Winter 1999/2000
"MAKE ME A SERGEANT AND CHARGE THE BOOZE! MAKE ME A SERGEANT AND GIMME
THE BOOZE! MAKE ME A SERGEANT AND GIVE ME THE BOOZE!"
-- Singing drunk ward inmate in the giant ant movie "Them".
Well, here we are again with a new dispatch. While we haven't had any spare time to really add to the actual HOF site since Sarah did the last major overhaul, we're at least trying to maintain the newsletter on a more-or-less quarterly schedule. Seeing as we've been up to a heck of a lot lately -- feel free to skip ahead to whatever interests you the most, as this will most likely be another long mess. As always, thanks for checking in with us from time to time, we appreciate your continued interest in visiting our little House of Fun.
WE'RE STILL DOING SMALL PRESS COMIC BOOKS. WHO SAID WE WEREN'T?
Okay, maybe less of our output is aimed at the funnybook shelves these days, but we're not abandoning the four-color hell we call home. We're just stupid, I guess, but we love them comical books and we're still kneww-deep in ink at the HOF. Since the last newsletter dispatch, Sarah's released ACTION GIRL COMICS #18 and she's still working on #19, which has been delayed due to the usual reasons comics get delayed. Yes, I'm talking about government interference and public outcry. Okay, I'm lying -- but fear not, the new issue is on it's way and in 2000 we'll be seeing the 20th (!) issue of AGC, believe it or not. It's pretty amazing for a small press anthology to hit the big 2-0, so hopefully Sarah won't collapse from exhaustion before we can see that happen.
David Lapham's second AMY RACECAR SPECIAL for El Capitan recently shipped, and you can see Sarah's bang-up coloring job within those pages. Unfortunately, it looks like the WONDER THREE CD-Rom reprint project she did some coloring on for Digital Manga has collapsed -- which is a real shame as they planned to reprint it in other countries, and possibly the US, which is starved for translated Tezuka work
DORK #7 finally came out, months after it was due -- and I have to say the reaction to it was quite literally overwhelming. I'm still going through the mail I received on it, and to my surprise the response to this change-of-pace issue was almost entirely positive. And the few negative letters I got were so nasty and angry that they gave me almost more positive reinforcement about the book than the letters of praise. Hey, it's my goddamned book, I'll do with it what I please. So I'm glad most of you enjoyed my little trip in the breakdown lane. But that's old news, and now I'm in the mood to just do some "old-school" gag stuff, and that's where DORK #8 comes in. It'll have an eight page color section featuring the (unexpurgated) Eltingville Club strip from Wizard #99, the strips Sarah and I did for DHC's SCATTERBRAIN anthology, and a new color two-pager about God's seven-hundred year itch. #8 will also feature my strips from SLG's MURDER CAN BE FUN series, the last reprint page from INSTANT PIANO, four new Fun Strips and some new short strips. If all goes well, it'll be ready for a Spring release, so smiles, everyone, smiles!
I've also broken ground on new material for MILK AND CHEESE # HATE, which I'm hoping to have ready for late 2000. I kind of miss working with the little creeps and hope to get the new strips done as soon as I'm able. I did the cover for the second of BLUE MONDAY, Chyna Clugston-Major's upcoming mini-series for Oni Press, due out in March. Also for Oni, I contributed a pin-up to Paul Dini's JINGLE BELLE #2, scheduled for late December. I'm still working on a pin-up for SIN CITY, which took me forever to figure out but hopefully won't take forever to put together. Unfortunately, the ONE PUNCH GOLDBERG Kid Blastoff-related strip I wrote about last newsletter is still sitting in the layout stage, for now a victim (like Hectic Planet) of my heavy workload.
AND YEAH, WE'RE STILL DOING SUPERHERO STUFF. GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT?
November saw the release of SUPERMAN ADVENTURES #39, which was the sequel to our first Supergirl comic story, the giant-sized Superman Adventurs #21. This time we let Superman do something, since, well, it is his book. Anyway, it was great to see it in print at long last, with some swell artwork by Bret Blevins and Terry Austin, the same team that drew the first Supergirl story. We've been given the green light by our pal and SA editor Joey Cavalieri to do a two-part script called "Power Play", which we're hoping to get done as soon as our schedule allows.
WORLD'S FUNNEST COMICS UPDATE (or "WHAT'S UP WITH THAT BIG STUPID IMP BOOK YOU FOOLED DC INTO DOING?")
As you may recall, Joey is also the editor of my big stupid WORLD'S FUNNEST Bat-Mite/Mr. Mxyzptlk DC one-shot nightmare project -- which is finally starting to heat up. Besides Dave Gibbons, Frank Miller, David Mazzucchelli, Jaime Hernandez, Alex Ross, Jim Woodring, Phil Jiminez, Dick Sprang, Stephen DeStefano and Scott Shaw we also now have Ty Templeton, Glen Murikami, Jay Stephens and Frank Cho on board. We still need three more artists to round out the art team, we're in discussions with two people and trying to get a third to return our phone calls, so hopefully we'll fill those last slots any day now. Meanwhile, the first interior pages have been turned in, courtesy of Jaime Hernandez -- and they look terrific. I've also seen Alex Ross's thumbnails for his segment and they kick you-know-what. So, let's just hope things go well and maybe, just maybe, we'll see this thing sometime around Novemeber, 2000. Yeah, I know, a year wait is a real drag, but you have to realize that dealing with 18 artists with busy schedules is a logistical nightmare, not to mention dealing with all the production and design problems we're encountering for a project like this. Just think how I feel -- I've been trying to get this story out for eight years, and I'm terrified a bus is going to hit me days before it finally sees print!.
OUR MERCHANDISE! YOUR MONEY! MAKE THE CONNECTION!
The MILK AND CHEESE LIQUID LUNCHBOX we did with Dark Horse Comics should be out by the time you read this. Sarah and I are incredibly happy with this item, it looks great and printed exactly according to Sarah's specs and coloring designs. It's a traditional metal lunchbox, with a non-traditional violent, talking dairy products and alcohol theme. It features all-new full-color boozy M&C designs on all sides, single and double embossing on the front panel, a short and to-the-point barfing strip on the back and snazzy cocktail background motifs all over the damned thing. It's quite possibly the best piece of merch we've ever done or will ever do and quite frankly, you really do need this in order to live a full life. There's a limited supply of these tin suckers out there, so get one or you'll regret it until you take the dirt sleep. Possibly long after. I'm serious, here, this thing rocks, and it's only available in a few wide-awake comic shops, through DHC, and also through the Slave Labor web-site (www.slavelabor.com).
The DEVIL PUPPET "BURN IN HELL" T-SHIRT was solicited in Diamond Previews for January, but it should be available through SLG sometime in December. There's a vague possibility of an actual Devil Puppet puppet -- yes, that's right, a Devil Puppet you can call your very own!! If you're interested, drop Slave a line and say "Yes!! I wanna puppet!!" and who knows? Maybe it'll happen.
WE NOW JOIN OUR IRREGULARLY SCHEDULED ANIMATION CAREER
Our last few tv scripts have aired since we last, uh...typed to you folks. Our latest SPACE GHOST COAST TO COAST episode ("Sequel") aired in October, and featured the return of poor, pathetic (Harvey) Birdman at the desk. We got to see his (soon-to-be-ex) wife Sylvia, aka Galaxy Girl from the Galaxy Trio, and got a few Herculoids in there for the hell of it. Our script for BATMAN BEYOND ("Splicers") was the second season opener, which we think means the folks at WB liked it. Who knows.
We're currently working on a massive re-development for Sunbow Entertainment for their proposed SKELETON KEY animated series, based on Andi Watson's nifty SLG comic book series. We've turned in a full first draft that has met with a lot of enthusiasm, and we're working closely with Andi to maintain the integrity of his characters and settings as we develop a second draft throughline and story bible that can hopefully get the show picked up. Andi's designs and characters are perfect for animation, and seeing as we're both fans of his work it would be great to see SK make it to the tube.
We may have a few big announcements to make regarding our tv work...but on the other hand, we might not. So we'll just leave that all nice and cryptic for now.
MORE MONKEY BUSINESS
We recently started doing some work for NICKELODEON MAGAZINE, starting with a one-panel cartoon gag we did for the November issue. We just turned in a two-page strip for them featuring our new character, Nutsy Monkey. He's a pesty monkey that lives in a treehouse outside a city that he constantly tries to trick into giving him free things or making him the mayor. We're not sure when the strip will run, but we're currently working on some follow-up strips that we hope they'll run, because, well, we really like doing comics about monkeys for some stupid reason.
HERE ARE YOUR AWARD-LOSING CREATORS (or "HOW I WAS KIDNAPPED TO L.A.")
Sarah and I were recently nominated for an ASIFA Annie Award, which is (so they say, but it was news to us, as we'd never heard of ASIFA) the highest honor the animation industry gives out. We were nominated in the individual achievement in writing category, for our "Lawsuit" episode of Space Ghost. We had talked about attending the awards ceremony just to see what might happen, because we never expected to actually win (not when we were up against writers for the Simpsons, Futurama, King of the Hill and Batman Beyond). But the ceremony was going to be held in Los Angeles, and between our heavy schedule, our upcoming move, and my uh, uneasiness as far as flying goes, we wrote it off.
Well, I thought we did, at least. Because the day before the ceremony, Sarah wakes me up at 9 a.m. with a glass of water and one of my prescribed anti-anxiety sedatives, and says "I have something to tell you. Take this". After a dozen confused questions, I eventually take the pill, and then Sarah says, "Get up and get dressed, we're going to L.A.". I believe I then threw the covers over my head and muttered "No we're not" several times after hearing this. She says we are, and that our flight's in two hours. "I can't go!", I say, "I'm not packed!". Sarah tells me she packed last night while I was drinking in the city. "I can't go!", I repeat, "Who will watch the kitties?". Sarah tells me Little Jen's watching them for us. For some reason I get up and start getting dressed, still convinced this is a dream. Sarah tells me she had booked our flights and told only a few people we were going, just in case I flipped out last-minute and didn't actually fly. She thought if I didn't worry about the flight for the weeks before it, I'd fly in a much better mood. My friend Paul arrives to take us to the airport. This is no dream. Two hours later I'm on a plane, reading Mick Foley's autobiography in a daze and wondering what I was doing on a plane to California. The funny thing is, the flight went great, I didn't have any problems, and it was the best flight I'd had in ages.
We stayed in L.A. with David and Maria Lapham (who were in on the deal), and went to the ceremony the next evening with our producer Keith (also in on the deal). We ended up losing to the Simpsons (big shock), but SG got a nice pop and it was a fun, interesting evening.. The best thing that happened was that we ran into Jay Stephens, who was nominated for his Jetcat design work (and who also lost). Jay and I got to talking about World's Funnest and he ended up agreeing to draw one of the segments, the segment that we couldn't get anyone to do, in fact (and one he's perfect for). Weirdly enough, Jay lost out at the Annies to Glen Murakami, a producer/designer on Batman Beyond, who is also doing a segment of World's Funnest. Frakin' eerie, huh?
So anyway, we lost, but my kidnapping was a lot of fun. Losing should always be this fun. (Oh, that reminds me, I lost at the Eisners this year, too. I wasn't kidnapped that time, just assaulted with a hammer.)
MORE ADVENTURES IN SKA
We haven't done any album art in a while, but Dan Vitale from Bim Skala Bim e-mailed to say hey and ask if we'd do the cover to the fifth MASH IT UP comp of Boston Ska. So we're doing the cover for Mash it Up 2000, due out sometime next Spring from what I can gather at this time.
WHY YOU CAN'T BUY THE COMICS JOURNAL OR MILK AND CHEESE, AT VILLAGE COMICS
After my rambling mess of an interview ran in the Comics Journal #214, NYC's Village Comics initiated a boycott of both my work and the Journal because of my comments in the interview regarding the professionalism (or lack thereof) of that establishment. As for my reaction, I consider it a badge of honor to be boycotted by such a lousy shop, and I'm sure they barely supported my SLG stuff anyway. I'm just interested to see if they stick to their rusty guns by not ordering the World's Funnest book...
FANBOY OVERBOARD! (or, OUR CRAZY UPCOMING APPEARANCE SCHEDULE)
We had a great time at the last SPX, and we thought we wouldn't be attending any shows or events until next year's San Diego...but we were wrong. So very wrong. Because Sarah and I are going to be guests -- courtesy of Slave Labor Graphics -- on a fund-raising cruise that benefits the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund this April. Yes, you read that correctly, A CRUISE. A real week-long serious cruise. I thought it was a joke too, believe you me, but it's real. Really real. The other guests include Frank Miller, Neil Gaiman, Dan Clowes, The Hernandez Bros, Will Eisner, Jules Feiffer (!), about a dozen or so creators so far. Fans can sign up for the cruise, attend seminars, lectures, panels, dinners, readings...or just get their books signed and go off and gamble, eat, sleep or get drunk for seven days. If we get 200 attendess or so, the CBLDF makes out like bandits. So, that's where we'll be this April -- on a comic book convnetion we can't escape. It's so insane we just had to do it. You can get details on the cruise by checking out the Comics Journal web-site or the CBLDF site.
It also looks like we will be attending our first ever Wonder Con in San Francisco this April, as they are apparently arranging for the CBLDF Cruise guests to also appear at the show the weekend before we set sail. So, if you're in the bay area and have nothing to do, it looks like Wonder Con's going to be pretty interesting this year.
All right, I think that's the whole enchilada, or Jumbo Jack, or something. You kooky kids take care of yourselves until the next dispatch -- and once again you have our thanks for your continued interest and support of what we're doing here at the House.
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