Wednesday 27 May 2009

I Need More Entries for Free Comic Book Month

The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that we're now on day twenty-seven of the 5th Annual YACB Free Comic Book Month, and so far I've received twenty-seven entries. Which means that unless I get more entries, there won't be any free comics given out tomorrow :(

So if you haven't entered yet, don't delay! And tell your friends!

Reuben Weekend 2009

Many of you will not be interested in this at all, but here's a quick post about the National Cartoonists Society convention last weekend in Hollywood. I didn't get many pictures, but here are a few.

This first pic is a few of us hanging out in the hotel bar at the Renaissance Hollywood. Which overlooks the old Grauman's Chinese Theater, now called something stupid.











From left to right: Mark Tatuilli (Lio), Jenny Robb (assistant curator of the Cartoon Library at Ohio State University), Stephan Pastis (Oysters Preceeding Pigs), Me (Garfield, Marmaduke), Jim Horowitz (creator of the classic television series, Gunsmoke.)

Here are a few of us at lunch at CHNW's and my favorite mid-LA spot, Real Food Daily. Our other favorite restaurant in all of LA is Madeleine Bistro in Tarzana. There are lots of other good ones, too, though, so don't nobody get offended.









Me (Btam Btam Btam), CHNW (Ashley), Ralph Smith (CHNW's dad, editorial cartoonist and gag writer to the stars), David Silverman (director of The Simpsons.) Cartoonists like to make funny faces for photos.

Here's a shot of us at one of the many cocktail parties. I've been a fan of the guy's all my life and a friend of his for about 15 years. He's a total sweetheart, as you can see from the look on my face.












Sergio Aragones (Mad Magazine, etc.), Jenny Robb (Cartoon Library at OSU), Me (H.R. Pufnstuf)

This brings us to the formal cocktail party outside the awards dinner on Saturday night. Open bar, fancy clothes, lovely weather.













Fred Piraro (my pop), Carol Lee Piraro (my ma), Me (with a cigar stub in my mouth, not a huge, brown swolen lip), CHNW (in a bird and flower headdress of her own design and construction), Ralph Smith (Ashley's dad, ambassador to Tonga, shown here standing on a chair.)

Still at the same cocktail party, taken by a photographer who doesn't know the rule about not having people face directly into the setting sun for the shot.












CHNW and my good friend and business partner, Rey Ortega. You can see the crazy headdress even better here.

Last but not least, here's a shot of Rey as a cyclops.














I'll post more pics later in the week as people send them to me, if there are any good ones and if anyone's interested.

Ciao for now.

Zither Here Nor There

Today's Bizarro is brought to you by Rock 'n' Roll Music!

It is weird to think that for most people, by the time you hit middle age, you've made a million dollars cumulatively. Where the hell does it all go?

I wish I'd saved more, invested more wisely, spent less on plastic dust covers for all my furniture and lamps. If I had, perhaps I'd be able to retire by now and spend more time on my real passions, miniature golf and the zither.

For now, I'll just keep plugging away at a cartoon each day and buying lottery tickets. Eventually, it's all bound to pay off.

By the way, this idea came from my friend in LA, Chris Fisher. He works behind the camera in video and film so he gets to hang out with big TV and movie stars sometimes. While working on HBO's "John Adams," he gave one of my books to Paul Giamatti, for which I will be eternally grateful. Here is a candid shot of him sharing it with Laura Linney.

Movie Trailers

Surrogates, based on the comic book:




9:




And now, quite possibly the greatest film of 2009:

FCBM5 Day 27

It's day twenty-seven of the Fifth Annual YACB Free Comic Book Month!

Our next selected entry is from Ge Oh. The five comics that Ge listed are:

1. Invincible
2. BlokHedz
3. The Walking Dead
4. Ghost Tank
5. Scott Pilgrim

And Ge's other thing of interest is music.

For Ge I have the first issue of Chynna Clugston's latest Blue Monday series, Thieves Like Us.

For Ge's bonus comic, I'm sending the Peanuts Halloween comic.

Ge's comics should be in the mail within a week. Enjoy!

There's still time to send in your entry for the YACB Free Comic Book Month; details are here.

Current FCBM Statistics:
27 entries
64 free comics sent so far
4 days remaining