Here's the new installment of the ongoing WORLD'S FUNNEST retrospective, this time we're looking at the Phantom Zone sequence, illustrated by Mike Allred and lettered by Tom Orzechowski. it's a short trip, covering only a single page, so, no need for a script PDF this time around.
If you've just joined us recently, I'm slowly but surely posting all the scripts, notes, and art that I have in my files regarding, WORLD'S FUNNEST (DC Comics, 2002), which I wrote and which twenty a...
2022-05-08 20:25:15 +0000 UTC
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I haven't drawn a single thing since my birthday, when I saw my psychiatrist (i have the best birthdays), and was heading into a big crash because I wasn't tapering off my ADHD medication but instead free-falling. Today I did some warm up drawing on a Fun Strip for the site, but it was more like fuck up drawing. It's hard to pin down exactly what's wrong with my hand right now, because it's not the usual thing. It's not exactly pain, there's side effects of withdrawals in both hands, and a ve...
2022-05-07 04:24:20 +0000 UTC
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It's been a while since we've been there, so I'm doing a re-reading of all the published Beasts of Burden comics as well as the four notebooks of handwritten material I have on hand. I also have to go over my computer files (ugh), because I never was any good at organizing, and my notes are scattered between those, the notebooks and a batch of post-its, index cards and receipts with semi-legible words written on them and tossed or affixed randomly into a notebook. Those are the "scrapbook not...
2022-05-06 02:10:00 +0000 UTC
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Hey, folks. It's May, somehow, but here in NYC it feels and looks a lot like March. Someone needs to fire their PR team.
The good news is that today was Sarah's final cancer radiation treatment. She was supposed to finish up last Friday, but today made up for a skipped appointment due to the cyclotron not cooperating with the doctors and staffers. Last Wednesday was her last chemo appointment. So, while a lot is going on and a lot will be continue to be going on for som...
2022-05-03 00:58:35 +0000 UTC
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A brief message before heading back to bed, in order to continue sweating out my Fluvoxamine and getting through withdrawal. Oh, I mean, "discontinuation syndrome". My apologies.
Anyway. In light of the fact that it was announced that Neal Adams' has passed away today, out of professional respect and whatever basic decency and/or humanity I might possess, I will be postponing the promised posts about his CBLDF cruise science presentation until such a time as it doesn't feel miserab...
2022-04-29 20:24:32 +0000 UTC
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Hi. I'm having some issues owing to a switch in prescription medicines for my ADHD.
The hope is that my new medication will help me with my lifetime of focusing and memory problems.
For the time being, going off one medication is hitting me very hard and I'm experiencing some very bad side effects. I'll spare you the details. I'm hoping things will stabilize by the end of the week. But it looks like I'm going to be a bit hit-or-miss as a functioning humanbeing for a li...
2022-04-26 01:58:59 +0000 UTC
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In case you have been wondering how things have been going with Sarah:
While the overall picture remains very positive, the last month and a half or so have been very difficult. She's been going into Manhattan five days a week for the past five weeks for radiation, on Wednesdays she also has a chemo session. Next week was supposed to be the final week, but this past Thursday the cyclotron wasn't coming online so she sat all day without being able to get anything done. So she'll be going...
2022-04-24 00:36:49 +0000 UTC
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It wasn't open to all backers for reasons of stupidity.
Anyway, go look, if you haven't seen it. Hopefully it's all fixed now.
And then keep it under your beanie.
2022-04-23 11:50:48 +0000 UTC
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Hello to you new backers who are reading this (Hi!), who have joined the site because you fell for the following chicanery:
For my birthday, a small-time money grab: If I get ten (10) new backers on my Patreon in the next 24 (twenty-four) hours, at any level, next month (May) I'll post the story of Neal Adams' (!) science presentation (?) on the 2000 CBLDF cruise (?!?)..
2022-04-21 03:26:17 +0000 UTC
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The title of the post pretty much tells the tale, other than letting you know that the "green cover" was Bolland's initial take on the cover colors. I felt it wasn't "apocalyptic" enough, and asked for the revision. Most likely through editor Joey Cavalieri. I'm not sure. I dealt with some of the artists directly and others went through DC editorial/Joey, with notes from me going through after work came in. I'm pretty sure I sent Bolland the cover concept myself, so I may have timidly e-maile...
2022-04-19 23:22:05 +0000 UTC
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Shhhh.
2022-04-19 18:47:21 +0000 UTC
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Hey, folks.
Attached is a PDF of the script for the initial 18 pages of the World's Funnest one-shot from 2000. This opening section is what we referred to as the "Silver Age Sequence", it was penciled and inked, beautifully, by Dave Gibbons. I've posted the opening splash/title page, which is one of my favorite images from the book, between Dave Gibbons' artwork and the wonderful lettering by Tom Orzechowski.
It's also one of the pages I enjoyed writing the most, usin...
2022-04-13 00:43:39 +0000 UTC
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Things left behind.
2022-04-10 03:47:15 +0000 UTC
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A quick update, unless I start rambling. I'll try not to. Busy day, and I want to try to get some work done before conking out.
Also, Winky the Pirate Cat is being super needy and looking for attention. Oh, wait, that's every single ding-donged day. She's lucky she's adorable.
First off, the good news is that I'll be writing a new Beasts of Burden mini-series. This has been planned for some time, but got held up while I was taking a break from published/scheduled comics, and...
2022-04-07 03:00:20 +0000 UTC
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if I posted this before, I apologize. I don't think I have. But I'm trying to kick off some more posts about World's Funnest so why not start at the beginning.
Let's begin!
This was the document I sent in to Joey Cavalieri at DC Comics to set up World's Funnest (originally called "Last Imp Standing", which is the story title within the book itself, to fill out the Silver Age splash). It was practically already sold, this was mostly cleaning everything up and giving DC someth...
2022-04-04 00:40:16 +0000 UTC
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For something that got delayed, but will hopefully still happen. Hope it happens.
2022-04-01 23:11:17 +0000 UTC
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Non-friendlies. Avoid.
2022-03-31 21:40:08 +0000 UTC
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It started several years ago as a header for a proposed M&C strip.
Then I decided to turn it into a pin-up to sell.
Now I don't know if it will get turned back into an opening splash page for a new strip or remain a big pin-up. Either way, I add lines to it when other drawings are underway and I feel stuck.
You might have noticed that some years back I started getting heavily into crosshatching and texturing on my art. It's sort of like therapy. I enjoy layin...
2022-03-30 23:56:14 +0000 UTC
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That isn't a tree.
2022-03-27 22:56:37 +0000 UTC
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Memory and loss.
2022-03-26 21:35:45 +0000 UTC
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The label on the broken bottle needs to be flush to the glass, don't you think?
Otherwise, Onward To Mayhem.
When I know more, you'll know more.
2022-03-25 03:18:17 +0000 UTC
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I did not get thirty, or hundreds, like some aspiring New Yorker cartoonists. I only got the one.
And I deserved it because I sent in some sub-par stuff. Which I knew at the time was sub-par.
So why send it? To just get the mental ordeal over wit of making the attempt. It was something I was only half-hearted about doing, because I don't see myself as a New Yorker cartoonist (and neither do most other folks). I actually think 90% of their "modern" cartooning -- pretty ...
2022-03-20 22:41:26 +0000 UTC
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Read it and weep! Just a little bit. It isn't as terrible as it looks. Well, it is pretty lousy, but most folks did far worse back in the heady days of the post-Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles black and white indy comics boom and bust. Most folks didn't make a dime. Hell, many folks lost thousands of dollars and dropped out of the industry saddled with debt (many of them urged on by that idiot Dave Sim). I never self-published. I knew my limitations. And like many creative types, business matter...
2022-03-20 06:14:17 +0000 UTC
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2022 WFMU M&C T-SHIRT PREMIUM:
The WFMU fundraiser marathon has begun! Which means there's a week and half left for folks to get the 2012 Dance With Me Stanley X Milk & Cheese t-shirt. A $75 pledge during DJ Stashu's show this Friday at 6 - 7 P.M. EST -- gets you the DJ premium t-shirt.
Listen online at https://wfmu.org and call in or donate through htt...
2022-03-10 01:34:01 +0000 UTC
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Coming or going?
2022-03-09 03:50:22 +0000 UTC
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Yikes!
2022-03-07 03:50:12 +0000 UTC
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The Devil Puppet is disgusted with me and refuses to appear in this comic.
It's a long story. Not particularly interesting.
I swear. Really. Honest.
I'm sure he'll be back soon.
(I did find a missing sock today)
I used this little comic to practice doing stuff in Photoshop. It took me forever to clean it up -- it's still a messy little thing but I did do a bunch of things. And goofed them up. And fixed them. Etc.
So, yeah, I had to abandon Gimp ...
2022-03-06 08:02:17 +0000 UTC
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Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the initial airing of the Welcome to Eltingville pilot on the Adult Swim. Holy yeesh, right?
I didn't know it was the anniversary, someone reminded me online after I'd posted something about the comic. They thought it was close to the actual airdate. Turned out it was the exact date. I feel old and weird tonight (I'm typing this at "night" but it's now the next day, technically. I'll always see the late shift as belonging to the day before, I've alw...
2022-03-04 09:09:47 +0000 UTC
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One of the more successful indy comics from the 80's was Grimjack, conceived by writer John Ostrander, with the series credited to Ostrander and artist Tim Truman as creators. Grimjack, a.k.a. John Gaunt, was a gun and sword-toting mercenary who operated out of Munden's Bar, a dive located in a slum area of Cynosure, a city where all dimensions intersect.
Munden's Bar was also the name and setting for a back-up feature in the comic, often involving appearances by other creat...
2022-02-28 05:34:56 +0000 UTC
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Chris Duffy is a name well known to the bulk of North American comics creators of my generation, as well as readers of the late, lamented Nickelodeon/Nick Magazine's comics section (or the Bizarro Comics project, for that matter). During his tenure at the magazine, (with cartoonist Dave Roman as assistant editor), hundreds of comics creators were hired to write and draw over 1300 pages of comics, gag panels and comic strips -- along with covers for each month's Comic Book section. Along with ...
2022-02-26 03:31:17 +0000 UTC
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