have a great weekend~!

okay...

first of all, part 6 of scott's "We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Programming..." is up over on the TALES FROM THE PERHAPS page and, as usual, it is a LOT of fun! so go check it out right now. i'll wait.


as busy as i was at the table last weekend, i got to see a lot of really great sketches by the multitude of awesome artists in the room! my friends james, luis, and tom came by from time to time showing off some of their great 'gets' and, of course, i was sitting between craig and rich, both of whom were doing some fine sketching, matt on the other side of rich and i know i saw him with an open sketchbook a few times...!

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

one of my favorites this weekend was when our own mike estelle came over, ecstatic, enthusiastically passing me his sketchbook to show me the beautiful piece he'd just gotten from leanne who was, sadly, way over on the other side of the big room and i hadn't even seen her yet. or rod. it was like she was sending karl over to let us know she was here. anyway, here's the awesome piece by an awesome artist--and person! love that new haircut, leanne!--and thanks to her artistic benefactor, mike estelle for allowing us to post it here.

(used by permission)

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

and here, though you'll forgive my horrible photography, is a beautiful canson catwoman (julie newmar version) that i grabbed from craig before he gave it to the guy who commissioned it. my problem with taking pictures of these pieces at the show is that i have to use the flash to eliminate the shadows of my hands from the overhead lights. gotta work on that...

she is gorgeous though. that guy can draw.

anyway, gotta go!
have a great weekend!
smell ya later~!
todd

jam-packed baltimore report~

okay...

i was hoping to dole out the pictures and the report from the amazing weekend we had in baltimore this past at the BALTIMORE COMICCON over the span of monday, wednesday and friday (maybe tuesday, wednesday and friday since rich and i were still on the road home most of the day monday...), but i came home to a whole buncha stuff that needed my attention and so here we are on thursday and i'm cramming it all into one.

as for the con, did i say amazing? it was incredible! the place was packed--due, in no small amount, to the presence of none other than stan 'the man' lee!! all day, both days, people were happy, smiling, and all too willing to spend their money on comics, art, t-shirts, and toys! i know i did! it was a fantastic chance to make some new friends, sell a few trades, and, hopefully, garner a whole slew of new perhapanauts fans!

since craig brought his family, my date for the weekend, as i said, was our good pal and haps artist/writer, rich woodall and we had an awesome time on the rides down and back! our extra roommate was amber atoms writer/artist kelly yates and the two of them filled me in on a really cool project that they're working on ! more details on that as they unfold...

craig, rich and i shared our island/booth with matt and suzanne and the ringo scholarship fund. matt told me that they raised a lot of money--people were so generous--and that walking dead artist, charles adlard, was the angel of the weekend, donating all of his sketching proceeds to the cause. thanks so much, charlie--so very kind!

got to see, and have dinner and/breakfast with, leanne and rod hannah, mike estelle, jamar nichols--never enough time to hang out with all the people you want to hang out with at a convention...


so thanks for coming out and seeing us~!

i'll stop talking now so that you can see the only thing you really stopped by for...

...the costumes!!


psylocke


nightwing


star sapphire


black canary


(another) nightwing and the huntress


white tiger


a dapper steampunk fellow
(got this picture for bret as we delve even deeper
into the world of steampunk for our latest project
from motionworks entertainment...!)


my pal caleb morea whisked by in his all-too-cool kid flash costume! i was able to stop him just long enough for his mom, mindy, to get this picture of us!


our choopie plush was a big hit at the show and, though i wanted to get a whole lot more pictures of people with him, thing were a little too hectic at the booth. here's one with my sistah, squeeze and another with long-time friend tellos and perhapanauts pal, dave tilley!






that's it for me--i gotta get to work!
be here tomorrow for the latest installment of scott weinstein's "we interrupt your regularly scheduled program..." by scott and...damn, rich woodall! man, that guy is everywhere!
smell ya later~!
todd

blogger just informed me that

this is post no. 901

baltimore comiccon exclusives~!

okay...

first, go over to TALES FROM THE PERHAPS since part 5 of scott weinstein's "We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Program..." is now UP!! featuring artwork by the awesome jason copland!

~~~~~

as rich and i try to wake up and hit the road for the baltimore comiccon this bright, shiny a.m.--well, he's up, apparently he's a morning person, i'm doing my best to stay at least a little bit asleep--we're looking forward to both the trip and to seeing everyone at the show!





but, here, this bright and early friday morning, i am able to announce to you all for the first time (mostly 'cause we weren't sure we'd actually HAVE these items together for the show...) that we we have not one, but TWO new PERHAPANAUTS T-SHIRTS available featuring our lovely--and psychic--team leader, ARISA, and the always ready, always able KARL the MOTHMAN in all your favorite sizes!

though we were only able to pick them up at the last minute--which is why our photos are both few and scary--karl is printed on a festive grey background, while arisa mounted on a purple background. arisa is also available in both t, and ladies fitted tee, so get one of each!



the two new additions to our t-shirt line will be exclusive at the baltimore comiccon this weekend and then made available here in our store in the weeks to come! you know you want one--don't miss out!

also an exclusive; we will also be featuring at this show the PERHAPANAUTS One-Sheet Convention Prints Collection!
all eight gorgeously illustrated special con prints available together for the first time at new, low price of only $30 for the set! this is a fantastic offer and a chance to pick up some beautiful pieces by craig!







okay--i gotta get going~!
see ya at the show!
but if i don't, i'll
smell ya later~!
todd

augie's love-letter to tellos and , hey~! ya goin' to baltimore...?

okay...

it was like a race this morning as both christian and mike (heywood!) sent me a link to augie de blieck's pipeline column over on CBR where augie was kind enough to give TELLOS #1 a wonderful breakdown, revisiting mike's and my debut issue with a warm and wistful eye, retracing our steps as we tried to do something fun and exciting!

you can read augie's heartfelt (thanks so much, augie!) love letter over at

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=33919

and as he says in the article, you can download tellos #1 for free over at www.comixology.com


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

you mighta heard that craig and i and trish and the kids and rich and kelly and matt and suzanne and rod and leanne and mike (heywood) and many of our other friends are gonna be in baltimore this weekend at the BALTIMORE COMICCON!!
and you've got nothing to do this weekend, right?
so we'll see ya there...!
right...?




be here friday for part 5 of scott's "We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Program..." on TALES FROM THE PERHAPS~!

smell ya later!
todd

quick bursts~!

okay...

quick bursts~!

did i mention that craig and i will be at the




this coming weekend! stop by if you're in the neighborhood. the guest list is awesome and even stan lee's gonna be there!

~~~~~~~~~

you read part 1 here a week or so ago...

part 2 of bryan stroud's excellent--and humorous--interview with our own nick cardy can be found here;

http://www.wtv-zone.com/silverager/CSHTML/sas.shtml

it is classic nick conversation and filled with great memories and few stories told out of school!
check it out!


~~~~~~~~~

my dear friend alison, who is more like family than just friend, 'e'd me this photo this morning.

"Hey Todd, Came across this in Jeff's '76 year book. Check out the title of the book you're reading. :-) "




so now when i say that i've always been fascinated by the paranormal...
(thanks, alison!)

~~~~~~~~~



when my brother and i were little kids--5 or 6 years old--my mother, it seemed, had made ham steaks for dinner a tad too frequently--or so we believed--and we complained about it. tired of hearing our protests, upon our asking what was for dinner one night, my dad told us "lunk". confounded we said, "what's 'lunk'?" to which he replied, "i lassoed it out in the backyard just a little while ago." eyes wide, we asked what 'lunk' was, he casually said, "oh, you've seen 'em around...the big blue bird with the purple beak...?" "why did you lasso it?" "oh, you have to lasso them--that's the only way to catch 'em! it struggled--bit me eight or nine times. woulda killed an ordinary man. but i wrestled it to the ground. now come and sit down."
we ate it up.

for more calvin and hobbes, go to www.gocomics.com

i'm out!
smell ya later!
todd

jason's birthday, scott's tale, leanne's ghost, and, oh, yeah--the baltimore comiccon~!

okay...

first of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JASON~!
yesterday was our pal, jason copland's birthday.
we're a day late. sorry, j.
to celebrate, we've posted the latest installment of scott weinstein's "We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Program..." over on our increasingly popular TALES FROM THE PERHAPS page (see link above) which just happens to have been illustrated by jason himself! *(we would have published it anyway, seeing that it's part 4 and all, but since it was jason's birthday and we didn't really get him anything, we thought we make an empty gesture out of it and tell him it was for him...)

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

did you get the part that part 4 of scott weinstein's hugely popular Tales From The Perhaps is up...? go look at it!

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

speaking of the very talented artists in our perhapa-family who have been kind enough to grace our pages with their wonderful work, our own lovely leanne hannah 'e'd me the other day with these cool photos that she took while on a ghost walk in historic--and apparently spooky--annapolis with her also lovely husband rod.
in that we are kindred spirits in chasing spirits, leanne told me that the misty swirl that you see in this first image was not visible to the naked eye, nor was the glare/flash in the lower left corner--no one was suing a flash at the time. it wasn't until she looked at the camera screen that she saw that ethereal smoke and said what the hell.





leanne then tried to duplicate the shot to see if she could pick it up again--image 2. but no misty presence here.


weird.

but thanks, leanne. that's awesome!
we gotta get more people going out on ghost walks and ghost hunting and alla that.

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

oh, and also, next weekend--august 20-21--craig and rich and leanne and rod and kelly and i and many of our other friends will be trekking down (or up...or over...or through...) to baltimore for the baltimore comiccon!



come and see us!
we can't wait to see YOU!



okay, that's all for me.
have a great weekend!
smell ya later!
todd

steve gatrost and~wait! what's that?!?!

okay...

i was all set to have this blog-post be all about steve gatrost, but then brian zim-zammed me with this...

from the huffington post.com

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/09/chupacabra-in-minnesota_n_922394.html

Chupacabra Sighting: Mysterious Minnesota Roadkill Prompts Alarm
Lee Speigel
lee.speigel@huffingtonpost.com

First Posted: 8/9/11 04:07 PM ET
Updated: 8/9/11 04:36 PM ET

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) officials are scratching their heads over an unidentified dead mammal that was first spotted July 31 on a Douglas County road.



The creepy-looking all white creature with five claws on its front paws, long toenails and dark tufts of hair on its back has prompted speculation that Minnesota is home to the legendary chupacabra, KSAX-TV reports.

Lacey Ilse was driving close to her home on County Road 86, near Alexandria, when she first saw the dead carcass.

"We saw something in the middle of the road, and we knew it wasn't a dog or a cat, because it didn't have hair," Ilse told KSAX-TV.

"It had a clump of hair and all the rest was just white skin. Its ear was all mis-shaped. To me, it looked half-human," Ilse said.

DNR area wildlife supervisor Kevin Kotts said the animal closely resembles a badger, although the creature's tail is longer than a typical badger.

"It's got five long front claws on each of its front feet, which would be characteristic of a badger," Kotts told the TV station. "I ran the pictures past a few other DNR folks that have a lot of trapping and/or furbearer experience, and they all said it's hard to be 100 percent sure what it is ... but if it's a Minnesota animal, it's probably a badger."

Chupacabras, or "goat suckers," are creatures said to live in Mexico, Puerto Rico and in different parts of the United States. The animals, described as something between a dog and a wolf, reportedly kill and suck the blood out of livestock.

Last month, a Texas teenager claimed to shoot and kill a chupacabra. Results have not yet been announced from hair and skin samples taken of the animal.

Most wildlife experts believe the weird-looking animals are coyotes afflicted with mange, caused by an infection of tiny parasites that results in their hair falling out and leaving them with shriveled skin.

The body of the Minnesota chupacabra suspect has been frozen at the Glenwood DNR office and officials may soon do a DNA test to hopefully identify the mysterious roadkill.


i'm sure, by now, that you all know what my reaction to this is--WOW! AWESOME!! COOL!
(just, why, whenever you don't know what something is, you call it a chupacabra...? be creative! make up your own name for it! or better yet, call in the top cryptozoologist, loren coleman, to name it for you and do it right! a chupacabra looks like this...



...until you see this, don't call me. it's not a chupacabra.)


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

when craig and i were fortunate enough to be invited as guests to the mid-ohio comic con last fall, i was also fortunate enough to meet a very nice guy named steve gatrost. quiet at first, steve and i soon struck up a conversation about, well, everything!...and eventually i got out of him that he was, in fact, an artist and one with some pretty unique experience. steve is a professional tattoo artist and freelance illustrator and has designed countless tattoos for a very discriminating clientele! (if you're gonna have a work of art on your body for the rest of your life, you want to make sure it's exactly what you want!) steve caters to these people and has earned quite a reputation in those circles.

fortunately for us, steve is a perhapanauts fan as well! and though it's taken him a while to find some time to get to it, he was kind enough to send me this awesome molly a week ago and i couldn't wait to share it with you all!



steve also tells me that he has an idea for a tales from the perhaps story so we might see yet another side of steve in the upcoming months.

thanks, steve~! for your time and talent!

you can check out more of steve's cool stuff at;

http://forestgiant.com/blog

http://www.stevegatrost.com/

okay--gotta get to work!
smell ya later!
todd

all our talented friends~!

okay...

first of all, part three of scott weinstein's "We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Programming..." is now up at TALES FROM THE PERHAPS (se link above)!! this installment is a real game-changer--or maybe i should say, channel changer--as scott serves up his own brilliantly-twisted--or maybe that should be twistedly-brilliant--take on the haps!
or maybe that should be takes...
either way, get on over to the TALES page and see for yourself!


next, it might be shark week on the discovery channel, but i feel like it's been 'get in touch with your family week' here at perhapanauts central. scott's been banging out his Tales story and recruited all of our friends--kelly yates, leanne hannah, rich woodall, and jason copland--to give him a hand! craig, rich, and our overseas correspondent, eric henson, have been turning in pages at a pretty regular rate for the forthcoming perhapanauts australian adventure: danger down under! matt and christian are hard at work finishing up the last pages of their two-part back-up that will appear in said miniseries! and lauren monardo has finally--and graciously--been able to find some time in between working too many jobs and making wedding plans--she an tim are getting married next month!!--to finish up her hilarious 8-page story that will appear in our first new issue!!
so along with the fact that craig and i are also hard at work on the very first, very cool perhapanauts motion comic, things are buzzing around here!
which is why it was cool the other day when leanne 'e'd me this awesome sketch from her own sketchbook sending me a shot of her favorite character in her favorite costume as a subtle hint/reminder that we need to get to work on the Tales story i promised her years ago!


karl as the sensational MOTHMAN!

okay, leanne--i'll get right on it!

(oh, and i also owe gino a script-! damn!)
(and cat...)
crap. can anyone sell me and extra summer...?

well, apparently, i gotta get to work.
be here monday for the announcement of our next perhapanauts halloween holiday challenge!
smell ya later~!
todd

choopie by jennifer bennett at handmade stuffs~!

okay...

well, guess who showed up at my house the other day...?

while at heroescon last month, i was fortunate enough to have a chance to get up and walk around a time or two and check out the other booths and tables, and even fortunater to meet the severely talented jennifer bennett of handmade stuffs, her own little cottage industry from right there in charlotte. honestly, jennifer couldn't have looked cuter, sitting at her table surrounded by her colorful creations, a plethora of plushes representing just about any comic book character you could imagine!! no, really!! no, i won't shut the front door--you go over and check out her stuff NOW!!! now!
look, if you've ever not listened to me when i've told you to go check something out and you think that i'm kidding, i'm not! go now!

http://plush.handmadestuffs.com/


right...?
so i, of course, struck up a conversation, forced a copy of the perhapanauts in her dainty little hand, and placed an order for our one and only choopie. smiling radiantly, jennifer took a look and told me that she had taken a lot of commissions at the show and so it would take about a month or so and that she'd let me know when he was ready.

he arrived last week.






(as some of you may know, a couple years ago craig and i had looked into possibly having choopie dolls made...to no avail.) it's so cool to have this beautifully done version and to show off jennifer's amazing talent! and to also let you know that her commission list is once again open!!



as is most cats way, kayla was un-impressed when initially introduced to choopie...







but has made sure to rub her chin on him every time she passes by--when we're not looking, of course...


thank you, jennifer--he is amazing!
and so are you!



really--go check out jennifer's site and see if she's already made your favorite character!





be here friday for part 3 of scott's Tales From The Perhaps~!
smell ya later~!
todd

in no particular order...

okay...

dunno if you read craig's blog or not...if you don't, you should...but over there craig has recently announced his involvement in the pan mass challenge, a bike marathon across the great state of massachusetts to benefit the jimmy fund and the dana farber cancer institute.
being the caring and generous guy that he is, craig decided to sweeten the deal--not that it's not rewarding enough to simply donate to such a worthy cause--by offering some exclusive artwork as a bonus for your thoughtful donation.

for a donation towards craig's ride--which will be held this coming weekend--of $25 or more, you can get yourself a copy of this choop-tastic print (still in production, natch--)!!


craig has other incentives over on his blog -- http://blog.craigrousseau.com/ --so head on over and check it!


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

from the far north...

traveling about at the tops of all of my favorite states, my pal kojee will often send me pics and souvenirs that speak to our shared love of all things paranormal. or anything that might have anything to do with tellos. or the perhapanauts. or things more personal.

this is one of those. seeing the ad with the name jake in it and featuring what can only be a jack russell terrier, jared said he just had to go there and snap this pic of a shop up in lake placid that is packed with dog treats and stuff like that! i dig it the most!



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

NICK CARDY ALERT!



if you're like me--and who isn't...?--then you cannot get enough when it comes to clever, competent writers interviewing comics legends about their times in the trenches, both figuratively and world war two-ically. in this case the interviewer is bryan stroud over on on the silver age sagepage and the legend is our own nick cardy!!
if you've got some time, go over and check it out! though i've heard most of nick's stories at least 9 times each by now, bryan manages to get nick to tell some stories that i've only heard tell two or three times! it's a treat!

http://www.wtv-zone.com/silverager/CSHTML/sas.shtml


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

if you haven't already, go to our Tales From The Perhaps page and check out what scott weinstein's been cookin'--!

and be here wednesday to see what showed up at my house...

smell ya later~!
todd