My Wild Weekend in Whittier....

I don't want to get all uppity on you but I was in Uptown Whittier on Saturday night (September 5th, my sister Melody's birthday!) helping RAFAEL NAVARRO celebrate the release of his latest comic, SONAMBULO LIVES!, at GEEKS comic book shop. What a blast!

Most of the usual suspects were there: Rafael and his lovely wife, Irma, GHOULA (Ghost Hunters of Urban L.A.) leaders Rich Carradine and Lisa Strouss, Mike Wellman of The Comic Bug, Ruben, Lee, Tony frakkin' Saxxon! Navarro's original art, fetching thousands, plastered GEEKS walls like a bunch of congressmen after a martini lunch. Beautiful SONAMBULO art wreaking of cigarette smoke, tequila breath, gun powder and the scent of Femme Fatale (Christian Dior? Or is that Calvin Klein?)



Thanks for my buddy, JAVIER HERNANDEZ (pictured here in the middle), who had just conducted his DIY Comics panel earlier that day, I met this happenin' couple, Arvie and Adonna of AGIMAT COMICS. They are in the midst of pioneering comics for the iPhone (and iPhone-ish) applications. You'll be hearing a lot about these two movers-and-shakers soon, but in the meantime, go back to strumming your fake guitar to Beatles Rock Band or....much better yet....check out Arvie's daily web comic strip, SHADOW CANDY.

ROM: SPACEKNIGHT to join The Rolling Stones....

Call it a freaky coincidence: ROM: SPACEKNIGHT, who I just blogged about, will be taking over Charlie Watts' seat at the drum kit for the Rolling Stones, which I wrote about yesterday.

I can only imagine the new versions of those old songs now that ROM is aboard. In fact, here's a sneak peek of the set list: I CAN'T GET NO (GALADORIAN), GET OFF OF MY COSMIC CLOUD, NINETEENTH NERVOUS BREAKER, SYMPATHY FOR THE STARSHINE, ME AND PLOR THE PULSAR HANGING OUT BY THE SCHOOLYARD.

ROM: SPACEKNIGHT continues to delight....

My buddy JAVIER HERNANDEZ just received this free sketch of ROM: SPACEKNIGHT by a guy in Minneapolis, artist JIM MOHAN. This is tremendous!

Mohan really captured ROM in typical ROM pose. Notice he is not aggressive but on the defensive. Unlike Han Solo, ROM NEVER SHOOTS FIRST!

If you don't like it, you can shove it! But you don't like it, you love it! So while you're all in a rage, I'll pick up ROM:SPACEKNIGHT ANNUAL # 1 and turn the page....

Top 10 Movies DisMar Should Make.......

Well, with Disney buying out Marvel and boasting about acquiring its catalogue of 5,000 characters (of which the top half dozen have already been tied up at other studios?), it will be a trick trying to figure out which of the other 4,994 can carry a big Hollywood tentpole. Hmm, let me put my thinking cap on.....

1. a HOWARD THE DUCK movie that would make Steve Gerber proud. With CG where it is today, and the groundwork for live action/CG paved by cinematic triumph ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS, they wouldn't need Lucas or a cheap duck suit either. Disney can easily nail this one, after all they have all of the smarts and talent...over at Pixar.

2. MOON KNIGHT. Aaaah, Moon Knight. The coolest, most badass Batman knockoff ever! (sorry, Daredevil...). Moon Knight is like the Boba Fett of '70s Marvel, that was the secret series that everyone collected every issue of. Yes, I would like a Moon Knight movie, please. And not a campy one, dead serious like THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS. Even Frenchie sounds too jokey, rename him "The Frenchman."

3. THE INCREDIBLE HULK 2. I really, really dug THE INCREDIBLE HULK, in some ways it was more consistent in quality than the IRON MAN movie. Ed Norton was intense. And I want to see that dude become The Leader in the sequel! Don't blue...I mean, GREENball us, Hulk-makers! Push this sequel through!

4. SPIDER-WOMAN. Done right, this movie can realistically capture the macabre grit of her battles with that prattling jokester, Brother Grimm!

5.The THOR reboot. Yes, I know the first THOR movie has not even been completed yet but I have a feeling that the filmmakers are already screwing this one up. They should already simultaneously start filming the reboot. Call it THE MIGHTY THOR.

6. I'm sure half of the 5,000 characters are those CONTEST OF CHAMPIONS creations. You know, great, memorable characters who have really stuck around. Like South America's Defensor, Israel's Sabra, and France's The Peregrine. That's three badass movies right there!

7. Man, would I LOVE to see a PHANTOM STRANGER movie! Whuh? HUH? That's DC Comics? Oh. Sorry.

8.Um, running out of characters, lessee, a DAZZLER movie? OH! OH! I know! THE HUMAN FLY! ROM: SPACEKNIGHT! MICRONAUTS! (Aw, snap! Those were all licensed characters.....guess not....)

9. Waaugh! Devolving into Marvel zombie fanboy....Me want DEFENDERS movie! Me want DEFENDERS movie!

10. WEREWOLF BY NIGHT! BROTHER VOODOO! Drool, drool! Gaggle, gaggle! SON OF SATAN! THE INVADERS! No, wait, A MAN CALLED NOVA! Ook, ook, ook!

If all else fails, how about ANOTHER Punisher movie? And quick! The holidays are almost upon us!

Wanted: A Hip....I Mean, Younger Replacement for ROLLING STONES' Drummer

I just read online that the THE ROLLING STONES' drummer Charlie Watts has quit the group after 47 years and now the band is looking for a younger replacement.

Hmmm, I've got a suggestion: how about Father Time?

MIKE VOSBURG is a trip!

Back in March 2008, I interviewed artist MIKE VOSBURG, a longtime acquaintance of mine from CAPS, and the resulting interview appears in this issue, BACK ISSUE # 35:



The Voz is one of the most gifted, complex and winning cartoonists ever to cross through CAPS's hallowed Burbank halls. I've always appreciated his no-nonsense take on everything and his candor. Like product from GM and Chrysler's assembly lines, he was forged in Detroit, so he doesn't take any nonsense, especially from showboats and windbags (in CAPS, we've had a couple [...cough, DOZEN, cough, cough!] over the years).



Here's a fond CAPS memory of me and the Voz back circa 2002 (according to that copy of the original CARTOON FLOPHOUSE comic on that there table there)....back when Burbank was verdant and didn't have gigantic pyrocumuli lingering in the sky behind it (they lingered inside the CAPS meetings instead).



Vosburg's thoughts on his career and profession makes for an interesting read. His career has been diverse, spanning from comics to storyboarding movies and music videos to animation (for which he won an Emmy for directing an episode of SPAWN). I think that interview alone is worth the price of admission.

Beyond Vosburg, BACK ISSUE # 35, the "Villains" issue, is surprisingly nimble and interesting given the theme (which frankly I wasn't sure if it would fly). My highlights were the back story on the Hobgoblin run in SPIDER-MAN, which was ridiculously frought with tension and petty internal politics behind the scenes. After that, DeMatteis discussing KRAVEN'S LAST HUNT is somewhat interesting. So is a profile of a (yet another) Kirby DC series KOBRA, which I had barely heard of. And there's the SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER VILLAINS (which Mikey V. worked on begrudgingly) and something on Magneto's convoluted history which is a little snoozy but (I guess) necessary for all those X-fans out there.

Anyway, BI # 35 comes recommended, but it will no doubt pale to BACK ISSUE # 36, the MONSTERS issue, coming September 16, to which I contributed three stories to on STRANGE TALES' THE GOLEM, DR. THIRTEEN and TONY DeZUNIGA, co-creator of JONAH HEX (and GOLEM artist). Plus my partner-in-comics-zines-crime MR. JERRY BOYD threw down his VAMPIRELLA analysis. That should be a hot one! All wrapped and ribboned under a glorious EARL NOREM vintage painted cover of WEREWOLF BY NIGHT vs. MICHAEL MORBIUS THE LIVING VAMPIRE. Do you need yet another reason to pick up this issue? If you do, go see for yourself!

Oh, and by the way, Marvel also publishes comics....

The Disney/Marvel deal is all about the movies, video games and park attractions, but it'll be interesting to see how this bananas merger and Disney/Marvel's diva demands will affect the comics industry, which is already circling the drain.

Disney has become some kind of robber baron where they thieve established companies that can do what they do better than they do (ie. Pixar....where would 21st century Disney be without Pixar?)

Well, let's not worry too much. Plenty of great ideas are probably already in development. Such as a sequel to THE INCREDIBLES in which they literally morph into the Fantastic Four. Maybe a movie in which Ratatouille pulls out a packet of matches and gives Ghost Rider the hot foot? Or how about a Daisy Duck that can shoot a web out of her twat! Synergy, people!