Perhapablog

Friday, July 31, 2009

by the time you read this...

...i'll be gone!

okay...

probably not before you read this, but sometime around noon, if my brother has his way, i'll be packing up and heading down to cape hatteras on the outer banks of north carolina with my brother and his kids for our every-other-year family reunion with my aunt and uncle and a whole houseful of cousins! originally, we were going to leave like last time at about 3 am saturday morning. but my brother is an anxious sort...

so we've all laughed as he's continually moved the time of departure back and back and back, 'til now he's shooting for 12 noon.

between you and me--not gonna happen.
the kids have camp all morning and he plans to pick them up at noon.

so, yes, i will be gone all week, soaking up the sun (but not too much) and playing in the waves (probably too much) and enjoying the company of family and doing my best to dunk/drown jordyn and tyler more than they dunk/drown me! the three of us have planned, in an attempt to drive my brother as crazy as possible on the trip down, to stop at every single sonic we see!!! not because we like it--it's usually pretty dissatisfying--but it will be certain to make jeff go buggy! (although, on the other hand, aside from the t.o.d., he's been much more relaxed about the trip and has really been looking forward to it. so who knows...?)



a week without a perhapa-blog, you say...?!! perish the thought.
i've already put together a trio of posts that craig will be slapping up here every other morning (which i will call to remind you about, c.!), so it'll be like i never left.
but i did.

anyway, have a great weekend!
and a great week



and here are a couple of questions to keep you thinkin'...

"five for friday"

1. as america celebrated the bi-centenniel and scooby-doo was still a pretty hot ticket, what patriotic character did hanna barbera cook up as a ghost who chased ghosts?

2. who was the little ant with the super-strength?

3. who were the banana splits' arch enemies?

4. quick draw mcgraw's alter ego?

5. i think i did this once before, but what the hell--it's one of my favorites--
sidekicks

a. quick draw mcgraw's sidekick

b. peter potomus' sidekick

c. secret squirrel's sidekick

d. yogi bear's sidekick

e. the cartoon canine version of the three musketeers

that's it!
smell ya later!
todd

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

my uncle jack

okay...

whew!--PERHAPA-BLOG 600 wore me out!

(ha! i think perhapa-blog 600 sounds like a robot we've gotta fight, like hal 9000, or T-2000, or the bass-o-matic 76)

this week, craig and i are working, not frantically, but swiftly, to get the halloween special all wrapped up and ready to go to the printer. i'm pretty happy with it and hope you will be too.

and, man--talk about fast! scott weinstein and jason copland are moving along so quickly on the one-shot they're doing, molly's story, that it will be done in no time! and it's great--i really really love what they're doing with it!

other than that, i don't have much. rich woodall sent me this link to the crazy costume awesomeness at comicon last weekend and so i will share this with you...

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/comiccon_2009_cosplay_gallery_600_amazing_costumes?page=0%2C0

thanks, rich!

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as i said in 600, alison's sent me some cool stuff lately--didja watch that african rainstom/africa video...?
here are some of the "imponderables" she sent the other day...

Why doesn't Tarzan have a beard?

Why do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are flat?

Why do banks charge a fee on 'insufficient funds' when they know there is not enough?

Why do Kamikaze pilots wear helmets?

Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?

Whose idea was it to put an 'S' in the word 'lisp'?

What is the speed of darkness?

Why is it that people say they 'slept like a baby' when babies wake up every two hours?

If the temperature is zero outside today and it's going to be twice as cold tomorrow, how cold will it be?

Do married people live longer than single ones or does it only seem longer?

How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?

Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground?

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

finally, not to end on a sad note or anything, i lost my uncle jack the other night.
my father's older brother, i could really relate to my uncle jack. he was sorta the black sheep of the family--well, of my father's family--because he was a bit more outgoing, friendlier, and he could talk more about his emotions than his two brothers. uncle jack told people that he loved them and was a kind and caring guy. he was always smiling and always tried to make sure that everyone was involved in the conversation--even when we were little kids.
i normally don't like to bring up or burden you all with too much of my personal life or family matters, but uncle jack was a part of this blog too on many occasions. he sent me many, many, (many) jokes an stories and photos--both funny and inspirational--every night. i would go through them and cull the ones that i thought you might like, and so uncle jack was an unwitting contributor to this blog. he would forward 10 or even 20 emails a night and though we only wrote back and forth once or twice a month, the steady stream let me know he was okay. but the emails stopped about a month ago and my dad let me know that uncle jack wasn't doing very well. he had severe respiratory problems and was having such trouble breathing. he had battled it for years and called my dad the other night to say he was tired. and goodbye. he passed away in his sleep that night.
so thank you, uncle jack, for all the great jokes and emails.
and rest peacefully now.

my grandfather was a trucker and this is the letterhead to the writing pads that served as his delivery forms. my grandpa is the one in front, foot on the fender and a cigar in his mouth. i got a ka-billion stories about that guy. my uncle jack is the guy in the white coat behind him.



have a good wednesday!
smell ya later!
todd

Monday, July 27, 2009

PERHAPA-BLOG 600!!!

HAPPY 600th BLOG, EVERYBODY!!

okay...

so in all my excitement to get the trivia challenge going and post the answers--see below--i almost lost track of the numbering here on the blog and almost missed this one---PERHAPA-BLOG 600!!
i really can't believe that i've posted 600 blogs.
that's crazy.
really.

and so today, as a kinda celebration, i thought i'd post a few things to excite and entice, to whet your respective appetites for our super scary PERHAPANAUTS HALLOWEEN SPOOKTACULAR no.1 coming out this october!

SPOILER! SPOILER!! SPOILER!!!
so here's your spoiler alert, for brian and anyone else who would rather not look--
below are the first few unlettered pages from two of our halloween stories with art by our pal, rich woodall, and my old volleyball teammate and comics legend, fred hembeck!!
i hope you enjoy them!

from "Night of the Tatzelwurm!"
pencils by rich woodall



from "Choopie's Halloween!"
artwork by fred hembeck


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

our friend, alison, has sent me a lot of great emails lately, but this one was just amazing! and inspirational!
you can see the joy on everyone's faces just to be a part of something so beautiful!
enjoy!

http://videos.komando.com/2009/06/18/african-thunderstorm/

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lauren monardo is a fantastic artist whose praises i sang here on the blog a few weeks ago. she, along with her writer-partner, stephen lindsay, produce the electric, eclectic, and erudite comic, "the slightly askew adventures of ham and eggs". it is about a pig in a world of talking animals set on solving a murder case...before becoming a victim himself!!
lauren has been both kind enough to agree to doing a back-up story with me and patient enough to put up with my constant delays in getting her a script, but sent me this crazy clip of choopie giving something a zap to nudge me along!



thanks so much, lauren! it's awesome!
and to see the complete strip, head over to lauren's site at:

http://lmonardo.blogspot.com/

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THE ANSWERS TO THE "FIVE FOR FRIDAY" TRIVIA CHALLENGE!!

from denis

1) In the US, it's commonly referred to as a hurricane, but what is this weather feature called in the areas around

a) The Indian Ocean?

--denis will supply the answer below---

b) The Pacific Ocean?

typhoon

2) Humans can be individually identified by their finger-prints. What prints are dogs identified by?

nose prints

3) What is the body of an airplane called?

fuselage

4) What person won the most number of Academy Awards, winning an incredible 26 Oscars!?

walt disney

5) How many of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still exist today?

---also, see below---

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

from brian

He/She Won An Oscar for Best Actor/Actress, Really?

1. This TV sidekick won for a film featuring in its title the name of another famous sidekick and beat out Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson and Al Pacino to do it.

Art Carney

2. Both his Oscar winning character and the character in he played on TV had their names in the tiitle of the show. He beat out James Cageny, James Dean, Frank Sinatra and Spencer Tracy for the Oscar.

Ernest Borgnine (movie--Marty, tv show--McHale's Navy)

3. He is a big hit at Christmas whether at home, or on the road. He beat out Cary Grant and his co-star in the film for the Oscar.

bing crosby

4. Mention this woman's "name" and you will think single before you think movie. She beat out Meryl Streep and Glenn Close.

cher

5. Same clue as for number 4, but this one beat out Diana Ross, Maggie Smith, Cicely tyson and Liv Ullmann.

Liza Minelli

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from kc

So, my trivia questions are too hard for you, huh? Try these.

1. How many strings are there on a 12-string guitar?

12

2. How many playing cards in a standard 52-card deck?

52--not counting jokers and instruction cards

3. What do you call those things at the ends of your hands? You know... um... fingers? Damn. Never mind.

4. How many band members are in a standard 4-piece combo?

four.

5. How many Green Chinese Pots in a dozen?

12

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from roger

1. Who was the mascot of the Milwaukee Braves and later the Atlanta Braves until 1986 when he was removed, in part, due to race issues?

Chief Noc-A-Homa (pronounced to sound kinda like "knock a homer.")

2. Jay Ward & Bill Scott, creators of Bullwinkle, produced a series of popular commercials starring which high ranking cereal mascot?

captain crunch

3. Speaking of Bullwinkle, what cereal featured him in their commercials?

cheerios

4. Who was the original voice of Mickey Mouse?

walt disney

5. What cryptid is a native of Northern Wisconsin and is the mascot for the city of Rhinelander?

The Hodag. Here's more about it: http://www.hodagpress.com/about.htm

6. Who was the "mascot" of the original Justice League of America? (Thanks to KC for this question.)

snapper carr





happy 600th post everybody!
no go out and play!
smell ya later!
todd

Friday, July 24, 2009

YOUR "Five For Friday!" Trivia Challenge!


GHOST

okay...

didn't get a lot of entries, but the ones i did get are certainly solid trivia questions...and i didn't think a one of them fell into the minutia category (do you?)

thanks to denis, brian, kc, and roger for stepping up and sending some in--now let's see how we ALL do.
you can all post your answers in the comments section where i'll be posting mine around noon (EST).
good luck!



from denis

1) In the US, it's commonly referred to as a hurricane, but what is this weather feature called in the areas around

a) The Indian Ocean?

b) The Pacific Ocean?

2) Humans can be individually identified by their finger-prints. What prints are dogs identified by?

3) What is the body of an airplane called?

4) What person won the most number of Academy Awards, winning an incredible 26 Oscars!?

5) How many of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still exist today?

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

from brian

He/She Won An Oscar for Best Actor/Actress, Really?

1. This TV sidekick won for a film featuring in its title the name of another famous sidekick and beat out Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson and Al Pacino to do it.

2. Both his Oscar winning character and the character in he played on TV had their names in the tiitle of the show. He beat out James Cageny, James Dean, Frank Sinatra and Spencer Tracy for the Oscar.

3. He is a big hit at Christmas whether at home, or on the road. He beat out Cary Grant and his co-star in the film for the Oscar.

4. Mention this woman's "name" and you will think single before you think movie. She beat out Meryl Streep and Glenn Close.

5. Same clue as for number 4, but this one beat out Diana Ross, Maggie Smith, Cicely tyson and Liv Ullmann.

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

from kc

So, my trivia questions are too hard for you, huh? Try these.

1. How many strings are there on a 12-string guitar?

2. How many playing cards in a standard 52-card deck?

3. What do you call those things at the ends of your hands? You know... um... fingers? Damn. Never mind.

4. How many band members are in a standard 4-piece combo?

5. How many Green Chinese Pots in a dozen?

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

Hi Todd,

Here are my questions for your Friday trivia challenge. They all have the theme of "mascot." I included a sixth in case one of the original 5 is too trivial.

1. Who was the mascot of the Milwaukee Braves and later the Atlanta Braves until 1986 when he was removed, in part, due to race issues?

2. Jay Ward & Bill Scott, creators of Bullwinkle, produced a series of popular commercials starring which high ranking cereal mascot?

3. Speaking of Bullwinkle, what cereal featured him in their commercials?

4. Who was the original voice of Mickey Mouse?

5. What cryptid is a native of Northern Wisconsin and is the mascot for the city of Rhinelander?

6. Who was the "mascot" of the original Justice League of America? (Thanks to KC for this question.)

Hope ya like 'em!

Best,
Roger

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




have a great weekend!
smell ya later!
todd

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

animals

okay...

every morning when i sit down at the computer, the first thing i do before i check my email or write up and/or post the blog, is click on the first link on my bookmarks bar which is simply the word animals. it takes me to this site:

http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=3

and once there, i click on the big purple button and i'm done.

i've just provided an animal shelter somewhere with a little more dog food or cat food or rabbit food or whatever...
just two clicks and then i can go on and check my mail and my myspace page and my facebook page...
mike and i found this site--the animal rescue site--simultaneously a few years back and told each other about it and then laughed that we both knew about it already.

so i'll ask you--can you spare two clicks?
why not put animals in your bookmarks bar and give a couple clicks each morning. just two. easy, right? they don't add your name to any mailing lists or charity co-ops--you're in and out in a few seconds and you've helped feed a hungry pet, one that was more than likely abused or abandoned.

and if you want to think locally, with another two clicks you can choose the shelter that benefits from your click, your own local shelter or one you know needs help. i send mine to the dutchess county spca in hyde park ny where sharon's brother and sister-in-law do a lot of volunteer work. s'up to you...

they also have a store featuring some really nice stuff where 100% of the profits go to rescuing abandoned or injured pets. i've bought a few cool things there and occasionally make direct donations.



that's what i do first thing every morning. what do you do?

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

so i'm gettting in some trivia questions...but i could definitely use more!

as i said, i'll post the trivia questions here on friday morning and then my answers at about noon. i'll put my answers in the comments section of the blog so as not to ruin it for those of you also playing along. i've already received some really good ones (read: hard ones) and i think this'll be a lot of fun!
but if you've got some and were planning on sending 'em in--do it now!

that's all i got for today!
smell ya later!
todd

Monday, July 20, 2009

todd's trivia challenge!


CHUPACABRA

okay...

for those of you counting, this is post no. 597.

though i haven't been doing the "five for friday" since the inception of this blog--i started sometime after the one year anniversary--i have been doing it for awhile. and it certainly seems like people like it since i get a flurry of emails about it any time i should happen to skip a week. so. let's say i've been doing the perhapa-blog for the past three and a half years, the "five for friday" for the past two and a half. 52 weeks in a year, times two and a half, that's 130 trivia fridays, five questions each...totaling 650 questions. a week or two off here or there, let's call it 600.

i'm being conservative.

but still...that's a lot of questions.

most of 'em straight outta my tiny little brain.

so, i'm taking this week off.

but i don't want to miss out on trivia...so here's the deal.

i'm asking you--yes, YOU. don't turn around, i'm looking right at you--to come up with a "five for friday" of your own.

for me.

here's the challenge. i love trivia and will do my best to answer all of the trivia questions sent my way--without relying on google or any outside assistance in any form, of course--and let's see how i do. you in?

the only rule here is that it should be what is considered GENERAL KNOWLEDGE trivia--stuff you might hear on cash cab or jeopardy. anything that becomes too specific is known in trivia circles as minutia--these are questions that go beyond trivial and become, well, TOO trivial. for example; my pals, roger ash and kc carlson, are HUGE music fans and each of them contain a warehouse and a half full of knowledge of rock and roll from the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s in their respective noggins and have, in the past, thrown some questions at me that just made my head spin. and not in a good way.
that's minutia.

so send in your five (or ten or fifteen...) questions in to me--at todd@perhapanauts.com --by thursday and i'll post them friday (along with my answers and/or guesses later on in the day). if any of them seem to me to be a little too specific, i'll call for a ruling and allow all of you to determine if it really is minutia or if i'm just being a whiney baby.

so send 'em in ( again, that's at todd@perhapanauts.com ) and let's see if my brain is good for anything besides mopping up big spills.

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



and here are
the answers to
last week's

"five for friday"
you name it...

1. what is beast boy's real name?

gar logan

2. what was john wayne's real name?

marion morrison

3. what was the name of winona rider's character in alien 4: alien resurrection?

call

4. what actor played the character of dea agent, ray nicolette, in both jackie brown and out of sight?

michael keaton

5. and finally, like you haven't had enough of him these past two weeks, what was michael jackson's middle name?

joseph

i'm out!
smell ya later!
todd

Friday, July 17, 2009

what's perhappenin'? with russ burlingame

okay...

i'm tired today, staying up late to finish issue 1 of a project that...i don't think they've announced yet, so i'll have to keep mum. (i wonder when they're gonna announce it? it's out in october...)
i'm also tired from answering the grueling questions that our pal, russ burlingame, pummeled me with the other day, relentlessly trying to uncover some of the perhapanauts deepest, darkest mysteries. i did my best to dodge them, but russ was not to be discouraged this time and wheedled a few hints and clues out of me...and a rather big announcement.

and, because he did all the work, i'll give you this link and let russ tell you...



http://comicrelated.com/news/2258/whats-perhappenin

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

"five for friday"
you name it...

1. what is beast boy's real name?

2. what was john wayne's real name?

3. what was the name of winona rider's character in alien 4: alien resurrection?

4. what actor played the character of dea agent, ray nicolette, in both jackie brown and out of sight?

5. and finally, like you haven't had enough of him these past two weeks, what was michael jackson's middle name?

have a great weekend!
smell ya later!
todd

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

EXTRA!! EXTRA!! PERHAPA-BLOG EXTRA!!! why so serious?

EXTRA!! EXTRA!! EXTRA!! EXTRA!! EXTRA!! EXTRA!! EXTRA!! EXTRA!! EXTRA!! EXTRA!! EXTRA!!

so, after a long battle with blogger to get these pics uploaded, here is our pal, tom fidel, as...well...you know...





thanks, tom!

costumes in cleveland!

okay...

cleveland was lots of fun and craig and i got to meet and hang out with a lot of really cool, really fun people at the show!
but you don't wanna hear about that--you're yelling, "bring on the costumes!!"
and so not to keep you in any further suspense...



the watchmen's rorshach and the silk spectre


the green lantern, jade


a cute star trek couple



and here we have a series i like to call
"a family that costumes together..."

a young superman and supergirl
(we could not get serious superman here to break character once. he was pretty determined about defending truth, justice, and the american way)
(the next day he was all smiles when we found out he was a spider-man fan...!)


here they are with mom as a stunning mrs. incredible!


and dad showed up one day as the original scarlet speedster, the flash~~!



~~and the next as his junior sidekick, kid flash~~!


jedi twi'lek


and the next three photos have the common ingredient of featuring our new friend, kim, as she made several costume changes throughout the weekend...

here she is with husband, kieran, (and their friend whose name is written down on a piece of paper somewhere where i cannot find it and so many, many apologies, man...)
kim and kieran--that's kieran on the left--are huge impulse fans and so we got to chat with them about our favorite little speedster. but we were more fascinated with all the cool costumes kim had made, including...


that's her in the smokin' adam hughes inspired catwoman costume, along with friends, wonder woman and supergirl...


...and again as one of my favorite green lanterns, arisia, from the great steve englehart/joe staton years of green lantern corps!
great costumes all, kim!


and these were some shots that craig had from heroescon in charlotte that he just sent over and i thought you'd like...

zatanna and the question


me and superwoman


and while mark mchaley is not a superhero, he is our hero--a fantastic painter whose work you'll be seeing in an upcoming issue of the perhapanauts--and was our near-constant companion this weekend at screaming tiki!
oh, and that's our pal and my two morrows/modern masters editor, eric nolen-weathington, between us in the background!
which reminds me; the chris sprouse modern masters hit the shelves last wednesday and if you're a chris sprouse fan (and who isn't...?) or a tom strong fan (again...) and you don't go out and pick one up, you're a moron.

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

i caused a little stir the other night on my facebook page when, for lack of anything else to say, in my status heading, i gushed over how gorgeous the perhapanauts page (from the upcoming halloween spooktacular) that craig had just sent me was.
it was.
and is.
truly gorgeous.
a lot of people cried that this was teasing and i had to agree, unintentionally, it was.
to apologize for that, i posted the first page of the story and if you're one of those people who like a glimpse or little preview of what we're working on, you can go check it out for yourself at

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=602933777

the page doesn't give away anything about the story, but it is spectacular nonetheless.
i know you'll dig it!

smell ya later!
todd

Monday, July 13, 2009

friday's post on monday...

okay...

so, obviously, we didn't get the post up on friday...
below is the post i wrote on thursday but craig didn't bring his laptop and we couldn't figure out how to do it on his iphone. also, we had quite a few beers friday afternoon and even if we coulda, i don't think we coulda...

the show was fun. we are exhausted. we saw a lotta great costumes and we took a lotta pictures. i'll post 'em on wednesday.

here's the post from friday.
i'm beat.

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

okay...

well, if i can actually get this posted, we're probably having a great time here in cleveland!
i know we are--we always do...

while looking around the other day for pics to go with my tellos on the iphone blog, i came across this great commission mike did a few years back and thought i'd share it again! a cool--and funny--idea and you can see how very smooth the characters look. i remember mike saying that he had a lot of fun with this and how much it made him miss our gang...!


me too...

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

and while we're talking about digging things up; for some reason i really can't remember right now...oh, no, no, now i do remember, but it's boring and you won't care...i dug out this thing/she-hulk book i wrote many years ago, the long night.



i believe i've written a little something about this project once before here in the blog, but this time i'm mentioning it just 'cause, well, i read it. and i liked it.
see, it's rare for me to go back and actually enjoy my own work. like most artists do, i'll look at it and see the mistakes, the mis-phrasing of something, the lost opportunities in a scene or a bit of dialogue...
but i liked reading this. it was fun and reminded me of the comics i used to love when i was a kid.
sure, i still saw a couple rough patches, places where the story didn't flow as smoothly as the rest, but there was an artist change halfway through the book and their storytelling styles, while very close, weren't exactly the same.
anyway, if you're at you local comic shop or at a nice little convention this weekend, go hunt down a copy.
you might like it too.

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

have a great weekend!
smell ya later!
todd

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

screaming off to cleveland!

okay...



as i posted the other day, craig and i will be heading out to cleveland tomorrow to spend the weekend at the second way-cool SCREAMING TIKI CON! hosts peter and dawn smith have put together a star-studded show (no, we're not the stars...) that include smallville's lex luthor, michael rosenbaum, and doomsday, sam witwer. from star wars, darth maul himself, ray park, and the young boba fett, daniel logan. supergirl helen slater, and buck rogers' wilma deering, erin gray (who i had a terrific crush on back in the day...) ('cause, um...no real girls would talk to me.)
but, as i've said, at craig and jim starlin's urgings, i've been watching battlestar galactica lately and will be diving into season 3 as soon as craig gets it over to me and it is with that in mind that i'm most eager to see admiral adama himself, edward james olmos! hopefully, i might even get the chance to meet him and, y'know, thank him for saving earth...




so, come on out and see us! we're here all weekend!

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

i stumbled on this while looking up some images for toothed fish...



cute!

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

and speaking of toothed fish...

have you seen the new crazy fishing show called HOOKED on the national geographic channel?! monday nights! check it out!

no, seriously.

you all know that i'll watch all kinds of shows on just about any cryptozoological creature/entity that they slap a name on. i'm just fascinated with the subject and can't get enough! so when natgeo started running ads for HOOKED! on their sister station, discovery, during cash cab, i practically leapt out of my seat! unknown creatures are weird enough--but the weird creatures we DO know about are incredible! this show features some awesome ichthyologists and world class fishermen going after some of the most amazing fish you've ever seen!


the vampire fish--with fangs that extend up into it's skull!



the pacu--with it's weird human-like teeth!

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

i will do my best to get a post up friday from the con--provided i can find some internet action.

have a good day!
smell ya later!
todd

Monday, July 06, 2009

TELLOS

okay...

well, the big news is that tellos no.2 is now available for your itouch and iphones and if you picked up issue one, you saw how awesomely cool they've made the whole thing look!i got to see the debut on craig's iphone and i'm hoping that this will at least make us enough money for me to go out and buy one of my own!
(matt needs one too!)

check out the ad and the cool little preview that steve horton and the gang at smashout put together for us! and then go get it!
it's only a buck!

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=321076458&mt=8



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i don't talk a lot about tellos here 'cause it still makes me sad. and it probably always will. at conventions, i talk with people about it a lot, many saying how much they enjoyed the series, most offering condolences, and some starting to realize that they don't have to be sad about it anymore and remembering the fun and the joy they got out of it. at charlotte last month, i had a fan actually start to swashbuckle in front of me, his eyes lit up as he reenacted hawk and rikk's initial chase scene in tellos #4. i love that! mike and i always loved to hear that readers had actually gotten caught up in the story and carried away with it!
of course, invariably, someone always hits me--and matt...and craig...and sometimes a combination of us--with a comment or offer of sympathy that catches you off guard and brings a tear--but that's good too. it really is.

i have a bunch of the tellos books here that i take to shows, but i got an email from someone the other day suggesting that i make them available here in the perhapanauts store and as soon as we can get a few minutes from kieran and his busy schedule that's exactly what we'll do. for now though, should anyone be interested, drop me a note at

todd@perhapanauts.com

i have copies of both the softcover trade edition and the oversized, hardcover TELLOS COLOSSAL. what a way to see that beautiful ringo artwork and those gorgeous paul mounts colors!!
and i do have a few copies left of the signed and numbered left as well.







for those of you who have asked me about the second collection, i take full responsibility for the delay. the book--TELLOS COLOSSAL Vol 2--was to collect the various graphic novels and one-shots i did following mike's and my original run. stories i did with artists like howard porter, carlo barberi, dave tata, kelly yates, thor badendyck...and, oh yeah, this guy named craig rousseau. the book was due out in stores last september and, well, it just never made it. truth is, it was just too difficult for me to even think about tellos at the time i needed to be digging into it and putting it all together. i got past that earlier this year, but now we--alan hui at image and i--are playing indiana jones trying to track down the missing files on a couple of the later stories. we're hoping to have it done and out by the end of the year--but i'll keep you updated...

and, yes, there are plans for further tellos projects. matt and suzanne have being doing such great work with the ringo scholarship fund and we're putting together a mike wieringo tellos tribute book featuring an amazing array of artists due out sometime next year. i am currently working on a script for the next tellos story--an original graphic novel--that will be a sort of jam project with even more cool artists providing the art! it'll be the story that mike and i were starting to work on a few years ago and the middle of the three part epic we were planning for. and matt and i have been talking about being more aggressive in seeking out an agent to maybe someday get the story on the big--or little--screen.
'cause we know that mike woulda dug that.

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and wednesday i'll be here to hype all over the screaming tiki con that craig and i will be attending this coming weekend! if you're in the cleveland area--or, heck, anywhere in ohio, new york, pennsylvania--wherever!--and have nothing to do, sstop by and see us--it's shaping up to be a big show!







"five for friday"
summer fun!

1. what was the nickname of the mechanical shark used in jaws?

bruce

2. who played john cusak's love interest in one crazy summer?

demi moore

3. who sang the 1969 hit "hot fun in the summertime?"

sly and the family stone

4. on the beach boys' 1974 greatest hits compilation album, "endless summer," how many songs actually have the word surf in the title?

3; surfin' safari, surfer girl, surfin' usa

5. frisbees were originally used as what...?

they got it right in back to the future III, the first frisbees were actually pie tins from the frisbie pie company

have a good monday!
smell ya later!
todd

Friday, July 03, 2009

sewer monster 2.0

okay...

i was hanging out with my niece, jordyn, the other day, when, out of nowhere, she produced this card--her first birthday card. apparently, she had been going through some old photos and baby stuff and found it, saying that she had never seen it before. and i, of course, hadn't seen it for, let's see...15 years. she said that, since i had posted all of my old christmas cards during the holidays last year, i might as well put this one up as well.
so here ya go.





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following up on the creepy sewer monster that howard porter served up the other day, our friend, gretchen hill, sent me this local news clip along with her own brief commentary...

Todd,

Have you seen this? Ew...

http://www.wral.com/news/local/video/5485506/

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our pal, nic carcieri--portal comics to those in the know--knows how much i dig stuff like this and sent it over the other day. i do love nature and weather and weird stuff, so when you put it all together like this, how can you go wrong...?
thanks, nic~!


Fantastic Natural Phenomena.

The classical natural wonders are huge and hard to miss - vast canyons, giant mountains and the like. Many of the most fantastic natural phenomena, however, are also least easy to spot. Some are incredibly rare while others are located in hard-to-reach parts of the planet. From moving rocks to mammatus clouds and red tides to fire rainbows, here are seven of the most spectacular phenomenal wonders of the natural world.
1. Sailing Stones

The mysterious moving stones of the packed-mud desert of Death Valley have been a center of scientific controversy for decades. Rocks weighing up to hundreds of pounds have been known to move up to hundreds of yards at a time.
Some scientists have proposed that a combination of strong winds and surface ice account for these movements. However, this theory does not explain evidence of different rocks starting side by side and moving at different rates and in disparate directions.
Moreover, the physics calculations do not fully support this theory as wind speeds of hundreds of miles per hour would be needed to move some of the stones.
2. Columnar Basalt

When a thick lava flow cools it contracts vertically but cracks perpendicular to its directional flow with remarkable geometric regularity - in most cases forming a regular grid of remarkable hexagonal extrusions that almost appear to be made by man.
One of the most famous such examples is the Giant's Causeway on the coast of Ireland (shown above) though the largest and most widely recognized would be Devil's Tower in Wyoming .
Basalt also forms different but equally fascinating ways when eruptions are exposed to air or water.
3. Blue Holes

Blue holes are giant and sudden drops in underwater elevation that get their name from the dark and foreboding blue tone they exhibit when viewed from above in relationship to surrounding waters.
They can be hundreds of feet deep and while divers are able to explore some of them they are largely devoid of oxygen that would support sea life due to poor water circulation - leaving them eerily empty.
Some blue holes, however, contain ancient fossil remains that have been discovered, preserved in their depths.
4. Red Tides

Red tides are also known as algal blooms - sudden influxes of massive amounts of colored single-cell algae that can convert entire areas of an ocean or beach into a blood red color.
While some of these can be relatively harmless, others can be harbingers of deadly toxins that cause the deaths of fish, birds and marine mammals.
In some cases, even humans have been harmed by red tides though no human exposure are known to have been fatal. While they can be fatal, the constituent phytoplankton in ride tides are not harmful in small numbers.
5.. Ice Circles

While many see these apparently perfect ice circles as worthy of conspiracy theorizing, scientists generally accept that they are formed by eddies in the water that spin a sizable piece of ice in a circular motion.
As a result of this rotation, other pieces of ice and flotsam wear relatively evenly at the edges of the ice until it slowly forms into an essentially ideal circle..
Ice circles have been seen with diameters of over 500 feet and can also at times be found in clusters and groups at different sizes as shown above.
6. Mammatus Clouds

True to their ominous appearance, mammatus clouds are often harbingers of a coming storm or other extreme weather system..
Typically composed primarily of ice, they can extend for hundreds of miles in each direction and individual formations can remain visibly static for ten to fifteen minutes at a time.
While they may appear foreboding they are merely the messengers - appearing around, before or even after severe weather.
7. Fire Rainbows

A circumhorizontal fire rainbow arc occurs at a rare confluence of right time and right place for the sun and certain clouds.
Crystals within the clouds refract light into the various visible waves of the spectrum but only if they are arrayed correctly relative to the ground below.
Due to the rarity with which all of these events happen in conjunction with one another, there are relatively few remarkable photos of this phenomena.

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three items of information--

1.) so apparently, when you're posting three blog entries a week, you lose track of exactly how many you've done. this one, blogger informs me, is blog # 591. three weeks and we'll hit the big 600. (we oughta do something for that, no?)

b.) this afternoon, i am going to see my tarot reading/psychic friend, joann defile--yes, THAT JOANN!!!--for a reading. haven't had one in a while and i'm really excited. both for the reading and to see her! (she has yet to read herself in any of the image series...that should be fun...) joann actually does help out local law enforcement with a variety of different types of cases and her readings are always enlightening (and uncannily accurate...) i'll letcha know how it goes.

3.) hey-!! tomorrow's the FOURTH OF JULY!!! we've got a lot going on around here and in the family and so it kinda crept up on me. my nephew, tyler, has been away at camp all this week (and it's been nothin' but raining. poor tyler.) and we have to pick him up in the morning. sharon and i are gonna have the family out for a barbeque and maybe some fireworks (which i got.) (in the closet.) (i'm a closet pyromaniac.) (but, who isn't...?)
have a happy and safe INDEPENDENCE DAY, everybody! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMERICA!


"five for friday"
summer fun!

1. what was the nickname of the mechanical shark used in jaws?

2. who played john cusak's love interest in one crazy summer?

3. who sang the 1969 hit "hot fun in the summertime?"

4. on the beach boys' 1974 greatest hits compilation album, "endless summer," how many songs actually have the word surf in the title?

5. frisbees were originally used as what...?

that's it!
HAPPY 4th!!
smell ya later!
todd