IT'S FRIDAY! Here's Your Weekly Comic: GREENBLATT THE GREAT!

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RANDOM: Karl Malden!

Via my newspaper work, I've befriended Pacific Palisades Honorary Mayor GAVIN MACLEOD, the great comic actor of "Mary Tyler Moore" and "Love Boat" fame and the co-star of one of my favorite comedies, Blake Edwards' "The Party." (In fact, I wrote a lengthy behind the scenes article on "The Party" which ran in the Post about a year ago and I'll post it here in a few days). To the left is a shot of us at last year's (my first) Chamber of Commerce Installation Dinner at the Riviera Country Club. What a terrific event that always is...

Gavin, myself, and Palisades residents LINDA JACKSON, the opera singer, and JOSH GREENFELD, the screenwriter who wrote "Harry and Tonto" (for which Art Carney won the Oscar) and "Oh, God, Book II," (for which George Burns won nothing), were all having lunch at the Village Pantry two days ago, June 30, after a photo shoot connected to an upcoming article on a stage reading they're all involved in at the local playhouse on August 2 (called "Whoosh!" which Josh wrote).

As is always the case when Gavin's in the mix, a lot of stories of old Hollywood, particularly Broadway and the theater (which Gavin has done a lot of). It was a terrific, boisterous, fun-filled meal (I had the Mayor's Burger, in case you're wondering, Josh, in true writer fashion, ordered a lot of coffee....and pancakes for lunch!), and along the way, we wound up talking about the great film ON THE WATERFRONT, one of my favorites, starring Marlon Brando and with a screenplay written by one of my all-time favorite writers, the great Budd Schulberg (WHAT MAKES SAMMY RUN?). Directed by ELIA KAZAN, of course (and Gavin's got Elia Kazan stories up the yin yang). I brought up KARL MALDEN, who plays the priest in the movie. It's probably my favorite Malden performance. So Gavin asks, "Is he still alive?" And I said, "Yeah, he lives in Brentwood." That was two days ago. Unfortunately, yesterday came word that Malden, at the age of 97 (and married 71 years!), had passed away. Another sad celebrity death in the a month of too many of them.

The timing of it was freaky. This happened twice last year, once in March 2008, when my cartoonist buddies Javier, Jose, Ted and I were headed for Frank 'n Sons and ROY SCHEIDER came up in conversation, followed a day later by word of his death. ANd on my birthday weekend dinner in April 2008, we joked about CHARLTON HESTON while dining at the grand Burbank restaurant Pinocchio's. After returning home, I looked online to learn that Heston had passed. Freaky!

Lesson learned: I will try not to get into any discussions about aging stars anymore.

Well, to end on a lighter note, after our great lunch at the Pantry, Gavin, Josh and me kibbitzed for a while on Swarthmore Avenue, visited the book store on the corner in search of EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND DVDs for Gavin, and, thanks to the sudden appearance of a Red Bull car, enjoyed a round of energy drinks (although Gavin gave me his). It was quite a delightful afternoon. Only in Pacific Palisades!

Marriage Material!

Any girl who likes to dress like this....

HUMP DAY Q & A: EL MUERTO Cartoonist JAVIER HERNANDEZ

JAVIER HERNANDEZ, the cartoonist behind the superhero zombie comic book EL MUERTO, AZTEC ZOMBIE (and the upcoming MAN-SWAMP and DEMOLITION DOVE comics) is one of my best friends, so consider this interview is complete nepotism.



Jav and I once made up half of a small Los Angeles comics collective we called Big Umbrella. Yes, we’re so close, he didn’t even have to sleep with me to get this posted online like the other people (just kidding, other people…I don’t need the libel lawsuits, thanks!)
Seriously though, forget about Raymond, everybody loves Javier! He’s one cool cat, and one of the sweetest and laugh-out-loud funniest guys in the industry. He laughs off the folks who confuse him with members of Los Lobos, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning authors who mistake him from one of Los Bros. Hernandez (it’s true, Michael Chabon once thought he was Jaime at a Wonder Con). At conventions, Jav loves to mix it up with his loyal fans, who often become friends and/or fellow cartoonists he’ll collaborate with.
I don’t have enough blog space, threads and links to go into all of the ridiculous, comical adventures we’ve shared on our parallel journey through comicdom, which often included sharing tables or occupying neighboring tables at myriad shows. I began publishing my comics around 1995, about three years before Javier jumped into the game for earnest with his EL MUERTO comic, which, for the longest time, was just an ashcan version, and yet, before there was even an issue # 2, Jav had all sorts of EL MUERTO t-shirts, figurines, a punk soundtrack CD and posters. And he’s managed to attract Hollywood attention, becoming a 2007 movie (alternate title: THE DEAD ONE) starring WILMER VALDERRAMA. All before EL MUERTO # 2 even hit the comic book shops.



Jav’s upcoming MAN-SWAMP comic has its roots in a little sketch book throw-down between us at one of the conventions, where we had joked about the fact that there were too many stretchy characters and too many swamp creatures in superhero history and wouldn’t it be funny to create yet another. So I created The Stretch Men (a story of which ran in my book FUTURESHOCK: EL GATO 2002) to Jav’s Elastico, while Jav created Man-Swamp to my Swamp-Man. All of it, of course, totally superfluous. Well, for the longest damn time, we put this little joke aside, but in the last year or two, Jav, a long-time fan of Steve Gerber (whose various duck characters partly inspired Demo Dove as well), got all misty-eyed and nostalgic for Gerber’s Man-Thing, and so he decided to take the Man-Swamp joke one step too far with this new book. But no doubt it’ll be a lot of fun. The painted cover already looks terrific.



(On a coincidental yet related aside, here’s an article I wrote on Gerber’s Man-Thing, Tales of the Zombie, and other 1970s creature features, for BACK ISSUE # 31 last November, with PABLO MARCOS creating brand new illustrations exclusively for the article: http://westfieldcomics.com/comics-feature/BACK-ISSUE-31-WESTFIELD-EXCLUSIVE-PREVIEW-225)

But back to Javy….For more on Javier Hernandez’s work, visit www.ElMuerto.com and his most excellent blog, Javzilla, as javiersblog.blogspot.com.

JAVIER HERNANDEZ

----Which movies had a profound impact on you while growing up and how did they inspire your art?

THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY, with it's huge canvas of over-the-top action, operatic drama, and pop art existentialism, probably is one of the biggest wells I draw from. Also, films like MASTER OF THE FLYING GUILLOTINE and JOHNNY SOKKO AND HIS FLYING ROBOT, which I eagerly awaited once a year when they would be shown on local stations here in L.A. (like the fabled Channel 52), had an impact. Those films, and many others, truly were comic books on film: They had charismatic caricatures standing in for heroes & villians and an anything-goes attitude regarding creativity and imagination. What I notice in my own work that definately derives from these type of flicks is the wearing-it-on-their-sleeves pathos of those characters and their stories.



---- What's the deal with MAN-SWAMP and DEMOLITION DOVE and what will happen with EL MUERTO, AZTEC ZOMBIE when they arrive?

MAN-SWAMP is literally at the printers! I'm awaiting a physical proof, and once I get that back I can put in a proper order for the book. DEMOLITION DOVE is the next book I'll put under the XOMIX COMIX imprint (started by me and my pal Ted Seko), but that won't be out until I finish Pt. 2 of EL MUERTO:DEAD & CONFUSED, which I'm now working on. As for what will happens with Muerto once the Living Quagmire that Walks Like a Man and the Dove arrive? They'll be Three Amigos in my growing roster of comic characters. It's my own little Atlas Comics line-up! Each character lets me express a whole different set of styles and themes, and there's lots more ideas for more characters backed up in my head.

---- Why do you enjoy taking part as one of the Cartoonistas?

The Cartoonistas provide me with an outlet to perform Live Art for interested parties, and also let's me do so in a group atmosphere with my fellow artists. You know what it's like to slave away late at night at the drawing table, with only some Clash or Ennio Morricone playing in the background. Performing Live Art, side by side with the other great talents in the group, is so liberating and stimulating. It's what I imagine performing up on stage in a rock band is like. Then there's always the post-show dinners!



The core members of LOS CARTOONISTAS: Ted Seko, Javier Hernandez, Will Caulfield, Gras Rodriguez, Bernyce Talley, Jim Lujan.

--- If you lived alone on a bluff, and the entire runs of GHOST RIDER, WEREWOLF BY NIGHT, THE HUMAN FLY, MACHINE MAN, and ROM: SPACEKNIGHT were hanging off a cliff (mylar-sealed, in sturdy collector's boxes) and you only had time to save one, which would it be and why?

Rats!! Couldn't you just waterboard me? That'd be easier. Geez Mikey.. It's like being asked to pick either my heart, my brain or my lungs for extraction. I mean, MACHINE MAN is split down the middle with both Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko issues. HUMAN FLY has my favorite Bill Mantlo origin story/motivation for a superhero, and the one character I passionately believed in as a kid. And ROM, glorious ROM, SPACENIGHT, by Mantlo and 'Our Pal' Sal Buscema, with later run by Ditko. Dang it, I just can't choose! I'm jumping off the cliff myself, screw it!!

UPCOMING: 2009

JULY 23 to 26: SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON INTERNATIONAL, at the CARTOON FLOPHOUSE table K-13 in the Small Press pavilion. New books: CARTOON FLOPHOUSE FEATURING GREENBLATT THE GREAT!, SILLY GOOSE. Cartoonist TED SEKO ("Billy Cole," "Attack of the Supermonsters," "Nine Loves of El Gato, Crime Mangler") will join me at the table for Saturday, July 25 and Sunday, July 26.





OCTOBER 17 and 18: ALTERNATIVE PRESS EXPO (APE), San Francisco, at the CARTOON FLOPHOUSE table. New book: CARTOON FLOPHOUSE FEATURING GREENBLATT THE GREAT # 2 to debut at this show.



My buddies TED SEKO, JAVIER HERNANDEZ, RAFAEL NAVARRO, and JOSE CABRERA are planning or tentatively planning to attend APE this year, so that will kick the fun factor into overdrive.

OCTOBER (TBA): SAN GABRIEL COMIC BOOK FESTIVAL. JAVIER HERNANDEZ co-founded this local show. The first one was a spirited affair which attracted a terrific crowd, and this year's promises to be bigger and better.

40th Comic-Con Souvenir Book pinup: Bullwinkle and Rocky-a-rama!!

Per the last post, here is my contribution to the 40th Comic-Con Souvenir Book. It's my tribute to the late, great Jay Ward, creator of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Superchicken and Fred, Peabody and Sherman, George of the Jungle, and various commercials including Cap'n Crunch......



For some reason, I thought this tiki-themed take befit the tone of Ward's crazy, California-bred cartoons, even though I could never truly do justice to Ward's unparalleled legacy.

I roped in my pal Rich Carradine into the tribute, because as Fairfax High students in the late '80s, Rich and I used to go up the the (now defunct) Dudley Do-Right Emporium on Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles (across from the Chateau Marmont, next door to the former Jay Ward Studios building...yes, the one with the giant sculpture of Rocky and Bullwinkle). The Emporium, a store dedicated to Jay Ward Cartoons merchandise, was run and operated by Jay and his wife. Rich and I were fortunate enough to have shared some times talking up the shy but genial and accessible animation pioneer and pester him with our probing questions, such as what the connection was between Ward and Underdog, and other arcane inquiries inspired by too many hours watching Tom Hatten's "Popeye and his Friends," which featured Ward's cartoons. We'd follow him around as he made his rounds on Sunset, dropping envelopes in the mailbox and grabbing a sandwich at Greenblatt's Deli.

Anyway, I not only miss Jay Ward, but I miss the entire school of witty, pun-drunk cartoons (making sweet lemonade out of limited animation) which he created and which no longer truly exists. Cheers to you, Mr. Ward!

40th Comic-Con Souvenir Book pinup: Turtle Power!

Here's the entry for this year's San Diego Comic-Con International souvenir book by my Southern California Cartoonist Society buddy Matt Lorentz, and his pals (their respective Web sites below). They tackled one of the anniversary themes: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Beautiful job, Matt and bunch!

www.wardellbrown.com

mattlorentz.deviantart.com
- The Art of Matt Lorentz

http://www.skidone.com/

www.roderickmojica.com - The Art of Rod Mojica

I've also submitted a full-color pin-up for this year's souvenir book. I chose a different anniversary theme to pay tribute to.
In years past, my pin-up honoring Art Clokey and his Gumby and Pokey creations has run (I threw some Unstoppable Rogues in their with my garage band pin-up featuring Gumby, Pokey and Prickle....and this was years before I became a Gumby comics writer).

With my CAPS group, I've contributed to pin-ups honoring Dick Tracy, Li'L Archie and Legion of Superheroes (not because I'm particularly fond of any of those themes, but because the group picked them).

I'll try and post my 2009 entry up in the weeks to come.