In Comic Book Stores Today

Available today is CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY #42 which contains a Powerpuff Girls story I wrote.

Ben Chapman 1925-2008

I am devastated to learn that Ben Chapman has passed away. Ben was the actor who is best known for portraying the Creature from the Black Lagoon during all of his out of the water scenes (Ricou Browning played the Creature for the underwater scenes) in Universal Pictures' classic 1954 movie "The Creature From the Black Lagoon."

A few years back, I included a thinly disguised version of Ben in a SCOOBY-DOO story I wrote. When the issue came out, I sent a copy to him, not expecting to ever hear from him, mostly it was just a way for me to say thanks for being the persona behind one of my favorite monsters when I was a kid (all right, the Creature is still one of my favorites). I was pleasantly surprised to find an email from Ben, just a short time later, complimenting the issue and thanking me for putting him in the story. He seemed delighted by the inclusion, and also saw the story as a way to bring attention to the Creature to children who might otherwise be ignorant of the monster's existence. This led to a brief back and forth exchange of emails, and a desire to meet Ben in person at one of his numerous convention appearances. I never was able to, and am saddened by this missed opportunity. I'm more saddened by Ben's passing, as he seemed like a genuine, delightful man as evidenced in the emails he sent me, and in the many interviews I've read with him, watched on DVD, or the stories I've heard about him from people who actually did have the pleasure of knowing him.

R.I.P.

Scooby-Doo #129

Almost in time for President's Day, the ghost of John Wilkes Booth, not content with assassinating Abe Lincoln, menaces the Mystery Inc. gang in "History is History." This chilling AND educational story written by me, appears in SCOOBY-DOO #129, available today at a comic book retailer near you.

Read THE FOUNDATION #1 for FREE!

Now, courtesy of Boom! Studios and Newsarama, you can read the sold out first issue of THE FOUNDATION right here for free!

You may direct any comments you have back here when you're done, if you so choose.

In Stores Today

Available in comic book stores today is the second issue of "The Foundation" from Boom! Studios. The series has been receiving a lot of good reviews, plus a push from "Y: The Last Man" scribe, Brian K. Vaughan. The first issue sold out quickly. Don't let issue #2 slip through your fingers.

New Images

I've been pretty busy of late, which is why there haven't been any new posts in a while.

Not too long ago, I created a few new images for the website for the Shaman Drum Bookshop which can be seen by going to to the right of the screen and clicking on "Browse By Category" scrolling down to each category you will be able to see the thumbnail sized images I created.

I've only got five left to do. For the most part they are a fun challenge. Coming up with an image that encompases an entire field of study and having it work visually in a space that's 160 pixels x 200 pixels in size takes some doing. I'm pretty pleased with what's there so far. What image I'm going to choose to represent all of "history" or "philosophy" is beyond me at this moment. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to drop them in the comments box.

Your Vote Counts

It's that time of the year again. The nominees have all been announced, now all you have to do is choose the winners. Yes, that's right, the Rondo Awards for achievement in classic horror are once again upon us. What are you waiting for? Vote here.

Mad Scientist #16

One of the best monster magazines out there is now even better. MAD SCIENTIST has gone from digest-sized to full magazine size, with more great content. I contributed an article to the latest issue, as well as a portrait of Vampira which appears on the back cover. You can see a detail taken from this image in the previous post. At $5.00, it's a bargain. To find out more about the contents to issue #16, and order a copy, simply go here. Tell them I sent you.

R.I.P. Vampira 1921-2008

Maila Nurmi, who in her persona as "Vampira," was the first television horror host, now probably best known for her role in Ed Wood's "Plan 9 From Outer Space" died a few days ago in her sleep. She was 86.

In Stores Today

Available in comic book stores today is THE FOUNDATION #1, the first of a five-issue series written by myself with art by Chee. Published by Boom! Studios, you might have some trouble getting your hands on a copy at your smaller comic book emporiums, but your retailer should still be able to order it for you, or you can get it directly through Boom! Studios here.

Fun With Scissors - part 120

I'm not about to embark on bringing back the "Fun With Scissors" feature to this blog, at least not for a little while yet. This piece was actually done last year, but at the time I was without a scanner and could not post it at the seasonally appropriate time. Instead, I'm doing so now, which ended up being more appropriate since the book that introduced this character is 50 years old this year.

Here's the title character of one of my favorite Christmas specials of all time, the Grinch from the terrific Dr. Seuss/Chuck Jones/ Boris Karloff collaboration "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."

Merry Christmas!

The Mummy Turns 75

Seventy-five years ago today, "The Mummy" premiered, adding a new monster to Universal's expanding horror franchise. Inspired by the the fascination with ancient Egypt brought on by the discovery of King Tut's tomb, the alleged curse that came with opening the tomb, and the script for the film adaption of the previous year's "Dracula," "The Mummy" is one of Universal's best entries. Boris Karloff does an excellent job portraying Ardath Bey, and his true identity of Imhotep. While taking hours to apply the make-up, Karloff's actual screen time in the bandages was only a few moments long, but it is perhaps the most memorable, and best known sequence in the entire film, punctuated by David Manners' maniacal laughter and "He went for a little walk." line.

Among the rest of the cast, which includes Edward Van Sloan (who also had key roles in both "Dracula" and "Frankenstein"), Bramwell Fletcher, and Arthur Byron, it's exotic beauty, Zita Johann who shines as Ardath Bey's romantic obsession. The film was beautifully directed by Karl Freund, the cinematographer on "Dracula" and numerous films directed by Fritz Lang, including "Metropolis" (1927).

Like most of the other Universal monsters, "The Mummy" did have sequels--of sorts. Excluding "Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy" (1955) there were four. Not only did Karloff appear only in the original Mummy movie, but his character, Imhotep did not live on past the original film either. The mummy that menaces "The Mummy's Hand (1940), "The Mummy's Tomb" (1942), "The Mummy's Ghost" (1944), and "The Mummy's Curse" (1944) was named Kharis, and was portrayed initially by an effectively creepy Tom Tyler, followed by Lon Chaney, Jr. in the remaining three films. Not only was the mummy different in these four movies, but the tone was vastly different, and the quality was difinitely B-movie as opposed to the high quality of the original production.

"The Mummy" also had one of the most beautiful posters of all time, as seen here. Skip "Rudolph", and watch "The Mummy" tonight.

The Big Red Guy

With a holiday fast approaching in which millions of children look forward to a big red man, I thought it only appropriate to direct you to another big red guy I'm fond of. Here's the teaser trailer for HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY arriving in theaters next Summer.

Winter Display

Here's the winter holiday display I did this year for Shaman Drum Bookshop. I intentionally created something that evoked the winter holidays without being specific to any holiday.





I had the most fun making the birds, choosing ones that could wear winter hats yet still remain recognizable; the blue jay's hat mirroring the crest it would have naturally, and of course the two black capped chickadees.




I filled the interior space with paper chains and hand cut snowflakes connecting the overhead lighting throughout the store, and brought back the penguins from last year.

Brainiac 5 and Supergirl

Here's a piece a little while ago as a birthday present for a friend of mine. I'm not entirely happy with this piece. Most of my problems with it stem from poor planning on my part. I kept changing it as I went. First I started with the idea that I was going to stay true to the classic Legion of Superheroes art of the 1960s, but then began stylizing it my own way partway through, so now Brainiac's body seems to be a weird mishmash of the two styles that doesn't really work. Also, this was originally going to be a simple portrait of Brainiac 5, but I didn't feel it was enough, so I added the idea of his infatuation with Supergirl intruding upon his concentration with his experiment. If I'd thought to include this element in the beginning, the layout would have been different, instead of the cluttered look this piece has now. The third detriment was that i tried using parchment paper to get that layered transparent look of the cloud, but discovered that this type of paper doesn't take glue too well, so it was constantly peeling off the papers attached to it, and bits of chemistry gear kept falling off altogether.

In my experience, if a complication arises when I'm making a collage, the final result usually ends up being less than i hoped for, and I've yet to learn to simply give up on a piece that's not working and to start over. My most succesful pieces, no matter how complicated they seem, tended to be the easiest ones, done the quickest, and without problems cropping up along the way.

Happy Hanukkah!

EVEL KNIEVEL 1938 - 2007

When I was growing up, Evel Knievel was the man. What boy didn't want to be the king of motorcycle stuntman? Thankfully I didn't try emulating him. I did however follow all of his exploits through the attempt to make that mile long jump across Snake River Canyon and beyond. I bought the Scholastic biography. I collected the Topps trading cards. I remember the toy ad that adorned the back cover of seemingly every comic book I read. I owned the stunt cycle toys which exposed me to reality vs the commercial on tv as my stuntcycle never performed the cool stunts the kids in the commercial were able to manage, but I still sent Evel's 8" plastic stand-in on feats of daring with attempts at jumping boulders lining our driveway, and even a couple leaps from the roof. For all its other failings, the stunt cycle toy, and Evel Knievel action figure that rode it were incredibly durable, just like the real man.

In Comic Book Stores Today

When a box containing copies of CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY #39 showed up at my door, my kids were really excited when they saw the cover. "YOU wrote a Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends story?" Alas, no. I wrote the "Dexter's Laboratory" story in this issue, available today.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 31 - Finale

I ended up not taking very many pictures of my yard set-up this year. Pretty much all of the shots I took were during the day, eliminating any spookiness factor. My kids were too inpatient to get trick-or-treating underway to allow dad to stand in the driveway photographing things.

It was very windy again, so no plastic jack-o-lanterns lit up with candles filled the trees this year either. The main piece of my yard decor was this skeleton horse with skeleton rider, a 10' tall (at least) 2-figure marrionette, which moved a bit with the wind which also moved the branches that some of the features were tied to, creating additioal movements. The twine holding everything together while very visible in these shots, is pretty invisible once it starts getting dark.






My 8' tall skeleton marrionette made his third appearance, this time in a new location to make room for the horse. Like the horse, the twine disappears from view after dark.




The two ghosts that I posted a DIY instructional on earlier in the month were also hung from the trees. The more aggresive looking one over our driveway, the other one towards the front of our yard where it would be seen first by kids coming from one end of our street. The wind creating some nice swooping action of the ghost with her arms held out in a grasping position. The wind didn't do the other ghost too many favors, flattening her out a bit so I'm sure someone wondered why I hung my dry cleaning from a tree.

As you can see, the maples in our front yard are not at all cooperative, still boasting a full set of GREEN leaves. This meant that I had to be careful where I hung things so that they would be visible and not hidden by the foliage.




A also recycled a couple of Dementors that I made for a book store display to commemerate the final Harry Potter book. they were in pretty bad shape, and will be going out with Monday's trash, but they did okay for tonight. One of them was hung up over our driveway just above where the trick-or-treaters turn to reach our front door. I have to admit that looking out our bedroom window and seeing that thing flitting about out there in the wind is pretty eerie.



The other dementor was positioned peeking from around a tree at the top of our driveway, sort of a surprise.



This is a wide shot that shows where most of the elements were in relation to one another. The ghost with her hands held infront of her, is off to the left of the skeleton marrionette. In the background, you can see my kids impatiently waiting to start their rounds. My daughter went as "one of the classics" she said, a witch. My son went as Boba Fett, which started as a storebought costume, but was given embellishments such as a holster, a feed line for the flame thrower, and the rocket launching backpack. Like the Kenner action figure of 1979 which broke the hearts of untold millions of boys, this missile could not be fired either.

The blobby ectoplasmic thing hovering over their heads is recycled Nearly Headless Nick, also originally built for the Harry Potter festivities. For some odd reason, I always neglect to photograph this thing even though I think it came out pretty well.

Jars containing lit votive candles created a path leading up from the jack o'lanterns bordering the entrance to our driveway, leading to our front door. The porchlight by the front door was covered with enlarged copies of the "Vampire Girl," "Gorilla," and "Shock Monster" art from the ads in Famous Monsters, which looked pretty good backlit, but were too bright to photograph.

So there you have it, another Halloween come and gone.

There will not be any activity at this blog for at least a week or two while I recover and catch up on some projects that need attending to. Again, thanks to everyone who stopped by and to the other participants in this year's Halloween Countdown. Come back next Fall for more tricks and treats, and please, stop by between now and then.

I sleep now.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 31 - Riddle

31 Days of Halloween is over so there is no new riddle, but I thank everyone who participated in guessing, or attempting to guess these things.





Answer to yesterday's riddle: "Can't you count, Dracula?"


Stephen offered up some really good choices, including one answer that was almost correct.