rossmay

This post isn’t honestly about Spider-Man, or the Ninja Turtles, but like so many things in life it’s handy to use them as examples. If they had been around at the time I’m they would have been in the Old Testament.

I was having a conversation with Quinn Johnson the other day - as one does - and he expressed his positive outlook on Nickelodeon now owning the Ninja Turtles. He’s especially excited at all the possible fresh approaches Nick could take with them. We already know there will be a new CGI series that’ll be some kind of kid-friendly, a new movie of some undetermined amount more of mature coolness, and who knows, maybe comics of everything inbetween?

So Quinn is really happy that the turtles can receive a “fresh start.” We started using Spider-Man as an example, and he pointed out that Spidey in regular comics is (if not always, at least sometimes) in this purgatory of fighting the same foes over and over. With reboots and/or alternate lines, such as the Ultimate comics, you can instead have Spidey facing off a villain for the VERY FIRST TIME in a new way instead of the 134th.

In terms of the purgatory problem that popular characters face, I completely agree with Quinn. When Spidey first came out and fought a villain for the first, second and third time it was part of one cohesive narrative. Stan Lee could make direct references to what happened “last ish.” And while technically that still holds true for the series, it means a lot less when it’s been running 40+ years and it’s getting close to impossible to read every damned time X villain (probably the Vulture... ughhhh) showed up.



That was all setup, so what’s my point? Well back to the turtles, I am decidedly less excited at the prospect of reboots. I have nothing against whatever Nickelodeon might do out of hand, but I just find reboots/”fresh starts” kind of hollow and artificial.

Because really, what IS the difference between seeing Spider-Man fight the Vulture for the 134th time as opposed to an ULTIMATE Spider-Man fighting an ULTIMATE Vulture for the first time? I want to point out that I don’t feel reboots or alternate stories are cheats, but let’s think about this in terms of narrative. Both examples of these Spidey vs. Vulture stories are based on the context that there have been Spidey vs. Vulture stories that came before it, whether you read them or not. In both scenarios the past stories inform the writer in what he will do with the characters. Even if he/she does something totally new and fresh, “Haha! The Vulture is gay in this universe!”* it only exists as a reaction to the old, mainstream version.



If you enjoy the Ultimate Marvel comics or some other alternate pop culture series then great for you! And I admit there are powerful stories you can only tell in an “alternate reality” (i.e. Superman: Red Son, Dark Knight Returns... Marvel Zombies?). But if it’s just a tweak because people are saying the old series is getting tired, I figure often a reboot is like a fresh coat of paint. Sure it looks pretty but it’s the same thing underneath.

This is probably making me sound more cynical than I actually am. I too am looking forward to seeing the new Ninja Turtles cartoons and movies. But suppose say, the new cartoon wants to use Bebop and Rocksteady. Nickelodeon could press the all-important REBOOT button and then carefully explain what this shiny new universe of theirs is. On the flip side, though, they could just say, “Screw it! You all know Bebop and Rocksteady have been a part of Ninja Turtles. We know they’ve been a part of Ninja Turtles. We’re just going to include them in this series as you remember them, and you come to whatever conclusion you want. It’s the 87 cartoon series again, or it’s a ‘best hits’ TMNT world, you decide.” To me, both choices end with the same results, so I don’t really care whether it’s technically a reboot, new universe, old universe, or whathaveyou.



*I haven’t heard that the Vulture in the Ultimate line actually IS gay, so you can assume I’m just making a hypothetical point. Also, why is a character being gay ALWAYS news in comics?

Happy Halloween, internet! And thanks to everyone who emailed me photos of themselves dressing up. This was my first contest and I honestly feel kind of bad that some people entered but I'm not going to give you anything (this time)! This isn't a "costume contest" in that I wasn't judging your costume, just doing "eeny meeny" for those who entered. And the winners are:




Lea: As Franky from the anime One Piece. And just like One Piece, she's been cut so you can't see all of her. One imagines she was also poorly dubbed that day.

Green Willow: As Ratatouille about to make some turtle soup!... Did that movie ever address the fact that he was cooking other animals comparable to his intelligence?

You two have been cursed with receiving comics from meeeeeee! Horrific Tales #2 from Midnight Horizon and some TMNT Tales.

Have fun today, everybody!


PS
What's up with people on the net spelling it Hallowe'en this year? Listen, I'm an etymology nerd and even I find it stupid. If you're going to be pompous and spell it like that, why not go back further in history and call it Samhain, or Salwain, or "Let's Eat Children" Druid Fest of 9 AD? All of those events are (I hope) dead - HALLOWEEN is for scary movies, women dressing skanky and kids getting fat, ok? Not adults getting fat off of kids.

Hey everybody! Hey everybody! You only have until Friday to enter my creepy contest.



"I Love Halloween Contest"

1) Go to "user info." on the left and find my email address.
2) Email me a message with "I Love Halloween" as the subject and attach a photo of yourself in any costume. Notice that I'm not saying it has to be a Halloween costume and it can be as current as you dressed up as a baby pumpkin.
3) You can win Horrific Tales #2 and some Ninja Turtles comics signed by this guy here! And considering this is a contest for a blog on livejournal, you chances of winning if you enter are more likely than getting struck by lightning while flying an aluminum kite during a thunderstorm. I like them odds.

I think when it rains, it definitely pours. For around the past two years I've tried unsucessfully to do new writing and comic projects, and now I have several on the go with some very talented people. Part of that might be due to the fact that for those last two years I was hella busy with getting an education degree, but I digress.

On top of my "talented people that I know" list is Rolo Ramis. And here is one of two pages for our short piece, "The Would-Be Princess." CUTE! Go over to his blog and comment on how great it is!



This story is for 2010. I'll let ya'll know where and when it shows up.

So Mirage has sold Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Nickelodeon, and the thing to do these days if you’re a turtle-fan is to express your reaction to this news.

As T-Rex once said, “Feelings are dumb, kissing is awesome!” I agree, so I'll just knock off some quick thoughts in order of their importance:

1) I really wish the best for all the Mirage staffers and will keep a watch for what they do creatively in the future.

2) It means a lot to me that I got to write stories for my childhood heroes, the Ninja Turtles. I’ll have that forever.

3) Also what EVERYONE will have forever are all the comics, cartoons, movies, etc. that have been created up until this point. I know some fans are upset and some are cautiously optimistic, but any way it goes guys remember that nobody can take away your love for the stuff that’s come so far.

4) In all of this, I don’t think anyone has asked yet about the Mighty Mutanimals, essentially a Ninja Turtles spinoff. I’m quite certain that those characters are going to Nickelodeon as well, but are they?

5) Hope “Forever War,” the Adventures series finale by Murph and Chris Allan, comes to fruition.

JOKE: When the next live-action movie comes out, will the Foot Clan be turned into a gang of Nordic Vikings?

The very talented Pedro Figure, who you might know from cereal:geek, is illustrating a super-secret comic project written by me. Wow!

In boring personal news, I'm just getting over a bout of laryngitis. It's bizarre more than anything else, and was interesting to me how it changed the dynamic of how I communicated with those around me. I wasn't hampered all that much really, but I gave a lot of thumbs up and down.

And in business news, the world has until October 30th to enter the "I Love Halloween Contest." See the blog post somewhere below for details, but in short:
1) Look at my "User Info" on the left for my email.
2) Email me a message with the subject "I Love Halloween" and an attachment of yourself in a costume (any age, and if it wasn't for Halloween, how am I to know?).
3) That's it! Winners get a "Horrific Tales Anthology" that I contributed to, Ninja Turtles comics that I wrote, and they're all defaced by yours truly! Stick that in your mylar bag!

He rarely gobbled and when he did, it was in the heat of battle
So grim was he that he was not fazed by leftover bones that rattle

Fighting for fair chicks wronged lest a fire consume his birdy brane
A puritan can be a warrior too (I guess), this Solomon Turkey Kane




Happy Thanksgiving from the world's only delicious puritan killing machine!

I’m back boys and ghouls! I’ve written a comic horror story called “Avante-Garde” illustrated by Andy Dawe-Collins for Horrific Tales, coming out this October from publisher Midnight Horizon! It’s a fun, schlocky piece that should make you squirm in your chair while reading.



If my love for Ghostbusters, Lovecraft and Poe haven’t demonstrated already I’m a big fan of horror in general and Halloween specifically, this should. A really fun Halloween rivals my love of Christmas, which is saying something!

And I thought I’d celebrate this month by holding a contest! You, that’s right, YOU just need to click on the left for “User Info” to discover my email address. Shoot me an email with the subject, “I LOVE HALLOWEEN” and attach a picture of yourself in a Halloween costume. On Halloween I will be picking two names as the winners and sending* them each an autographed copy of Horrific Tales, plus maybe some extra Tales of the TMNT comics I wrote? Depends on if you’re a stand-up guy or gal.

This is not a costume contest, as winners will be picked at random. Please be aware that I will be posting your image here on the blog if you win, but no personal information about you will be revealed other than your (nick)name. Entries must be received by October 30th.



Better hurry people. Right now the leaders are these two kids. Whoever they are...

*I can predict that I won’t be getting my copies of Horrific Tales until November, so winners should expect the same.

A few more thoughts on clone shenanigans...

-Regardless of the ending, the story is inherently stupid. Towards the end we lose sight of the fact that all the clones were created not by any SECRET MASTERMIND, but by the villain named Jackal who loved Gwen Stacy and, upset she was dead, decided to clone her and her boyfriend Peter Parker.

Wait, what? See what happened. This is an insane lovesick geneticist who, rather than ONLY cloning the dead girl he loved, decided to clone the dead girl he loved PLUS her currently living boyfriend (more than once)? As wrong as it was to clone her in the first place, why the hell would he clone himself some romantic competition as well?


Wait, this is the guy behind all the cloning? Hilarious.

-Some crazy Aussie will disagree with me on this, but Norman Osborn pulling the strings and orchestrating clone and other villainous shenanigans for years is bull shit. Not even taking into account whether or not it was a cheat bringing him back to life, his “clone plan” isn’t really a plan at all. He’s just throwing money around and hoping Peter Parker gets confused. Sending someone to kidnap or hurt Mary Jane or Aunt May, now those are PLANS! What Norman does are just random, expensive think-tank projects that may or may not affect Peter.

-And speaking of Norman, I’m one of the holdouts that feel he should’ve been left dead. Yes, he’s Spidey’s greatest villain ever, but unlike say Joker or Lex Luthor who are great villains for their sheer personalities and motivations, Osborn is the greatest Spidey villain in the context of what his actions were and how the story with him played out. Stan Lee and others have noted that if anybody was intended to be the BIG BAD for Spider-Man originally it was actually Dr. Octopus. And you can even imagine that if stories had changed so that Ock was the one who knew Peter’s identity, or had killed the girlfriend, then we’d all be talking about him as the greatest villain ever. Really, apart from Norman being a touch more crazy they’re largely the same genius, pompous criminal mastermind kind of guys.

So no, I’m not keen on Norman Osborn being in charge of America in current Marvel comics. I’m sure it’s interesting as hell, but as far as I’m concerned you don’t need an “Ultimate” line or “alternate universe” because Marvel in some ways has already gone off into that end with its regular titles.



"I used to fly around, blow up things and threaten people's loved ones. Now I scheme a lot and show how influential and wealthy I am."

-Ben Reilly was killed because, as they explain in the Life of Reilly Blog, “You can’t have more than one Peter/Spidey running around in the world. That would detract from his specialness.” Sounds fair to me. But that logic ignores the fact that there are indeed still Spider-Clones running around MarvelDisneyLand. Kaine, the ridiculous 90s TO THE MAX anti-hero who can melt people’s faces with his super sticky spider hands (no, really), and the even more ridiculous Spidercide who’s pure evil and can also morph into anything like Plastic Man. What, what does that have to do with a spider power? Because if the logic is that comes from him being a clone, that’s not what cloning means. And both of these guys are supposed to be confused versions of Peter Parker.



Hey Dolly, do you have any super powers? Like melting people’s faces or morphing?



Baaa! Does premature aging and crippling pain count?



No.

Teehee.

I'm way more excited than any comic fan should be over the "Clone Saga, Writer's Cut" for Spider-Man. OK people, backstory: in 1994 Marvel thought they could do a "big story" around Spidey in the same way that there was a big story a few years prior with Superman "dying" (but I refuse to call it that without quotation marks because he didn't freakin' die). The story started fairly simple - a clone of Peter Parker shows up. Wow! This would shake up Peter's identity for maybe half a year and then things would go to some form of status quo.

As detailed at this excellent blog, The Life of Reilly, things spiralled out of control quickly. The bean counters at Marvel (which was going through rough times) demanded the story go on longer as it was the biggest seller. Multiple clones were thrown in, as were mysterious figure after mysterious figure who claimed to have all the answers to the Parker clone conspiracy. The ironic thing is that while these figures claimed to be able to explain everything (and fans assumed they would), the writers and editors behind them didn't have a clue! The "saga" lasted over a bloated two years and while people acknowledge it was exciting at times, it was generally awful.

The reason I'm tickled by this new release is because I never read the Clone Saga as a kid, thus escaping both the hype and the eventual awfulness. But at the same time I was aware of what was happening with Spidey enough that I knew there was a guy in a new Spidey costume (Scarlet Spider) and a version of Peter with dyed blond hair. I even remember a friend at the time once commenting that Peter Parker was not going to be Spider-Man anymore... and that instead he would be a parapalegic using guns? Seriously, that's what my friend said (we were 10, keep in mind). Sounds like he had a third of the right information, for a third he was thinking about Deadpool and last third just sounds like something comics would do in the nineties.

As with Superman "dying" when I was seven and accurately called bull shit, I called B.S. again on Peter not being Spidey and was once again proven right. Freaking adult fans and news media at the time couldn't figure these two out and I called them right off the bat with absolute certainty.

But I digress. So I'm excited about this because it might be an interesting story when told in six issues. What I'm ESPECIALLY interested in is what Marvel means when it advertises, "The Clone Saga as it was originally conceived." Really? Because after reading the behind-the-issues blogging of the Life of Reilly, that could mean a lot of things. Here's a run-down of the various epic conclusions to the saga:


Clones = toy variations!

1. Ben Reilly was meant to be the clone.

2. Peter Parker was meant to be the clone and Ben Reilly was the real deal, as a DNA test confirmed. Ben was then supposed to completely adopt Peter’s name, identity, family and friends apart from Mary Jane.

3. Ben was the real deal but he would have an entirely different cast around him.

4. Neither of them were clones, but rather at the climax of the story Peter Parker would get zapped into the past with a dose of amnesia, becoming Ben Reilly running around at the same time as his other self Peter Parker. Thus they're in a time loop and once Peter is zapped into the past, there's only one guy and Ben realises he IS Peter Parker.

5. Ben was a clone and Peter was real in a scheme hatched by a presumed-dead Dr. Octopus.

6. Ben was a clone and Peter was real in a scheme hatched by a presumed-dead Harry Osborn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lalm_kkczVM

Teehee. The above is a link to the Solomon Kane movie coming out... December? Whatever, like I care.

Many posts ago I talked about how I was reading Kull and Bran Mak Morn stories, who along with Solomon Kane are all characters created by Robert E. Howard. Then I always have to say, “The creator of Conan the Barbarian.” Then you say, “ohhhhh” and remain unimpressed but at least realise who Robert E. Howard is.

I could talk about how bad this trailer is, which is the general consensus from most people on the net (and you know when netpeople have spoken, it becomes true). It’s not that it’s BAD in big letters, but a small kind of bad because it’s so generic and clichéd. It could almost pass off as a parody of that Van Helsing movie if it didn’t look so much like a SEQUEL to that movie.



I could also talk about how judging even just by the trailer it looks like they’ve screwed up the Solomon Kane character, which they have. I suppose that’s keeping in fine tradition with Howard’s other characters who get misrepresented in movies. The Arnold Schwarzenegger Conan movies are really “generic hero in a Kull the Conquerer plot” while the Kull movie is “generic hero in a Conan the Barbarian plot.” Funny how those two got switched around. In the Solomon Kane movie the big emphasis seems to be on the duel nature of Kane being both a puritan and a freaking killing machine, which was always inherently funny to begin with. So here he’s wondering if he’s damning his soul or not, in what I’m guessing is probably trying to be an “origin story” where he comes to term with these opposing ideas by the end.

Pffft. See, in the stories themselves the reader can figure out that Kane is absolutely ridiculous because of these two sides to him. Howard as the narrator, who probably thought he was being edgy rather than funny, even comments on how Kane doesn’t make any sense. But the great thing that made Howard’s silly experiment work was because Kane never had the insight to realise he was a contradictory character. Storybook Kane doesn’t question what he’s doing, because that would take him away from his favourite pastimes of brooding and killing dudes (the darker the better, as far as Kane is concerned).


My soul... so... tormented!

Which leads me to the REAL thing I want to talk about (big lead up, I know): Solomon Kane kind of sucks. And keep in mind that I’m a guy who’s a FAN of the author, at least when he’s on top of his game. But I’ve read all but the last two Kane stories and they’re pretty lame plots starring a lame character. Don’t get me wrong, Kane is enjoyable to see in action because he’s absolutely ridiculous! I know the pulp hero The Shadow was a precursor to Batman, dark brooding guys who think they’re all serious but then really why are they so damned flamboyant and impractical in their work, but Kane is a precursor to both of them.

What I’m saying is that Solomon Kane is like a dark hero (Shadow, Batman, etc.) who got things WRONG, and part of the fun is because his author is helping him get things wrong along the way. Howard talks about how dark and serious Kane’s CLOTHES are, all in black, to try to show he’s a dark character and also that he’s not into fancy clothes and accessories, I guess? Seriously, it’s a big focal point for some reason that Kane doesn’t even wear rings. But he ends up just describing a superhero costume anyway, and Kane comes across as more flamboyant than the colourful pirates he’s swashbuckling against. It’s also a big point that Kane is the strong, silent type, never even smiling. Yet when he shows up to a fight what’s the first thing he does? Talks about how he’s the strong silent type who doesn’t ever brag about himself. Then he launches into a monologue about how he spent years tracking you down, then talks about what a bad person you are (Why’s he telling you this? You’re a pirate and a slave trader. You know you’re bad.) and how he’s going to kill you and send you to hell. En garde!

Howard only recognised that his creation was a contradiction when it came to the puritan/warrior bit, which as I said he thought was a great combo to make Kane cool and unusual. Like Kane, though, Howard didn’t have enough insight to realise the character was almost ENTIRELY contradictory. The guy won’t shut up before fights, the narrator says Kane’s modest yet he’s not, says he’s grim yet he’s really a person out playing superhero in a fun costume with nifty toys and saving wenches.

I don’t care about the movie because I don’t really care about the character, except that I do read the stories because they’re unintentionally hilarious! Kull is still my favourite guy Howard’s created, with actually thought provoking stories intercut with him ripping ceremonial axes off of walls and hacking away lizard people before coming to philosophical and metaphysical conclusions. Forget the Socratic method, I’m an adherent to the Kull method! Yearrrgh!

PS
And again, it’s always like, 13 year old wenches that Kane is saving. Eww Robert Howard, ewww.

PPS
And Howard and Kane are racist as hell. Bet that won’t make it into the movie.

We begin with a little education. DC Comics says that Batman was created by artist Bob Kane, when in fact most of the world knows he was created by Kane and writer Bill Finger. Go read up on them on Wikipedia or somewhere. Better yet, read the book Men of Tomorrow which is more about Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster and the men behind DC Comics but explains perfectly what sort of person Bob Kane was. Kane was in touch with National Allied Publications (later DC) and they reached an agreement where he would bring them a new superhero to ride the wave of success that Superman had started. Kane then partnered up with Finger on creating Batman, and part of their arrangement was that Kane would deal exclusively with National and say that he had created and done all of the work. Kane would continue to be the only credited person on Batman for years to come.

This summer the best panel I attended in San Diego was “The Legends of Batman” where Lew Schwartz (in his first convention appearance), Jerry Robinson and Shelly Moldoff were interviewed by Mark Evanier. All three guests were teenagers in the late thirties when Bob Kane hired them each separately to do ghost artwork for Detective Comics stories starring Batman. The deal was that they couldn’t put their names on anything or go to National claiming any credit, and then Kane would “look after” them.



The panel was fantastic because there was a wealth of entertaining and informative stories coming from the men who contributed and shaped Batman in his earliest years, not to mention other fictional characters. Some of the stories I had heard before, but not all. Following are some notes that Batman and Golden Age comic fans will find interesting. I’m paraphrasing as accurately as I can here, and not re-telling the ones I was already familiar with such as Kane first hiring Robinson on a tennis court.

The Last Time I Saw/Spoke to Bob Kane


Lew Shchwartz
Bob and I lived in the same direction, so to save money we would split a cab sometimes. The only thing was, my stop was earlier than his. To make sure he didn’t have to pay we would get to a block or two before mine and he would shout out, “I’ll get out here!” open the door jump out. It was always pretty dangerous, but he would do anything to get out of paying.

The last time I was with him it was like that. We were sharing a cab and sure enough he said, “I’ll get out here!” and he opened the door... and another car in the next lane took off the taxi cab’s door. I was in shock, and Bob could have been killed, but he didn’t let this stop him and he ran off to the sidewalk and he was gone.

The driver was really upset, and it was his taxi. “My new taxi car!” he said. “I just bought it!” I felt really bad for him. I had some money on me so I gave what I could to him and I said, “Sorry about my friend.” There’s wasn’t anything more I could do about it, so eventually I just had to walk away.


Shelly Moldoff
Are you familiar with the story, “The Picture of Dorian Grey”? In it a man sells his soul to the devil so he’ll never age. But there’s this picture of him that he hides away, and every time he commits a sin his picture is disfigured until it finally reflects this twisted soul that Grey has inside. And I would tell Bob, “You’re always immaculately kept, but you’re just like Dorian Grey. Where are you keeping your picture?” He would laugh and say, “Shelly, you’re a riot!” thinking I was joking... I wasn’t kidding.

His mother doted on him a lot, and when Batman first started he was still living at his mother’s place. He would call me up and say we could get work done over at his place, so I’d come over and do all the work and he would relax. I would be there until the evening, and he would say, “Why don’t you stay for dinner?” Well his mom would fix him a steak so big it was hanging over the sides of plate and I’d get a little burger. I’d ask him if he wanted to trade and he’d say, “Shelly, you’re a riot! You’re so funny!”

I worked with him for many years, leaving once and then coming back. But the second time I stopped working for him it was for good. Then I heard his mom passed away, who as I said I had met and who I knew he was very fond of. I knew it would’ve hurt him a lot that she was gone, so I called him up and said I was sorry to hear about his mother. He asked me out to dinner so we met at a restaurant.

I had been in this situation before. Bob made a lot of money, and took the top off of everything I earned remember, yet he always “forgot his wallet” or “didn’t have money” and I had to pay the bill. Well we had our meal, and a pleasant little chat, and then the cheque came. He padded himself as usual and said, “Could you get this, Shelly?”

I told him, “I know New York’s a dangerous place, so to make sure I didn’t get mugged I locked my wallet in the trunk of my car. Let me go out and get it.” So I went outside, hopped in my car and drove away. And if you all didn’t tell me that Bob Kane was dead, I would have assumed he was still in the restaurant waiting for me to come back.



Jerry Robinson
This was some years after it became widely known to the public that Bob had not, in fact, done all the Batman stories up until the sixties. In fact he had left comic books in the early 1940s to work on (what was considered) the more prestigious Batman comic strip for newspapers. He never even worked on all of that, and after it ended in 1946 he stopped contributing creatively to Batman altogether, around seven years after Batman was created.

So it came out that Batman was co-created by Bill Finger and there were all these other ghost artists, including myself. Bob sent out a public statement saying absolutely no, that every story and every panel of artwork HE DID IT. (Evanier: And even that letter wasn’t written by Bob. He had a ghost writer for THAT!)

I didn’t get into a public argument with him, but just laid out the facts as I knew them. Bill Finger was co-creator and wrote all the stories at the start. Bill and I created the Joker together. And I listed all the ghost artists like me I was aware of. I think Bob was especially upset with me to hear me claim that I co-created the Joker.

Years pass. I co-created this character called Professor Egghead, who would teach some science facts to children. I get a call one day from Bob, which was definitely strange because last I knew he was angry with me. He asks me how I’m doing and chats about all sorts of things, avoiding Batman and the Joker entirely. This goes on for minutes and I’m wondering why he’s called me. “Bob,” I say, “Nice of you to call, but you must have some point for calling me.”

Bob tells me, “I’ve got this great new character that I wanted to tell you about. His name is Egghead, and he’ll give all these science facts to children.” And he goes on describing this character that I have helped create just recently. And after he makes his point he hangs up. So that was the last time I spoke to Bob Kane. He was trying to get back at me for claiming that I co-created the Joker, but all I was doing was telling the truth! I think the man was so afraid of people undermining him, of finding out that he didn’t do all these things he claimed to have done, that it consumed a part of him.


Bob Kane's grave also provides a wealth of information about the man. I'm surprised it even mentions GOD giving him divine inspiration...

PS
Jerry Robinson mentioned that he is working on his autobiography. I’m very excited about this and you should be too. He has championed comics longer than anyone and has been proven time and again to be the most honest and have the most trustworthy memory amongst his peers, so I’m sure his book will be THE book about the Golden Age of comics and Batman in particular.

Hi internet. I know I don't call or write, but you just haven't been interesting lately. It's not like you're getting any new video clips of the Swedish Chef on youtube or anything.

If I haven't mentioned before, I'm working as a substitute teacher right now (don't worry, comic news is coming -> in fact anthology goodness starting in October!). I don't want to talk a lot about it because I was instructed in college, and personally believe as well, that what happens at school and in classes should not be broadcast to the rest of the world. See, me holding back like this is why I'll never be a great blogger or tweeter.

OK, but I had to share this one. I was taking care of some kindergartners last week and one boy had on a T-shirt that read, "Mom Said No But Dad Said Yes."

Gahhh! What the? Bluh. I mean, I've read some crude things on T-shirts before, usually worn by teenagers, but that's just terrible! It's awful enough that somebody MADE thousands of these shirts, but far far worse that someone (...dad, I guess?) bought this thing and has his son wearing it. Not cool, dad. Not cool.

I found this pretty cool. It's a response by Canadian health experts to Americans who try to use our Medicare as a whipping boy for why universal healthcare is bad. If you're American you might be interested in hearing Canadians talk about how our healthcare system operates.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXXBCFnhsUc

I don't want to go too much into US politics, but I will say just a few points and you can draw your own conclusions. First off, it's true and quite wonderful that it actually costs LESS for government run healthcare as opposed to private. This runs counter to the idea of capitalism, but it's actually more cost-effective thanks to the government not trying to turn a profit or needing to spend extra money on ad campaigns (both for buying insurance or for drugs).

I don't want to make everything sound absolutely perfect, and someone in the video admits that we do have our own problems. These problems are not so different from some of the problems America faces, though. Some rural and remote parts of Canada need more specialists and sometimes, depending on your area, wait times can be poor. Both of these problems could probably be fixed simply with more money, which would require higher taxes. That's the crux of it - if you want universal healthcare, it needs to be well funded and you're going to need to pay more taxes. But that gets back to it making monetary sense; if you are paying a private insurance company right now, if you paid through taxes instead along with everyone else in your country you could pay less and get the same coverage.

I don't in any way want to exploit his situation, but I'm sure you Ninja Turtle fans are aware of Jake Black's fight with cancer and his need for fundraising right now. It's wonderful how people have been contributing and helping him out, but to give you an idea his chemo treatment and other expenses would be covered in Canada, not necessitating any fundraising.

PS
Canadian Healthcare is especially connected to my home province of Saskatchewan, and you can see this reflected in the video with former Saskatchewan Premier Roy Romanow speaking and an expert in Saskatoon. Before nation-wide healthcare it was province-wide here in 1962, and of special importance to me is that the first clinic a part of that system was in my home city of Prince Albert run by Dr. Orville Hjertaas. The next time you need to compare or think/talk about Canadian healthcare, you can remember that it first came into practice in the same city that I live in.

PPS
I'm a history buff and happen to know my city pretty darn well.

Just a blog post above to indicate that I finally got my hotlinking to my own pictures to work. Score!

I’m a bad blogger, I know. No excuses, but here we go!

Got into San Diego on July 22nd and went to the zoo. I mentioned already that if you’ve gone to San Diego but not to the zoo, you really should change that. So if you go to the con next year, make time to go see it.

Yu Li, her cousin Andy and I stayed at the Sheraton Inn Suites at Symphony Hall. I thought it was a major score when I first got the reservation months in advance because – keeping in mind that everyone around the world were going after hotel rooms like rabid dogs – it’s within walking distance of the convention centre and is about as reasonably priced as any hotel is going to be in the area. And I suppose it still actually was a score, but you know what? I wouldn’t stay at this place if it wasn’t for the convention. It’s built into the side of a hill with this terrible parking complex inside. It takes you two separate sets of elevators to get out of the building, and God help you if you try taking the wrong, poorly marked set. It was nice once you got inside, particularly your room which was an oasis from the insanity of the convention, but at the same time this hotel has one of the dumbest setups.


Looks fine on the outside.


Much more complicated on the inside.

After checking in we went to the convention centre Wednesday evening. Despite the crowds signing in and picking up badges was not so terrible. Then we hit the floor and I started handing out packages of work! Special thanks again to Yu Li for lending her backpack to me when mine broke down! The best laid plans...


And this is when things are “dead.”


It’s so nice let’s post it twice!

Wednesday night I was gladhanding people at various booths, while Thursday morning I just plunked down in a panel room upstairs and stayed there until around 2 in the afternoon. I attended a DC panel, then the Archie panel where people booed over Archie marrying Veronica. While there I also had a nice chat with the wife of the late John Goldwater, founder of MLJ/Archie Comics and co-creator of a lot of their characters and elements. I had my picture taken with her as well but it didn’t turn out. I continued sitting through an indie comic panel and then a spotlight on Jerry Robinson! Before things got going and he was just sitting with nobody around him and nothing happening I asked if I could have my picture taken with him. Told him I was from Canada and we talked about Joe Shuster and the awards named after him (which he helped bring about), and I told him about my admiration for what he did for Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Bigger stars might have been at the con but he was the man I definitely wanted to meet.


And here was the other biggest event for me! It wasn’t until near closing time Thursday that I went to Artists’ Alley and met Tristan Jones right away, shortly followed by Quinn Johnson! Together we are part of the Tales of the TMNT freelance writers alliance (hey Will Tupper, where are you, man?). That night just the three of us went out for sushi and had a great chat and a good time. I look forward to spending more time with these guys in the future.


Me with Stephan Reese, head blogger of http://gogreenmachine.org/ and a guy in the video game industry. This was taken Thursday, but on Friday we were in line together to get some books signed by Kevin Eastman. My books were things like his 25th Anniversary Book, which is pretty cool, but Stephan had some crazy rare comics including misprints. And here I thought my collection of turtle comics was pretty good, but really they pall in comparison.


Speaking of Kevin Eastman, let’s jump out of continuity to see me meeting with him. I told him I had worked for Tales and we both agreed that was cool... not a lot more one can say about it. Also, while he was very nice a woman at his Heavy Metal booth was very surly. I was asking for someone to take my money so I could buy the books Kevin was signing for me, and I got the impression she misunderstood my comment as a suggestion I might just steal them. Maybe?


Here I am with artist friend Rolo Ramis who I had met only a few short months earlier on the net. Rolo very kindly drew a cartoon version of me for my business cards. He was only in for Friday so we parted ways after a ten minute meeting or so, but he’s another guy who I’m sure I’ll meet (and work with) again!


This was another cool panel. It was “Legends of Batman” hosted by Mark Evanier where he interviewed Lew Schwartz, Jerry Robinson and Shelly Moldoff. This was Lew’s first comic book convention and the first meeting of Lew and Shelly. The importance of this panel was that these three men were all teenagers working for Bob Kane. Not even the company that became DC Comics, but directly for Bob Kane ghosting the artwork on Batman. It was highly informative, and they all had wickedly funny stories about Bob Kane. I’m going to devote another blog post later to what I learned at this panel.

Meanwhile, Yu Li and Andy attended the Disney Panel at the giant Hall H, which I also would have liked to attend. If you’re not up on the news well they showed off scenes from movies they’ll be re-releasing in 3D including Beauty and the Beast (Remember the impressive ballroom dance scene? Now imagine it in 3D) and the first two Toy Stories leading up to the third. Also Hayao Miyazaki made a rare trip to North America to show a clip from Ponyo. Him showing up was the biggest “get” for the convention, bigger than any celebrity you might think who also attended.


While we’re at it, take a look at the back porch of the convention centre. Pretty!


And here’s the sweetest guy known well to Ninja Turtles fans, Tokka! With my attending panels and running around for most of the convention he didn’t run into me until Friday or Saturday, leaving a piece of artwork at the Mirage booths with the frustrating message of, “Ross, where are you?!!!” on it. Tokka gave me a turtle VHS with a picture of Rat King he painted on, a print of his artwork, a DC hero thermos and a vintage Punch Out!! figure in its package! All I could give in return was a comic. Thanks so much, Tokka! His artwork is featured in the latest issue of cereal:geek, so be sure to check it out. Also, I saw him while he was being interviewed at the Ubisoft booth for the Smash Up wii game. Coolness!

Saturday was crazy-busy. I had heard that and thought, “What is BUSY at comicon?” Well I found out. After around three hours that day we said "Nuts to this!" and ducked out. We went to BodyWorlds at the Natural Science Museum, which I already talked about. Yu Li is so glad we went!

On Sunday I wrapped up my networking. We attended the Dr. Who panel and OMG David Tennant! Yu Li likes Ghost Whisperer so we went to that. The guy who plays the sort of doofy character who can hear but not see ghosts is funnier just being himself. They should let him ad lib his lines on the show.

Oh right, so I hung out at the Mirage tables for a little while. Met all the guys, albeit some more briefly than others. Also met Andres Ponce and Dario Brizuela, who are super nice and I'm kicking myself for not having put my networking on hold for an hour or two just to hang out with them more. A kid (maybe thirteen years old) found out I was a Ninja Turtles writer and asked for a picture from me. I had prepared for this, so drew my one and only Ninja Turtle at the convention (talk about an exclusive!). It turned out kind of thin and feminine, so I added some hearts and turned it into a Venus De Milo. Hah!

Can you folks see why I put off writing a post about all this? I want to say thanks to all the great people I met, and sorry to those I didn’t. My cell phone worked fine for some people, but for others calls didn’t work at all and texts were an entire day late. We’ll use smoke signals next time.

I’ll definitely go to ComiCon again but it definitely won’t be next year! It was a lot of fun and I’m glad I went. Keep track of my site to see what’s coming from me comic wise!...

Some musings on DC's event "Blackest Night"...

-Has anyone pointed out that for all the talk of an "emotional spectrum" that three of the colours/groups are not emotionally based? Avarice, represented by Agent Orange, is not an emotion. The Green Lanterns use willpower, which is also not an emotion. I guess the point behind that is that they're backed by their own courage, but that's not an emotion either. And the Black Lanterns of death are REALLY not an emotion, though I suppose that one can slide seeing as how black isn't part of the spectrum of colours anyway. What if instead we picked out actual emotions for these colours? What about the orange light of embarrassment? The green light of boredom? The lava lamp of annoyance?

-It's being made into a big deal that guys like Jonathan Kent, Superman's adoptive father, is back from the dead as a Black Lantern. The reason is solely for a better story, which I get, but in-story there's actuall no strategic reason why resurrecting Pa Kent over other elderly men is a great idea. I mean the person raised is obviously not Pa Kent if he'll be all evil, and he won't have any super powers like presumably a zombified Superman would.

-Speaking of Zombie Superman, is he wearing a Christmas bell right next to his crotch?
http://www.dccomics.com/dcu/comics/?cm=12417

This is my non-ComiCon California trip post. Yu Li and I had a blast! Special thanks to her cousin Andy and my new auntie (goo ma) for letting us stay with them and indulging us so much!



As I mentioned previously, the day we went to check out Hollywood Boulevard happened to be the day that a Ninja Turtles event was going on and auditions for Foot ninja in the next movie. In fact our taxi dropped us off right in front of the turtlevan! It was great to see – it didn’t look real but instead was like the Playmates toy blown up to life size! And we met Leonardo. Only spent a short time there, but it was the perfect day to go.


We checked out the Grauman Chinese Theatre, of course. Everybody and their uncle were going to see Harry Potter, but we went on a guided tour. It is indeed a very nice theatre, but what you might not realise is that off to one side it’s built into this sort of mall/multiplex. It’s all part of the same cinema now, but there other movies playing in other rooms. I’d feel kind of ripped off though if I came to see something in the classic part and got stuck in the room that was built in the 80s...


This place was nearly as dead as a... tomb? Which I guess would be appropriate. Before Sid Grauman’s famous Chinese Theatre opened he funded the construction of an Egyptian Theatre during the age of silent movies. This is where Hollywood glitz and glam (well, at least Hollywood movie premieres) were born. Also great for me personally as this is also the location for the finale to one of my favourite novels, The Englishman’s Boy by Guy Vanderhaeghe (also a professor of mine).


To San Diego now, which has a fantastic zoo. I keep hearing from people who go to ComiCon that they don’t leave room to see the sights, including the zoo. Make time, people!


Speaking of making time... By Saturday there I had taken care most of the work I needed to and there were no more panels we were dying to see, so after a measly three hours on the extra crowded floor we said “Nuts to this!” and went off to do other things in town. What was really cool was that Bodyworlds happened to be at the Natural History Museum, and Yu Li was super excited to go see it. Investigate it on Wikipedia or somewhere if you don’t know what it exactly is. I get a kick out of Yu Li – afraid of bugs yet completely fascinated by partially skinned bodies. Guess she’s well suited for the medical profession.


Disneyland!!! Let me put it this way, if you’re not too cool for ComiCon, then you’re definitely not too cool for Disneyland and a picture with Mickey Mouse.


Just wanted to prove to a certain Australian Jones that I’m more Indy than he is.


Well after ComiCon and Mickey, why shouldn't I be even more of an idiot? The closest mall just happened to be the Puente Hills Mall, better known as the Twin Pine/Lone Pine Mall from the first Back to the Future movie! You can't tell from the darkness, but I had mapped out EXACTLY where Doc and Marty were standing... then a security guard asked me if I was OK. Should've told him I was about to time travel... to my childhood!

Skipping some things, of course, including the Hsi Lai Buddhist Temple, city sights and a whole lot of food! Also, with all the hills and if you get over to the ocean California is a beautiful place... but there's just smog during the summer. It was a great visit and I forgot to mention that I met a lot of very nice people, both at ComiCon and outside of it. Next post should be on the con!

Hi everyone. I've been back home for a while now but I'm neglectful and haven't been updating this page. In the coming days, before everyone stops caring, I'll post some pictures and stories of my time at ComiCon and California in general. Yu Li and I went to Disneyland! Nobody's too old or too cool for Disneyland!

The greatest cartoon magazine in the world, cereal:geek is back with a new issue and more article(s) written by me. I don't have my copy yet and am unsure if I have one or two pieces in this one. The theme this issue is comics, which carries over to next issue as well. I'm not sure yet obsessive compulsive Ninja Turtles fans, but either this issue or next will have an article that covers the entirety of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures! "Piffle" you say, "why do I need that when I have every issue?" Well you might still want it because everything gets summed up in an interesting way. It's pretty neat to actually have the entire, awesome series given some perspective. Plus a picture by Tokka! Buy buy buy and help, uhhh, England's economy?