Eating Spider-Man

So, have you ever had your favorite superhero for lunch? No, I don’t mean over for lunch,, I mean, for lunch. Well, if you are a Spidey fan then you can do just that. My wife and daughter were away a couple of weeks ago and while they were out they discovered Spider-Man Mac & Cheese from Kraft.



Even better than just finding it, they purchased a box for me.

I’ll probably have it for lunch sometimes soon. Today, it's leftovers.

And the Human Torch wraps it up!

OK, so I’ve been telling you folks that I’ve been going to my local movie theater to watch films (D'oh) and while there I’ve been tapping this “gumball” machine that has Marvel character toys in it. Well, tonight when I went to see both Public Enemies and G.I. Joe, and I managed to score the final figure in the first (?) set of toys, none other than the Human Torch himself.

One of my local comic shops has another gumball machine with a second set of Marvel characters of which I’ve already scored three of the eight figures. Each set has the characters come in a plastic egg an each figure needs to be assembled. I’m enjoying acquiring these toys, and some of my friends are also enjoying my hunt, as they are getting my duplicate figures.

Oh yeah, as for the films I say, Public Enemies was quite good (although I really liked The Lady in Red much better). As I was already at the theater, I figured that I’d stick around and check out G.I. Joe, and — even though I was really pumped after seeing the trailer — I was very disappointed in the film itself. It is very hard for me to take a film seriously when it is clear that the producers of the film don’t take it seriously.

Actually, I liked Transformers much better than this film (yes, both of them). As a matter of fact, if the G.I. Joe squad had been a little more like the Rangers from the Transformers films, I would have liked that film much better.

Ah well. Sometimes you hit, and sometimes you get hit.

Vampyres Among Us

Everybody loves vampires (personally, I’m more of a werewülf fan, but that’s something of another story). I know that they are all around us, everywhere we look, TV, film, even in comics. a couple of months back I scored a comic by a very talented fellow named Baron Misuraca. His comic, In Flesh and Spirit is a rock ‘n’ roll vampire comic that is not only wonderfully rendered, but beautifully written as well.

Funny thing, though, when I read it, I felt an odd sense of Déjà vu, you see. it looked a whole lot like the comic Gothis by my good buddy Melvin Ylagan who illustrated the cover of Psychosis! #1.

In this adult-themed comic, Baron pulls of a very cool mix of vampire lore and the underground rock scene as his characters explore their lives living forever in the darkness of the night. Well, the funny thing I subsequently learned, is that Baron and Melvin are not only friends, but both rock ‘n’ rollers, and not only gig out together, but produce comics together. (Ain’t it funny how life works out?).

Anyway, it is very clear that Baron has been influenced by classic horror cinema and ‘70s comics, In Flesh and Spirit chronicles the origin and ongoing existence of Baron Misuraca, a 14th Century musician cursed into living the life of the undead. Now the Baron has been reborn in contemporary New York City, where he reigns in dark dominion but — as always — is a slave to two masters: his insatiable lust for blood and his spiritual quest for redemption.

This is a very cool comic, and if you see Baron and Melvin gigging out in NYC or at a comiccon, then you should ask to buy a copy of his comic.

Dust Cover Copy

So I’ve mentioned that I’ve been writing for Marvel (again) lately. (The Official Index to the Marvel Universe) Well, that’s really only only part of the Marvel work that I’ve been doing. One of the other bits that I’ve been doing for them is penning the dust jacket cover copy for some of their hard-cover collections.

This is fun, and gives me access to the Marvel offices, and well, is really as entertaining as all get-out. Plus with the email loops that I’m involved in with the other writers, it feels like I’m part of this great big funnybook jam session, and what could be cooler than that?

Any who, enough of this, I’ve got to get back to it, chat more later.

To date, I’ve done four. Iron Man: The Art of Iron Man, the Movie (Hardcover) which covered the art of the wildly-successful film; Supreme Power: Contact Premiere (Hardcover) which collected the six issues of the Marvel Supreme Power comic by J. Michael Straczynski and Gary Frank; Spider-Man And The Human Torch (Hardcover) which collects the wonderful limited series that paired long-time friends Johnny Storm and Spidey (a personal favorite of mine); and — most recently — the up-coming TIMESTORM 2009/2099 (Hardcover) that collects the (not yet completed) mash-up of the current Marvel Universe with an altered version of the one from 2099.

Last night we all got roped into a big project that was fun (tedious and exhausting, but fun, none-the-less). I really feel that I’m having a good time again, and rebuilding some of the connections that I had back in the ‘80s & ‘90s.

Plus I’m still working on a number of freelance/Indie projects (including penning a number of scripts and developing some new ideas — more on those as they develop). In fact, I just finished off a couple of scripts last week, and am am part-way through a couple of more already.

News from the (Funnybook) Front

So as you all know, I am continuing to contribute to the indexing of The Amazing Spider-Man title’s entries in the current issue of The Official Index to the Marvel Universe, which is out in comic shops right now.

As with the previous issues, I realize that I’m way more impressed with this stuff than all of you, but, well, that’s OK, as I’m having fun producing this stuff.

At any rate, I just learned that we are probably going to wrap this version up around issue #12, then begin re-numbering as we launch the next volume which is probably going to cover three different titles (Captain America, the Fantastic Four and Thor, I believe).

Oh, not sure if I’ve mentioned this, but I’ve been writing the cover copy to a number of Marvel Hard Cover collections. These collections have included Supreme Contact HC, The Art of Iron Man The Movie HC, Spider-Man Torch HC, and TIMESTORM 2009/2099 HC. Now How cool is that?

The Great Egg

So, I’ve been telling you that I’ve been stopping by my local movie theater to, well watch movies, but also to score figurines of my favorite Marvel characters. These little figures come in three pieces each. Well, I haven’t been able to make it to that theater recently (there is still a Human Torch figure I’ve been trying to score), but I did get to my local comic shop, and it turns out that they have a new “Gumball” machine with Marvel figures as well. Only this is the “Version 2” set of characters.

There are eight figures in the set, and I recently acquired three of them.



Sorry for the blurry image. I took this one with my camera phone (because my wife & Daughter have the regular camera)



Here they are again posing with three larger versions of them selves that came from a recent McDonald’s Happy Meal set. I thought the juxtaposition of the two sets was kind of cool.

Out in Space

So, did I mention that my good buddies over at Free Lunch Comics publish some wicked-cool funnybooks? Yeah, well if I haven’t I really should have. A couple or three months back they put out a Sci-Fi (yeah, THAT’S the way it is spelled) comic entitled Beyond the Kuiper Belt. This issue features art by Matt Ryan (one of my personal favorite artists), and Keith Murphey (another good artist and personal friend of mine).

Oh yeah, I probably should mention at this point that I contributed a prose piece to the publication as well. I did so under a pseudonym (not because I’m bashful, shy, or was trying to hide out, but because it was intended to the “letters” page — which was constructed as part of the over theme of the publication — and needed to be built as if it was from a reader of the mag.

Beyond the Kuiper Belt is a fun romp constructed as if it were a serious fringe publication, catering to that group of folk that live and die by the kind of odd-ball stuff that could populate real-life X-Files, Fringe, Warehouse 13, and Eureka. Personally, I not only enjoyed working on my (small) piece of the publication, I truly enjoyed reading it as well, and I’m betting that you will as well.

You can get your own copy of Beyond the Kuiper Belt by going here and getting one yourself.