FALL 2000
"The only good human - is a dead one!"
-- General Ursus
WELCOME!
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all sizes -- to the latest dispatch from the vaunted but not haunted House of Fun. We do hope this installment finds you happy, healthy, and wealthy -- with the emphasis, of course, on your financial end of things, as what good is your physical well-being to us if you haven't two nickels to spend on our fine line of illustrated pamphlets and related knick-knacks? Of course, we here at the HOF try to offer the very finest in useless items and pointless diversions, all in exchange for your hard earned (or lazily borrowed, or even stealthfully pilfered) greenbacks. So, here now is the latest on what we've been working on since we last typed some hype your way. Vaya con Devo, amigos!
IT'S JUST IMP-OSSIBLE! THE WORLD'S FUNNEST COMICS UPDATE!
Yes, there's light at the end of the Boom Tube at last (that's a comics joke, don't worry if you don't get it) for the DC Prestige one-shot I've been working on for over two years. Since the last newsletter Doug Mahnke and Norm Rapmund were added to the art roster -- joining the ranks of (deep breath, now): Brian Bolland, Dave Gibbons, Mike Allred, Shelly Moldoff, Stuart Immonen and Joe Giella. Frank Cho, Jaime Hernandez, Scott Shaw, Stephen DeStefano, Jim Woodring, David Mazzucchelli, Jay Stephens, Glen Murikami and Bruce Timm, Frank Miller, Phil Jimenez, Ty Templeton and Alex Ross. Mahnke and Rapmund filled in for the departing Howard Porter on the "modern Age" segment, and did a bang-up job in less time than it took for a lot of big shot young turks to even call editor Joey Cavalieri back. So we now, finally, have all the interior art pages finished and in house, all lettered by Tom Orzechowski, and all ready to be colored by Chris Chuckry. We've begun to receive some fanzine press on the book, starting with the Comics Journal #225, which featured an "On the Boards" preview section of selected panels and pieces from World's Funnest, and upcoming issues of Comics International and Comic Book Artist will be running articles on World's Funnest as well. The book has just been solicited in the DC section of the recently released Diamond Previews, and according to the listing will be shipped on November 1st. Yikes!
THE YE OLDE ELTINGVILLE CLUB ANIMATED PILOT UPDATE
Actually, there's not much to report since the last dispatch. Things are going really well so far -- which of course makes me paranoid that something terrible has to happen. But, while waiting for the worst, I've completed a new set of character and setting designs, Stephen Destefano is almost finished with the storyboard, Sarah and I have been discussing directors and voice casting with our producers, and if all goes well, and I don't die in a horrible accident, we may just go into production in October or November. We shall see...
NEW COMICS NEWS FOR YOU TO USE:
ACTION GIRL #19 is due out in October and features a new redesign, and work by Sarah, Elizabeth Watasin, Chris Tobey, Patty Leidy and others. [note -- evan asked me to write something about the issue and I'm just too tired to think....watch for details in the AG section soon -- sarah]
DORK #8 was completed on August 24th, and is scheduled to debut at the Small Press Expo on September 15th -- meaning it'll be the first comic I've put out on time in ages. Horray for small miracles. The book is the first time I've done a color section in one of my SLG releases -- the eight page section will feature the Scatterbrain strips Sarah and I did for Dark Horse a few years ago ("Fisher-Price Theater's 1984" and "Rock, Paper, Scissors"), the Eltingville strip from Wizard magazine, reprinted here in it's unexpurgated version (that means, mit der foul language put back in) and a new two-page strip called, "For the Love of God", which is a tale of God's seventy-year itch. The rest of the book collects some older stuff, including the strips I did for SLG's Murder Can Be Fun anthology, the last reprinted strip from Instant Piano, and a batch of new material -- five new fun strips, a contents page of single gag panels and a new installment of the Devil Puppet's Invisible College of Secret Knowledge. Oh, and there's a new strip on the back cover. So there you have it, that's Dork #8, shipping in late September to them shops what ordered it.
The STREETWISE trade paperback is now available -- this is the all-autobio anthology from TwoMorrows, the publisher of the Jack Kirby Collector, Comic Artist, et al. The project was inspired by, and reprints, Kirby's famous "Street Code" strip, features a cover by Steve Rude, and new stories by Walt Simonson, Paul Chadwick, Murphy Anderson, Sergio Aragones, Nick Cardy and a host of other well known comic book types. My three-page contribution is called "The Soda Thief", and for those that find useless and obscure comic trivia interesting, this was a story I originally wrote and drew for the first incarnation of Instant Piano back in 1991 or so, which I ripped up because I hated it. I don't hate the new version.
I've started work on the third HECTIC PLANET trade collection, tentativley titled "The Young and The Reckless". The plan is to collect HP #5 and 6 and the Vroom Socko one-shot Paid in Full, with nine or so new illustrations for the repackaging and a new story page to establish a concurrent timeline for the two different storylines. The book would also include a batch of album covers Sarah and I did during the time the material was originally presented, roughly between '92-'94.
SARAH AND EVAN COVER THE SKA AND CORPORATE PUNK ROCK SCENES!
And speaking of album covers we've worked on, Mash It Up 2000 is now out, it's the latest in the Boston ska compilation series put together by Dan Vitale of Bim Skala Bim.
Sarah and I also did the front cover and back booklet art for this year's Warped Tour giveaway CD. We haven't actually been sent our comps for it yet, so we don't even know if they used the art, to be honest. Working with Interscope was a royal pain in the ass, and made me understand why several friends of mine despise art directors (in our case it was a "product manager" needlessly delaying everything and demanding pointless changes days after their self-imposed deadline). Oh well, they paid us. Punk rock and all that.
LOST MONKEY! LOST MONKEY! WHAT IS THERE TO DO BUT CRY?
We still -- still -- have no idea when our 2- page Nutsy Monkey strip for Nickelodeon Magazine will run. This has been a real disappointment for us as we're really happy with the strip and hoped to see it see print sometime before we're in a rest home. Oh well, it's not like the kids of America are clamoring for it, but hopefully it'll see print someday soon. Oh well, they paid us. Kid's magazine's, and all that. We'll probably just do another Nutsy Moneky strip for ourselves because we enjoyed working on it so much. Too bad there's no real venue for kid's comics in the comic book industry itself. Oh well.
STUFF WE'RE STILL SUPPOSED TO BE DOING BUT HAVEN'T DONE YET
- a one-page strip for the fourth issue of the upcoming Sugar Buzz mini-series from SLG. - a Superman Adventures script for a two-part storyline involving Lex Luthor, Livewire, and the denizens of Apokolips called "Power Play".
- A Sin City pin-up that's in bits and pieces and slowly moving towards completion. Honest!
AND NOW TO SOFT-PEDDLE THE MERCHANDISE HARD
In October, out comes the first new ACTION GIRL SHIRT in ages -- this one's for the girls, though -- sorry! It's a design featuring the new logo in red on a pink baby-tee-style shirt. Back design features Action Girl and AGC slogan.
November will see the release of the much-threatened MILK AND CHEESE BOWLING SHIRT, featuring a nifty full color back design of the little creeps keggling like krazy ("Strike Hard and Spare No One!"). The front will have a full color design of the products bowling a beer bottle strike over the pocket ("Every Frame is a Beer Frame"). The designs are featured on a red bowling shirt with black vents and collar, and is the perfect apparel for bowling lanes, beerhalls, barbecues and back-alley brawls. There were production problems with the initial batch we hoped to have had on hand for San Diego, but perhaps we'll have them for the SPX. Or not. In either case, they will indeed be available for November shipping. That's what they tell me!
Also set for a November release is the mighty, mighty, MILK AND CHEESE BEER MUG SET. The two-mug set will feature new, full-color art based on the art for the self-produced mugs Sarah and I made in 1992. The set will also be packaged in a box that Sarah and I will design to include some stupid drinking games, which is much spiffier than the padded envelopes and newspaper-stuffed boxes we mailed the old ones out in. DIY is greta and all, but packaging glassware sucks!
These items and all our old (but still cool) crap are or will be available from Slave Labor's web site (www.slavelabor.com).
PLACES ON-LINE WHERE YOU CAN TALK ABOUT OUR COMICS AND STUFF
If you're on AOL or have access to it, we check in fairly often on the comic book message boards, where someone long ago set up a place for readers of our books to hang out and chew the electronic rag. (To get there: keyword comic books; click on Comics Fan Forum; choose Message Boards; pick General Interest Comics Boards; and then look for Evan Dorkin & Sarah Dyer's House of Fun. There, that wasn't too hard, was it?)
There's also a new message board up on the SLG site, so check it out while you're there, we drop in from time to time to see what's doing.
THE FAIRLY QUICK AND POINTLESS SAN DIEGO COMIC CON DIARY
In July we attended the monster circus and side show that is the San Diego Comic Con International, at which we had an okay, if unspectacular time at. I got into a several-minute long argument with an Eltingville-esque fanboy (more like a fanman, actually) at the DC Elseworlds panel, when Mr Sensitive Nutjob McFan took me to task for "maligning a classic story" when I made a joke about Bruce Wayne (he's the Batman guy) having lousy parents, because they were rich and took him through Crime Alley at night to get home instead of hailing a cab. Anyway, it's a long story, but holy hell, what an experience. On a more pleasant note, Sarah and I hooked up with the Bat Commander and the Professor from the HOF-fave ska/punk/superhero/wrestler/??? band, the Aquabats during the con and we all got to bs for a while before they had to jet. On a more confusing note, I lost at the Eisner Awards in both of the categories I was nominated for, but somehow ended up on stage three times and was mentioned in two people's acceptance speeches. It's a long story, and not incredibly interesting to anyone other than myself, believe you me. Anyway, it was a truly weird night, but the best thing about it was I got to meet Will Elder, he of Mad and Goodman Beaver and Little Annie Fannie fame, and was able to speak to him and his wife for about ten minutes. It made the whole con for me, as geeky as that might sounds.
UPCOMING APPEARANCE SCHEDULE
We'll be attending the Small Pess Expo in Bethesda MD, September 15 -17. where we'll be sitting at the SLG booth with Team SLG members Bob Simpkins and Travis O'Neill. If all goes according to plan we'll be premiering Dork #8 at the show. Or not.
And, as a last-minute addition, Action Girl Comics contributor and Charm School creator Elizabeth Watasin will be attending her first SPX, and will also be signing at the SLG booth.
In November, Sarah and I are tentatively scheduled to appear at the Big Apple Madison Square Garden show in NYC.
THE USUAL WORD REGARDING OUR MAIL
We really appreciate hearing from you guys out there in tv and funnybook-land, we've always encouraged your feedback and we do read everything we get. Unfortunately, we're having serious problems answering our mail these days. So please don't get mad if it takes weeks or months before you receive a reply, or er, if you don't hear back from us at all -- we're answering what we can, when we can, and that means some mail will slip through the cracks. We certainly don't want you folks to stop writing, but please keep in mind we're a two-goof operation and we can only accomplish so much in a day. Thanks!
Okay, that's it for now. Sorry this dispatch ran so long, but then again, don't they all?
As always, you have our sincere thanks for reading this and for your continued interest and support of what we do here at the House of Fun. Honest!
latersville,
evan
go back to: newest newsletter
archived newsletters: summer/fall 1999
| winter 2000 |
spring 2000 |
fall 2000 |
winter 2000 |
feb 2001
Go back to the parlor...
Go back to the foyer...