Week of Saturdays!!!

It's finally here! This Friday, October 3rd at 8pm, my new animated series The Secret Saturdays debuts on the Cartoon Network! Bam! Pow! Grrrr! Please give it a peek and let me know what you think, OK? Another little interview here at the Comic Book Bin...

**UPDATE**
The premiere of the Secret Saturdays pilot will have a 'clock' in the lower left of the screen counting down the time until the premiere of Star Wars:Clone Wars. If this bugs you, and you don't want it on your personal recording of the show, please be advised that the pilot airs again right after Clone Wars at 10pm, minus the clock. Another interview with me can be found at either Yahoo News, or at its original source at Newsarama, in case you're not sick of me yet.

Odd and Weird

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? My sharp-eyed daughter was perusing an online game site called Games2Girls when she came across Weirdville, a boring little game featuring a sorry-looking Jetcat knock-off, and quite clearly ripped off from my Oddville comics. I guess I should be either annoyed or happy that someone thought my comics were cool enough to 'borrow' from, but this just leaves me blah. I like a so-bad-it's-good bootleg as much as the next guy, but this is just plain bad bad.

Pressing On

Here's a neat review of the Secret Saturdays Pilot over at Comic Vine. G-Man watched the show with his 5-year-old daughter, and records both reactions. He also raves about the awesome Press Kit sent out by the Cartoon Network (see above), and has set up some sweet character pages. Definitely worth a look...

Saturday Play

Just heard the good news that D3 and High-Voltage software will be producing a Secret Saturdays console and handheld game for Wii, Playstation, and Nintendo DS! Don't get too excited just yet, though... these things take time to get right. I just couldn't wait to tell my Monsterama pals!

Mummy Movie

The new Tutenstein TV movie is ready to rip! From Worldscreen... Tutenstein: Clash of the Pharaohs, the first feature-length movie based on PorchLight Entertainment’s hit TV series, will make its debut on Discovery Kids in the U.S. this fall, with its international premiere at MIPCOM Junior. For more info (and spoilers!), hop on over to Animation Magazine.

Metal For Monsters!

I'm proud to announce my involvement in the cool Metal For Monsters project instigated by Blend Creations, and featuring a horror-ful host of crap-hot creators! From the press release... Having a kid changes everything, even the way you read the newspaper. While taking in the latest atrocities inflicted upon young children throughout the world, owners of online jewelry boutique BlendCreations.com, Vivian Cheng and Eric Jean-Louis, hugged their little "monster" Jack and vowed to do something for his international monster cohorts. And since they are designers, not lobbyists or Peace Corps activists, they called on nine of their talented artist peers to draw their way toward a $10,000 donation to UNICEF. The resulting collaboration is a line of twenty limited-edition stainless steel pendants upon which comic-style monsters are laser etched. Starting on October 1, one hundred copies of each of the twenty designs will be offered for $81 through the website MetalforMonsters.com. Almost 20% from each sale ($16) will be donated to UNICEF. From the renowned to the contented fringe, artists include: S. britt, Stefan G. Bucher of dailymonster.com, Jon Burgerman whose clients range from The Science Museum to Sky, Pepsi, Sony and KidRobot; Anna Chambers; Justin Hillgrove of impsandmonsters.com; Adam Koford, a creator of the Laugh-out-Loud Cats comic; John Martz, editor of the popular illustration blog Drawn.ca; Jay Stephens, creator of the Emmy Award winning animated creation TUTENSTEIN; and Brian Taylor of candykiller.com. Get your mitts on Bathead and Spooklops while they last, and feel good about helping out children in need at the same time.

Insider Info

Aaron H. Bynum wrote the new series up for the Animation Insider... our first official review! It's a pretty positive overview of the pilot, so, thanks, but I do have a couple of quick rebuttals. Firstly, any stiffness or awkwardness can be put down to this being the first time out of the gate, so don't judge us too harshly on that front. And I must protest the criticism aimed at Argost... I think it's awesome and original that he has his own TV show! I'm not sure how that fact is supposed to 'soften' the guy. I mean, how many celebrities or TV personalities are pure forces of good, really? TV is full of corrupting, negative, unhealthy messages, and it's good for kids to question all that. I don't pretend to understand why the public love to follow the exploits of sick, twisted personalities like Britney Spears, but they certainly do! Besides, Argost is a Megalomaniac. A type of personality that would quite naturally crave the limelight and bend it to his own purposes. Frankly, I'm surprised Dr. Doom never thought of it (Though I do remember Lex Luthor running for president). As a creepy celebrity Argost embodies the opposite of 'secret'... he is the public figure with the masses on his side. Trust me, it works.

Me And The Saturdays

I did a little interview over here for Racattack Force. You know, in case you're interested.

Secret Saturdays Is Coming! Soon!

Man O man, am I one proud Papa! The Cartoon Network has finally unveiled my new show, The Secret Saturdays, on their website! Coolest thing? The new game, Code Of The Cryptids. And as Vanhoozer mentions on his blog, this is just the tip of the iceberg...

Aw, Shucks

Josh at Creative Loafing has some nice things to say about comics I did over a decade ago. To be put in the same category as the likes of Evan Dorkin, Ivan Brunetti, Chris Ware, and the criminally underrated Doug Allen... some of my favourite living cartoonists, is almost enough to cure my depression. Thanks, man.

And You Thought I Made It All Up

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you V.V. Argost's Weirdworld!

Shock Treatment

Thank you all from the bottom of my black ol' heart for the emails and postings of support and well-wishes in this difficult time. I'm still in the sanitarium, getting better day by day, and I hope to be back drawing, creating, and blogging sometime soon. I'm very pleased to see that my honesty about the illness has encouraged and comforted others in similar situations. Mental illness, invisible and mysterious, is really the last social taboo, and we all need to work on overcoming that stigma. Nobody goes through life without falling ill physically at least once or twice. The same is true mentally. Don't be too afraid or embarrassed to seek help if you need it.

Renfield Returns

Hokay, folks. Honesty time. I'm checked into a Mental Hospital for awhile, so blog posts will be sporadic at best, and likely without nifty visuals. Gotta get myself off the old meds and onto new meds, and supervision is best for that kind of tightrope act. Wish me luck.

Three For Thrills

Here are three things that I'm dying to get my mitts on this fall...Drawn & Quarterly's Complete Melvin Monster, part of their exhaustive John Stanley reprint effort (thanks to all those who wrote in about this one). Even though I have all of these comics, I'm looking forward to a well-designed, one-stop collection of the best kid monster comic ever created. Are you experienced? If not, Pappy's got what you need. My favourite Tezuka creation returns in English via Vertical's complete Blackjack collection. This genre-defying manga features a scarred gothic surgeon in eerily bizarre tales of adventures in extreme surgery. Weird and wonderful! And, lo and behold, Disney is finally releasing a definitive DVD of Dr. Syn, Alias The Scarecrow! If you're unfamiliar with these spooky adventures in Romney Marsh, this is a great chance to blow your mind. To be fair, though, Hammer Films version of the same tale, Night Creatures, is just as awesome.

Cryptids Are Real!

This new site is a must-see, focusing on that most beloved of subjects-- cryptozoology-- the inspiration of the Secret Saturdays.

Spooky Encounters

I finally got my eyes on the film that revolutionized the Hong Kong horror genre. Spooky Encounters, or, Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind, deals with Taoist magic, ghosts, and vampires from Chinese superstition in a tale about a cuckolded husband, stuck in a series of terrifying situations when his wife's wealthy lover tries to do away with him with the help of a Taoist monk's black magic. Sammo Hung, the director/star, blends fantastic kung fu action, comedy, and mild horror in one of Monsterama's new favourite films! It's a clear inspiration for my beloved Mr. Vampire series. The final duel in Spooky Encounters is considered to be the great Samo Hung's second best fight scene ever, next to his historically famous encounter with Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon.

Zoinks!

Canada's Wonderland sure has changed since I was last there around, oh, 20 years ago. It's mostly grown, but good ol' Hanna-Barberra Land has shrunk. No more Bedrock. The good news is that the H-B Merry Go Round is still there, complete with Yogi, Dino, and JabberJaw to ride on. And Scooby Doo's Haunted Mansion is actually much improved, and a real fun Dark Ride. Check out a (somewhat over-lit) video of the ride here.

The Hand That Signs

***UPDATE***
Due to an unexpected sojourn to the mental hospital, I will no longer be attending the San Diego ComicCon. Apologies to all---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Looks like I'll be dragging my carcass down the the San Diego ComicCon later this month to kick off some promotion for the new cartoon. Catch me for a sneak peek at the Secret Saturdays at the end of the Ben 10 panel, or at the Cartoon Network booth where I'll be signing these awesome Saturdays magnets (above)!

Saturdays In Print

The first Secret Saturdays comic book story has been out for a few weeks, now, in CN Action Pack #26 (DC Comics), and the cryptid-savvy gang will be appearing in every other issue until their TV debut in the fall. Check out these carefully crafted 'prequel' tales for the first official glimpse of these characters.

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.