Summer/Fall 1999
Wow. It's been a long, long while since we've been able to get a new House of Fun newsletter dispatch out, either as a mailing or as part of our website. But since Sarah has been spending some of her "spare" time revamping our long-neglected website, I thought it was only fair that I should find some time myself to contribute a few things to it. And so, after who knows how many months (years?) here at last is an updated newsletter for you, our mostly patient readers. I don't know if we'll ever find time to do the snail mailings ever again, but we'll see what we can do about updating the newsletter at least quarterly or so. Anyway, here's what we've been up to recently, and what we've got coming up, along with a few odds and ends thrown in you might find of interest. My apologies if it's a bit lengthy, we've got a lot of irons in the fire and brevity ain't my strong point. Feel free to skip down to the sections you're interested in and ignore the rest!
COMIC BOOKS? ARE THEY STILL MAKING THOSE THINGS?
Contrary to popular (or unpopular) belief, yes, we're still making them thar funnybooks. We're just not making as many of them as we used to -- but hey, what can I tell you, we're getting old and tired and those new bodies we ordered still haven't arrived yet from Hong Kong. So for now we're on a slow but steady course when it comes to slinging the ink or typing out those sound effects. That being said, Sarah's just finished putting together ACTION GIRL COMICS #18 for August and has started putting together #19 for October (which is in the new Previews, featuring Sarah's Halloween-themed cover). It's amazing that AGC is reaching it's twentieth issue soon, a slight miracle in shoestring-budget anthology publishing. Sarah's also done a bang-up job coloring David Lapham's second Amy Racecar Special for El Capitan, which is also scheduled for October. She's also done some work for Digital Manga on a project reprinting Tezuka material (!) for Japanese readers to download into their computers.
As for me, I've finally completed the new material for the much-delayed DORK #7. Basically, I ran into some scheduling problems and the script was a bit difficult to get a hold on, which caused me to get it done months past it's scheduled date. My apologies, and from now on I promise to not solicit one of my books until the damned thing's completed, or at least nearly completed. I've learned my lesson. Anyway, as far as Dork #7 goes, it should ship along with Action Girl #18, and it reprints my strip "What Does it Look Like I'm Doing?" from Instant Piano #4, along with a new 14 page follow-up strip. The new material is a bit of a departure for me, it's not gag-oriented (although there's a lot of humorous material in it) and it's a very personal strip that concerns my "breakdown" in 1996, my fear of flying , my inability to draw for an eight month stretch, and my relationship with comics and the media as a kid growing up. Among many other things. I don't know what the response will be to the book, but I'm pretty happy with it. Those who want the gags back will be pleased to know that Dork #8 will be all gag strips -- some Fun pages, some single page bits and no angst. Maybe just a little, who knows. Dork # 7 was pretty depressing to work on, so I decided I needed a breather (and the readers might want one too).
RANDOM BITS OF CARTOONING BUSINESS
Sarah and I are doing the art for a one-page strip for an upcoming comic from the Sugar Buzz guys, Ian Carney and Woodrow Phoenix. Sugar Buzz is a neato book from SLG, worth checking out.
I'm doing the cover for an issue of Chyna Clugston-Major's upcoming Blue Monday mini-series for Oni Press. You folks may have caught Chyna's characters in Action Girl Comics and Oni Double Feature. I'm also apparently doing a pin-up for Sin City (!).
I'm also working on an 11-page strip about a character called One Punch Goldberg, who's part of the Kid Blastoff "universe". It's been kicking around for a while now, and no, she's not named after Goldberg the wrestler. She's a jewish boxer with a devastating mystery left hook who decides to become a do-gooder after her come back match is rigged by gangster apes. If you have the Comics Journal #214 you can see her on the cover over Superman's shoulder, she's the one with the boxing gloves and the Star of David. The script and half the layouts are done and I hope to hop back on it asap.
MAINSTREAM PROJECTS THAT MAKE OUR LANDLORD HAPPY
Sarah and I completed a script for the sequel to our Supergirl Adventures story that ran last year in Superman Adventures #21. After some delays it looks like the art is coming together and word is the issue will be scheduled soon. The story is called "Reuinion", and deals with what happens after Supergirl travels to Argo to put her family to rest. It's a nifty story and we even let Superman do a few things this time out. As soon as we hear news as to when it'll be released, we'll let you know. It also looks like we may be doing some other fill-in stories for Superman Adventure in the future, we had a two-parter approved but the book has changed hands editorially so we have to get it re-approved , I guess. But it looks like we'll be doing something eventually. We really liked working with the characters on the show and it's been fun to get a chance to go back and do stories for the comic, especially since we have all these plots with nowhere else to go, seeing as they don't fit into the regular continuity up at DC Speaking of DC comics. let me tell you about --
EVAN'S BIG IDIOT DREAM PROJECT FOR 2000!
I recently wrapped up a massive script for my "big idiot dream project" for the House of Superman. This is a "story" I first came up with about a decade ago, and somehow I ended up pitching it to Mike Carlin outside the men's room at Dragon-Con in Atlanta about two years ago...and then the "high concept" of how to actually tell the story hit me about a year ago while working on the full proposal. I was finally able to clear my schedule to work on the apporved late last year, and after five months of scripting the damned thing and ruining my life and work schedule, it-is-done.
So what is this mess? It's a 62-page Prestige one-shot called WORLD'S FUNNEST (the story itself is called "LAST IMP STANDING"). It's about DC's two beloved/despised inter-dimensional magical imp characters, Bat-Mite and Mr. Mxyzptlk (y'know, they have the powers of god, but the minds of two mentally challenged five-year olds), and well, there's this...spat between them that, uh, sort of gets out of hand. Well, to be honest it gets completely out of hand. So out of hand that the book requires 17 artists to handle the interiors, which are comprised of 18 different sequences that make up the full story.
Each sequence will take place in a different "era" of DC comics publishing history, and each artist has been carefully chosen for each section. I wrote many of the sequences with specific artists in mind, some who are traditionally known for their involvement with DC, and a few who aren't. So far editor Joey Cavalieri and I have somehow managed to get a fairly spectacular array of people on board -- the roster thus far includes Dave Gibbons, Frank Miller, David Mazzucchelli, Jaime Hernandez, Alex Ross, Jim Woodring, Phil Jiminez, Dick Sprang, Stephen DeStefano and Scott Shaw. With more to come. And we already have a terrific cover done by Brian Bolland. I think people will be knocked out when they see the characters and situations we're having these people do, and I have to confess that I'm COMPLETELY geeking out over the fact that I've actually written material for people of this caliber. Ee-yikes! I think this book is going to be a stunner to look at, and if even half of the jokes work I think fans will get a kick out of it. There's something for everyone in this one, kids.
USELESS MERCHANDISE YOU NONETHELESS CANNOT EXIST WITHOUT
The big merchandise news is the Milk and Cheese Liquid Lunchbox we're doing with Dark Horse Comics. It's a traditional metal lunchbox, with full-color designs on all the panels, embossing on the front, a short strip on the back and an alcohol theme throughout. What more could anybody want? How can you resist? The box is part of a line including Hellboy, Sin City, Groo and Betty Page, and if you want one you better order one noow, because I believe they're manufacturing these suckers close to demand. The M&C lunchbox is slated to ship in October, so start packing a lunch now.
Smoke King released the Georgina Riley (Murder Family) and Devil Puppet zippo lighters a while ago, but they haven't seen wide release because they had problems getting them listed in Diamond Previews. The Devil Puppet design was finally listed in the back of the September Previews, so some shops might be ordering them. I'm still not sure if the Georgina design was listed yet. You can also obtain these infernal devices through Slave Labor or Smoke King.
Speaking of the Devil Puppet (and I speak of him often), we're designing a t-shirt of the little demonic plaything who knows more than you do. Dan Vado wants to do a design based on the cover to Dork #5, and I want to do a design based on the original concept for the Smoke King zippo -- so there's a chance we may end up doing both. We shall see.
SO WHEN IS THE NEXT MILK AND CHEESE COMING OUT, ANYWAY?
I've been getting a surprising number of e-mails and letters asking me when the new issue of Milk and Cheese will be out. And no, they're not from Dan Vado or my accountant. I was hoping to have Milk and Cheese #Hate out for the end of '99 (in time for their 10th anniversary in print), but it just wasn't going to happen with our schedule overload. I do know what strips will be in the next issue, and I really do want to get back to drawing the little creeps, so I'm hoping to find the time to get the material together for next year. Maybe I'll just do an 11th anniversary celebration. I'd really like to get it done so I can eventually do a second collection which will include the 1997 16-page Milk and Cheese Special Edition mini-comic which was only made available through Slave Labor.
Actually, the b&w mini is still available from Slave ($2 pp) -- if you haven't seen it, it's a parody of the Star Wars re-release from '97. I expanded the three page "Darth Vader Overdrive" strip from issue #6 to a ridiculous page length and added fake "making of" material, the flop press release announcing the project (no one printed it, they thought it was a joke) and some new pin-ups and covers.
WILL SOMEONE PLEASE SHUT EVAN DORKIN UP?
My interview in the Comics Journal #214 is out. It's long (go figure), and it's garbled in places -- not only because of my unstoppable motormouth, but also because of a tight deadline that caused some sloppy editing and an editor's decision to not let me look over the last 30 pages of the interview (as promised), resulting in many typos, misspellings, transcription errors and just plain confusing statements/amswers that even I don't understand. However, despite that I will say that the editors did their best to slap it together so it made some sense, and I've gotten mostly positive feedback from the interview (along with some ridiculous fallout over my comments on certain segments of the retailing community). If nothing else, I think the cover Sarah and I put together looks pretty terrific, featuring virtually every character I've ever worked with, so those interested may want to hunt down a copy.
OUR CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE IDIOT BOX
We've got a new episode of SPACE GHOST COAST TO COAST in production right now at the Cartoon Network, and we're currently working on a script that's vexed us for a few months now that we hope to wrap up asap. We also have a BATMAN BEYOND script in production called "Splicers" that is supposedly kicking off the new season in September. We've had some good feedback on the episode and hope it goes over well, it was actually pretty fun to write, we were pretty happy with it, and from what we've heard so far the editing/rewriting on it wasn't too harsh at all, we lost some things mostly because of budget and time constraints.
WHERE TO SEE US THIS SUMMER/FALL
Even if I do somehow win an Eisner award this year (Personally I think Kyle Baker will win in the category I'm up for) no one will have to suffer through another one of my rambling acceptance speeches, because Sarah and I won't be attending the San Diego Comic Con this year (Awww, I know, it breaks the industry's cruddy little heart). This is the first one I won't be at since I started going in 1987, and I'll miss not going -- but we're just way too overwhelmed and burnt out to deal with the big carnival this time around. And to be honest, I think everyone there could use a break from me as well for a year. So if anyone boos my name at the Eisners, do me a favor kids, and punk 'em with a wine glass, just for me. We will still be attending the SPX in Bethesda, Maryland in September, unless we can't get a hotel room or I get hit by a bus or something stupid happens
ALMOST, BUT NOT QUITE
Here's something a little different that you folks might find interesting -- the low-down on recent gigs we didn't get. I'll try to editorialize as little as possible so as not to make it seem like a CBG columnist gripe-fest, okay?
Our first job to fall through recently was a call we got concerning an Aquabats show that was in development. The Aquabats are a Devo-inspired surf/ska/punk superhero-themed band that we really like (check out Return of the Aquabats and Fury of the Aquabats), and the people developing the show were approaching writers to rework the show's threadbare bible and premise. We were guardedly excited about the possibility of getting the job, because it was our first offer for live-action work and seemed right up our alley (Humor? Pop Culture? Ska/Punk Music? Superheroes? Hello, that's like, our career. Hell, it's practically our life!) And being fans of the band apparently put us in good stead because none of the other writers who they were talking to actually knew who the band was. Anyway, we sent them our resume and samples of our work, they sent us tapes and material on the show, and Sarah and I thought we had an angle on what we wanted to propose to them. So of course, a day before we were supposed to do our pitch, we were informed that the series was pulled from the production company and that their parent company was going to develop it on it's own. Everyone was out that had been involved. Oh well. But at least we got an Aquabats video and a sticker!
Our second lost gig came out about when someone working at Chaos! Comics (do you have to yell CHAOS! when you say their name?) wrote Sarah a nice letter about Action Girl, and they ended up discussing wrestling in a later e-mail because of Chaos! (CHAOS!) getting the WWF licenses for the Undertaker. The next thing I know Sarah asks me if I want to pitch a story to them for a Mankind one shot, because they're interested in us doing it, or this guy was, or whatever -- I wasn't involved with that end of it. Anyway, the point it -- say what you will about professional wrestling and/or CHAOS! comics, but I am a major Mick Foley mark and by god yes I wanted to write a Mankind funnybook, even if it ruined our already screwed-up schedule. I ran upstairs (well, maybe I walked, or even waddled) and came up with a premise I liked right off the friggin' bat. Sarah came up with the killer payoff ending, and lo and behold we had a pitch we were happy with for MANKIND: THE SEARCH FOR SOCKO. Chaos! (excuse me, CHAOS!) wanted it to be "funny and violent", and that's what we thought we were giving them -- Mankind tears up a city and beats the living hell out of people and talks to his other personas (Dude Love and Cactus Jack) who give him bad advice and we even found a way to shove in a giant stupid demon like the ones they seem to always have in a CHAOS! comic. I felt good about our premise, it had gags, it had volence and mayhem, it had smartmark wrestling material, it had a stupid demon and a really good payoff ending. So what happens? You guessed it -- we flopped. When they turned our pitch down we were told that our story was "too funny". "Too funny"? Now, it's their right to turn down our work, it's their show -- but man, "Too funny?!?" For wrestling? For Mankind? A guy who wrestles with a sock puppet on his hand? Oh well. Forgive my small bunch of sour grapes, but I was actually really disappointed we didn't get to do the book. It would have been a hell of a lot of fun to write and I think we would have done a good job. End of gripe.
So what have we learned? Well, pretty much nothing. But always remember -- the more excited and happy you are about a job offer, the more likely it is the job will never, and I mean ever -- happen.
GOODBYE, ALL
Okay, that's about everything we can talk about, so I'll shut up for now. Thanks for reading and thanks for the interest in our work -- we'll try to update the newsletter as soon as we can! To quote Mrs Foley's baby boy -- "Have a nice day!"
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