proof

okay...

so, a couple of months ago, a friend e-mailed me with a link to a newsarama article/interview with the creators of a new book coming out from image called "proof". actually, a couple of friends pointed it out. these friends, very loyal and caring people, and doing nothing more than looking out for craig and me, commented that this book looked a little something like the perhapanauts and that maybe we should check it out.

so craig and i told our friends over at image that we were concerned.

they told us that they were concerned that we were concerned.

and THEN we got an e-mail from alex and riley saying that THEY were concerned that we were concerned.

see, alex grecian and riley rossmo, the writer and artist of proof, respectively, are a couple of, not only talented, but sincerely nice guys. they were quick to send us early copies of proof to show us what the book was all about and where they were going, wanting to make sure that WE didn't feel that they were stepping on our perhapa-toes.

but let me say right here, right now, that, while proof and the perhapanauts play around in the same creepy, cryptid, paranormal playground, they are definitely not alike. we play with the same toys, but we tell totally different stories with them. proof is a horror book, set in a world tinged with darkness and evil.

if the perhapanauts could be likened to the incredibles, proof would be more like se7en.

we've both got bigfoots; ours is called big, theirs is named john "proof" prufrock.
proof is an fbi agent working for a special branch that investigates cryptozoological occurances or cryptid-centric crimes. they are horrific, terrifying, and, in some cases, quite graphic. there are also moments of grim humor and well-characterized humanity. i really dig this book! i've read the first three issues and i can't wait for alex to send me #4!! proof is a chilling, compelling tale that you won't want to put down. hell, i don't feel that i'm doing it justice, so here are a couple pages for you to see for yourself.









alex and riley were smart enough to get a bunch of issues in the can before debuting their book, so you can be sure that it's not gonna go a few issues and then drop (like so many comics tend to do...). and they were fortunate enough have their premiere happen TODAY--a week before our favorite creepy holiday!! good job, guys!

so go creep yourself out and hook onto this new book! you'll be glad you did!
i guarantee that if you pick up this first issue, you won't want to miss the 2nd!!

that's it for today!
got a great ghost stor from our own mcgill on friday!
plus a few questions...
smell ya later!

horror stories

okay...

as halloween approaches and the nights get cooler--and darker, i think--a part of me, something deep inside of me actually calls out for horror stories and scary movies and i begin to look forward to a long winter filled with books of terror and the unexplained. this season just does it to me.

i've mentioned before a few of the places i frequent on the net to check up on all things paranormal and cryptozoological; sure, i'm looking for all the latest news to possibly use and/or incorporate into the ever-growing perhapanauts mythos.
but mostly, i'm just looking to be scared.

one of my favorites, as i've posted before, is paranormal at about.com. they have a section there called "your true stories" and, while occassionally one or two of them smack of attention-seeking, completely-made-up, most of them translate an honest belief in whatever phenomenon or occurance the writer may have experienced.

"your true stories"
for readers, by readers.
most of them are short and to the point.
you can check 'em out here...

but here's one for you to check out right here.

Red Eyes, Hairy Feet
by Aaron

This happened in February, 2006, a few days before Valentine's Day. I was getting ready for the swing shift as a security guard at a motel. I was living at my mom's place on a small reservation outside Albuquerque with my brother, who was there with his wife and three kids.

I remember it was 9:15 p.m. and I had just had my breakfast. It was dark and a moonless night. I lay down on my mom's couch to rest for a little while because my shift started at 11:00. At about this time, I guess my brother (who was staying in the very back room of the house) sent my nephew ,Tre (6 years old), to his car that was parked a couple of feet away from my parents' rear door. He was supposed to get a bottle of juice.

While I lay on the couch, I heard him screaming like he was getting beat on. I got up and his dad came in holding his hand. He was shaking like crazy, almost like he had hypothermia. My mom talked to him and asked him what was wrong. He then told us of a "thing" that watched him from the fence line and then came after him. He said it was as tall as him (4 feet) and had red glowing eyes, gray hairy feet, long claws and a snout like a dog's.

At first I didn't believe him. His dad and I walked around the fence line and couldn't find anything. I didn't think anything about it until lately when I began to see footprints around my parents' windows that looked kind of human, but had claw marks.


also in my recent travels, i found this photo that someone did up of the jersey devil. a model/statue of some constrution, obviously, but still, it would take my breath away if i saw it perched on an embankment overlooking the little lane that i take jake for his walk on everyday.



no reason why i was looking up the jersey devil...

that's it.
got any "your true tales" of your own...?
send 'em in.

until then
here are the answers to the
"five for friday"

1. what did these three characters have in common?

a. niles' wife
b. norm's wife
c. rhoda's doorman

never appeared on camera

2. what were their names?

a. meris crane
b. vera peterson
c. carlton

3. what do these three characters have in common?

a. sam malone
b. abby lockhart
c. jack shepherd

they are all alcoholics.

4, who play(ed) them?

a. ted danson
b. maura tierney
c. matthew fox

5. crypto
a. what was the name of the man who filmed the classic and controversial bluff creek bigfoot footage?

roger patterson

b. what is mel waters (in)famous for?

mel's hole--an, apparently, bottomless pit located in the state of washington.

c. paula m called it 'the dump creature', but what was the name given to the strange creatures which appeared out of the ground to taunt french soldiers in north vietnam in the early 1950's?

the ingot

d. who wrote " the mothman prophesies"?

john a. keel

e. who played him in the movie?

richard gere

smell ya later!
todd

too many questions

okay...

some fridays i have a little trouble coming up with questions to try to stump you all over the weekend.

this week, not so much.

not only do i have some multi-part entertainment trivia questions, but i've included a batch of cryptid-crypto questions as i veer back toward the creepy and unexplained (in preparation for, not just halloween, but the new story arc in the upcoming perhapanauts series!! more on that later!)

so here, first, are a couple of "random pictures of the week"
follwed by your "five for friday"!
you can thank me later!








"five for friday"
(actually, it's more like 13 this week...)

1. what did these three characters have in common?

a. niles' wife
b. norm's wife
c. rhoda's doorman

2. what were their names?

3. what do these three characters have in common?

a. sam malone
b. abby lockhart
c. jack shepherd

4, who play(ed) them?

5. crypto
a. what was the name of the man who filmed the classic and controversial bluff creek bigfoot footage?

b. what is mel waters (in)famous for?

c. paula m called it 'the dump creature', but what was the name given to the strange creatures which appeared out of the ground to taunt french soldiers in north vietnam in the early 1950's?

d. who wrote " the mothman prophesies"?

e. who played him in the movie?

that's all!
have a great weekend!
smell ya later!
todd

hope

okay...

i got these off of yahoo this morning...



This handout photo made available in Manila by the University of Alaska shows a deep sea jellyfish found by a US-Philippines underwater expedition in the Celebes Sea. Researchers said a swimming sea cucumber, a Nemo-like orange fish and a worm with tentacles sprouting from its head are among dozens of possible new species found during the survey of the Celebes Sea.(AFP/HO/Russ Hapcroft)





whenever they discover some new forms of life or new species at the bottom of the ocean or in the remotest part of the amazon, i'm heartened by the knowledge that we really don't know everything yet. this leaves room for hope that those creatures that so fascinate me actually DO exist and have somehow avoided detection all these years.

viva la cryptids!

s'all for today!
smell ya later!
todd

awakening

okay...

so the other day i'm having lunch with my friend, nick tapalansky, and i realize--damn! in all the confusion of the past few months, nick's first comic book--awakening--(published by the mouseguard guys, archaia press studios) came out and i never even hawked it here on the blog! d'oh!

well, between you and me, i wouldn't hawk anything here unless i really liked it, and i really like awakening. just in time for halloween, this suburban gothic horror tale will get you going right in the first issue! and issue 2 comes out this week! so don't miss it!

of course, i saw the first issue about six months ago and have watched as nick and his artist/partner, alex eckman-lawn, shopped it to archaia...and got picked up! not an easy feat in these days of timid publishers and even more selective readers!
but if you like horror--and i know you do--here's a little sample of what these guys got goin' on--








and if that piqued your curiosity, pcik up awakening 2 this week at your lcs! (and look and see if you can still get #1...)



oh, and here are the answers to last week's
"five for friday"

1. there are fourteen punctuation marks in english grammar. can you name ten?

period, comma, colon, semicolon, dash, hyphen, apostrophe, question mark, exclamation point, quotation marks, brackets, parenthesis, braces, and ellipses.

2. name the six pythons.

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

3. what is the only fruit or vegatable never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form but fresh?

lettuce

4. what do the j. and the two r.'s stand for in tolkien's name?

john ronald reuel

5. name six or more things you can wear on your feet beginning with the letter "s".

shoes, socks, sandals, sneakers, slippers, skis, skates, snowshoes, stockings, stilts.

smell ya later!
 todd

another rich...and another...

okay...

well, first off, i can't tell you how thrilled i am that so many people logged in about scary movies and scary stories and all of that scary stuff. many people tell me that they read the blog but that they never comment (mostly 'cause you hafta sign up to comment, an inconvenience we're working on here at perhapanauts central tech support...) for those of you who logged on and logged in, thank you so much. it's really nice to see you and nice to get the feel of our little community here. again, i think we'll get a better sense of it in a month or so when we change some things up, perhapanautically.

but while we're on the subject of our little perhapanauts neighborhood, i'd like to take a moment to showcase...well, maybe not showcase...how about highlight...a couple of OTHER talented riches--besides my pal, rich case, who i posted about a couple of weeks ago--who read the blog and log in periodically.

first is rich woodall, who signs in as...rich woodall...ummm...
i met rich a few years ago at a convention up in nashua, new hampshire--or wait, was it the boston show the year before...? anyway, rich and his buddy, matt talbot, were doing a cool black and white book called JOHNNY RAYGUN for the small ralph-run company of jetpack comics. craig had known them both and done a cover for them and gave me a few of their books. which i loved. when i met them they were nice enough to give me the entire run (search 'em out--they are really lots of fun!!) and also kind enough to do an awesome pin-up for us in our first perhapanauts trade, first blood!
since then, we've stayed in touch and rich has been nice enough to keep me in the loop with all his artistic ventures, most recently with some really cool pulp illustrations, which you too can check out at:

http://www.comicspace.com/johnraygun/

but here's a couple to whet your appetite







the other rich, rich faber, i've know now for about 12 years. while an inker in this crazy comics biz (rich claims he's quit the crazy comics biz forever and i can't blame him!), we were teamed up on a marvel one-shot called "bug!". writers and inkers don't usually have much to talk with each other about, don't really even have any need to contact one another, but rich and i did and we did and we've been good friends ever since. also, we share a birthday--a date i didn't really want made public, but if you check a few posts back, there's rich just blabbin' it out to everyone...* anyway, rich is now an artist, a teacher, and a dad--not necessarily in that order--and you can see his stuff at:

http://richfaber.blogspot.com/

but again, here's a sample...





so those are our other pals rich.

that's all i really have to say for now.
it's been raining here a lot this week and it's time for me to go. but first here are a few

random pictures of the week




that said,
here are your
"five for friday"

1. there are fourteen punctuation marks in english grammar. can you name ten?

2. name the six pythons.

3. what is the only fruit or vegatable never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form but fresh?

4. what do the j. and the two r.'s stand for in tolkien's name?

5. name six or more things you can wear on your feet beginning with the letter "s".

have a great weekend!
smell ya later!
todd




* heh. i relish making rich feel guilty over the stupidest, most insignificant things.

are you thinkin' halloween?

okay...

seems as i get older, the year seems to get shorter, and the time to start thinking about holidays and decorations come and go before you even get a chance to put your mind to it.

and so i ask--have you got your halloween decorations out? are they up? did ya get a pumpkin yet? do you know what you're gonna do with it when you do?

if not, here's some inspiration...










and has anybody been invited to a halloween party? and if so, whaddaya gonna be...?

that's all i got today!
more on friday!
smell ya later!
todd

ya wanna see something REALLY scary...?

okay...

as autumn (slowly, thank you) begins to fall over the countryside here in upstate new york, the night air much chillier, the trees painted overnight with wide broad brush-strokes of gold and crimson, something inside me begins to conjure images of pumpkins and goblins and skeletons and ghosts.
and i wanna be scared.

my 11 year old nephew not so much.

his older sister is now big into horror movies, whatever she can talk her parents into letting her see (only going on 14 herself), but they have (foolishly) pointed her in my direction--and my discretion (?!)--and so we've been watching some pretty good stuff recently!

oh, nothing TOO bad. nothing reprehensible. she claims that she doesn't get nightmares, but i don't want her to start 'cause of me!

my nephew, though, knows his limits, knows what he DOESN'T like, and being scared is def on that list.

and so it was that i tentatively took him into the recently opened (and soon to be closed) spirit of halloween store that opened up just across the river, and pointed out the really scary masks and decorations that i dreamed of filling my house with.* bug-eyed ghouls that shudder and shake, upside-down hanging vampire bats, a green-eyed goat demon mask--there was a lot that you could scare people with.





my nephew looked, said, "yeah, cool", to placate his uncle todd, but soon steered me over toward the fake mustache, sideburns, and chest hair that he wanted to complete his 70's disco costume to which he's added to a little bit each year over the past three.

people are always amazed at how alike he and i are--we love the same music, same jokes, same everything, it seems...

that "likes to be scared" gene just hasn't kicked in yet.

but when it DOES...

so, do YOU like to be scared?
got a story about it?
about being scared as a kid?
by a movie? or an older brother or sister?
a creepy neighbor?



lemme know.

oh, yeah--
here are
the answers to your
"five for friday"

1. forrest gump, the green mile, mission to mars

gary sinise

2. child's play, murder in the first, lord of the rings:the two towers

brad dourif

3. the ice storm, pleasantville, the contender

joan allen

4. platoon, any given sunday, identity

john c. mcginley

5. signs, the village, lady in the water

m. night shyamalan



that's it for me!
enjoy your colombus day cake!
smell ya later!
todd

*yes, i ended a sentence with a preposition.
so what, bitch.

what's your favorite new show of the season?

okay...

after that rousing venture back to the 80's, i really don't have all that much to say here on friday. sharon and i have a wedding to go to down in baltimore--baltimore comiccon organizer, marc nathan is marrying his beloved shelley, and we were fortunate enough to be invited! we've got an audio book to listen to on the way down. or up. or for the next week or so--there will probably be a lot of conversationing as well.
on the way back on sunday, we're going to have dinner with my pal and birthday sharer, rich faber, his wife traci, and their baby boy, jason stinkypants. (his name is really just jason, but i'm sure he'd answer to jason stinkypants if you called him.)

so in celebration of friday and of marc and shelley's nuptuals and of friday, here are a buncha "random pictures of the week" that our pal, rich woodall sent (more about rich next week!) and your "five for friday".







and here are your
"five for friday"

it's "name that actor"!
i'll list three movies and you have to name the actor who was in all three.
ready?

1. forrest gump, the green mile, mission to mars

2. child's play, murder in the first, lord of the rings:the two towers

3. the ice storm, pleasantville, the contender

4. platoon, any given sunday, identity

5. signs, the village, lady in the water

have a great weekend!
smell ya later!
todd

outta my head

okay...

so i guess that that was a good topic to touch on, huh...?
was hopin' that we'd get more lists, but here's how i'll start 'em...

putting michael jackson's "thriller" (and "beat it" and billie jean" and etc...) and madonna's always controversial videos on the shelf--those are great, but back then i was drawn more toward the new wave bands and the lower budget, inexpensive, innovative videos--i'm gonna go in bursts here.

i hafta echo brian and say that, in my book, the top video of the 80's--and probably of all time--should be "take on me" by a ha. it's just all that 80's look and attitude and sound all wrapped up in a cool, creative, unique video that still rocks it hard. it's beautiful to watch and it just never gets old. love it!

and yes, that was one of the clip pics on the blog.

another was tears for fears "everybody wants to rule the world", not a bad video in its own right, but easily my pic for best song of the 80's. it captured so much of the sound and the attitude of the time and every time i hear those opening notes, i'm immediately transported back to that time and energy.

another cool video from about that time was "wouldn't it be good" by nik kershaw. cutting edge graphics again, but used really well. i'd like to see an updated version of that or that effect used in something else; the suit-as-screen thing. it's a great device.

now here's a bunch that i've recently looked up and just thought were cool for one reason or another. maybe they were stylish, maybe i'm just getting a heavy sentimental vibe offa them, but here goes...


"19" by paul hardcastle. moved into my first apartment after college with my two best friends. a house, really, and we found out that we could not only afford basic cable, but that mtv came with it. i was transfixed. and this video featuring news reports and actual footage from vietnam was in heavy rotation. very powerful.

"every day i write the book" and "the only flame in town" by elvis costello. mostly 'cause i was/am a huge fan of elvis the c. prince charles and diana in 'write the book'--charles typing with boxing gloves on...

"house of fun" by madness. i got tired of "our house" very quickly, but remember this vid as being a lot of fun, after checking it on youtube, i think it's one of those cases where my memory was better than the actual clip. still fun though, and it's got that carnival beat!

"whisper to a scream" by icicle works and "when loves breaks down" by prefab sprout were both just bands-standing videos, but i dug these songs and so dug the vids.

thomas dolby's "she blinded me with science". this was a video that kinda promised where tech and music and video were all gonna merge. dolby is a great showman too!

"aeiou and sometimes y" by ebn ozn. i remember seeing this on friday night videos (before i got cable and mtv) and thinking that it was just...i dunno. but there was something memorable about it--the way the guy says the word "cavalier"?

the early computer animated "money for nothin'" by dire straits. incredible! groundbreaking! i loved it! (kinda passe now...)

"stand by" by roman holiday--not as great as i remember, but a fun song!

there were SO MANY other videos that had cool visuals or even just moments of memorable fun. cyndi lauper and captain lou albano dancing in her mother's kitchen singing about the fun girls wanted to have. the drummer hitting that last drum in j. giels' "centerfold". the way the angel's eyes glowed in bonnie tyler's "total eclipse of the heart". years before michael did "black and white", godley and creme (of 10cc fame) did a song/video called "cry". eddie grant stepping off the couch into the floor on "electric avenue". EVERYTHING that weird al did!!! (beat it/eat it! bad/fat! genius!!) colin hay's lazy eye in men at work's "down under". suzanna hoffs super sexy eyes in the bangles' "walk like an egyptian" (how many chick rock stars did i fall in love with because of music videos...?) aimee mann standing up defiantly in the theater in 'til tuesday's "voices carry. bruce "dancing in the dark" with courtney cox! mick and david bowie "dancin' in the streets".








oh, and for everyone still wondering what the song was that prompted all of this, the song that, though i've listened to it a buncha times on youtube, is STILL rambling through my head, painting pictures in my mind...

it's "waiting for a star to fall" by boy meets girl.
soft, glowy, romantic.
makes you wish that you were in love.
or glad that you are.
can't. get. it. out. of. my. head.




wanna check out some cool newer vids?
check out lazlo bane covering men at work's "overkill".
or the gorillaz "feel good inc".
or weezer's "keep fishin'"--i dare ya!
and if you've never seen them--what rock have you been living under--DON'T MISS "a million ways" and "here it goes" by ok go!
and yes, i know...but jessica simpson's "public affair" is both an homage to madonna's early "holiday" stuff and to the nights you spent whirling around and around at the roller rink hoping for an excuse just to hold a cute girl or guys hand. don't tell me you didn't.



any more entries?
smell ya later!
todd

waiting for a song to get the hell outta my head...

okay...

not an obsession or anything that i've become addicted to by any means, but i find myself spending some time now and then--usually when i should be writing--checking things out on youtube. like ebay, i am just amazed sometimes at what you can find there. i mean, yes, much of it is kids posting their every skateboard mishap and mentos/diet coke experiment (and yeah, those CAN be fun, but...do we really need 389 versions of the same exact thing...?), but it is also an incredibly extensive library of...welll, you name it! there's a great little blair-witchy, homemade video under "mothman video". some cool stuff under ufo's and chupacabra. lectures and interviews and i have yet to be able to stump it by typing in some obscure music video that was only ever seen by me when it was only aired once ever. i have searched for funny comedy bits and bloopers, scenes from film and tv alike, and even some stuff that i DIDN'T want to see!

(i say that i've yet to stump it and that's not exactly true as i'm looking for a blooper that i saw on tv a afew years ago of a sportscaster in new mexico or arizona or someplace who can't stop laughing when the cameraman trips just before they're about to go on air...)



here's what got me though--
you know how you get a song stuck in your head...okay, we've all been there and it happens to me fairly frequently *. there are ways to beat that, to switch songs (my pal, jeff, told me that neil diamond's "coming to america" is the ultimate cure--but then you're stuck with that...)
we all get songs stuck in our heads.

now, with the advent of itunes, i can usually cure it by going in and buying the song.
it usually works.
the other day i got this song stuck in my head and it just wouldn't go away.
it's an old 80's song--which is almost always okay--although it was never one that i loved at the time. it was a little too...fluffy for me. i didn't own the album. we didn't play it in my band.
and yet it's very melodic and catchy and it's insinuated itself into the back of my mind where it will rise to the surface from time to time and get stuck in my head without ever hearing it or having it mentioned.
i thought that if i went to itunes and bought it, it would go away.
but it happens to be one of the rare tunes that itunes does NOT have in it's library.

and so i went to youtube.
and they had it!

(and it is SO 80's--could probably be in the running as one of the most 80's videos ever.)

so once i found that, i started looking and typing in EVERY song i could think of, every mtv classic--or semi-classic--that i could think of. youtube had them all!



so now that i've told you all that and digressed all around the subject, i ask you...

what's the best music video?
what's YOUR favorite?
is it on youtube?







sorry, that's just where my head's been at the past week or so.
and i thought i'd share.
if i have now gotten some song stuck in YOUR head, well, i apologize.

smell ya later!
todd


* i also have what i call my default song.
do you have one of those?
when i'm working around the house or going about a mindless type chore, i'll find myself whistling just to break the silence--or the monotony. and it's always the same song--the sax intro to dire straits "your latest trick". beautiful sax solo, beautiful tune--i love it.
...
unless i can't get it out of my head...