Buck Rogers in the 25th Cennnn-tury!

Love my 1938 Buck Rogers' Tootsietoy Battle Cruiser!  There is a nifty pulley system that, when a line is fed through, helps you "fly" the ship!

Obi-Wan Kenobi? Obi-Wan.

Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time. A long time. This is a cool figure from Kenner's 12" line.  This actually belongs to my brother, but lives in my collection currently!

In your satin tights, fighting for our rights!

A Wonder Woman drawing done for a client. Much of the background is from the opening credits to the Lynda Carter New Adventures of Wonder Woman show!

Riddle Me This!

  

Detective #377 from July 68! "The Riddler's Prison-Puzzle Problem!" Story by Gardner Fox; art by Frank Springer and Sid Greene with an awesome cover by one of my favorite Batman artists Irv Novick! I like the late 60's Batman stuff; just a little left over from the TV show, a bit more serious but not what it would soon be, and some really cool art!

Set Phasers to Squirt!

Love this water-pistol based on my favorite phaser design; from Star Trek-the Motion Picture!

"I thought that they were angels, but much to my surprise, / We climbed aboard their starship, we headed for the skies" or " Roswell That Ends Well..."

Had a work trip to Roswell yesterday.  I have been to Roswell more than 30 times in my business career, and have been to the UFO Museum at least three times, but it seems as though they have really stepped up the game.  In addition to many more reports from eye-witnesses to the "event" stationed at the Air Base, updates on the Sci-Fi Channel dig in 2009, these little fellas were added.  During certain times of the day, the saucer raises and lowers, emits exhaust, and this specimen (space-man) moves his head and talks in a high pitched gibberish.
If youre really into the mystery, I have to tell you there is a lot more compelling evidence-particularly the aforementioned "eye-witness accounts" than there has been in previous years...

Astro Glomp!

 

Space-the Glomp Frontier-

Batman!!

Enjoying this comic from my collection: Detective Comics #324 from May, 1964. "Mystery of the Menacing Mask", written by John Broome with art by Carmine Infantino and Joe Giella, this comic introduced a "new look" to Batman in the early sixties: more "realistic" art, more detective oriented stories and the infamous (and now absent) yellow oval bat insignia.  Great Fun!!

Glomps!

Glomp of the Old West!

Human-Cyborg relations!

Love my Kenner 12" C-3PO; purchased in 1979!

The Atomic Detective!

The Atomic Detective!

Who He IS , and How He Came To BE!

This was the first adventure of The Atomic Detective; originally posted in daily installments in its own blog, and reprinted here.   I hope you enjoyed the little story.

I love comics; especially old comic books and comic strips; mostly stuff pre 1970.  I love, especially, the old adventure strips.  There are not too many around today, and they are dropping out of sight rather quickly (who ever thought we would live in a world where Little Orphan Annie was gone from the comics?). At one time, however, the imagination of the country was captured by the daily adventures of Dick Tracy, Buck Rogers, Terry and the Pirates et al. Being a fan, I decided to create my own little version.

There are those that are unfamiliar with the format.  Basically, the adventures strips were analogous to today's comic books; however, instead of one adventure in a single continuous volume, they were spread out over each daily newspaper, Monday through Saturday (and on Sunday, too- sometimes a Sunday strip would be a continuation of the weekly adventure, as in the case of Dick Tracy or today's Spider-Man strip; sometimes the Sunday strip would have a different plot line than the weekly, as in the case of Buck Rogers or today's The Phantom, and sometimes there would only be a Sunday strip, as was the case of the first few years of the 1930's Flash Gordon)  And, sometimes, there was only the daily strip.  This was the case with the main inspiration for The Atomic Detective, Alex Raymond's Rip Kirby.

Rip Kirby was a daily strip that debuted in 1946 and was about an urbane, sophisticated private detective. The stories, while at times quite pedestrian, were over-shadowed by Raymond's fantastic artwork.  I had been reading a copy of the strips, when one night I had a dream I was driving in my car, and a song was on the radio with the lyrics: "I'm your Atomic Detective, I am your...Atomic Detective".

I thought that was a pretty catchy titles, and, based on that dream, I decided I wanted to do a detective strip with the title and inspired by Rip Kirby.  Many of the trappings of The Atomic Detective-his clothes, hat, and pipe-were directly inspired by Rip Kirby.  The sweater vest AD wears in the first few strips was inspired by one of the first few strips in which Kirby wears a similar out fit. I had also decided that what I didn't  want to do was emulate Raymond's art.  The Atomic Detective, I decided, would be very cartoon-y, with heavy blacks. The mystery story itself- an homage to many of the mystery t.v. shows of the 70's (particularly McMillian and Wife and Ellery Queen) would be very far fetched and contrived.  My wife Andrea- a huge influence on The Atomic Detective- and I love how those shows would take the littlest amount of nonchalant "evidence", and the detective would solve the mystery lickitty quick.  I also didn't want the story to drag on over several weeks.  I sat down, and basically improvised the story as I went, and the final product is what we have.

I also wanted The Atomic Detective to have a sidekick.  Newton, his miniature Dachshund, is based on our own Dachshund, Junebug:

As I've said, I hope you enjoyed the adventure!  Look for a NEW story soon!  It's sure to be a corker!

Sketchy Characters!

A Couple of quick sketches; Blast-Off Boy and Captain Pow!

The Show!

Had a GREAT time as a guest performer on The Show last night at The Box Performance Space! Thanks to the wonderful cast and all of the folks who came out to see me! I hope to perform with this Improv show again soon!

Chewie!

Will somebody get this big, walking carpet outta my way?

I will be a guest performer with THE SHOW @ The Box Performance Space - May 4th 2013 9:00 pm

THE SHOW @ The Box Performance Space - May 4th 2013 9:00 pm: Using audience suggestions and any absurd ideas that cross their minds, improvisers create scenarios and songs that are hilarious and preposterous.Performance Reviews"This city needs an ongoing, consistent, reliably funny improv show and The…

Kenner's Y-Wing!

The Y-Wing is my favorite Star Wars ship!  This nifty die-cast toy from Kenner's line has a neat little proton torpedo that drops when you press the R2-units head! Perfect for targeting ray-shielded exhaust shafts that lead to main reactors!

JLA! JLA! JLA!

Love old comics! Quirky stories and stilted dialogue; impossible situations, and a LOT of fun! This one from my collection, Justice League of America, is from Jan-Feb 1974. It's written by Len Wein, with art by Dick Dillin and the great Dick Giordano! (Psst- it's Hawkman. Hawkman is leaving. He has to go back to Thanagar to blah blah blah.  Not really central to the story inside, and-as was often the case-the cover scene is in no way representative of what's inside!).