Monday, May 26, 2014

Godzilla and SpringCon: A Perfect Weekend



So, a few things.

First of all, Happy Memorial Day to those of you in the US. I'm eating bratwurst with friends and family, but also remembering fallen soldiers like my father-in-law. Hope you're able to do something similar.

It's nice to have a day off after an extremely busy May. Between C2E2, SpringCon, and just work in general, I'm excited to not do very much today. I started a new day job in December and it's been tough to get back in the creative groove. This blog has suffered and my fiction writing has suffered, but I guess that's expected. Cartoonist Jake Parker wrote a really encouraging blog post about how to ramp up creatively after a major life change, but points out that it usually takes about a year to recover after starting a new job, having a baby, or moving to a new city. I hope it doesn't take me that long, but it's good to know that I'm not alone in struggling.

I'm going to try to update at least once a week, which is way less than I used to, but if I want to get any fiction written then I've got to be a less prolific blogger. I'm finding Tumblr super useful to quickly share weird, fun stuff, so this blog is going to be more about updates and longer pieces like the Bond series that I promise I haven't given up on.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a post up last week, because the weekend was too full of fun. Friday night, David and I saw Godzilla (Diane had a previous commitment) and it's probably the most fun I've had at the movies since seeing Star Wars about thirty-two times in the theater in 1977 and '78. The new Godzilla isn't a perfect movie, but it's awesome and we engineered our experience to pull the maximum amount of fun from it. We finished our massive marathon of the entire series (minus a couple of impossible-to-find entries) about a week before and then made it to our local screening of the original 1954 film. We were eating and breathing Godzilla by the time we saw the reboot.


Wednesday, May 14, 2014

This Weekend: Kill All Monsters at SpringCon



I'll be at SpringCon this weekend with lots of Kill All Monsters books and prints. If you live near enough to plan to travel there, you probably already know about SpringCon, but just in case you don't, it's a fantastic, two-day show that's all about the comics.  Guests this year include Jeff Parker, Adam Hughes, Bill Willingham, and a ton of other great creators. My wife, Diane will be back too, making everyone's faces more superheroey or Pokemony or whatever else people want to put on their kissers.

One of the things I'm most excited about is that I'll be on a panel with my pal Otis Frampton and a couple of guys I haven't met in person yet, but am looking forward to getting to know: Erik Burnham and Anthony Hary. Here are the details:

Sunday, 1PM to 2PM: LOCAL BOYZ MADE GOOD! 
Meet a crew of hot local creators on their way up and discussing how they got that way. Featuring Otis Frampton (Oddly Normal from Image), Erik Burnham (Ghostbusters), Anthony Hary (Fifteen Minutes), and Michael "Kill All Monsters!" May!

So if you're in the area, come by and say hi. And if you're there on Sunday, please come to the panel and ask hard questions like, "Who would win in a fight: Skullbot or Mechagodzilla?" Then I'll ask you which Mechagodzilla and we can have a whole conversation and totally take over the panel. It'll be fun!

Monday, May 05, 2014

Free Comic Book Day was amazing



Free Comic Book Day was awesome. It was a family affair for us with David and I selling Kill All Monsters comics and Diane doing all kinds of nerdy facepainting from superhero logos and Pokemon characters to full-blown Spider-Man masks and zombie makeup. That's her setting up behind me in the photo above.

We were at The Source Comics and Games, which has completely figured out how to win at Free Comic Book Day. They turn their store into a mini comics convention, not only giving away free comics, but also having a huge sale and inviting local cosplayers and creators to come and be part of the festivities. It's grown bigger every year and this time the line at opening was unbelievable.



What you don't see in that picture is that the line continues to wrap around two more corners to the opposite side of the store. There were tons of people and Kill All Monsters sold really well. In fact, from a sales per hour standpoint, it did even better at FCBD than at C2E2.

So thanks again to The Source for hosting a great event, and thanks to all the customers who came by and chatted and/or bought a copy of KAM. It was great meeting you all and I couldn't be more excited for SpringCon in two weeks.

Friday, May 02, 2014

Top 5 Spider Movies



Amazing Spider-Man 2 starts this weekend and sadly, I couldn't be less excited. I'm planning to see it, but mostly for the kissing parts. The villain-focused mythology this new series is building doesn't interest me at all, largely because that was the weakest part of the previous Amazing Spider-Man movie.

With that in mind, I thought it might be fun to remember and talk about some other spider-based movies that I expect I'll still like better than this new one once I've seen it. I picked my five favorites and some honorable mentions that didn't quite make the cut. Naturally, I want to hear about yours in the comments.

5. Beast from Haunted Cave (1959)



When I wrote about Beast from Haunted Cave a couple of years ago, I mentioned that it's primarily a crime drama disguised as a creature feature. The monster takes backseat to the conflict in a group of bank robbers and the guide they trick into helping them, which is what makes me love the film all the more. What crime thriller wouldn't be enhanced by a mysterious, cave-dwelling, web-spinning beast? The fact that it's not really a giant spider, but a spider-like humanoid only makes it more appropriate as a replacement for Spider-Man.

4. Charlotte's Web (1973)



I don't have a lot of time for the live-action remake from 2006, but the original cartoon adaptation of EB White's book still holds a special place in my heart. Paul Lynde's Templeton the rat was a huge attraction, but I'm amazed at how fond I grew of Charlotte the spider and how heart-broken and yet optimistic I was over that ending. That's a complicated blend of emotions to ask from children, but it's exactly why the story is so powerful and enduring.

3. Tarantula (1955)



If you're gonna turn ordinary animals into giant freaks - which people loved to do in the '50s - you can't do better than the hairiest, nastiest animal of them all. I don't know if I've mentioned, but as much as I complain about cephalopods around here, spiders - and tarantulas in particular - are 1000 times worse. This is almost my worst nightmare.

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails