Monday, September 29, 2008
Chris Wisnia on PCBR this Tuesday
My guest on Tuesday, Sept. 30 will be cartoonist CHRIS WISNIA. Chris is someone I've run into numerous times over the years at conventions, and this man's work is pretty dang funny. Please tune in and join us for the interview!
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
CARTOONISTAS Live Art Bootcamp!!
On Sunday, several of us Cartoonistas were at Co-Founder JIM LUJAN's home training in his no-hold-barred Live Art Bootcamp!
Several of the Cartoonistas will be participating in the Nuvein Foundation's 3rd Annual Gala on Saturday, Oct 4, in El Monte, CA. We'll be providing an evening of Live Art. And since some of us (me included) never actually performed Live Art, we figured Jimmy outta whip us into shape!
Obviously, every time I've drawn over the last umpteen decades (!) has been 'live art'. But I wanted to get a feel for drawing on a large sheet, in a limited time, and being as spontaneous as possible. We have two shifts for our performance, and limited time, so practicing some speed drawings can't hurt. I decided to start the evening off with my little baby, the Man-Swamp!
I wasn't too happy with it, as it looked too empty and skimpy. But, never fear, here comes Jim Lujan and his Magic Chalk! Man-Swamp and Jimmy...two great tastes that go great together!
Ted surveying his artwork with the eyes of a stern critic!
A Halloween art jam started by Grasiela Rodriguez. Didn't take long for the rest of us to jump on that like flies on....ice cream??!
Grasiela taking a break to shoot the breeze with Renato Aguirre.
Renato is my fellow producer on Planet Comic Book Radio, and is also a Board Member of the Nuvein Foundation. Nuvein is a literacy and arts advocacy group in the San Gabriel Valley, and provides support to PCBR. I've been on the Marketing Committee of Nuvein since December of last year, and in fact was just nominated to join the Board! A great honor, of course, but can someone please clone me?!
I busted out this piece in a flash of inspiration. Going back to my Undead Mariachi roots!
Jim's done live art before (sharing stages with James Kolchaka, Lea Hernandez and James O'Barr) so he was in his element here. Actually, his art style lends itself to live art. He rips through a drawing (finished a mini comic recently over two lunch breaks!!) and creates it with real live, kinetic energy. One of the reasons he told me he wanted to start the Cartoonistas group was to build a following as a Live Art group here in the San Gabriel Valley. I'm glad that we're about to perform our first Live Art event as a group, and we've already lined up another gig at a local library in at the end of October.
Check out Jim's precise composition here:
Followed by that dramatic, apocalyptic stage lighting he's known for!! Take that, CLOVERFIELD!!
Amongst all the great art and the fun, geek talk, we stuffed our faces with Pizza and soda pop, candy and chips, and a couple of toasts of the bubbly! That's what I call boot camp!
Check out Jim's pix at the CARTOONISTAS site!
Several of the Cartoonistas will be participating in the Nuvein Foundation's 3rd Annual Gala on Saturday, Oct 4, in El Monte, CA. We'll be providing an evening of Live Art. And since some of us (me included) never actually performed Live Art, we figured Jimmy outta whip us into shape!
Obviously, every time I've drawn over the last umpteen decades (!) has been 'live art'. But I wanted to get a feel for drawing on a large sheet, in a limited time, and being as spontaneous as possible. We have two shifts for our performance, and limited time, so practicing some speed drawings can't hurt. I decided to start the evening off with my little baby, the Man-Swamp!
I wasn't too happy with it, as it looked too empty and skimpy. But, never fear, here comes Jim Lujan and his Magic Chalk! Man-Swamp and Jimmy...two great tastes that go great together!
Ted surveying his artwork with the eyes of a stern critic!
A Halloween art jam started by Grasiela Rodriguez. Didn't take long for the rest of us to jump on that like flies on....ice cream??!
Grasiela taking a break to shoot the breeze with Renato Aguirre. Renato is my fellow producer on Planet Comic Book Radio, and is also a Board Member of the Nuvein Foundation. Nuvein is a literacy and arts advocacy group in the San Gabriel Valley, and provides support to PCBR. I've been on the Marketing Committee of Nuvein since December of last year, and in fact was just nominated to join the Board! A great honor, of course, but can someone please clone me?!
I busted out this piece in a flash of inspiration. Going back to my Undead Mariachi roots!
Jim's done live art before (sharing stages with James Kolchaka, Lea Hernandez and James O'Barr) so he was in his element here. Actually, his art style lends itself to live art. He rips through a drawing (finished a mini comic recently over two lunch breaks!!) and creates it with real live, kinetic energy. One of the reasons he told me he wanted to start the Cartoonistas group was to build a following as a Live Art group here in the San Gabriel Valley. I'm glad that we're about to perform our first Live Art event as a group, and we've already lined up another gig at a local library in at the end of October.
Check out Jim's precise composition here:
Followed by that dramatic, apocalyptic stage lighting he's known for!! Take that, CLOVERFIELD!!
Amongst all the great art and the fun, geek talk, we stuffed our faces with Pizza and soda pop, candy and chips, and a couple of toasts of the bubbly! That's what I call boot camp!
Check out Jim's pix at the CARTOONISTAS site!
Monday, September 22, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
Podcasting and TV interview updates
My interview with artist RHODE MONTIJO is now available at the PLANET COMIC BOOK RADIO site. I've known Rhode for as 11 years, having met him at a comic book convention a year before I first published EL MUERTO. In that time, we have both been great supporters of one another's work, and I consider him one of my best friends. His amazing creativity has been wonderful to watch over the years, crossing over from comics, web cartoons and now children's books.
He's always up for adventure and lives life to the fullest. Once, when we were working on the post-production for the EL MUERTO movie, he happened to have been in the Burbank area and joined us for some audio looping! I can't tell for sure that his background voice work made it onto the final recording, but at least his EL MUERTO painting made it to the Guest Artist gallery on the EL MUERTO DVD. Check out the interview, and get a portrait of an artist who puts all his passion into his art, and a healthy sense of optimism.
In other podcasting news, the second episode of my other show, the bi-weekly JAVILAND, is now available for download. In this episode, the topic was 'Creating Comic Book Characters', and the discussion focused on what we create first: The character or the story. I was joined by three other cartoonists and we had a good, varied discussion on the topic. That's the objective of JAVILAND: to discuss with other creators topics relating to the creation and publishing of our own comic books.
And the final 'media alerts' I have for this entry is the news that the cable access tv interview me and my fellow CARTOONISTAS filmed a few weeks back is now available to watch! It's posted on the CARTOONISTAS site here. Now back to work...!
He's always up for adventure and lives life to the fullest. Once, when we were working on the post-production for the EL MUERTO movie, he happened to have been in the Burbank area and joined us for some audio looping! I can't tell for sure that his background voice work made it onto the final recording, but at least his EL MUERTO painting made it to the Guest Artist gallery on the EL MUERTO DVD. Check out the interview, and get a portrait of an artist who puts all his passion into his art, and a healthy sense of optimism.
In other podcasting news, the second episode of my other show, the bi-weekly JAVILAND, is now available for download. In this episode, the topic was 'Creating Comic Book Characters', and the discussion focused on what we create first: The character or the story. I was joined by three other cartoonists and we had a good, varied discussion on the topic. That's the objective of JAVILAND: to discuss with other creators topics relating to the creation and publishing of our own comic books.
And the final 'media alerts' I have for this entry is the news that the cable access tv interview me and my fellow CARTOONISTAS filmed a few weeks back is now available to watch! It's posted on the CARTOONISTAS site here. Now back to work...!
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Get ready for my upcoming mini-comic...The MAN-SWAMP!!!
Okay, I have a new EL MUERTO comic coming out in November. I'm also premiering my new character, DEMOLITION DOVE in early 2009 under the XOMIX COMIX imprint.
But I also have another new/long-lost character I'm debuting in a mini-comic book in January. Kevin Cross, a cartoonist from Portland, has started a Mini Comics Dumptruck club. He's got about 19 artists signed up already! Each artist has until January to make a 12-24 page Mini (a 4.25" x 5.5" comic). So I thought I would use a character I created a few years back, The Man-Swamp! He first appeared in an 'ad' in KING SIZE EL MUERTO #1 (2002):
Man-Swamp started out as a gag idea, more or less. An homage to the legendary swamp monsters in film and comics. Just a way to fill up a page in KING SIZE EL MUERTO #1 , really. But over the years I kept going back to the idea. In 2004, I was teaching a Comic Book Workshop, and as an instructional aid, I had the students contribute to the plot of a comic and aid in the comic book storytelling. I would set up the scene and ask the students to come up with a ideas for the narrative. A couple of the girls came up with the idea of 'Ducky'!
I drew the pages during two class sessions, using the same markers as the students, so as to encourage them in finishing their comics. So this is the first appearance of Man-Swamp in a comic, I guess! But when I was invited to join the Mini Comics Dumptruck, I immediately thought of bringing back Bog Breath back for a proper comic book story. I've actually fleshed out a more involved back story for the character, so the Man-Swamp mini comic will actually be more than just a gag story. But of course, with a name like he's got, this is still a freaky, whacked-out idea!
Here's a sketch I did a week or so back. Once I get started on the actual mini (sometime in December), I'll post some more updates.
MAN-SWAMP ™and © 2008 Javier Hernandez. All Rights Reserved.
But I also have another new/long-lost character I'm debuting in a mini-comic book in January. Kevin Cross, a cartoonist from Portland, has started a Mini Comics Dumptruck club. He's got about 19 artists signed up already! Each artist has until January to make a 12-24 page Mini (a 4.25" x 5.5" comic). So I thought I would use a character I created a few years back, The Man-Swamp! He first appeared in an 'ad' in KING SIZE EL MUERTO #1 (2002):
Man-Swamp started out as a gag idea, more or less. An homage to the legendary swamp monsters in film and comics. Just a way to fill up a page in KING SIZE EL MUERTO #1 , really. But over the years I kept going back to the idea. In 2004, I was teaching a Comic Book Workshop, and as an instructional aid, I had the students contribute to the plot of a comic and aid in the comic book storytelling. I would set up the scene and ask the students to come up with a ideas for the narrative. A couple of the girls came up with the idea of 'Ducky'!
I drew the pages during two class sessions, using the same markers as the students, so as to encourage them in finishing their comics. So this is the first appearance of Man-Swamp in a comic, I guess! But when I was invited to join the Mini Comics Dumptruck, I immediately thought of bringing back Bog Breath back for a proper comic book story. I've actually fleshed out a more involved back story for the character, so the Man-Swamp mini comic will actually be more than just a gag story. But of course, with a name like he's got, this is still a freaky, whacked-out idea!
Here's a sketch I did a week or so back. Once I get started on the actual mini (sometime in December), I'll post some more updates.
MAN-SWAMP ™and © 2008 Javier Hernandez. All Rights Reserved.
Monday, September 15, 2008
EL MUERTO:DEAD & CONFUSED off to the printers!
There's a new EL MUERTO comic book on the way!
I just sent the files off to the printers over the weekend. It's the first time I'm using a POD (Print On Demand) service, so it'll be interesting to see how the whole experience plays out! This book will debut at the Alternative Press Expo this coming November 1 and 2 in San Francisco. This marks my 10th straight year as an exhibitor at APE, and in fact I debuted El Muerto at APE back in 1998, so this is a real special celebration for me.
November 2nd is also the date that Dia de Los Muertos falls on every year, so this special celebration becomes an extra special celebration! (Dia de Los Muertos is the Mexican holiday that celebrates the life of our departed family and friends, and is of course the inspiration for elements of my comic book). Also, there will be some news to share with you of another Day of the Dead weekend event for El Muerto, one that will mark a new great milestone for my character. I'll share the news here as soon as I can (you know, need to coordinate with the other parties involved...)
In the meantime, here's a couple more pages from DEAD AND CONFUSED. I'll be writing here about some more behind-the-scenes insight into this book, with a few more images to share. El Muerto is back!
I just sent the files off to the printers over the weekend. It's the first time I'm using a POD (Print On Demand) service, so it'll be interesting to see how the whole experience plays out! This book will debut at the Alternative Press Expo this coming November 1 and 2 in San Francisco. This marks my 10th straight year as an exhibitor at APE, and in fact I debuted El Muerto at APE back in 1998, so this is a real special celebration for me.
November 2nd is also the date that Dia de Los Muertos falls on every year, so this special celebration becomes an extra special celebration! (Dia de Los Muertos is the Mexican holiday that celebrates the life of our departed family and friends, and is of course the inspiration for elements of my comic book). Also, there will be some news to share with you of another Day of the Dead weekend event for El Muerto, one that will mark a new great milestone for my character. I'll share the news here as soon as I can (you know, need to coordinate with the other parties involved...)
In the meantime, here's a couple more pages from DEAD AND CONFUSED. I'll be writing here about some more behind-the-scenes insight into this book, with a few more images to share. El Muerto is back!
Monday, September 01, 2008
Listen to the premiere JAVILAND podcast
Last night's debut podcast was as much fun as I hoped it would be. I had 5 other cartoonists joining me on the phone, so we covered a good variety of topics (well, all comic-related, of course!).
Check out the JAVILAND Blog for the show notes and the actual podcast!
Check out the JAVILAND Blog for the show notes and the actual podcast!
Sunday, August 31, 2008
JAVILAND debuts live today at 6pm (PT)
My new interactive podcast debuts tonight at 6pm (PT)! For info on how to catch it, and even join the live interactive chatroom, click here!
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Cartoonistas on the Telly!
Yesterday, (Saturday,August 23) me and some of the Cartoonistas taped on interview for a local cable access show. The Nuvein Foundaation, the non-profit organization that promotes Literature and the Arts in the San Gabriel Valley, hosts an occasional show called NUVEIN PRESENTS. Well, this time around they wanted to feature the Cartoonistas in one of their interviews, so the call went out and 'Bamf', there we were!
(l to r) Will Caulfield, Jim Lujan, Grasiela Rodriguez, Michael Aushenker, and me, Javier
One thing about the Cartoonistas: You put a blank drawing surface in front of 'em and they attack it like flies on....um...fly food?
Grasiela and me before the grueling interview!
Prepping for the interview on the Nuvein Presents studio. Um, why is Jim Lujan taking a call on his camera?!
Our host for the show was Renato Aguirre. Renato is my fellow Producer on PLANET COMIC BOOK RADIO and actually does the editing and write-up for each episode. He's also one of the Board Members of Nuvein. He had a fun time interviewing the whole bunch of us.
After the interview, we headed over to a Tommy's Burger stand and did the other thing the Cartoonistas are heralded for: Eatin'! This turned into a Micro-Con when Jimmy Lujan asked us all for copies of our work! Why support your fellow artists by purchasing their work when you can hit 'em up for free copies at lunch?! Real classy there, Mr. Co-Founder!!
One of the things we do as Cartoonistas, besides holding eating jams and promoting ourselves non-stop, is having intelligent conversations about the art and philosophy of comics: Here Jim Lujan weighs the merits of who swims better: Aquaman or Michael Phelps!
I'll post on here once the episode is put on the web. Many thanks to the Nuvein Foundation for having us on their tv show and for all the great support they've shown the Cartoonistas from the beginning. And thanks to Will, Michael, Grasiela and Jim for
the great time!
(l to r) Will Caulfield, Jim Lujan, Grasiela Rodriguez, Michael Aushenker, and me, Javier
One thing about the Cartoonistas: You put a blank drawing surface in front of 'em and they attack it like flies on....um...fly food?
Grasiela and me before the grueling interview!
Prepping for the interview on the Nuvein Presents studio. Um, why is Jim Lujan taking a call on his camera?!
Our host for the show was Renato Aguirre. Renato is my fellow Producer on PLANET COMIC BOOK RADIO and actually does the editing and write-up for each episode. He's also one of the Board Members of Nuvein. He had a fun time interviewing the whole bunch of us.
After the interview, we headed over to a Tommy's Burger stand and did the other thing the Cartoonistas are heralded for: Eatin'! This turned into a Micro-Con when Jimmy Lujan asked us all for copies of our work! Why support your fellow artists by purchasing their work when you can hit 'em up for free copies at lunch?! Real classy there, Mr. Co-Founder!!
One of the things we do as Cartoonistas, besides holding eating jams and promoting ourselves non-stop, is having intelligent conversations about the art and philosophy of comics: Here Jim Lujan weighs the merits of who swims better: Aquaman or Michael Phelps!I'll post on here once the episode is put on the web. Many thanks to the Nuvein Foundation for having us on their tv show and for all the great support they've shown the Cartoonistas from the beginning. And thanks to Will, Michael, Grasiela and Jim for
the great time!
Friday, August 22, 2008
Another podcast?!
Yes, the rumors are true (Well, I'm spreading it here!)...I've got a new blogcast called JAVILAND. I'm still doing my weekly show PLANET COMIC BOOK RADIO, but this podcast will actually be interactive where you could either call in or join the chat room...in real time!
Why start another podcast? Well, I've found lately that several people have been asking me for some pointers about self-publishing (actually over the years Iget questions about this). And I don't mind helping people, but there's not enough time in the day to be emailing different folks at different times to be schoolin' them in the ways of self-publishing. I figure with this new podcast, I can talk about my own experiences and let others join in with questions or comments via the live chat. Plus the shows will be archived and anyone can listen to them at their leisure and hopefully get some good info about DIY publishing.
Also, I've been listening to, and participating in, a couple of new podcasts recently on the TALK SHOE.COM site and I like the format of the shows. Having a real-time venue to discuss storytelling and publishing with other comic creators over internet radio is a win-win situation, as far as I'm concerned.
So with these reasons in mind (and the obvious opportunity to talk of one's own work doesn't escape me) I thought I'd start JAVILAND. While my other show, PLANET COMIC BOOK RADIO will still continue to feature interviews with independent comic creators and other proponents of the comic book culture, JAVILAND will allow me to focus on specific issues or topics that relate to either my own comic creation or those of other artists, and allow listeners to interject with their own questions and experiences.
The first episode is scheduled for Sunday, August 31 at 6pm (PT). The show will podcast live, so if you'd like to listen in, or even join the chat, go to my TALK SHOE page and register an account (it's real simple and quick). Episodes will be archived on the site, and I believe I should be able to get the episodes listed on iTunes.
I'll be using the JAVILAND blog to post news on the show, the links to each podcast, and show notes for each episode. JAVZILLA will remain my blog for news, reviews, pics, etc on everything I do!
Monday, August 18, 2008
Saturday, August 16, 2008
ROM, SpaceKnight...He lives! He walks! He conquers!
Yep, it finally happened! I got my hands on a ROM action figure today!!
Alas....it was only for a short while......
My friend Michael Aushenker, (cartoonist, writer, bon vivant) has a major article on the 1970s Marvel Comic ROM, Spaceknight coming up in the January issue of BACK ISSUE. He was looking for a good photo to accompany his article and I informed him that our mutual friend Steve Ross had an actual ROM toy in his collection. ROM, the toy, apparently bombed when it came out, but the Marvel Comic book based on the property continued on for over 5 years!! The series was written by Bill Mantlo with art by Marvel Bronze Age mainstay, Sal Buscema, then later by Silver Age legend Steve Ditko.
The book was definitely a favorite of mine when I was in my formative comic collecting days. The character design was unique in it's day, and the story of a man becoming a cyborg and sacrificing himself to save his planet, and traveling to Earth to eradicate the evil Dire Wraiths was for me more exciting than any sci-fi movie could be at the time (sorry STAR WARS!!).
But I digress....
So Mike contacted Steve Ross and asked if we could shoot his Rom figure. Steve said yes and so me and Mike traveled to Pasadena to meet Steve at the bookstore he works at and began to photograph Rom right there at the desk where the store does there presentations and signings!
As a kid I never saw a Rom in any store. Only the ad in the comic would taunt me and torture me for decades....
One of the really cool things about the Rom comic was whenever Rom exposed one of the Dire Wraiths hiding amongst the human race he would vaporize them with his Neutralizer! HE EXTERMINATED AN EVIL ALIEN RACE...in a kids comic!! (Okay, so he was really just vanquishing the Wraiths to Limbo, never to return again. But the way the Wraiths would fear the Neutralizer and the screams of horror they would utter when 'neutralized' was spectacular!!). The original Terminator folks: half-man/half-machine and 100% exterminator!!
It's nice to grow up and be able to give something back to the great times one had growing up as a fan. I was able to give my own homage to Rom when I contributed a pin-up to a Rom gallery show in Portland last December.
And I was fortunate enough to interview writer Bill Mantlo's brother Mike on my radio show in January. So, to all the Rom fans out there (and I know they are out there, like so many Dire Wraiths, waiting, waiting....), enjoy this little tribute to Rom, the greatest of the SpaceKnights!
YouTube ROM toy trailer!
And here's a brief clip of a song 'ROM, Spaceknight" by HB3! Go to iTunes and buy the song!!
Me, my friend Michael and our ol' buddy, Rom! (I'll remind you folks when Mike's Rom article comes out!)
Thanks to Steve Ross for sharing his cool toy with us! And great lunch, eh?
Alas....it was only for a short while......
My friend Michael Aushenker, (cartoonist, writer, bon vivant) has a major article on the 1970s Marvel Comic ROM, Spaceknight coming up in the January issue of BACK ISSUE. He was looking for a good photo to accompany his article and I informed him that our mutual friend Steve Ross had an actual ROM toy in his collection. ROM, the toy, apparently bombed when it came out, but the Marvel Comic book based on the property continued on for over 5 years!! The series was written by Bill Mantlo with art by Marvel Bronze Age mainstay, Sal Buscema, then later by Silver Age legend Steve Ditko.
The book was definitely a favorite of mine when I was in my formative comic collecting days. The character design was unique in it's day, and the story of a man becoming a cyborg and sacrificing himself to save his planet, and traveling to Earth to eradicate the evil Dire Wraiths was for me more exciting than any sci-fi movie could be at the time (sorry STAR WARS!!).
But I digress....
So Mike contacted Steve Ross and asked if we could shoot his Rom figure. Steve said yes and so me and Mike traveled to Pasadena to meet Steve at the bookstore he works at and began to photograph Rom right there at the desk where the store does there presentations and signings!
As a kid I never saw a Rom in any store. Only the ad in the comic would taunt me and torture me for decades....
One of the really cool things about the Rom comic was whenever Rom exposed one of the Dire Wraiths hiding amongst the human race he would vaporize them with his Neutralizer! HE EXTERMINATED AN EVIL ALIEN RACE...in a kids comic!! (Okay, so he was really just vanquishing the Wraiths to Limbo, never to return again. But the way the Wraiths would fear the Neutralizer and the screams of horror they would utter when 'neutralized' was spectacular!!). The original Terminator folks: half-man/half-machine and 100% exterminator!!
It's nice to grow up and be able to give something back to the great times one had growing up as a fan. I was able to give my own homage to Rom when I contributed a pin-up to a Rom gallery show in Portland last December.
And I was fortunate enough to interview writer Bill Mantlo's brother Mike on my radio show in January. So, to all the Rom fans out there (and I know they are out there, like so many Dire Wraiths, waiting, waiting....), enjoy this little tribute to Rom, the greatest of the SpaceKnights!
YouTube ROM toy trailer!
And here's a brief clip of a song 'ROM, Spaceknight" by HB3! Go to iTunes and buy the song!!
Me, my friend Michael and our ol' buddy, Rom! (I'll remind you folks when Mike's Rom article comes out!)
Thanks to Steve Ross for sharing his cool toy with us! And great lunch, eh?
Monday, August 11, 2008
Sunday, August 10, 2008
I'm a guest 'panelist' on TALK OBJECTIVISM radio
I'll be returning as a guest to TALK OBJECTIVISM today at 5 pm (PST). Today I will be joined by author Blake Bell (Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko) and my friend Mort Todd, who hired Ditko when he was the Editor-in-Chief of CRACKED magazine, as well as an editor at Marvel!
I was actually on the show last week as well. I was only going to preview today's episode but I ended up talking about Ditko for over an hour!
TALK OBJECTIVISM is a show dedicated to the philosophy founded by Ayn Rand, of which Ditko has been a follower of for decades. I had emailed the host of the show, Jason Mosley, and told him about Steve Ditko. He invited me to come on his show and talk about Dikto's work (Ditko co-created Spider-Man with writer Stan Lee) and how he's incorporated Objectivism in his comics.
Here's the link to last week's episode:
It's episode 071.
If you want to listen to today's episode, just click on the above link. You can even join the Chat Room with a quick registration and participate in the show.
And here's acclaimed comic book writer Alan Moore talking about a song he once performed based on Steve Ditko and his legendary creation, MR. A!
CARTOONISTAS meeting on Friday night was extremely fun and eventful!
On Friday night, Aug. 8, we held a meeting of the CARTOONISTAS, a local group that I co-founded with animator/cartoonist Jim Lujan. Our goal was to create an art group of sorts, or a gathering of area artists brought together as a networking tool. Really though, it's more fun to describe it as a cartoonist clubhouse!
Anyways, we held a meeting at the offices where my radio show is podcast from. Since we were all gathering that eveing, Jim Lujan suggested a hold a live podcast with the Cartoonistas as the guests! Well, I wholeheartedly took Jimmy's idea and viola! We had a special Friday night party edition of PCBR! The episode will be posted up at the PCBR website this coming week, but in the meantime enjoy this little behind-the-scenes clip of the 'Toonistas crashing in on my interview with Ms. Bernyce Talley! (And find out how the modern radio host operates off of a Mac instead of a Wolfman Jack-style studio with headphones, microphones, misc. equipment, etc. etc.)
Thanks to Jim for recording the clip!
Check out the Cartoonistas blog for more pix and even more exclusive behind-the-scenes video!
Anyways, we held a meeting at the offices where my radio show is podcast from. Since we were all gathering that eveing, Jim Lujan suggested a hold a live podcast with the Cartoonistas as the guests! Well, I wholeheartedly took Jimmy's idea and viola! We had a special Friday night party edition of PCBR! The episode will be posted up at the PCBR website this coming week, but in the meantime enjoy this little behind-the-scenes clip of the 'Toonistas crashing in on my interview with Ms. Bernyce Talley! (And find out how the modern radio host operates off of a Mac instead of a Wolfman Jack-style studio with headphones, microphones, misc. equipment, etc. etc.)
Thanks to Jim for recording the clip!
Check out the Cartoonistas blog for more pix and even more exclusive behind-the-scenes video!
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Super special PLANET COMIC BOOK RADIO podcast this Friday!
First time I've done two PLANET COMIC BOOK RADIO shows in one week! And it will be my 4th radio appearance this week!!!
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
I'll be interviewed live on Thursday at 4pm
I will be interviewed live on Kevin Cross's Blogcast on Thursday, August 7 at 4pm (Pacific Time). An added bonus will be that you can either call in or participate in the chatroom while the interview is going on!
Kevin Cross is the cartoonist who I just interviewed on my radio show this past Tuesday! (As of this post, the interview hasn't been added to our website yet).
Kevin's Blogcast is new, he's got four episodes under his belt. He puts on a pretty good little show, though. He'll talk about his current comics projects, but also has a feature spotlighting urban monsters and another segment where he talks about classic animated shows like THUNDARR and MIGHTY MIGHTOR! And being a musician, Kevin has all kinds of music throughout his episodes.
I'll be his first interviewed guest, so that's pretty cool. And it's funny to me that two days after I had him on my show, I'll be the subject on his show!
His show is hosted on TALK SHOE.COM, the same outfit that hosts the TALK OBJECTIVISM show I was a guest on this past Sunday (Episode 071). It's a simple matter to register for the show, which allows you to listen and interact with the live podcasts. If you want to hear my interview live, and ask me any questions, log on about 10 minutes before show time and register. It's a quick, simple process.
Kevin Cross is the cartoonist who I just interviewed on my radio show this past Tuesday! (As of this post, the interview hasn't been added to our website yet).
Kevin's Blogcast is new, he's got four episodes under his belt. He puts on a pretty good little show, though. He'll talk about his current comics projects, but also has a feature spotlighting urban monsters and another segment where he talks about classic animated shows like THUNDARR and MIGHTY MIGHTOR! And being a musician, Kevin has all kinds of music throughout his episodes.
I'll be his first interviewed guest, so that's pretty cool. And it's funny to me that two days after I had him on my show, I'll be the subject on his show!
His show is hosted on TALK SHOE.COM, the same outfit that hosts the TALK OBJECTIVISM show I was a guest on this past Sunday (Episode 071). It's a simple matter to register for the show, which allows you to listen and interact with the live podcasts. If you want to hear my interview live, and ask me any questions, log on about 10 minutes before show time and register. It's a quick, simple process.
Monday, August 04, 2008
My appearance on TALK OBJECTIVISM
Well, here's a different type of appearance for me!
I was a guest on TALK OBJECTIVISM, a podcast that discusses the philosophy founded by Ayn Rand (author of THE FOUNTAINHEAD and ATLAS SHRUGGED). How, and why, was I a guest on the show? Glad you asked!
As readers of this blog probably know, I'm a big fan or Steve Ditko (his Spider-Man is shown above). Ditko, besides being one of comic's true great talents, has been a follower of Objectivism for most of his life. Much of that philosophy has found it's way into his comic book work, particularly his independent/self-published work (MR. A being a prime example). Over the years I've always been curious about Objectivism, since it's been such a prevalent influence in Ditko's work. When Blake Bell, the author of STRANGE AND STRANGER: THE WORLD OF STEVE DITKO appeared on my radio show, some of the questions I asked him were about the Randian influence in Ditko's work.
In the interest of learning more about Objectivism, I found the TALK OBJECTIVISM site and started listening to the podcast via iTunes for the last couple of weeks. I immediately found the show interesting because of the host, Jason Mosley. I was hoping the host wouldn't be some stuffy, pedantic, academic stiff, because that would put me to sleep. Mosley is a graphic artist, who maintains a blog about bacon (!), he's a tech-nerd, and even does an online comic-strip. He's what I call a regular guy (only a comic-creating, blogging geek like me would think that, right?!). He's been into Objectivism for about 4 years, and is learning as he goes along. So for me, his view on the philosophy, while he's dedicated to it, is coming from the point of view of someone finding his way into it. As there are things about Objectivism that don't fit in with my world view, I can listen to his show without feeling preached to about the philosophy.
So anyway, I emailed him to tell him all this, and asked him if he was aware of Steve Ditko. I gave him some background on Ditko's work on Spider-Man and his own Objectivist heroes like The Question and Mr. A. Mosley was quite interested in all of this, and soon we are talking about me appearing on his show to talk about Steve Ditko! I was happy to do it, of course. Not because I fancy myself a Steve Ditko expert, or even a representative, but I figured I knew enough about Ditko's history to lend my opinions and share some knowledge. Plus for me it was an opportunity to appear on a talk show and not necessarily promote my own work (not that I'm shy about that!). As a Ditko fan, I thought it would allow me to expose more people to his work, and that gives me satisfaction.
So anyway, I spoke on the show yesterday, and it's now available on the TALK SHOE site as Episode 071 (you can also download via iTunes). I had a really great time talking on the show with Jason and his regular guest Arthur. They were genuinely interested in Ditko's work. Plus it allowed me to talk with them about various philosophical issues, and some political talk. Please check it out and let me know what you think.
By the way, I'm going to be on the show again next Sunday, this time with Blake Bell making an appearance! I'll be there to ask Blake some questions specifically how Ditko's Objectivist views shaped his run on The Amazing Spider-Man, as well as how it affected his other work.
In the meantime though, I have to get ready for my own guest on my own show tomorrow!
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