June 2001
“Expect the worst, and you won’t
be disappointed.”
-- Helen MacInnes
(No, I don’t know who she is either. Do a web-search if you must know,
I don’t have the time)
ELTINGVILLE PROGRESS REPORT
For those who are new to the HOF, we’ve
basically been spending most of our waking hours working on an animated pilot
for the Cartoon Network based on my Eltingville Club strips. The latest news
is that most of the production material has been sent overseas to the animation
studio that will actually be responsible for breathing life into the four
ugly little creeps you all know and tolerate. The past few months have been
pretty hectic, as we’re all running around trying to get production
wrapped up and completely shipped for animation. All that’s left are
a few odds and ends, some incidental prop design drawings, some revision
drawings, the last of the backgrounds that we need to approve, and the last
of the color model work that Sarah’s been doing on all the approved
character and prop models. We recently designed an opening title sequence,
which Stephen DeStefano did the storyboard for (Stephen also boarded the
actual pilot episode), and we’re in talks with one of my favorite bands
to do the opening and closing theme songs.
At this point we just hope that everything
comes together and that we’re happy with the results, which we should
see by the end of this year. We’ve worked very hard to create a cartoon
that captures the (mean) spirit and (somewhat evil) intent of the Eltingville
Club strips, and while of course I’d be disappointed if the show never
gets on the air, my main concern was to simply try to make a good cartoon
first, and worry about getting picked up by the Network
second. We’ll see how it goes, and I’ll certainly continue
to keep you folks posted if anything terrible or terrific happens between
now and then.
COMIC BOOKS?! YES, WE’RE STILL MAKING THOSE THINGS!
The Eltingville pilot may be taking up most
of our time, but we’re trying very hard to get some comics projects
off the ground while we’re in
production. Here’s a round-up of what funnybook work we’re
involved in, starting with our Slave Labor graphics
projects:
Hectic Planet: The Bummer Trilogy
recently shipped to shops from
Slave Labor Graphics/Amaze Ink – this is a one-shot 24-pg comic collecting
the three 8-page HP stories I did for
Dark Horse Presents in 1997.
If you’ve never tried my Hectic Planet work before, but were
curious, this is a good place to give it a shot, as it’s self-contained
and relatively cheap and painless at $3.
The third Hectic Planet trade collection,
The Young and The Reckless, has been delayed slightly due to
our, well, hectic schedule. This
96-page book, collecting HP #5 and 6 and the Vroom Socko one-shot with about
a dozen or so new illustrations and pages for the repackaging, should hit
stores June 6th. It will also contain a back-up gallery section including
HP covers and t-shirt art and a selection of punk and ska album covers Sarah
and I did during the early-mid
‘90’s.
The first Dork! trade collection is
still slated for a June release from SLG, although that could slide into
July based on our schedule. The
book, called Who's Laughing Now?, will clock in at 112 pages,
collecting most of Dork! #1-5. Material that won’t be in the
trade edition includes the Milk and Cheese strips (already collected in their
own comic), the Eltingville Club strips (slated for their own eventual
collection) and the "Kyle and Evan: Critics at large" live show review strips
(it's a long story). Everything else – the Murder Family, the Devil
Puppet, the Fun strips, Fisher-Price Theatre, Gen Ecch, et al -- will be
organized into their own chapters, rounded out with new chapter art and strips,
new packaging illustrations and pages, and a gallery section featuring covers,
inside front covers, t-shirt designs, and other odds and
ends. It should be a sweet-looking
little addition to your graphic novel collection. If you don’t have
a graphic novel collection, it’s time to get
cracking.
Dork!
#9 has been solicited for a
July release, and will feature almost all-new material -- the only reprint
being my 3-pg autobio strip from the TwoMorrows Streetwise anthology
of 2000 (which was nominated for a 2001 Eisner Award). The new issue will
include a new Fun page, a new Murder Family episode, a 2-pg strip about the
plight of racist candy, and a new Eltingville Club strip, among other things.
I’ve officially begun work on Milk
And Cheese #8 (don’t worry, that’s just the working
title). I don’t know exactly
when it’ll be ready, but I’m shooting for sooner rather than later,
if that means anything. I’m also the guy who promised a new issue of
Hectic Planet in 1993. So don’t hold your collective breath
unless you want a mass funeral blamed on
me.
Some steps have also been made towards getting
the long-promised Action Girl Co-Ed
Special up and running. This is Sarah’s long-planned special Action
Girl issue featuring all-ages comics by both gals and
guys. I’ve finally contributed
my 16-page strip that takes place in the Kid Blastoff universe Sarah and
I created for Disney Adventures magazine a ways back. Sarah has a
short Andi Watson Skeleton Key strip on file for the book, and recently she
locked down two very well known cartoonistas to provide the covers for the
project. Hopefully we’ll have more swell news on this swell book soon.
Our Nutsy Monkey 2-pg strip recently
ran in Nickelodeon magazine, which made us both very happy.
Hopefully some kids out there dug it, but even if they didn’t, we still
plan to do something with the little guy for ourselves somewhere down the
line. What can I say? We just dig them monkeys! Especially nutsy ones!
DC’s Bizarro Comics project
will be shipping in June. This is the eagerly anticipated big-ass all-color
Sarah and I will be finishing up the second
half of our Superman Adventures two-parter (entitled "Power
Play”) in the next few weeks. We just received copies of Aluir
Amacio’s pencils for the first issue, and they look really nice, especially
the Kirby-esque Fourth World stuff. It was fun to kick the old blue boy scout
around again -- not to mention revisit Livewire, Luthor, Mandy Graves and
half of the Apokolips cast. Unfortunately the book has been cancelled, so
they might very well be the last issues to appear. It’s a real shame,
because after the animated show was cancelled the comic book provided a way
for us to revisit the characters, especially Supergirl, who we really enjoyed
working with. Anyway, look for
our two-parter to come out sometime next year from DC
comics.
OOPS!
Sarah and I collaborated on the art for a
1-pg strip written by wee Jake Carney for issue # 3 of Ian Carney and Woodrow
Phoenix’s SLG mini-series, Where’s It At, Sugar Kat?
Unfortunately, a production snafu resulted in the strip being run
sans dialogue. Steps have been taken, and heads have rolled. Unfortunately,
my head was one of them. Anyway, the strip will be restored when reprinted
in a planned trade, and may also be put on-line for those wishing to see
what was said, and what actually happened.
GIMME THE
GOODS!
Unfortunately, I still have no good news on
the long-delayed Milk and Cheese SLG merchandise slated for last November.
After suffering a host of production setbacks in 2000, both the beer mug
set and the bowling shirt are on the back burner. Hopefully there will be
some forward movement soon, and we can re-list the products sometime this
year. The mug set box needs
to be designed, and our schedule keeps getting in the way of that, but
we’re hoping to get it underway ASAP. Beyond that, we do have tentative
plans for some additional merchandise, but we’re taking it slow in light
of the trouble we’ve had with these past efforts. My apologies go out
to those who have been bowling topless waiting for the shirts, and have been
drinking beer in cupped hands owing to the delays in the mug set.
DC Direct has solicited a Mr. Mxyzptlk statue
that I designed for them late last year, which is the companion piece to
their recently released Bat-Mite statue.
This is my first statue design, and come to think of it, very likely
my last.
WITHER THOU
GHOST?
From what we understand,
a brand new episode of Space Ghost Coast-to-Coast recently
debuted on the Cartoon Network. Not too many people noticed, as it was done
without warning. So consider this a warning to you tad Ghostal fans out there
– be on the lookout for new episodes! We didn’t write any of them
-- our long-suffering “last” script is still languishing here in
the HOF workshop -- but we still consider ourselves part of the Ghost crew
in spirit, and we wanted you to be informed because that’s what we’re
here for. Sort of.
PITTSBURGH COMIC CON POSTSCRIPT
We recently attended our second Pittsburgh
Comic Con, and although I spent most of the show sleep-deprived and punchy,
once again we had a very nice time. I was particularly exhausted while emceeing
the Harvey Awards ceremony, which is why if I ever do this sort of thing
again I will try to get more than an hour and a half
sleep. While this year’s
ceremony ran longer than last year’s event, the audience seemed to really
enjoy themselves and on the whole everything went pretty smoothly. As for
the awards themselves, it came as no surprise to me that I -- along with
three other fellow cartoonists -- lost to Sergio Aragones in the
“Humor” category. I think everyone’s pretty much used to that
by now. However, I was very much surprised when Superman And Batman:
World’s Funnest won a Harvey Award for best single issue, especially
considering the other books nominated.
Beyond that, the show was a lot of fun. We
met a lot of readers and fans, got to talk with some professionals we
haven’t seen in a while, looked at some Kurtzman and Elder originals
at Denis Kitchen’s table (which, suffice it to say, we couldn’t
afford), bought some nutty Japanese toys and a worn issue of Harvey’s
Black Cat that Sarah needed, and I got to hand out luggage to the
three male stars of Dawn of the Dead when we rode together in the same shuttle.
How Eltingville is that, eh? I didn’t say anything to them; it was already
too freaky acting as a bellboy for zombies. The con itself made a ton of
money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, as well as the Comic Book Legal Defense
Fund, and seemed to be an even bigger success than the previous year. Unless
our schedule dictates otherwise, we expect to be going back to Pittsburgh
next April. Our thanks to everyone who stopped by our table to say hi, get
something signed, or pick up a book or
two.
UPCOMING HOF
APPEARANCES
WHERE ELSE TO FIND
US ON-LINE
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 (ewww) ON AOL ONLY: Evan & Sarah's
House of Fun: paste "aol://5863:126/mB:191286" into the keyword/web address
line and hit go (don't use the quote marks).
You can also find me (Evan) occasionally posting
on Slave Labor's message
boards.
Whew, that’s more than enough for me
to write about, which means it’s more than enough for you to want to
read about. As always, thanks for checking in with us here at the House of
Fun, and for reading our comics. We hope like heck to be able to update the
site with more features as soon as our workload allows, so thanks for your
patience and understanding. And if you haven’t been patient or
understanding, then we voodoo curse you in the name of Norman Fell.
So live with that -- if you
can!
Evan Dorkin,
on behalf of Evan Dorkin, Sarah Dyer and the
H.O.F.
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