goats and frogs

okay...

i love this...

Nigeria: Goat charged with robbery
Posted on Saturday 24 January 2009 - 08:10
Murtala Mohamed Kamara, AfricaNews reporter in Freetown, Sierra Leone

Police in Kwara State of Southern Nigeria paraded a goat suspected of taking part in a robbery incident on Wednesday. The Police Public Relations Officer, Tunde Mohammed, said the goat is being held in custody because it was a suspected human robber that transformed itself into it to escape arrest.

Mohammed said the mysterious goat is an armed robber who unsuccessfully made attempts to steal a Mazda car and later transformed himself into a goat in his bid to escape arrest.



He said the armed robber was arrested by members of a vigilante group in Anifowose Ipata/Oloje while they were chasing two other armed robbers. “While one of them escaped, the other was about to be apprehended by the team when he turned his back on the wall and turned to this goat. They quickly grabbed the goat and here it is,” the Nigerian Vanguard Newspaper quoted Mohammed.

Mohammed assured that the suspected “goat robber” will not be released until they conclude their investigations.

In most parts of Nigeria young men form vigilante groups to protect their people, lives and properties in their communities. Most people believed that these men possess supernatural powers to arrest criminals and reduce crime rate. They are widely recognized by state authorities while others prefer them to the Nigerian Police force.



is it wrong to say that this is the world i want to live in...?

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

for those who didn't see this one over on the perhapanauts forums, by our pal, nic (portalcomics)...



funny, nic! : )
great job!

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

my friend, heather, sent me this frog test.
can ya do it?





http://funstufftosee.com/frogleaptest.html

Frog Leap Test

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

and here are
the answers
to your first
"twofer tuesday!"

1. name the comic that...

a. teamed batman with other dc heroes

brave and the bold

b. teamed the thing with other marvel characters

marvel two-in-one

c. teamed superman with other dc characters

dc presents *

d. teamed spider-man with other marvel heroes

marvel team-up

e. teamed superman with batman

world's finest


2.
match the actor with the movies

a. trading places, k-9, red heat

jim belushi

b. philadelphia, parenthood, max dugan returns

jason robards

c. fried green tomatoes, some kind of wonderful, bennie & joon

mary stuart masterson

d. pushing tin, the bone collector, sky captain and the world of tomorrow

angelina jolie

e. l.a. confidential, the quick and the dead, the insider

russell crowe

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

* note: although...it should be noted--and mostly 'cause i really want to post these awesome neal adams covers from the early 70's--that there was a time, on the heels of the huge spike in sales on brave and the bold when it became a strictly batman tea-up book, that dc tried to do the same with world's finest, pairing supes with flash, green lantern, the teen titans...this lasted for about two years, but reverted to the bats/supes team-ups when wf's sales didn't follow suit.







that's it!
i gotta go direct a play!
have a great weekend!
smell ya later!
todd

twofer tuesday

okay...

don't really know what i was looking for or where i found it when i stumbled across this wicked sculpture/statue of a chupacabra and the jersey devil--it didn't even say who the artist was, but i thought it was cool...



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

quite a few people rose to the challenge of writing some dialogue for the couple of panels i posted the other day.
our pal, mike estelle (heywood), sent in this exchange...

panel 1:

Choopie-Hey what ya doing?

panel 2:

Big-Playing World of Warcraft

Choopie-Don't look like 'Warcraft' to me.

panel 3:

Big-You still here? Go away...

panel 4:

Big (thinking)-Man he can be such a pest....

Choopie (thinking)-Looks ALOT like porn to me.....






doczauthor submitted this humorous retort...

First two panels, no dialog.

Third panel:

BIG: What?

Fourth Panel:

CHOOPIE: Maybe you should try Selson Blue.



...and brian mulcahy posted the following...

Panel One:

Choopie: Hey, Big, what ya' doing?

Panel Two:

Big: Checking out Todd's Perhapablog

Panel Three:

Choopie: But it's Thursday, I thought Todd only blogged on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Panel Four:

Big: Todd's directing a play this season, so he's had to cut back to just blogging on Tuesday and Thursday.

Choopie: Bummer.

Editor's Note: We're bummed too Choopie





...and ernie dropped in with this one...

PANEL ONE

Choopie: Brazow! Graargh! And then the thing with the eyeballs exploded next to that other smelly thing!

PANEL TWO

Choopie: *whispers* And then Choopie dropped in to save the day 'cause Big was crying like a little girl again!

PANEL THREE

Choopie: Um...what?

PANEL FOUR

Big: This is why nobody will ever, ever, EVER let you log a mission recap.

Choopie: Pheh. Yours don't 'pop' like mine...





...and a colorized, dialogued version from david...






...and here's my 2¢...





panel 1

choopie: wow. that's creepy.

panel 2

choopie: those eyes. just starin' atcha. s'like they follow you wherever you go.

panel 3

choopie: what the heck IS that?

panel 4

big: that's the money you'd be saving by switching to geico.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER!
if you've yet to read PERHAPANAUTS 5 (what are you waiting for?!?!?) then read no further...

so, now that perhapanauts 5 has been out for a week or so, i thought it would be okay to print my dear friend, wendy's, letter...

Dear Todd~

I just got a chance to read the new Perhaps .. and I'm
at the page .. the .. *sob* page .. where .. *sob*

oh..


Larry!!!


*sob*

gotta go.. can't hold it together any longer ...

*sob*

and need to see ...

what happens...

next ..

*SOB*

xo
~W~

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

here are the
answers to your
"five for friday!"
groups--can you...

1. name the beatles.

george harrison, john lennon, paul mccartney, ringo starr

2. name the monkees.

mickey dolenz, davy jones, mike nesmith, peter tork

3. name the members of monty python's flying circus.

graham chapman, john cleese, terry gilliam, eric idle, terry jones, michael palin

4. name the original 7 not ready for prime time players.

dan ackroyd, john belushi, chevy chase, jane curtin, garret morris, laraine newman, gilda radner

5. name the banana splits.

fleegle, bingo, drooper, snorky



as brian suggested, now that the blog is twice a week, i thought we'd call out trivia "twofer tuesday" and give the answers on our thursday post.
although just two questions might not be enough....
so we'll see...

but here are
your first
"twofer tuesday!"

1. name the comic that...

a. teamed batman with other dc heroes

b. teamed the thing with other marvel characters

c. teamed superman with other dc characters

d. teamed spider-man with other marvel heroes

e. teamed superman with batman


2.
match the actor with the movies

a. trading places, k-9, red heat

b. philadelphia, parenthood, max dugan returns

c. fried green tomatoes, some kind of wonderful, bennie & joon

d. pushing tin, the bone collector, sky captain and the world of tomorrow

e. l.a. confidential, the quick and the dead, the insider

see ya thursday
smell ya later!
todd

got your nose.

okay...

well, we're having a rousing discussion about our latest issue, perhapanauts 5, over on the perhapanauts forum (see that link up there? click that.) all are welcome to join in and tear it up.

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

the ladd clan

so, in getting out all of our various perhapanauts shwag for the upcoming NEW YORK COMICON, i realized that i had never really unpacked things from last year's convention season and, in doing so, stumbled across a few gems i had totally forgotten about. (reading this, many of you will exclaim, i'm sure--"My God! How could you have forgotten about THOSE?!?!?!"--and you'd be right to say so. my only defense is that, while at a convention i am completely and perpetually in "GO" mode; always "on", always running to some panel or other, to dinner or something, to an awards presentation. the weekend is always a whirlwind to me and only when it's over and i'm home ands can take a deep breath am i able to really see what all happened and what cool stuff i might have picked up on the way.
in this case it was just one box, one of many thin 11 x 17 carton's that craig has given me over the years to store and carry my original art and posters in to and from shows. this one, i thought, contained the few leftover copies we have of our first perhapanauts one-sheet, what to do on your summer vacation. in actuality, it contained; a page gifted to me by karl kesel from our spider-man family ringo tribute story, two sketches that craig thought he threw away in charlotte but i rescued from the trash (he hates me for this), jaosn copland's stunning perhapanauts pin-up from issue 4, a page of jose luis garcia lopez artwork from a late 70's dc presents featuring superman and the metal men!, two pages of mike's sensational spider-man artwork that i made sharon force matt to take money for to support the mike wieringo scholarship fund...

..and the following two pieces given to me in charlotte by eleni and kelsie ladd.

of the ladd clan...

of the charlotte ladd's...

who are the ladd clan, you ask?
for the past i-don't-know-how-many-years, craig and mike and i, as well as many of the other "professionals" that have been guests at heroescon in charlotte each year, have been treated to, at some point during the weekend, the appearance of the ladd clan; a happy, smiling, rolling family of seven--i think, although they look like there's more sometimes--who happily arrive at the table with smiles and support--and snacks!! yes. i said snacks!
for the past two or three years, this fantastic and friendly brood have put together little snack bags for us--this past year even SEWING up these incredibly cute bags with zippers that sharon has saved and made her own, not letting me put any of my cool stuff in like action figures or dog biscuits! but it's not the snacks--never just the snacks--just seeing the ladd family themselves is enough. the ladds are so much fun and filled with questions and suggestions and they are truly a hallmark of the entire heroescon experience!

last year, eleni and kelsie gifted me with these great pictures and i was so eager to come home and post them...
...and then they went missing.

but now i've found them and here they are and i can't wait to see the ladd family this june!
(oh, and i'm working on them to maybe do some perhapanauts pictures for us...)



by eleni ladd





by kelsie ladd

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

and here, because i promised i'd post, is a quick couple a panels i doodled up a few years back and then went ahead and inked. i don't know why, i don't even remember what they were s'posed to be saying.





hey--there's an idea...
let's see who can come up with the best dialogue for this little snippet of panels.
post them in the comments or send them to me at todd@perhapanauts.com
this could be fun!


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

"five for friday!"
groups--can you...

1. name the beatles.

2. name the monkees.

3. name the members of monty python's flying circus.

4. name the original 7 not ready for prime time players.

5. name the banana splits.


have a great weekend!
smell ya later!
todd


got your nose.

starting tuesday...

okay...

yesterday was a pretty big day, huh?

do you feel it?
i feel change. i feel hope. i feel the new day.

i watched bits and pieces of the inauguration--the tv was on as i did some cleaning and straightening around the house--and i was moved several times throughout just by the feeling of change enveloping the whole pageant. after the past (oppressive) eight years, and with the state our economy is in, i feel that the shackles have been lifted from us all.
though i really didn't feel that this was about race, one woman told a reporter that, back on election day, when her kids woke up the next morning, she told them that in the night dr. king's dream came true. so did mine. we are all brothers. finally.

now we can change the world.




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

mike had a counter.

on his blog, mike had a counter.
something built into the blogger format that he was using that would indicate how many hits he had on each post he'd put up. we talked about that a couple times when i had that occasional feeling that i was just barking in the night, unsure if there was actually anyone out there listening.
well, y'know, reading.

anyway, i still don't have a counter and though i am always warmed by the company of our regulars--our family. and i also know that there are many of you out there that either read the blog religiously, or maybe just check in from time to time, but don't comment or write in at all. s'okay. whichever category you might fall into, i want to thank you for doing so, for keeping up with the perhapanauts, keeping up with the weird and scary things in this world, and especially for putting up with me.

i've tried to make sure that i've had something new posted here on the perhapa-blog every monday, wednesday, and friday for, wow, awhile now, despite busy--sometimes frantically so--schedules and deadlines and such, but for the next month or so, i'm going to be shifting the blog to tuesdays and thursdays and only posting (duh.) twice a week.

the cutback is 'cause i'll be directing a play over the course of the next month and a half called "couples". well, actually, it's a series of nine short plays written by rich orloff. short two person vignettes dealing with relationships, some funny, some poignant, all very well written. i'm looking forward to this again. it'll be a great challenge and, i'm sure, very inspiring.

we'll shift back to our usual three a week on the other side of this and i apologize if this throws off anyone's schedule.
(and if any of you would like to send in a guest post or two to give me even a little more time, i'd eat that up like a big bowl of frankenberry!)

as always, i welcome your comments and for those of you who'd rather not log in and register with blogger just to post a comment, feel free to 'e' me at todd@perhapanauts.com

see ya friday!
smell ya later!
todd

good returns!

okay...

...and the reviews keep pourin' in!
we are getting some really good response for issue 5 since it came out last wednesday! i don't know whether people were moved more by the story, the rather graphic scenes, or just that this issue capped our first story arc here at image, but they seem to like us!
thanks!

our pal, russ burlingame from newsarama, was quick to hit me up on this issue over on his forum, "what's perhappenin'?, featuring our on-going discussion and disinformation. check it out over at:

http://blog.newsarama.com/2009/01/15/whats-perhappenin-the-perhapanauts-5-qa-with-todd-dezago/

as well as a very nice review and analysis over at comic related that you can see...here:

http://www.comicrelated.com/display.php?item=589

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

quiet weekend. snow here. sharon and i went over to dinner at terry austin's house on saturday night for fried catfish and taters. we brought an incredibly rich swiss white chocolate cake for dessert and then the three of us sat around moaning about how stuffed we were...

craig and i are getting more and more excited about both the perhapanauts trade that we've been pulling together this past week or so and, of course, gearing up for the big show in new york city in two weeks! ya goin'?!

that's the New York City Comiccon at the Javitz Center the weekend of february 6-8! we had a great time there last year--got to meet a slew of new people!!--and we're hoping to meet even more this time around!

also, i'm diggin' on the awesome neal adams/green lantern poster for the show...sweeet!



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

WHY YOU NEVER QUESTION A DRUNK...

I was shopping at the local supermarket where I selected:
A half-gallon of 2% milk
A carton of eggs
A quart of orange juice
A head of lettuce
A 2 lb. can of coffee
A 1 lb. package of bacon

As I was unloading my items on the conveyor belt to check out, a drunk standing behind
me watched as I placed the items in front of the cashier.
While the cashier was ringing up the purchases, the drunk calmly stated, ''You must be single.''
I was a bit startled by this proclamation, but I was intrigued by the derelict's intuition, since I was indeed single.
I looked at the six items on the belt and saw nothing particularly unusual about my selections that could have tipped off the drunk to my marital status.
Curiosity getting the better of me, I said: ''Well, you know what, you're absolutely right. But how on earth did you know that?''
The drunk replied, ''Cause you're ugly"

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

'cause i promised i'd post stuff...
here's a watercolor doodle i brushed up the other night while sharon was watching some goofy girl program (the bachelor, i think...) i wasn't watching--but i was listening--while i painted this, i don't know what it is...a muppet? a blue dog? why's it wearing a scarf? i just don't know. (what i do know is that i just don't think that is right for



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

here are the
answers to your
"five for friday!"
some more
classic rock

1. in the classic elvis hit, jailhouse rock, who does the warden suggest you dance with if you can't find a partner?

a wooden chair

2. in the movie "yellow submarine," who do the beatles find trapped/frozen in a glass snowglobe looking thing?

the beatles

3. what is the title of the bob dylan classic that relates the tragic tale of boxer rueben carter?

"hurricane"

4. in the beach boys hit "don't worry baby," what was she not supposed to be worrying about? (bj thomas did a version that cut this verse out, making it, well, just not as cool...)

the big car race the next day

5. what song were the rolling stones playing when african-american meredith hunter was killed at altamont?

though many people think it was "sympathy for the devil," it was actually "under my thumb."

there ya go!
smell ya later!
todd

the texas giant and other stories

okay...

well, the issue's out and the word is in--perhapanauts no.5 is selling out in all the best comic shops all across the country! (apparently, getting a little graphic does wonders for your sales. who knew?) retailers are reporting that folks are even picking up the back issues to get all caught up on the story! hey, maybe we're finally starting something...?
thanks to everyone for buying and supporting the perhapanauts!

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

while trying to clean up my office/studio and get rid of some of the clutter, i came across a box with some old pictures in it and thought i'd share.

this is from probably 5 or 6 years back, before i got my digital camera. i dunno why these pictures came out blue. it was one of those cheap kodak disposable cameras. craig came here to my house for a few days and then we flew to raleigh/durham to hang with mike for a few days before hitting heroescon in charlotte.
here's craig with jake.





mike in the hotel in charlotte, telling me that maybe you should let people know you're going to take a picture more than 1 second before you take it.




craig telling him that if you ignore me, i'll just go away.
(not true.)


i can't remember if it was 2000 or 2001, but mike and craig and i were invited to a big show in plano, texas, known that year as the batcon as they were having as guests all of the surviving actors from the batman tv series. as an added bonus, the show's organizer--a wonderful guy named lance moore--made arrangements for us regular comic book guests to spend our first evening there at the six flags amusement park nearby. an incredibly nice gesture.
so we hooked up with our buddy, mark waid, and off we went, riding some rides and eating some carnival food.
when we came around to one of the park's biggest draws--the classic style mammoth roller coaster called the texas giant, craig and i stepped right up, tickets in hand and smiles on our faces. it only took a moment for us to realize that we had lost our erstwhile companions and we turned to see them about ten feet back, staring up at the coasters highest peak, eyes glazed over, mouths slightly agape. deafening screams were pealing off the coaster from that sharp descent and a flickering strobe went off every thirty seconds or so indicating the flash of the solidly mounted camera that was snapping away at the ride's hapless victims in their moment of utmost terror.
craig and i looked at them and then at each other, silently summing up the situation right away; roller coaster virgins.
we somehow conned them into going--i'm sure we promised them both that it wasn't as scary as it seemed and that those girls were just putting it on--and we paired each of them off with a seasoned veteran.

you'll notice craig and i are smiling.
i think mike looks like adam sandler when he's really angry and mark looks like he just ate some bad cheese.

suckers.





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

yes, this next joke is lewd and some might even say sexist, but my uncle sent it to me and sometimes you just gotta go there.




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

"five for friday!"
some more
classic rock

1. in the classic elvis hit, jailhouse rock, who does the warden suggest you dance with if you can't find a partner?

2. in the movie "yellow submarine," who do the beatles find trapped/frozen in a glass snowglobe looking thing?

3. what is the title of the bob dylan classic that relates the tragic tale of boxer rueben carter?

4. in the beach boys hit "don't worry baby," what was she not supposed to be worrying about? (bj thomas did a version that cut this verse out, making it, well, just not as cool...)

5. what song were the rolling stones playing when african-american meredith hunter was killed at altamont?

have a great weekend!
smell ya later!
todd

perhapanauts 5--on sale TODAY!!

okay...

so i've learned that, when the new issue comes out and we offer up a preview, everybody ducks and covers, plugging their ears and yelling "la la la", getting out of the way of any spoilers that might infringe on their leisurely reading satisfaction later. i can definitely identify with that--i'm one of those, too!

so, we offer no previews here today. no spoilers, no hints as to what to expect--save for the covers that i ran here last friday. when you snuggle in later on today--or more likely, later tonight--with your hot-off-the-presses copy of the latest issue--a jam-packed, 28 page cornucopia of cover-to-cover perhapanauts goodness--it'll be with fresh eyes and no preconceived notions.
well, except for everything that happened last issue.
you did read last issue, right?
did you read it carefully?


i will post a thread later today on the perhapanauts forum over on the image message boards for anyone who'd like to discuss the issue and what all is going on. i'm sure there will be a lot of questions and i will try my best to answer what i can. but please understand; there is still so much backstory on each character and all of BEDLAM that is set to be revealed in future issues, that there are many questions that i'm just not gonna be able to answer.

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

THIS IS NOT THE COVER!



it's rare that craig and i shift gears in the middle of something, be it a story or any of the other perhapanauts projects we've worked on. but as neither one of us like to ruin a surprise, craig originally did this cover for perhapanauts 5 which kept the identity of choopie's deadly pursuer in the shadows. once the story started unfolding however--and once choopie's assailant was revealed in issue 4--craig felt that he wanted to do a new cover, a more powerful cover that reflected the danger and urgency of the battle a bit more.
good call, c!

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

y'know, while you're at the comic shop...

apparently, today is my day.
also, hitting the stands this afternoon is marvel adventures spider-man #47, written by me with art by the very talented sanford greene! this story gave me a chance to re-visit one of mike's and my old friends, the prowler, and for me to use my favorite big purple gargoyle! check it out!






now go out and get your perhapanauts 5!
and marvel adventures spider-man 47!
smell ya later!
todd

guilty pleasures

okay...

kinda snowed in this past weekend and, while craig and i went back and forth hooking up my webcam and designing/writing/formatting all the extras pages for the upcoming PERHAPANAUTS TRADE--and believe me, this thing is gonna be SUPER-jam packed with stuff, folks!! (more on this later...)--i had vh1's top 40 pranks2 and the game show netweork on in the background while i did housework and cleaning and stuff.

the pranks show was kinda cool--i've seen an episode or two of several of the shows they were drawing from; scare tactics, crank yankers, the man show, jackass, punk'd. but i hadn't seen--probably 'cause i just don't watch anything on mtv anymore--anything of the more ominous room 401. designed to be a sort of creepy candid camera, the reactions these pranksters are looking for is for their targets to question not only their eyes, but their sanity. if you get a chance, take a look. the pranks, as all good pranks should be, are never dangerous or malicious, but they do scare the victims with some top-notch illusions and well-thought-out effects. the flying cabbie and the liquid nitrogen ones are particularly eerie...

so, the other side of this is the game show network, on here mostly for the trivia questions and nothing else. i need to find some new material for the "five for friday!" wherever i can, right? but now my new favorite on gsn is the commercials. well, one commercial in particular. i love it so much, i've recorded it and watched it over and over--it makes me laugh everytime.
which commercial, you ask?

well, you've seen this guy, right?



billy mays for oxi-clean or orange-glow or kaboom! or whatever!
in the proud tradition of the early tv hucksters like ron popeil--and i love how they make these commercials look like 70's throwbacks--along with looking like those guys at the county fair who are doing the demos like carnival barkers of yore.

but this guy...



this guy, vince, is my new hero! i love him! with his one eye constantly cocked open, his speedy fast delivery, his style and charisma, he is, without a doubt, the reincarnation of actor lloyd nolan. vince looks like a cartoon hood, a street-talkin' wiseguy that i still somehow trust! and while the shamwow! commercials are already classiscs...




...it's vince's clio-worthy work on the incredible slap chop! that has me rewinding over and over! not only informative, this commercial is hilarious and shows how far this young pitchman has already come! his jaunty smirk, his casual familiarity, his hubris--get this guy a sitcom! when he chops the onion...holy crap! he not only sells like no other pitchman before him, he transcends the entire advertising medium!
do not miss him!


and, oddly enough, when i did a google search for sham wow! images, this came up.
what the hell is this?




(as you can tell, i really didn't have much to say today--just all excited and getting ready for perhapanauts 5 to drop on wednesday!)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

here are the
answers to your
"five for friday!"

1. what major event happened in fantastic four 48?
the coming of galactus!
(first appearance of galactus)

2. what event took place in crisis on infinite earths #7?
the death of supergirl

3. what occurred in amazing spider-man #121?
the death of gwen stacy

4. thor #337 chronicled what cosmic event?
the is another worthy enough to hold the hammer--beta ray bill!
(first appearance of beta ray bill)

5. what tragic event took place in uncanny x-men # 137?
the death of jean grey

smell ya later!
todd

the wait is over! perhapanauts 5 is on it's way!

okay...

so, here we are.

it's official--perhapanauts 5 will be on stands at your favorite little comic book bodega this coming wednesday, january 14th!

this issue--entitled "divided we fall"--brings our first image five part story arc, triangle, to it's mind- and dimensions-shattering conclusion and ushers in an all-new era for our hapless haps! this'll be one to remember, folks! (like when people say, "oh, yeah! remember FF 48!" or "amazing 121 !" or "x-men 137!" now they'll add perhapanauts 5 to the roster! oh, yeah, also this is our first number five! we've had fours before, but this is FIVE!"

anyway, when you line up outside your lcs on monday night with your sleeping bag and your cooler full of hot pockets to cook over your little sterno grill, you'll be a step ahead of all the other crazed perhapa-fans because you'll know what to look for, 'cause the awesome cover, by the lovely and talented craig rousseau, looks like...THIS! V








okay, maybe you've seen that amazingness before...
but you haven't seen the stylish and foreboding flip cover by our pal, jason copland, yet, have you?

HA!
here it is!






jason also provides the artwork to this issue's back up story, "evaluation", with colors by chris summers!

it's 28 solid pages of perhapanauts action--there's not even room for a letters page!!

so join me, craig, rico, along with jason and chris next wednesday and tell your friends...!
this one's gonna hurt!

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

btw--has anybody been to the perhapanauts entry on wikipedia? my nephew told me that there was one there about a year ago (i checked it out and it was very brief...). but i just happened on it again the other day and, man, somebody has put a lot of time and effort into getting it together! it's not only beautiful, it's flattering! there are a couple of inaccurate items (like molly's familiars) but they are all based on early information that we put out there and then decided to abandon or postpone for story or sanity reasons. i don't know who did it--though i have my suspicions--or how you find that sorta thing out, but for your time and hard work and obvious passion for the book and the characters, thank you, thank you, thank you!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Perhapanauts

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

"five for friday!"

1. what major event happened in fantastic four 48?

2. what event took place in crisis on infinite earths #7?

3. what occurred in amazing spider-man #121?

4. thor #337 chronicled what cosmic event?

5. what tragic event took place in uncanny x-men # 137?


have a great weekend!
smell ya later!
todd

alison's snowmen

okay...

alison sent these over the other day and i thought i'd share some of 'em. obviously inspired by calvin's snowman massacre's, these are still a lotta fun! thanks, al! (my mom used to hate it when i called alison "al.")









so, with the new year, i am in "clearing the path" mode, trying to tie up all loose ends, jobs, and projects that were kinda left hanging from 2008. there are quite a few "little things"--as well as a couple of big ones--that i'd like to finish up and put to bed. i am the king of clutter, but it's really liberating to clear a path and get stuff put away.

but this isn't a resolution. if it were a resolution, it would never get done. if it were a resolution, i wouldn't do it just out of spite. i'd resent the resolution and then eventually get mad at it. don't you tell me what to do, resolution!
so it's just something i'm working on.
well...procrastinating around.
once i finish this post, i'll get right on it.

>sigh<


here's a turtle doodle i did.

smell ya later!
todd

wendy's ghost

okay...

my/our dear friend, wendy, sent this over last night.

in the first photo, she and her son were trying to get a picture of the spectacular sunset through the woods off the back of their porch in connecticut.
in the second...something was...there...





then, wendy's brother, an artist when it comes to photo editing, did this...



this other ghostly photo was sent to me a few weeks ago by our new colorist pal, chris summers--see chris' awesome color work on jason copland's story "evaluation" in perhapanauts 5!! chris went on an honest to goodness ghost hunt at a nearby haunted fort down in his part of texas. he said that he and his friends snapped off a bunch of photos arbitrarily and didn't see this ghostly mist until they got home and studied their pics! sweeet!



and before you say it; in each case i asked if there was a possibility that what we were seeing was the photographer's breath. chris said that it was much too warm for that and wendy said that she thought so too and also wondered if it wouldn't have also appeared in any of the five other photos they took...

ghosts.

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

and here are the answers to
our chain reaction
"five for friday!"



1.
tomato
s
m
t
dispenser

tomato
soup
mix
tape
dispenser

2.
broken
r
t
t
run

broken
record
time
trial
run

3.
georgia
p
p
s
light

georgia
peach
pit
stop
light

4.
fast
f
p
o
source

fast
forward
pass
out
source

5.
first
b
b
k
runner

first
blood
box
kite
runner

gotta go!
smell ya later!
todd

we are experiencing technical difficulties...

...please stand by.

okay...

for some reason or another, blogger is once again not allowing me to upload images...

frustrating.
i mean, come ON--it's 2009! can't we get these kinks fixed?!

: )

anyway, minor setback, that's all.

the title of today's blog, for those of you not old enough to remember, comes from back in the 60s and 70s when television stations--and remember; there were only, like, five or six of them back then--would have some kinda glitch in the system, some equipment malfunction or a timing issue. as a kid figuratively glued to the television, the sudden dead air would be jarring, breaking the hypnotic spell the glowing box had on me and, in some cases, actually scaring me and my brother.
the trick was to see how long the dead air would hang before someone at the station a.) noticed, and 2.) got the little sign up with some--usually cute--graphic bearing the words "we are experiencing technical difficulties." or somesuch comment. if it went on long enough, they'd play music. elevator music.

and it was a bit scary.

remember, this is in a time when we were still doing air raid drills in school, when the country was still a bit rattled from the cuban missile crisis. we were told very simply that, should; the air raid siren go off, we needed to get under our desks ('cause that would supposedly protect us from the dropping atom bombs). (the kid talk around the playground regarding this was that they wanted you to get under your desk so that it would be easier to find and identify your body.)

but back to tv...
as if to scare us even more, the fcc required all networks to go through a monthly emergency scenario simulation where a...not piercing, but certainly attention getting tone would, without warning, fill your living room with it's high pitched wail. a voice would come on shortly explaining that this station had been conducting a test of the emergency broadcasting system, had this been an actual emergency, we would have been notified blah, blah, blah...
get under your desks.
we had been conditioned, y'see, as kids at school, to quietly panic when the sirens blew, to sit and wait patiently to see if your world was going to blow up.

they still do this, of course, though it's a much more refined and understated exercise.

but that fear, that scare that jumps into you when normal television broadcasting is interrupted--it's beautiful.
i still get it. i love it.

we've heard the slightly calmer but still jarring buzzer sound on our tv quite a few times in the past few months in association with severe weather. where i live it's snow and ice and freezing rain in the winter. and torrential rains and flooding in the summer. the ice storm that tore through here and destroyed so many trees a month or so ago had the weather service making announcements every five minutes or so, constant advisories.

they're both scary and thrilling.

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

"five for friday"
chain reaction
so sharon and i had been leaving, of all things, the game show network on in the background while we wrapped gifts and decorated the house, not wanting to miss a minute of any of the traditional christmas shows and movies that were on. we dig anything with trivia questions just to try to stay sharp, but i also noticed, at a glance, a game called chain reaction that has you try to guess the missing words to connect each two-word phrase to another. like this;

i give you

white
c
c
s
attack

and you go

white christmas
christmas card
card shark
shark attack

get it?

so here's yours...

1.
tomato
s
m
t
dispenser

2.
broken
r
t
t
run

3.
georgia
p
p
s
light

4.
fast
f
p
o
source

5.
first
b
b
k
runner





gotta
g
smell
y
l

t