Happy Birthday, Rusty

Goodbye Rusty Haller

(August 12, 1964 – September 29, 2009)

Yesterday would have Rusty’s 48^th Birthday. Unfortunately it wasn’t because Rusty passed away in 2009 too soon at the age of 45. Rusty, in spite of his near anonymity, in the field of comics was a truly monstrously gifted individual and towering talent, he was a cartoonist, a writer, and perhaps one of the nicest guys that ever lived, and I feel personally privileged for having know him.

As it turns out, Rusty and I both came of age in this industry alongside each other, during the early ‘80s and — although we really didn’t know each other personally until recently, we lived amazingly near to each other. Both of us hail from Connecticut (me by the coast near NYC, and him more centrally located in the state), and we both initially got published by some of the same folks (including Marvel Comics). Unfortunately, Rusty had serious medical issues that took him from us way too soon.

Spanning his career, Rusty worked for several major comic publishers, including Marvel’s Star line, DC, Disney, Harvey, and Archie. He was also the creator, writer, and illustrator of the wonderful anthropomorphic romantic espionage and adventure series, Ace and Queenie. Self-taught, Rusty’s first published work was back in 1987 for a small Connecticut-based publisher, Spotlight Comics on a Deputy Dog story for Mighty Mouse Holiday Special #1.

He is best remembered for his work for numerous independent and small press publishers including (but not limited to) Radio Comix, Atlas Unleashed, and the Comicbook Artists Guild. Rusty created, wrote and illustrated Ace and Queenie, which first appeared in print as a feature in 2005 in the monthly anthology comic Furrlough. Ace and Queenie appeared in 13 issues of Furrlough from 2005 until the magazine ended its run in 2009 generating over 150 pages of printed art (not counting several online pages).

I really wish that I could say something of value or comfort, but this all feels hollow and useless. Rusty passed away, slipped through our fingers as it were, and I keep thinking that there was something more we all should have done to help him, though I’m not sure of that either. Still I morn for my, for our collective loss. Rusty we still miss you. There was so much more for you to give, and for us to get, and because that opportunity is now gone, we’re the poorer.

But Rusty is gone, and I almost missed his birthday. Sorry, pal, Happy Birthday, and we all still miss you.

*PPFSZT to you too!

A few months back, Jim Main the head honcho of Main Enterprises, published a short story of mine, entitled, Too much coffee, Man. in his publication *PPFSZT #28. Well Jim induced me to submit a second story, which I did, and this second story appears in *PPFSZT #30. This second story (like the first) was illustrated by the extraordinarily talented Jack Bertram. The second story is entitled Tea Party.

Jim has three more of my stories that he will be publishing, one is entitled Papyrus (illustrated by the very talented Alex Lopez), a second is entitled Regret (yet to be illustrated), and the third (which I just handed in) is entitled Slabbed.

I have to say that I’m really enjoying submitting stories to Jim. He has about a dozen eclectic publications that he produces on (apparently) random publishing schedules.

Oh, I also contributed an article to Comic Fan #6 about our mutual friend Rusty Haller.

Here is the opening page to Tea Party:

The Rusties

So, I was recently informed that (for the third year in a row), I’ve been nominated in the “Best Writer” category for a CAG Award (Now renamed “The Hallers” in honor of Rusty Haller). Once again I’m honored to be considered, and well it would be great to win (finally).

The story is my contribution in Iconic, entitle First in Flight, which is a story about the real-life Gustave Whitehead, who flew before the Wright Brothers, but has long been denied his rightful place in History.

I'm also told that others can vote in this poll even if you are not a member of CAG, so here is a link to the poll. vote away!

PollPub.com Vote

Best writer.

Robert J. Sodaro - "First in Flight," Iconic

Everett Soares - Sky Pirates

Steve Kanaras - Only In Whispers #2

Jesse Toves - "John Henry," Iconic

Scott Sheaffer - Hell's Blood #1

Joe Sergi - "The Return of Power Boy," A Thousand Faces #10

Carl Herring, Jr. - Crime Wave

Dwight Baldwin - "Repercussions," Iconic




   View Results

Poll powered by PollPub.com Free Polls

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Thank you all in advance. I'm also told that that the deadline for votes is Sept 18th at 11:59 PM.

Feel free to re-post this on Facebook or where appropriate!

Introducing Atlas Unleashed!

For several months I’ve been talking about this new publisher that I’ve been working with to develop new properties, and bring some older ones back into the limelight. The name of that company is Atlas Unleashed. Well, I am very pleased to say that the first issue under the Atlas Unleashed logo has hit the shelves.

That’s right, effendis, Schizophrenia #1 is out there, and it is a very compelling package. It contains four stories that range from the eerily compelling, haunting dream-like state of by Nathaniel Baker & Shawnti Therrien; to the off-kilter oddness of Angry Man by Acevedo Marzan & the late, great, Rusty Haller. Then there is the Spartan starkness of Rich Terdoslavich’s Compulsion, and finally, rounded out by A visit with good Ole...Doctor Frommenstadt by our imperious leader, mark mazz aided and abetted by the able-bodied Mr. James Webb.

Yep, this first issue of our premier title dares our readers to — quite literally — “Unleash the nightmares within...”

Yeah, we certainly have our work cut out for ourselves, and yep, we truly believe ourselves up for the task at hand. We will be debuting the comic at the upcoming NY ComicCon. Make sure you stop up and talk to us.

Tme to go viral

OK, this is wicked-cool, I know that I told you already about my on-line comic, Girl Skout Warz, but now I’ve just cut a deal to have it appear on a new web-comic site (InkBot) that will post both of the existing pages (which currently now reside on GWP’s new website) and will continue to post the remaining three (all inked by the incomparable Rusty Haller), and then InkBot will move forward with all new material (just as soon as I write it).

Sweet, eh?

Rusty, we barely knew ye...

I know that it was a while ago that my friend Rusty Haller passed away, but this eulogy that I wrote for him at that time has just shown up in print in Jim Main’s Comic Fan #6.

I wanted to alert you all to Jim’s very cool fan publication, and to urge you all to rush right out and pick up a copy of your own.

Jim (and the guys who work with him on each issue) work hard on this stuff, and do it for the love of the industry. They could use your support.

Plus the stuff they talk about is wicked cool.


Oh yeah, I almost forgot (in fact I actually did) I wrote reviews of three (very cool) indie comics in that appear in this issue. So you’ll want to pick this issue up for that as well.

GirL SkOUT WARZ!

Several decades years ago some friends of mine developed a concept about Girl Scouts going door-to-door, but instead of selling cookies, they were killing people. I always loved the idea, and well, over the years it stayed with me and festered until I transmorphed it into GirL SkOUT WARZ!.



In this incarnation of the strip, the girls (all new characters that I developed recently) are part of a roving band of “protectors” who live in a Post Apocalyptic world inhabited by Zombies, Ghouls, and other semi-mythical creatures of the night. (As one of my nephews stated when he heard the description of the strip, “There’s nothing about that, that I don’t like,.”)

Yea, I can dig that.



Currently, there are five strips that I’ve written and have been illustrated (by Keith Murphey and Rusty Haller). Right now, two of them are posted up on the web, and I’m currently scripting more installments.

Another web comic (CAG Dog) that I’ve scripted (three installments) is going up soon. I’ll let you know as soon as it gets illustrated and posted.

GAG Dog is the creation of Zman (a CAG buddy), and he has been inviting writers and artists from CAG to contribute art and stories to the webcomic. For my contribution, he wanted to do a mash-up of CAG Dog and my very own Agent Unknown. From my perspective, it was a load of fun to do, and I can hardly wait to see it in, ah, digital.

RIP Rusty Haller

Here is the obit of my pal Rusty Haller as it appeared in issue #1166 of Comic Shop News:

Rusty Haller, R.I.P.

It is with a sad heart that I pass along the information, that a friend of mine, Rusty Haller, creator of Ace & Queenie, and former cartoonist of Marvel’s Star Line passed away in his sleep last night. Rusty’s mother had passed away earlier this ...year, forcing Rusty to re-locate to Ohio to live with a friend. It was his friend & roommate that discovered Rusty’s body. That's all I know at the moment.

The artwork is an original piece of Rusty’s art that I had commissioned from him just before he left for Ohio.

When I have more info about Rusty I’ll pass it along.

Cool Rusty Haller Tchachkas

So, one of the very cool things that came out of Sunday’s event to raise money for Rusty, was that I discovered a 100-piece Ace & Queenie jigsaw puzzle. Ace & Queenie is the very entertaining comic that Rusty has been producing for years (for Furlough Comics, and now, the web). Well, according to Rusty, several years ago, a pal of Rusty’s produced a number of these Jigsaw puzzles for him, and (according to Rusty) and gave them to Rusty after Rusty did some work for the guy.

For quite a time Rusty would bring them with him to conventions (especially ConnectiCon, where Rusty was something of a fixture for years), and they sold quite well. If you are interested in picking up a pack, then you should head over to Free Lunch Comics, I know that they still had several of them left over.

Tell them I sent you.

Pledging for Rusty

This past Sunday Free Lunch Comics held a benefit for our mutual friend Rusty Haller. Rusty is an extraordinarily talented CT cartoonist who has fallen on some hard times (his mom with whom he lived, passed away, his health began deteriorating, and he was forced to move out of his apartment). Well, a bunch of us got together at the Free Lunch studios in Granby CT, and held a benefit auction to raise money to help Rusty.

About 50 people showed up at the auction and we managed to raise some $1,300.00 for Rusty. Another $800.00 was raise by Bryanna Bunny, who set up a donation fund to aid Rusty. (you can still go to the Bryanna Bunny site and donate funds if you wish to contribute to the cause).

Steve Kanaras from Free Lunch has gone on to indicate that the possibility of setting up an ebay auction site to help raise money for Rusty (I hear talk of a Chris Torres painting as being one item, as well as some comics and other items — I’ll keep you posted in this regard).

Anyway, I’m glad to say that — for the moment at least — Rusty has found lodging with a friend in Ohio,and we all wish him well. He is also back at work, drawing, addressing his health issues, and believing that he will come out of this adversity better and stronger.

Our hope and prayers are with him.

Benefit for Rusty Haller

I’ve talked a bit about my buddy, Rusty Haller, and now I want to point you all in the direction of a benefit that is being given to help raise money for Rusty’s Expenses.

you can learn more by following this link over to Mike Gelbwasser’s online column for The Sun Chronicle

Rusty Haller

So I have this professional friend...or rather this friend who is a fellow professional. He is a cartoonist, and well, has been having a bit of personal and professional bad luck. In this tough economy he is having some difficulty getting a stead stream of assignments and, is getting evicted. He has to move out of his place at the end of the month (which as you all know is two days from now).

I’ve been doing what I can to get Rusty hooked up with more work, or representation of some sort (even commissioned and purchased art from him recently). I’ve also been trying to get other friends of ours to help in in whatever way they could. Sever folks have risen to the challenge (including the folks at Bryanna Bunny, who have set up a donation fund for Rusty, and the guys over at Free Lunch Comics who are holding a charity auction to help raise money for Rusty).

Rust was doing a bunch of great work in the ‘80s and ‘90s for Marvel, Dc, Archie, and other companies. He is also the creator of Ace & Queenie, a very cool action/adventure anthropomorphic espionage series, that began live over at Radio Comix and lives now on the Web.

In the mean time, take a look at a very cool comic that Rusty recently drew (I'm trying to see if I can find a magazine that will purchase it — so if you know of any editor that want's to get his or her hands on a very talented cartoonist, let me know).

Today Is Free Comic Book Day

Go out and support your neighborhood comicbook shop.

I’m going to be at A Timeless Journey (Stamford CT) in the morning, then I’m heading over to Sarge’s in New London CT. I’ll be traveling with my good friends John A. Wilcox and Rusty Haller, as well as my nephew Tony-o.

See you in the funnypapers!

Another pull from the Indie pile!

I’d like to talk a bit about a friend of mine, named Rusty Haller.

Rusty is a damn-fine cartoonist with quite an impressive history. His first published work was back in the late ‘80s for a small CT-based publisher named Spotlight Comics. Rusty did work on a Deputy Dog comic and Mighty Mouse Christmas Special as well as Terry Tunes (an assignment he landed though Jim Main at Main Enterprises). Soon after getting published at Spotlight, Rusty was able to score a very gig at Marvel’s line of Star Comics working on such titles as Danger Mouse, Count Duckla, Heathclif, and Alf. Rusty also produced some illustrations for Marvel Age (a title that I myself worked on back in the day). Over at DC he worked on Tiny Tune Adventures, Looney Tunes, and Animaniacks. In addition to this, he worked on various Flintstones and Harvey titles for Archie Comics. As well as book and magazine illustrations.

Not content wit working other people’s products, Rusty went on to create his own characters; Ace and Queenie an anthropomorphic action/adventure spy series that he has been producing for Furrlough Comics for over four years (generating over 150 pages of printed art). About 2 years ago, a little dissatisfied with his own progress on Ace & Queenie, Rusty brought his unique creation to the web, where fans can now not only read the new web adventure, but purchase print editions of Furrlough and other comics containing Rusty’s work. Rusty also posts his art at Deviantart and Furafininity.

Now I like Rusty a whole lot, he is a very knowledgeable and affable fellow, with a huge amount of talent, so I was extremely please when he give me a copy of The Licensable Bear(tm) Big Book of Fun!. This book is a collection of The Licensable Bear’s(tm) comicbook.

To be sure there are other cartoonist's art filling up the pages of the book, and the Bear himself is created and written by Nat Gertler, but I was there for Rusty’s work. To be fair to Nat and his Bear buddy, the book is a long joke, not several jokes, but a single joke. You see, the premise of the book is that Bear wants folks to license his image to put on stuff or promote their pet cause, and every single story is about the same exact thing.

You might wonder how many variations you can do on a single theme, and bless Nat’s dark little heart, he has found them all. Some of the stories are ordinary, and some are quite entertaining. Reading them all in one sitting is probably impossible (it took me a couple of months of going back to it over and over to finish it off), it is worth the endeavor.

In addition to all of the above, Rusty has contributed to CAGDog, the online comic produced for the web by several of the members of that group. He has also contributed to my buddies over at Free Lunch Comics.



Then, as stated, there is Rusty’s work on the very entertaining, and very sexy Ace and Queenie. If you are a fan of action/adventure, anthropomorphic comics, very exotic-looking characters (yes, they are quite attractive), or simply well-drawn, and well-written comics, then you owe it to yourself to run (don’t walk) over to Ace and Queenie and check out what Rusty has in store for you. The while you’re there, you should blow your entire allowance on as many back issues as you can afford.

CAG means networking

I belong to a networking group called The Comicbook Artists Guild (CAG). I have been a part of this organization for three, or four years. I was first invited to join the group by my good Friend Mark Mazz. Mark set up a meeting between me and co-founder and current president Keith Murphey. I have since gone on to work with both Mark and Keith to actively promote the group at conventions and to various media outlets, as well as producing three newsletters for the group which have been handed out at conventions across the country. I was also privileged to relaunch my signature series, Agent Unknown in CAG #7.

Networking is really the only way those of us struggling to get in can hope to survive. Take my pal Chris Buchner. I first “met” Chris while we were both on SpiderFan, and when I realized that he was local to me (he’s NY, I’m CT). I brought Chris over to CAG and then, once I was invited to contribute to The Official Index to the Marvel Universe, I was able to get the invitation extended over to Chris, who is now contributing as well.

When my Pal and fellow CAGer, Carl Herring needed an inker for his self-published comic, The Enforcers, I was able to hook him up with another friend, Chris Torris (who painted my re-launch of Agent Unknown).

When CAG-pal James Rodriguez, was producing a 2009 art calender with a bunch of other CAGers and the very lovely and talented Belkis, I lent him a hand in the production and editorial phase of the project. (You can still buy this calendar, it is not only spotlighted here on this blog, but if you reach out to James, he’d be very happy to sell you one of your very own.)

So, now in the same vein as all of that I want to direct you to a trio of other online pals-o-mine, first up is the CAG web comic page. It is hosted on Drunk Duck, and you will find a bunch of CAG writers and artists assembling an impressive array of online comics. Go there, bookmark the page and then go back to see what we put up there over the coming year. I promise you that it will be very cool.

Now that I’m on the subject of web comics, I want you to head over to Rusty Haller’s page and discover the very entertaining Ace & Queenie; an anthropomorphic action/adventure spy series that he has been producing for Furrlough Comics for over four years (generating over 150 pages of printed art). About 2 years ago, Rusty brought his unique creation to the web where they can be seen in a new storyline.



If his name sounds familiar, it is because he is a cartoonist with quite an impressive history in the print world. His first published work was back in the late ‘80s for a small CT-based publisher, Spotlight Comics. From there Rusty managed to score a gig at Marvel’s line of Star Comics working on such titles as Danger Mouse, Count Duckula, Heathcliff, and Alf, as well as producing some illustrations for Marvel Age. Over at DC he worked on Tiny Toons Adventures, Looney Tunes, and Animaniacks. In addition to this, he worked on various Flintstones and Harvey titles for Archie Comics.

Another site I want you to bookmark is BelkisNYC: Marketing for the Creative Soul. This is the site of Belkis’ very cool and very knowledgeable marketing blog. (Hey I told you she was not only drop dead gorgeous, but wicked intelligent as well!) Currently there are only about a dozen posts, but I’m telling you that I’m already finding it invaluable.

These folks are all good friends of mine, and I want you to treat them well.

Whups, almost forgot...



Hell’s Blood is the creation of another CAG-buddy, Hector Rodriguez. This past Saturday (yesterday), CAG held it’s second annual mixer here in CT (in my old stomping grounds of Fairfield), and we held a Yankee Swap Gift Party. I donated a copy of Comic Values 2008 (of which I’m the features editor), and in return I wound up with a Hell’s Blood T-Shirt. A very cool gift indeed, as I’m currently in talks with Hector to team up his character and my very own Wülf Girlz, as well as the possibility of me colaborating on future issues of Hells’ Blood itself.

Now how cool is that?