HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

I've rarely been able to fight the urge to incorporate monsters and puns into my work, and decided that the holiday season wasn't the time to start.

Inspired by one of my favorite Toho productions, "War of the Gargantuas" which presented the conflict between gentle, smart, shaggy, brown gargantua, SANDA, and his ill-tempered, man-eating, shaggy and scaly green brother, GAIRA, I present this piece I call "Gaira vs Santa."

Enjoy your holidays.

The End of The Powerpuff Girls?

In comic book stores tomorrow is Issue #69 of THE POWERPUFF GIRLS which was written by me, with art by Ricardo Garcia-Fuentes and Mike Decarlo. DC Comics' site lists it as the final issue of the Powerpuff Girls, though the series actually ends with issue #70, which reprints Issue #1. I guess, then it's the last original issue.

Have no fear, though,the Powerpuff Girls have not completely moved out of the world of comics. They're simply moving into the anthology series CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY. As I write this, I'm in the midst of scripting A PPG story titled "Gather No Moths" for that very anthology.

I Walked With A Zombie

Actually, it was more like twelve of them.

Tonight, a little after 9:00, I stepped out onto the sidewalk of downtown Ann Arbor, and right in the middle of a group of zombies shuffling along, being led by a man carrying a cardboard sign which read "Season's Eatings."

Most of the zombies wore white trimmed red Santa Claus hats along with varying degrees of grimy clothes, while a couple wore full Santa Claus suits, and one, with blood encrusted around his mouth wore a rabbit suit. All these pale gray complexioned zombies shuffling along made for a pretty interesting sight, certainly not one you see everyday. Walking amongst them taught me something as well.

What did I learn? After long years of watching many a zombie movie, and coming to the conclusion that out of all of the various horror scenarios, zombies seemed to be the most plausible, and most horrible of them all. The idea that the bodies of people you know would return from the grave, or be so overcome by some psychosis inducing virus, that they'd try to eat the living, seemed pretty horrible. Unfortunately, what I discovered tonight is that in real life, zombies just aren't scary. Maybe it's because none of them tried to take a bite out of me, or because I knew they weren't real, whatever. I did not find the experience creepy in any way, and they were pretty convincing in their Romero inspired shuffling, moans, and glassy-eyed stares. I was actually enjoying the whole thing. I did not feel the impulse to whack any of them over the head with a shovel. I wonder if anyone else did.

UPDATE: You can read more about "Zombie Claus" here...

Scooby-Doo #103

In comic book stores tomorrow morning is the latest issue of SCOOBY-DOO in which the Mystery, Inc. gang tackles a living snowman, a haunted painting, and pirate ghosts in three tales all written by yours truly. Art by Joe Staton, Horacio Ottolini, Robert Pope and Scott McRae.

Halloween

When this was more topical, people asked what I did for Halloween. Now, with other holiday's soon upon us, I finally have pictures to show. So, here's a little treat for those of you still trying to hold on to that last bit of Halloween magic until next year.

Since Halloween's my favorite holiday I tend to go all out. This year, the weather was fortunately on my side. The temperature was in the 60s and there was very little wind. This was important since, with the assistance of my friend, Carrie Morris, I strung about 50 of the classic plastic Jack O'lantern buckets from one of the trees in my front yard. Each bucket contained candles, so that by the time night arrived, these otherwise pretty kitschy decorations, looked really nice illuminated from within, and seemingly floating in the air. It was somewhat like Ray Bradbury's Halloween Tree, though on a smaller scale.

I also constructed a seven-foot, papier-mache day, of the dead-style skeleton which was also hung from the tree. There was just enough breeze to actually make the skeleton (constructed somewhat like a marionette) to move. Hastily made luminara bags left over from last year, and jars of candles in the foliage at the base of a second tree, and a custom sound effects CD completed the scene.

Check it out here...

New Features

Over the next few weeks, this website is going to be overhauled to some extent. The biggest area to be changed will be the "Writing" section. Right now, it's mostly an out of date, and incomplete checklist of comic book titles I've written. Soon it will be much more informative.

Not only will the list of my work be updated and expanded to work I've done outside of comics, but there will be new features as well. Some of comic books will get their own sections containing much more information about them as well as pages and scenes that were cut from the finished product, and preliminary sketches of characters, locals, props, and covers, most of which have never been seen before.

I'm working on the MIDNIGHT, MASS. section right now, which will include not only my own initial sketches ( demonstrating once and for all why I don't draw my own comics) as well as those of Jesus Saiz, Paul Lee (as seen above), Tomer Hanuka, and Mike Mignola.

I think these changes are going to be a great improvement.

If there's anything you'd like to see added, or changed to this site, don't be shy. Let us know.

Meddling Ref

Here's all the reference you should need.

The idea behind "Those Meddling Kids" was to retell a familiar Scooby-Doo story, in this case one from the show, from the point of view of the villain who would be shown as a guy trying to get a job done, but can't because he is constantly being menaced by Mystery Inc. A reversal if you will. I don't know if it's because it always annoyed me as a kid to read adaptations of movies or tv shows where the art had nothing to do with what was on screen, or not, but I think the art for this comic book story should emulate the art of the tv series as much as possible, at least in the sense that the background elements, props, and characters look as they appeared on the actual episode and not as if they came from some parallel earth episode.

I tried to order the images as they will appear in the comic book story as much as possible, though there are exceptions, such as when something is more general than story specific like Mystery Inc. in their scuba gear. Obviously screen shots that have Mystery inc. characters in them, should not have them unless the script requires. More likely it will be Captain Cutler in those locations.

In the first few scenes, Cutler has sea weed on his costume, after this, he does not.

Images such as Scooby's POV as he touches Cutler's helmet from his surfboard, and surface top views of the boat piloted by Mystery Inc., are merely meant to give you a sense of say Scooby's position, and the shape of the boat, since in this story these vantage points aren't actually present.

If you have any qustions, or need anything else, let me know.

From top to bottom:

Captain Cutler sans helmet

Mrs. Cutler

The Graveyard of Lost Ships as seen underwater

The Graveyard of Lost Ships underwater in continued pan from prior image

Cutler's mini-sub. This is all that we see of it in the tv episode. Extrapolate the rest of it from this. When we see it parked in the cove early on, don't use this yacht--this is the yacht Cutler steals further in the story.

Mystery Inc. in Scuba gear.

The Graveyard of Lost Ships as seen from the surface (page 1, panel 1)

The scuba tank room (page 1, panel 2)

The scuba tank room (page 1, panel 2)

Scooby touches Cutler's helmet (page 2, panel 2)

Cutler confronts Scooby (page 2, panel 3)

Scooby paddles for his life (page 2, panel 4)

Cutler menaces

Cutler Emerges (page 3, panel 2)

Mystery Inc. Flees Cutler (page 3)

Shaggy Flees in Umbrella (page 3)

Cutler covered in weeds

Cave w/mini-sub (don't used yacht it's tied to until later) (Page 3, panel 4)

Cave continued pan

Cave continued pan

Cave continued pan w/winch and hoisted boat

Portrait of Captain Cutler w/stairs (page 5) Though the kitchen setting is never seen on the show, use these backgrounds to get a sense of a design scheme that matches the existing backgrounds.

Mrs. Cutler with Velma

Close-up of Cutler's portrait

Portrait with witch stuff (page 5)

Stolen Yacht (pages 7-8)

Cove entrance (page 8)

Mystery Inc.'s boat (page 8)

Back wall of Cove --where the hidden opening is, but don't use this boat --it's Mystery Inc.'s (page 8)

Cutler Runs (page 11, panel 1)

Cutler lurks outside (page 10, panel 2)

Velma, Daphne and Freddie find the faux Cutler (page 10, panel 2)

Cutler slams the door (page 10, panel 3)

Scooby slams into Cutler (Page 10, panel 5)

Cutler smashes into the deck (page 10, panel 6)

Cutler runs (page 11, panel 1)

Shaggy and Scooby Flee from Cutler (page 11, panels 2 and 3)

Shaggy as a figurehead (page 11, panel 4)

Shaggy and Scooby as figureheads (page 11, panel 4)

Scooby as figurehead while Cutler searches (page 11, panel 4)

That rock that Shaggy is going to sit on is the rock Cutler presses down on to open the secret entrance to his cave (page 11, panel 5)

This is what the secret entrance door looks like as it opens (page 11, panel 5)

Cutler stands at the top of the ramp leading from the lighthouse to the cave (page 13, panel 3)

The tugboat that Mystery Inc. launches their plan from on page 13(not specified, but this is where Shaggy is wrestling the hose above)

Tugboat continued pan

Shaggy wrestles the hose (page 13, panel 4)

Cutler stands on the dock (page 13, panel 5)

Scooby covered in suds in the motorboat (page 13, panel 6)

The Motorboat jumps the dock (page 13, panel 6)

Cutler captured (page 14, panel 1)

Freddie removes Cutler's helmet (page 14, panel 2)

Different angle (Page 14, panel 2)

Velma and Daphne (page 14, panel 3)

Shaggy attaches the seaweed beard to Cutler (page 14, panel 3)

Cutler with the seaweedbeard in close up