WE HAVE A WINNER!!!!

Hey all, you know that I’m a member in good standing of of the comic book group known as CAG (Comicbook Artists Guild). Well, a while back it was announced that we were going to have an actual, Honest to Stan awards ceremony, and give out real awards. Well, a contest was held to design a new logo for the ceremony, and well, designs were submitted, and yes, a winner was picked.

So, congratulations are due to to Alfredo Lopez Jr. of CAG Texas! Freddy gets $50, an interview on an upcoming Catch da Craze podcast, and Comic Novice radio interview. Freddy’s logo design will be used for the CAG Awards.

As I understand it, they received entries from three very talented designers Terry Pavlet, Brant Fowler, and Freddy Lopez all of whom submitted multiple entries which (obviously) making the decision to pick one rather difficult, as I am told. If you want to see all the entries and the winner you can check them out on the Catch da Craze’s site.

The CAG AWARDS A.K.A. The CAGGIES will take place on April 19th at 8 P.M. directly after the NY Comic Con at the Indy After Party in NYC. Awards will be awarded for the best in each of five categories which include:


1) Best Writer
2) Best Artist or Penciller
3) CAG MVP
4) Best New Talent
5) Plus a Special Award for Excellence in Production/Presentation.

Special thanks to Sam Vera for his help selecting the winner.

About the Sponsors:
Catch Da Craze Podcast is a weekly show for independents by independents. Our focus is to promote the individual creators in comics, movies, gaming and more.

The Comic Book Novice consists of 4 people. All with a different view of the world of comics. Hosted by Mark Torres, The Comic Book Novice radio show airs each and every Thursday nite at 9 P.M. (EST) on WGBB (1240 AM).

So Congrats to Freddy, and we hope to see you at the party!

More Cool Spidey Stuff

One of the reasons that I like my cell phone (other than I can make and receive calls no matter where I am) is that it contains a digital camera, which allows me to be someplace and take a quick snapshot of something that I find cool. This happened recently to me when I was in a craft store, and I came across a number of Spidey-related items. One of the items I spotted, was a way-cool street-chalk holder in the shape of Spidey, that was going for only a buck. Needless to say, I bought that one.

The other times were a bit more pricey (not big-time pricey, but I really only had a buck on me, so that was all I bought. Still, let's get back to that camera phone technology (Maxwell Smart, eat your heart out). Well, I couldn't deprive you other Spider-ophiles the opportunity of viewing all of this way-cool stuff, so I snapped off a few pics, and they are now posted below.




Here is what the gback of that book looks like:

Is he or isn’t he?

Well, If you were to ask me, I’d say that my favorite hero is married to ah, whatshername. Only I’m told that these days, not only is he not married, but he never actually was. Only, if My pal Petey isn’t married then who is this red-headed hottie that is snuggling up to him.



Her name is on the tip of my tongue, only I can’t quite remember...

Oh yeah, and then there is this bit of marital silliness...



You can find these tidbits and more over at The Amazing Spider Blog that is managed by my good buddy, Mike Podgorski, who (like me) is also a reviewer over at SpiderFan.

Seriously, what is her name???

Satanic Spidey Chronicles

My good buddy Steve Kanaras sent me this image a while back, and I just relocated it in the electronic jumble that is my email. I figured that the rest of you folk might want to take a peek as well. Then I thought about cracking wise about the image itself, but just couldn’t figure out what I could possibly say about this image that would make it any sadder funnier than it already was.



See what I mean?

Upcoming Projects

I wanted to take a minute or two out of my on-going anti Brand-New Day Rants to let you all know about a couple or three of my upcoming projects.

A year or so ago, I had a short story entitled Never Judge a Book, published in an illustrated horror anthology (Psychosis!, published by Guild Works Productions). Well, that story was meant to be a one-off story. That is to say, a fully complete story, with no continuation. Interestingly enough, that didn’t quite happen. It was suggested to me that these characters had more to say. At first I objected, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that that wasn’t going to happen.

As fate would have it, there is more to the story of Hope and Grace. The continuation of that story occurs in Psychosis! #3 with How Deep the Wood. In this story we learn how the girls became the way they became, along with who they were before they became that way. Intrigued? I hope you are, stick around you’ll learn more; that story is slated to come out shortly, again with art from the very talented Matt Ryan.

Another story of mine that is due out soon, is the continuation of a comic series that I began in the mid ‘80s. That series, Agent Unknown (published by Renegade Press) came to a rather abrupt end (canceled in mid stream when the B&W comicbook market collapsed (I still have the first three issues, post that you are interested and we’ll see what we can arrange).

Anyways, the new Agent Unknown story (Springload & Renegade) is slated to appear in CAG #7. While this story is a continuation of the concepts began in Agent Unknown, the characters are new, and the story itself is darker, and far more violent than those earlier stories. Personally, I love the new artist, Chris Torres, I have seen the pages and he has crafted a spectacular story that is moody and powerful. I can hardly wait to see the last two pages.

Another story of mine is being drawn by a fellow named Roy Cutting. I have seen his work posted on Deviant Art, and it is very fine, lovely in fact, and I specifically chose him to illustrate a fun superheroine story of mine that I’m calling Hot Girl and Totally Hot Girl, and yes, it is exactly what it sounds like.

I’ve seen a pin-up of Roy’s as well as page one of the series, and I’m including them both here. I have to say you that I am really looking forward to this year, because these are just three of the stories of mine that are coming out, and I’m very excited.

So, when I have more to tell you good folks, you can most assuredly bet that I’ll do just that.

Venom bites back!

So, you say you like Venom, but hated his truncated role in in the (perhaps overly-long Spider-Man 3?

Well, never fear, you folk just might get your wish as Venom looks like he is going to follow the X-Men’s Wolverine as a break-out solo star...

According to IESB, Eddie Brock and Venom are going to get their own film.

(Read the full story)

Personally, it sounds like fun to me.

3:12 minutes of your life that you really don’t need back

I’m not entirely sure what to make of this, even to the point that I don’t have a joke to crack in regards to it. My suggestion is that you simply watch it, and make up your own mind.



This is just one of several Crank Dat Spider-Man Music Videos some are fun, and some are well, funny. Again, you can make your own judgement. Near as I can understand, they are all takeoffs on Soulja Boy’s hot-vid/rap tune Crank Dat (Soulja Boy) [Superman]

Me? I must be getting old.

Untold Tales of Spider-Man

From 1995 to 1997 Marvel tried an experiment in the life of Spider-Man, the company published a continuity-implant title into the life of our favorite Webbed-Wonder that told previously untold stories from when he was a teenager this comic was called Untold Tales of Spider-Man. (Incidentally, the company is attempting it again with a new comic entitled Spider-Man: With Great Power that tells stories that fall between when he received his powers from the bite of an irradiated Spider to when he really leaned what being Spider-Man was all about, with the death of his Uncle Ben (Amazing Fantasy #15).

Well, with Untold Tales, I had missed this entire run,as it fell into that black hole when I had stopped collecting comics. Once I restarted my collection in ‘01 I began to fill in the gaps by going to the back issue bins at collections (as it turns out I’ll probably be able to collect most of these books and pay less for them now than I would have paid for them if I had purchased them new). Anyway, I’ve almost completed my Untold Tales run, and as I was reading them recently, I suddenly realized a couple of things.

First of all, While I had never considered it prior to now, it had recently occurred to me that Betty Brant, JJJ’s original secretary must have been older than Peter (Peter bing 15 when he became Spidey). Well, if Betty was Jonah’s secretary then she had to be older than 15. As soon as I thought about it,I figured that she would have had to have been at least 18 for her to have been the secretary to the editor and publisher of a great metropolitan newspaper. I mean, it only made sense. Well, I just read Untold #12, where writer Kurt Busiek had penned a story explaining that while, yes, Betty was probably older than Peter, she was only a year or two (tops). (Apparently her mom was Jameson’s secretary, until an accident hospitalized her and when JJJ couldn’t keep another secretary, Betty naturally assumed the role,and Jameson, out of loyalty to her mom, kept her in the position.)

Great retcon storytelling, eh? Well, I thought so.

So, the other thing that struck me about Untold Tales (especially in light of the current retcon that Marvel editorial Joe Quesada is foisting up on us is based on the (misinformed) supposition that fans want to see a younger Spider-Man. Well, if that were the case, then why did Marvel stop publishing Untold Tales? I can only think of one reason. Low sales. (Marvel also tried to retcon the entire Spidey Mythos with John Byrne’s universally panned Chapter One.) Which again goes to prove my point. While some of this might appeal to the nostalgia in us, fans really don’t want to see a younger Spidey. They want to see the one we see now (or, art least saw right up until the closing moments of One More Day.

It’s all fun and games until someone makes a deal with the devil to end your marriage!

Cap’s Back, and Steven Colbert has him! What am I talking about? well you just have to check out this clip from Comedy Central’s Steven Colbert Report where Steven is (once again) talking to Marvel Editor-in-Chief, Joe Quesada:



Apparently, once you've made a deal with the devil to end somebody else’s Marriage there is no going back!

While the conversation between Steve and Joe starts off with them discussing Captain America, it soon seques into them discussing Steven’s aborted run for President. Well, apparently In the Marvel Universe, Steven is still a candidate.

I’ve taken the liberty of enhancing a couple of images from the clip. The first image shows a cutaway of some (doctored) art for Amazing Spider-Man #546 (with a close-up from that image up next). Sure, sure Joe has done a great deal to increase the awareness of Marvel, Cap, Spidey, and the rest of the Marvel stable, but it begs the question, if Joe want’s to appeal to appeal to a younger audience, then why does he keep appearing on the Colbert Report, which (I’m sure) appeals to a demographic that is substantially older than teens (who might think that a married superhero is too old).

Of course, that could be just me.