Perhapablog
Monday, February 08, 2010
warren newsom's awesome "brain power" and mek's sketchbook!
okay...i am constantly amazed at the incredible talent we have here in our little perhapa-family.
you might remember a couple of weeks back, christian's suggestion that someone put together a perhapanauts webcomic while waiting for craig and i to get finished with the next miniseries/storyarc...? i thought it was a great idea and, to hopefully give it a bit of a pop-start, i offered a little three page scene that i had jotted down a few years back and had forgotten about, seeing if any of the artists in the house wanted to take a swing at it.
well, one of them did--our own warren newsom!
and he did it fast too! warren turned these awesome pages in less than a week later and i sat on them til now wondering if anyone else was going to work them up--i'm always fascinated to see how different artists handle the same material, but with a 'talking heads' scene like this, staging and storytelling choices can be somewhat limiting.
but, MAN-!!! look at what warren did!!
i love the fun and playfulness he put into choopie, love the character that he put into arisa. in both her facial expressions and her body language, love the way her expression and posture changes from panel to panel--!
and a nice color palette as well.
great job, warren!!
thank you for taking time out of your day to play with my script and bring it to life in such a fun way!
thank you!
check out warren's own webcomic, the rock, at;
http://alternautuniverse.blogspot.com/
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and speaking of artists in the house, some of you might remember michael kasinger--MEK--who turned in this gorgeous piece for our perhapanauts "perfect cover" pin-up contest.
michael and i have been corresponding online for years and he's been kind enough to keep me updated with his many artistic ventures and last week sent me a copy of his sketchbook and an anthology comic called mysterious adventures magazine which featured one of his stories, 'saying goodbye with bullets" which was written by matt bennett.
and in the back of his sketchbook, michael has left a page for sketches--i love that idea!--and was nice enough to do one up for me before he sent the books out.
thanks, mek! that was really nice of you!
you can see more of michael's stuff--and order your own sketchbook at;
http://artofmek.carbonmade.com/
that's it for now!
have a great monday!
smell ya later!
todd
Friday, February 05, 2010
sketchbook: sienkiewicz joker
okay...so this had to've been the second or third year i'd come down to heroescon. mike invited me down in 96, i think, and it soon became tradition for me to fly down to his house in raleigh/durham and hang out for a few days and then drive over to charlotte thursday night or early friday morning. we were doing sensational spider-man at the time and it was cool to also get to hang with the third member of our trio, rich case, and the other guys in the artamus studio; chuck wojtkiewicz, jeff parker, scott hampton, dave johnson.
when we got to the show, shelton had put us at a table next to bill sienkiewicz, whose art i had always marveled at/been floored by/adored. mike had to cool me down i was so fanboy, i couldn't wait to get a chance to chat him up and tell him how much i dug his work.
but bill is a rather shy guy, kinda quiet, and HIS LINE was around the world!! he was always busy, always drawing, always (quietly) chatting with fans as he did his crazy magic in their sketchbooks or on a page. we had just enough time to say, hey, good morning, where'd ya go for dinner, and i'm going to get a soda, do you want anything?, and that was about it. very nice guy.
i wanted a sketch desperately and so on sunday morning stepped out from behind the table and got on-line when it wasn't too long yet. i waited for a little while until bill noticed that i was signing comics in his line and looked to make sure that i was the same guy who had been sitting next to him until just recently. he made me sit down and told me he'd save time later to make sure i got something, which was really nice of him. a little while later, he pulled his chair back and removed himself from the tables, asked me what i wanted and did this freakin' awesome joker as i sat and watched and tried not to get any drool on him. i also told him that i loved his miniseries stray toasters and so there's a little one down there in the corner. awesome!
very nice guy. quiet.
and in the heat of the infamous clone saga, artist steve skroce was hired on to illustrate tom defalco's thrilling stories over in amazing. we met a few times at a marvel conference or two and he was nice enough to draw up this moody/cool spidey in my sketchbook--before leaving us to go do storyboards for the matrix movies!! i'm not sure what steve is working on these days, but i always loved his darker layouts and shadow-hugging spider-man...
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cold here.
not this cold, but...
also, these are rich woodall's underpants--
have a great weekend!
smell ya later~!
todd
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
alice
okay...so, apparently, i am co-directing a production of "alice in wonderland" at one of my many alma maters, dutchess com col. my good friend/teacher/mentor, the incredibly gifted steve press asked me last year if i'd come and help out and, as i always enjoy working with him, i offered my assistance as "production designer'--which i thought would be a cool way of saying that i'd be the guy who designed the sets and the look of the show and figured out the stage tricks that we were going to use to make some of the more fantastical things happen (alice grows and shrinks, the cheshire cat appears and disappears, like that...) steve said, yeah! yeah!--that's great!...and immediately went and listed me as co-director.
we had auditions last week and cast the show the next day. we have some really talented people in the cast and i think it's going to be a lot of fun--well, as much fun as you can have...(the story, which isn't really much of a story in the traditional sense--alice just kinda wanders around talking nonsense with an array of colorful characters--is like some crazy drug trip. so there's some wicked potential there...)
so a couple weeks ago, i was given the task of coming up with an audition poster that would be different and hopefully grab the attention of passers-by.
i came up with this...
and this...
the idea being that some of the students in his acting class could put up the posters, xerox off the alices at different sizes, throw a splash of color on alice's dress with a crayon or a marker, and slap 'em up all over the school, each one different, each one unique.
like this, but with just one alice...
i gave them to steve a week or so ahead of time and when i asked him at auditions if they got them done and up, he told me that he felt he had enough people coming out for the show and didn't do it.
so i thought somebody should see them.
--i will also be working on the actual play posters that nobody will probably see over the next couple of weeks--
but i'm looking forward to it and it should be fun.
last night was our first rehearsal and it ran really late.
and that's why i didn't get to see lost last night.
don't tell me anything.
we're watching it tonight.
i said don't tell me anything!!!
la la la la la la la!
smell ya later~!
todd
Friday, January 29, 2010
early obsession
okay...our own nic carcieri hooked me up with this sweet link.
a very nice article about a very nice guy!
check it out!
http://www.warwickonline.com/view/full_story/5690308/article-Comic-book-artist-Rousseau-demonstrates-his-craft-for-Scouts
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when i was a kid, of course, there was no internets.
when we were interested in something and wanted to look it up, we had to go to this thing called a liberry.
okay, enough of that--i'm not that old.
anyway, people keep asking me when i first became interested in the strange and unusual, the paranormal and especially, for me anyway, the cryptids. and that was a long time ago.
i'm sure i saw something on tv or maybe read it somewhere, but i got hooked on bigfoot real bad back when i was in, like, seventh grade. how old are you in seventh grade...like, 11...? ...12? anyway, i was hungry for any and all information i could find on the subject and so eagerly ran to the school library where, though i was usually a very, very shy kid, i knew i had a friend and i knew that she would help me in any way she could. it was our own alison's mother, mrs. thibodeau, who i knew from church and 'cause i was friends with her kids, jeff and alison, and who had grown up in that same small little town and had been best friends with my mom.
when i told her what i was looking for all those years ago, she said "o...kaaaaaaay...." and off we went, looking through the card catalogue (nothing), books on strange creatures (nothing), and eventually the librarian's reference for periodicals (which, i learned, meant magazines). (oh, and bingo!--we found something!)
what we found was an article in a reader's digest from about 6 years earlier and, using my amazing library skills i was able to find it and read it all in the same week!! i was so happy and so appreciative that i must've thanked mrs. thibodeau--aunt mickey-- a hundred times. it was so cool! and she could see i was somewhat obsessed as, since you weren't allowed to sign out or remove the magazines from the library, she (don't tell anybody) broke one of the faculty rules and xeroxed a copy of the article for me--6 pages that i cherished for years and years and years. it was the first item--and my most treasured--in a growing file of weird creatures and happenings that i amassed throughout my teenage years and lost somewhere in a move to one apartment or another sometime later.
funny, isn't it, that i was able to track down exactly which issue of reader's digest that appeared in on google and found a copy for sale on ebay in about three minutes a little while back.
so if you want to know where my own obsession for all this craziness began, here's the best answer i've got!
thank you, aunt mickey--mom--for all of your help and your love!
i know that you were there for each and every student that came through your library doors, always a beacon of kindness and understanding--still are--but, in your own way, your help and encouragement was instrumental in craig and i creating this crazy book!
thanks so much!
and thanks to all of you!
smell ya later!
todd
sketchbook: howard and neal!
okay...i met howard porter in detroit. i think. maybe it was chicago. it wasn't in charlotte.
mike had already met him once or twice before and i was certainly a fan of his work on the ray. i'm pretty sure that he was working on jla by this time, but i could be so wrong here...
anyway, i remember mike walking me over to his table at a show, howard hard at work signing comics. john dell was sitting next to howard and mike introduced us and we chatted for a moment or two when howard looked up and saw mike, a big smile on his face, jumped up to say hey, shake his hand, and mike made the intros for us too. and howard beat me to it. "oh, man--i love your stuff!"
dammit.
i was gonna say that.
we saw howard and his lovely wife, heather, a few other times that weekend, in passing usually, and it wasn't until quitting time on saturday that i asked if he would sketch something for me in my sketchbook. he gladly grabbed it and off they went.
howard is a shy guy, doesn't really like crowds or the craziness of conventions; the usually rushed travel, the insane schedules, and the sometimes long recuperation period over the next week of trying to get back in to the rhythm of working. (it does take a toll on you...) so he doesn't do many shows. but howard and i became friends over the course of the next couple years out of mutual respect and because of our mutual friend, rich faber. i think we had three or four guys weekends at my house back then, the two of them coming up on a thursday or friday and we'd see a lotta movies and eat and drink and tell stories and brainstorm on projects we could do together. it almost came true on a tellos story that howard did an awesome job on, but rich wasn't able to finish it at the time, so we had someone else ink it.
howard and i have had a couple of other crazy adventures over the years--including a memorable drive down to the baltimore comiccon back in '03 with ron garney...memorable for howard, i'm sure, since ron and i were both heartbroken over our recent respective breakups...howard said, i was just glad for the comp[any. what a trooper!
oh, yeah. the sketch!
here's howard's awesome darkseid! a lotta people tell me when they meet me that they'd been pronouncing my name wrong *, and howard was one of them. so he did this to remind himself and have some fun! i love it!
* by the way, it's pronounced "Deh-ZAY-go", something that even my good pal mark waid, even after all these years, still catches himself on from time to time and a favorite teasing point for matt's dad, cecil wieringo, who loves to tell me that it should be "dee-ZAH-go" 'cause he lived in italy for years and that's how they'd say it. that's not how we say it but there is nothing i love more than when cecil calls and says in his thick southern drawl, "hellooo, mistah dee-ZAH-go--"
It's deh-ZAY-go.
when i was a kid, i loved neal adams.
he was amazing--i couldn't get enough!
what he brought to comics in the late 60s/early seventies was just gold and comics would never be the same.
yes, i still loved the other artists too; jim aparo, dick dillin, and my treasured nick cardy--but neal was the showman! the muhammad ali of comics! floating like a butterfly, stinging like a bee!
i saw neal at the new york show about 6 or 7 years back. i wanted a sketch and i stood in line. when it was my turn, i started chatting him up a bit and he started telling me about his greatest achievement, a massive, mammoth graphic novel that would explain the true origins of the earth and the universe around it, an illustrated compendium of his own personal theory that was going to stand the scientific community on it's ear!
he had my ear for, i'd say, a good forty-five minutes. i listened intently as he, neal adams!, my hero! described the intricacies of how our planet is actually expanding as we speak!! (or was it contracting--? i don't really remember...), and tried to be patient when, every six minutes or so, neal would remember that he was supposed to be doing a sketch. the batman sketch seemed to take about as long as...well, the nascent earth took to form.
we had a table just the next aisle over, craig and i, and brian was there handing out choopie cards and being our boothboy. i had been away for almost and hour and had a line forming of my own over there and so when brian came by to see if and when i was ever coming back, i took that opportunity to excuse myself to get back to my own table, could i pick the book up later (and hoping that maybe without me there listening he'd get it done in the, like, three minutes it was gonna take anyway...) so he says, neal adams says, "oh? you're a professional? what do you do?" and i said--to neal adams--"oh, i've done some spider-man and some impulse and a lotta other stuff. and these creator-owned books, the perhapanauts and tellos."
"TELLOS?!?" he says--neal adams says--"i love tellos! my kids got me hooked on it! that was a great book!"
and now neal adams is gushing over me...and i have to leave. i'm thinking, he loved it, maybe i could get him to do a cover...or a story...? maybe i could...
but i had to go and he had already put his head down to finish my batman sketch, prodded by his wife or girlfriend or whoever
since he had taken far too long telling me his theory and his line had become longer and longer.
when i went back about twenty minutes later, he was gone, on a break, and a kid handed me my book. when i opened it up he said, "oh, yeah. someone bumped the table and his hand slipped so he made it into some blood...oh, and you're name was todd, right? good. we had him fix that."
neal adams though.
wow.
have a great weekend!
smell ya later!
todd
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
the fate of the haps and christian's nudge!
okay...over on craig's blog he said something the other day that, apparently, got a lot of people concerned.
we are not announcing the end of the perhapanauts, just letting you know that things have slowed down a bit.
mostly 'cause of the holidays.
and work.
it's really great that both craig and i are getting some really nice work from marvel (thank you, nate cosby!!) and it is taking up a lot of our time--craig on his new Her-Oes project--can't wait! can't wait!--me with my Marvel Super Hero Squad!--but we are still working on the haps, always will!
as a matter of fact, we're just putting our upcoming one-shot special--molly's story--to bed and think that scott weinstein and jason copland--not to mention colorist mike thomas--did a phenomenal job on this book and we can't wait for you to see it! it'll be in stores in mid-february and if you haven't seen it, jason's cover looks like this;
and craig's flip-cover on the back looks like:
so, while we appreciate your emails of concern--and in two cases, panic (sorry, you guys--didn't mean to scare ya...)--please know that we are getting back into the rhythm and have absolutely no intention of putting the haps away anytime soon!
we love 'em.
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and on a similar note, over on the perhapanauts forum, christian made the very positive and very creative suggestion that, while waiting for the next story arc from craig and i, the next thrilling chapter in the perhapanauts saga, some of you talented perhapa-fans maybe put together your own web-comic featuring the haps. i love the idea and think christian is brilliant for suggesting it.
and, if anyone is actually interested in doing this, i'd like to offer the following as a sort of start up to the project.
a few days ago, while going through some old scripts and documents, i found this little three-page bit that i'd written back in the early days of the perhapanauts. we were gonna throw it into one of the early dark horse issues to fill up the extra back pages and it just never happened. it's mostly just a little talking heads piece with arisa and choopie, but it might be a nice little kinda "perhapanauts try-out page," a chance for artists to show off their artistic talents, their storytelling abilities, and their creativity. if you are one of those artists and would like to take a swing at it, send it in and i'll be thrilled to post it--and, if anyone's interested, maybe i'll post another three pager that features an action sequence in the near future.
either way, here it is.
i call it "brain power."
enjoy!
the perhapanauts
choopie in
“brain power”
3 pages
PAGE ONE
panel 1. big panel (archie style) arisa is sitting before computer as a casual choopie saunters by offering his new nickname for her. (he reminds me of the times calvin used to walk right past his mom naked on the way outside.) arisa is “oh-no’-you-ditn’t” incredulous.
choopie: hiya, slappy!
arisa: excuse me…?
arisa: “slappy”?
panel 2. choopie is happy, gesticulating, comically framing arisa with his hands like an artist would. arisa is not havin’ it.
choopie: i’m just tryin’ it out. seein’ if it fits.
arisa: yeah. well. try it out somewhere else. i’m busy here.
panel 3. choopie is now ON her, on her shoulders, looking over her head down at her. arisa is looking frustratedly up at him, irritated but giving him a chance to speak/play.
choopie: oh, don’t do that, ris! the best, most definite guaranteed way to get a nickname that you don’t like is to let them know that you don’t like it. then it’s like…guaranteed. yer stuck fer life! they give it to ya just to see you get mad.
arisa: who is “they”?
PAGE TWO
panel 1. In front of her now, standing on the computer keyboard, tugging at her shirt/collar.
choopie: they!! them!! the people who give people nicknames!!
choopie: i’m tellin’ ya--they’re vicious, slappy!
panel 2. silent panel--choopie just staring at her, arisa staring back, her eyes narrowed wondering where this little jerk gets these crazy ideas…
sfx(small): blink. blink.
panel 3. same panel. arisa’s eyes not so intent as she tries to reason around this.
arisa: right. choopie, where did you hear this?
choopie: in a book. it was in one a’ big’s psychololology books.
panel 4. silent panel--same panel as arisa narrows her eyes again. this is a huge waste of time. now she’s getting angry.
sfx(small): blink. blink.
PAGE THREE
panel 1. same panel as choopie leans forward, tapping arisa’s forehead with one finger, explaining it to her. her eyes are a little narrower.
choopie: it’s about your braaaaain.
panel 2. pulling back a bit as arisa turns to watch choopie running out of the room, terrified, holding his head between his hands as he goes.
arisa: right. how about if i use my brain to squeeze your brain right out of your tiny little chupacabra head…?
panel 3. as choopie runs hysterically out of the room--
choopie: ahhhhh! no! big! help! she’s usin’ her telepathetic powers on me! i can feel it! she’s squeezin’ my brains out! heeeelp!
panel 4. on arisa as she turns her attention back to her work, a slight smirk on her face indicating that that was fun.
caption: the end.
Monday, January 25, 2010
"i'm mad as hell and i'm not gonna take it anymore!"
okay...certainly i have used this blog in the past to voice my feelings regarding tv and the networks. i love tv--always have--and love, not only the shows that have thrilled and entertained me my entire life, but also have had a warm spot for the actual networks themselves, the ephemeral atmosphere of home that each one seems to project. i love the history of television and have studied it fanatically. and while i'm generally a pretty upbeat and positive person and endeavor to keep this blog from becoming a soapbox for my own personal gripes--man, do the networks hate us or what...?
over the past five years or so (probably more on the "or so" side...), the networks have totally cut the viewers out of the equation. the viewer means absolutely nothing anymore. they focus now on the sponsors and, while i certainly understand the necessity of revenue, i feel that, as their supposed audience, we should have some voice. they continue to gauge their industry on an outdated and antiquated system. they cancel clever, well-written, and incredibly promising shows ( pushing daisies, life, journeyman, my own worst enemy...and let's not forget firefly and wonderfalls and then report astonishment when those very series' show four and fives the projected numbers in dvd sales. they battle with the writers for, in the scheme of things, a ridiculously small amount for actually creating and developing the very programs that are keeping them on the air. and then they rob the viewers by charging them full price for truncated seasons on the dvd package. much like our current government, they cater to the sponsors and special interest group and have left us in their wake.
just as with my representatives in washington, the networks have abandoned me.
it's all about money and sponsors ands commercials and i'm sick and tired and i'm not gonna take it anymore.
oh, sure, i'll never be able to turn it off completely. not yet, anyway.
i still want to see how lost ends, still need the laughs on nbc's thursday night line-up, still need my snl...
but, i'm reading more.
i'm cutting way back on tv. someone said a little while back that only way that we could change things in government would be to come together and simply vote all of the incumbents out. send a message. sure, maybe it would screw things up for a while, but aren't things pretty screwed up now?
same with tv. i'm leaving. i'm turning it off.
back in the mid- to late-80s the networks were terrified because they just couldn't get any viewers. they were panicking, desperate. (book sales, by the way, were way up back then...) somehow they came back, with good entertainment and clever shows--and, they proudly proclaimed at the time, by listening to the viewer.
i'm reading more.
that's one place that they can't get us.
yet.
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man, after that rant, i hope lauren doesn't get upset that i'm plugging her book in the same post...
okay, shake it off, folks! here's something positive...
with the holidays and work and all kindsa other things coming up, i wasn't able to really sit down and read--well, re-read--the wonderful jaunt which is the slightly askew adventures of inspector ham and eggsby our good friends stephen lindsay and lauren monardo until just this past weekend! lauren was kind enough to send me a copy of the collected trade a few weeks ago and i wanted desperately to show you all and sing it's praises 'cause i really dug when i first read it in comic book form but loved it when i sat down with the whole package! you will too!
plus, the trade is filled with all kindsa cool extras--guest pin-ups, a much too enthusiastic afterword by bryan glass of mouse guard fame (but, of course, bryan does everything much too enthusiastically! : ) a much too short afterword by me--and one of my favorite features is a transcription of the conversation stephen and lauren had in creating ham and eggs and the baron and all the other colorful characters that inhabit new pork city. this unique insight into their creative process is both fun and totally cool! you won't want to miss it!
so if you didn't get the series or are one of those 'wait til the trade' readers, go check it out at
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.indyplanet.com/store/images/comics/1751_36232A.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.indyplanet.com/store/index.php%3FcPath%3D52%26%26page%3D5&usg=___O6k-MAxQyZRY6tluD7BLa9LXZM=&h=337&w=225&sz=15&hl=en&start=14&sig2=fhbpU3-A6eMeoJLuj5zzog&um=1&tbnid=fXooHwSbngrO9M:&tbnh=119&tbnw=79&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dinspector%2Bham%2Band%2Beggs%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1&ei=eKddS9HVL5HhlAe8u-iMCg
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the answers to your
"five for friday"
back-up bands
i think i did this once before--or maybe just had one or two mixed in to a general group of five--but here are the names of some back-up bands for you to provide the headliner...
have fun!
1. the heartbreakers
tom petty
2. the attractions
elvis costello
3. the blue notes
harold melvin
4. the comets
bill haley
5. the crickets
buddy holly
6. the jordanaires
elvis presley
7. the j.b.s
james brown
8. the range
bruce hornsby
9. the black hearts
joan jett
10. the revolution
prince
have a happy monday!
smell ya later!
todd
Friday, January 22, 2010
sketchbook: mike's spidey!
okay...self-explanatory really.
no one drew spidey like mike.
i thought that the cool thing mike had done on the inside front cover of my sketchbook was awesome and certainly more than anyone could ask for--but then, when i flipped the pages, i found this.
bastard.
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this from alison--and her mom (thanks, aunt mickey!)
i love to hear stories about the 30s and 40s--and especially about the incredibly crafty things that were done in the regards to the war effort. check this out...
Lockheed
During WW II
Lockheed During W.W.II (unbelievable 1940s pictures). This is a version of special effects during the 1940's. I have never seen these pictures or knew that we had gone this far to protect ourselves.
During World War II the Army Corps of Engineers needed to hide the Lockheed Burbank Aircraft Plant to protect it from a possible Japanese air attack. They covered it with camouflage netting to make it look like a rural subdivision from the air.
BEFORE...
and AFTER...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"five for friday"
back-up bands
i think i did this once before--or maybe just had one or two mixed in to a general group of five--but here are the names of some back-up bands for you to provide the headliner...
have fun!
1. the heartbreakers
2. the attractions
3. the blue notes
4. the comets
5. the crickets
6. the jordanaires
7. the j.b.s
8. the range
9. the black hearts
10. the revolution
have a great weekend, everybody!
sell ya later!
todd
