John Rozum.com

Original "The Thing" Art On Ebay

2012-01-23T13:16:00.000-05:00

30 Days of Night creator, Steve Niles has a few pieces of original art on ebay right now to benefit his dog, Sonny who has been weathering some chemo treatments. Among the artwork is the above original cut paper collage that I made based on John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) with Sonny in the foreground.

You can bid for this piece here.

Why I Quit Static Shock

2012-01-22T16:33:00.000-05:00

This post is to clarify some comments a made on facebook, which were picked up by Bleeding Cool News about why I left the comic book series Static Shock which was one of the 52 titles that were part of DC Comics' much celebrated relaunch last fall. The comments were made in a Milestone specific group and were meant more to shed light on my feelings about the missed opportunity to show the true potential of the character of Static, and what I had hoped to do with the character, and series, when I was asked to write it, and less to do with my reasons for leaving. Because the comments were made casually, I left a lot of room for interpretation for anyone reading them, which isn't fair to any parties involved, so I'm taking this opportunity to offer some clarity.

Initially, I had never intended to openly discuss the reasons why I chose to leave Static Shock. My reasons were my own, and I felt that after expressing them to the powers that be at DC Comics and after discussing them with Bob Harras that the situation was resolved amicably and that there was no reason to say anything further than acknowledging that I had indeed left the series. However, since the announcement that Static Shock would cease publication with issue #8 ( I was only involved with issues 1-4) there's been a lot of online chatter about why the series failed, and I've received a lot of angry email blaming me for wrecking the series, the character, and the opportunity for an African-American character to take center stage at one of the big publishing companies. I've had people announce that due to the low quality of comic that they would no longer buy anything that had my name on it. I've had an editor at a publisher other than DC say they weren't interested in having me write for them because they thought Static Shock was a poor comic book series.

I don't really care what people think of me personally. Not everyone is going to like me, that's a given. That's okay. I don't really care if people don't like my work. I can't please everyone. No one can. That's okay, too. There are enough people who do like my work that I'm happy to have them, and happy to let those who don't like my work read the stuff they do like. That's all good. I finally spoke out because I'm unwilling to have my professional reputation damaged because of something that is not my responsibility. I've always been very vocal about crediting my collaborators for their contributions, or for others for inspiring aspects of my work, and always been completely willing to take responsibility for something I did that turned out to be less than it could have been.

This brings me to Static. When I was asked to write Static Shock for DC Comics, it was no doubt because of my long relationship with Milestone Comics (where the character originated, as did Xombi) and because of my long, close friendship with Static's creator, Dwayne McDuffie, who died nearly a year ago. I was excited by the opportunity. I loved the character, who I'd previously written in an issue of Kobalt way back when, and was looking forward to writing something so radically different from what I'm usually offered, but still infusing it with my own sensibility and giving the world a comic book series full of creativity, crazy ideas, and a lot of fun and humor unlike any of the other 51 titles that DC would be offering up last September. I thought Static had the potential to be one of DCs A-list characters, and not simply some supporting character incorporated from an outside company's pantheon of heroes. I never felt that Xombi lent itself well to full incorporation into the DC Universe and would always have to exist as it's own pocket world in the DCU. With Static Shock, however, I was fully looking forward to embracing all areas of the greater DCU, and also using the series as a gateway to not only showcase how cool all of the other Milestone characters were, but to bring them into the DCU in their own right.

To say I was disappointed with how things turned out is an understatement. From the first issue on, I was essentially benched by Harvey Richards and artist/writer Scott McDaniel. All of my ideas and suggestions were met with disdain, and Scott McDaniel lectured me on how my method for writing was wrong because it wasn't what the Robert McKee screenwriting book he read told him was the way to do things. The man who'd never written anything was suddenly more expert than me and the editor was agreeing with him. Scott had also never read a Static comic book, nor seen the cartoon series, yet was telling me that my dialogue didn't sound true to the character and would "fix it."

There was more concern about seeing that the title sold and didn't get cancelled than there was in telling good stories and having something coherent to bring readers in. This is what led Harvey to insist on the stuff with the two Sharon's and cutting off Static's arm. He had no answers for how to resolve these things, but thought it would keep reader's wowed enough to stick with the series. This, too, was frustrating. It was a lot of grasping at straws and trying to second guess what would keep it selling. It was decided that "bigger action" on every page of every issue was the key.

Static's alter ego, Virgil, who was more important to the original series than his super hero persona, was put on the very back burner because Harvey said it wasn't important and that the book just needed to be all action. One of my scripts was deemed too slow because there were a total of 4 pages where no one was hitting or shooting anything. Essentially my job was to transcribe Scott's voluminous and often clunky dialogue into a script format. Any efforts I made to try and finesse, edit, or reduce his dialogue or captions, offended him, and everything had to be changed back to how he'd originally written it, while my dialogue always required his improvement. Scott, to be fair, had a lot of great ideas, but did not have the writing skills necessary to make these ideas compelling stories, but was not willing to take any suggestions, or changes that I'd give him. As a writer, I understand the desire to want to protect you ideas and to believe that they are all golden, but this was supposed to be a collaborative experience, and I was supposed to be the writer with experience. To give credit where credit is due, my meager contributions to Static Shock amount to including Hardware, naming the school after Dwayne McDuffie, giving Virgil an after school job at S.T.A.R. labs, the Pale Man, Guillotina and the random line of dialogue. That's about it.If you didn't like any of those things, blame me. Everything else was Scott and Harvey.

It could be said that it's Harvey's right as editor to decide that Scott's ideas, and writing in general, were better than mine, and maybe he was even right. In that case though, why keep me on the series as co-writer? Scott could have transcribed his own dialogue into script form. No one needed me for that. I was hired as writer, and the series was being published with me listed as such even though there was little to nothing between the covers of the comic that came from me. Even worse, it was all material I didn't believe in, and thought was substandard fare that we'd seen in a million comic books before.

It was a miserable experience, which I tried to weather professionally, and see if I could turn back into my favor, but that never worked. I was also determined to stick with it out of loyalty to Dwayne McDuffie hoping that I could fix what was going very wrong with this series. I even voiced my unhappiness with Harvey Richards who promised me that the situation would change. When I received an email from Harvey telling me that he and Scott had been plotting out the series without me, after Harvey had promised me that I'd be back in the driver's seat as the writer, I'd had enough and quit. The experience as a whole was incredibly stressful, and I became physically ill just seeing an email in my inbox from either Harvey, or Scott.

My quitting was something that I spent a lot of time considering. It was while promoting the then forthcoming first issue that I first began to think about leaving. Even though I pushed the series, including here, where I posted the various villains in the days leading up to the issue #1 debut, my heart wasn't really in it. I avoided most interviews because I couldn't bring myself to lie about being enthusiastic about a book I had little to do with, and which I felt was not very good. I never announced the publication of any other issues for the same reason. I couldn't encourage anyone to buy them.

Again, it really came down to how this was affecting my professional reputation. No one outside of Harvey, Scott and myself knew what was really going on behind the scenes. When I saw that a lot of people were buying Static Shock because of how much they enjoyed my pervious series, Xombi, I felt that it was unethical and irresponsible for me to let them be deceived into buying something that I had made no real contribution to. I won't take credit for work that's not mine -- good, or bad. I also felt that after nearly two decades in the comic book industry and finally being recognized for my work with Xombi, I was unwilling to see that erased with Static Shock, which I felt was a mediocre comic book series, at best, a view which a lot of readers seemed to share, and blame me for.

I was stunned by how unprofessionally I was being treated by my editor, with whom I'd previously had nothing but a positive working relationship with for the bulk of my career in comics, and by Scott McDaniel, who seemed like a nice, personable guy, and the interactions he's had with his fans that I've read would indicate really is one. My negative experience was exclusively with these two people and not with anyone else at DC Comics, or with DC as a whole. As I said, no one knew any of this was happening until I quit and let the executives at DC know why. Anyone who wants to believe that my experience was some general DC policy would be wrong to think that. Bob Harras, Geoff Johns, Dan Didio, and Jim Lee did not tell Harvey Richards to reject all of my contributions on this. Harvey decided that, himself. All of my other experiences with a variety of people at DC going back to the 90s have been overwhelmingly positive. Again, they handled the situation, once I quit, rather well, I thought.

As a side note, some people read into my comment about looking for work from other publishers when I left Static Shock as some veiled hint that all was not good between DC and I. As anyone who freelances could tell you, new projects take months to reach the point where actual work is being done on them, and anyone is being paid. While I do have projects under consideration at DC, I'm still interested in working on other things. Since Static Shock, I've been concentrating my efforts on a project outside of comics which I can't announce yet, but was a nice change of pace. I'm still looking for things to do with other publishers as well, and am always willing to consider projects.

Static Shock did not get cancelled because DC has some racist motivation against minority characters, or the Milestone characters. Static Shock was cancelled, in my opinion, because it wasn't a good comic book. If it had been, people would have stuck with it, just as they have with Animal Man, who is a C-list character elevated by the talents of its creative team being allowed to do what they do best. DC wanted Static Shock to succeed as much as anyone did. They would never have started the series if they didn't think it had a chance to do so.

If you enjoy Static Shock, which by all means you have the right to do, then thank Harvey Richards and Scott McDaniel. They deserve full credit for everything you've read. Scott, constantly while rejecting my ideas and dialogue, would say he was doing it in an effort to put out the best comic book possible. I believe he was really trying to do that and was unfortunately saddled with me, a collaborator completely unsuited to his sensibility, and apparently unskilled enough to handle the task. From the first interviews supporting the launch of this series, I went out of my way to suggest that Scott was doing it almost single handedly. That wasn't me simply trying to be gracious. It was the truth.

If you hated the series, and like me, felt that it could have been something much more than it was, I'm sorry. Good, or bad. This is not the Static Shock that I had hoped it would be. It's not the way I would have written it. I hope this isn't the last time that Static will be given his own series. Even if he does manage to return, chances are high, I won't be writing it.

I don't plan to say anything else about this experience, and never had planned to say anything at all. Again, I'm just trying to correct assumptions made and preserve my professional reputation as a writer, and to keep people from making assumptions that my negative experience stemmed from some general policy at DC Comics. I plan to continue creating work for DC for as long as they'll let me.

The "Perfect" Movie

2012-01-17T11:19:00.000-05:00

As part of taking care of some unfinished business, there were a couple of questions asked of me in older editions of "Ask Me Anything" that I never got around to answering. Since the whole purpose of my hosting "Ask Me Anything" is to provide you with answers to your questions I feel compelled to do my best to provide said answers, no matter how difficult the question.

Now I'm going to answer of of these long neglected questions. This comes from September 2011, and was put aside, but not forgotten, as I became consumed with last minute preparations for the Countdown to Halloween.

The question comes from Robert Pope, my pal and longtime collaborator on the Scooby-Doo comic book series. Robert's question:

Bruce Timm has called "Jaws" a "perfect film." Which film produced since 1970 (just to make things easier) do you consider to be "perfect" and why?

As you can see, not an easy question to answer. This would also differ from my favorite movies ( an expanded list can be found under "notes" on my facebook page), but actually includes a couple of them.

I would have to say that there are four films made since 1970 that I consider perfect.

Heavenly Creatures (1994) - This is the Peter Jackson movie which introduced the world to Kate Winslett (though I found her co-star Melanie Lynskey just as compelling). The movie was about a notorious murder case from 1954 that happened in Christchurch, New Zealand in which two teenage girls, Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme (now author, Anne Perry) murdered Parker's mother.

From the scream that starts the movie all the way to the end, this movie was simply riveting. Beautifully shot, written, and acted, I was sucked into way this story built to it's tragic climax. The way Jackson merged and overlapped the real world with their shared fantasy world was also really impressive. There was nothing extraneous or missing from this movie. I saw this opening night and when it was over I went to the lobby and bought a ticket for the next show.

Blue Velvet (1986) Wholesome Kyle MacLachlan finds a severed ear in a field and what starts off as an almost Hardy Boys like story quickly becomes a nightmare as he becomes immersed in the dark underbelly of suburbia.

This was another movie I saw opening night and I just remember feeling that finally someone made a movie that was aimed just at me. The fact that it was this one, probably will make people reevaluate me, but it's true. It's like a secret door in my brain was opened and I could really identify with the protagonist. Lynch's overly saturated colors and dense soundscape made the wholesome world seem as unreal and nightmarish as the rotten core that it was hiding. It's almost like a fairy tale taking place in the contemporary world. This was like watching a dream transplanted onto film. This is a really dark, beautiful movie.

In the Mood For Love (2000) -- This is I think the most perfect movie I can think of. It has an incredible rhythm to it which is very relaxed with a repetition enhanced by the beautiful score. Wong Kar Wei is one of my all time favorite directors and Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung are two of my favorite actors. The movie which is about a man and a woman who are neighbors drawn together because they're spouses are having affairs was organically made, with everyone improvising and changing the story as they made it, resulting in an incredibly beautiful and heartbreaking movie where so much is conveyed in body language and reactions. The movie also has an incredible color palette and costume design.

Pan's Labyrinth (2006) Like Heavenly Creatures, Guillermo del Toro's movie masterfully merges a fantasy world with the real world, but here the fantasy world offers an escape from not the mundane, but the horrors of war and change. Fantastic performances, pacing, use of color, creature design and direction combine into an amazing, engaging, dark fairy tale. It also really appeals to in the conveyance of a mysterious world abutting close to ours and for taking this idea as something natural.

I'd also almost inlcude Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) except my willing suspension of disbelief is always knocked out of commission by the notion of Indiana Jones traveling for hundreds of miles strapped to the conning tower of a U-boat. Except for that, really quite perfect.

Mad Scientist #24 Now Available

2012-01-09T14:10:00.000-05:00

Mad Scientist issue #24 is now available. I contributed a collage portrait of Carlos Villarius as Dracula from the 1931 Universal Spanish production, as well as a short article on Alan Ormsby's fantastic book Movie Monsters which was a staple for Monster Kids who grew up in the 1970s. You can order a copy and see the rest of the contents at the Mad Scientist website.

Mad Scientist is an excellent magazine which I highly recommend, whether I'm involved with it, or not, and I became involved with it because of my admiration for it's high quality, the variety of the content, and the overall enjoyment factor that comes with reading each issue. But don't take my word for it. Tony Isabella has reviewed the recent issue.

Happy 100th Birthday to Charles Addams

2012-01-07T21:12:00.005-05:00

Today is the 100th anniversary of cartoonist Charles Addams best known for his macabre cartoons featuring a family of characters which would become known as "The Addams Family." Here, using his first wife, Barbara as a model for Morticia, he sketches one of his cartoons. Charles Addams collections at the library caught my attention as a kid because of the subject matter and were probably my first exposure to black humor.

Ask Me Anything #16

2012-01-02T00:00:00.000-05:00

As everyone slowly recovers from the holidays, it's time once again for "Ask Me Anything." This feature runs on the first Monday of every month and gives you the opportunity to ask me anything you might be wondering about me, my work, my favorite stuff of 2011, or anything at all. I've already said this twice previously and failed to deliver, but this month I swear I'll also be responding to a couple of questions from previous editions of "Ask Me Anything" that I've been remiss in answering, and had intended to get to before my work schedule and the holidays got the best of me.

Head down to the comment section and post your question. I'll either post my answer in the comment section as well, or answer it in a special post all its own sometime later in the month.

Please take the time to view the previous questions so that we don't wind up with a lot of repetition. I've been asked a lot of good, thought provoking questions in the past as well as some really banal ones. all of which I tried to answer. You can see the previous questions by visiting Ask Me Anything #1, #2 , #3, #4, #5, #6 , #7 , #8, #9, #10, #11, #12 , #13, #14 and #15. Answers not found following the questions can be found in the archives section for each associated month.

Now ask away.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T00:00:00.000-05:00

XOMBI Listed Among Best Comics of 2011

2011-12-31T22:43:00.000-05:00

As 2011 comes to a finish, I was happy to see that Xombi made many lists compiling the year's best comics. The trade paperback collecting the series will be available in early February and can be pre-ordered at a comic book store or independent book store near you, or, if you must, through Amazon. There is a link below.

To coincide with the release of the trade paperback I will be running a bit of an issue by issue annotated commentary here as I promised last Fall. Keep checking back for details.

The above artwork of Xombi's David Kim among some stellar company is by Craig at Craig's Comic Land.

Ornaments On Our Tree

2011-12-19T01:24:00.000-05:00

I've been busy juggling work and preparing for the holidays, so I've not had a chance to bring you any of the meatier posts I'd been planning. So for now, I present some holiday oriented eye candy with these views of some of the ornaments decorating our tree.

Marvel Monsters in the Morning

2011-12-14T01:46:00.000-05:00

At 7:00 am EST Cartoon Network is rebroadcasting "This Man-Thing...This Monster" one of the episodes of Super Hero Squad that I wrote. The episode features a large number of the monster characters from Marvel Comics, such as Werewolf By Night, Dracula, the Living Mummy, and Man-Thing as well as a few cool surprises.

If you're up that early check it out. Watch it with your kids.

Hellraiser Masterpieces #3 Now Available

2011-12-10T23:42:00.000-05:00

I forgot to mention this, but Hellraiser Masterpieces #3, published by Boom! Studios was released last Wednesday. A companion to the current ongoing Hellraiser series, also published by Boom!, Hellraiser Masterpieces reprints stories from the Hellraiser series published in the late 1980s -- early 1990s by Marvel's Epic imprint. Three of my earliest comic book stories were written for this run, and all three have been collected in the current issue. This is the first time any of them have been reprinted and also the first time that they appear together under one cover. You can see the table of contents below if you're curious about the line-up and the excellent artists I was paired with.

Comic Book Resources has a preview of this issue which you can see here which shows several pages from the "Homecoming" story. While I loved Mark Texeira's art for this story, the story itself was heavily altered by editorial and became something more obvious and also gentler and with a just desserts type ending that was contrary to the harsh, more pessimistic ending that I wrote. The other two stories I was rather fond of. I haven't seen either in ages, and wonder how they hold up today.

Clive Barker's Hellraiser universe was one I really enjoyed getting to play in and would love to return to. I also wrote an origin story to the Lemarchand puzzle boxes which appeared as an issue of Clive Barker's Book of the Damned which I'd always wanted to expand upon, and two other Hellraiser stories which were completed but for which artwork was never commissioned since the Marvel series came to an end.

Hellraiser Masterpieces #3 is available at a Comic Book store near you, or can be ordered by your local comic book shop.

MAD SCIENTIST #24 Available for Pre-Order

2011-12-06T12:23:00.000-05:00

Issue #24 of Mad Scientist magazine is available for pre-order via their website. This an excellent magazine for fans of classic horror, fantasy, science fiction, dinosaurs and comic books and is only $5.00 per issue. The new issue includes a piece of artwork and a short article by me as well as a lot of other great stuff.

Ask Me Anything #15

2011-12-05T00:00:00.001-05:00

It's time once again for "Ask Me Anything." This feature runs on the first Monday of every month and gives you the opportunity to ask me anything you might be wondering about me, my work, or anything at all. This month I'll also be responding to a couple of questions from previous editions of "Ask me Anything" that I've been remiss in answering, and had intended to get to last month before my work schedule got the best of me.

Head down to the comment section and post your question. I'll either post my answer in the comment section as well, or answer it in a special post all its own sometime later in the month.

Please take the time to view the previous questions so that we don't wind up with a lot of repetition. I've been asked a lot of good, thought provoking questions in the past as well as some really banal ones. all of which I tried to answer. You can see the previous questions by visiting Ask Me Anything #1, #2 , #3, #4, #5, #6 , #7 , #8, #9, #10, #11, #12 , #13 and #14. Answers not found following the questions can be found in the archives section for each associated month.

Now ask away.

I Bring You Holiday Cheer

2011-12-03T23:31:00.000-05:00

Do you still need a special ornament for your tree? Is it lacking something such as a Frankenstein monster head, a grinning cat, robot or a squid? If so, visit my friend, Tom Taggart's etsy shop and look at his selection of hand crafted ornaments. Each is about the size of an apple, or baseball and are light weight so your tree's branches won't sag when you hang them up. I have a number of these on my own tree and they look great right along the more typical Christmas trimmings. Tell him I sent you.

If you still need to select holiday cards to mail out, check out Cara Scissoria for a wide selection of pun-filled, humorous, and often political cards. Tell her I sent you, too.

Now that you've got your cards, and your tree take care of, you'll probably need something to put under it. For the animation fan on your list, might I suggest a one of a kind original cut paper collage portrait of some of their favorite characters? It just so happens that I have a number of these in stock. They're affordable and can be found here.

While the trade paperback collection of Xombi won't be available until February, young superhero and comic book fans might appreciate some of these other items I had a hand in.

Kids interested in action, adventure and strange creatures might like Cartoon Network: Ben 10 Alien Force/The Secret Saturdays (2-in-1) book which collects most of The Secret Saturdays comic books I wrote along with a bunch of Ben 10 stories as a bonus.

The Super Hero Squad is a television series aimed at younger kids and features the super heroes from Marvel Comics such as Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, the Hulk, Wolverine and others in a wide range of super hero action adventures with quite a bit of humor thrown into the mix. Volume 2 and Volume 3 of the DVD compilations of the series each have an episode I wrote.

Cut Paper Collage Animation Art For Sale

2011-11-28T15:42:00.000-05:00

Are you looking for something unique to get the animation fan on your holiday shopping list?

Are animation cells outside your budget, or too hard to find?

Might I suggest an affordable answer to both questions. I am selling a large number of cut paper collage portraits of various classic animation characters such as Fred Flintstone, Bugs Bunny, Yogi Bear, and many others. Each is an original, one of a kind piece of art, hand crafted from cut paper, and each is extremely affordable with many in the $30-$50 range.

Dozens of characters are still available. Check here for details on which characters are available as well as all pricing and shipping information.

If you don't see a character you're looking for, please ask. I accept commissions, and there is still time to have one done in time for the holidays.

Xombi available for iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Android and on the Web

2011-11-25T00:52:00.000-05:00

If you're traveling this weekend, or anytime over the holidays, Xombi, the widely acclaimed series that I wrote with Frazer Irving handling the art, is now available for digital download at only $1.99 an issue. You can download all six issues here.

For those of you who prefer to read your books as books, the trade paperback edition will be available at the beginning of February. You can order it through your local independent bookstore or comicbook store, or pre-order it through Amazon via the link below.

The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra

2011-11-22T02:14:00.000-05:00

Be sure to stop by Doo Wacka Doodles for the current tribute to the modern film classic The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, where a variety of artists present their interpretations of characters and situations from the movie and it's sequel The Lost Skeleton Returns Again.

I was honored to be asked to join in the fun and the three pieces I did are now on display.

The Grim Gallery

2011-11-15T00:32:00.000-05:00

Don't forget to visit The Grim Gallery. There are new monsters on exhibit there every day.

In Case You Missed It...

2011-11-10T17:25:00.000-05:00

There's an interview with me over at the Strange Kids Club that may be of interest to you. I posted a link to it during my Halloween Countdown last month, but it could easily have been missed among my 9 zillion other posts during October. Here's a link.

Tomorrow on Cartoon Network

2011-11-08T18:25:00.000-05:00

For those of you with super hero loving children, or who need something to watch while eating your corn flakes, Cartoon Network will be rebroadcasting my second episode of Super Hero Squad - "Stranger From a Savage Land" tomorrow morning at 7:00 am EST. A quest to rescue his sabretooth tiger, Zabu leads Ka-Zar and Captain America into battle against Dr. Doom.

This episode is also available on DVD at the link below.

Ask Me Anything #14

2011-11-07T00:00:00.000-05:00

After taking a month off in order to make room for the annual Halloween Countdown, "Ask Me Anything" returns. This feature runs on the first Monday of every month and gives you the opportunity to ask me anything you might be wondering. Whether it's a burning question about one of my projects, something I've said, or did, or even if you're just wondering what books I'm reading now, this is your opportunity to ask. This month I'll also be responding to a couple of questions from previous editions of "Ask me Anything" that I've been remiss in answering.

Head down to the comment section and post your question. I'll either post my answer in the comment section as well, or answer it in a special post all its own sometime later in the month.

Please take the time to view the previous questions so that we don't wind up with a lot of repetition. I've been asked a lot of good, thought provoking questions in the past as well as some really banal ones. all of which I tried to answer. You can see the previous questions by visiting Ask Me Anything #1, #2 , #3, #4, #5, #6 , #7 , #8, #9, #10, #11, #12 and #13. Answers not found following the questions can be found in the archives section for each associated month.

Now ask away.

Obey Me!

2011-11-06T23:16:00.000-05:00

Belle Dee, one of my very favorite artists is hosting a special event over at her blog, Doo Wacka Doodles. Currently underway is her tribute to the cinema classic, The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra. Now, through November 19th, Belle will be hosting a variety of fine artists who will be revealing artwork paying tribute to the movie with more quotable lines than any other. Along with the fine artists, I'll also be contributing a couple of pieces which I'm working hard to finish.

If you haven't seen The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, what are you waiting for?

Bill Murray at Gallery 1988

2011-11-05T17:15:00.000-04:00

Please Post Bills, the Bill Murray Tribute show at Gallery 1988 has me listed as one of the artists participating. I had originally planned to take part in the show, but my schedule did not allow for it. There are a lot of great artists taking part. You can check out the show here.

Hellraiser Masterpieces

2011-11-03T01:44:00.000-04:00

I just found out about this, so I don't know all of the deatils. Boom! Studios, which publishes the current ongoing Hellraiser comic book series, is also reprinting some of the stories published under Marvel Comics' Epic imprint in the late 1980s. These reprinted stories are being published under the title Clive Barker's Hellraiser Masterpieces.

Issue #3 of Clive Barker's Hellraiser Masterpieces collects for the first time in one issue the three stories I wrote for the Epic Hellraiser series back at the beginning of my career. The stories are "Homecoming" with art by Mark Texeira, "With My Lips" with art by Rod Whigham, and "Taste the Darkness" with artwork by Bo Hampton.

"Homecoming" was changed editorially into something far too gentle for the Hellraiser universe, and into something disappointingly unrecognizable from the script I turned in, so I don't really consider it something I wrote, but I'm still pretty pleased with the other too stories. I really dug getting to play with Clive Barker's creations and had even written a tie in comic detailing the origins of the lament configurations (the deadly puzzle boxes) and further three stories which never saw print because the series was cancelled before they could be run. I'd love to be able to return to Hellraiser some day.

Here's the solicitation information taken from the Boom! Studios website. No release date is given, but since it's available for pre-order, I'm guessing it will be available in December, or January. Ask at your local comic book shop if you are going to preorder from them. They might have an answer.

Hellraiser Masterpieces #03
Availability: Not yet released.
$3.99
Writer(s): Clive Barker, Christopher Monfette
Artist(s): Leonardo Manco
Straight from Hell, it’s another dose of classic Hellraiser horror ripped from the pages of Marvel Comics’ Hellraiser series — shipping twice this month! Re-presenting, in the mode of DR. WHO CLASSICS, never-before-reprinted tales from some of comicdom's premiere talents! This issues is three stories of grotesquery and high strangeness from John Rozum (XOMBI), featuring the art of Mark Texeria (GHOST RIDER) and Bo Hampton (BATMAN)! No other comic features these kind of sleek and intelligent horror stories told in the Hellraiser tradition!
Diamond Code: OCT110914

31 Days of Halloween - Day 31 - Finale

2011-10-31T23:22:00.000-04:00

I hadn't planned to do any decorating outside the house this year. Last Spring we moved to a new neighborhood that was rumored to be pretty empty of trick or treaters. The three houses to the left of us are empty except during the Summer months, and we are on a cul de sac with no through traffic and invisible from the road we turn off from do to a wooded area surrounding a vernal pool in the middle of our circle. On top of that our whole neighborhood is in a geological depression, so we're really out of view to anyone passing by.

At the last minute though (almost literally since I hadn't really decided on this until almost noon today) I decided that I couldn't stand the idea of not putting anything out in the yard, even if it was for only one trick or treater. If I was able to transform Halloween night into something magical for one kid, then it needed to be done. They sure weren't going to get it at any of the other houses.

So I quickly dug through what I had tucked away from Halloween's past and threw something together quickly in just a couple of hours, but tried to use the sight lines leading to our house to draw any trick or treaters up to our front door. This is what things looked like before it turned dark.

Looking up from the foot of our long driveway (I am so not looking forward to shoveling this this Winter). Jars containing votives line both sides of the driveway creating a visible path leading upwards towards the house. Just before our mailbox is the first Jack O'Lantern. Just beyond it are the first tiki torches with bright columns of fire drawing attention to them. There are more visible beyond them.

The first Jack O'Lantern with our name and address on it was my wife's idea as a way to help the mother of one of my daughter's friends find our house when she came to pick up her daughter. It didn't work. She still got lost.

The first tiki torches come as a pair. Normally, i would have positioned them at the base of the driveway, but one side is lined with bamboo, and I worried about starting a fire. You can see more tiki torches in the background. Some of the skulls have eyes that light up.

Here's three more seen on the woods side of the driveway. This side of the driveway has a lot of potential for future Halloween projects.

Looking towards the house from the last tiki torch on the house side of the driveway reveals the figure of Nosferatu standing on the deck watch as the trick or treaters pass by.

Here's Nosferatu illuminated in red. You can't see it but his eyes glow also.

Moving around the side of the house, the votive jars lead to the first headstones, though the ones this far out will be barely discernible in the dark. There's a window above the tree branches on the left side which has an element of visual interest which I'll show later in this post. You can also see the first view of one of the yard ghosts and can start hearing the sound effects that are playing from the graveyard.

As you come around the corner you see the first yard ghost which is recycled from last year.

You can now see the second yard ghost beyond her; the beheaded bride. All of the support structures that are visible in these photos are invisible at night.

Here's a closer view of this ghost. She needs a little repair work, but I didn't have enough time today to take care of it. She looks much better in the dark, and none of the tape visible here can be seen in the dark.

Moving along as you come towards the walkway from the driveway to the front door (which oddly is in the back of the house, or the side facing away from the street). None of the other ghosts from the past couple of Halloweens were used this year. Some were just too beat up, and I didn't have time to try and fix them.

Now we're at the base of the walk with a better view of the beheaded bride.

My son's freaky Jack O'Lantern rests beneath the decorative grass at the end of the walkway which can be seen in the previous photo.

Looking up the walkway towards the front door. If I'd planned ahead, I would have put a lot more stuff on the sides of the porch flanking the door.

One of the remaining Jack O'Lanterns.

And the other, created by my daughter.

At night things look quite a bit different.

The view looking back towards the street.

Above is the element I mentioned that was positioned in an upper window on the side of the house. It's really hard to photograph, but this skull sticks to the window via two suction cups in the eye sockets and its jaw opens and closes. I found this at Walt Disney World last February and bought it because it reminded me of the Scooby-Doo villain the Space Kook. If I can figure out how to make the clear dome helmet, I'll make the whole costume some year.

Here's another bad photograph of the light up animated skull.

The whole thing took me less than three hours to put up, including time it took me to find stuff that hadn't been unpacked from our move and to run out to buy tiki torch fuel.

So, how many trick or treaters did we get? Excluding my kids and my daughter's friend; four. One was a little girl from a few houses down who said it was two scary for her. The other three were 6th and 7th graders who thought it was really cool.

That in a nutshell was Halloween at my house. I hope everyone reading this had a great Halloween. Thanks for dropping by.