Disney World - part 2

The aspect of Disney World, and the Magic Kingdom in particular, that really resonates with me is the attention to detail from the authentic props that decorate the attractions themselves (and even the giftshops), to architectural detail, and especially the signage. The faux businesses that make up the second stories of the stores lining Main Street are fun tributes to key Disney personel of the past. Unfortunately I never found the opportunity to photograph these as I always managed to hit Main Street at its most crowded, either at the park's opening, closing, or during one of the numerous parades throughout the day.

I did manage to take pictures of numerous other signs and details. many of my favorites are shown here, in particular these first two posters from Tomorrowland. If only they offered prints of these for sale.

From top to bottom:












Posters for the Antique Rockets Show and the Space Collectibles Convention from Tomorrowland



















The sign showing the way to the least travelled path in the Magic Kingdom, the back route leading from Mickey's Toontown to Tomorrowland.




































The restroom signs from Tomorrowland.

















The plaque on the side of the trashcan outside the Diamond Horseshoe on the border between Frontierland and Liberty Square.



















One of the trashcans at the Polynesian resort.















Sign outside Old Scratch's Mystery Mine on Tom Sawyer Island



















Jiminy Cricket and Pinocchio demonstrate fire safety on the back of the hotel room doors at the Wilderness Lodge resort.



















Mickey demonstrates how to use a life jacket on one of the boats ferrying guests between the Wilderness Lodge and the Magic Kingdom.

















A survey marker in the pavement just before the entrance to the Disney Studios theme park.

















Signage to Sir Mickey's, a store in Fantasyland decorated after "The Brave Little Tailor," the cartoon in which Mickey defeats the giant and wins the hand of Princess Minnie. The magic beanstalk "grows" throughout the shop and out through other windows and doors.















One of the things my kids enjoyed doing while they were in Disney World (though once caught up in the excitement, they'd generally forget all about it) was searching for hidden Mickeys. These generally were the famous three-circle logo, or cartoon Mickey in profile hidden among decorative elements in the parks, lodges and transportation. There were also hidden Donalds such as the stylized Donald Duck face on the chair by the moving suit of armor in the Haunted Mansion, or on one of the canoes in the Jungle Cruise.






































Above are 4 of the hidden Mickeys we uncovered in The Wilderness Lodge and Villa.
















If you look at the arrangement of the plates on the lower left side of the banquet table in the Haunted Mansion you can find another. There must be hundreds, if not thousands of them dispersed throughout Disney World. We spotted a couple dozen.

Disney World - part 1

Fear not, I have no plans to bore you with endless vacation slides, but over the next few days I thought I'd post some images taken from Disney World mostly featuring more obscure subjects, or favorites taken from unusual vantage points. I took a lot of pictures while I was there and learned two things. First; I was incredibly lucky in my ability to take a vast amount of pictures of the park's architecture and features without any humans obscuring the shot. Looking through the files of photos I took, you'd almost think I had the park to myself. (Of course I also have numerous shots of beaming family members among the Disney World landscape features. Second; It's almost impossible to take a decent shot inside any of the rides. The Prohibition of flash photography while preserving the illusions of say the Pepper's Ghost feature of the Haunted Mansion banquet/ballroom, also means that everything inside the rides is too dark. Even It's a Small World, while being the most amazingly designed ride, which is not at all hampered by the clearly visible drop ceilings and plywood and papier-mache construction of the sets, was virtually impossible to shoot with a digital camera, due to low light levels and the combined motion of the ride boats as well as the figures on display in the ride itself. What I wouldn't give for a walk through of these rides with proper lighting conditions.



From top to bottom:

The "Walter E. Disney" train pulling into the Frontierland station.














Decorative poles inside Adventureland.














Preliminary Alice and Wonderland artwork including some by Mary Blair.















The Map to Tom Sawyer Island.













A mural on the wall inside the Pinocchio Village Haus restaurant.













Harper's Mill and the "Liberty Belle."











A headhunter as seen from the Jungle Cruise.












The Mad Hatter and Alice go for a tea cup ride. This photo was taken from another spinning tea cup.











One of the monorails.
















A group of fish makes its way up Main Street during the nightly parade.



















Davy Jones projected onto a mist waterfall as one of the new "enhancements" to Pirates of the Caribbean.











The Dumbo statue near the "Partners" statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse.











The Fantasia Brooms at Downtown Disney.



















Gertie the Dinosaur ice cream stand at Disney Studios.













Sign outside the gym in the Wilderness Lodge Villa.

I'm Back

I'm back from a great vacation, but not back up to speed yet. Give me a couple of days to unpack, and unwind, and I'll post some new stuff soon.

On Vacation

I've packed my bags and am heading off with the family for a week at Disney World. While I can't take you with me, I can give you a virtual near equivalent to my vacation.

Here are a slew of Disney Theme Park links to keep you busy while I'm gone.

Start at The Official Disney Theme Parks Website and All Ears.net for everything you need to know to plan your own trip, then for more general Disney Theme park fun, incuding tons of photos, pop in here , here, here, here , here and here for vintage Disney fun; here for maps to the parks; here for Walt Disney World Trivia; Vintage Disneyland Goodies and more Disneyana and still more Disney Memorabilia; Here for a history of Disney World told through postcards; and here for audio and video from the parks.


For specific rides such as the Haunted Mansion try doombuggies.com, grim ghosts.com, the ghost relations department, all about Haunted Mansion collectibles, and Daveland's Haunted Mansion blog. For Pirates of the Caribbean visit Tell No Tales, and Daveland's pirates of the Caribbean blog. For the Jungle Cruise boat ride get on line here and here at Daveland again. For Star Tours visit Endor Express. For the now, sadly, defunct 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride climb aboard here. Finally, here's a guide to all of the Hidden Mickeys

For Disney related news check out the Laughing Place. For Disney history there's The E-Ticket, This Day in Disney History
and The Main Street Gazette. Find out what Disney and Pixar professionals think about the parks at Re-Imagineering, and what obsessive fans think about all things Disney here. For more on the Disney parks and lesser tourist theme parks, try visiting outside the berm.

If you're still not satisfied, all of these sites have their own links to even more incredible Disney Theme Park goodness. Enjoy!

In Comic Book Stores Today

On sale in comic book stores today is issue #4 of THE FOUNDATION.

Donkey

Here's a more recent commission I created. This papier-mache donkey was requested as a baby shower gift.

Schroeder

Here's a commission I collaged a few months ago.

Beasts!

A few weeks ago, Fantagraphics found themselves short one entry for their forthcoming book BEASTS! BOOK TWO, the follow-up to their amazing book, BEASTS! a compendium of mythological and cryptozoological creatures of every sort depicted by a very wide range of talented artists. To fill this opening in the second book, they put out an open call for artists to submit an image of a not previously (in either book) depicted beast.

Even though I was bogged down with other projects, I couldn't resist. I was already immersed in just this sort of material for SCOOBY-DOO and a forthcoming other project, so it seemed like something I needed to do. For my submissions, I chose the jackalope, the Australian half-man, half-emu Dhinnabarrada, and the giant bird, the Roc.

I had no expectations that one of my submissions would be selected for inclusion in the book, and none of them were. There were over 200 entries submitted for this slot, all done in a wide range of styles and all with great skill. You can read more about BEASTS! BOOK TWO here which also displays many of the submitted entries, and browse the flickr pool of submitted pieces here.

Congratulations to Jennifer Tong, whose winning entry for "Nymph" can be seen here.

In Stores Today

Learn everything you ever needed to know about the Rokuro-Kubi from Velma in a story I wrote for SCOOBY-DOO #130 which is available in comic book stores today.

In Comic Book Stores Today

"The Foundation" #3 hits stores today.

If you still haven't read the sold out issue #1, you can read it for free here.

My Alter Ego

As anyone coming to this website/blog knows, I write comic books. What isn't as generally well known, is that I also appear in them. Beginning in 1989, Marvel Comics published "Damage Control" a 4-issue series created by Dwayne McDuffie, and drawn by Ernie Colon. This series told the comedic exploits of the company whose function was to clean-up and rebuild the damage caused by superheroes, supervillains and related phenomena. Among the cast was John "Bart" Rozum, the slovenly intern, who while being a bit fannish around superheroes was also pretty nonplussed by them. He was not afraid to demand that supervillain Doctor Doom show him I.D. when paying by check, or telling the Punisher to take a number.

Bart ended up permanently on staff and besides the superhero action, found some action with hot receptionist Anne.

"Damage Control" returned as a second 4-issue series about six months after the first series finished, and then for a third 4-issue run in 1991. Now, nearly twenty-years after it's debut in "Marvel Comics Presents" (and after some guest appearances in recent issues of "She-Hulk") "Damage Control" (the official title is "World War Hulk: Aftersmash - Damage Control" returns as a 3-issue mini-series written by Dwayne McDuffie and drawn by Salva Espin. I'm happy to see I'm still employed there, still apparently involved with Anne, and unlike the real me, haven't aged a bit in all that time.

Here are some of Bart's moments through the years. From top to bottom...

Bart let's new intern Robby Baldwin know he's onto his superhero secret identity (which comes into play in the new series) as drawn by Kyle Baker in "Damage Control" volume 3, issue #1.

Asking Dr. Doom for some I.D. in volume 1, issue #2.

Telling the Silver Surfer to put the pedal to the metal in volume 3, issue #4.

The moment that made a man out of Bart from volume 2, issue #1.

Bart and Anne in action at the premiere of the Damage Control movie in volume 3, issue #3.

Bart and Anne make their new debuts in the new series.

Don't Forget to Vote!

Today is the last day to vote in the Rondo Awards for the best in classic horror. Don't wait until it's too late, vote now!

Random Objects In My office

Before "Star Wars" exploded on the pop culture landscape, "Planet of the Apes" was the science fiction franchise that people went ape over. I was no exception. I have many examples of "Planet of the Apes" merchandising in my posession, including the figurines shown here, which saw heavy play.

I can't tell you much about them, except that I'm pretty certain they were meant as a tie in to the "Return to the Planet of the Apes" cartoon series, or possibly the final Apes movie, "Battle for the Planet of the Apes." These four figures came packaged with a batch of generic green plastic army men, horses for the ape soldiers to ride on, and a jeep with human soldier driver (which I think is still floating around in a big bucket of plastic soldiers I passed on to my son).

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.