October 2001
“Get me the
Spaceman!”
-- Some stupid ape on a stupid commercial that ran all summer for
that stupid Planet of the Apes movie I refused to see because it looked so
stupid.
Hello and welcome to the Fall HOF dispatch, which was supposed to have been the summer dispatch, but was delayed because of a heavy workload, various social engagements and, as you might expect, the recent tragedies that have taken place here in New York City. I do hope this newsletter finds you and yours healthy and as happy as can be under the circumstances. We'll start the latest newsletter off with some information on various benefit projects being put together within the comics community.
COMIC INDUSTRY RELIEF BENEFIT PROJECTS
There are a number of benefit projects being organized by comic industry professionals and publishers, all of which will donate proceeds to various aid organizations concerned with the September 11th attacks. Marvel Comics is publishing a pin-up book entitled HEROES, which Sarah and I have contributed a piece to. The book shipped on October 17th, and all of the art from the book will be auctioned off for charity. There will also be a signed edition of the book available from Dynamic Forces. Oni Press has launched a benefit auction of original comic art and signed books on e-bay, featuring scores of items from dozens of creators. We've contributed several signed trades, CD's featuring our artwork and an original full-color Milk and Cheese piece, the auction is actually underway as I type this and will end sometime on October 23rd. More items will be going up over the next several days, and you can get more information on the auction at ComicsHelp. I am also working on a contribution to Jeff Mason's Alternative Press benefit book which will feature alternative and independent artists. There are also benefit comic projects slated from Dark Horse and DC comics, and obviously other auctions and projects will be announced over time as well.
"WELCOME TO ELTINGVILLE" PROGRESS REPORT
Long time readers of the newsletter are aware that since December 2000 or so we've been working on an animated pilot for the Cartoon Network based on my Eltingville Club strips. The pilot is called Welcome to Eltingville, and is based on material from some of the earlier Eltingville Club appearances. At this point all the animation has been done, save for some retakes and revisions we asked for. Very little had to be fixed, we were all very happy with the footage, and it's remarkably close to what storyboard artist Stephen DeStefano and director Chuck Sheetz had worked out based on my script. Right now we're waiting for the sound effects and the musical score, as well as the finished opening and closing themes for the show. I'm really excited to be able to announce that the band who will be providing the theme music for the show will be the Aquabats. I have to admit that I'm more geeked up (whatever that means) by the fact that one of my favorite bands is recording goofy songs for my show than the fact that I have a show in the first place Well, actually, I don't have a show yet, I just have a pilot. A lot of people have asked us when the pilot will be aired, and the answer is, "We don't know". It might never get on the air, and even if it does get shown, there's no guarantee it will be picked up for a series. So, we'll see what happens, and when we have word one way or another, we will certainly let you kids know what the word is.
NEW AND RECENT COMICS AND STUFF FROM SLAVE LABOR AND THE HOUSE OF FUN!
Hectic Planet: The Young and the Reckless recently shipped from Slave Labor Graphics/Amaze Ink. This 96-page book is the third HP trade paperback volume, and collects HP #5 and 6 and the Vroom Socko one-shot with about a dozen or so new illustrations and pages. It also features a back-up gallery section including HP cover art, t-shirt art and a selection of punk and ska album covers Sarah and I did during the early-mid '90's. It retails for $10.95. Also, those interested in seeing what HP is all about can try the recently released Hectic Planet: The Bummer Trilogy one-shot from SLG, reprinting three self-contained HP stories for the low price of $2.95. The three stories all revolve around doomed romances and I think it presents a good, inexpensive introduction to the series, which I hope to return to one of these days. Honest!
The first Dork trade collection, Who's Laughing Now? is also now available for your reading pleasure. This nifty little joke book is 112 pages and collects most of Dork #1-5, and retails for $11.95. 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 (don't ask, it's a long, dull story). Everything else - the Murder Family, the Devil Puppet, the Fun strips, Fisher-Price Theatre, Gen Ecch, et al -- is organized into chapters, and is rounded out with new chapter heading art, a text introductory on Instant Piano (and how it begat Dork), a batch of new illustrations, and a gallery section featuring covers, inside front covers, t-shirt designs, and other odds and ends. This is the fifth volume in what Sarah likes to call "the Evan Dorkin library", along with the Hectic Planet and Milk and Cheese trades. I just call them "my stupid comics", but please, feel free to "collect 'em all", as they say on Madison Avenue.
Speaking of Dork, issue #9 is available at last, featuring almost all-new material this time around (the only reprint being "The Soda Thief", my 3-pg autobio strip from the Eisner Award-nominated TwoMorrows Streetwise anthology of 2000). The latest outing contains a new Fun page, a new 6-pg Murder Family episode, a strip about the plight of the doomed Cherry Clan candy line (?), and a new 12-pg Eltingville Club overstuffed mini-epic entitled "The Intervention". Is $3 too much to ask for all this niftiness? I think not. I certainly hope not!
The long-delayed Milk & Cheese bowling shirt is finally available. SLG debuted the shirt at the San Diego con, and while it won't be made available through Diamond or retail shops, it will be available at conventions and through SLG's website. Hopefully pictures of the shirt will be made available soon on the SLG webstore -- we also hope to provide images on the HOF site as well asap so you can get a look-see at our fab fabric offering. The shirt is pretty damned swell -- a hefty red and black 100% cotton knit affair sporting a full color front pocket M&C design and a massive full-color back design, featuring the slogan, "Strike Hard/ Spare no one!". A must have for fans of Milk and Cheese, keggling…and, uh, shirts.
UPCOMING AND IN THE WORKS
Milk & Cheese #8 is being pushed back due to the fact that I don't feel like drawing mindless violence right now. I'm sure I'll get back to the strips sometime in the future, but for the time being, the new issue is on hold. We're discussing doing some interesting M&C merchandise right now, and when time allows I'll finish the designs for the packaging of the long-delayed Milk & Cheese beer mug set, but that's all the immediate plans I have for the little creeps at this point in time. I'll most likely start DORK #10 now that M&C is off the immediate schedule, and try to help out some on the Action Girl co-ed special that we've mentioned several times in the past. Once again that book has fallen by the wayside, but we have made some progress on it. David Mazzucchelli has agreed to let us reprint one of his Kodansha strips, originally done for the Japanese comics market. Hopefully we'll get the Co-Ed comic done before he changes his mind!
Sarah is currently scripting the American version dialogue for the upcoming Kodocha manga series, which will debut in January 2002. TokyoPop is publishing the translated, five-issue mini-series, which revolves around a young girl child star, the people in her life, and the crazy antics that they all get into. We here at the House of Fun support crazy antics, and of course that includes antics from the east.
Our two-part Superman Adventures story, "Power Play", will be coming out in January and February of 2002 from DC, according to editor Joey Cavalieri. Aluir Amancio and Terry Austin are providing the artwork, and the storyline concerns itself with Livewire, Lex Luthor, and almost all of the Fourth World bad guys (and girls) seen in the Superman animated series. Unfortunately, these represent the final issues of the book, as the title has been cancelled. We had a lot of fun working on both the comic and the animated series, and we'll kind of miss being able to play around with the characters, especially Supergirl, who we helped redevelop for the show. It's a bit of a shame that the comics industry can't support these kinds of fun and innocuous all-ages books more, but, that's the way it is.
The DC Direct Mr. Mxyzptlk statue that I designed for them is supposed to ship in November. This was designed to be a companion piece to the Bat-Mite statue released earlier this year. There is no truth to the rumors that if you say the statue's name backwards it will disappear.
I recently found myself doing my first work for Marvel Comics since 1993's Fight-Man one shot, that being designing several characters for a friends project pitch and writing an 8-pg story for Captain America #50. My strip is not really a story, but rather a series of character reactions to the events taking place in another story in the book, written by my friend (and former Pirate Corp$! publisher) Brian David Marshall. The book has been solicited for a December release, with Joe Quesada named as the artist for the strip, but he had to bow out because of his work on the Heroes benefit book. Instead, Kevin Maguire will be handling the art for it.
Finally, Dark Horse Comics is releasing a deluxe hardcover collection of the Scatterbrain mini-series, which will contain the short strips Sarah and I contributed to the humor anthology several years ago. This material was previously reprinted in Dork #8, so buy it for the Jim Woodring strips, or for the Dave Cooper strips, or the jay Stephens strips, etc etc.
UPCOMING APPEARANCES
We don't have any other upcoming appearances for this year, but we do plan to attend next year's Pittsburgh Con in April, where I'm supposedly emceeing the Harvey Awards ceremony once again. And although the 2001 Expo was cancelled, we're definitely planning on attending next year's event and hope to see you kids out there.
AND FINALLY, WE LEAVE YOU ON A HAPPY NOTE…
For those who don't know (and actually, why would you know, it's not like cartoonists are celebrities or anything), Sarah and I were wed this past August, on the date of our tenth anniversary together as a couple. We had a very nice private ceremony in Central Park, and stayed at the Plaza Hotel, the home of Eloise, the Oak Room, and incredibly expensive Coca-Cola.
Well, that's that. Again, we hope all of you reading this are doing well, and we thank you for spending some time with us here at the House of Fun.
Evan Dorkin,
on behalf of Evan Dorkin, Sarah Dyer and the H.O.F.
old newsletters: summer/fall 1999 | winter 2000 | spring 2000 | fall 2000 | winter 2000 | feb 2001 | spring2001
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