Starting to Sizzle

If you scoot on over to the Cartoon Network 'Upfronts' page and click on New Shows, you'll get a bit more buzz on my new animated series 'The Secret Saturdays', including something called a Sizzle Reel. Just ignore the doofy dude in the hat...

Awwww! Hell!

Good Ol' Devlie Thompson has been posting just the sort of stuff we here at Monsterama like to warm our cold hearts on-- juvenile horror drawings. You'll find Star Wars and Batman as well as more sketchy monsters on his blog.

Thimking about Dracenstein

THIMK was a rather awful 'MAD' rip-off that floundered for 6 issues in 1958-59. Following MAD's lead, they had a number of monster themed gags... convieniently located in a MAD-style 'Monster Section' (duplicated the following year by Archie's MAD HOUSE). The cool thing about THIMK is that their mascot, featured on nearly every cover, wasn't some doofy kid with a poop-eating grin-- he was a monster! Otis Dracenstein was actually pretty nifty. The humor centered on the fact that he was a horrible looking monster married to a normal wife with two normal kids-- and he was the kind-hearted one. The 'normal' folks were horrible freaks, and Otis had a gentle soul. It's really not so hilarious now (and probably wasn't then, either), but you must remember that these stories were published years before the Addams Family, Munsters and Bewitched TV shows made nice monsters as common as colds. This site has some cool background info on one of THIMK's contributors... clearly a horror movie fan! Bob Drews from THIMK's "Good Old Bob Drews Department" was also SIR RODGER, host of WTAE-TV's (Pittsburgh) 'Shock Theater' (1958-1962)! Here are some sample Otis pages...

Happy Monster!

So. I'm actually feeling pretty good for once (I'm sure it'll pass). And my pal Evan just made me even happier with this link to a wonderful tune called Clap Your Tentacles. I think I will, thanks.

More Saturdays for Monday

Here are some early impressions on the news of the new cartoon here and here. There's also been some negative blogging connected to the announcement concerning CN's live action experiments, and I want to reassure you all, this one's 100% cartoon!

THE SECRET IS OUT!!!

Yup, it's official. The show I've had in development for a year with the Cartoon Network (formerly known as 'CRYPTIDS') just got picked up for 26 half-hour episodes! You can read some early press here and here. The press release goes like this... "THE SECRET SATURDAYS: Jay Stephens has created a new comedy/action series, in which Doc, Drew and Zak Saturday are a family of world-saving adventure scientists called The Secret Saturdays. Living in a hidden base, they are part of a network of scientists who protect against all the hidden and terrifying things in this world. To The Saturdays, ordinary folktales aren’t just legends -- they are real-life mysteries and adventures. Traveling from the hot Gobi Desert to the icy Marianas Trench, they explore ancient temples and bottomless caves and tangle with twisted villains like the masked madman V.V. Argost and his half-human/half-giant spider." Here's hoping you'll dig it!