113 Queen

Blogging fell silent during our family move into the big, old, 6 bedroom Victorian house at 113 Queen Street, complete with secret room. No, really. Naturally, I fell behind on work which, naturally, led to a totally old-school Nervous Breakdown. I think I'm back up to blogging again now... we'll see how it goes.

Yes Yes!

I've always been fascinated by the typographically alluring and spiritually dubious Ouija Board that first entered pop culture in the midst of the Victorian Spiritualism craze, but is still alive and kicking today. Despite some very disturbing and hair-raising personal family legends surrounding this mysterious device (no, seriously. Ghosts can be such jerks), I have a small collection of old boards and even once created a spectral supervillain (Doc Phantom) who was basically a ouija board with a head. If, like me, you're interested in both the history of the witchboard as well as the various graphic and creative forms it has taken over the century, you will really dig the Museum of Talking Boards... a one-stop ouijapalooza.

Ha Ha Huh?

I have an old magazine called 'For Laughing Out Loud' published by Dell. No date. The issue I have is called the 'Monster issue', which is somewhat misleading as half the gags published within are pure, unspooky cheescake. Here are a couple of samples of the 'scary' stuff (more to follow)...

Nightmare Playgrounds

Dark Roasted Blend has some disturbingly surreal photos of creepy playground equipment for your viewing displeasure. "Not only kids, but some more impressionable adults are in danger to become psychologically scarred from thinking too much about these monsters and letting them into their dreams."

Good Phibes

This is me lovingly inking and coloring a 1970's Jack Kirby pencil drawing of Vincent Price as Dr. Phibes. My god if this had ever been made it would've very likely been my favorite comic book ever. The Phantom of the Opera meets Yellow Submarine as drawn by the King of comics... the mind boggles! I recently re-watched both 1971's The Abominable Dr. Phibes and the 1972 sequel, Dr. Phibes Rises Again, and they totally held up to my warped childhood memories. Really bizarre, beautiful stuff. England in the '30's, a lovable fiend with a monstrous deformity, blackly comedic murders, a Clockwork Jazz Band, Art Deco stylings, a silent and mysterious girl assistant named Vulnavia, and Vincent Price at his best singing 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow' through a microphone in his neck. Ahhh...
I wish I had more background on Jack Kirby's wonderful Phibes art (below). Was he involved in the pre-production of the film in some way (as the loverly and talented Clay Croker suggests in the above link), or was some comic book publisher seriously considering an adaptation or series? Anyone out there with the scoop? And now for a bonus... here's a gorgeously gruesome piece of Dr. Phibes art by another great J. Kirby... English illustrator Josh Kirby, best known for his Discworld art, to be precise. Currently up on Ebay for a couple of grand.

Updates

Go now to my official website for news of an award nomination and more definite news regarding the launch of The Secret Saturdays on the Cartoon Network...

Stumble and Flail

I've fallen a bite behind scanning and posting my own cool, creepy, crap these days, so here's an Unholy Trio to keep you idling.Frankensteinia compiles (you guessed it) all things Frankenstein, from foreign film posters to pet costumes. Me like! Me also like Monsterbrains, so go there for awhile. Monsterama commands you! And if you've got a hankering for a daily (!) dose of pre-code horror comics, please drop by the dead-lightful blog known only as The Horrors Of It All...

Meow!

A massive two-volume English translation of Kazuo Umezu's Cat Eyed Boy (Nekome Kozo) is coming in June from Viz! From their Press Release: "...for those who relish the spine chilling, we are extremely pleased to announce the North American debut of CAT EYED BOY from Kazuo Umezu, who is considered the master of the horror manga genre that has recently captivated legions of domestic readers. Cat Eyed Boy is a half-human, half-monster child whose mostly human appearance bans him from the demon world. He lives hidden in the shadows of the human world, hated by humans and demons alike. Wherever he goes, awful events occur as the humans and demons interact. In 11 stories of revenge and retribution full of disturbing images, Cat Eyed Boy acts as a trickster, saving the innocent and helping the wicked receive the punishment that fate metes out. The first volume contains four stories and the first part of a fifth and longer story. Cat Eyed Boy offers up a concoction of dark vignettes dripping with the macabre and the absurd. In other words, it's like a darker version of Shigeru Mizuki's manga universe, where the half-human, half-yokai Kitaro has freinds in both worlds, including some cute monsters. Poor Cat Eyed Boy is alone in a much more frightening place.(interesting review/cultural comparison by Christopher Butcher)

Microscopic Monsters

Very cool post about tiny, mythical, 16th Century creatures living in our bodies over at Pink Tentacle. From the site: "Long ago in Japan, human illness was commonly believed to be the work of tiny malevolent creatures inside the body. Harikikigaki, a book of medical knowledge written in 1568 by a now-unknown resident of Osaka, introduces 63 of these creepy-crawlies and describes how to fight them with acupuncture and herbal remedies."

Duck And Cover!

Oh, dear. I find myself in the unusual position of being very excited about an upcoming Dreamworks CGI animated feature. But what can I do? It's called Monsters Vs. Aliens... and there's a 50-ft. woman in it.

Secret Comics

The Secret Saturdays will be joining the lineup of Cartoon Network all-stars in the DC Comics anthology title CN Action Pack beginning in June (#26). The first story and cover (pictured above) is be me, and I will continue to be as involved as time allows in all the Saturdays comic book appearances.

The Claws Come Out

You should definately check out Pat Lewis' new book The Claws Come Out. Here's what I say on the back cover quote, "Pat Lewis' stories in THE CLAWS COME OUT ooze originality and charm, ranging from delightfully shocking pantomime to sitcom-ready characterization doused in a fresh coat of blood. Not since the likes of 'Topper' or 'Bell, Book, and Candle' has there been an occult romantic comedy that so successfully balances witty, slice-of-life dialogue against blackly comic thrills.", and I mean every word I say. Really fun stuff.

Best Cast Ever!

Clockwise from left: Diedrich Bader (Fiskerton, in hat), Me (in other hat), Fred Schaeffer (Producer), Sam Lerner (Zak Saturday), Nicole Sullivan (Drew Saturday), Scott Jeralds (Director/Producer, kneeling), Brandon Sawyer (Story Editor, kneeling lower), Phil Morris (Doc Saturday), Corey Burton (Argost, Van Rook), Will Friedle (Doyle), and Lisa Schaeffer (Casting/Voice Director, no relation to Fred). We wrapped our last episode last wednesday at Salami Studios, and it was, as always, a blast. Not all casts are this fun to work with! Thanks a million, guys.

A Little More Background

The background treatment was probably the hardest thing to nail down on the Secret Saturdays, and Tristin Cole really came to my rescue. More than a few times! Her work on the show served to impress and inspire the rest of us. (above image from her stellar work on the late, lamented, Plastic Man cartoon).

Spooky Singapore

The great and powerful Cory has an overwhelmingly awesome Flickr set of pics from Haw Par Villa, the Tiger Balm themepark, in Singapore.

Blog Buddy

Secret Saturdays Character Designer Dave Kupczyk has a new blog. Go ye and be amazed.

Alternate Saturdays

More intentionally 'off-model' Secret Saturdays promo
artwork from the Kirby-channeling pen of Juan Ortiz...

Call Him Monster

In all honesty, I had nearly forgotten these perfect little books. Did you forget them, too? Early readers from 1973 that I adored and moved on from, without further thought-- until I discovered some vintage paperback copies in my Mother-In-Law's collection of kids books she still has from her days as a public school teacher. But I recognized them at once, like meeting an old friend, and knew I needed to find the whole lot for myself. There are 12 little volumes in the Monster Book series written by Ellen Blance and Ann Cook, and illustrated by the incomparable Quentin Blake. And they are perfectly delightful... I can't confirm this, but I am sure they were written with input from young kids, as the writing style is so breezy and quirky, and extremely child-like, which is hard to fake (see above and below). Blake's drawings match the tone so perfectly, it's like a natural formation. It should come as no surprize that the series is considered a cult classic, and that it's become somewhat hard to find. I lucked into 8 hardcover 2nd printings recently, and it got me all excited again. The slim individual titles are like chapter books that follow Monster as he moves to the city, finds a home, a friend, and a magic umbrella, amoung other things. The official checklist is: Monster Comes to the City, Monster Looks for a House, Monster Cleans His House, Monster Looks for a Friend, Monster Meets Lady Monster, Monster and the Magic Umbrella, Monster Goes to the Museum, Monster on the Bus, Monster Goes to School, Monster Has a Party, and Monster Goes to the Zoo. It's impossible to deduce how much these early readers (along with the work of Sendak and Mayer) impressed me as a child, or how much they guided my future development, but I wouldn't underestimate the influence. I loved Monster then, and I sure love Monsters now!

Millie Merch

Well, it's been a couple of years since I last tortured you all with words and pictures of Millie the Lovable Monster, the sweetest creep ever to crawl across a comics page. I'm just sick enough to dig her, and I'm delighted to say that I recently aquired what is most likely the only ancillary Millie product... a die-cut colouring book from 1963! With all-new interior art draw by creator Bill Woggon, no less! The images roughly follow the stories from the comics in sequence, in case you're interested. Here are a couple of samples...

Cute Creeps

Those of you who've been following my sporadic posting on all things monster-kid-ish know I have a soft spot for Things created by weird young minds. I totally dig a good monster doodle with a fresh perspective. Along those lines, The Guardian recently held a monster drawing contest, and here are the winners. The Hairgobbler above is by Reef Dorr, 7, and is descibed thusly, "It is 25mm long. It is very hairy. This creature flies around, landing on middle-aged men’s heads. It crawls around to either the forehead or the crown, then uses the pincer on its tail to pull out the hairs. Then it eats all the hairs up! And this is the reason men go bald." Wonderful! And I just love the UK children's ubiquitous use of watercolors... very old-school.