scary movies

okay...

what's the scariest movie ever?

what's YOUR scariest movie?

when i was a little kid, i was afraid of scary movies. they gave me nightmares...and DAYmares! maybe it's 'cause my imagination was set on 'high' but, man, i would SEE things! shadows shifting, shapes moving, tricks of the light...tricks of the dark.

so i became kind of a wuss about scary movies. my brother will tell you the story of how i was even scared of "attack of the 50 foot woman" but i think that was more of the terrifying hype our babysitter, debbie reismeuller, gave it. (i made her pay for that that night, i can tell ya...)

so as a kid i could watch monster movies; king king, godzilla, and even the blob (although i think the blob gave me a couple nightmares too...). but even the tame stuff SUGGESTED too much for my imagination to play with later on.
i stayed away.

jump to 1979 and i'm a senior in high school. and getting out with my friends and partyin' and havin' a great time and we'd go see ANYTHING at the movies just to get outta the house. by now, i've gotten more of a handle on my imagination and not scaring myself anymore (well, not as often...). and, a huge comic book freak, i also dig science fiction. and i hear that there's this movie coming out called 'alien'. and it sounds great. and i tell all my friends. and soon it's the movie that 'todd says we GOTTA see." so now i'm associated with it, invariably linked to it for all eternity.
and i hope it doesn't suck.




and it doesn't.

and it's not JUST a science fiction movie. it's one of the most suspenseful, scariest movies EVER!


(now i'm not just the funny guy or the comic book guy or the will-do-anything-for-a-laugh guy--i'm also the guy who knows scary.)

a year later, i'm in college and dating my first real girlfriend, karen, and we're looking for any excuse to get out. we go to the movies a lot, but i hear about this new movie coming out called "friday the 13th"; it's s'posed to be good. and though "halloween" had come out a couple years before, and "phantasm" and "texas chainsaw massacre" showed up shortly after that, it was jason and his hockey mask (or rather, jason's mom and her hockey mask) that started that wild, 80's, slasher/stalker/splatter gore-fest for me. karen and i went to see ALL of them and though i soon had to start wearing extra shirts to keep her from leaving her nailprints in my arm, we jumped and winced and screamed (she screamed, i didn't scream) through hundreds of horror flicks, both good and bad. when karen and i broke up, it was my roommate, dennis who became my new horror movie partner.
we saw everything.




fascinated with the make-up and special effects, i started reading fangoria religiously.

some movies were great, most were good (for what they were; low budget b-grade horror flicks), some were god-awful.

but there were some--a handful or so--that were too much. the really gory ones that made you worry about what you had for dinner. the ones that made you realize that the little voice inside your head was quietly repeating, "don't show that, don't show that, don't show that, don't..."
zombies feasting on the guts of a not-yet-dead guy in "dawn of the dead".
karen and i watched most of "mother's day" through our fingers, i kept asking her if she wanted to go. i think we changed our seats twice with that in mind.
dennis and i saw "mausoleum" and both later agreed that the scene where the woman pukes up most of her internal organs was a little much.


the one's that got me the most however, were the scenes of what i call "helpless horror"--where the imminent victim is somehow trapped and just waiting for the horror to happen. the original "prophesy" (not the angelic christopher walken one--the monster one from the 80's) has a scene like that where an injured member of the group is strapped to the top of a jeep to be transported to a hospital. when the monster knocks the jeep over, everyone gets free...'cept the poor guy tied to the roof! he's a goat staked out for sacrifice! the rest of the movie might not be that much, but they build that scene so well.

but my personal all time worst is called "horror planet", a british import that went by another name over there. an 'alien'-spawned space flick, the crew on this distant space station are mining some precious stone in the mega-sub-zero caves/ cataacombs beneath the surface. they hafta wear heat infused spacesuits or they'll freeze instantly and they use these quantum-laser devices that look like electric hedge-clippers to cut through the rock. of course, their activity and heat in the bowles of these mines awakens a swift, ravenous monster that is leaving big bloody hunks of it's victims all around the caves. so there's like 5 of 'em left, they're out in the tunnels, they get the alert that the monster is coming, and in the rush to get to the air-lock, the captain gets her boot caught between a rock and the tracks they've laid for their mining cars. she is literally, like, 15 feet from the air-lock. the others are inside but the outer door gets stuck open, so they can't get out to help her. they can watch her though. trapped! helpless horror! the monster is coming! she is panicking! her foot is stuck! all she has is the hedge-clipper thing to defend herself...

or...

but if she destroys the integrity of the suit, she'll freeze within 30 seconds!
but the door is only 15 feet away!
(or five one-legged hops...)
as the others watch (and scream silently for her NOT to do it)
she opens her face mask, jams the heat/air tube into her mouth and begins to saw away at her own trapped leg...

dennis tells me that i kept saying "no no no no no no no no" during that scene.

so, that's me. that's my horror trigger.

but that's mostly gore horror, slasher horror, the visceral stuff.
we really didn't mention the suspense horror, the building terror, the slow-burn stuff.
"the exorcist", "the omen", "the sixth sense".



sorry, i've gone on waaaaay too long.

two years ago, bravo made a list of the 100 scariest movies.

let's make our own list.
what are yours?

later--
todd

perhapanauts:second chances #3--cover

and, of course, i told you all that

to show you this...






enjoy!
todd

the dover demon

okay...

i am a total fanboy. always have been. i am starstruck when i meet favorite actors, bands, writers, etc...
years ago i met and got a chance to hang out with kurt russell (incredibly nice guy). i have an autographed photo from tina fey and amy poehler that i cherish (thanks scott!). and as a "professional" (whatever that means) comic book writer for the past 12 years, i've been able to meet, work with, and drink with, some of my absolute favorite writers, pencillers, inkers, letterers, colorists, and editors. maybe it's the 'fame' thing, but i think it's got more to do with thanking the people who've entertained or inspired me over the years and throughout my life. whichever...

two posts back i gave the cliffs notes version of the story of my favorite cryptid, the dover demon, gleaned from the various accounts i've read in books and interviews over the past couple years. i'm a writer by trade and we are known/allowed/expected to take a little creative license, prose it up here and there to make it more of a story, build the suspense. that's what we do. we try to set the mood and the stage for events to play out the way we imagine them. i projected what i thought people were thinking or feeling as the story unravelled. i always do my best to make sure that the facts are accurate and that i haven't misrepresented anything--or anyone--along the way. (as with anything, but especially in regards to these tales of the unknown and the unexplained, sources are sometimes less than reliable.)

but how thrilled was i when i got an e-mail from none other than loren coleman himself, the foremost cryptozoologist in the country (if not the world) and the guy who christened the little critter "the dover demon" in the first place!

i had corresponded with mr. coleman briefly back in the fall to request information on his cryptid museum and hopefully make some arrangments to visit it. we had a nice back and forth of e-mails and he told me that much of the museum is currently on loan to bates college (see loren's website for more information on times and directions. www.lorencoleman.com), and so i decided to try to get to see it there.

but while loren says that i got most of the story of the dover demon right, he pointed out that i was inaccurate in saying that mothman prophecies author john keel was part of the original investigation. (though i knew i had read that somewhere and was pulling my hair out trying to track it down--only to find that, when i did, it really WASN"T the most reliable of sources...)
it was mr. coleman and a few other local investigators who first checked the stories out and, as i said, loren who gave the entity it's name.

my apologies, and thanks to loren for pointing this out.

if you want even more of the dover demon, check out loren's book, "mysterious america".

all that said, i wanted not only to give you the background on the creature, tell the tale and show you the original drawings, but then show you craig's take on it, 'cause you know...



...he's on his way...


more later~
todd

put it on my bill...

okay...

as becky was so kind to report (in the 'comments' a few posts back), they opened up that duck and found only grain in it's little duck belly. no alien.

she and i scoffed, "cover up."

now i see that the duck itself went for close to $10,000 dollars on ebay the other day. the animal hosptial, which thought that they might be able to raise a couple hundred bucks to help out at the clinic, were stunned by how high the bidding went. me too, but i'm a big animal lover so if you look at it as a donation, that's a pretty nice contribution.

apparently the duck came in with a broken wing, hence the alien revealing x-ray. they later related that the duck later died as a result of it's injuries.

the doctors who performed the inevitable autopsy did add that they were a bit tentative when they made their first incision, images of john hurt spasming on the nostromo's dinner table running through their minds. to me, it's nice to know that they didn't dismiss the possibility of something...unknown.

because it's the way i'm wired--i want to believe and i'm always making up stories--conspiracy theories are racing around in my head. there WAS something in there but the goverment seized it. no, wait, BEDLAM seized it! the agency's men in black showed up, took the carcas and 'told' everyone to forget what they saw. they replaced it with another duck that looks exactly- but, wait! the x-ray would prove that they're two different ducks. one of the young vets in the animal clinic notices the slightest difference and x-rays the new duck, the wing on this new bird showing a different kind of break! and because her fiance is a hypnotherapist, she undergoes regression therapy to remember what the men in black made her forget--that there WAS something in the duck, something that the men in black excised while still there at the clinic, a small worm-like alien, still alive and pissed, angry that it's terran hosts--my GOD! they were in league with this alien!!?--would allow it to be ingested like that...by a DUCK!?!? but the vet doesn't trust her memories and needs more proof. she and her boyfriend start their own investigation, heading first to the home of the crazy people who paid $10,000 bucks for a duck full of grain (when there's this really nice place i know of not far away where you can get a delicious "canard l'orange" for just $18.95...) the new duck owner scoffs at her, unwilling to let her touch the bird, but maybe also not willing to entertain the fact that she just might be right. they argue but it all soon comes to an end when two sleek black 1966 lincoln continentals pull up out front and eight men in black emerge heading ominously for house. now he believes, doesn't he? now the three of them, plus the duck owners mildly rebellious teenage son are on the lam, desperately trying to get this faux fowl, this replacement mallard to some authority that will confirm that there is indeed a cover-up going on here, launching their own investigation, exposing an alien conspiracy, and clearing the name of the vet. but somehow, during the incredible chase scene that covers most of san francisco, the young vet gets caught and rendered unconscious. when she comes to she is tied to a chair under a single light in a very dark room. two voices discuss what she knows and what they should do about her. one fo the men in black steps out of the shadows and into the light, holding something in his hand. she defiantly tells them that they'll never get away with this, she'll talk, she'll tell. "but I won't." says the other voice and she has just enough time to register that the voice came from the squirming, wriggling thing in the man's gloved hand, as he forces her jaws and drops the slug-like alien into her open mouth...

man, i don't know what happens next--just a crazy thought...
sorry, got carried away there.

(would you believe i only planned on a short little entry today...? i gotta get to work!)

more tomorrow.
todd

april 21, 1977--dover, massachusetts

okay...

for some reason, this has been my favorite cryptid story for the past five or six years. yes, i'm an obsessive type and, yes, i was chupacabra crazy there for a while--from around '96 til 2002--and still am! but when i first read the accounts of this strange night...well, i've just been fascinated with this one ever since! maybe it's the fact that i grew up in the northeast/new england area myself. or that i woulda been just a few years younger than the people that this happened to. or that i've walked down my share of dark, tree-lined backroads, watching both shadows and branches moving and snapping, certain that one of them was moving closer, coming toward me...

so here's the story. i'm condensing it, of course, but if it hits you like it hit me and you wanna read more, there's a more detailed account over at

http://paranormal.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://members.aol.com/soccorro64/doverdemon.htm

late at night, about 10:30pm on april 21, 1977, three kids--teenagers--were driving home on a backroad, farm street, in dover, massachusetts. listening to music too loud, yelling to talk over the music, and who knows what else, they were having a good time. at some point, the driver, bill bartlett, 17, spotted something at the side of the road ahead climbing over a stone wall. not slowing down, and not a little stunned, bill kept driving rather than break up his buddies' conversation, his mind trying to process what he'd seen.
'cause he'd never seen anything like it before.

he pulled to the side of the road about a mile away and asked his friends if they'd seen it too. he described for them a small, pale creature with, seemingly, the body of a baby, with a large melon-shaped head and long prehensile fingers and toes--like a treefrogs. they hadn't and at first thought he was kidding until they really got a look at his face and saw that he was genuinely shaken. they drove back to check it out but what bill had seen was gone.
and his growing uneasiness was contagious.

about two hours later, 15 year old john baxter was walking home--in the dark--from his girlfriend's house on a road that runs sort of parallel to farm street, when he saw a figure walking toward him about 40 yards away. in the dark he couldn't make it out, but was fairly certain that it was a friend of his--or WANTED it to be--and so called out to him hoping for a friendly response. the figure just stopped. as john moved closer, the figure, now he could see that it was much smaller than he'd originally thought, turned and headed into the woods. john followed, thinking that maybe this was a little kid, or even...at one point, a monkey? (funny what your mind will try to convince you of when you don't have reference for something...else...) he even went into the woods after it, chasing it, for a few minutes--and then finally, he got spooked.
and was terrified all the rest of the way home.

the next night, a young couple, will taintor, 18, and abby brabham, 15, were driving home on springdale avenue when they spied the creature squatting next to a bridge railing, caught in the headlights, watching them as the car drove by. both were transfixed. a little farther up the road, will broke the trance when he asked abby if she'd seen that. she said yes and for him to lock the doors.

okay, so i'm thinkin' 6 teenagers, late at night, coming home from parties or whatever, gotta be a hoax, right? buncha friends, they're all in on it. but here's where the average reader needs to make the leap and, as i've said so often before--i WANT to believe--so i make it. (let me know if you do...)

so they go to school (the ones that still go to school) the next day and, though this is a small town and everybody knows everybody, they're not friends, they don't talk to each other, don't really know each other. (being from a small town myself, it's easy for me to buy this; you 'see' people everyday, but that doesn't mean you've ever talked with them or whatever.) of course, they're telling their friends about this weird thing they saw out on the farm road and, of course, each of them draws a sketch of what this bizarre creature looked like.
it's a cop who is investigating the strange reports who puts all the sketches--and eventually, the kids-- together and realizes that all the sketches are very very similar. in taking their statements, the authorities are careful not to let the kids have time to speak with each other and compare or corroborate stories. teachers and parents and whoever all give testimony that none of these kids are tricksters--good kids, a couple of 'em maybe a little wild at times, but they just don't have that in 'em. there are polygraph tests and investigations by cryptozoologists john keel (the mothman prophecies) and loren coleman, coleman dubbing the creature "the dover demon". when it all came together, other reports of strange sights and occurances along the creature's apparent "route" came in; dogs barking, possible (peripheral) sightings, etc.

next year will be the 30 year anniversary and they still have no idea what it was...

here are bill bartlett, john baxter, and abby brabham's sketches.









i want to believe.
let me know whatcha think...
more tomorrow--
todd

back to basics

okay...

i don't really have a lotta time to talk today...
my pal, scott weinstein, is comin' up from the city for a day or so--to hopefully write some funny, funny stuff--and the place is a mess. not that my place isn't ALWAYS a mess anyway, but the hot water heater blew up/blew out the other day, and though the guys replacing it did a helluva good and fast job of it, the floors need to be mopped and everything moved back to it's original place. y'know...?

anyway, i went on a couple of entries back about how craig has just been thrilling and inpsiring me with the new covers for the new series and, while i love 'em all, i gotta say that i think this one is my favorite! craig wanted it to be a little more active, more frenetic, and i talked him out of it, so blame me if it looks too quiet. but believe me, it's not! the events in THAT issue...well, you're just gonna hafta wait and see...!

also, craig did the colors for these covers and i think he did a kickass job on this! we don't mean to dis our rico, but sometimes an artist wants to take a project from the beginning to the end and that's what craig wanted to do this time with the covers. i think they look awesome!







well, i gotta go mop.
later--
todd

perhapanauts: second chances!!

okay...

here's whatcha need to know.

the perhapanauts trade paperback, which we have lovingly called 'first blood' (mostly 'cause a the blood, but also 'cause it's our first) due in stores in september, can be ordered right now through your favorite local comic shop or through the folks at amazon.com. it features all of the first four issues--masterfully retouched (or as we like to call it, 'george lucased'...) in a few places to reflect our original intentions where, originally, time would not allow, it also features 2 of our earlier pilot episodes, 'fiepick' and 'seven months earlier' (now presented in stunning rico-vison color) as well as secret files of all your favorite characters and cryptids...and even some you haven't even seen before!! and if you're a regular traveller to these boards, you've already seen the stellar line up of awesome pin-ups by some of the coolest artists in the industry today; kevin nowlan, guy davis, chris brunner, david antoine williams, matt talbot and rich woodall, and nick cardy!!

so that's that.

pick that up and you'll be all set for the ALL NEW dark horse miniseries coming in november; the perhapanauts: second chances! if you loved the first series, this series will make you hate it! no, wait...i mean because it's so GOOD! the new series is gonna totally blow you away! take my word for it--you won't regret it! there are things happening in this story that i can't even believe--and i made 'em up!! tell your friendly comic book guy that he should order one for you! and one for himself...!! and, like, 20 for the store!!

here's what you should be looking for!



only, y'know, with the logo and the dark horse on it and stuff...

(okay, i'm all pimped out. more fun stuff in a day or two.)

later~
todd

yeah...what?

okay...

i've spent most of the morning researching all of the various names that are used for bigfoot the world over (including the seemingly endless list of names that each and every northern american indian tribe has given him--and there are a LOT of them!) and was just getting ready to get to the real writing when i checked yahoo to see if tonight's LOST is the beginning of the reruns of the second season ('cause i came in late...my friend, sharon, gave me the first season for christmas and we watched it together and now i'm just dyin' to see what's in that hatch! that's how far outta the loop i am! i've been desperately avoiding articles and spoilers all season long and now i'm READY to get all caught up...)

anyway, i'm checking yahoo and i see this;

>This undated photo provided by the International Bird Rescue Research Center, shows an X-ray taken Sunday, May 21, 2006, of an injured duck with a broken wing. The International Bird Rescue Research Center in Cordelia. Calif., plans to raise funds with an unusual duck X-ray, which they say shows the clear image of what appears to be the face, or head, of an extraterrestrial alien in the bird's stomach. Unfortunately, the duck died quickly and quietly of its injuries. (AP Photo/International Bird Rescue Research Center, Marie Travers)<



yeah...

what?!?

that is just crazy freaky.

an alien in a duck?

of course, i'm sad that the duck died but now that he's dead, let's cut him open and take a look at the alien, huh?! that's what i wanna see! stop showing us x-rays and get to it!

also, do they start out by telling us that this is an undated photo and then telling us when it was taken...?

crazy.

(i bet we never see that alien.)

more tomorrow.
todd

back to the creepy stuff...

okay...

so for the past few weeks it seems i've been gushing over all the great guys who did pin-ups for us and i just can't tell ya what a rush it is for craig and me when we get to see other people's versions of our gang! we're still glowin' about them are still getting letters and 'e's from people telling us how cool they are!

this PAST week or so, however, the person who's been knockin' me out with some just AMAZING artwork is craig himself! as we finally get a chance to get rollin' on the second series, craig has been battin' out some AWESOME covers for the new series and though we are both very proud of the first series (as an introduction to the team and the concept), this new story turns everything up to 11! Story-wise, I'm STUNNED at what these characters are letting us put them through! (if the 'haps were to visit our reality tomorrow, i'm sure they'd come after us for the roller coaster ride that Second Chances has become...) and visually, well...craig's covers have left me speechless each and every one seemingly better than the last! how you doin' that, c?!

anyway, i'll be showin' 'em to ya over the next week or so--just gotta get the artist's approval before i do... : )

so that said, i wanna move onto one last thing...that i've always wanted this blog, this perhapablog, to be about YOU as much as it's about us and the comic. i wanted to reiterate that this could and should be more of an open forum for all of us than a place for me to babble on and on each week or so. in the past i've invited people to send in their scary tales and spooky stories of the paranormal or the unexplained. let me make sure that you know that this could also be a place to showcase some artwork as well--and it doesn't necessarily HAVE to be a pic of the perhapanauts (though we'd LOVE to see 'em!)! i have a young friend who was in a recent story structure and comics class with me and he promises that he's done his own perhapanauts strip that i can't wait to see (send it over, jj!) i'm looking for any kinda stories of weird, wild, unexplained stuff, so send it in and i'll put it up here!
i wanna be creeped out!

so that's my challange to you. stories you've heard, crazy stuff that's happened to you, to a friend, to a friend of a friend...

and here is a picture of my dog.



smell ya later!
todd

kevin nowlan

okay...

sorry for the delay, it was a looooong week.

but here we are.
needless to say, craig and i are hard at work on the next perhapanauts series (rico not so much, but we'll have stuff to him soon enough!) and we're almost 100% positively certain that it's gonna be tremendously better than the first one--and we were pretty happy with that! craig is batting out some amazing covers--they just keep getting better and better!--and i'm thrilled with the way these characters keep changing my story on me! they just keep asking for more!

okay, so, for those of you who didn't go over to craig's site last week and see the awesome job he did coloring kevin nowlan's pin-up, or to see the pin-up itself--well, you're a jerk. get over there! craig's site is waaaay cool!

but i felt a little gyped that i didn't get a chance to gush about what an amazing job kevin did and what a really nice guy he is.
i met kevin and his wife deann at a heroescon in charlotte about 4 or 5 years ago and was thrilled when i got to sit with them at dinner the first night there. we chatted and told stories and i did everything i could not to shift into drooling fanboy mode and i guess i did a pretty good job, 'cause when i 'e'd kevin to ask him if he'd do a pin-up for us, he didn't hang up. (yes, i know you can't hang up on an e-mail--i was just making a point.) anyway, he was kind enough to look at the books and then said that his schedule was loaded but that he would try to fit it in 'cause the book seemed fun.

well, he DID fit it in and all i can say is that craig and i were in jaw-dropping awe as first the sketch pencils came through and finally the inks and kevin made our own characters look new to us. i'd go on, but i'm realizing that the best way to show you is to show you...so here.







thank you, kevin! your perhapanauts have made these two fanboys very, very happy!

later~~
todd

guy's haps

okay...
sorry to make y'all wait so long--
i'd intended to post this saturday, but came down with a lousy cold and was busy just keeping myself upright and moving forward. better now.

and so where were we...? oh, yeah. craig posted kevin nowlan's beautiful perhapanauts piece over on his site--www.craigrousseau.com--we've come to the last of our pin-up parade.

and here it is, ladies, gentlemen, haps fans far and wide, i give you



guy davis!

i'm sure i don't have to read you guy's list of credits, but i'll tell you that i've loved his stuff since way back!
his run on sandman mystery theater alone would be enough as he masterfully brought 1930's new york to life in every issue, never skimping on detail or flavor, he sucked me into that world as no one else could! so too the klunky, wonky steam-punky world of the nevermen! his own marquis is an unsettling tale of dark deeds in darker times and his current work on the b.p.r.d. is what brings me back to that book month after month!
so i hope you can see that i'm a big guy davis fan!
but not as big a craig...
we actually fought over this, over who liked him more.
i said it was me and that was final...and then craig beat the snot outta me.
so craig's the bigger fan.
(y'happy now, ya big baby?)

anyway, craig and guy 'e' each other now and then and i've never even spoken to him, but thanks guy!
love whatcha did with our haps!

your #2 fan--
todd

ps. oh, and because i'm an ass i forgot to mention (in the first draft) that rico colored this bad boy!
sorry rico.

a guy thing

okay...

for those of you who don't know, craig has a blog of his own over at www.craigrousseau.com, and has posted the sweet kevin nowlan perhapanauts piece--colored masterfully by craig himself--over there! so head on over and check it out! and bookmark it while you're at it; craig's is a blog you should be checking out regularly anyway. he posts some pretty pictures over there and usually keeps everyone up-to-date with what he's doin'!

so with kevin's over at craig's and everyone here screaming for guy...

i'm gonna keep you in suspense and instead post this beautiful--and fun!--derek fridolfs pin-up!

what can i say about derek except that we owe him money...

a member of the tellos family from way back, derek has been so kind and patient and always ready to lend his beautiful inks to a bunch of the different tellos stories we did along the way. i say patient because derek--along with a handful of other friends (maybe they're not friends anymore...)--are on a list of people that mike and i owe money to that was promised us years ago by image. derek is one of those guys who LOVES comics, loves drawing, and loves to share his talents and experiences with kids and the community, doing programs and workshops on comics and drawing.

and so when we got the perhapanauts up and running, derek, out of nowhere, sent us this awesome pin-up! we loved it and wanted to include it in the trade, but had already promised those pages out to the other guys. so, as craig said, derek's will be the first in our second collection.

so we got that goin' for us.

it was colored by mark, but i don't know his last name.
derek?



next time: guy davis!

smell ya later!
todd

first blood

okay...

gotta be quick here 'cause i promised myself that i would just take a quick break from writing the insidious plot to the perhapanauts:second chances #1 to go on-line and check my 'e's. but here i am, throwin' down a blog and i really should be going...

anyway, a couple of things, not the least of which is that the first perhapanauts trade, first blood, is currently up on amazon dot com http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/159307607X/sr=1-1/qid=1147231110/ref=sr_1_1/002-0872853-1037600?%5Fencoding=UTF8 for your amusement and pre-ordering fun! not that you shouldn't patronize your own local comic shops...but these DO make great gifts, so why not buy one from each?



as i've said, there's a buncha new stuff inside! not just the gorgeous pin-ups from nick cardy, guy davis, rich woodall and matt talbot, david williams, chris brunner, and yes, kevin nowlan, but an introduction and pin-up by mike wieringo, all new bedlam files (with secrets and surprises galore!) and the newly--and beautifully--colored early stories "7 months earlier" and "fiepick"!

and amazon is only asking 10 and change for it...?! oh, buy two!

okay, moving on...

i ran david antione williams pin-up last week without really giving him all the props i could 'cause i was racing. my apologies, dave. aside from a lot of card work and pieces in dc's who's who back in the day, david has done a considerable amount of work for warner bros. and is even more proud of his upcoming creator project, "hail".
here's his pin-up again, for those you you who may've missed it or have been dying to take another look at it again.
thanks david, for the pin-up and your patience.

and rico colored it.



more tomorrow--
todd

on with the show...

okay...

i said we were gonna showcase more of the incredible pin-ups that we (and rico) lined up for the trade and so here's another...

this one is by chris brunner. as with the one by david williams (a week or so ago...), this is another great rico get. rico and chris have worked together on a number of projects and, help me out here, rico--do you guys comprise the kickstand studios? i dunno. here's the loop. here's me.

we had wanted to include a sweet credits page in the trade to not only thank the guys who turned in such nice perhapa-pieces, but to also pimp 'em a little bit, list some credits and stuff like that. unfortunately we filled this baby so full of visual goodness that that page got squeezed out. here though, is what rico sent me for chris.

"Christopher Brunner worked on Batman Legends of the Dark Knight 172-176 and is currently working for Upper Deck, responsible for the design of their All Star Vinyl line."

check out that legends arch--you'll be glad you did! chris does a really nice batman and, in these times when the character has been totally lost in his own books (to me at least...) chris nailed the essence of the dark knight in body language alone. nice work!

and so here is chris's molly.
i have a soft spot for molly.
chris nailed that too.
beautiful!

thanks, chris!



thanks, everybody!
more in a day or two...
todd

scott weinstein and dreams come true

okay...

when i was a kid, waaaaay back when, i was fortunate enough to be sleeping over at a friend's house the night that saturday night live debuted. ordinarily, i wouldn't have stayed up to watch it, but because i was hangin' with kevin, we were instantly hooked. and continued to be for the next 5 years.
over the years, i've watched it pretty religiously, good times and bad, mostly for the comedy (especially when it was good), sometimes simply for nostalgiac reasons (which carried me through those...painful seasons). something about the show, to this day, evokes memories of that golden time when i was 13 years old--and belushi was god.

i met scott weinstein almost 10 years ago, introduced by a wonderfully funny girl i'd done a play with, when the two of them were interns on the show. overwhelmed by the fact that dani and i were getting to see a honest-to-god saturday night live dress rehearsal, i wasn't ready when mary ann raced up to me and excitedly (she was always excited, wasn't she scott?) shoved this wide-eyed guy at me telling me that his name was scott and he was a huge spider-man fan! we shook hands and talked a bit, but they had to rush off to get the show ready and i was still agog that i was actually in the building where all that magic had happened!
we lost touch.

here we are 10 years later and scott is still a huge spider-man fan and now a segment producer on the show! we got back in touch last year (thanks to scott!) and have not only become fast friends, but have begun working on a few writing projects together that i couldn't be more excited about! we have traded back and forth the typical books, cds, dvds, comics as we expand out common influences and introduce one another to stuff we might've missed.
plus, scott has been kind enough to score us some tickets to the show not once, but twice!
and i can't thank him enough.

last fall craig and i went down to nyc to see the eva longoria show and had an awesome time! it's amazing to watch the craft and coordination of the show's well-timed crew and scott showed us around the offices,, etc. afterwards. (we also got to go to the after-party which was cool 'cause we got to meet a lot of the writers who were more interested in our comics careers than in answering our questions about theirs...!) we had a great time!

last week, scott called me and told me that he could get tickets to last night's tom hanks show, would i wanna go? WOULD I WANNA GO?!?!? whadda you, kiddin?!? craig couldn't make it and my best mate and current boss (i guess) was practically drooling over the idea (i work with jeff doing carpentry sometimes and light construction), so i asked scott if i could bring him and he said sure!
we had a great time and with tom hanks, the red hot chili peppers as musical guests and the usual high energy of the cast, the show was a blast! the place was electric! i dunno how it looked at home, but we in the studio had a lotta fun!
thanks, scott! you da MAN!

i'll post more pin-ups tomorrow, but just wanted to jot down a little something while i'm still exhausted...

later~~
todd


(i was looking for an image from last night's show, but i'm just not that good at tracking that stuff down...)

rrrrrrrico rrrrrrenzi!

okay...

before we go any further with our "pin-ups on parade", i think this would be a good time to stop and give some solid props to our colorist extraordinaire, rico renzi. while rico didn't do the coloring on all of these magnificent pin-up pieces for our upcoming trade, he did do most of 'em! and, just as importantly, rico's the guy who lined most of these beautiful pictures up, asking several of his friends if they'd be interested in doing something for our book.
and we're thrilled that he has such talented friends...

but more of that later. this is about rico.

so more than doing all that, rico is the colorist on our book. when craig and i were putting this thing together, i naturally left the art choices to craig who, without too much deliberation, said that rico was our man.
now there are rare times when i'm writing that i actually surprise myself, many times when craig sends me the pencils that he surprises me, but when it comes to the colors it seems like rico ALWAYS surprises me! his color choices are incredibly unique, unconventionally vibrant...and deviously well-thought-out. rico not only sees the pictures, he sees the story; something very rare in colorists these days. he studies the script and uses his unique palette to add to the story that we're telling, utilizing color to bolster the suspense, the humor, the drama. he brings our gang to life in ways that no other artist could.

it might seem that i'm going on about color more than i should, but i think that it's one of the overlooked aspects of comic book storytelling. when it's done right, it can make your story sing. done wrong, it can actually destroy it. (i know, i've been there.) and rico, of course, makes it sing.

and just to give a couple examples of my favorite ricos; check out page 14 of perhapanauts 4. when craig drew it, it was scary. when rico colored it, it was terrifying! the dark browns and purples and reds all seem to be there just to make those bright yellow eyes burn! you can feel her, that half-bodied bitch, just hanging there in the air above arisa.
two pages back, i had asked, in the plot, for the aswang to screech down on arisa out of the dark, black shadows. rico knew better and lit up the background with orange, backlighting her to horrifying effect! genius!
another rico favorite of mine is the cover to perhapanauts 2. craig and i were just transfixed by the amazing choices/samples that rico sent over and when it was done...it's just brilliant! we love it so much, we're using it as our banner for upcoming shows (which >ahem< actually, rico is making for us too...)

anyway, just thought i'd take a mo' to point out our unsung rico. next time you finish reading another perhapanauts, take a second look through at what rico brought to it. great stuff!

more pin-ups next time!
todd

ladies and gentlemen...the fabulous nick cardy!

okay...

i am now and will always be a fan boy...

i love comics! i love the art, love the stories, love the characters, and especially, i love those people who have, do, and will entertain me with their talents, their dreams, their visions.

and i love nick cardy.

for those not familiar, nick drew teen titans, aquaman, bat lash, and brave and the bold in a series of impressive runs throughout the 60's and 70's. he is a cartoonist, an illustrator, an amazing storyteller (both as an artist and as a conversationalist) and he is now my friend.

i've written this before; about how mike and i met nick at heroescon back in '98. how we continued to hover around him and thank him for all the years of enjoyment he gave us with his wonderful, imaginative art. how we became fast friends and make it a point to (try to) take him to dinner whenever we'd see him at a show. we added craig to the mix in, when? 2000?

since then, nick and i chat on the phone from time to time and, with the commission of the perhapanauts pin-up you see below, at least three times a week. the conversation does not stay on comics for long. we talk about movies, history, life, relationships, dogs, ghosts, and everything. he has become a mentor to me and he's just a really great guy!

if you're smart you'll pick up the teen titans showcase (now on sale!) and see the fun and energy he puts into all his work, then and now!

thanks, nick!

this pin-up was, of course, colored by our incomparable rico renzi. i'll be talking more about him next time!

todd

too bogged to blog...

well, i'll TELL ya where i've been...

in trying to juggle writing the new perhapanauts series (which, just so's you know, we're calling "second chances", for a myriad of reasons...), writing a short spider-man/fantastic four job for marvel licensing, teaching an after-school course in story structure and comics, spending time with my dad, hiking with jake, and working a 9 to 5 helping my friend, jeff, re-build/re-design a beautiful kitchen (as i am sometimes wont to do...), i've just been too bogged to blog.

on the plus side, the next perhapanauts venture should be more exciting--and more surprising!--than ever! some cool things're gonna be happenin' to the haps and i can't wait for craig to draw it! and for rico to color it! and for you to read it! i think that the events of the next batch will be so unexpected that i'm tempted to add "all new! all different!" to the title! really!

as for what's cookin' here, well, here's where you loyal few (you know who you are...) who continued to check back after so long an absence get to say that it was worth the wait...in hopes that people will still buy the trade after they've seen 'em, craig and i have decided to post the incredible, awesome, beautiful pin-ups right here on the site for you to drool and gush over several months in advance! we count ourselves truly blessed to have gotten such nice pieces from such good friends and we really hope you dig 'em too!

so every couple of days, i'll be posting a new one for your kind perusal. you've already seen the gorgeous pin-up by our 'johnny raygun' pals, rich woodall and matt talbot (exquisitely colored by steve dillon of golden goat studios!), and the sketch version of ringo's introduction piece--i'll post rico's finished color version next time--so why not whet your appetites with this sweet david antoine williams number (also colored by rico!) of big comin' at ya!

hope ya dig it like we do!

talk to ya soon!
todd

dial-up hell

okay...

so i live in dial-up hell.
i live in an area so remote and rural that the advent of just about any other form of internet hook up is denied me. truth! calling my phone or cable companies for information and/or updates on when the 21st century will be arriving in our area is an exercise in frustration and inspiration to scribe a remake of that old tv series, "green acres". so i DO have to wait for it to connect each time i wanna go on-line. i wait for pages to download and sometimes attachments take forever...but i really love my house, where i live. it's great for me and perfect for jake. lots of room to run and explore. so, i'll continue to suck it up...and hope.

why'd i tell you that? well, to tell you this.
i don't like to spend a lot of time on-line. i probably would if it didn't take so frikkin' long. but it does and so i try to get in and out quickly and not waste so much time just WAITING!
but i realized just recently that the things that i DO wait for, that i DO apply more patience to, are primarily weird related. i will wait interminable lengths of time for a page to load if its going to reveal a cool new story about the isnashi. i'll sit in fervent anticipation if the site is going to relate to me a creepy "something-was-in-the-room-with-me" ghost story. have you ever noticed that? you can find a vast reserve of patience when the goal is something you're (borderline) obsessed with.
funny.

anyway...
i can't always get the internet to work for me. i mean, i'm okay, but--and maybe this is 'cause i have feelings of inferiority due to my dial-up restrictions--there are some things i just can't do.
a friend recently sent me a 'funny' email which listed all of the various uses for the word "sh!t" and it was actually kinda funny. i say 'funny' 'cause i get a lot of 'funny' emails that aren't funny at all. and if i gotta wait for the email to load...oh, man. don't get me started. so it listed all the variations and, as i said, a couple of 'em were funny, but it reminded me of something else.
about 10 years ago or so, i heard a similar discourse on the word "f^@k". it was absolutely brilliant, funny, and voiced by the guy who used to do the narration on all those old film strips they used to show us in school from the 50's and 60's. it was even funnier because it was done with that voice that you immediately associate with authority and knowledge. it was about 3 minutes long and we made tapes of it and passed it around. with the entire internet at my disposal, you'd think that i could track it down again, but no such luck.
ah, well...i'll keep looking...

so, my apologies. i think i started out with an idea, but lost it somewhere along the way.
i blame the dial-up.

more on the perhapanauts, weird stuff, and the AWESOME artists we have doing pin-ups for us in the upcoming perhapanauts trade next time!


see ya soon!
todd

paranormal at about dot com

okay...

a while back i made a list of some of the weird, wild, paranormal, cryptid, unexplained phenomena websites that i've happened across in my insatiable quest for more weird, wild, paranormal, etc. junk to feed on. i listed several and they're all good, but the one that i keep coming back to is www.paranormal@about.com. and particularly the YOUR TRUE TALES pages. this is the place i go to read stories rather than news reports and/or the latest scientific evidence. i'm a story person; love to read 'em, love to write 'em, love to tell 'em. but the real beauty of this section is that the incidents and experiences posted are written by real people. and you can tell! now, i'm not saying that they're all true; prob'ly not. but in the course of reading each and every submission, you get to choose whether you believe them or not. in some cases the author of a particular piece might come off bad. he (or she) is lying, you'll say. in others, you do that old "well, i believe that HE believes what he saw." and in others still--and they're not as rare as you might suspect--you ABSOLUTELY believe and it's the hairs standing up on the back of your neck that tell you you do.

granted some of them are well written, others passably so, and there are many that are so filled with spelling and grammatical errors that you'll literally wince...but i've found that that doesn't really play into my own psychic litmus test as i try to gauge who is sincere and who is makin' it all up. does the fact that somebody's a poor speller make their experience any less real? that they're really not a very good storyteller mean that something very bizarre didn't actually happen to them?
i think you can tell.

so go check a couple of 'em out when you have a chance. a couple of my favorites are "the dark scribble", "sinister being", and "it destroyed our lives" (this one is kinda long and filled with many of those wince-inducing errors, but i found myself thinking about it/spooked by it long after i logged off).

and while these are a mix of all manner of stories of the weird and unexplained, if you want to mainline on nothing but cryptid stories, check out the WEIRD CREATURES pages. i love "the dump creature" story and there's one in there, can't remember the title of it, but it had to do with three boys in a cabin being harassed by...something...outside.

check 'em out.
and as always, if YOU'VE got a story of something weird to share, send it in. we're dyin' to hear it.

take care~~
todd

hey, that reminds me...

reading rich's tale below, reminds me of something that happened to me...

years ago, too many to want to admit to, i used to work with mentally and emotionally disabled kids (that's the current pc--the term then was mentally retarded). it was, looking back, a dream job and i can't begin to tell you how much i grew and learned from those kids and their take on things. great memories, great times. they were great!

this was a residential school for mostly educable kids and at some point someone had the bright idea to put me in charge of the small disorganized boy scout troop that had floundered along over the years. (i can tell you now that i never did any better; it only continued to flounder under my care and beyond.) wanting it to be fair, i opened this up to all the boys and, being a bit of a magnet at the time (i was young. to them todd=fun!), we ended up with about 15 young men and boys who, if nothing else, looked great in their uniforms.

mostly this was just an excuse for all of us to get out of the dorms once a week for some laid back male bonding.

my co-captain for this activity was my friend, rolf, who got a job 'cause i recommended him and because his father, my theater teacher, told me i'd better. rolf was a big guy, muscular, and always-smiling, and he had a great rapport with the kids. we were great friends on and off-campus and decided at halloween time that the best thing that we could do was take the boys hiking at a nearby lake and tell ghost stories around a fire, making smores and drinking hot chocolate. the next thought--and remember WE were very young ourselves here--was to get a great big pumpkin, hollow it out from the bottom, carve it with a really scary face, and leave it stashed behind the lean-to nearby. then, as i came to the part of the story where the vengeful farmer replaced his missing head with a jack-o-lantern, rolf, who would have slipped away just as the kids were at the edge's of their seats, would step out and scare the bejeezus out of 'em.

(i will note here that, in light of ALL the various definitions and forms of abuse that are flying around out there these days, this was not abuse. at the time there was a strong movement within the mental health community to "normalize" kids like these and expose them to all the same things that regular kids their age--mental and physical--would be exposed to. we cleared it with our supervisor, the ghost stories...although maybe we neglected to tell her EVERY detail...like, about the pumpkin head... anyway, these kids were ASKING for it! literally. they WANTED to be scared, BEGGED us to scare them, and, in our defense, we did leave the two boys we thought wouldn't be able to handle it back at the school.)

so we pack up the scouts, pack up the snacks, get the fire going, and start out with a couple spook stories of the tame/lame variety, rolf periodically snapping his head around to peer out into the dark as if he heard something. some of the more observant kids noticed, but when they asked him rolf would just reply with, "nothing."

then we got to the story of the night, the final story, the one everybody was waiting for...heh, heh, heh...
though i can easily picture all the guys faces intently listening in the flickering firelight, the ones i remember best were our two littlest ones, martin and jay, who were probably 10 or 11 at the times, but much more "with it" than the other guys. they were across from me and more worried about being scared than actually being scared. y'know what i mean?

so, i launched into the story and got serious right away, making references to local farms and landmarks to add the extra touch of realism. rolf had removed himself to the back of the group, mocking concern for one of the boys who he teased was getting scared. as i built the suspense i kept trying to catch rolf's eye to motion him around back to don the pumpkin head and put the icing on the cake. but everytime i tried to get him, he looked away, or looked back at me quizzically, "what?" i dragged the story out, trying to quickly invent an ending where i hadn't originally needed one. i droned on and on.

just when i was becoming exasperated with my own story and rolf's apparent stupidity...the pumpkin head stepped out from behind the lean-to--behind me!--and stopped my story mostly because my heart had leapt to my throat! he raised his arms and i saw most of the boys leap straight up into the air and begin running before they ever touched the ground. i swear. you've seen this in cartoons--all the best toons can do it. fred flinstone, wile e., homer. i saw this happen. 10 or 11 boys lift off and begin running back to the van. the only two who stayed were our littlest, martin and jay, rooted in their seats, their eyes wide, the fronts of their boy scout pants suddenly going dark.

i was up, of course, and moving away, but ran into rolf who was laughing and laughing as he grabbed me. the pumpkin head took off his pumpkin head and it was my brother, jeff, eager to play a part when rolf called him that afternoon and wanted to turn the trick. excellent.

we caught up with the rest of the boys back at the van and martin and jay, now in on the gag, were thrilled when pumpkin head returned to terrorize the van once we were all inside. (the best part; in the dark and the turmoil, none of the other guys noticed martin and jay had wet their pants. we sat them on some towels and snuck them back inside when we got back to the school.)

and if you're still thinking that on some level this was wrong...
...the following year they begged--BEGGED!!--to get a visit from the pumpkin head again...

sorry that was so long.
thanks for stickin' with me.

later--
todd

rich and matt and johnny raygun

okay...

as i said, rich (woodall) is making things easy for me as he continues to send cool, creepy stories that i just hafta copy up here. here's another one he sent the other day. enjoy!

I have to believe some of it was just my childhood
> imagination. My dad was really big into letting me
> watch horror movies and telling me scary stories.
> One Halloween night my dad took my brother and I to
> a friends house (again, we lived in Arkansas, so
> it's all backwoods Evil Dead looking places) and he
> had a really old truck, and the gas gauge didn't
> work, so he's tellin' us about Ghouls and Zombies
> and how they only come out on Halloween night and
> they eat the flesh of the living... he knows he has
> us scared to death. So he starts pumping the gas...
> "uh oh guys, we're running out of gas" my brother
> and I aren't that concerned at this point, but when
> he rolls to a stop right in front of a grave yard we
> start to panic. He tells us to calm down and he's
> going to go up the road and get some gas from
> someone, but he wants us to be quiet and sit in the
> floorboard of the truck. So we do. We peek over the
> dashboard and watch him walk around the corner and
> out of site. So here we are, I'm 5 or 6 and my
> brother's 2 years younger. We are scared to death
> that if we talk a zombie's going to come and eat us.
> About 10 minutes pass and all of the sudden
> something jumps in the bed of the truck and starts
> pounding on the roof of the truck... I piss myself
> and we scream like crazy. Then we hear my dad
> laughing his ass off. He had doubled around in the
> woods and jumped in the truck to scare us... it
> worked. He loved doing that stuff. I have many more
> stories about my dad scaring my brother and I... I
> won't bore you with them right now, but it helped
> mold who I am today that's for sure.
>
> -Rich

and here, making it even easier than that, is the BEAUTIFUL perhapanauts pin-up rich and matt (talbot) did for the upcoming perhapanauts trade, due out in august! as i mentioned in the last blog, rich and matt do this wonderfully fun comic called JOHNNY RAYGUN that, if ya haven't already, you should check out. thanks for the pic, you guys it's AWESOME!
oh, and the colors on this bad boy were done by rockin' ray dillon of golden goat studio! thanks to you too, ray!
todd

3 tales from rich

okay...

a couple years ago i had the pleasure of meeting these two friends of craigs, rich woodall and matt talbot, at a small comics show in boston.. rich and matt, artists both, write and draw this fun little book called JOHNNY RAYGUN. i don't say "little" to be condescending in any way, only in the sense of its small press, indy, low-profile standing. JOHNNY is published sporadically by jetpack press (our pal ralph dibernardo) and while the print and distribution may be small, the scope of this book is anything but! johnny's enthralling intergalactic adventures--as well as his intergalactic friends--are what comics should be all about! fun! fun! and fun! these are the kindsa tales i used to thrill to when i was a kid trying to fill my head with as much wonder as i could find! if you get a chance--pick up an issue and check it out! i guarantee, you'll want the rest!

so, anyway, i know these guys. we chat. (they are, by the way, doing a gorgeous pin-up for us in the upcoming perhapanauts trade. actually, it's done. i'll post it here in a few days--it's incredible...!)

so after my loss of momentum on this blog--which i spoke about last time--rich goes back and checks it out and sends me some waaaaay cool/weird/unexplained stories of his own. which i told him i'm gonna post right now.

here they are.

I just read that you liked Communion, my parents
> live up in Laconia and my Mom swears she saw
> a UFO up there. I've always loved this stuff too...
> I've got 3 creepy stories...
> when I was a kid (around
> 8-9ish) during a walk w/ my parents around our
> neighborhood. I have no idea what it was, but it was
> night, really dark out, and we're walkin' by a house
> and behind the house standing next to a tree was
> something, I don't know what, but I could see a
> shadow in the darkness... you don't think black
> could get any blacker, but it was there, big, black
> thing... looked like it was watching us. I was so
> scared...
>
> And then there was the time(again as a kid in
> Arkansas) I was at a friends house and we were
> playing in his room and I went to open his closet
> door and it was locked, so I asked him why it was
> locked and he said it was a door to hell (now I'm a
> Baptist, so I take hell very serious) so in the
> middle of the night, I'm sleeping in the living
> room, and my friend is in his room, I wake up and I
> see his f$%#in' closet door open. That was it...
> very scary...
>
> The last one happened when I was 20 living in an
> apartment in Nashua. I had 2 roommates, I was the
> only one that had a job, so I had to go to bed at a
> reasonable hour. So it's like 11 or so and I hit the
> sack. Like 10 minutes pass and I hear my roommates
> fighting like crazy in the living room, so I yell at
> them to shut up. they shut up and I start to fall a
> sleep... then I can feel my blanket being pulled off
> of me, and I can't move, I was frozen, really
> freaking out, I could look around, but I couldn't
> move my body... then I fell asleep... woke up in the
> morning w/ no covers very strange.. so I ask my room
> mates about them fighting and they tell me that they
> took off right after I went to bed and they didn't
> have a fight... then about 2 weeks later my room
> mate asks me if I came into his room in the middle
> of the night and sat on his bed. I told him I didn't
> and then told him my story, and he said that he
> swears that someone came in and sat on his bed and
> touched his leg. Freaked me out!
>
> Anyway, thought I'd share my little creepy bits...
> also living in Arkansas, I lived near Boggy Creek,
> my dad would tell me stories about the swamp and
> witches that lived in them... no wonder I'm so
> screwed up now :)

man!
cool!
thanks, rich!
as i was posting this, he sent me another one...
i'll post that on friday.

take care~~
todd

nothin'...

well, mostly 'cause i just haven't had anything to say...

that's the answer i've given to my friends and family (you know who you are...) when they ask me why i haven't put anything up on the blog in, what, a week? and for those who know me (and you know who you are...) hear that, they just laugh their asses off. because, if you know me...and i think you do...i ALWAYS have something to say. i am always talking, always asking questions, always telling stories--you can't shut me up. many have tried. can't be done.

but lately, i just really haven't thought that i've had anything that anyone else would really want to hear. every time i sat down to write about something i was interested in or saw on tv or found funny, i've allowed that little editor in the back of my brain talk me out of it. "bor-ring!" "who cares!" "don't waste their time!"

so i got nothin'.

well, maybe not nothing. i notice that on everybody's blogs they list the stuff they're reading, watching, listening to. and maybe that's it. everything i'm reading, watching, listening to is old stuff--good stuff--but stuff i've already read, watched, and heard. i've been re-reading the dc comics/paradox press big books--all of 'em--in order. cool, fascinating stuff, but been there, read that. this past week i watched saving private ryan (for the, like, 5th time!), kill bill vol.s I and II (for the 3rd time!) and the green mile (prob'ly the 4th time). last night it was my name is earl, the office, and ER--so that was kinda new. and i haven't been listening to a lot of music 'cause i've been listening to "harry potter and the half-blood prince" in the car. (for the second time! but while we're on this; if you haven't heard any of the harry potter books on audio, you're missing a real treat! jim dale is just INCREDIBLE! there is no one--hands down!--more gifted at reading and lending voices to characters as this guy! he's won a slew of awards for it and deserves even more!) don't miss out! they're--and he's--great!(okay, so i can get excited about that...)

so anyway, here's what i'm seeing. winter, cold, i become withdrawn, curl up and watch and read things that are comfortable, familiar, soothing. that's okay, but now, obviously, i'm kinda lethargic. i'm not challenging myself with new information, new stimuli, new adventures. i'm totally zoned out. and all because i'm not exercising my brain.

i gotta get out. go hiking with jake.
get a new book.
or two!
or three!
rent some new movies!
or buy 'em!
interact with some people and have some stimulating conversation!
what am i wasting my time writing this for!
i'm outta here!

and i suggest you do the same.
(and you know who you are...)

todd

so--what's everybody watching, reading, listening to.
i need some suggestions.

is mercury in retrograde...?

man!!

i have been having the absolute worst luck with anything technology based these past few days. the blog won't load, i can't return e-mails ("delivery failure" notices from yahoo--sorry, kojee, sorry josh--i'll get 'em out to ya when i can...), and the other night i melted my butter dish when i put it down on the burner on my stove. okay, so that last one is just me being an idiot...

but things just aren't running smoothly.

and mercury might just be the answer. my best friend/ex-girlfriend, dani, used to let me know when this was going to happen because, apparently, in the celestial alignment of things (planets) when the other planets get too far behind mercury in their movements around the sun, communication (of all types; verbal, electronic, tech, emotional) get totally "f___ed" up. i originally dismissed it as a loada hooey, but over the years...it's true, it's TRUE!

now this usually happens two or three times a year and lasts for about 7 to 10 days. sometimes dani would tell me ahead of time and i'd just say, "well, i'm noticing it 'cause i'm looking for it." but it was the times she'd tell me AFTER the fact, when i'd look back at all the chaos of the previous week or so that made me believe. "oh, yeah, "she'd say, "mercury was in retrograde."
crazy.

so i'm guessing it must be now, 'cause things are goin' blooey. i apologize for not being able to get back to you josh. i'll keep trying and hope the stars don't get in my way.

actually, i hope this loads.

take care.
later
todd

the fail-safe

okay....
apparently, if you don't post for, like, a week or so, this blog shuts down and denies access to everybody. not a bad motivator, actually, for a deadbeat like me. hafta remember that.

and apologies to everyone who tried and found themselves locked out. i was locked out too as a matter of fact. i was both busy and uninspired--not much of an excuse, sorry--and everyday would try to think of yet another way that i could write something that not only YOU, but I would be excited about. news on the perhapanauts front is good--we're going to be moving ahead and the next 4 issue series is in production as we speak (type), but, well...it's the state of the industry that's kinda got me guessing. not only are sales fairly low on the perhapanauts, but in this current market, it's just so hard to even get noticed. i dunno, i don't mean to brag or anything, but i think we have a fun little book here. but with marvel and dc glutting the shelves with this new wave of crossover madness (isn't that what killed us last time?!), little books like ours are just getting trampled. maybe that fact got me down a little and made me fall away from my blog requirements. for that i am truly sorry.

(also, i thought that the only person reading this was kojee and he and i had drifted into a more e-mail correspondence...)

anyway, i am sorry all. if you're reading this, please don't hesitate to comment and let me know you're there. or if you're shy, drop me an 'e' at todd@perhapanauts.com.

so my apologies again! thanks to brian for 'e'ing me and letting me know that the blog was down.
hopefully this got it back up and running. here's a cool picture by craig!
see ya soon!
todd

the rule of 3

okay...

seems i'm always apologizing for being away for too long, but it's been a long week.
and a sad one too.
isn't it weird that celebrities go in 3's? i was sad to hear that long time red sox announcer (and for me the voice of the american sportsman) curt gowdy passed away last weekend, remembering sunday afternoons when i was a very little kid watching the american sportsman with my father. but i wasn't sure if he was well-known enough to be part of one of these celebrity trifectas.
still not sure...
then i heard that don knotts died on saturday whom i will always remember more as bumbling, bug-eyed barney fyfe than as the comically suspicious mr. furley. i grew up on a steady diet of andy griffith (and i love lucy, and the flintstones, and...) re-runs and so he was just another guy i knew from my childhood.
but what hurt more (emotions are odd things, huh?) was when, on sunday, i read of the passing of darrin mcgavin. certainly an idol for me as the cunning, conning kolchak on tv's night stalker, hunting down the mysterious and the macabre. but more for his turn as the furnace-fighting, award-winning, quietly compassionate dad in 1984's a christmas story. one of my absolute favorite movies, mostly 'cause, though i didn't grow up in the 40's, THAT is my family and THAT was my childhood.
and that is my dad.
sad losses all.
gentlemen, rest in peace.

but here's the thing. when celebrities go in 3's, it's usually 3 from the same list, or at least close. A-list, B-list, D-list, whatever, but i don't know if curt was on or near the same list as don knotts and darrin mcgavin. and it's only been a day or two. not to sound cold or insensitive, but on the celebrity playing field, does curt count?
i hope so.

anyway, that's a weird entry.

and apparently it's entry 18.

see ya in a day or 2.
todd

nope. i was wrong.
there goes dennis weaver.

back!

okay...

well, i got back from craig's yesterday after an absolutely GREAT weekend with him and his family--as well as a really nice show over in boston! saw a lot of old friends--dave tata, mike oeming, neil vokes, matt talbot--and met a bunch of new ones! also had the pleasure of taping an interview with jim, a huge spider-man fan i met last year, although this year it seems that a new light is being shed on the x-men's age of apocalypse storyline from a few years back. eh, jim?
anyway, it was a great time and i was even able to pick up a few old books for my collection; some really gorgeous nick cardy teen titans! if you wanna see some really beautiful artwork, pick up the teen titans archives--the original series from the 60's-70's--and just have some fun! nick is my hero!

i only got through half of stephen king's cell on cd; a chilling story (so far!) and a great way to make the trip zoom by. (also i was doin', like, 85 the whole way...)

one of the things we worked on while i was at craig's--besides the windows in his new addition--was the trade paperback of this perhapanauts first series (which we are calling "first blood".) (you'll see why after next issue.) (as if there wasn't enough blood in the first issue!) anyway, we're tweaking a few things here and there--not really george lucasing it, but making a few changes that we weren't able to do on the originals due to looming deadlines. we're also including some earlier stuff (stories from the perhapanauts: dossier) and an expanded, colored bios/bedlam files section that includes a few creatures/characters that we haven't even seen yet!
but here's the best part--and i can't even tell ya who--but we're lining up some really great pin-ups for the trade that are gonna make it worth the price just for them! stay tuned to this perhapablog for more details as it becomes okay for us to name names...

and that's it. hope everybody's well and that if you're reading this, you won't be too shy to drop a comment at the bottom so that we know you're there. i mean, we can hear ya breathing...

peace out!
todd

see ya in boston!!

okay...

short and sweet. i'm leaving bright and early tomorrow morning for craig's and from there we'll on to boston for the show on sunday! i've got a full tanka gas, a bag of pepperidge farms goldfish, stephen king's "cell" (read by campbell scott) on cd, and a map so i can make a much anticipated detour up into the town of dover, just to see...

...prob'ly nothing. but maybe just to get "the feel"...

we'll see. my dad says it's s'posed to rain like crazy (60-70 mph winds!)

anyway, that's why this is so short!
i hope to see a lot of you there. if not, i'll see ya back here on monday!
have a great weekend!

here's a picture from my partner.



todd

the goin' to boston jam!

okay...
this'll be quick as i have a few things to throw out here today.
first and foremost is a reminder that craig and i (along with such fan faves as michael avon oeming, neil vokes, and dave tata!) will be attending the PRIMATE PROMOTIONS COMIC CONVENTION in BOSTON this sunday, febrruary 19th! if you're in the area and you have nothing much to do, come on down! it's lots of fun and, truthfully, we get sick of each other after awhile and would really appreciate some new faces to talk to!

next, our pal scott w. (and really, when i say pal i'm not covering it--scott is a great friend and we're looking forward to hanging out with him at the new york show the following weekend!) (you too, kojee!) anyway, after sending me his guest blog about the ghosts of williamsburg last week, he followed up with some cool information about a religious/christian variant called the druze that, among other things, interjects a great deal of reincarnation belief into their daily lives. check this out:


These stories are from my buddy David. They take
place in Lebanon in the early 1900s. His family is
Druze.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druze
This is a sect of Christianity. The main thing to
know about them for these stories is that they believe
in reincarnation. So, here they are as told by David:

A little girl refuses to go see any doctor until she
hears my uncle's (a pediatrician) name mentioned. She
agrees to go see my uncle. During the Doctor visit,
she tells him that she was a patient of his in her
previous life. She had been accidentally shot to
death by her brother at a family picnic. She
remembers being shot, the trip to the hospital, and
then everything went black (she had died shortly after
arriving at the hospital.)

another one:

My grandfather, as a child in the early 1900s,
insisted he had another family in another town. The
family doctor, not knowing what to do, told his
parents to let him take them where he wanted to go.
He led them, by donkey or carriage or whatever they
had 100 years ago, on a several-day trip to the other
village. Once there, he went straight to his old
house and identified every member of this family that
he had never seen before -- by name. The handwriting
of the dead guy and my grandfather's are identical.



fascinating stuff, scott--but then it always is! thanks!

and finally, i've gotten a couple of letters complaining that i didn't continue posting some of craig's early sketches of the team waaaay before we really knew who they were. so here's a couple of an early choopie and an early big. more next week!






thanks, everybody!
see ya in beantown!
todd

outta sites

okay...

the other day i said that i'd list a few of the books and websites that i've happened upon in my continuing search for stories and info about strange stuff...and then totally skipped the websites.

here, then, are a few of those;

www.unexplained-mysteries.com
the site seems endless. not only does it provide up-to-the-minute daily updates on all things paranormal, scientific, and conspiratorial, one could get lost for months on end in their vast archives section! it's huge! a veritable cornucopia of information! wanna read about the recent chupacabra flap in chile? the bigfoot expedition being mounted in malaysia? a glowing pig? this is the place.

http://paranormal.about.com/
while this site also provides daily updated reports on the paranormal and supernatural, it's the amazing true paranormal stories section (updated each month) that i like to check out. but even more than that, readers' actual personal accounts of encounters with all KINDS of weird stuff--in the weird creatures/monsters section--has given me the creeps on many late nights! check out the creature from the dump or click on some of the bigfoot confrontations. that these are stories have been submitted by regular readers make them all the more chilling. to me anyway. i guess they COULD be makin' some of these up (i like to think that i can tell by the way it's written), but i'm fox mulder. i WANT to believe.

www.xprojectmagazine.com
just found this a short while ago and haven't really explored it to it's fullest, but this is a really nice site with some constantly expanding section on ufos and extraterrestrials, cryptozoology, ghosts and vampires, and another nice reader submitted section.

and though I did mention loren coleman's site at www.lorencoleman.com, i'll mention it again because it's the place to go for anything cryptid related. this man is THE authority when it comes to mysterious creatures!


and, before i go, back onto the books again. i recently have become hooked on the "weird" books, available exclusively at barnes and noble and put out by mark sceurman and mark moran, the guys who put out the weird nj magazine. originally these guys complied some of the more interesting and bizarre articles from their new jersey focused periodical and published what became the first in a series, "weird nj". soon all the other states got jealous and people began sending in reports/accounts/articles from all over the country and the boys just couldn't keep up. i've read weird nj, new england, new york, u.s., and ohio now and i guess there's about 6 or 7 more (pennsylvania, wisconsin, illinois--the list goes on!) each book is packed with ghost stories, strange creatures, urban legends, bizarre people, abandoned theme parks, etc. check 'em out--there's prob'ly one about YOUR state.

and that's it from me. what about you? what are you reading?
and what have you seen? let me know.

later!
todd

our theme for today is "creepy"

okay...

a few weeks ago i professed that, although i had already been cultivating an (un)healthy interest in the weird and unknown, it was doug moench's big book of the unexplained that reinvigorated my interest in all things paranormal/cryptozoological/supernatural. since then i've searched, scanned, and gooogled through countless sites, countless books, and countless obscure magazines to find any and every bit of info on any and all bizarre creatures and strange occurrences. most of the time i'm totally transfixed by stories and personal accounts of such encounters, although there has been occasion where i've been less than impressed by either the tale or the telling. or both.

as far as fun stories and good information go, though, i thought i'd pony up a few of the books and websites where I'VE found some interesting, astounding, and yes even chilling, posts. especially if you're reading them late at night, in the dark, with the wind howling through the eves and a pack of coyotes howling in the back yard. (no, i am not kidding...)

so, for your amusement, enjoyment, and edification, here are a few books/sites that i recommend;


the mothman prophecies by john keel
if you saw the movie, okay. it was fun, kinda creepy, and contains one of the best "jumps" of the past 10, maybe 20 years. but if you really want a scare, you've gotta read this book, the true accounting of what all went down in the west virginia town of point pleasant back in the mid-to late 60's. the movie did what it could to make a story (with some kind of through-line) out of these events, but having them related by an actual journalist makes this more real than a fictionalization could.

the interrupted journey by john g. fuller
actually, i like the 1975 made for tv movie of this much better than the book if only for the incredible performances by james earl jones and estelle parsons. the two play barney and betty hill, the first recorded alien abductees in the ufo incident. this movie terrified me as a kid mostly due to jones' recounting of his encounter with the visitors while under hypnosis. chilling. if you ever get a chance to see this, do yourself a favor. and turn the lights out. (bet you'll have 'em back on before it's over.) oh yeah, and read the book first. the facts are fascinating.

communion by whitley strieber
gave me nightmares. the movie's kinda creepy too. or maybe that's just walken.

and rather than list all the books by loren coleman, the unrivaled king of cryptozoology, i'll just send you over to his site at www.lorencoleman.com. everything you might ever need to know about crazy creatures and weird events is here and cross referenced with just about every other site on the subject. we all bow to the king. i especially recommend his books mothman and other curious encounters and bigfoot: the true story of apes in america.
just for starters.

more on this subject later. i'm sure we'll be talking about mr. coleman more...

remember, send in tales of your own encounters and experiences. it's nice to share.

see ya saturday.
todd

this is entry 13.

gettin' spooky

hey, everybody!
originally, when craig told me that he'd put a blog up for us here on perhapanauts-dot-com, i thought it was a great idea and that we could use it to let everyone know about new issues of the 'haps coming out, conventions to attend, and most especially, stories and links that i've come across in researching the weird and unexplained for our team of weird and unexplained agents. i said that i would try to post something, at the very least, every other day.
but that hasn't been happening.
granted things have been a bit chaotic around here lately, but no excuse, time to resolve to post something new (and hopefully interesting, thought-provoking, and/or creepy) on a much more regular basis. so i promise.
but i could use your help...
i've had a bunch of people sending in their accounts of strange things that have happened to them and can't tell you how much i appreciate them--please, keep 'em coming! as i've said before, this is your blog as much as it is ours. join in! it's fun!
and so, here, with a really eerie)and historical) account, is our own scott w.--

These ghost stories didn't happen to me. But, they
are some of my favorites. During my brief stay at the
College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia,
I took a ghost tour of Colonial Williamsburg. The
tour was given by a History PhD student, whose name
I've since forgotten. There have been plenty of books
written on the ghosts in the area, but for a personal
project, he had researched the stories. Stripping
away the urban myths that have evolved around the
tales, and getting back to the original stories. One
of the most memorable parts of the tour was the Peyton
Randolph House. The place he called "the source of
all evil in Colonial Williamsburg."

http://www.history.org/Almanack/places/hb/hbran.cfm

In the 1930s, the city of Williamsburg was in
shambles. It was mostly poor, run-down and forgotten.
That is until John D. Rockefeller took it upon
himself and his millions and millions of untaxed
dollars to restore the historic part of town. Most of
the city's residents were happy to sell off their
homes. However, there were some homes that were owned
by still wealthy families, who didn't want to leave.
A deal was struck where they would get to stay, and
could pass the buildings on to their children, but the
houses could never be sold to anyone else. And when
the families left, these homes, they would become the
property of Colonial Williamsburg. The Peyton
Randolph house was one of these. It was a private
residence for many years. And throughout those years,
guests who stayed in the house's second-floor
oak-paneled room, would awaken in the middle of the
night to see the image of a woman at the foot of their
bed. This woman would anxiously point to the corner
of the room. Eventually she would fade away. And
most of these guests would come down for breakfast the
next morning complaining of the woman. However, no
one really knew what she was agitated about. Years
later, restoration work was being done on the house.
And to their surprise the contractors discovered a
stair-case in the corner of the oak-paneled room.
Apparently, the woman had been trying to get the
guests to leave the house, to escape some kind of
danger.

Throughout the years that families lived in the house,
children also had the habit of jumping from the second
story window. Most of them claiming that they were
urged by "something" to do it.

In fact some of this is documented in a lawsuit. In
the 1980s (don't quote me on the time frame) a woman
who worked for Colonial Williamsburg, sued the
organization. Every year around Christmas time,
Williamsburg has the Grand Illumination, where a torch
is lit in front of each of the historic homes. In
addition, each house has electric candles in each
window. Well, this woman worked in the Peyton
Randolph house. At the end of the day, she closed
everything up and turned on all the lights. As she
was leaving, her boss said, "You forgot the light in
that window (the oak-paneled room.)" The woman had
not forgotten, but went up to turn it back on. She
came back down and her boss got mad at her for not
doing what he had asked. She went up again, turned on
the light and as she was going down the stairs said,
"It must have been that damned ghost." She was then
pushed from behind and fell down the stairs, breaking
her arm. After that she sued. I don't recall the
outcome, but I believe she lost.

There are a number of other stories associated with
the house. And I vaguely recall something about the
house being built on an Indian burial ground. (As all
good haunted houses are.) A lot of these stories, can
be found in a book by L. B. Taylor called "The Ghosts
of Virginia."
http://www.vaghosts.com/main.html
He's written a whole series of them. I highly
recommend them if you're interested in Colonial and
Civil War history.

yeah, i gotta learn to include links and reference stuff more...
great stories, scott--thanks a lot, dude!

and i'm outta here! see you guys on thursday.
i promise.
todd

this is entry #12

perhapanauts 3 is OUT! plus, a note about the letters

hey, perhapapals!

not that you needed ME to tell you the good news but perhapanauts 3 hit the stands yesterday and the reviews are already in!
it's a hit! a great big, in-your-face, stop-the-presses, smash hit! we're getting calls from people all over the country--nay, the WORLD!--poised at the edge of their seats, desperately demanding the next issue! now that both issues one and two have totally sold out, and orders for the trade are already streaming in, we just can't get this book out fast enough! as the cartoon network and kids wb battle for which branch of warner animation will win the cartoon rights to the perhapanauts (at the time of this writing a compromise appears to be in the offing with kids wb producing kid friendly shows while cartoon network creates more suspense/horror-themed episodes for their adult swim format), dark horse has struck a deal with lucasfilms and paramount to handle the live action film scheduled for summer 2007! and mezco is working around the clock on the perhapanauts action figures! this is true! it's all happening!

i'm sure.

in some other dimension.

somewhere.

perhapa-mania is sweeping the globe.

but here in our world we still need some help. i don't wanna sound like i'm complaining here, but it is so hard for a small title to make it in this current comics market. with corporate cross-overs leading the way (with tie-ins to every other book they publish), and frank miller's heavy-handed slap in the face STILL not getting through (don'tcha get it? he's screaming at you to stop being sheep.), a little book like the perhapanauts gets washed away.
so tell your friends, post some messages, shout it from the rooftops; the perhapanauts ain't so bad.

right?

anyway, here's the other thing; we are getting countless letters and e-mails about the letters pages in the backs of the comics. no, they are not real. the issues and stories that those letters refer to have not yet been published.

in this dimension, anyway.

enjoy them and imagine what those comics look like.
and, if you're feeling creative, please feel free to send me some of your own.
that'd be fun.

so go buy the perhapanauts #3. for me. for craig. for the sake of the small title.

and if you're in the boston/new england area, craig and i will be appearing at the
primate promotions/monkeyhouse show in boston at the radisson on sunday, february 19th!
for more info, check out:

http://www.primatepromotions.com/_sgg/m3_1.htm

hope to see ya there!

take care~~
todd