torquemada vox

Sensational Spider-Man Star Josh Keaton Speaks!

posted on July 28th, 2009 in interviews

Josh Keaton has a list of credits that would make your jaw drop. Look him up on IMDB if you don’t believe us. We dare you. A seasoned talent who is currently portraying Peter Parker in the popular Spectacular Spider-Man animated series, Josh talks about his work as an actor and performer with our own Richard Caldwell.

Josh, you have an insane resume with years of work in animated series and movies, tv shows, video games and a recording career. I know that you started young, but was there ever a specific point that you remember making the decision that this was the path for you?

Thank you!
With respect to the entertainment industry in general or just with voice-overs?

Entertainment, in general.

Honestly, I really can’t think of one particular time. It’s been something I was always a part of. I was always the precocious little kid that was trying to get attention, and dancing on tables and doing all that. So yea it’s always pretty much been a lifelong thing, stuff that I’ve always wanted to do.

So you’re living the dream then?

Definitely.

In all the years that you have been in show business, what have been the biggest obstacles for you, I mean personally or professionally?

I’d say one of the biggest obstacles would be…I think things like typecasting or basically, just not fitting in with the Hollywood mold that a lot of things tend to go towards. If you’re not that blond-haired, blue-eyed Midwestern guy then you have to miss out on a lot of parts. And I would say that would be the biggest obstacle. Though that’s something that doesn’t exist so much with voice overs because, you know, nobody really sees your face. It’s really more about the voice and the acting.
You really just need to find your niche- in on camera acting as well.

Of all the mediums that you have worked in, and with everyone you’ve worked with and crossed paths with- who has taught you the most, or left the biggest impression on you?

Oh wow, that’s a good question. I would say, on camera- I really had a great time working on Will & Grace. That was really just a situation that showed me how much of a well-oiled machine a cast can be. It really kind of showed me how generous a lot of other actors are, because, I won’t name names but I’ve worked with some people that are pretty well known actors that aren’t really the most generous actors in the world. If it’s not their shot or their closeup they won’t come out to read with you. You’ll be doing your closeup with a script supervisor. That’s how it goes a lot of the time. Everyone on Will & Grace though, were like a family. They really went out of their way to welcome their guest cast and work on things, even during lunch. If there was a scene that might not have been clicking, something might have been a little off or it wasn’t working quite the way the writers wanted it- everybody would just work. Let’s get this right on the money. It was just nice to see that, and this was probably in their twilight years where the show had been on for many years, and was already super successful. Nobody was really pretentious, everybody was just great, down to earth nice people. It was nice for me to see that as an actor- to see “hey, you know, these people are on a number one hottest show and they’ve still got that down to earth attitude”.
So yea, in that medium that’s probably what I’d say.
In animation- I can’t really point it all on any one person. There have been so many directors I’ve worked with- Andrea Romano, Jaime Thomason- they show you the difference between how something has to be placed on camera versus how something has to be placed for voice. And it’s a real subtle change, but they’re masters at getting that out of any actor. I mean I could go on naming voice actors for days that I’ve learned from. But yea, I really can’t go with any one particular person. There have been so many people that I’ve met that have taught me so much.

As high profile as some of those gigs have been, that is something. Like with Will & Grace, for there to be the personal touch by the other actors, I think that is kind of reaffirming. It goes against the stereotype of the Hollywood experience, doesn’t it?

Yea. I mean I’m not to say that every other situation is gonna be the opposite of that. In varying degrees, but I’d probably have to say that that was possibly the most watched show that I’ve ever been on. Just to see that kind of success but still remaining grounded and staying very real- and it was. Reaffirming is the perfect word for it.

If not for the entertainment industry, if somehow you had been born without any of the charisma or talent necessary, where do you think you’d be today? What do you think you’d be doing?

Probably something to do with science. I’ve always been a huge science geek. I love astronomy, I love the history of the earth, evolution, and anything to do with living things. Or possibly something to do with animals. I’m a huge animal lover. If the entertainment industry had passed me by, that’s probably what I’d be doing- something to do with science or computers, or something to do with animals. Those are really my other passions.

I know you’ve been picking up more and more video game-related jobs in the last few years, especially with the new Leisure Suit Larry game. Are you an avid gamer?

I am a pretty avid gamer. I’ve been a gamer ever since I started playing my uncle’s Atari- the old 2600. We used to play golf, a lot of different games. I’ve been a gamer as long as I can remember. One of my main reasons for even getting into the video game voice overs, one of the reasons I was really excited to be a part of video game voice overs was that I remember when the technology that let us have voice acting in video games- I remember when that first came out.
I remember how, it almost seemed like an afterthought in a game, where there was very little thought given to the story, no thought given to the casting. And what sort of happened was that we had this absolutely atrocious voice acting that really took you out of the story at times. You’d be in the middle of this awesome game and then this scene would come on and you’d want to skip out of it. I saw that as a huge disservice. Because, when I play games I’m not just doing it for the button mashing, I like immersing myself in it. I like really being involved in the story and feeling like you’re living it. When you have a scene that comes on that’s completely devoid of any kind of emotional truth or anything like that- it just seems funny. Your BS meter starts going off like crazy and you don’t want to watch. That’s a huge disservice to the story. So I’m really glad that I can be a part of making that a more enjoyable experience.

I think the entire gaming industry has really been evolving over the last decade or so as a storytelling medium. Now we have guys like Clive Barker and John Woo designing games. It has to be a fun business to work in.

Oh sure, without a doubt. It’s nice to see that they’re giving a lot more import to the higher image and execution of all the voice acting segments especially. I’m sure I’m not the only one who sees things that way. I’m sure there are other people like me who really want to experience the story. It’s always a nice surprise now when you’re in the middle of it and the acting comes on and it’s just awesome. It is like watching a movie. It really makes the play aspect much more rewarding.

Does that level of interest for you carry over to comic books as well? I guess right now the Spectacular Spider-Man series might be the thing you’re best known for.

Yea, it definitely does. I mean I grew up reading Spider-Man comics- I grew up reading comics in general. I’m actually in a car right now with Matt Yackey and Dan Fraga, a couple of comic high rollers who’ve done a bunch of stuff. A lot of my friends are comic book guys, working in the business. That’s also something that’s always been a big part of my life, a huge influence. I think that also might have been one of the things that gave me an edge in getting the part of Spider-Man, with my background in it and the ready access to my friends that could fill in all the information that I may not have been familiar with. It really helped give me an insider’s perspective.

Was it kind of a twist taking on the role of Peter Parker when you’d already portrayed Harry Osborn in the movie tie-in video games?

There’s a little story I always have to tell regarding the video games. The first Spider-Man game that I did and voiced Harry Osborn I was officially cast as Spider-Man. I recorded the entire game as Spider-Man. After they finished all of my stuff they finally got the clearance to use Tobey’s audio from the film, but they didn’t want to waste all the audio they’d already recorded with me. So they put in a hidden mode of play that when you beat the game you could basically play through the game again- same scenario, same everything- same storyline, but with Harry Osborn and the Green Goblin. Treyarch was the publisher then, I believe. When they came out with the second version they had to use my audio for Harry which brought me back as Harry because they’d already gotten all of the spoken audio for Spider-Man 2. With Friend Or Foe- again, different production house that did that game- in that one I was cast as Harry outright.
The funny thing is that James Arnold Taylor, who plays Harry in our show played Spider-Man in that game. So there’s always been a little switcheroo going around.
I think with video games, there’s gonna be so many generations of a franchise. And all of these versions- they all have their own producers, their own writers- their own creative teams, so their casting choices are obviously going to reflect that. It’s not like there’s one casting house that casts every single Spider-Man video game. You know, everybody’s going to have a different take on it. That’s why with some ongoing franchises none of the actors are going to be the same.

I suspect taking vocal talents to the extreme is pursuing a career in the music industry. Something I’ve wondered- do you shy away at all from having the boyband experience in your background, from being in NO AUTHORITY before?

Oh no, not at all. I wear being a boyband survivor as a badge of pride! I had a great time in it. It was something I wouldn’t give up if I had the chance to go back and redo it. I got to meet Michael Jackson, which was awesome. The guys that signed us- we had our release party at Neverland. And that was a cool experience. And, I got to travel the world! I got to meet people in places that I’d never been before. It was a fantastic experience, and I learned so much about the industry in general. I really got my first look into music production, working with this really big producer, Rodney Jerkins- who was just getting his start at the time and has since just blown up. He’s put out so many things that I couldn’t even count. But yea- I really got my first intro to production and songwriting from that. I didn’t write any of the songs on those albums- which was probably one of the only things I wasn’t as happy with, but that’s pretty much where that was. A lot of the pop game, a lot of that changed with digital distribution or digital downloading, where record companies really aren’t spending as much- well, they’re really not spending anything- on developing artists so everything has to be ready made now if you want to get distributed. So you’re starting to see a lot more artists who have to write their own music now because record companies aren’t spending the money to put it all together. Actually I think for the record business that’s a good thing. It is a little more difficult for new artists to get any kind of financial backing for tours and all that, but at the same time it does give the little guy a little more of a shot because everybody can really have a voice on the internet.
Back to the origianl question- I definitely don’t shy away from that at all. I had a great time. It’s something that I look back fondly on to this day.

Are you still active in that realm, are you still pursuing music?

Yes, I am. I am still pursuing it both as a solo artist and also writing for other people. And then with a team of friends, we have kind of like a comedy group…
Well, we make these songs that are produced and written totally serious- they could be on the radio based on production value; but they’re dealing with some pretty out there subjects, that might not be safe for work. And that’s what we do.

And what about the future then? I know the Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust game just came out and the Spectacular Spider-Man animated series is ongoing for now, are there any other projects you have in the works that you’d care to share?

There’s one I just worked on that I can’t really talk much about, because of confidentiality agreements, which happens to be the rage with pretty much any project. All I can say is that it’s a first-rate project that’s pretty awesome, and that’s all I can say on that one.
Video game-wise there are a couple of things I’ve been doing work on, like Starcraft 2, which I will not allow myself to play, because I am a recovering World Of Warcraft fanatic. I lost the better part of a year to that game. So, I’m not letting myself play Starcraft 2, but I’m working on it! And then, there’s a Star Wars project that I’ve been doing some voices on.

Fantastic!
As young as you still are, you have worked in entertainment for twenty years, easy. With all the experience, have you ever thought about doing other things behind the scenes? Have you ever gotten the writing bug for cinema or video games, or even doing comic books?

Without a doubt. Basically, I like to tell stories. And whatever way I can do that, however many ways I can accomplish that whether it be songwriting and singing or being in a video game, or doing on camera or doing voice overs. It’s all in some way telling a story, and that’s what I love to do. Yea, I would definitely not rule out writing, definitely not rule out any other behind the scenes things. I think it would be a lot of fun; and the more I try, the more things I can say I have tried.

I think that’s a perfect point to check out on.
Thank you for taking out time from your schedule to talk with us.

No worries, man. Thank you for the interview!

http://www.joshkeaton.com/

torquemada pulp

Digging Up The Past With Anthony Schiavino

posted on July 27th, 2009 in interviews

Anthony Schiavino is a jazzy cool writer, designer, letterer and packager. He does a lot of the behind the scenes work on some of the pulpier stories to have hit in recent years. His Sergeant Zero is going to be big, wait and see. He talks with Richard Caldwell here about a few things- history, his storytelling, and the industry at large.

Anthony, you started as an intern to the irrepressible Bob Harras way back when. What was the biggest learning experience of that era in your life?

AS- My intern days. A decade ago this year actually. I remember it well. Passing the telephone interview. Being placed in the crappy comics closet-sized office only to move to the luxurious X-MEN suite. Traveling into the big city and heading into the doors of the hallowed halls of MARVEL. I mean it’s Marvel Comics. It’s one of the seven wonders in our world (although it was at a different building on 5th than where it is now). I did learn quite a few things while I was there. How to make photo copies, lie about drunken…oh wait…you don’t want to hear THOSE kinds of stories. Even if they involved House of Pain on the radio and an editor dancing with a cane. Nothing scathing, just alot of good times.

The biggest learning experience I had, and something I stand by to this day, is to treat everyone with an equal respect. In comics, and in life, you cross paths with so many people. Some good. Some bad. Some you’ll never remember meeting at all because of boredom or perhaps a good pint(s) of Guinness. Some people you become steadfast friends with for the rest of your life, and others…well parting ways can’t come soon enough. But regardless of that fact you have to treat everyone with the same amount of respect on your way up. You just never know who you’re going to meet on your way down. Or through even. I mean all people. From the highest professional to the clerk in your local town. You don’t know who knows who in their lives.
You don’t know where your next job, your next friendship or acquaintance, or word of mouth is going to come from. That’s not saying you have to like everyone. Or talk to everyone. Because I’ve burned bridges in my day and I burned them well. But, especially in the comics business, who you know is golden.
And when you see Stan Lee don’t go running towards him like a raving lunatic. Even if he’s just ten mere feet away.
Okay so that’s a whole other learning experience but you’re not going to learn the first if you don’t treat professionals like living breathing human beings.

And what led you to the Marvel offices to begin with? Were you a “died in the wool” comics fan already, or did you acquire that obsession in the time of higher learning? What is your origin story?

AS- Part of being placed in the “crappy” office was that, while I was a huge fan of comics, I can’t say I knew a whole hell of alot about continuity. As a kid I would draw all the time. Not so much anymore but I always loved to draw. The bug didn’t hit me until I was in the food store one day in junior high and got a copy of Uncanny X-Men Volume 1 #280 (Thank you Google!). What’s so special about this issue you may ask? Nothing really. But I think, looking back, just the fact that I could get a comic somewhere other than a comic shop…I miss those days. But nothing really was special about that issue. Did I know who Jim Lee was and that he did the cover? No. Did I know Andy Kubert illustrated the interiors? What’s Kubert? Who’s this Muir Island Saga?
Now granted all of that, when I finally read the issue, was amazing. It really hit me. Not the story. Couldn’t even tell you what it was really about. It was moreso the art form. It was moreso telling a story through illustration. I’m a movie buff in the general sense. No I haven’t seen every movie and there’s some that you’d probably be in awe of the fact I haven’t seen them yet…but comic books are essentially movies in the illustrated form.
That’s how I see them. That’s what grabbed me. That’s even how I write. The fact you could do all of that with an unlimited budget and special effects that transcended time and technology. Blows your mind. I wanted more.
So I can’t say I was “died in the wool”. I’ve never thought of myself that way. Still don’t think that way. I’ve never read Frank Miller’s Daredevil but I did acquire it at an early age. Believe it or not, can’t believe I’m going to say this, I found out about the Marvel internship program on AOL of all places in a Marvel chat room. Tom Brevoort was nice enough to give me some contact info when I inquired more.
The rest of it is kind of a blur. I do remember reading Tom Strong #1 while I was sitting at a desk across from Claremont’s office. I loved it. I mean it’s based in pulp so how could I not. I remember hearing a few people around the office talking about how they didn’t like it. Strongly didn’t like it. For no real reason at all.
It’s the little things you remember. That’s what makes it all fun.
Eventually I had to “grow up” (says the guy who is going to see The Lord of the Rings at Radio City Music Hall with a live orchestra for his 30th birthday…thank you wife!) and the drawing turned into graphic design.

I know of the Rings performance, and I assure you I am envious.
So where did the graphic design take you? I know you were a newspaper man for a spell- how did that balance with your obvious desire to tell a story? And was there a break, or did you fall straight in with the freelance work, like the massive workload you performed for Moonstone?

AS- One birthday to rule them all…that’s all I’m saying.
It took me back to the great city of New York. For however it happened there was an opening at TOR Books (Tom Doherty Associates) and I interviewed. Now somebody hears TOR and they think Science Fiction and Fantasy books. And I can assure you it’s all of that. But what I can also tell you is that I worked in the Flatiron building. That wedge shape building just about downtown. That also was just amazing. I worked on paperback covers which essentially took the hardcovers, reformatted them to size, and prepared them for production. I made those book cover jpegs, the ones you see on Amazon, every month. There were times where the hardcover design didn’t work for the mass market and we redesigned them. There were also times where I had to design original concepts and yes paranormal romance was part of that. It’s my dirty little worked on “porn” kind of secret. Hey, I didn’t have to read them. I just designed them. One of the highlights was working on a beat up pulp design for War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. The cover was even printed on matte paper, which is just a feat in and of itself.

This was right out of college too. The one thing I have to say is that I consider myself blessed for the work I’ve had both in the day jobs and freelance. There was a time when the building was being renovated. We had to move to another floor. If you look up towards the top there’s a floor with these huge windows. I was a couple of floors below that. One floor below, however, was the executive offices and at the point, as they call it, there’s a balcony. This was the head guy’s office, of the whole set of publishing companies, but was vacant at the time. I’m afraid of heights. I made it into the office with these massive windows on both sides, but never out on that balcony. To this day I kick myself because my friends took my camera and got some awesome photos looking straight down. But alas I never got them. You could have seen straight down 5th right past the Empire State Building. I’m a big fan of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (where the building makes a nice cameo) as well as King Kong (original and Peter Jackson’s version). So I was just taking it all in.
Things happened in my personal life. Not so great things centering around health issues that weren’t mine. And at that point I chose to move closer to home. I’d get up at 5 in the morning, if not earlier, and would get home at 7 on a good day. So between all of that and the personal issues I needed to find some new work.
An old friend, somebody I did indeed burn bridges with (those ashes are stamped into salted earth like the end of Tropic Thunder), worked at a local newspaper. I sent him my resume who in turned sent it along. A month or two later I was a newspaperman. You can tell where this is going. I worked there for three years starting off at the bottom of the design food chain working for some great people. Eventually I became Art Director and at the end of those three years was promptly let go, along with countless other thousands of newspaper people.
Throughout all that I worked in comics (and pulps) on the side. I started with lettering, working with Robert Tinnell and Neil Vokes (along with Todd Livingston) on The Black Forest from Image Comics. It was a daunting 100 page black and white publication based in old horror movies. I loved every second off it.
I’ve done countless logos, both paid and unpaid and more lettering and still more logos. It was mostly in comic books. No matter how much I would try to get away I would always end up back in comic books. I don’t say that as a bad thing. Just for whatever reason I always landed in comics.
At some point I caught up with Dave Flora and started lettering his Ghost Zero comic. I loved what he was doing, shot him an e-mail, and it naturally progressed from there. Dave is THE guy I bounce my ideas off of. The work he puts out is just pure genius. We get caught up in these long winded emails about comics and telling each other how much we want to do what the other is doing. He’s become one of my very good friends.
Moonstone was definitely in there. It all started with a book called Domino Lady. It was going to be self published by Ron Fortier (and Rob Davis) through Airship 27. These guys produce some great pulp books you should check out. I actually worked on quite a few of their earlier publications. The entire production. From cover, to interior layout, to production. Like 300 page books from start to finish. Anyway, for reasons I don’t know, Domino Lady was eventually handed off to Joe Gentile at Moonstone. I was working on the paperback cover at that point.
Months passed. It got shelved for the time being. I went on to other things. At a certain point Joe emailed me again and well…we finished it. I really tried to do something different than what Moonstone was doing at that point. To really put it up there with the Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler books. What Black Lizard has been doing recently. That kind of design was in the back of my head.
Doug Klauba is another one of those good friends I bounce ideas off of. He’s one of the nicest guys in comics I have ever met. But he gives it to you like it is. If it’s not working he tells you which is why I ask for his opinion (along with Dave’s). Anyone can stroke your ego but, as a great intern once told me, you can’t polish a turd. Crap is crap. One day he emails me and says he’s working on this project for Moonstone. It’s The Phantom. More to the point The Phantom: Generations. Would I want to design the logo and cover layouts?
Hell yes I would. I mean it’s the fucking Phantom. THE. PHANTOM. Now I have to be honest. I’m no longer on the book. But I got to design a logo for a pop-culture icon. That’s what counts.
Worked in the Flatiron. Check.
Worked on the Phantom. Check.
At some point in there I was also asked to work on the logo for The Lester Dent Museum of Pulp History which is, I believe, the first and only Lester Dent museum. It’s one of my favorite pieces.

So what other freelancing gigs might readers have picked up? As the bulk of your comics work thus far has been in that arena, through what curious patches of creativity has that road pulled you through?
And what about your movie-lust? What voices have you heard the loudest over the years, prompting you to take out your pens and set to work?

AS- Oh you just hit a nerve. Take a seat if you’re not already. We might be here awhile.
I can’t say everyone reading this has picked them up, although they’re going to want to now, but in college a friend of mine, Jason Butkowski, and I started a pulp fiction line of books called Episodes from the Zero Hour! This ties into movies as you’ll soon find out.
Just like comics I’ve always been drawn to the 1940s era ever since I can remember. I just feel like I can relate to that era more so than I can today. A man out of time if you will. Those old black and white noirs with copious amounts of alcohol and cigarettes in a dark bar with a stunning dame swapping quick-witted dialogue. It’s an era of black and white right and wrongs but at the same time there’s a thousand shades of gray. There’s just the romanticism of it all that draws me in.
While at the newspaper I wrote a column that ran on the NPR website called “This I Believe” (You can also find it at my website at http://www.pulptone.com/?page_id=275). It’s all about that era and how I relate to it. I’m quite proud of it. I found out about the column, went home that night after an extended day of work, and just wrote until it was done. Has to be one of my favorite things I’ve done hands down. The easiest to write too. A good friend once told me you have to write what you know. How I know these kinds of things…couldn’t tell you. I just do.
That voice more so than anything else calls out to me.
I needed a project for my senior portfolio and me, being me being the guy I am, I couldn’t just do a splatter art painting. No. I had to make a movie. But not just any movie. It was going to be a black and white “noir”.
Make no mistake. We had no budget. We were, I think, $75 in the hole when all was said and done. We used our own cars. Mine a station wagon and not the cool kind. The end result became TEN COUNT starring Jason Butkowski as Tommy “KNUCKLES” McNichols and Anthony Schiavino as Joey “NO-NOSE” Nunzio. The video is posted at http://www.episodesfromthezerohour.com under Volume One. My girlfriend, now wife, Erin helped out with the camera work and was our general go to girl for everything.
I don’t know how we managed to get around campus with the toy guns we had, especially since we ripped off the orange caps (Thank you Kaybee toys!), without getting stopped by the police but we did. I also don’t know how I managed to successfully splice Etta James with Miles Davis. At Last with a cool sax. I think I jumped out of my seat when I heard it the first time. We were going to go back and do the next serial but, as life would have it, it never happened.
And that’s where the books came in. We didn’t do the movie serial but we knew we wanted to do something more. We wanted to use the serial format. People can take it on a train or bus on their commute or whatever else and read an entire story in a fraction of the time it would take to read a novel. Don’t get me wrong, I have a rather large book collection. I love long books. But serials are where my heart is. Apparently I’m not the only one who feels this way. The majority of the public doesn’t read anymore. But when they hear about short serials they take to it rather quickly.
So we took KNUCKLES and put him in Federal City. He got into some rough stuff and Volume One was born. Bunch of short stories involving our TOUGH GUY FOR HIRE and another involving Junkie Johnson with spot illustrations by Jared Araujo (my boss at the newspaper at the time) and Rob Davis. This is also where I met Doug Klauba. We were working on the cover and I found his work. Jason and I both decided he was it. I ended up cold emailing him, as opposed to cold calling, and introduced myself. The rest is history. Volume 2 came out later, written by Ron Fortier and illustrated by Dave Flora…there’s those two guys again. It involves a priest, Father Michael Ryan whose tagline was A FIST IN ONE HAND AND A ROSARY IN THE OTHER! Hey I just thought it sounded cool. Where else are you going to read about a priest fighting for justice, swinging a baseball bat at gangsters, protecting a few senior citizen store owners. That rat bastard KNUCKLES even made a cameo and walked away. Some tough guy he is. To his credit though it wasn’t a paid gig.
I keep trying to get Ron to write a Christmas book with Father Ryan that is reminiscent of The Bishop’s Wife with Cary Grant. That kind of movie that you just don’t see anymore. Ironically, or not so much, my mother gave it to me for Christmas one year. I heard of it but had never seen it at that point. Must have been a sign. Here’s hoping Ron reads this and considers it.
We’re working on Volume 3 right now. Jay had to go and get married this year so it got put on hold for a bit. But it’s a full adventure book upwards 300 pages. A flip book that doesn’t really flip with Jay writing Rex Rockwell and his intrepid society of Cryptozoologic hunters on one side and another guy- S.E. Dogaru writing Mac Samson: The Secrets of the Lost City! on the other. We’re hoping it’s out early next year. A really good friend of mine, Rich Woodall (of Johnny Raygun fame…buy these comics) and Duane Spurlock are on art chores.
Anyway, while the book was on hold, those movies were calling out to me.
Pulling at the back of my subconscious.
While Jay was preparing to get hitched I started getting ideas. I started having daydreams of Bogart and Bacall. One of my favorite movies of all time is To Have and Have Not. To me it’s better than Casablanca. I know people are going to hate me for that. But the dialogue is better. The emotion between those two is real. It’s just not in Casablanca. Okay fine so the sets are better in that one but that’s about it. They would eventually fall in love and marry sure, but at the beginning, without even knowing that…you can just feel it when they entered the room so to speak. Some of the greatest lines in any movie I’ve watched so far…
And I have to confess. I only recently discovered this movie thanks to a friend of mine who is into old movies just as much as I am, if not more. I probably annoy her talking about them so much. But once I saw it…it changed my life. Those two are what people secretly want to be in their daydreams when they’re stuck at work in a deadend job bored to tears. This girl also helped me to discover Hitchcock. I was missing out on life let me tell you. Didn’t even know.
And that’s where the future all started.
The gears started turning. The drums started beating.
I discovered, thanks to TCM, the Val Lewton movies. These are the kind of movies you watch at night, turn off all the lights, and you sit without saying a word, glued to the television. It’s like watching a painting of black caressing the lurid darkness. Poetry through motion. Just watch I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
Out of the Past…my jaw dropped when I saw this. The dialogue of this movie, the narration, is just quintessential noir. I recommend this to everyone I can. I have to thank Ed Brubaker in the back of Criminal for that one. Another movie that changed my thought process.
And the gears turned a bit more. The drums got louder.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t give mention to The Thin Man series. These I always knew about. Nick and Nora Charles. One of the best on screen couples to grace the silver screen.
Part of what I do, whether it’s design work or writing, is taking from the past and mixing it a little bit with modern day. It’s like a good drink. You’re taking from the immense history we have at our disposal and you’re infusing it with today’s standards. Much of that is in terms of production. But still, that’s how I work.
Then there’s the music. Old big bands and swing. People like Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw (who I think is better of the two and will probably hear it just like Casablanca). Singers like Anita O-Day and Connee Boswell. These are what’s playing on my “radio” as I write. Which, to me, is just as essential as any movie already in my head influencing me.
Picture it late at night, lights are off. The subtle hum of my laptop, and the clarinet comes in.
So I sat down to write my story.

And so was born Sergeant Zero? Tell us a little something about the character, and your aims.

AS- Sergeant Zero is what I’ve been living, breathing, sleeping, and dreaming for months. I’ve been describing it as something along the lines of a pulpy patriotic hero meets Band of Brothers meets classic black and white Hollywood romance. And then some.
With this I’ve taken everything I am, everything I like, and put it into a comic book about a soldier, Joseph Sinclair, who comes home after the second World War living with post traumatic stress disorder. As we call it now anyway. But back then nobody really knew what that was. Everything we’ve seen so far takes place during the War but the bulk of this book takes place in the early 1950s and how Joe copes.
Joe is just trying to get by. He really is. But he’s not doing so well. Many thought they were going to be set for life when they got back home but the reality was not so much. Now I’m pushing 30 so I’ve never actually lived through the era. But I’ve found that when writing something like this, looking back through the wars of the 20th century, and what we’re going through now, the feeling was generally the same. So I slide myself into their shoes and I picture what it must have been like facing uncertainty. Just with a different backdrop and what I would do with a gun aimed at my face.
But you see Joe is having night tremors, and spastic fits in the middle of the street. He’s seeing things he didn’t live through. Things he can’t remember. Things that are almost super-human. Some of it supernatural even. He lives in, what I call, The End. The Lower East End. The bottom of the barrel. You don’t go on the streets after dark, as with that comes another set of problems to deal with, of course.

One of the things Joe remembers is a heinous murder. One he committed and was so bad that he vowed never to use a gun again, not even to save himself.
The book is about World War II, sure. It’s even about the start of the Cold War later in the series. But it’s also a book about inner turmoil, which can also be considered a different kind of war. What happens when another life is at stake and he has to use that gun again? Can he? Will he? That’s really the gist of the first 6 issues which intersperses a WWII battle within seeing the origins of Sergeant Zero. Who Joe really is. Not the Joe from his flashbacks.
We see the origin story and him getting his gear. We also see the events leading up to the battle and how they manage to get into Germany at the start of the war, way before Pearl Harbor. Sergeant Zero…Joe Sinclair…is a soldier. But there are elements dealing with the government, more specifically R.A.D.I.O. (Research And Defense Initiative Organization) that make him more than that on posters, magazines, and yes pulp fiction. They even give him an emblem for his chest. At one point he makes a comment that he doesn’t need a “mask”, in our case goggles since I’m trying to keep it down to Earth, and he says let them see my face. Let them see whose sending them back to hell. The answer he gets is that it isn’t just about him. He’s the everyman now. He’s the hero the public are going to look up to. That’s not to say Joe is a boy scout. He’s a good guy, sure, but it’s up to Uncle Sam to make him look the part.

There’s a point where Joe wants to write letters home but he can’t because he knows that whatever he writes is going to become part of history. It’ll become part of public record on display in a museum somewhere. So he, like many men of the day, signed up to do the right thing as they thought but there are consequences. Sorry guys. And there’s romance in this. Deep heart wrenching romance just like Bogie and Bacall and I love writing it.
I’m trying to be somewhat historically accurate but for me this is more about the slugfest of human emotion than history or reoccurring villains. That’s not to say we’re throwing everything we know out but I care more about when the soldier is feeling out on the battlefield or walking down a dark alley then I do about when the battle took place in the greater scheme of things. When it’s sad it’s really depressing and when somebody gets shot it’s a bloody hell of a mess. Brains do fly and people get hurt.
But a big part of who I am, what I write, has to do with hope. Which isn’t a commonly used element in this sandbox that I’m playing in. Hope doesn’t come to everyone naturally. Even those meant for something greater.
At one point I bring in a priest to talk about the ramifications of another event, one which I can’t spoil. We meet the love interest Kelsey Halliday. True story. One day I get an email out of the blue from a girl…Kelsey Halliday. She doesn’t read comics. She was starting up a website and she Googled her name. My character came up and she was just ecstatic. That was really a great day for me. She looked just like her too. It was the craziest thing I’ve ever come across.
Right now I have 19 issues written. It’s got a big healthy 1950s newspaper, a cocky news reporter, Cold War elements and old spy kinds of fun, a villain who can’t die…in a sort of fashion, there’s one issue centering around the ghosts of the dead from a brutal battle. And it keeps going. Towards issue 19 I’ve even got some martial arts elements in there (centering around the American Chinese…yes I said Chinese… internment camps out West) as well as a bare knuckle brawl in a dive bar. Hell there’s even a fight in space. Yes. Space. This is the 50s after all.
And maybe a giant monster in the first issue. Just saying. Maybe.
What I’m getting at is that it’s got something for everyone. From what I’m finding out on Twitter and Facebook is that sure the comic crowd is taking to this very well but I’m also getting the old movie buffs and just flat out the people who don’t or have never read comics. They genuinely love this comic. Their words not mine.

So I get asked on almost a daily basis from new people discovering it. When is it coming out? Truth be told I don’t have a publisher yet. I’m looking for one right now. Believe me I want to get it out there. I am chomping at the bit for people to read this. I’m putting everything I have into this thing because I’m also lettering and coloring. You’ll notice that there’s a throw back in the those. Before going into anything I create a style guide as I guess an animator would. It’s mixing that old with the new. I’m using modern day production but attempting to make the letters look like they would have back in the “old days”. If it wasn’t done then I’m not doing it now. Generally the same with the colors. No blends. Sorry…it’s the graphic designer in me talking. I’ve thought this thing out in every aspect of production.
We’re working to really push this thing. I have to mention Simone Guglielmini (the other part of “we” besides my wife and friends determined to make this happen). The man is a super genius with a pencil and ink. I’m sitting here thinking of what to say about Simone and there’s just not enough hours in the day. I’ve sent him scripts and he goes above and beyond what I have in my head. We go through the process. We talk about pages, etc. You know how it works. There’s a tight collaboration. For me the process, the behind the scenes, the sketches, and everything else (like in making a movie) is where I thrive moreso than the final product. I love this stuff. It’s like when Star Wars came out. Regardless of what you think of the prequels I absolutely loved all the artwork that went into it. Just the whole process. I have that with Simone on this comic. We’ve got a ton of concept design, most of which is on the website. Some days he’ll tell me…I have an idea…trust me…and you know I’ve gotten to that point where i just do. It’s that kind of working collaboration. From the start we were on the same page, no pun intended. Sometimes he’ll add in a panel and I’ll have to readjust dialogue but it’s infinitely better than what I originally envisioned. I wake up some days with full pages of art gracing my inbox. I can’t explain how that feels, seeing your creation come to life.

My hope is to one day do a full issue of Sergeant Zero with just Simone’s pencils. They are a work of art. But I mean the guy is from Italy. Comics are seen differently in Europe than they are here, more of an artform, so he’s coming at it with that background. I’ve found that for him taking on the world is nothing at all. Believe me…I’m throwing the world at him with some of these ideas I have.
I have been told that the comic reads more like a book or a movie than a comic. But I think that’s why people are taking to this. People that have never read comic books before want to read this comic.
The question now is how to do I get into their hands.

And what other projects have you in the works?

AS- In the meantime Rich Woodall is putting together a new zombie anthology. I think they were throwing around the name BITE. It’s going to be a massive tome of a thing. He asked me to write a short for it so that’s coming sooner than later. It’s based in modern day but it’s a complete throwback that involves a boat and, yes, a bit of romance.
C.T. and the Savage Chimps of Cannibal Mesas, which was also born and bred originally within Zero Hour! is something I’m having lots of fun with. Think of it as a dark western mixed with comedic elements involving chimps, the desert, some slicked up oil skulls, and a simian’s claw that the cowboy has to sew on. Pure pulp cliffhanger action. Oh and, as the name states, there’s cannibals.

So Sergeant Zero is still the main push, the dream book and, pending the right home, the dream presentation as well. Not too ambitious, especially considering how frakking unbelievable Simone’s work is. Hop in the time machine for a minute. Where do you want to be professionally, in five years?

AS- Five years from now is a long time considering for the past almost year I’ve been living day to day and week to week. I want the house, the children, the new MAC computer…all that. It’d be a nice change of pace. But in regards to comics and a career in entertainment…there are two camps these days. One side starts out doing comic books for the sake of doing comics. Because they love them. The other side gets into it for the movie and eventually does the comic. We see it all the time. I’m in between. I would love to get Sergeant Zero onto the silver screen or perhaps a series on a cable network. I got into this for the story but I’d be mad not to aim higher. Why not right? You just get to meet more people and add to everything already in your life. One of the things I discussed on my website would who would play who in the movie and I asked what people thought. It came down to Thomas Jane (who just did this amazing looking and scripted movie with Tim Bradstreet and Mark Hosack called Give ‘em Hell, Malone) as Joe and Donnie Wahlberg as Lt. Francis Deargood. He’s wearing the star on his helmet in the preview pages.
I’m a huge fan of what Crackle.com did with Ed Brubaker and his Angel of Death series. Again, it harkens back to the serials. I would love to do that at some point. Wouldn’t have to be Sergeant Zero although nobody has really played with spin off series yet. Television is doing web serials but nothing that takes a character and just goes off on it’s own. Comics get spin-offs all the time. The graphic designer and movie lover in me wants to be a part of that kind of grand scale production. We’re on the edge of the precipice now in technology looking out across the ether and we’re all just waiting for that next step.
And of course years from now I want to still be writing comics with maybe a book in there as well. Just keep honing what I’ve been doing. There’s other ideas really swirling around in my head I need to get out.
Simone is quite amazing. You should have seen the page he turned in today. The guy is a perfectionist. But then so am I. It’s why it all works.

Perfectionism is all about getting the job done. And that means this book will see the light of day- I believe it.
Any parting shots before you go back to doing pulp things?

AS- I’ll drink to that. Using the term parting shots is taking a chance when you’re talking pulp. I plan on being around for a good long while be it as a writer or a designer or anything else I can get my creative hands on. You can find me on Twitter talking everything and whatever else hits me, Facebook and of course pulptone.com. I’m only getting started. Stop on by and introduce yourself.
This is the point where I kick back with my feet up on the desk, light a cigarette, and down a glass of Kentucky Bourbon. The fedora is hanging on the coat rack behind me and the typewriter is in front cooling off…

the Lottery Party XXVI

the Lottery Party: Proletariat

posted on July 29th, 2009 in columns

Being not at all an account of boobies…
In deconstructing the machineworks of the almighty creative effort, I am beginning to see more of its hidden workings. I see the skeleton.
What I need personally and impersonally, what my creative yearnings need, hell- what the whole industry needs, is the step back warranted so as to grasp more of the bigger picture. In doing so, I can see the roads travelled. Yea, they may not have gone anywhere good before, but who is to say the same results would still apply? We crave survival like mother’s milk. We need alternatives, other possibilities to insure survival- the more the merrier, right?
With regards to the industry, fans are griping increasingly about pricing to the deaf ears of publishers, creative folks are hunting better day jobs to stay afloat of the economic beast of the apocalypse, retailers are dying off while distribution is operating with the megalomaniacally capitalistic sentimentalities of a crack dealer. Get us all hooked on what you give us, Diamond, but what happens when you fall below the weight of your own bloated ineptitude? You have spent years killing the competition, so where else do we turn? So many problems, all linked together. And none of this is news, to be sure.
Obviously, if the game is not working, if the girl is sick on so many levels, then maybe it’s time to get checked for VD? Maybe a new girl entirely? If the system is not working, then let’s just change the system, easy as pie.
Problem solved.
Of course, semantics beseech more. So I propose that all angles be explored more openly, no stone left unturned. Innovation is NOT costly, and right now everyone’s wallet is skinnier than a Jeph Loeb plot.
But this compelling surge to take everything online, to embrace technologies as though that alone might validate our medium…

In all honesty, it will only ever work for the big boys. The total sales of comic books are only a fraction of the total revenue from both Marvel and DC. Their parent companies will only keep the shop open strictly as an idea house. Though the million dollar movies could not exist without the printed source materials, all the money men know and likely despise that. The big two are not looking ahead to the extended health of the comic book business, they are looking to take your money and validate their investors, same with Diamond, or any collective entity of such girth. Which means, as their very individualized best interests do not match with the well-being of the industry proper, then we should stop looking to them to set the standards for everyone else. They can afford to spend money. They can afford the egos of big names and production values.
And realistically…it works for them.
Of course they are the giants, they get the job done no matter the moral costs of turning a dime. Damn you Bendis for making the Avengers cooler than ever. Damn you Morrison for shoving the creative stick up mainstream DC’s arse and giving it a spine again. It works for them, and even with the insane cover prices, even with the burning out of so many spirits, their sales stay strong enough to purport survival. So everyone piles in step to mimic the best they can.
Which is the heart of this problematic nexus, I think. We need publishers willing to take chances. Everyone needs to take chances, creators and retailers and distributors too. Screw marketing agendas, why not devote effort into outright survival at a level beyond the next sales quarter, the next voucher period? Why not show some real creative innovation and fill that void? Try. New. Things.

And now I get to the point of this and explain myself a bit.
In pursuing alternative directions, one big trend I am predicting for the next couple of years in small press will be a cheapening of production expenditures at every link in the chain. Cheaper books means more books sold, and more books sold means more jobs. I can imagine it all, from certain publishers exploring less pricey printing methods to certain creators exploring less pricey tools for their trades. For example, a decent colorist needs around six grand for the necessary software to do what they do. A Doctor Martins watercolour kit costs a world of a difference less. The very same logic applies to digital inking as well.
Still, we all have heard the argument calling for lower grade paper stock, thinking that will equate to cheaper comics. I have used that argument myself, but it is not really so easy a thing. Paper stocks evolved over the past twenty or twenty-five years, primarily to match pace with the then fervently expansive evolution of the colorist’s craft. Coloring does dictate to a large degree, the quality of the paper to be used. Which translates in that reducing of grades would decisively require a falling back to more primitive coloring techniques. Lest we forget, uber-colorist Steve Oliff thrived on the challenges back when though- his own experimentations prompting a number of forced evolutions in the comic-making process, so I believe it can be done again if necessary by those color artists up for new challenges.
However, as the grades of paper have evolved, so too have the printing methods used. This is the point many people miss.
Certainly, Baxter and newsprint would be dramatically less expensive to use, but then the methods to do it, the actual presses necessary for the production process, have themselves become archaic and outdated. Cheap paper is one thing, but to change an entire process is a very expensive venture. Unless of course, some enterprising publisher has the fundage to buy up any of the prematurely retired printing presses from one of the many newspapers going out of operation across the country, or maybe cut some manner of subletting deal with an extant newspaper publisher…then newsprint comics might again be feasible for some. I imagine there could well be some middle ground there, as there are so many papers to choose from. And if the larger publishers would like to continue blaming their own damn gouging on paper costs, then let’s see them bloody well do something about it. Their blame game of fingerpointing resolves nothing. Obviously, as has been stated and proven elsewhere many a time, prices are raised because a large percentage of fandom will shell out no matter what. Fans are greasing their own arses and have no right to blame pubs as long as they continue to pass their dollars into the same damn grimy hands.
And in similar vein, I have tried to insert into countless conversations the idea that retailers should step up and challenge the distribution gambit head on. Like a union. Online sales will need to happen as well, regardless; but for everyone to get by, then all paths must be tread. There is room for everyone and we cannot rule out anything. This also means that more persons elsewhere in the food chain need to realize the importance of the comic book store. How many creators got their start in retail? How beneficial are instore signings, for fans as well as creators who may not otherwise have the time or money for all out conventions? Yet still, retailers need to grow balls. There are other distributors, but unless you make use of their services you have no earthly right to wax irked over the state of things. Stop being lazy and find resolution.
So that’s my suggestion/prediction. For artists who cannot possibly afford the thousands of dollars in equipment needed to consider a renaissance of going back to older ways of plying their trade. Different strokes for different folks indeed. For retailers to step up and defend themselves in unison as opposed to crying foul or just closing their doors forever. For other avenues of distribution to not only be explored, but for every avenue of distribution to be embraced equally, or at least given a seat at the same table. Hence, no more exclusive contracts. And for publishers to take the biggest leaps of faith, and see that the framework needs to be hammered into a completely different structure if it is to survive the storm.
Is this THE magical cure all? Hell no it’s not. It’s only yet another perspective. As with the trying economic glory of our current days, there is no single solution. No one solution that will resolve all woes wholly and in a way that will appease everybody. But it is a solution nonetheless. And it may well work for some. What might not work for someone else may damn well be what you have been looking for all along.
And no matter what, if we want something, whether personal creative fulfillment or the continued livelihood of an industry we love, we have to earn it. We have to work for it. And just maybe step back and strip it down to basics til we remember it again, for what it always was.

by Richard Caldwell, Managing M@#$%@ F@#$%@

Well where is he?

Whatever Happened to the World's Fastest Man? Well...?

posted on July 24th, 2009 in reviews

Whatever Happened To The World’s Fastest Man?
Written by Dave West
Illustrated by Marleen Lowe
Published by Accent UK
Reviewed by Richard Caldwell

Hands down, this is a new and extremely inspired take on the whole concept of “speedsters”. To move faster than those around you, faster than nature or even physics- that is something, right? But what if such incredible powers were not so simple? What if physics (and possibly even quantum mechanics) played a bigger role? And what if those cursed with such abominable abilities really were, at the end of the long day, just one of us after all?
These are only a hint of the flavours suggested in this story, where a madman has unleashed a bomb in the heart of London proper capable of devastation two miles in circumference. Of course, the blessed powers that be try to deal with the situation in every which way imaginable, announcing at last to the public the dire circumstances at a point in which nothing else could possibly be done. Just enough time given for general panic to set in, with the streets overcrowding and all cool lost in the genuflections of guardian angels.

Enter Bobby Doyle, aka Joe everyman, regular bloke with regular dreams. Except for this strange ability of his, wherein he can step outside of time. Now like the average personas of most real-world folks, such power is wasted on common things, like sleeping off hangovers and the like. On the very odd occasion in which something truly unsettling settles in, Bobby is the sort to do what’s right. The downside, very effectively portrayed in West’s narrative, is that while he steps outside of the boundaries of time, his own time marches on, as time is prone to do, the limey bastard. In doing the right thing, his very own life is robbed of him. Think about that.
The art, by the lovingly ingenious Ms. Lowe, is done in a detailed pencil shaded sketch manner, with inked and even computer-enhanced detail awarded to the core points of each and every sequence and frame. This is a bit like Frank Quitely’s work, maybe just prior to his being looped into tights-work only on a steady basis. The characters are as expressive as the very best Manga efforts known to the Western hemisphere, but without any of the attributes of Manga usually offensive or distasteful to the otherwise common Western comic buyer sensibility. This is a fun, energetic style, even while energy itself is a thing that fades within the progression of the plot- and all entirely appropriate, mind you. This is one of those rare indie artists we see nowadays, who you just know beyond a shadow of a doubt is inventive enough to figure out how to draw anything a writer might lay down before her eyes. I do not say such lightly.
It is honestly quite difficult to express how innovative, yet personal, this story really is without giving away any major points of the comic. A few pages into the work and the reader will undoubtedly begin to catch a whiff of things to come; but to see it executed to such a degree…
This is simply one of the finest comic book stories I have seen in quite a spell. I sincerely hope others will read this work, and that it triggers the imagination as muchly as it has my own.
In terms of a personal sacrifice, this will open some eyes as to variant perspectives of unexplored superhero stories yet to be told. In terms of reader satisfaction, unless you are a moronic idiot with drool oozing down your chin round the clock, then a work like this should leave its mark.
A very very very fine comic book, and I was pleased by the experience of the read.

http://www.accentukcomics.com/

Peace Frog

I believe, that should opportunity not present itself otherwise in the near future, that I am soon to enlist/apply with both the Peace Corps and the French Foreign Legion. One or the other is bound most assuredly to take a bite.

I am homeless and unemployed, and quite happy mind you. Having parted with my Hotel Detective position a few weeks back, I find myself in the midst of a paradigm shift. I am currently staying with friends, assisting with remodeling on their new home while just helping out around the house as much as possible. I maintain a number of different projects still, from my work at comicnews.info to a variety of creative ventures. I am actively seeking directions, or the means thereof, to continue my course, my destination. I have no family, no money saved. I pride myself in having lived my adult life halfway in the underground, with minimal paperwork being a key to freedom. No car, average credit, no insurance of any kind, but with many a road travelled thus far. I have no strings.
I am looking everywhere for employ, and am inspired at any excuse to leave this hellmouth for good. My professional background is jack of all trades and master of none.

The Peace Corps [http://www.peacecorps.gov/] would be three months of training followed by two years of overseas duty. I began the process years ago, but was sidetracked by a death in the then diminishing family.

The French Foreign Legion [http://www.legion-recrute.com/en/] would entail a much longer time commitment. They take a ceremonial pride in leaving the past at the door.

My background would be just enough to gain entrance to either program, I suspect. It would mean my dropping off the face of the earth for a spell, and I would have to close off many a door, all for the sake of even more to open up after the fact. This would equate to adventure. The older I get, my wits increase while my body deteriorates. I am painfully aware of time. As drastic as such steps might seem, the promise of a life more interesting is intoxicatingly attractive.
So, I am in research mode now. If nothing more plausible skulks my way in the coming weeks, I am history.

Accent UK's Western

Western...Better Than Spaghetti!

posted on July 21st, 2009 in reviews

Western
Written & Illustrated by a stampede of creative folks
Edited by Dave West & Colin Mathieson
Design & Production by Andy Bloor
Published by Accent UK
Reviewed by Richard Caldwell

Alright pilgrims, I admit my bias. I love a good anthology, and this here anthology is good. Darn good. Accent UK is doing it right, releasing their annual smartly packaged and themed anthologies, each one growing jumbo-sized like a bootless foot swelling from a rattlesnake’s bite. This time round the bend, we get a massive heap of a stew of cowboy tales. I’ll ease up on the lingo if you hear me out. And you really should, because Accent UK’s Western is outstanding.
Two-hundred pages of wonder, where to begin?
Exploring dozens of angles to the Old West genre, this is a motherload of a homage. Archetypal stories, characters and imagery are everywhere, but without crossing into stereotype territory. And with so many fantastic new spins thrown into the mix, readers are offered fun points aplenty in this book, no matter your personal tastes. The range of materials and styles truly is impressive, skirting from the historic to the comical to the hyper-realism of the modernist. The organized ebb and flow of the voices and scenery play out almost like a mixtape full of earnest and dedicated love. Other sizable anthologies could learn a strong thing or three about pacing from this.
To illustrate the variety, here is my take on a sampling of what I read as standouts:

Boots, written and drawn by Morgan Pielli. A wordless strip showing the varied paths tread by a single pair of cowboy boots, from one wearer to the next. Ever been curious of a boot’s perspective of a card game? An eventful few pages, and with a brushy linework that made me think of the great Carol Swain.

A Town Called Desolation, written and drawn by Graeme Neil Reid. A stone solid one pager, this offering has all of the charismatic personality of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; and is illustrated in a style that serves as proof that art can be both purdy and technically sound, all rolled into one.

The Last Train To Jubilation, written and drawn by Gary Crutchley. A group of gunfighters are brought together to deal with a town and a mineshaft, and the horror of a thing inflicting the whole mess. Not to give away too much, Jubilation is a blending of at least a couple of separate genres, and in a very well executed way. Though the graytones were a bit inconsistant, the story itself absolutely made up for it.

Sixteen Horseless Riders, written and drawn by Douglas Noble. A poem without verse, this is one of the more sobering pieces. A mystery without details, we are only given a taste. Brilliantly handled. Like a fragmented story, we are shown only fragmented faces. Noble needs to be big and famous.

Mrs. Henry, written by John Reppion and Leah Moore, drawn by David Hitchcock. This is an adult tale, and in a perfect world would be the origin setup for something much more than just a short story. The timelessness of love triangles, gore and all. Fully formed characters within so few pages just hurts though. And Hitchcock draws unbelievably well. Quite possibly one of the very best stories in the entire volume.

Tenderfoot, written and drawn by Steve Bissette. Laugh out loud funny with colloquial verbiage, Tenderfoot is an observation in how misconstrued events can play out after the fact. Stories can grow larger than life. And Bissette’s art is definitely caught up in the mood of his story, master storytelling and expressive faces make for a fun ride.

I could go on and on (like Dwight MacPherson’s Twilight Zone take on Custer’s Last Stand, or the story adapted from Native American folklore, or the one written by a fifteen year old superstar in the making, but I digress). If you like demons, steampowered robots, zombies, donkey-headed children, and other things not generally associated with cowboys and cowgirls, then this is indeed your cup of tea. Or rotgut.
Accent UK’s Western presentation is a thorough escape that would look not at all out of place on your coffeetable, bookshelf or nightstand. Especially in light of the current and ongoing fun where regards the wonderful world of distribution, Western’s journey has been a gunfight of its own. Support good small press.
If the naysaying readers of this review believe that the Old West is void of new story potential, then boy howdy are they in for a surprise with this pup. Give it a read and thank me later (after applauding the efforts of co-editors Mathieson and West). Accent UK’s Western is worth every damn penny, for quality and diversity alone.

http://www.accentukcomics.com/

Checking In With...

Checking In With...John Chihak

posted on July 20th, 2009 in interviews

What are you working on right now?

Right now I am finishing up issue 5 of Youth in Asia. It’s the flagship title of my indie imprint Anti-Hero Brand Press. Issue five sees Nash confronting the Triple X Heavyweight Champion and finally has the first appearance of the Step Monsters, an all girl punk band which is a kin to Rage Against the Machine with equal parts Bikini Kill and Kittie.

I am also working on the scripts for issues 6 and 7. These scripts are helping to get to know the characters better, and getting more involved in the vigilante stories. It’s also gearing towards a storyline about the origins of all the Youth in Asia characters, which will be very dark. Plus you’ll see the appearance of a new hero in Apex City. So Nash and Agnew won’t be the only one’s prowling the rooftops at night.

And then there are the 1Liner comic strips involving the Youth in Asia gang which are always pretty funny. There is also a pet project in the works called Fuzzyface: The Apex City Chainsaw Massacre which is a cross between the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Muppets. Venus of Necro wrote the original script for the project. I just spoke with her recently and we are going to go ahead with it, as soon as I finish issue 5 of Youth in Asia. I already know it is going to be a graphic novel sized project so it will take quite some time for me to do. But it comes from my love of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and my knowledge that Agnew is the icon of Anti-Hero Brand. It stems from a picture I drew several years ago, and I just decided to run with the idea. It’s a dark comedy, with plenty of homages to the respective sources of inspiration.

I am also working on becoming a regular at a few different conventions. You have to be there for a few years before people start to remember you.

What goals, both short and long term, have you set for yourself when it comes to your comics?

Basically to work steady and make a lot of connections at conventions and online. I really enjoy working in this medium, but it can be tedious. Having some sources of reference and some well known people pulling for you and helping out can make a difference. I plan to continue making regular showings at APE Con, and Phoenix Cactus Con as well as helping make the newly formed Tucson Comic Con a much bigger force. It’s currently in its second year, and has a promising future.

In the long term I would also like to make regular appearances at SDCC. I would like to see what it’s like on the other side of the table there. I would also like to be able to quit my day job so I can work in comics full time. I want to have Youth in Asia become a bigger name in comics and be recognized on a more national scale. I think Youth in Asia would make a great video game and also a pretty cool animated series.

My ultimate goal though is to have someone who knows and follows the book come to a convention with the purpose of meeting me in person and having their picture taken with Agnew.

As far as where I’d like to be in several years: I’d love to have a rabid cult following like Bone or Teenagers from Mars. I’d love to work on an animated series for Youth in Asia. I think it’s got a ton of potential and a lot to offer. A video game would be another amazing project to work on. I can see it involving all aspects of the comic. There’d be a Sims style portion where you run around the city and do all kinds of daily living type stuff, but in a much more extreme way. There’s the 3D action portion for when you’re in vigilante mode. And then there’s the fighter side to it where you can be in the wrestling ring. And I see it being huge. Play with one of the established YiA characters or create your own. Plus a lot of fun side games, like Mario Party where you have to do all kinds of crazy stuff. That would probably feature Agnew a lot.

Look into the future, where do you see the comic book industry five years from now?

Marvel is beginning to worry me. They’ve spent so much money getting their movie studio set up that this is what they’ve banked their future on. They’re running their company like crap right now. Rehashing storylines from twenty or thirty years ago is not going to get you new, long time fans. They’re also asking a lot of the retail industry to help pump up their product. When you’re Marvel comics you have name value and you need to continually improve and push your stories and characters. Banking on Wolverine and Spider-Man to pull you through this slump when you’re telling increasingly bad stories is not a good bet. If they also had their editors step back and let their writers write and do their thing they would be in a better place, creatively. They are essentially writing for the lowest common denominator. Fans who aren’t shall I say, very intellectual. It’s kind of a slap in the face to all the pioneers who helped put Marvel on top with different and edgy content. Now Marvel is just scared of taking chances unless the book has a Snikt! in it. Fuck that. I thought the Wolvie solo movie was seriously lacking in a lot of ways. They didn’t pay tribute to Barry Windsor Smith’s genius in Weapon X. That’s his fucking origin right there. But nah, they make it Weapon 10 and screw the pooch. Marvel is wishing their future on the movies. Which I can see. They’ve been pretty successful thus far. And if trends hold true, they’ll be bankrupt when they put out a movie with any actual substance. Like if they had put any money into the production or advertising of Punisher Warzone they would be out of business now. Cause even though I loved that movie, it tanked. And like Marvel knows, you obviously can’t tell a rated R movie with a mainstream character like Wolverine. I mean he’s a rated R character at best, if not NC-17. He’s violent, drinks, smokes and screws anything on two legs. Does that sound kid friendly to you. But back on topic. If they continue to bank on just two characters and try to rehash old ideas and make the same boring movies, then Marvel is gonna be screwed. Maybe then I can go Jimmy Palmiotti on Joe Quesadilla without having to worry about a floor full of lawyers coming after me.

I see DC pulling way ahead in the actual comics department.

Ideas like Zuda are going to be a thing of the past. I respect the idea, but I dislike the rules. One should not be aiming to get their work published by DC or Marvel, cause the two big dogs are just gonna censor you when you get their. Look what happened to The Boys while it was at Wildstorm (owned by DC). They moved over to Dynamite and haven’t missed a beat and have gotten even more rowdy.

I am hoping the small press industry gets a big boost and begins to thrive. Conventions like APE being owned by San Diego Comic Con is a great thing and will hopefully do more to allow fans to get familiar with some amazing creators who fly under the radar. Comic book movies such as Fanboys, and Ghost World have big cult followings. I see the trend continuing in the next several years. Although this will take a somewhat calculated gamble by movie execs.

I also see the industry going more digital. The downloading of comics is starting to become commonplace nowadays. It is essential that small press creators and all creator owned entities get their fair share of the internet monies. I could kind of care less for Marvel and DC in that respect. They have work for hired contracts and don’t give their creators squat unless your name is Stan Lee. The thing is all about the whole Joe Simon treatment about Captain America. It’s ridiculous. It’s just like Hollywood not paying writers residuals for DVD and internet sales. As soon as DC and Marvel start doing that I will stop “illegally” downloading their books. I hope the internet takes us further than we envisioned. The idea that we can get big time exposure for little or no cost is great for independent creators. To know that guys like me now have a chance to compete is nice. The field will never be leveled completely, but all I want is a chance. I feel that with a good enough idea, good writing and solid storytelling artwork, a chance is all you need. Look at Hack Slash, Teenagers from Mars and Bone, these projects all have something in the works as far as multimedia going for them.

What’s the most rewarding experience you’ve ever had while working in the comics biz?

It’s tough to pick just one. Being on the other side of the table at Phoenix Comic Con in early 2008 was truly an awesome experience. I knew I wanted to do it again. Having Simon Bisley remember me a year after I met him and offering to do a pinup for me was great. He’s a big fan of the Agnew character. And then there was APE Con last year. A guy came up and asked me to critique his work. After talking to him for a while, he asked if he could take a picture with me. It was a big boost for me. And then having Nash and Kyle appear in issue six of Bomb Queen: The Divine Comedy was so great. Jimmie Robinson is a man of his word and also let me put BQ into issue four of Youth in Asia.

What is the dream project?

If by dream project you mean working on an established character, I would have to say something obscure like truly making Superman more human, by killing off a major character. I already have the concept plotted out in my mind. I also have a much darker, more grim version of Batman I am planning on working on with a cohort of mine. I’d love to work with Rick Spears or Rob G on something. Yeah, working on a Teenagers from Mars sequel. But if you mean working on something involving my creation, I would have to say working on a movie project or an animated series or video game involving the Youth in Asia Universe.

Lois Lane or Mary Jane?

That’s a tough one. I like Lois cause she’s a strong atypical female character without powers in a comic. But I have a thing for redheads, so it’s a toss up. If we’re going on looks, Mary Jane. But if we’re talking purely personality based, then Lois, hands down.

http://www.antiherobrand.com/

The Oasis

The Many Worlds Within The Oasis

posted on July 17th, 2009 in reviews

Oasis: Omnibus
Written & Illustrated by Nicholas Myers
Self-Published
Reviewed by Richard Caldwell

Oasis, an original graphic novel by Nicholas Myers, is a motherload of a work.

An epic tale involving dozens of characters and spanning decades, Oasis is the story of not just a revolution, but an ultimate revolution- and on an alien world at that.

In a totalitarian society ruled hand and fist by a god gone mad, the citizenry are deluded into believing their own less than meager crumbs are something akin to manna, while any brave enough to stand up and speak out are faced with brutal public execution or worse- expatriation. Patrick Nichleson was trying to get by, attempting a career as a writer and looking to have his own modest needs filled, until he made the criminal mistake of having friends somewhat involved in the growing network of rebellion, leading to Patrick losing everything he owned and being cast outside of the giant walled-city, naked and beaten and on the run from both hunter-seekers and demon dogs. As the saga then unfolds, Patrick transitions from joining the revolution to becoming the revolution himself. Along the way, friendships are forged, enemies are made, and lives are lost, as everything changes forever.

Myers has built not merely a city or a world to house his magnum opus drama, he has created a universe. The narrative slides at times easily into one of a metaphysical voice, with grandiose impressions given to give the scale of things at play a feeling of the full intentions of otherworldly gods at work, or whim. The story of Patrick and Oasis is about evolution itself, from the personal to the societal, from the physical to the spiritual. This is a setting of unadulterated science fantasy, where dragons fly high above robots the size of tenement buildings, while laser technology and psychic phenomena color the personalities implored. Not only does the weight of political anarchy fail to entirely stomp out the dreams of its victims here, but the dreams themselves can sometimes open unto literal omnidimensional realms.

In terms of stylistic vision, such massive examples of the winds of change should be a given, as the world of Oasis is home to all manner of strange creatures. Some are born with wings, some with abilities to speak internally with others over great distances, and yet some are born with desirous ambitions of such lethal magnitude that destruction of everything seems the only viable course of action. Myers has noticeable fun in drawing these inhabitants, his style being generally loose and caricaturesque. The physicalities of many of his characters have to be seen to be believed. Design-wise, many persons can illustrate cyborgs, but what about beings consisting of nothing but multiple right hands? Or persons with giant fish in place of natural limbs? Or enormous squids that graze in fields while hovering about, completely ignorant to the fact that squids do no such things in our world? Though often animated in spirit, the art never comes across as childlike or rudimentary. If anything, the more bizarre and surreal and monstrous the faces and settings, the more Myers’ creative flair explodes with glee.

Very very very imaginative.

As a whole, one can see a glimpse of the many things that may have inspired this book, from a fondness for Anne McCaffrey-authored dragon stories to a love for the cartoony expressionism of Chuck Jones and Tex Avery to a solid understanding of political science and a yearning for fulfillment from religious dogma. Even some Lovecraft. Oasis: Omnibus is eco-centric science fiction. Oasis: Omnibus is an Aesopian fable. Oasis: Omnibus is a multi-year long effort from a spectacularly inspired writer/artist.

A good story, no matter the medium, should provide an escape of sorts, preferably while provoking us with questions and giving some cause to think outside of our timid little boxes. Take us away someplace new, and teach us something along the voyage. Oasis: Omnibus, by Nicholas Myers, well succeeds in both aims.

Even if it does not necessarily have a happy ending.
Find it here: http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/oasis-omnibus/489372

Violence And Sex

Soul-Savers: Violence And Sex

posted on July 16th, 2009 in reviews

Soul-Savers
Written by John B. Lai
Published by Ultimate Comics Group
Reviewed by Richard Caldwell

Soul-Savers, the debut novel from John B. Lai, is not a comic book.

Granted, Lai is Editor in Chief and head writer for his Ultimate Comics Group publishing outfit (as well as sometimes letterer and colorist); and though it is the very same UCG that published this book, Soul-Savers is a horse of a different color- a story so fiercely independent that it demanded a different presentation altogether.

So, Lai has authored here a violent, sexy globetrotting tale involving secret agents conducting their wetworks operations against the backdrop of a hidden network of particular destinies fulfilled, where love itself may or may not win out at the end of the bloody day.

But what does love necessarily have to do with espionage and assassination?

Joshua Lee and Angel Dashae were otherwise normal, successful people. Each with careers and families, comfortable with believing their respective glasses were half full, never realizing the proverbial glasses were in actuality bigger than life itself. Enter the Soul-Saver International organization, a clandestine agency of worldwide reach and intent. Known to Federal governments as an apolitical and nonprofit peacekeeping collective that always finds solutions quickly and quietly, the professionals of Soul-Savers International meanwhile covertly pursue agendas much more timeless than any existing corporate or political motivations. As Joshua and Angel are inducted into the mysterious SSI, they find immediately upon meeting each other that they are in fact soul mates, in every conceivable sense of the terminology. Despite being complete strangers, with separate lives entirely and the pre-established familial ties that give foundation to such, Joshua and Angel are now inadvertently and forever linked to each other, for good and ill.

As Soul-Savers, their meeting was fated, with the aims of their new employer SSI being to conduct spiritually-abundant unions such as theirs in tune with grand and ageless orchestrations against the karmaic opposition. They are gradually heavily trained to hunt and so combat (with the aid of mystical Katana blades and uzis galore) the impossible threats of Soul-Slayers, criminals of macabre designs and of unearthly powers. The ongoing battle between Soul-Savers and Soul-Slayers is an eternal struggle, with the Slayers hellbent on disrupting, polluting and destroying all of humanity until met with their only possible mortal demise- a task enacted only by the virtuous and able Soul-Savers alone.

Pulled into this underground war for the future of mankind, the full ramifications of being soul mates is felt hard by both Joshua and Angel, as their own personal lives unravel to the point of irrevocable changes and sobering decisions.

And hundreds of dead bodies the world over.

Lai’s narrative style is an easy read, pages flying by as fast as the gun shells pile up in the story itself. There is a lot of violence, and unlike many action stories today, every act here is warranted. Equally, there is quite a bit of adult fun as well. Good versus Evil is too epic a struggle to be limited to the battlefield alone; take it to the bedroom and you see an even bigger picture of what Good and Evil really are. And Lai does not pull punches, not in his descriptions of the casually extreme gore of the fighting, or with regards to the insatiability of human desire and intrigue. Moreso, everything that happens in Soul-Savers is arguably confined to the limitations of reality, minding a manner of proscribing to the potentialities of percentages and the like. If you believe that surviving a beheading is more likely to occur than the conjoining of true love, then you already know this world.

John B. Lai’s Soul-Savers is a fast-paced and action-filled novel, with colorful characters dealing in extremities of plot points that can be too risky for mainstream, yet still as engaging as anything else that gets the blood pumping. While not groundbreaking in and of itself, the book serves as an eventful reminder of how aspects of life honestly can be at stake when mixing business with pleasure, for any and all of us; as well as illustrating what many a self-aware soul must be willing to endure in finding its equal (and maybe just some “happy”) in this generally crazy nightmare of a world of ours.
http://www.ultimatecomicsgroup.com/

amazing adult fantasy

This was a dream I had last night, during a brief window of sleep. While not part of the continuing zombie dream series that I keep meaning to write here, it was a mindfuck nonetheless, believe you me.


It starts on a cold morning, with secret hidden spaceships all over the world blowing up good. Soon after, it is acknowledged that all of the world leaders- the Presidents, bishops, generals, Bill Gates-types, etc were all missing. The chain of discovery continues to unravel with the realization that some particular mineral we had been mining for many years was next to depleted, which would apparently throw off some manner of widescale negative shift onto the earth. Basically, the uranium/plutonium/bloodcells of the earth/whatever the dream mineral was, had been used and now the world was set to blow up within two or three days. Our global powers that be had known for some time, and once realizing there was nothing to be done, had kept the approaching doomsday silent while said spaceships were being built, with the specific purpose of saving our elected corporate kings and the like, with all the rest of us meant to die along with momma nature. Somewhere in the chain of command, a scientist involved in the top secret project learned of the actual intention for the ships, and so covertly installed a motherload of a sabotage program, thereby causing every single ship to implode upon attempting jetison. All of this is made public on this crazy morning, along with the realization that every one of our political, corporate, military and religious leaders were all currently dead. And in a few days, so would be the earth as well.
I was somehow involved with a massive laboratory, under some kind of regular employ. The scientist who had sabotaged the heads of state and their escape plans, he was linked with our group as well. He had been able to begin construction on another ship, and while the rest of the world threw itself into a drug-fueled orgy, we at the lab threw ourselves into working round the clock, to finish the ship. There were roughly two-hundred of us in total.
As doomsday presented itself, we piled in to our nearly finished spaceship. In controling the vessel, we barely knew what we were doing, having just learned the systems in the preceding days. We almost failed. Upon exiting earth's orbit, the ship opened some type of wormhole, pulling us away somewhere else.

This was when the world blew up, the halfway point to the overall dream.

Popping out of the wormhole tunnel, just outside of the orbit of another planet, the ship was badly shaken. It was a crash landing, to say the least. At first I thought it was an alien world, in a far removed galaxy. I was wrong. We had apparently slipped through a hole in time, jumping ahead possibly hundreds of years, returning to our own devastated planet earth. The rest of the dream flew by over a much longer period of time. At first, we had tried to activate the terraforming machines of the ship, a huge beacon of energy blasting up into the sky, a mile wide and every shade of dark and ominous. Some persons had left the ship, playing in the growing window of atmosphere nearby. I ran out, yelling at them to return, knowing that the process would take days, if not longer, and that lethal storms would be unleashed along the way, all over the world. In the confusion, we realized fully half of our number had been killed in the time jump and re-entry.
Eventually, we did venture out, trying to size up what we could. I do not recall the exact wording here of the dream explanation, but it was something akin to massive levels of electro-magnetic radiation that had been unleashed, wiping out all life on the planet, leaving its buildings as decimated ruins, and not even skeletons remained of their inhabitants.
There were power struggles, as none among us were truly well suited for leadership roles. Persons paired off, intent by the compulsion to begin repopulation, even though the dwindling food supplies were slowly killing what was left of us.

We had escaped the BANG, to die a slow, lonely WHIMPER.


and that was it.
I have had drawn-out, even apocalyptic dreams before, but it really had been awhile. No earthly idea where the living hell it came from, but it was so vivid. I remember many random bits of dialogue. And when I woke up, it really felt as though a part of me had been gone for months and months.

Getting Into Trouble With Jungle Jive

Getting Into Trouble With Jungle Jive

posted on July 8th, 2009 in reviews

Jungle Jive #1
Written & Illustrated by John C. Narcomey Jr.
Production & Editing by Daryl Auclair
Published by Hightower
Reviewed by Richard Caldwell

Jungle Jive is not an epic story. Universes are not in peril. No alien invasions or civil wars. No color-coded characters. This betrays stereotypes, and for that Jungle Jive creator Narcomey deserves a drink on the house.
A platypus, a jungle boy, a tiki, and their bartender battle the blunders of boredom, while evil plots are being hatched elsewhere in the jungle. A parrot planning a corporate raid against a gorilla, and the lady cat who brings them all together…where is the story going? Down tropical paths among treehouses and bartabs all over the place. What lengths will an oddball group of oddball friends traverse for the sake of more booze, maybe some booty? Shakespeare would know, but Shakespeare has been dead for ages, like, before tv even went colorized. This is about booze, dangit! Jungle pirates lusting after girly girls in skimpy jungle skins! Games of rock paper scissors that end the same as Russian Roullette! This is not serious business, this is an Adult Swim series waiting to happen.
Visually, Narcomey struts more of his angular dimensions, with animated expressions and animated one-liners and animated locations all going to animated hell in an animated handbasket together. I bet he watched a ton of old time cartoons, from the era when Walt Disney was still young and unencumbered by zillions in the bank. Very dynamic stuff, without slipping into any obvious degree of the overemployed trend of manga-influence. His sources for inspiration are clearly more refined than anything as low as mainstream pop culture.

This is in fact a unque voice with an ear for comedic dialogue, and a design perspective that is leagues above many of today’s newspaper comic strips. This is not lofty or groundbreaking work. This is what you read to ease the brain after reading the lofty and groundbreaking works. This is the breath of fresh air.

Everybody Loves Youth In Asia

Everybody Loves Youth In Asia

posted on July 7th, 2009 @ comicnews.info
Youth In Asia #1
Written & Illustrated by John Chihak
Published by Anti-Hero Brand Press
Reviewed by Richard Caldwell

This, the flagship title to Chihak’s own Anti-Hero Brand label, is the loving story of a badass wrestler by day who goes vigilante by night.
John Nash has survived all manner of past trauma, including a stint at a mental asylum. Today, he is the focused centerpiece to a tightknit circle of hardcore friends, who encompass the crux of Triple X wrestling association of Apex City. He has a hot girlfriend, Kyle, and he has a demented teddy bear sidekick, Agnew; although it is the gnarly punk queen (and generally barely clothed) Grrry who often steals the show.
Most of this issue serves as setup for the continuing story, with the bulk set over the course of a brutal match in the ring between Nash and the Indian named Genocide. Chihak is a huge wrestling fan, incorporating many actual moves and lingo, and he pulls it off without distancing the characters from wrestling outsiders. The afterparty gives a better taste of the other personalities, from punk rocker chiquitas to comic book store employees to a computer hacking midget.
Unlike many amateurs, Chihak applies much effort into giving each character distinctive looks, which makes a world of sense as these are absolutely colorful personalities he is portraying. What is lacked in technical skill is made up for in passion, and you can tell he especially has a ball drawing Agnew- who seems to be gathering a cult following all his own.
Having scoped some later installments, the art sharpens as quickly as does the plot, with hints of secret government agencies and violent criminal networks building in threat.

Yes, we all know that wrestling is 99% fake, athletics of the performances needed aside, so what is it like for a giant of the sport to cut loose on bad guys deserving of more than a liberal half nelson? Newsflash from the wisdom of the ancients: physical exertion is therapy, from sex to violence, for all parties involved. Since sex is uber-taboo in American comics, we get stories like this, where good guys vent frustrations and self-validate by beating the piss out of bad guys, who equally learn valuable lessons in the doing. Fighting, for those who know, can actually be all kinds of fun- which is usually more in keeping with the bigger picture than anything as silly as good versus evil. That said, there is clearly more to the character of Nash than any stereotype might grasp.

As usual, I may be reading too much into things, but then a lot of thought went into the world of Youth In Asia. Whether in a ring or in a darkened alley, fighting is about more than just winning. Apparently, it is about demented teddy bear sidekicks copping feels on mohawk chicks too.
We can all learn something from that.

www.antiherobrand.com