Pezamania 2009

For various reasons, in all my years of collecting Pez (this is Xan writing this first person blog. Hiya.), I've never been able to make it to the Pezamania convention. Since Pezamania is in Independence, Ohio (aka 15 minutes south of downtown Cleveland), getting to one of these conventions doesn't seem like much of a feat, but something always happened to prevent my going. I started collecting around the same time I started college, so the traditional collegiate poverty prevented my going back in the mid 1990s. Yet after this passed, the Pez fates never seemed to be on my side. Wether it was not being able to get the time off of work, other events the same weekend, or the basement flooding, something always got in the way.

I was determined to break this cycle this year. As soon as my office opened up the system to time off requests, I requested the weekend, and once I found I'd been approved started saving money. Nothing says buzz kill like being able to go to a Pez convention, but having it just be window shopping because you didn't financially prepare. Chris reserved the hotel in February, and I registered both of us the same night so we could be registered guests and be part of the festivities. Nothing except possibly another monsoon in the basement was going to prevent this trip. Thankfully, the basement stayed dry and this year for Pezamania 19, I was finally able to attend.

I wasn't sure what to expect from a Pez convention. Would it be full of dealers selling only very rare and expensive dispensers, or people with just the most recent stuff? I was quite pleased to find that Pezamania is both, and everything in between. From the guy with the $.50 recent dispensers to author and well known collector David Welch's ultra rare pieces (he had a Sparefroh with a coin, which in Pez language means $$$$$), this show ran the gamut. I was able to find vintage Pez, find pieces I was missing from newer series, and several foreign series. Not to mention all of the non dispenser Pez related stuff such as the 12" plush and the 12" coin banks. Oh, and handmade crafts from Pez fabric, like a very warm and cozy polar fleece Pez blanket and a handmade Pez tote.

I went Pez insane. And I loved it.

Going to this convention was as fun as my first Motor City Comic Con, which was my first comic convention. It was so much fun to be completely immersed in my hobby, and around people who understand this sickness that is obsessive Pez collecting. So often when I tell people I collect Pez, I get reactions like "They still make Pez?" Chris has gotten similar comments when he tells people he draws comic books, so he knows how much this feels like no one is interested in what I'm interested. I met so many very nice people, including Shawn Peterson and David Welch, who literally wrote the books on Pez collecting. My copy of Shawn Peterson's book is all marked up and dog-eared from constant use and reference. Some of the dealers I met were so much fun, and so were the guests.

The convention was quite different than other toy shows or comic conventions. According to the itinerary provided online by the convention organizers (who were fantastic people and very sweet), Wednesday began registration which continued until Friday, and Thursday and Friday included "Room Hopping". At first I thought this meant that the convention wasn't able to procure a large ballroom, but instead was able to get a few conference rooms. This was not the case. Room Hopping was literally, hopping from hotel room to hotel room. The dealers set up their Pez wares on the beds, desks, and windowsills of their hotel rooms, made signs for their doors which they propped open, and registered guests just hopped from room to room buying stuff. This was quite fun, and gave me a chance to meet and talk to a lot of neat people. While it was a bit cramped in the rooms, Pez isn't very large so even a single room could fit a lot of Pez to browse. And with rooms spread over 2 floors with a room or 2 peppered in on the 3rd and 4th floors, there was plenty to look at. By the end of room hopping on Thursday I was able to purchase exactly what I'd specifically wanted to get at this show and then some.

Thursday began with Chris and I sleeping in (the most lovely and decadent way to start a vacation) and taking our time on the drive up to Cleveland. The show was at a Holiday Inn, so we checked in (if you can swing being in the same hotel as a convention, I highly recommend it), registered, and just went right up to our room to dump the luggage and check out the registration packets. Every convention has a convention exclusive Pez, pins and t-shirts, so I was anxious to check those out. This show even provided tote bags with registration, and this was incredibly handy. As soon as we were settled and the luggage was dropped off, I was ready to race down to the rooms for hopping. My first course of action was to find Red Conroy to whom I owed money from my last toy show Pez spree. I met Red at one of the Dayton Ohio toy shows held at Hara Arena, where he allowed me to owe him for some dispensers. Since I never write checks anymore I kept forgetting to send him the money I owed him, so I shamefully owed him longer than was polite. I knew he would be at this show, so this was the first thing I did. He was so sweet about it and hadn't seemed to sweat it, so I gave him the money I owed, then gave him more money for some new stuff. He and I talked about the next Hara show, and I'm sure I'll buy lots from him again.

After Red's room, I found myself in David Welch's room since I could tell from the hallway that what he had on display was amazing. From him I was finally able to get the Little Orphan Annie dispenser I've been wanting for quite some time, as well as an as close to pristine as possible soft head Wonder Woman. I was determined to find Annie, so it was great to find it so early. I kept hopping and hopping until my satchel was full of Pez and Chris had no more room in his backpack, at which time we went back to the room so I could grab my suitcase of duplicates to take to the swap party.

I made some nice trades and was able to empty the suitcase a bit, which was great. Especially since I traded for some Giant Pez, and those are so expensive that I'm not always jumping to buy them new. After swapping was "Pezamania Wars", which was a ballroom filled with people playing the card game War, and winner playing winner until last man standing. Chris and I split up and played other people so we'd have a better chance at winning something, but we were both eliminated the same round, which was the round BEFORE participant prizes were given. Of course. But we met nice people and had fun, so while prizes are always nice, not winning didn't ruin the evening or anything.

Now by this point Thursday, I had been so Pez crazed that I'd completely neglected to consider things like dinner and once I noticed this realized that I was starving. Chris was too, poor guy. He's so sweet to just let me go nuts and starve him! Not much was around that was still open besides a Denny's, but we were all about the Denny's by this point. It was open and right across the street from the hotel, which meant it was perfect.

Friday saw us once again sleeping in (the hotel room was so dark it was easy to stay in bed) and room hopping. Again, I was able to find a lot of stuff and meet fun people, and going back to the room to drop off stuff. There was another game event that night called "Diceamania", but the previous night Chris and I met a very nice couple who told us that there was now a second Big Fun vintage toy store location in Lakewood, so we decided to check that out instead. Dicemania might have been something cool since the prizes were great, but I wasn't feeling lucky, so we spent Friday night browsing Big Fun, then eating at IHOP.

Saturday morning was the official show date, and all of the dealers had moved from their rooms to the ballroom, and the show opened to the public with just a door admission, no registration required. Now to see a hotel ballroom convention type setting with nothing but Pez (and the occasionally Klix for some ungodly reason) was like my Woodstock. Seriously, this was so cool. Chris was tired and had a migraine, so I went down without him intending to meet up with him later. But honestly, thanks to the room hopping, I'd seen most of the dealers so after one or two laps around the ballroom, I was done! This was the day I bought the fabric crafty stuff like my new Pez tote bag and Pez blanket which I love! It is so cozy! The show opened at 9:30 so since I had been up late the night before, once I was done browsing the ballroom at around 11, I was ready for a nap! I went back to the room where Chris was still sleeping and napped until it was time to go meet his family.

Chris' grandmother, uncle and aunt were passing through Ohio the same weekend as the Pez convention, so Saturday we drove back down to Mansfield to hang out with them for a bit and have dinner. Had we not had the hotel room until Sunday we would have just gone back home after visiting, but we went back to the Holiday Inn. This was nice as this meant we could spend some time in Cleveland on Sunday as well before seeing family again.

Now, a little side note on this Holiday Inn. It was a nice hotel, but it had a cocktail lounge that was classic. Thursday night it featured a Chicago cover band (!), Friday was what seemed like business people cutting loose and being inappropriately flirty, and Saturday was a class reunion, complete with alumni wearing leather pants and shiny shirts and dancing to 50 Cent's "In Da Club". Chris was pretty appalled that I knew the lyrics to that one.

Okay, back to Sunday. Chris and I go to Cleveland a lot, but often it is for concerts and due to time constraints, we go for the show and nothing else. We also visit my family, so until this trip Chris had seen Highland Heights, Coventry Road, The House of Blues and the Beachland Ballroom. This trip we were able to do a lot of driving (Lakewood is west side, our hotel was east side, so we drove through the city and along the lake to get to Lakewood) and Chris was able to see more of the city. Of course, we still wanted to check out the Coventry Big Fun, since Chris wanted to check out their G.I. Joe section.

Before we hit Big Fun, I wanted to check out a place that had provided little candy goodie bags for registered Pezamania guests. The place is called B.A. Sweetie, and it is a candy warehouse. It is in Brooklyn which is near Parma, and I'm not often in that part of Cleveland, so I'd never heard of this place and was excited to check it out. This place is a candy heaven. Granted, I'm 33 and as such, candy isn't all I want to spend my money on anymore, but I have to admit, candy is still fun as hell. This place had all of my favorite Ferrera Pan candies as well as just about everything else sans chocolate that I love. They also sell Pez, and even though what they sell is the current series (I'm caught up on what's currently in production-as of the writing of this blog I am missing like 1 NASCAR helmet) I was still in awe of their wall of Pez. I think I'm going to make this place a stop on my tours of Cleveland when I go. Big Fun, IHOP, and now B.A. Sweetie.

So that was our Pez filled vacation. I had a fantastic time, and it was so great that Chris was able to come with me. He's not a Pez collector, but he found some stuff he thought was very cool, and even bought himself a flashlight in the shape of the psychedelic hand dispenser that he hooked to his backpack. I am going to try to make sure I can make it next year too. After my haul from this conve ntion, my collection total is now around 960, so I now can't wait to break 1000. If the new series coming out this year don't get me there, Pezamania 20 surely will!

If you're interested in more details regarding the basement flood, let me know. It was the 2nd basement flood Chris and I have dealt with since we've been married, and it was not the last.

The spoils of day one (top), day two (middle) and day three (bottom) of Pezamania
--X

More Surprises Today!
I didn't get my complimentary copies of the "After Watchmen What's Next?" version of Tom Strong #1 today, so Xan and I ran out to the local comic shop (The Laughing Ogre) and grabbed a couple of copies. Buried in the middle of the reprint of the first issue of Tom Strong was the following advertisement(click on the image for a larger version of the picture, or better yet, go out and buy the AWWN? Tom Strong #1 to see the actual ad because my scan is kind of crappy):

This was almost as unexpected and exciting as the box of Modern Masters books from earlier today! Maybe news about the Ocean film is next...

I'm thinking my next blog will be about how impatient I am to find a million bucks in my mailbox...

--C

I feel kind of stupid now--stupid but happy...After my post last night about how impatient I was for certain things (my Modern Masters book, for example) I woke up this morning to find a box full of Modern Masters Vol. 21 waiting for me on my doorstep, fresh from the printer! The book looks great and even managed to surprise me with a very nice and touching introduction written by Karl Story--thanks, Karl! I also want to thank Eric Nolen-Weathington for getting it all started and overseeing everything, and also for dealing with my control-freakish tendencies when it came to art selection. Todd Dezago also deserves massive thanks and appreciation for keeping me talking and bringing out some good stuff in the interviews we did. Thanks, guys!

Like I said in an earlier post, I feel neither modern nor like a master of anything, but this book turned out pretty spiffy! I'm guessing it'll be in stores next Wednesday.
--C

Is No News Really Good News?
There are a few things going on in my career recently that I've been waiting for impatiently--at times, it seems like nothing's ever moving forward! The wait for Modern Masters Vol. 21, for instance, is driving me nuts! The book's publishing date keeps getting pushed back, as it did once again last week, this time to July 15. That's right around the corner, but we've been there before...

Another thing I've been anxious about is an upcoming trip to Spain for a convention appearance. I was invited last year and have been waiting for news ever since. Something positive to report on this front, though: today I noticed the convention's website has been updated and there's even a tentative GUEST LIST in place. Yay!

Then there's the Ocean movie adaptation--absolutely no movement there for...ever. Maybe this is typical with Hollywood, maybe not.

Finally, I've been waiting for some sort of nod from the powers-that-be so I can start promoting the upcoming Tom Strong and the Robots of Doom series I've been working on all year. I'd like to show off some art and start talking up the series instead of just teasing and dropping hints. I don't want to give away plot points or spoil the story for anyone, I just love this book want to share some of what I've been doing lately. I know I say this every time I post these days, but, I'll post some art from the series soon...

...for now, here's another weird little sketchbook piece:

--C

I got the official invitation from the Mid-Ohio Con guys this week, so if you're in Columbus, OH over the weekend of October 3rd & 4th, come to the con and see us! Click HERE to get all the details straight from the source. I'm sure I'll blog more about the show as the date approaches.
--C

Modern Masters Preview

My volume of Modern Masters is listed on the TwoMorrows Publishing site (Click HERE) as shipping on June 26. For those of you who want a preview, HERE's another link, this time to Todd Dezago's blog. Todd conducted the interview with me that makes up the text of the book, and he's reprinted an excerpt from that interview on his blog. Thanks, Todd! For those who don't know, Todd is the writer and co-creator of the wonderful Tellos and Perhapanauts comics, two series well worth checking out.

--C

Update:

It looks like the publication date for this book has been pushed back again--now the Two Morrows site is showing July 10 as the date Modern Masters vol. 21 will be in stock.

Happy Birthday, Mike!

Today is my brother Mike's birthday. To commemorate the day, here's another old photo of the two of us, this time taken at the Smithsonian's Star Trek exhibit in Wahington D.C. in the 90's...

--C

A Quick Comics Update

Above: a Tom Strong drawing from my sketchbook

As of this week, there are currently three new books on the racks at your local comic book shop featuring my work: WildC.A.T.S. #11, Authority #11, and a new trade paperback edition of Ocean featuring a new sketchbook section and a few new character design sheets that didn't make the first edition.

I am currently still hard at work on Tom Strong and the Robots of Doom. I'm also spending some time tonight and this weekend compiling previously unpublished art for inclusion in the three forthcoming Tom Strong deluxe hardcover collections. That's right--good news for the SprouseNet readers wondering about the content and format of these slightly over-sized books: I can now tell everyone that Wildstorm is planning to collect the entire series in three volumes, with lots of extras and new cover art. I can't wait to see these things myself!

The PlanktonPod has a new playlist now. It's currently loaded with a Jason Falkner playlist. Falkner is a criminally underrated power pop artist whose work is maddeningly difficult to find in U.S. stores, but it's almost all available on iTunes or at Amazon.com--go check it out!

--C

O Canada

As the April trip Chris and I took to Canada didn't end particularly well, I've been reluctant to blog about it as I've not wanted to remember how and why our vacation came to a screeching halt.  But it's June now, and being lucky enough to be counted amongst the living, I think it's time I got back to my life and the normal things I do, like blogging.  Chris posted the photos a few entries before this, so now I'm here to post the details.

So hey, we went to Canada in April! The Fan Expo April Fan Appreciation show happened to fall on my birthday this year, so we jumped at the invite our friend Tiziano extended to Chris to be a guest at the show. The Fan Expo shows in Toronto are always great shows, and you can find more information about the big one in August here. Chris and I figured since we usually take a road trip on birthdays, Toronto would be a great destination. We could do the show, see friends, and buy geeky stuff, a perfect birthday.

We went up early to see our friends Sara and Henning and their 2 kids, Gavin and Vala. We arrived Thursday night when the kids were being put to bed, so we came in quietly as not to cause excitement right before bedtime.  Us grownups stayed up late chatting and snacking, and we managed to not wake the children.  The next day was a lazy day for everyone except Gavin, who we heard tried to scale the preschool fence for some reason!  When he came home, we packed up the kids and Sara took me and Chris to a diner called The Fickle Pickle.  Very cool little place, and I recommend the reuben.  Chris kept Vala's attention by drawing animals on her placemat, and she was pretty impressed.  

After lunch the plan was a nap for Vala, and Sara would go into the city with Chris and I to hang out, since Chris has seen very little of Toronto.  We usually go for the convention, and we never seem to build in enough time to do the show and see other parts of the city.  When I was there by myself last year, Sara took me to Queen Street with all the fun shops so I figured this would be a good thing to show Chris, too.  Well, Vala did not like this plan, at least the nap part of it, so Henning and the kids came with us.  Rather than drag the kids into a boring old record shop, we decided to walk along the waterfront since none of us had spent much time there.  It was very pretty, and Chris and I realized that on previous trips we'd been really close to the water and had no idea, thus proving how we don't get out enough while in Toronto.  We stopped at a coffee shop for snacks and drinks, and I ordered a a raspberry lemonade smoothie that Gavin wanted to try.  He liked it so much he held onto it as I tried to pull it back, and when I said "Gavin, this is MY drink" he responded with "But I just want to drink it."  Oh, okay, if that's all you were going to do... kids!  So then of course this meant I played a game of "MINE" with someone 30 years younger than me.  I need to grow up.  But at least I won that round.  He's a hilarious child.  

After the waterfront, Sara and Henning took the kids home and Chris and I checked into our hotel.  Well not before we went to the drugstore on the corner for something to drink. I am a huge fan of Canadian snack foods and beverages, so I was happy to see that I could stock up on Red Tangerine Fanta, Fries'N Gravy Lays and Maynard's anything, really.  Maynard's makes gummi candy that is amazing and north of the border only, so I spent most of my time on a major sugar high.  We pretty much went right to bed after showers that night, since convention(kids+walking)=exhausted.

The convention itself was as always great fun. They kindly provided lunch so I was able to get my Pizza Pizza fix, and Chris had a line most of the time and that is always a mark of a good show.  I finally got to meet the real live persona of Johnny Sarcastic, who is a great guy and has agreed to be my Canadian Pez hookup.  He's already hooked me up with the Canadian/Euro versions of the Disney Fairies, and is currently keeping his eyes peeled for the plush whale I still need.  He's a good egg, that Johnny!

I usually try to keep my spending to a minimum since I don't want to deal with customs, but I found a new obsession, KidRobot Simpsons toys.  There is currently a series of 24, and I have 13 so far.  They come in unmarked packaging, so you have no idea which character you are buying until you open it.  And there is no cheating or peeking, since they all have the same UPC numbers, and they are sealed in foil bags inside the boxes.  They are like trading cards, and it is so exciting to get one you don't have, and just as heartbreaking to get one that is a duplicate.  

Saturday night, the convention organizers took us to dinner at this very cool restaurant called Richtree. It has the look of an open market, but they give you a card that gets swiped at every station you get food from, and this way you don't have to be carrying a tray and fumbling with money at the same time, you just cash out the card at the checkout.  It was very cool, and the food, specifically the potato rosti, was amazing.  The place has no plans for US expansion, so I recommend it if you are ever in the Toronto area.  I liked it so much, I made Chris take me there for dinner again Sunday night for my birthday!  

Sunday at the convention, Tiziano came up to me with a birthday cake!  It was so sweet of him and it was very fun to have pretty much everyone know it was my birthday!  This cake was a light sponge cake with raspberry and a cheesecake filling.  I must ask the name of the bakery since I think I'll have my cake next year imported.  Thanks again everyone from Fan Expo, this was a great time!

After the show, we drove around a bit looking for places we might want to go Monday after we checked out of the hotel and before we drove back.  Johnny Sarcastic mentioned that Pez can often be found at the dollar stores, but the one we found had closed like 6 minutes before we got there, so we just went back to the hotel, packed and relaxed before our long drive the next day.  Of course, then next day we wound up racing to Cleveland as fast as possible, but I'm glad we did.  We got there in time for me to see my cousin before she succumbed to her injury from the day before (I'm trying not to focus on the fact that this happened on my birthday).  Even though she was in a coma, I was glad I had one last chance to see her.  Chris drove, thankfully, and he got me to Ohio quickly and legally, and I am forever grateful for that.  I was in no condition to drive, that's for sure.  

Next time we're in Toronto, I have to make sure to make time to get Chris to Queen Street. Hopefully we'll be back soon, since I'm almost out of my Maynard's stockpile.  

Click here for a link to an interview I did late last year for the Italian comics magazine Scuola Di Fumeto. Thanks to Smoky Man, who did the original interview and posted the English translation. Above are some images from the magazine, which is very nicely laid out and puts most U.S. magazines about comic books to shame! And for those waiting for me to post new Tom Strong art, below is a commissioned piece I've never shown before. I'll start previewing Tom Strong and the Robots of Doom here next month.

--C

Comics Update
Again, hard not to feel like this all doesn't matter all that much, but I thought I'd update folks on what's going on with my comics work:

First, I'm happy to say that the Modern Masters book is finished. It only needs an introduction and final artwork approval and it's ready to go to press. I found it very strange talking about myself in such detail for so long, especially since I get very nervous when in the spotlight. I usually hate interviews (excruciating!), but Todd Dezago (friend and writer of Perhapanauts) made it a fairly relaxed and fun process. Editor Eric Nolen-Weathington chose plenty of great pieces to illustrate the book, with the majority of the artwork never before published. I'm pretty happy with it. Hopefully the book will be out in late May or early June. Stay tuned!

Work continues on Tom Strong and the Robots of Doom. Still not sure if it's okay to share artwork yet...soon! For now, I'll just post some recent sketchbook pages. While doing the Modern Masters interview and attending the Toronto show I started to feel like a bit of a hypocrite as I advised aspiring artists to practice drawing and to keep sketchbooks--I've abandoned quite a few sketchbooks in recent years because I just don't feel like drawing anymore in my free time. Time to get back into it and draw for fun again! I bought a nice new sketchbook and decided to start it off right with a decent finished drawing. I picked a couple of Tom Strong characters so I could get over worrying about what to draw and just went to town with pencils and some India Ink markers. The other page featured below shows the latest in my ongoing series of attempts to get a handle on drawing Superman, plus some hand and face doodles. I've decided I'm going to keep practicing these little "differently-shaped" faces so I can break my bad habit of choosing the same basic ovoid head shape every time I design a new character.


Finally, for those who frequent comic shops, here's a little list of upcoming releases featuring my work:

-May 22- posted on-sale date for Modern Masters vol.21, although I will be very surprised if the book actually ships that soon

-May 27- WildC.A.T.S. #11 - contains Part 1 of a Deathblow story written by Cristos Gage

-June 3- the new Ocean trade paperback(with new bonus material), plus The Authority #12 with Part 2 of that Deathblow story

-July 8- Tom Strong #1 Special Edition (a reprint of Tom Strong #1 as part of the "After Watchmen" promotion

-Sept. 16- Tom Strong Deluxe Edition Book 1 (high-quality larger size collection of the first 12 issues of Tom Strong all under a brand new cover)

--C

Photos
Nothing I can write won't sound stupid and trivial after recent events, so for now, I'll just post some recent photos (and one not-so-recent one)...


"Oh, how they danced..." (from our trip to Toronto)


Sara, Henning, Gavin, Vala and Xan in Toronto


The Belly-Girl and one of her birthday presents


This photo reminds me that I need to make more of an effort to keep in touch with my friends ... (from l-r: Gary, myself and Steve in Old Town Alexandria from the 1980's --thanks to Steve for digging this one up)

--C

Ingrid taking a photo of her awesome self with her phone

Ingrid Marie Hess 1978-2009

Hi there, readers of the SprouseNet Blog. Xan here, really, really wishing she was just writing all about the Canada convention and her birthday that fell on the last day of it. I will eventually, but I feel a little callous talking about myself right now.

The photo of the very beautiful and glamorous woman on this blog is a photo my cousin Ingrid. She took it with her phone, and I loved it so I copied it from her Facebook page. And if anyone has been to my Facebook page lately and has read my cryptic comments about being sad, it's because my family lost Ingrid this past Tuesday the 21st.

Having no siblings, my cousins were as close as I ever got to knowing what it was like to grow up with other kids. Ingrid and her younger brother, Brian are my Uncle Al and Aunt Kathy's children, Uncle Al being my father's younger brother. When my Uncle Al married my Aunt Kathy, they moved into the family home that my grandfather built in the 1950s, and they lived there (and still do) with my Grandma Rita. Anyway, since they lived in the family home, I saw a lot of them growing up since this is where we stayed when we would come visit. My parents would be on the hide-a-bed downstairs, and I would sleep in Ingrid's room. We spend a lot of nights staying up late and playing when we were supposed to be in bed, and as we got older, just chatting.

Ingrid and I got closer when she moved back to Cleveland from Michigan where she went to school. I would see her when I would go to Cleveland for concerts, and thanks to Facebook and MySpace we were talking every week. I never realized it until recently, but I relied on her quite a bit to be my rock in our family. Since she was so close to everyone (figuratively and literally-Brian bought the house next door, and Ingrid bought the one next to Brian) I could always depend on her to make sure I knew what was going on, who was doing what, and that I got my ass in gear and sent Gram a card for her birthday. We had some heart to hearts about our lives recently, and we were just good friends who happened to love each other like family since we were.

I was in Toronto when my mom called me to tell me that she had some bad news, which was that Ingrid had had an accident on the 19th and was in the hospital, and things were not optimistic. We checked out of the hotel as fast as we could and raced to Ohio (thank you for ignoring us, state troopers of highway 90) to be with the family. I got to the hospital and there was Ingrid, Brian holding one hand and Aunt Kathy holding another. The room was dimly lit, and they had a stereo playing Brad Paisley, Ingrid's favorite musician. I kept wanting her to just wake up, and everything would be okay. She looked just like Ingrid, still beautiful, the same head of thick wavy black hair that I coveted my entire life, same sweet little hands, same soft skin. I held her hand and thought "Just wake up sweetie, and this will all be okay. If you would just wake up, we can go watch the Cavs and have a beer like we used to. If you could just wake up, we could have a Muppet Show marathon with Beata (her daughter). Please wake up, and we can have you back with us because we love you." False hope sucks worse than anything, because even though her body was alive, it was only thanks to medical technology. She never did wake up, and around 8:30 Tuesday morning the 21st, Uncle Al called my mom to say that Ingrid had let go of this mortal coil and was no longer with us. I felt numb and empty, and I still do.

The one thing that is keeping me going is that I know she knew I loved her very much. I had told her recently, and not being the most demonstrative family, it's not like we said it every day or anything. She knows how much I loved her, and still love her, and how much she meant to me. This terrible event is making me want to tell everyone that if you love someone, be sure they know.

If you are reading this blog and you know me, odds are I love you too, very much. I may be an agoraphobic flake, but I love you and just because I suck at planning visits and calling doesn't mean I don't think of you often. If you are ever sad or need me, I'm here.

I'll miss you, Ing.

Happy Birthday, Xan!

Today is Xan's birthday! We're in Toronto right now, visiting friends and attending a comic convention and I am so exhausted I can barely type. I'll try to get her to write about the trip and I'll post some photos and artwork when we get home. Until then, wish Xan a happy birthday on her Facebook or MySpace page.
--C

Interview with Ocean Screenwriter Ryan Condal

I've heard absolutely no news about the Ocean film adaptation lately, so I surfed around the internet a little this weekend and turned up an interview with the guy hired to turn our graphic novel into a screenplay, Ryan Condal. Click HERE to read the interview. Condal talks about Ocean about 2/3 of the way down. 

Sounds interesting...phrases like "huge action movie" are used and the writer mentions turning to the Aliens and Terminator movies as well as The Abyss for inspiration...

As always, I'll post it here when I know more!

--C

Tom Strong and the Robots of Doom

Finally! I can now talk about what I've been working on since finishing Number of the Beast and that still unpublished Deathblow story! DC/Wildstorm at long last announced that Peter Hogan and I are working on a new Tom Strong limited series, Tom Strong and the Robots of Doom. Click HERE to be taken to a little news story announcing the project. The plan is to do more of these mini-series if this first one is successful, so that Tom Strong can live on--Hellboy-style--as an ongoing series of self-contained mini-series. Robots of Doom is well underway (we're at the half-way point), and since the first issue won't be solicited until I'm 90% finished with the entire series(according to editor Ben Abernathy), every issue will ship on time.

I cannot adequately express how excited I am to be working on Tom Strong again! I'm loving it and I'm giving it my all. I'll start showing off some art from the series soon.

--C

Happy Birthday, Jess-Belle!
The littlest member of our family turns three today. Here are a few photos to commemorate the day:

--C

Books and Burns

A rare Xan appearance on the blog today. Every year I say I'm going to stop neglecting the blog, but I'm never as diligent as I plan to be when the new year comes around. I haven't even kept up my blog on MySpace, I've been using it mainly to keep track of my Pez collection total. Which, by the way, is up to 641, I think. I really need to do another physical count. I'm not going to do the count anytime soon however, because I have 2nd degree chemical burns on my legs.

Now that sounds a little melodramatic. I wasn't actually diagnosed with 2nd degree burns, I'm just assuming 2nd degree because my legs look similar to 2nd degree burn photos I've seen online. I've been playing "Wiki Doctor" and doing the ever so accurate self diagnosis from the internet. And, it's not as scary as it sounds, the chemical in question that burned me was Veet, a depilatory. Technically, that is a chemical, but it's nothing that would turn someone into the Joker or anything.

The funny thing is, I never used to shave or remove my leg hair in any way. When I was in high school, it was this alterna-girl unspoken rule that you weren't supposed to shave your legs. It was a small bit of leftist rebellion that required only laziness to achieve, so it was a popular trend. And while I proudly displayed my hairy legs during the summer, in the colder months, this created a problem for me. You see, this was the 1990s, and one of the alterna-girl fashion trends was to wear tights under cutoff jeans. I actually still dig this look, and I can't wait for it to come back. And after about 3 hours of being covered in tights, hairy legs start to itch like mad, so I had to break down sometimes and shave my legs, succumbing to the media's standard of beauty etc. etc.

This being driven to the point of madness by the itchiness of winter legs thing was my motivation to get rid of my leg hair 2 days ago. I don't like to use actual razors because I am convinced that there is no way that I can do it without injuring myself. I've been shaving since the 5th grade, and every damn time I find out the hard way (usually when putting on lotion, ouch!) that surprise, I've nicked myself again. I finally got sufficiently fed up with that, so I decided to go with depilatory. Depilatory has it's drawbacks-it can be expensive, and it will stink. No matter how much the manufacturer tries to provide a "Fresh scent", it still smells like a perm. It's also a chemical intended to basically, melt your hair away from your body from the follicle, so if you have skin that is the least bit sensitive, or you get it wet during the application process, it can burn you. And the burning sensation lasts for a few days. Aloe vera gel has been wonderful to me, but I'm still in a lot of pain. It's better now than when the photos are taken, but still, it hurts.

And since I haven't been able to go many places so far this year (the flu kept me in bed and this burn makes walking sound like torture) I've been trying to get some reading done. I have a stack of books I have been meaning to read that is about as tall as I am, and this doesn't even include the comics that have been stacking up for months now. So far in 2009 I've read 9 books, which doesn't seem like much to me considering a few of them were quite thin and fast reads, and others were the guiltiest of guilty pleasures of readers, tv show tie-ins. Specifically, the "Supernatural" tie-ins. I love that show, and the books aren't bad as a tide-me-over until the next episode. I've read the first 2 and the 3rd just arrived from amazon.com.

I also finally finished "The Book of Lost Things" by John Connolly. I purchased it in 2007 I think, started it, put it away, picked it up again, put it away, started other books, you know the score. I decided to get it finished once and for all so it wouldn't taunt me, and it was a fun read, but not my favorite book. It has a very "Labyrinth" feel to it, so it is fun, but a very "boy" story.

For Christmas I got one of Mary Woronov's novels, "Niagra" which I enjoyed very much, although the main character is about the saddest thing ever. I recommend her as a writer, and am anxiously awaiting the arrival of her novel "Snake" which should be arriving from a seller I found on the Amazon Marketplace any second now.

While I had the flu I had no energy or attention span, so I basically just stayed in bed and listened to DVD commentaries. Specifically, commentary from "The Simpsons" DVDs since I've seen the episodes so much, all I had to do was listen and I could pick where the episode was by the references made in the commentary. Sad, I know. Standard commentary cast of writers, directors, Matt Groening, and they all mentioned a Simpsons writer named John Swartzwelder as being a fantastic writer who never does commentaries. Matt Groening also mentioned he wrote novels. This sounded interesting to me, so I ordered the title with the earliest copyright date from amazon.com. It arrived, and these are no frills books. Paperbacks that look like they should say "Novel, net wt. 7oz" on the cover. The book I got was "The Time Machine Did It", which is a time traveling detective story. I loved it, and highly recommend his work.

Another writer I discovered from some form of gadget is Simon Rich. After downloading the Stanza application for my iPod Touch, I went searching for free e-books to download. The Stanza app turns your iPod into an e-reader, so I now have an iPod that is part Kindle. Not that I don't still want a Kindle. Anyway, on the list of free downloads from Random House, I found a book called "Free Range Chickens". It's not a novel, just vignettes of alternate points of view that are extremely funny. For example, one of them is a conversation between God and an angel during which God complains that Simon Rich is not attending Temple even though he swore he would after praying for God to make sure "Perfect Strangers" was not cancelled. Simon Rich is a writer for SNL, and I am convinced after reading this and his first book "Ant Farm" that if you see something funny on SNL and it's not Andy Samburg, it's Simon Rich.

Other than Mary Woronov, Carrie Fisher and Gene Wilder are two other movie stars with books I finished recently. While I couldn't get into Gene Wilder's novel "My French Whore", my favorite book I've read so far this year is Carrie Fisher's new memoir, "Wishful Drinking". She has led one hell of a life, and she is hilarious. The style of this book made me feel like I was listening to her tell me these stories, and I found myself devouring it completely in about 2 hours. I highly recommend this one.

Well, I think it's time for me to put on some more aloe vera because bending my knees is hurting again. Thanks for reading my half-assed book reviews and looking at my gross legs!

Fun Stuff for Comic Nerds and Tech Heads
Xan gave me her old iPod Touch earlier this week when she upgraded(thanks, baby!) and I've been toying around with it every night. I already have an iPod that I love and use constantly(a 160GB Classic used to store and play pretty much my entire music collection and for listening to audiobooks on a constant daily basis), so I wanted to find some unique uses for the iPod Touch--with its larger screen and touch controls--so I could justify having it and not just feel really decadent about it.

Well, I've decided to use the Touch more as a PDA or little portable computer than as a music player. I've found a few games and some useful applications that I like, including one called ComicZeal, which allows you to view comics on the iPod.

I've already used a program called CDisplay, a digital comic-reading program for the PC and Mac. With CDisplay loaded on a laptop, one can bring along entire comics series to read on long plane flights or car trips. CDisplay reads .cbr or .cbz files--folders full of jpegs of scanned comic book pages which have been compressed and stored as tiny .rar or .zip files. Once the ".rar" or ".zip" parts of the file names have simply been retyped as ".cbr" or ".cbz," respectively, the compressed files can be read by CDisplay. ComicZeal takes your .cbr and .cbz files and converts them so they can be used on iPhones and the iPod Touch. I have CDisplay files of most of my own work, and I have a huge collection of other series i plan to read on my new iPod now! I'm also thinking about putting together a reference file I can view using ComicZeal while sketching at conventions. I'm often asked to draw characters whose costume details I just can't dredge up from the murky depths of my memory, and a small portable collection of all the major Marvel and DC Comics characters would be very useful!

Number of the Beast #2 on the iPod Touch

--C

February Update: Sick As The Proverbial Dog, But Still Productive
Xan and I have been as sick as we could possibly be with the cold/flu thingy that's going around, spending most of January and all of February so far coughing and feverish. Having no appetite and no interest in leaving the house gave me plenty of time to focus on work, and I've been really productive. While I still can't discuss my current full time project, I can talk about some small jobs I've been able to complete lately.

First, Tom Strong is getting the "Deluxe" treatment this Spring/Summer when Wildstorm collects ten or twelve of the best issues of the series as a deluxe hardcover collection. Editor Kristy Quinn asked me to do a new cover for this collection, and the results are pictured below. I'll post more details about the Deluxe Collection when I have them.

The pencil art for the cover of the Tom Strong Deluxe Hardcover Collection

At some point this year, Ocean is also getting collected in a new edition. I don't have too many details on this collection either, but one thing I do know is that it will have supplemental material from both myself and writer Warren Ellis. I provided Kristy Quinn (who's editing this book as well) with every Ocean character design drawing, sketch and unfinished page I could find.

When not working, I've also been busy arranging convention appearances for the rest of the year. In April, it looks like we'll be returning to Toronto for the Toronto ComiCon Fan Appreciation Event on the 18th and 19th. In September, we'll be heading to Spain for a Comics Festival in Aviles--more on that when I have the details. Then in October, it looks like I'll be attending the Mid-Ohio Con here in Columbus again. If you're able to attend any of these shows, come out and say "hi!"

--C

Art Sales Site Revamped



I just did a massive overhaul of my art sales blog site, SprouseNet Art Emporium, adding an image gallery after the price list. The site now features an image of every single piece of art I have for sale. Check it out!
--C

Superman #683


The next of my Superman covers (Superman #683) hits comic shops this week--Friday, I think...Above is the final piece with colors once again by Laura Martin. Below you'll find a jpeg of the pencil art. What you'll also find below is a photo from exactly three years ago--New Year's Eve 2005, about this very time of night. Xan snapped it a few minutes after I finished what I thought would be my very last Tom Strong drawing ever, the final page of Tom Strong #36--a full-page shot of the Strong family waving to their fans and supporters. A weird night--the rest of the country was gearing up for celebration, but I was feeling a strange mix of the relief I always feel when finishing a job and utter sadness over the end of Tom Strong and my cat Max's failing health. Like I said, weird night. Now on the last night of 2008, things are looking a little more upbeat...as I type these words, I have a cute little tortoise-shell two-year old cat on my lap and hope to soon have some Tom Strong news to report. Stay tuned! Hope everyone's new year gets off to a good start!





PlanktonPod Playlist Update
I took down the Xmas songs and added a bunch of new stuff. The new playlist is made up of two of my favorite musical discoveries of 2008. First up is the work of Dave Derby. Derby was the leader of a 90's band called The Dambuilders before he went solo, and now he's the singer/songwriter behind a group called Gramercy Arms, sort of an indie-supergroup which also has ex-Luna member Sean Eden on guitar. Gotta love the homage to "Beth" by Kiss in "Even Further Behind!" Then I added music by a group that started off as The Greenberry Woods, a Maryland band who recently evolved into Splitsville. I cannot get the Splitsville songs I've selected out of my head this week--but that's a good thing in this case, not like when some TV ad jingle gets stuck in your brain--and I just adore "Super-Geek!"

Enjoy!

Merry Christmas!

Hey everybody, Xan here, and I wanted to share the super cool stocking stuffer Chris made this year.  The above image is the Happy Time Harry doll he made for me, complete with scar from when he had half of his liver removed.  

Okay, you might be saying, "What the hell are you talking about?" Well, one of my favorite television shows is Aqua Teen Hunger Force, which is part of Cartoon Network's Adult Swim lineup.  It's a 15 minute show about a milkshake, box of fries, and a meatwad (named Meatwad) who live together on the South Jersey Shore in a town called Hamburger.  Anyway, there was an episode called "Dumber Dolls" which I dearly loved, in which Meatwad wants a very expensive doll called "Jiggle Billy", but Frylock instead buys him the very affordable at $2.99 "Happy Time Harry" doll, complete with a knife hand, red dancin' glitter shoes, and Action Bills.  Happy Time Harry is voiced by David Cross, and has lived a very hard life and just being around him makes everyone depressed.  The episode is hilarious.

Anyway, Chris has been freaking me out lately by Frankensteining G.I. Joe figures.  A head here, a limb there, and boom, you've got a full figure, but the heads lying around is just a bit too Apocalypse Now for me.  Anyway, one day when he was trying to replace some Kung Fu Grip hands, I walked in the studio to find a handless G.I. Joe and rather than be completely freaked out, I had an idea.  I said "Hey, are there G.I. Joe hunting or Bowie knives?  If we could attach them to the arm instead of hands, we could make a Happy Time Harry!"  Evidently, this started Chris scheming.  

Christmas Eve is when Chris and I usually open the presents we got each other, since my parents and Juice come over Christmas morning for gifts and copious amounts of food and usually, James Bond.  So Christmas Eve he says to me "You have some stocking stuffers!" and I looked at my stocking and the torso of an action figure was hanging out of it.  At first, I thought that he was messing with me and just trying to gross me out with some more body parts, but when I looked more closely, I noticed this figure had a knife for a hand!  I yelped and said "Did you make me a Happy Time Harry?!"  He confirmed this, and I ran over to grab him out of my stocking and was so excited to see that he had red glitter shoes too!  I was so excited, and just had to take photos.  

I love this present.  The stocking also contained some iTunes and Starbucks gift cards (yeah, I know, but I'm a sucker for the eggnog latte, and they have a drive through a block away from our house), and he also got me 2 seasons of Psych, a green iPod shuffle, an extremely detailed book on The Twilight Zone (which I will be pouring through during the New Years Marathon), and the 6th volume of Aqua Teen Hunger Force on DVD.  I love all the gifts, but Happy Time Harry just reminds me that Chris is so creative, and I love his attention to detail.  He's also so sweet to make me something this cool.  Perhaps it is odd to feel all mushy because of a drunken doll who likes to cut himself with his knife hand, but I do.  I've got the best husband in all of explored space.

Happy Holidays



I know it's not very original, but I finally updated the PlanktonPod with a new playlist featuring a dozen of my favorite alternative and rock holiday-themed songs. As I've mentioned previously, I collect alternative cover songs. Well, I also collect alternative Christmas/holiday music, and I picked my favorite dozen songs for the Pod tonight. Hopefully, these songs won't be as annoying as what you might hear over store PA systems this season, and everyone should be thankful I wasn't feeling so mischievous that I made a prog-rock Christmas playlist (because I could have--somehow I've also amassed a frightening amount of horribly pretentious prog holiday music, including tracks by Jon Anderson of Yes, Jethro Tull, the Moody Blues and others...maybe next year).

Enjoy, and have a good holiday season!

--C

Supergirl #36
Here's the completed cover for Supergirl #36, in comic shops today! Beautiful colors by Laura Martin saved this piece, in my opinion--I didn't like it very much when I drew it.



--C

Non-Work Update
I've been posting pretty much nothing but work-related stuff lately, so here's a little photo guide to what Xan and I have been up to in our off time. Comic fans need not worry--my next Superman-related cover comes out this week, so I'll probably post some more art on Wednesday.


Xan and I hit a Pittsburgh toy show in October. We had a nice long talk with guest actor Ray Park(Darth Maul) and delivered a sketch promised to him when we saw him at Dragon Con in Atlanta a few years ago. On the way out, Xan posed with the life-size Lego Spider-Man(above).

We also made it to a few more concerts. First up was Joe Jackson at the Southern Theatre in downtown Columbus...

...then we saw Dean & Britta (formerly of the band Luna) performing "13 Most Beautiful" at the Wexner Center as part of a big Andy Warhol multimedia exhibit. The band accompanied thirteen Warhol "screen tests" with live music, including a couple of Luna rarities, a Velvet Underground cover and several new compositions. If you look really closely, you can see Xan and myself in the front row, down at the bottom edge of the photo above. The photo was taken by Kim Rottmayer, and you can see more of Kim's photos from that night at Picture The Sound.com.

The very next night, Xan and my sister Megan enjoyed themselves thoroughly at the AC/DC concert at the Schottenstein. Xan reports that it "rocked (her) face!!!"

My family, including my brother Mike and his wife and kids, spent Thanksgiving weekend in Ohio. We showed Mike around Columbus a little, but mostly everyone gathered at Megan's house where we looked at old photos and talked into the night. Above, Mike horses around with his daughters Shannon and Brittany.

A week later, the Sprouse family gathered again, this time to help my parents move. It was bitterly cold and thoroughly exhausting, but I have to admit, it was good getting to see everyone so much this year. The photo shows Megan and her son Aaron, slap-happy and punch-drunk during a dinner stop on the way back to Ohio.

The little Belly-Girl's been busy, too. Here she works on her Jabba the Hut impression with her own little Salacious Crumb toy...

...and here she is assisting me as I try to repair some action figures. Kung-fu Grip is no match for Jess-Belle's mighty paws!

--C

Action Comics #872


Whoah! I was so busy helping my parents move this past week that I didn't realize that the first of my four Superman covers hit the stands yesterday! So, for all the SprouseNet readers asking for more artwork, here's a look at each step of the creation of the cover of Action Comics #872--layouts & pencils by me, followed by Karl Story's inks. The finished cover with colors by Guy Major is shown above...



--C