and Brian has five letters, so it just must be a typo. But Nooooooooooooo, I get to the back-up story and see it ain't no typo, it's just Brian getting shafted again and having it rubbed in his face for six beautiful pages.

Dezago, you're a deadman,

Rousseau, deadman,

Neidermeyer, deadman.

Love, your pal

Officer Mulcahy



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"five for friday"
i'll make a list of 3
and you tell me what
or who they have
in common...

1. eldorado, a new world record, out of the blue

2. ink, beak, tentacle

3. bill and ted, hectic planet, milk and cheese

4. john goodman, mark addy, alan reed

5. let it bleed, good fellas, the departed

that's it!
gotta get to work!
smell ya later!
todd

PERHAPANAUTS 3-----TODAY!! TODAY!! TODAY!!

okay...

SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER!

just wanted to let you know up here that i've posted the first three pages of the 6-page back-up story "Choopie and the Gremlins" --with art by the incomparable TAD STONES!--below as a teaser for issue 3 (out today, if you hadn't heard...)
if you'd rather not see them, don't go all the way to the bottom.
the rest of this is cool.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

this is the bulletin i posted on myspace to remind folks that Perhapanauts 3 will be in stores TODAY!


"...The Perhapanauts is a breath of fresh air..."
~~some guy who emailed me

"...I had been a fan of Craig Rousseau's artwork on Impulse and Batman Beyond, but the things he does with these, his own characters, is nothing short of amazing!"
~~some other guy who emailed me

"...You don't know it yet, but the Perhapanauts is the comic book you've been looking for."
~~not the same guy but the one from before, who said the thing about the fresh air...? that guy.


PERHAPANAUTS 3
3 great stories!
3 fantastic artists!
1 desperate writer!

Pick one up today!
You won't regret it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

so, i was reading through the your true tales selections over at paranormal at about.com and this one struck me as creepy. (a good way to determine that is if the story sticks with you, stays in your mind when the lights go out before you go to sleep...) i liked it so i thought i'd share. i also had found this great, unrelated photo and thought the two together would be sorta cool. you tell me.

Your True Tales
July 2008

Shadowy Visitor
by Lisa

This is one of several unexplained paranormal phenomena that has happened to me. This one in particular happened in March a few years ago. I live in the Western New York area outside of Buffalo with my husband and three children.

I awoke one night and believed I saw one of my children standing at the foot of my bed. I asked him, "Who's up?" I thought it was one of my children because it was a small human shape, but it seemed to glow a little bit greenish all around its form. Usually when my kids come to my room in the middle of the night, they come to my side and wake me up. I sort of blinked because whoever it was didn't answer me, so I began to sit up... and simultaneously the small figure disappeared and the bedroom door to my middle son's room slammed shut. There was no way in that split second anyone could have made it down the hallway and slammed that door.

We live in an older house built in 1918 and the doors are quite heavy. The windows were shut, there was no air moving that could have made that door slam either and my son always sleeps with his door wide open. He would not have shut it. I got up to check on everyone, especially to see if any of the kids were awake. When I went to my son's room, the door was indeed shut and he was sound asleep, as were his siblings in their rooms.

I don't know who that was visiting me in my room that night and I don't know how that door slammed shut that night. I believe it was my shadowy little friend. I don't know who it could have been, spirit wise, what it was or what it really wanted from me. But I really didn't like that it seemed to have gone into my son's room as he was sleeping too.


randall martin

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

perhapanauts "mystery" link

http://www.koreus.com/video/telephone-portable-mais-popcorn.html

funny or scary? you decide...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

that's it for me!
your exclusive first glance sneek peek preview awaits below...
smell ya later!
todd























and here, as a small sampler of what's to come, are the first three pages of "Choopie and the Gremlins" by tad stones and me. colors by blake wilkie.
enjoy!

perhapanauts #3--don't miss it!

okay...

finally, after a few extra weeks of waiting--and we thank you so very much for your concern and patience--THIS is the week that the all-new, all-different PERHAPANAUTS #3 will finally hit the stands!

now we know that many of you loyal perhapa-fans are already lined up and camping outside your local comic book shops--we've seen the human interest pieces on the news. and thanks! that's some great publicity!!--and we also know that many of you across the country are hosting perhapa-parties with your friends for the big reading on wednesday night (because so many of you have so very kindly included craig and i on your guest lists and, as we've said, we must regretfully decline as we are contractually obligated to attend the red carpet premiere in new york where the book will loom large on the imax screen with dramatized readings by bruce willis, david morse, rosario dawson, rachel mcadams, matthew mahar, bill murray, rachael harris, and others.) and, of course, there will be the youtube animations mere hours after the book hits the stands. (i just don't know how they do this so fast...!!)

okay, so maybe i've built it up in my mind a little bit. i'm a dreamer, what can i say...?

well, i can say that you better not miss it. and that if you haven't already reserved your copy, you oughta call up your lcbs right now and let 'em know you want one! i can say that it's all but busting at the seams with story and gorgeous artwork by not one, not two, but three fantastic artists! craig, of course, does his usual brilliant job on the main story entitled "big secrets"! animating legend and all around fun guy, tad stones(darkwing duck, buzz lightyear of star command, and the awesome hellboy animateds) brings "choopie and the gremlins" to crazy, frenetic life! and our good pal and new dad, kelly yates (creator of image's upcoming blockbuster, amber atoms!) did a stunningly beautiful job on the romance called "the merrow's tale"!

the colors on "big secrets" and "choopie and the gremlins" are gorgeously attended to by our own rico renzi, while the lush colors on "the merrow's tale" were lushly laid down by dean trippe and jason horn!



and this issue begins our new "flip cover" format--now each issue will include two (2) covers--one on each side! now instead of having to pay twice for the same book with a variant cover, you get them BOTH for the same price!
this issue features the one above by the craig...

and this one here by the incomparable tad stones!



so you know what to look for--go get 'em!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

sharon and i went hiking way up in the catskills on saturday with my friend, don, my old volleyball and hiking buddy. had a great time and didn't do anything too arduous--we thought we'd start on one of the more moderate hikes this first time out--and it was just great to get outside. i've been lately thinking that the winter's have gotten longer and that the summer's move way too fast and so am now doing everything i can to take advantage of the summer and see if i can drag it out and make it last longer! yeah!
sunday, shay and i did a double feature and caught wanted and hancock back to back! though people have been pointing out plot holes in both, i just loved them--pure escapist, popcorn movie fun! it was an afternoon of total adrenaline rush, thrill ride and we ate it up!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

well, i got
work to do so
here are the
answers to your
"five for friday"

1. what master of the macabre was the host of tv's thriller?

boris karloff

2. what master of the macabre did the voiceover for michael jackson's thriller?

vincent price

3. what famous early 80's song, used in a movie, was originally intended as the theme to a horror film?

"maniac" (from the motion picture, flashdance) by michael sembello

4. what non-musical tv show became mtv's #1 show in 1993?

beavis and butthead

5. who used these aliases?

a. "mark twain"

samuel l. clemens

b. "regina falange"

phoebe buffay (lisa kudrow) friends

c. "richard bachman"

stephen king

d. "el kabong"

quick draw mcgraw

e. "anastasia beaverhausen"

karen walker (megan mullally) will and grace


*************bonus question****************

what does the 'l." stand for in samuel l. clemens?

*********************************************

smell ya later!
todd

ryan lord & some other stuff...!

okay...

somewhere between the new york show and the seattle show and the charlotte show, somewhere between working on getting the lettering done for issue 3 and lettering jason armstrong's beautiful back-up story in issue 4, somewhere while we were squeezing in the five page tale that graces the pages of the monster pile-up, somewhere between hell and high water and a rock and a hard place...

...we received this awesome piece from artist (and perhapanauts fan), ryan lord!
i had originally hoped to use this mock cover as a pin-up in the book, but as our next six issues are already crammed to overflowing it meant that we wouldn't be able to run it until sometime in march or april of next year! ...and i just didn't want everyone to have to wait that long to see this cool cover!



i love it!--the eerie green glow and painterly quality of the background immediately reminded me of some of the great comic book covers that dell and gold key used to do for books like ufo saucers and the twilight zone! and that wild new logo made me think 60's/ herculoids right away! and that's not a bad thing... (love them herculoids!)



ryan even sent over these breakdowns to show us the process. i love to see sketches and stuff like this, to see how the artist works and gradually builds to the finished piece...



thanks so much, ryan!
i can't tell you how exciting it is for us to see other artist's takes on our guys!
(i was gonna tell everyone that they can see more of ryan's work over at www.lordstudios.com, but it seems to currently be under re-construction. i letcha know when it's back up and working again...)
thanks again!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

just a couple pictures of some storms that i've had on my desktop for a while now and thought were cool.





~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

and, of course,
here are your
"five for friday"

1. what master of the macabre was the host of tv's thriller?

2. what master of the macabre did the voiceover for michael jackson's thriller?

3. what famous early 80's song, used in a movie, was originally intended as the theme to a horror film?

4. what non-musical tv show became mtv's #1 show in 1993?

5. who used these aliases?

a. "mark twain"
b. "regina falange"
c. "richard bachman"
d. "el kabong"
e. "anastasia beaverhausen"

have a great weekend!
smell ya later!
todd

summer lovin'

okay...

though he's best known, of course, for his work on teen titans, aquaman, bat lash, and brave and the bold, my pal, nick cardy, drew tons of covers for dc comics back in the late 60's and early 70's. recently we were talking about some of his absolute favorites and this is one of them. not only is it simply a beautifully designed and illustrated cover, it also embodies everything summer is about...sun, sand, and...heartbreak?!



why IS she alone...?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

warren has posted here every now and then, throwing in his comments on various subjects i've brought up or adding in his answers to the "five on friday." i finally got a chance to meet him at heroescon this year--only after talking with him for about ten minutes--and found that he's pals with matt. it was great meeting him, but he, like a few others, had come around when i didn't have the camera out.

so he sent a picture.
not of him. a cooler one.
here it is.


molly by warren newsom.
i love it.
very nice, warren. thanks for sharing it with all of us!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

a few more selections from kc's crazy archie covers!






gotta go!
words to write and comics to pick up!
smell ya later!
todd

goin' to the movies with dad.

okay...

so there are quite a few movies out there right now that i'm dyin' to see.
DYIN'!

since my mom passed away 2 years ago, most of the movies i go to see are with my dad. and this time of year especially, he's ready to go--'cause, he says, there's nothing on tv. all repeats. so we compare our lists and usually they have most of the same movies on them and, truthfully, i'd go to see anything that he wanted to see 'cause...he's my dad.
so we've seen iron man and indiana jones and the hulk and a couple of others. he knows that i won't get excited about the new batman (god help us and sorry, matt...), and we've been talking up hancock and wanted. so the other night, wednesday, he said, "we're going to the movies", and sharon and i got excited, 'cause i was sure he was going to say hancock or wanted. but he said wall•e.
now, of course, i wanted to see it--LOVE them pixar guys and they always do some beautiful, wonderful stuff, but i wasn't really there, y'know. i was looking for some action, some fast-paced insanity--and wall•e didn't look like it.
dad said, we can go see hancock tomorrow night--but we play volleyball on thursdays.
so, i adjusted my head for a different experience--not a problem, i'm pretty flexible--and we went to see wall•e

don't miss it.
yes, it might seem a bit slow at first, especially compared to those other two thrill rides i mentioned earlier, and there's not a lot of talking in the first, oh, about half of the movie...but wall•e once again illustrates how incredible pixar really is! the designs and animation, the astounding cinematography (is it called cinematography in cg animation?), the emotions that they can elicit with (supposedly) emotionless robots...! and all in the service of a wonderful--and fun!--story!

on thursday our volleyball got rained out, but too late for us to catch up with dad. the next day, friday the fourth, he told me that he'd gone to see hancock and that he loved it! "we shoulda gone to see that instead! it was incredible! you would've loved it!"

: )

dads.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

we still have a short stack of tribute to ringo sketchbooks available for those of you who are still interested!

the book is yours for a $10 donation (plus $2 postage*) with all proceeds going to the aspca. we've already raised a little over $1000 and it couldn't go to a better cause. it features artwork by a truckload of great artists and also makes a great gift!

for more information, please feel free to 'e' me at todd@perhapanauts.com.



thank you for your kind support.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the answers to
"five for friday"
naming names...

1. what were bonnie and clyde's last names?

parker and barrow, respectively

2. what was the name of tim taylor's sidekick on "tool time"?

al borlin

3. what was drew barrymore's character's name in e.t.?

gertie

4. what famous housewife was portrayed by audrey meadows?

alice kramden

5. there have been 5 (five) hosts on the regular version of family feud. name them.

a. richard dawson
b. ray combs
c. louie anderson
d. richard karn
e. john o'hurley

'kay, gotta get to work!
smell ya later!
todd