HALLOWEEN Treats~!

okay...

well, since i spoke with you last, the northeast was socked by a big, early, and somewhat unexpected snowstorm that, aside from knocking out power in many homes, schools, and businesses, has managed to interfere with many halloween parties, plans, and especially the trick and/or treating. it also got in the way of sharon and i making it to veronica's halloween party--sorry, v.!!--but now we have costumes for next year! it didn't get in the way of the albany comic con yesterday though which, was, despite the snow, a huge success! great to see everyone and thanks so much for coming out!

so, what would you like for halloween...?
oh, zombies, you say?
well, i can do that.
or rather, my good friend, the prolific and proficient writer/artist/inker triple-threat karl kesel can...

run--don't walk--right over to www.madgeniuscomics.com where karl has just launched his all-new webcomic, JOHNNY ZOMBIE!! karls' been working on this for months now and i've been chomping at the bit for it to finally get here so i could tell you about it! go get some--it's great!







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in my search on the web for more creepy old halloween photos, i came across this one which is supposed to be a group of young bunnies. to me, though, they look more like a pack of mole men or martians from some low-budget fifties sci-fi flick...or the kelly goblins that menaced the kelly family at their backwoods tennessee home back in 1955...



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dunno if you know it or not, but our two new perhapanauts t's are now available in the perhapanauts store!
available in most adult sizes, arisa and karl are the two latest--but not last--additions to the line!
here's a shot of what each of them look like--as well as a picture of my lovely niece, jordyn sorta modeling hers via her cell from college...
(cell phone i mean--not that she's in a cell at college...)









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and here's a pic that lauren monardo sent to me of a cat doin' some karate on a dog--hai-YA!




hope you all have a HAPPY--
and SPOOKY!!!--HALLOWEEN!!
smell ya later!
todd

happy halloween~!

okay...



we've got quite a weekend planned here for halloween--sharon and i are going to a halloween costume party at my friend veronica's on saturday night and then the albany comic con on sunday! i'd invite y'all to the halloween party, but it's not my place (and i don't think her place is that big~~!) but i can and will invite you to come by the comic con on sunday and say hey. there's sure to be an extra helping of cool costumes and, i'm told, even some candy!

in my own attempt to get into the halloween spirit these past two weeks, i've been immersing myself in all sorts of horror; movies, tv shows, books, audiobooks...
movies--i told you that matt sent me a collection of great hammer horror--the curse of frankenstein, frankenstein must be destroyed, horror of dracula, dracula has risen from the grave, taste the blood of dracula, and the mummy
tv--sharon and i are loving the new season of the walking dead and have been watching the first season of fringe which definitely has it's horrific moments...plus, amc is running all the great stuff ...
books--i just busted out bruce jones' twisted tales short story collection. not to be confused with his awesome horror anthology from pacific comics back in the 80s, bruce also put out a very limited printing of this book that has a handful of great treasures in prose. fun stuff! also reading another paperback i'd saved from the 80s, phantom by thomas tessier. i don't remember what it's about, but i hung onto it, so it musta been good...right?
audiobooks--i listened to the first book of the strain trilogy on my ipod, then the original frankenstein (i thought i'd read it years ago, but nope. very different than what we think the story is and i highly recommend you read it or listen to it. it's great!) and have just started listening to the audio version of brian keene's ghoul--matt i think you're gonna dig this the most!!

so that's what i've been doing--how 'bout you?
are you ready for monday?

to get you in the mood, i scanned the net for some creepy halloween pictures and focused more on old creepy costumes--
i hope they creep the hell out of you...















that's it from me!
have a great weekend!
boo!
smell ya later!
todd

happy birthday, joe and ramona~!

okay...

for those of you that are friends with walter or louise simonson on facebook, you may have already seen and heard that the infamous sinnott 17 gathered the other day to chat and eat and mostly to celebrate the 85 birthdays this month of both joltin' joe sinnot and the wonderful ramona fradon!
as usual, the meeting was called by our leader, terry austin, and held at our secret diner headquarters--then back to terry's for cake and ice cream and lots and lots of stories! ( it's days like this that make me go home and thank God for the lucky, lucky life i've led...)
several of our usuals weren't able to make it; fred and lynne hembeck, herbe trimpe and my pal jim starlin were sadly absent--but we were joined on this special occasion by legendary inker, tom palmer, and the incomparable john byrne!

i need to sit down and have a talk with my camera because, though i took quite a few pictures, not too many of them came out (blurry or dark). i thought that this digital camera was s'posed to be idiot-proof--but i guess i the idiot to prove that wrong...

anyway, here's one walter took (so, sadly, he's not in it) with louise's camera that came out pretty good!



mark sinnott, dan green, tom palmer, joe staton, hilarie staton, ramona fradon, me, weezie simonson, ron marz, joe sinnott, john byrne, terry austin

mostly, i got a few good pictures of a few great couples...
here are weezie and walter simonson with inking legend dan green...


hilarie and joe staton with inking legend, joe sinnott...


...and easily the greatest art team in comics, terry and john~!



it was a wonderful day to celebrate two wonderful people and, though i might have to check this with john, i don't think i fanboyed out even once...!

happy birthday, ramona and joe!

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now for something a little more halloween-y...

ernie sent me this little youtube freakout so that you now have something else to worry about when you're out camping...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEZNcLNGMZE&feature=share

thanks ernie!
wait...!! what's ON me...?!?!?

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some great captions/dialogues for eric's haps halloween cartoon the other day.
thanks to everyone who took the time and added something of their own~!


i gotta go and get some work done--but before i do, i should let you all know that ron marz, joe sinnott, fred hembeck, matthew dow smith, and myself--among many others--will be appearing at the one day only, ALBANY COMIC CON this sunday at the holiday inn on wolf road in albany! if you're in the area, come on by! it's a fun day and a fun way to get your halloween costume on!



see ya there!
and smell ya later!
todd

eric's halloween query~

okay...

man, i feel so remiss in my duties...
here it is halloween week and i've done nothing to add to the spirit of the season (of the witch...)

so eric 'e'd me the other day to share with me his warm-up drawing of choopie before embarking on the next page of this perhapanauts story (featured in our upcoming miniseries!). eric was considering what costume choopie might pick as his halloween costume this year and went with cap, threw in molly as thor, and offered that maybe a member of our perhapa-family could provide a cool caption for the scene...
so...whaddaya think...?



i, of course, LOVE this sketch! thanks, eric--great idea!

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this, of course, made me wonder, what do YOU think choopie would dress as for halloween? suggestions? maybe a quick sketch from you artists out there...? it IS halloween week--let's get this party started!!

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so, the other day, my pal, terry austin, forwarded me a series of pictures featuring encounters with animals that just didn't work out. here are a couple i thought were kinda funny and wanted to share...


"no, it just feels like one of the tires is low and i want to–holy crap!!"



"this monkey's gonna play whack-a-guy"



i love the look on this guy's face as his luggage is strewn across the pavement...!



"skippy vs paparazzi-"
i'm rooting for the kangaroo



that's it for now~!
send in you costume captions--or costume sketches!
and have a great monday!
smell ya later!
todd

NYCC costumes~!

okay...

my crazy, awesome whirlwind of a weekend went like this;

friday--
drove out to craig's listening to the last couple discs of guillermo del torro and chuck hogan's the strain
spent the afternoon playing hide and go squaddies with johnny and cat
we all had dinner
craig, his brother mark and i go to see weird al yankovic in new bedford
AL!
ROCKED!
THE!
HOUSE!
if you've never gone to see a weird al show, do.
craig and mark had been a number of times, but this was my first and it was definitely not my last!
man, that guy--and his incredibly fun and talented band--put on a show like you wouldn't believe!
my birthday present from craig. thanks, brother--one of the absolute greatest presents ever!

saturday--
c. and i drive to nyc for the comic con.
got there around 11-11:30, hit artists alley, saw some friends. it was nice being out on this side of the table, wandering around and free. hooked up with my comic book soul mate, bill, simply by trying to 'feel' him in the crowd. it always works.
went to lunch at...wait for it...VIRGIL'S --easily the best barbeque place on the east coast! had a few beers. back to the show.
dinner with disney--craig had done some work on disney's new line of marvel kids books and they were nice enough to invite me along. like i was his date...
since we were in town, scott invited craig and i to come and watch snl in the writer's room--which was awesome! our pal robert kirkman was there and we invited him in to sit in the good seats...
drinks after the show with scott and jeremy and kelly dale.

sunday--
breakfast at a very nice diner with a very nice--and funny--waitress.
craig had a disney/marvel press panel at 12, where they announced the new line of awesome superhero childrern's books, and then a signing at the disney booth at 2.
i met up with scott, gino (pati), and kevin (conn) and we got craig and went to lunch. nice place, great company!
we all said goodbye and headed our separate ways. got home in time to watch the walking dead with sharon and wasn't that freakin' awesome?!?! what an excellent premiere episode. i wish i'd seen it before i saw robert just to tell him how great i thought it was! eh, now he'll never know...

okay, you've put up with my babbling long enough...
here are the costumes...


an awesome aquaman and mera!




sweet christmas~! this guy was the perfect luke cage!
and really tall! great power, man!




plastic man and friends
(that's me being lazy and not wanting to look up a check the others' names...)




red sonja~!
i know.




a couple of lovely star trek girls~!




this young man told me that he was shark-man~!
a costume he made and designed himself featuring a batman costume with the bat covered up by a shark, a fin instead of a cape, very cool homemade goggles, and aluminum foil pants!

you GO, shark-man!


have a great weekend!
smell ya later!
todd

geoff shaw's BIG~!

okay...

OH, MAN~!!!
do i have something cool to show you today!!!

some of you may remember how, back in june while we were in charlotte at the annual comics love-fest that is HEROESCON, craig, matt, nick and i were honored to be seated directly across the aisle from SCAD--the savannah college of art and design--the same SCAD that is home to the RINGO Scholarship that matt and suzanne wieringo so lovingly began in memory of mike. while there, craig and i got to meet two really nice guys who also happened to be two really great artists. (yes, i'm sure there were many other talented young artists there, but we didn't get a chance to meet them...)

of those two, geoff shaw was positioned sort of away from me and i had to keep stealing glances when the crowd around their tables would thin out and duck and bob my head a little bit to see what everyone was 'ooo-ing' and ahhh-ing' about. turns out, it was geoff's awesome bust of one of the characters from thundercats (whose name escapes me now...). i stole over there with my camera and copped a couple shots. it was truly impressive.








...so impressive that i asked if i could commission geoff to sculpt a statue of one of our characters, perhaps one of the bigger, more massively built, spiritual yet uniquely expressive members of our little family...? he was thrilled to have the chance and took home the reference i gave him and got to work...

this past sunday night, as i staggered into the house after my long and fun-filled weekend with craig (more on that on friday--) sharon pointed to the crate that she had had to wrestle into the house on her own when they delivered it saturday morning and handed me a screwdriver to unveil it's contents.

here then, is the BIG sculpt by sculptor and upcoming dc artist
(and hopefully some future perhapanauts as well...)

GEOFF SHAW!























geoff did a phenomenal job--i can't begin to tell you how cool it is to see your own character brought to life in 3d!! and the textures that geoff was able to include--big's tufted hair, his ridged nose, the sweeping, runnelled upper lip--and that expression, both inquisitive and humorous all at the same time--priceless!

geoff also included a showcase with the bust and, though i am still not certain where in the house is the best place for me to display this awesome work of art, i will be trying to bring it to some of the shows that i can drive to so that you can get a look at it up close and in person.
it is magnificent!







so thank you so much, geoff shaw~!
for your talent and your friendship and for making this BIG thing happen~!

okay, everybody--see you here friday for details of my crazy weekend at craig's and the new york comic con~!
including costumes!!!
smell ya later~!
todd

a better perhapa-blog~

okay...

one of my new challenges to myself is to get the perhapablog schedule in order, trying to get things back to the three times a week posting that we all remember fondly from days gone by. one of the problems, i think, is that i sometimes over think it, that somewhere along the way i convinced myself that any new post needed to cover several different topics, include a series of photos, and somehow contain , buried away in some obscure phrase or paragraph, the secret of life.

it doesn't.

an entry can be a sentence long. a word. a picture or a cartoon.
it can be as simple as that.

so i need to simplify my expectations for each new perhapa-post and i hope that you will be patient with me as i try to get this thing going again. there are days, i know too, that i've felt i have nothing to offer here, nothing of any interest that i could or would share with everybody. with that in mind, i am asking, along with that patience, for your input. i get great links and jpgs from many of you already and i thank you for it, but i am very open to any of YOU that want to share something cool or creepy or funny with us, to send it in. or if you'd like to write a guest blog of your own--the door is WIIIIIIIDE open~!

after the weekend i just had, i now have LOTS to share and you'll see more of that here on wednesday and friday...
but another challenge i have before me includes you in a big way--it;'s already october 17th and i have been so asleep at the switch...! HALLOWEEN is 2 weeks away, gang!! where did the time go?!?! we gotta get on this!!
just this morning, matt was telling me that it was creeping up on him and he just wasn't getting that halloween vibe. he's watched some horror movies, read some horror stories...and it's just not happening yet. so for his sake--and ours--let's get this party started huh? i need scary photos, scary stories, you modeling your halloween costumes--whatcha gonna be?--and ANYTHING that might get matt in the spirit! tell me the story of the scariest thing you ever saw/heard/read, the scariest thing that ever happened to you, the scariest movie (in your opinion) EVER MADE!!
c'mon! let's DO this thing!


to start things out a little here, here's a photo that our pal, ernie cooper took of his and megan's new cat...ummm, what did you name here, ernie? anyway, could be a trick of the flash...or was it?!



"It was actually rather eerie. We tried to pick up a free cat but the owner called Megan and said he couldn't part with the little furball. A few days later this other little gal shows up on our doorstep at 3 AM, mewling sadly. She had me take that pic while we were getting accustomed to the house, and she asked, "Did you get it? Is she cute?" And I was all, "Um, sure....Cute in a terrifying kind of way."

that's it for now~
thanks for reading--and your help~
smell ya later~!
todd

the good and the sad...

okay...

as you may have guessed by now, we're taking a few weeks off between stories over on our Tales From The Perhaps page so that we can dots the 'T's and cross the 'I's (and finish lettering and coloring, etc...) on our upcoming installments. we have several really cool stories in the works and should have another great tale up starting next week! stay tuned to this blog for further notice!!!
and, as always, if YOU'RE interested in doing a tales from the perhaps story of your own--if you're a write with a story or an artist eager to draw one--please don't hesitate to get one going! or let me know so that i can put the two of you together! we'd love to see what you do!

i'm not one for excuses and hope that this doesn't sound like one. i apologize for the erratic schedule i've been keeping here on the blog, but i have had a handful of distractions in my life lately that seem to have changed my morning routine and made getting the blog out on it's usual mon-wed-fri schedule a challenge. things appear to be settling down now, but thank you for your patience and understanding.


the subject of this post says "the good and the sad..." which i got a little of both. but i'm the type that likes to get the sad (or the bad) over with first and try to focus on the good parts...so here we go...

one of the sad things that happened around here is that, a few weeks ago, we had to have sharon's wonderful little cat, kayla, put to sleep. back in late may, during her regularly scheduled check-up, kayla's doctor found a small lump on kayla's left shoulder. a biopsy showed that it was malignant and over the course of the summer we watched the lump grow, desperately chasing after every and any possibility that might prolong her life. but, sadly, the time came, after the cancer started to take hold, that we had to say goodbye.
kayla had been my erstwhile companion here at the house on these quiet days, had let me into her life when sharon and she moved in several years ago, and had comforted me when we lost jake. matt and suzanne will tell you that she made me a caat person and somewhere mike is laughing his ass off about that.
to say that i miss her terribly is only half of what sharon is feeling.



sleep well, our sweet little girl.

okay, onto the good...

as stated before, craig and i will be attending the NEW YORK COMIC CON in some capacity or other. we won't have a table, but we will be wandering around, so if you see us, say hi!! : )
craig has a panel or two with the marvel press/disney people that he's been doing some work for, so that oughta be exciting! i don't know when it is--check your programs!


last week happened to be my birthday (and thank you to all of you who sent birthday wishes on my facebook page...) and i got so beaucoup cool gifts--matt hooked me up with some killer horror movies (trick or treat and an awesome hammer horror collection!!) to get me in the halloween spirit (thanks, bro~!). i also got a nice tellos birthday pin-up by my pal (and partner on the new tellos motion comic we're working on) leonel castellani, that i couldn't wait to share with ya'll!





and here are a couple of cool pictures i had hanging around on my desk top...

i can't make this work...





cool.





the stain of admiral akbar





sorry for the cursing...
...but that's kinda funny.

that's it for me.
have a great weekend! smell ya later!
todd

great gets at the detroit comic con~!

okay...

while the detroit comic con was somewhat slow--a victim of the perfect storm of unforeseen obstacles--it did give me a chance to get out and meet a lot of other writers and artists and explore the landscape of wonderful independent and self-published comics!
since swearing off, a few years ago, of any comics that were part of any crossovers and/or company-wide events--and thereby eliminating everything from marvel and dc, i've been on a quest to find comics that i could enjoy again, comics that entertained me and didn't make me wait six months for a story that could be told in two. solid fun adventures that resolved themselves in one or two (or three) issues and left me with a satisfied feeling when it was through.

FUN comics!

and so i was delighted to find these gems in detroit and even more excited to get to mete the people behind them! here's a few...


one of my favorites at the show and one of the books nominated for an award i was presenting at the shel dorf awards.
rob worley and jason kruse's scratch 9 is simply a lot of fun! scratch is a cat who can access any one of his 9 lives when he's in danger--you should check it out!




not 1, but 2 cute...! apooka is--as the title suggests--the world's most adorable zombie! the story(ies--there are three books out now...) by jon hickey are delightful and mike roll's illustrations are enchanting! great stories for your little zombie!



i was sitting next to ethan nicole throughout the show and was mesmerized by the covers of his two trades featuring axe cop! what the hell is axe cop, i said. just pure imagination and fun, it turns out! ethan explained to me that axe cop was the product of his and his seven year old nephew, malachai's, crazy playful storytelling games about a badass cop who wields an axe! malachai says "and then he does this...!" and ethan draws it. well, maybe ethan molds it into a little bit more of a story, but you get the tidea! axe cop is full of pure imaginative "and then"s and well worth your time.





and speaking of pure kid-powered imagination, jason howard (of wolfman fame) was kind enough to trade trades of his and robert kirkman's new book, super dinosaur about a dinosaur with super power and super armor and some of the coolest friends around! this stuff has to be robert and jason tapping into those old days of playing with action figures and toy dinosaurs in the backyard or on the playroom floor! flat out prehistoric fun!




and finally, ramona and i were lucky enough to sit with a young writer/artist named ted woods at the shel dorf awards and it was even nicer to get a chance to look at some of ted's work, one story featured in the anthology science! and the others in a self-published book (that i wasn't able to scan) the book of love. great stuff and it's always nice to see talented people exploring and using the art form of comics to express themselves and tell some compelling stories.





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did i mention that i just finished listening to the audio version of ernest cline's ready player one and that you should really, really check it out...?
i did.
and you should.



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finally--after last week's revelation that nicolas cage was not only immortal but a photographable vampire, it was inevitable that his face/off co-star was not to be left out when this 'photo' of an alleged john travolta was discovered along with the claim that this too is proof--that he is, in fact, a time-traveller!!! (i like how they abandoned the vampire thing once people pointed out their mistake...)



fun stuff...

...although this will always be my favorite time-traveller...




gotta go~!
smell ya later~!
todd