See You At Plastic City Comic Con This Weekend!!

 

I did Plastic City Comic Con the year before last and I had a great time. I unfortunately had to cancel last year because it ended up being the same weekend as LI Who. But that's not the case this year and I'm glad I'll be able to attend. 

Keith Gleason who runs it is a great guy and runs a great little show. If you're an artist looking to do a convention, I highly recommend Plastic City.

I'll have books, prints and original artwork available for purchase. Both pen and ink sketches and my original comic book art.

I will also be accepting commissions throughout the event. So come find me in the Cole Porter Room this coming Saturday in the city where the pink plastic flamingos come from.

It's Been A While, hasn't it???

 

Getting to chat with Katy Manning and gift her with some artwork at Long Island DoctorWho. 

I'm seeing that my last blog post was in 2019. Which is pre-Covid. Jiminy Crickets but that was a while ago!! And much has happened since then. 

In 2020 the plan was to start doing conventions again regularly after a few years absence. My first stop would be 221B Con down in Atlanta GA. I had my flight and my Airbnb all lined up and I was ready to go...

...but we all know what happened next. I ended up getting pretty sick right at the beginning as well and I wouldn't have been able to travel anyway. 

However, in the past few years I finally began to do conventions regularly each year. I was finally able to make it down to 221B Con starting three years ago. Which has been a fantastic experience for me and a show I look forward to doing every year. 

See you at Rock and Shock!!

I'm doing Rock and Shock for a second year in a row. And this one is no exception!! The guest this year is none other than this guy right here!!

I'll have plenty of my books, new prints and new sketches!! And I'm available for commissions all weekend long. So hit me up!!

Alice and the Invaders From Wonderland Issue Two

For those of you who have come out to shows or bought issue one online thank you!! Here's the cover art for issue two!! Artwork by the fantastic Paul Loudon!!

The Marx Brothers

The Five Marx Brothers (from left to right): Harpo, Zeppo, Chico, Groucho and Gummo (who never appeared in any of the pictures but was a part of their early vaudeville shows.)

I'm a long time fan of the Marx Brothers. And while I do enjoy A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races I've come to realize recently that I DO NOT enjoy them as much as those early Paramount Pictures. The only one I didn't like from the early years was the Coconuts. And that had a lot to do with the obnoxious romantic lead in that film. They could have given the romantic lead to Zeppo and it would have been a much better film. But Animal Crackers all the way through to Duck Soup I absolutely love and could watch a thousand times... and probably have.

But I got thinking about that recently. I used to enjoy both their first endeavors for MGM a lot when I was younger. I still enjoy them. Even At The Circus I don't mind. They both have memorable scenes that make both pictures classics. And yes. They are classics... not including At the Circus, mind you. But I just enjoy those early Paramounts so much more. I thought about that in the last few years and I've come to realize there are a lot of factors that have lead me to feel that they're just not as those earlier pictures. Now here me out!!

One being the Marx Brothers AREN'T the stars of any of the MGM pictures. You might think I'm crazy for saying that. And maybe you're right. But watch both A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races again sometime soon. Or any of the movies the Marx's did for MGM and you'll see what I mean. The focus of the movies are the romantic leads whether it be Allan Jones and Kitty Carlisle or Allan Jones and Maureen O'Sullivan. Or even Kenny Baker (not R2D2 Kenny Baker) who looks like someone punched the Pillsbury Doughboy in the face for an entire day.  The Marx Brothers have been relegated to being co-stars of their own movies. This is somewhat more forgivable in Night at the Opera and Day at the Races. Because they had a great director with Sam Wood. A brilliant writer in George S. Kaufman. And a producer who understood and advocated for them in Irving Thalberg.

Once Thalberg died suddenly the wheels fell off the bus. Louis B. Mayer hated the Marx Brothers. As a matter of fact I think Louie B. Mayer hated comedy. MGM ruined the careers of so many big name comedians. One of those people he destroyed was Buster Keaton who worked as a gag writer on At the Circus. BEING PAID SCALE!! That topic is for another post. Keaton's elaborate gags didn't blend well with the Marx's style of comedy. When Groucho called Keaton on the inappropriateness of his gags Keaton's reply was, "I'm only doing what Mr. Mayer asked me to do. You guys don't need help."

I don't think either Groucho or Buster were the bad guys in this particular disagreement. I think they both were the victim of MGM's amazing ability to ruin comedy.

The other thing I've found over the years is I hate musicals!!

You might be saying to yourself, wait a minute!! You said you like the Marx Brothers earlier films an they have musicals! Doesn't that make you a hypocrite? No and you should be ashamed of yourself for asking. Actually, I have a reason for that. You see. While those early Marx Brothers movies DID have musical numbers in the films. A lot of films at that time had the characters for whatever reason breaking out into song. I'm not sure why but it might have a lot to do with the transition from stage to film which had a lot of music acts. And a couple of the early Marx Brothers films WERE adapted from stage plays which had musical acts. So a lot of the mindset could have been taking the theater experience and bringing it to the films. Which actually kept going for many years following. I'm not sure when it all stopped being a mainstay. Might have to look that one up.

But here's the thing. When the Marx Brothers broke into song in those early Paramount Films they were very comical and almost poking fun of the whole concept of the musical number in a film.

When Allan Jones and Kitty Carlisle break into song during A Night at the Opera it's very sappy and schmaltzy. You find yourself wanting to fast forward through the number unlike the musical numbers of the early films. To be fair. Of all the surrogate Zeppo's, Allan Jones was one of the better ones.

You knew the Marx Brothers were the stars of the original Paramount Pictures. They were the focus and the romantic characters were the side plot rather than the other way around in the MGM pictures. In Monkey Business and Horse Feathers the romantic lead was more prominent due to the fact that it was being played by Zeppo Marx.

 I admit I've been a bit unfair to one Mr. Herbert Manfred "Zeppo" Marx in my younger days. But I feel like although he wasn't the funniest of the four brothers he played a very important part in their early success. Some of the problem might've have been his age compared to Chico, Groucho and Harpo. Who were all considerably older than he was. Some of the problem was the way he was written due in part to the fact he didn't develop a shtick the way his three other brothers did. There are times Groucho has mentioned that off camera Zeppo actually had a sharper wit than Groucho himself.

Zeppo as Groucho

But I suppose because some might say he didn't develop a "character" the way his brothers did, he got relegated to the role as straight man. But he played that role well. Much better than any of his MGM successors. One of his best films was Monkey Business which I feel like he had the best opportunity to shine. He actually added a balance to the act. Because you had three lunatics and Zeppo as the voice of reason. I suppose later on Groucho would be considered the de facto straight man. But not really. Because I don't consider the straight man to be the one to deliver the funny lines. Usually he's the catchers mit for whatever quips the clown in the act throws at him. Like in the case of Laurel and Hardy, Abbot and Costello, Hope and Crosby or to a lesser extent Martin and Lewis.

Talking to my friend and Laurel scribe Brian Nelson, who has an encyclopedic knowledge of classic comedy, Zeppo never really wanted to be in the act in the first place. Very much like Shemp from the Three Stooges. in Zeppo's case he was very intimidated by his older brothers. And also when they were making the move to MGM he decided he had enough of being the straight man and possibly felt that he wasn't going to be written any better for over there than he was for Paramount.

Which is a shame. Some of those later dreadful "romantic leads" might've been better with Zeppo in the role. Groucho, Harpo and Chico were still funny after Zeppo left. But Zeppo definitely added something to the act that just wasn't the same in those later pictures.

The other thing MGM changed was they made the Marx Brothers more helpful to the romantic leads. Whereas in the Paramount pictures nobody was safe from Groucho's barbed comments. They made Groucho's remarks more focused on the "villain" in the movie. The other thing that I enjoyed about the Paramount pictures was the fact they made Harpo and Chico's morals a bit more suspect. I actually find Harpo funnier as a little bit more of a jerk than the "whipped puppy" they made him out to be in the MGM pictures.

The later ones Chico and Harpo were usually old friends of the romantic leads out to help them whereas the Paramounts their characters were possibly criminal. Horse Feathers and Duck Soup were probably the best example of that. And probably my two favorite Marx Brothers films ever made.

The early films were a bit more surreal and abstract a well. Even the titles had nothing to do with the movie. And I never minded that. MGM tried to make their comedy more grounded. Even their two biggest hits there's a less abstract and more grounded approach to the movies. Much like they did with Buster Keaton, they took away creative control and eventually just wore them out.

But if you've never heard of the Marx Brothers or you have heard of them but have never seen their movies I recommend checking ALL OF THEM out!! Even the later ones. You can either start with their first picture the Coconuts and go all the way to Love Happy (their last and by far their worst) or you can start with their best pictures and then work your way down the row. Here's my suggestion. If you want to binge watch all the Marx Brothers films watch them in this order. This will give you a good idea how the styles of comedy changed from when they were at Paramount and when they moved to MGM:

1.) Horse Feathers
2.) A Day a the Races
3.) Duck Soup
4.) Monkey Business
5.) A Night at the Opera
6.) At the Circus
7.) The Coconuts
8.)The Big Store
9.)A Night in Casablanca
10.) Room Service
11.) Go West
12.) Love Happy
13.) Animals Crackers

Go West and Love Happy I feel are their two weakest pictures. I put Animal Crackers last not because I like it's a weak picture. Quite the opposite. I think it's one of their best. I just put it there because after watching two of their worst you would definitely want to see them when they were at the top of their game

First but not the last...

I have a confession. I've been a bad bad blogger! To be honest, I haven't had a lot to talk about. I've kind of did a John Lennon over the past few years. Without the baking bread or going on a macrobiotic diet of course.

I'm hoping to be a bit more active in blogging than I have in the past couple of years. Along with art and upcoming projects as I've done in the past, I'm going to be including more travel since my wife and I do quite a bit. I've also been mentioned by friends talking about restaurants.

In the past there have people who have left nasty hyper-critical comments in the comment section. And I do have the remedy for that.

DON'T READ IT.

Let's be honest, I have never forced anyone to read my blog under duress. I believe in freedom and free will. Besides, if I don't agree or like something I don't bother with it. I have better things to do than to leave nasty comments on someone's blog. It's referred to having a life.

But if you're too stupid to figure that out then that's your problem. Not mine.

The Evolution of Alice

Sometimes in life the best things that happen are the ones that don't... or at least they don't happen at first. This is very much the case for Alice and the Invaders From Wonderland.

Last month my wife Syd and I attended ReGeneration Who. Our very first Doctor Who convention in Baltimore. At 41 years of age, I had never been to a Doctor Who convention. Don't judge me! Unlike myself, my wife didn't grow up a fan of the show. She's a fan of Harry Potter. We've both rubbed on of each other. She's come to enjoy Who and I've come to enjoy Potter. I really loved the movie Fantastic Beasts.

And for my first experience in the Doctor Who convention scene, this one was amazing!! More on that some other time.

But it gave me an opportunity to actually meet in person Paul Magrs. An author I have been in contact with since perhaps the Myspace days... maybe before that. I also got to meet George Mann. Another amazingly talented author who has worked in both Doctor Who and Sherlock Holmes as well as his own series of novels.

From left to right: Myself, Syd, Paul Magrs and George Mann

Before I get too far off subject. One of the things discussed at the panels held for the writers is to never publish your first draft. There are those strange incidents where a first draft ends up being the published draft. But it isn't always a good idea.

Which leads me right back to Alice.

The first sketch I did for what would be Alice and the Invaders From Wonderland

Alice and the Invaders From Wonderland (as it would be eventually called) started it's life as a couple of sketches I did for a local steampunk show. My wife and I were preparing for the show and while I was getting a few sketches ready to sell, she very innocently said "I'm surprised you don't have more steampunk versions of Alice in Wonderland". This surprised me too. Alice seemed like the perfect grounds for a steampunk reimagining. 

After the show I was looking at the images I did again (they didn't sell) and I began to think of a story to go behind it. So maybe a day or so later I began to write Alice: Adventuress in Wonderland. The original story was pretty quick. Maybe topping off at 45 pages intended on being a one-shot.

Going back to the discussion on first drafts, it's definitely for the best that this version didn't get published back in 2013. It's got good bones. However, it resolves itself too quickly and you never really get a sense of danger or Alice has any real challenge.

It wasn't really until I started working with Paul Loudon that the script started to take shape and go in a direction I never really thought of. I became familiar with Paul's work on DeviantArt. We developed a really great rapport over the past few years. We're both fairly close in age and grew up in that era of weekday afternoon and Saturday morning cartoons. I admit. As crude the animation was with a lot of those cartoons, I really miss there being new cartoons on the non-cable channels. 

From the word go Paul was the artist I had in mind for Alice. I felt it was one of those projects that needed a different set of eyes artistically. I was very pleased with what Paul came up with from the character sketches I sent him.

 It was Paul who actually suggested the title Alice and the Invaders From Wonderland. Primarily because he pointed out the story hardly takes place in Wonderland. I was very quick to agree. And I thought it was a WONDERful title.

This is one of the nice things about a collaboration. You find that there are details you might have missed when working a project on your own. This project has very much become a team effort in ever way. When it comes to ideas, I'm very easy to get on with.

Some of the characters were revised since the inital script. In particular the Red and White Queen.

Red and White Queen respectively to the right

I had originally intended the two to be unwilling "pawns" to the overbearing Queen of Hearts. Which I honestly never liked from the beginning. I thought it might be more fun to have them as a pair of petty, jealous, vain and preening Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton type of people.

I'm not entirely sure how many people are aware the Queen of Hearts and the Red Queen are not the same person. True the Red Queen is sort of the surrogate for the Queen of Hearts in Through the Looking Glass. However, they are two entirely different characters. The Queen of Hearts is based on playing cards whereas the Red Queen is a chess motif.

I never cared for Anne Hathaway's Glinda the Good Witch of the North portrayal from the Tim Burton film. Nothing against Miss Hathaway as a actress, mind you. The character itself is a bit vague in the book. So I decided to go in a far less "benevolent" direction with the character.

Since 2013 the story itself has gone through many upon many revisions and I have expanded the story quite a bit from the initial one shot. A great deal of that was due to when I was developing the project for television I found that the script itself could be broken down episodically with the storyline of the script being basically the arc for "season one".

This has given Alice and her friends more obstacles and challenges to face. So it's not nearly as easy to get to the resolve. Which every story needs. I mean. If the resolve is simple then what's the point?

Most, if not all, of the drafts have survived in one form or another. My workspace on Celtx is a mess of various drafts. As time has gone on I've cherry picked each of the drafts for ideas I liked in one but didn't use in an other version. This includes the television treatments of the story.

I continue to develop Alice for television. Either live-action or animated.

Over the past four years the project had to be temporarily shelved a couple times with Paul becoming a Dad and Syd and I becoming home owners in the past year.

But the time was ripe to begin work on Alice again. And I can thank ReGeneration Who in Baltimore for that. Having a drink with Paul Magrs and George Mann after one of their panels inspired me to message Paul Loudon when I was up in my hotel room and see if he was up to getting Alice started again.

The stars must have been in alightment because he was ready again. This time we plan on developing it as a 12 part maxi-series and are in the process of creating pages for submission.

Another change to the story is the beginning. Originally it was going to be a quick recap of 10 year old Alice's travels through Wonderland. But quite frankly I think everyone knows the story of Alice in Wonderland. It's like how many times do we need a film that goes into Batman or Spider-Man's origin. One of the high marks of Tim Burton's 1989 Batman film is having the Batman already established as the winged vigilante and we don't make the connection he's Bruce Wayne until several scenes later. We all know Batman's Bruce Wayne. But a long origin at the beginning would have not been as effective.

I decided to take a similar approach with the first issue of Alice. That and Paul had plotted out this amazing action sequence (as seen above) so it suddenly occured to me that's the way it should begin. While it would be explained how it all came to pass in the issue. I didn't want to do it in a way that would bore the reader.

So dear readers, as I sit here writing all this while sipping on my second cup of coffee I begin work scripting issue eight as well as beginning to plot out "season two" of Alice once I have finished with the "season one"

And I promise you. Alice's strangest adventures are yet to come...