The Perhapanauts

more from the con--thanks, scott!

okay...

so though i only took a few pics of things at the con, scott--who, it turns out, is a phenomenal photographer--sent over a whole slew of shots that are definitely worth posting! in advance, thanks, man!

scott has, for the past year or so, been working on his own comic, a super fun concept and character that i really don't have his permission to announce right here and now--we'll work on that for later. needless to say however, craig and mike and i have avidly been following the progress of scott's project (i had tried to hook him up with a few notable artist's in the biz...), and were even more thrilled when scott found his perfect co-creator/artist in one of his very best friends from college, chris zaccone! we finally got to meet chris at the show this weekend and gush all over about how sweet his work is!
(also, i wanted to see if i could put the book--as well as scott and chris--in front of a few editors that i thought might have an interest in publishing said book...)
(a little of that got done, but not as much as i'd wished...)
anyway, here's scott and chris--or rather, chris and scott--hangin' out in front of the world-famous perhapanauts table...



and then chris and craig got together and it was this whole artist thing and scott and i decided to duck out and grab a pretzel and those bastards never even missed us! @^#%$ artists!



here's craig at the table...



and a few of the various--and wonderful--sketches craig did during the weekend...
(he's very talented, you know...)







i especially dig that last one, of choopie attacking the cockateau! i really hope we get a scan back of that one! it's awesome!

here are a couple more...











scott entitled that last one "why we really go to cons."
hear, hear! i'm all for that! more girls in costumes!

and these last comprise a great series of folks' reactions to the choopie cards...

















thanks for the great pics, scott!
if they don't get more people to check out the show next year, i dunno what will!

see ya friday, suckers!
todd

6 comments permanent link

back from nyc-

okay...

well, this weekend was a blast and it was so great to get a chance to talk to so many people! we handed out choopie cards, sold a few copies of the perhapanauts, and had a really great time! it was so nice to touch base with long time readers and people totally new to the book as well! great to have people buy the trade one day and come back for the second chances books the next!

what was cool though was hearing first-hand what people thought about the perhapanauts! what really kinda throws me is how many people are frustrated by the on-going subplots that continue form one minseries to the next. i think we've all been somewhat conditioned to believe that everything needs to be wrapped up in the four or five issues that are collected in a trade. sorry about that. craig and i originally hoped that the perhapanauts could become an on-going series and so it just naturally wants to keep on going... and i am a firm believer in axiom that "the story is the boss." so i apologize to anyone who feels that those "to be continued"s are not fair or frustating and promise to make sure that the following stories are well worth the wait...

so while we were down there, we got to hang out with a bunch of our pals and here are just a couple of the pictures i took (or someone did...)



our pal, and perhapa-pinup artist, kelly yates, came up from north carolina to spend the (damn! it's freezing cold-) weekend with us and visit with his pal (and idol!), french comics legend, olivier vatine!



as advertised, our own brian mulcahy cut loose as official booth boy--when he wasn't running around getting sweet sketches and commissioned pieces from the stellar array of artists appearing at the show! i don't know what his favorite "treasure" was from this past weekend, but he certainly came back with some beautiful prizes!



i think this is the first ever shot of the entire perhapanauts creative team all in one place! left to right, it's craig, rico, and me.



also, as advertised, my friend, scott weinstein, came by on sunday, having had to work on friday and saturday (he was also able to fanagle a couple of tickets for craig and i to see snl on saturday night...thanks, scott!)

gotta run but i'll have more news and pictures from the con on wednesday!
smell ya later
todd

ps--and here are those answers...

1. david bowie is not his real name. he changed it to bowie (after the guy with the cool knife) because it sounded cool. he changed it ‘cause someone else was already using his real name. what is it?

david jones (davey jones of the monkees)

2. a pride of lions, a school of fish, a herd of buffalo, a _________ of whales, a ______________ of crows...

pod of whales, a murder of crows...

3. for the longest time, the whizzer (marvel-golden age) was celebrated for having the most inane origin story in comics. how did he get his powers?

he was given a transfusion of mongoose blood.

4. which state has the ten highest mountains in the united states?

alaska

5. michael keaton changed his name to keaton (after his favorite silent film star) because someone was already using his real name. what is it?

michael douglas

2 comments permanent link

see ya at the NYCC--new york comicon!!

okay...



short but, hopefully, sweet today...

as i mentioned the other day, craig, rico, and i will be at the new york city comicon this weekend at the world-reknowned javitz center in good ol' manhattan! we will be accompanied by the lovely and talented brian mulcahy--official boothboy and manager of sales--and on sunday we will be joined by our pal, scott weinstein!

i will take pictures.

if you are gonna be at the show, please don't hesitate to drop by our table and mention this blog, mostly so i know that more than three people read this thing, but also to pick up a small perhapa-prize, a small perhapa-token of our appreciation...
(the code word is: bedlam)

and so, because i still have stuff to pack--and want to get some rest before the show--and 'cause earl, the office, and 30 rock are gonna be on soon--here is the "random picture of the week" as well as your "five on friday".



1. david bowie is not his real name. he changed it to bowie (after the guy with the cool knife) because it sounded cool. he changed it ‘cause someone else was already using his real name. what is it?

2. a pride of lions, a school of fish, a herd of buffalo, a _________ of whales, a ______________ of crows...

3. for the longest time, the whizzer (marvel-golden age) was celebrated for having the most inane origin story in comics. how did he get his powers?

4. which state has the ten highest mountains in the united states?

5. michael keaton changed his name to keaton (after his favorite silent film star) because someone was already using his real name. what is it?

i'm outta here!
see ya at the show!
todd



ps, have you picked this up yet...?

3 comments permanent link

rico, rico, rico--at the new york comicon!

okay...

so last week i promised that, because of all the stress and strain we put him through, i would sing rico's praises here on the blog! but, y'know--i really don't need a special REASON to be giving props to the man that makes the perhapanauts jump and sparkle each and every issue! the guy that makes their world come alive in such a magical way with his unique color choices and palette! he's the man!

see, when we first started the perhapanauts, craig and i still weren't sure exactly what we wanted the book to look like. what tone, what mood, what textures. i was hedging for a very plain and simple look--less fancy than the multitude of comics on the racks at the time--a little retro in it's color and approach. when i asked craig who he would like to get on colors, his first choice was rico! he just felt that rico would bring it...

on the first series, if you look, we were keeping things low and told rico to keep everything flat, like a comic book from the 60's or 70's. and he did, in our opinion, an amazing job!

on the second series, we had a better idea of what the book should feel like--we were gonna up the stakes and hopefully blow the doors open! we told rico to go crazy! and crazy he went! with every page that rico would send us, craig and i would just go "ahhhh!" it was beautiful! it was fourth of july!





so, of course, when the time came for us to put the second chances trade together, and craig secured ted mckeever to do a pin-up for us, it fell upon us to get someone to color it when it came in. we, naturally, turned to rico...

who did a fantastic job!



and then, with some notes from ted, a tweak here and a tweak there...



this went on a couple more times, each time rico gave it a little something here, a little something there...
but after a few back and forths (and, i'm sure, slowly getting on rico's last nerve...he's an incredibly patient guy, but still...)
ted finally commented--and we agreed--that the piece was just so much more powerful as a black and white.
so sorry, rico. you are a saint.

as for where you could actually go and MEET this coloring God--this master of the hue--look no further! rico renzi--along with blog regulars, brian mulcahy and scott weinstein will be manning the perhapanauts perhapa-table this weekend at the NEW YORK COMICON at the javitz center! that THIS WEEKEND--FEB 23-25~! come down and pick up all your favorite perhapanauts issues, trades, sketchbooks, choopie cards, and more!

oh, and craig and i will be there too.

see ya there!
todd

2 comments permanent link

perhapanauts pin-ups--last but not least...andy kuhn

okay...

i am, supposedly, a writer.
able, allegedly, to call upon a, hopefully, vast vocabulary with which to describe virtually anything that i might see, hear, taste, smell, or, especially, feel in my effort to convey sensations and images to the reader.
allegedly.
and yet i find that i just keep going back to the same four or five words to describe the beautiful, gorgeous, stunning, breathtaking, and awesome pin-ups that our pals have done for us for our upcoming trade. those words would be beautiful, gorgeous, stunning, breathtaking, and awesome.

so...

craig lassoed our pal andy kuhn into doing a pin-up for the second chances trade.

it is beautiful,
and gorgeous,
and stunning,
and breathaking,
and awesome!

i love it!

here it is for you to dig on too...!



so i met andy years ago at some convetnion or other and had recognized his name from work he had done at marvel and dc. but the stuff that i really love that andy's done are two creator-owned books that, when you look at 'em, seem almost like polar opposites.

first, there's rex mantooth, kung fu gorilla. yeah, that's right. it sucked me in with the title. what a treat--the monkey is a super-spy, nazi-smashing, bond type and, while andy tells me that his original concept was for a kid-friendly saturday morning sort of book, when his writer/partner matt fraction joined the team, he just couldn't help himself. the book became a more adult romp, filled with some hilariously crude language and sexual innuendo all over the place. i loved this series, but also mourn the loss of the potential appeal it woulda had for kids.



second is firebreather, the series from image comics that debuted as part of their new line of comics that included the blockbuster, invincible. firebreather was the co-creation of andy and comics great, phil hester, and featured the tale of a teenager coming to terms with the fact that his long-absent father just happened to be a dragon.
and, of course, he had some powers of his own...



if you wanna have some fun, track down either one of these books, though, as i said, rex mantooth has it's adult-ier moments! both are filled with andy's great art and that's worth the price by itself!

this pin-up, by the way, was colored by andy's--and our--pal cheeks!

gotta go!
smell ya later!
todd

4 comments permanent link

gotta run...and jonboy meyers!~

okay...

really gotta run today! out to custom fit some really beautiful wood countertops with my pal jeff!
and it's still very cold here!

i've never met jonboy meyers in real life--but we've had many conversations on the phone, so i feel like i know the guy pretty well. i know his work, that's for sure!

jonboy and i were originally put together on marvel age spider-man a few years back. our editor, mackenzie cadenhead, who was a treasure to work for/with, told us that we were gonna be the new regular team on this fairly new aimed-at-kids retelling of the classic spider-man stories. jonboy and i were really excited and bonded quickly, determined to really make this project fly! unfortunately, the powers that be--the administrators above mackenzie--were still figuring out what this series would be and there were a lot of administrators. and a lot of ideas.
about a week later, mac called us and told us that we would be sharing the chores with another team, and the week after that that we would be doing every third or fourth issue, and then...
apparently they wanted these books coming out every 5 minutes, so it was a matter of getting EVERYBODY and their mother working on one story or another.

so jonboy and i only got to do two issues. the first one was marvel age spider-man, updating the story of "the living brain"! jonboy did an amazing job and it's still one of my favorite tales in that group. (unfortunately, i don't have any of jonboy's interior art, but here's the mark brooks cover of that issue...)



shortly after that, mackenzie, wonderful editor that she is, secured for me marvel age spider-man team-up, since she dug my work and knew that i'd loved the old marvel team-up books from when i was a kid! these books too were on a fast schedule, and though i was writing them fast enough, they wanted multiple artists working on them simultaneously. jonboy did the spidey/kitty pryde team-up and it really rocked!
here are a couple of pages from it that i stole from jonboy's website...







so when the time came for us to talk to our friends about doing pin-ups for the new book, craig said that he'd been talking to jonboy and that he'd be keen to do one. i was in! jonboy did this one in just a few days--it was the first one we got as a matter of fact, but i wanted to save it for last...or next to last, 'cause it's one of my favorites and just so funny!
also a great pin-up for the weekend!

thanks, jonboy! i laughed out loud!



for more of jonboy's awesome artwork, check out scribble: the art of jonboy meyers at:

http://www.scribble.ws/

gotta run!
have a great weekend!
todd

3 comments permanent link

too much snow and ted mckeever!

okay...


well, i'm snowed in today and thought i'd be able to get this post up rather quickly this morning, but it didn't happen that way. jake and i slept in, and then he didn't want to go out. poor dog. and i couldn't blame him. we had about a foot of snow that was then covered by a crusting of sleet which then turned back to snow. and it's still coming down.

then i got talking on the phone with mike for about an hour--and if ya wanna see a really beautiful tellos valentine, head over to mike's blog at www.mikewieringo.com and see what i'm talkin' about.

then i chatted with craig--not as long. he had some baby stuff to attend to.

and here i am.

segue-less.

the first time i ever saw ted mckeever's work was on eddy current, this wacky, wonky comic book that came out in the late 80's. at that time the comics industry was still reeling with the potential of what the black and white explosion had promised. there was some awfully exciting (experimental) stuff coming out back then and, to me, eddy current was the cutting-edgiest!



the next time i saw ted's work was years later on a legends of the dark knight two-parter called engines. i remember this so well because, again to me, ted's style was EXACTLY what i believed a book like legends was supposed to be--many different visions and configurations of the batman legend we all knew by rote. new looks, new pacing, a new world for batman to inhabit each time! i celebrated those issues! they were great!

soon we had ted's all-too-fitting style realizing the elseworld's classics on superman's metropolis, batman nosferatu, and wonder woman: the blue amazon, these written by randy and jean-marc lofficier. i loved these books and the atmosphere ted's stark, lonely, dystopic style brought to them.



so, of course, when craig said, "oh, you know who i talked to and asked about a doing a pin-up...? ted mckeever.", i had a kinda surreal moment.

after i came back around, craig told me that ted said that he actually read the book (!) and craig and i started imagining what a ted mckeever perhapa-pin-up--or as ted put it, pin-upanaut--would look like. it would be darker and edgier than anything we'd seen before. it would look like...it would look like...

...this.



(i will be doing a special post on rico next week to tell of his many passes at coloring this piece, all of which weere just beautiful, and how, eventually, we all agreed that the pin-up was much more powerful in black and white. love ya, rico!)

thanks, ted, for this stunning view of our favorite cryptos! and for all your work over the years!

gotta go shovel!
smell ya later!
todd

4 comments permanent link

the samurai, the haps, and luke ross! (and ron marz, too!)

okay...

first things first;
here are the answers--although they were all answered correctly at some point...

1. what is the name and number of the flight that crashed on "lost"?

oceanic 815

2. the joker was loosely based on the title character from what haunting classic film?



"the man who laughs" (1928)
starring conrad veidt

3. calvin's stratosphere-hopping adventurer?

spaceman spiff

4. dexter's sister?

dee dee

5. what are the 5 D's of "dodgeball"?

dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge!



and now, on to more exciting things...

i met ron marz about 12 years ago, shortly after i got into comics, at a little local comics show that, i believe, was being sponsored by the kingston armory. tiny show. but there were quite a few comics professionals there 'cause, for one reason or another, there are a lot of us all living in this mid-hudson area here in upstate ny. we're all sorta near woodstock, so that might be it.
anyway, i was writing x-factor at the time and ron, of course, was mr. green lantern. we chatted a bit and he, terry austin, and fred hembeck invited me to come and join in on their tuesday night volleyball game. i was thrilled to go, to get a chance to hang with these guys whose work i had enjoyed and admired, to hang--now--with fellow comic book professionals, and to play some sweet, sweet volleyball. (i was also a bit stunned to find that both jim starlin and berni wrightson were in that group--these two legends! holy crap-f'-crap!) i soon became friendly with all of them as well as inker extraordinaire, andrew hennessey.
we played every tuesday night for about eight years after that and it's no secret that those games--and those times--are some of my favorite memories ever! we had to quit due to insurance issues at the school we were playing in, but what great fun and great comraderie!

anyway, that's how ron and i met, became friends, started doing the convention circuit together, etc.

when craig and i were shopping perhapanauts around, ron was the guy put us in touch with our current editor, dave land, and the rest as they say, is mystery.

luke ross, on the other hand, i have never met in person.
but we were paired on spectacular spider-man at the very end of my run on that title for a memorable couple of issues. key issues, actually, in the clone debacle as it was coming to a close (...finally). luke and i won some great reviews on our first story together, the action-packed culmination of a lizard story i had been building up to, and the "best loved story in all the clone saga", the quiet and emotional spectacular spider-man #240, where peter and his clone, ben, share an afternoon in the attic reminiscing about "their" childhood. luke handled it all so masterfully, pacing the all-out action of the lizard's tale so dynamically and then settling things down for some truly touching moments in "revelations--part 1". i had hoped to work with luke longer, but marc dematties had been called back to help wrap up all the clone foolishness and they wanted to keep mike (wieringo) and me together on sensational.







we've all come a long way since then.
ron and luke are doing a wonderful book, also from dark horse, called samurai, and if you're not checking this out, you're missing out on a graphic treasure! the first arc, samurai: heaven and earth is now in trade and the new series has only just begun with enough of a chance for you to still catch up, so get out there and get it! i'm not kiddin'!



so ron suggested a pin-up trade off--which is something real easy for us writers to do 'cause it means that we just sit back and watch the artists do all the hard work. fortunately, we work with a couple of really nice, really agreeable guys, and the end result is that we got this gorgeous perhapanauts piece from luke--in, like, two days! he's fast!
also, he's very imaginative! once we got going on this, luke 'e'd me with the suggestion that he have the 'haps down in his neck of the woods, brazil, in hot pursuit of their own alien celebrity! seems that, in the small town of varginha, there has been quite a buzz regarding a recent ufo flap and sightings of a strange alien creature. luke even sent me the newspaper report so that i could get the whole story! sweet!
as is the pin-up! beautiful job, luke, and thank you so much!



and thaty's it for today.
wednesday we'll plug the hell out of perhapanauts: second chances #4!
'cause it come out this week!
don't miss it!
todd

4 comments permanent link

technically, it's still friday...david petersen!!

okay...

sorry for the delay--it was a loooooong day.
at the end of a looooong week.

today was too-many-errands-to-do day, but before alla that; anyopne who lives in the northeast knows that the past week ar so has been bitter cold with temps around 20º to 30º by day and down below zero at night. my pipes have been frozen for the past four days and it has made everything that much harder. the caretaker assures me that he'll have 'em all thawed out by tomorrow which is great 'cause i'm gettin' tired of going over to my brother's to shower.


apparently it got so cold in 1911 that niagara falls froze over. awesome!

also, on my list for today was to go get a certificate of residency at the county court house, get copies of that as well as the certificate of inspection from my local garage. and the ticket i got for the inspection being overdue. drop off the ticket and the coi at the rhinebeck town court. go and pick up my college transcripts and a form to apply for independent study for the theater class i'm taking. take the form to my professor's house so he can sign it (he told me to forge it, but i wanted to see his house...). drop off the latest perhapanauts for my friend, beth. drop off the latest issue of the perhapanauts at my cousin joann's house. pick up a gift certificate for trish at barnes and noble (in place of the book i got her for christmas which craig got for her too...great minds...or a couple of jerks...?). and as a treat to myself after alla that running around, i swung by october country, my absolute favorite comic shop within 40 miles of my house, and picked up a few of this weeks books!
-----everybody DID pick up a copy of alter ego magazine and read the great article on my pal, NICK CARDY, right...?-----

it's got a great cover by nick and it looks like this;



also in there was the new paul dini detective (thank you for bringing back the batman that all we know and love, paul! he was away for far too long!) and astro city: dark ages book 2! and though i had it on my list since way back, i will mention that dave tilley highly recommends jeff smith's spectacular new shazam! book!

and, because i hadn't been in last week to pick it up, there was also issue 6 of david petersen's stunning mouse guard! not that the book didn't hit the comics scene like a meteor last year or that issue one is now in it's, like, ka-billionth printing, but if you haven't seen mouse guard yet...well, you're an idiot.

which kinda screws up my segue...

david's gorgeous tale comes to it's conclusion with this issue (and i haven't read it yet so shut up!) and while that's always sad (there's more coming, i'm told), david was kind enough to provide us with a pin-up of his own that will be featured in the second chances trade pin-up gallery!

as you can see, david was drawn to big and choopie too!




thanks, david! not only for the pin-up, but for mouse guard as well! what a beautifully done story--sure to be counted as a classic!

here is my "random picture of the week"...



and here are the "five on friday"...

1. what is the name and number of the flight that crashed on "lost"?

2. the joker was loosely based on the title character from what haunting classic film?

3. calvin's stratosphere-hopping adventurer?

4. dexter's sister?

5. what are the 5 D's of "dodgeball"?

peace out!
todd

7 comments permanent link

a return to the paranormal...and kelly, kelly, kelly!

okay...

for a while now i've wanted to try to steer this blog over toward the paranormal on a more frequent basis. what with the holdiays and trivia and the wonderful stories and scripts by brian and alison, i felt like i had strayed a bit from one of what i consider to be the staples of this dialogue, the paranormal.

thankfully, i think scott did too...

in his never-ending quest to scan the internet for news of the world for them to skew on snl, scott came across this curious article on yahoo! news and sent it on over.

MYSTERIOUS WISCONSIN WONDER SPOT SOON TO GO

Mysterious Wis. Wonder Spot soon to go
By TODD RICHMOND, Associated Press Writer Mon Feb 5, 5:56 AM ET
LAKE DELTON, Wis. - In a wooded ravine tucked away from the water parks, restaurants and mega-resorts that dominate this tourist town, a piece of history is quietly dying.



AP Photo: Bill Carney stands in front of a sign at the Wonder Spot Jan. 18, 2007,...

After more than half a century of wowing tourists (and causing probably more than a few cases of nausea), the Wonder Spot, a mysterious cabin where people can't stand up straight, water runs uphill and chairs balance on two legs, is no more.

Owner Bill Carney has sold the iconic attraction to the village of Lake Delton for $300,000. The village wants to build a road through the crevice where the Wonder Spot has stood since the 1950s.

Now, the Wonder Spot, one of more than a dozen sites around the nation dubbed "gravity vortexes" and a throwback to postwar, family-oriented tourist attractions, has a date with a bulldozer.

"We're kind of wondering how the town is going to deal with the gravitational forces under the road. That might be an issue with driving and how you bank a curve," joked Doug Kirby, publisher of RoadsideAmerica.com, which catalogs odd tourist attractions.

Kirby's site lists the Wonder Spot as one of 21 so-called "mystery spots." Lake Wales, Fla., has Spook Hill. Irish Hills, Mich., has the Mystery Hill. California has the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz.

The story behind each one is similar — gravity doesn't work in them. People seem to grow smaller, can't stand up straight and can barely walk.

Promotions boast that strange forces in the spots trump the laws of physics. Others say they're just elaborate hoaxes.

"It seems like to spend a lot of scientific effort to debunk these places you're just sucking the fun out of a tourist attraction a lot of people enjoy," Kirby said.

The Wonder Spot lies just off U.S. Highway 12, the main drag between Lake Delton and Wisconsin Dells in south-central Wisconsin. Together, the two cities constitute Wisconsin's answer to Las Vegas. The corridor between them is packed with water parks, giant resorts, museums, hotels and restaurants. The area convention bureau boasts the region is the water park capital of the world.

In many ways, the Wonder Spot is the antithesis of those giant parks.

Louis Dauterman of Fond Du Lac took out the first permit for the spot in 1952, making it the longest-permitted attraction in the area, said Romy Snyder, executive director of the Wisconsin Dells Visitors and Convention Bureau.

The spot itself is a plain, worn gift shop at the top of a ravine and a crooked cabin built into the slope.

A review on CitySearch.com calls the Wonder Spot "wonderfully goofy." The Yahoo! travel site describes the spot as a "scientific conundrum — where the laws of nature have gone awry."

According to a sign proudly placed at the base of the ravine, the Wonder Spot was discovered June 16, 1948. People who enter the spot, the sign warns, won't see correctly, stand erect "or feel quite normal ... in fact, on the cabin site the laws of natural gravity seem to be repealed."

Kirby called the Wonder Spot one of the top five most-visited mystery spots.

Generations of people have stopped to see it. Children who visited would return grown up, their own children in tow, Carney said. During the mid-1990s, he saw up to 50,000 people per summer.

Snyder, who grew up in the Dells, visited the Wonder Spot when she was a girl.

"We thought it was very cool. We always tried to figure out how they did that and never could. We did it all. We sat on a chair and it was only suspended by its back two legs, the ball rolling uphill, hanging from a doorway and your body slanted," Snyder said.

Carney, who bought the Wonder Spot from his sister in 1988, said he loved watching people's reactions.

"I don't know how many times I heard, 'Do you sell Dramamine?'" he said.

One woman, after stumbling through the cabin, sprinkled her mother's ashes on the ground.

"She just said, 'This was mom's favorite place and she wanted to be here,'" Carney said.

When people asked what caused the Wonder Spot, Carney's guides blamed it on igneous rock or simply replied they didn't know. He's seen people at the spot studying it with instruments who declared a force was at work. When pressed, though, Carney said it's all an optical illusion.

"We said don't try to figure it out," Carney said. "Just have fun."

Carney, a high school history teacher and baseball coach, said the road wasn't going to go directly through the Wonder Spot, but it would come within yards. With the mega-parks dominating tourism in the Dells and the spot's nostalgia compromised — "it's hard to run water uphill when a car is driving right by the fence," he said — he decided to get out.

"This town has changed," he said.

Joseph Kapler, the Wisconsin Historical Society's domestic life curator, plans to salvage as many souvenirs from the spot as he can before it's razed so he can create an exhibit. The Wonder Spot represents a bygone era, he said.

"We need to look back and see where it came from," Kapler said.

It isn't easy to say goodbye, Carney said. The most heartbreaking moment came a few weeks ago, when his 6-year-old daughter, Cassie, came to him, echoing a generation of Wisconsin children who visited the Wonder Spot before her:

"Daddy, can we go down there one more time?"


scott mentioned that, apparently, there are a dozen or so of these places where gravity goes awry peppered across the country and wondered if i'd ever been to one and, as a matter of fact, there used to be one right across the river from where i live, up in the mountains, just north of the town of catskill and my mom took my brother and i there one summer. i was probably about 11 or 12 years old but remember that it was this cabin built on the side of a hill and i'm pretty sure that it was just an optical llusion--but it sure was cool when i was in 7th grade! standing up straight you would be leaning at a 70º angle, water poured weird, and things rolled uphill. a fun--and slightly freaky--afternoon.
it's not there anymore. at least, i haven't been able to find it again since i've learned to drive...

anybody got something like this they'd like to share...?

before we move on to the perhapanauts pin-up, i wanna mention again that craig and i, along with rico--and scott on sunday!--will be attending the big, huge, enormous NYC COMICON at the javitz center later this month! the dates are february 23, 24, and 25, and if you're in the area and at the show, come on by and see us! it's gonna be great!

so...

what can i tell you about kelly yates...
well, a lot!
mike wieringo introduced me to kelly at a con in detroit years and years and years ago and we hit it off right away! kelly is this great guy who immediately makes you feel at ease. kelly was one of three or four guys that we knew that we thought was really talented but just wasn't getting a break from marvel or dc. since then, kelly's worked for both of them--my favorite story being a green arrow short he did in a justice league quarterly or something--sorry, kel, can't remember exaactly where right now...but really my favorite story so far that kelly lent his talents to would have to be a action-packed tellos adventure that he was kind enough to do for us in one of the tales of tellos books! he brought so much to that story--he really let his imagination go--and it was a blast to work with him!



so, being our friend, kelly wasn't asked so much as told that he would be doing a pin-up for us. smiling, as ever, kelly agreed and within a few days sent us this.



beautiful!

to check out more of kelly's art--and get an exclusive glance at his own (awesome!)creator-owned project, amber atoms, head on over to

www.kellyyatesart.com

thanks, kel! you're the best!



and craig just told me the other night that kelly might even be joining us in ny at the nyc show, so maybe you can come by the table and tell him how much you dig his pin-up in person! i know i will!

that's it for today!
smell ya later!
todd

4 comments permanent link

perhapanauts pin-ups: cheeks!

okay...

let's get this out of the way...


the answers to the "five on friday", special movie quotes edition--

1. “Now listen to me--I’m telling you, boys and girls--Whichever one of you gets it out of him is going to wind up with the single most important interview since...God talked to Moses.”

Perry White (Jackie Cooper) to Daily Planet Reporters in Superman, the Movie

2. “Great! Spit on the fat kid. Real good.”

Vern (Jerry O’Connell) in Stand By Me

3. “In the heat of battle, my father wove a tapestry of obscenity that, as far as we know, is still hanging in space over Lake Michigan.”



Narrator/Older Ralphie (Jean Shepherd) in A Christmas Story
(Young Ralphie played by Peter Billingsley)

4. “Remember; No matter where you go, there you are.”

Buckaroo Banzai (Peter Weller) in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, Across the 8th Dimension

5. "I'm not going to see you anymore, am I?"

Cole (Haley Joel Osment) to Dr. Crowe (Bruce Willis) in The Sixth Sense

be here friday for another five...


so, i met cheeks on myspace too!
craig and i had been checkin’ out his stuff; his cool covers on dc’s teen titans go! and on his websites -- www.cheeks-74.deviantart.com/gallery/ and www.gotcheeks.blogspot.com --check 'em out! i love it all, but i especially go crazy when i look at his awesome alex toth HERCULOIDS tribute! you GO, sean!
i made contact and told him how much i liked his stuff and he, wonderfully friendly guy that he is, told me that he actually KNEW my stuff. wow. so we got chattin'--i had so much fun with his teen titans go! christmas issue (go see if you can still find it...) and i mentioned the perhapanauts book and the subject of pin-ups came up and he was in!
and on it!
fast!
he had this done in a matter of days!



love it!
LOVE IT!

i really dig chattin' with sean and hope that we can work on something together soon!

you can see some of cheeks' stuff at the above listed sites, especially some of his bastion's 7, his creator-owned project with mark andrew smith!

oh, and i suppose you could also see his stuff at his myspace page at:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=1935687&MyToken=35c0cc89-0008-4d16-b321-83f7a6f8273b

thanks again, sean!
talk to ya soon!
todd

2 comments permanent link

lions, tigers, and jack lawrence!

okay...

one of the things that craig and i found as we asked our friends if they would be into doing a perhapanauts pin-up (or as luke has now tagged them, perhapinups! : ) is that everyone is drawn immediately to big and choopie. i suppose that there's more freedom for interpretation with those two and we certainly didn't want to tell anyone what they should or shouldn't draw, but for a while there it looked like we were going to have just a "big and choopie" gallery for the book.
either way, they all ROCK--both the artists and the pin-ups--and we couldn't be happier!

so i met jack lawrence on myspace.
i think he saw my name in ringo's friends, asked to be my friend, and i 'e'd him back telling him how much i really dug his stuff and that i'd LOVED his book (with Mike Bullock), LIONS, TIGERS, and BEARS! and i wasn't kiddin'! mike had suggested it to me a few years back--we are always on the lookout for good, fun comics, and especially fantasy, and especially talking animal fantasy...



if you like those things too--and i know ya do--go get a copy and enjoy the ride!

so jack says he dug tellos and was diggin' on the perhapanauts and if we should ever need a pin-up and i said, damn, maybe for the next trade 'cause it looks like we've already got too many for this one and he says okay and then a few days later he says, mate, i just couldn't wait ('cause he's british and they say that...) and he sent over this awesome piece!



thanks, jack!
it's gorgeous!

to see more of jack's beautful work, check out:
http://jackademus.deviantart.com/
you'll be glad ya did!


as promised here is your "five on friday" special movie quotes edition;
your mission, should you choose to accept it;
you tell me the movie, the character, and the actor or actress who played them.
have fun!

1. “Now listen to me--I’m telling you, boys and girls--Whichever one of you gets it out of him is going to wind up with the single most important interview since...God talked to Moses.”

2. “Great! Spit on the fat kid. Real good.”

3. “In the heat of battle, my father wove a tapestry of obscenity that, as far as we know, is still hanging in space over Lake Michigan.”

4. “Remember; No matter where you go, there you are.”

5. "I'm not going to see you anymore, am I?"

i'll have the answers on monday!
have a great weekend!
todd

4 comments permanent link