UG v. TC v. MTOC–by Bastian, Lipski, and Dank–pgs 4-6(of 60), also: “Continuity Guy and Gronk”, and “Ted Mysterioso, Jr.”

The UPTOWN GIRL vs TOMMY CHICAGO vs MANLY TALES OF COWARDICE crossover from 2008 was written by BRIAN BASTIAN, pencilled (and inked) by BOB LIPSKI, and inked (and pencilled) by me.   Brian and Bob are here to join me for some reflections on this project:

BRIAN BASTIAN:  I think the most difficult part for me when I’m writing Fleming and crew is coming up with the name of a treasure that they’re looking for.  I suppose I could focus on the paranormal investigation aspect that they’re apparently involved in, but then I couldn’t complain.   I used to know what the poster was supposed to say.  I typed something out in bablefish and had it translated, but when I tried to translate it back for this, it didn’t make a lot of sense.  I think it was something along the lines of vandalism and leaving a bunch of dead fish boys lying around.

BOB LIPSKI:  I LOVE Fleming Hazmat.  I love everything about Danno’s comic. It’s hilarious, the characters are hilarious and it just has this rich…weirdness to it. I think the idea of an endless supply of Atlantis Lads is one of the more brilliant ideas Danno has had. I wish I could pull off the high contrasting black and white world Danno draws. Anyway, this whole damn comic was written by Brian. I’ve known Brian longer than….almost anyone else and we started working on a comics together about ten years ago. Up till he started collaborating with Danno, I had drawn every comic he wrote, so it was a little weird to read something he wrote that I didn’t draw. Brian is a great writer, I’m almost amazed how he can pull off writing the squeaky clean adventures of ‘Uptown Girl’ and the weird, twisted, cynical world of ‘Tommy Chicago’ often in the same week.

DANNO KLONOWSKI:   Bob just made me blush…anyway…like he said I had just started working with Brian during this time.  We had done MANLY TALES OF COWARDICE #4 together and were hatching plans to have me draw the second series of TOMMY CHICAGO.  I think I mentioned this on some other post somewhere, but I love working with Brian.  We share such a similar sense of humor in our writing styles, and it’s great having someone who shares your voice.  All I ever have to “correct” with Brian on any of his Manly Tales scripts (outside of the spelling) is minor continuity.  He nails everybodys voice perfectly.  And like Bob says, he does the same with Uptown Girl.  Thats a great gift.  You should hire him today.  I’m looking at you, IDW.

  ALSO:  This weeks CONTINUITY GUY page drawn by BUD BURGY (from a script by me) is beyond words in awesomeness.  I’ll just say it makes a mean wallpaper.  Only 4 more pages to go…  and the a book!…  and then…  Well, as I mentioned before, Bud will be writing a MEATFIST AND GRONK script for me to draw (and I should start posting pages here late summer/early fall 2010).  Anyway, I’ve been so excited by this project that I did a for-funzies pin-up of Meaty and Gronk over the weekend:

   I should note there are no spoiler alerts up there.  I have no idea what EXACTLY Bud has planned yet, but I know it’ll be great.   And now I totally gotta use “TUMBLEWEED” in something…

   FINALLY:  Ditko designed this guy, right?  It’s gotta be freaking Ditko.  No one else would put a fishbowl on a freaking super villain except for Ditko.  That’s just nuts.

 

Uptown Girl vs Tommy Chicago vs Manly Tales of Cowardice–by Brian Bastian, Bob Lipski, and Danno Klonowski–pg 1,2, and 3(of 60), also: “ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA” is the only thing I’ve ever liked Danny Devito in

  The UPTOWN GIRL vs TOMMY CHICAGO vs MANLY TALES OF COWARDICE crossover from 2008 was written by BRIAN BASTIAN, pencilled (and inked) by BOB LIPSKI, and inked (and pencilled) by me.   Brian and Bob are here to join me for some reflections on this project:

BRIAN BASTIAN: Bob has a very clear vision of the Uptown Girl universe and its served him well. So when we were going to do this crossover, there were a few concerns about how they’d mesh with the Manly Tales and Tommy Chicago gangs, which are slightly more out there.  So I decided to add a couple things here in their intoduction that could be used later to explain away the story. That’s where the weird alien looking canisters came from.  It’s partly a nod to the original Secret Wars from Marvel.  If you’re not familar with that story–it’s about Super Heroes (and villains) running along minding their own business when suddenly a giant alien building/stadium/donut would appear and they’d walk in and vanish!  Then they were transported far far away to take part in some stupid contest.  But we wouldn’t do that.

BOB LIPSKI:  Pencilled and inked by me.  Back when we did this thing, I was cranking out a 24 page (or more) comic every month. I was doing about….4-6 pages a day and man, it showed.  I was proud of the comics I did, but they look rushed to me these days.  I figured I’d have no problem getting my share of the artwork done in a decent time.  My daughter Sophia was born in December 2007, right around the time we all started on this thing.  Looking back, I can’t believe I got anything done at all.   I remember thinking that I’d use this comic as an excuse to try out a new art style….a little more crosshatching, a little more texture. I was really inspired by Kevin Cannon’s art and I thought I’d give it a shot at something a little more stylized. 

DANNO KLONOWSKI:  What I can’t believe is when we tossed around the idea for this at FALLCON 2007  that Brian was able to churn out a script we all liked and agreed on so quickly.  I was even more dumbfounded when a few weeks later at the MUSCLES AND FIGHTS 2: MUSCLIER AND FIGHTIER release party Bob was there with ALL 45 PAGES of pencils for me to start inking on!  So the fact he could churn these 3 out (and 2 other?!  Jesus!) in a single day doesn’t surprise me at all. 

   Also:  This is a nearly all-Batman villain week for the Daily Goal Sketch.  We kick it off with Oswald Cobblepot:

UPTOWN GIRL vs TOMMY CHICAGO vs MANLY TALES OF COWARDICE–by Bastian, Lipski, and Dank–cover and introduction

The UPTOWN GIRL vs TOMMY CHICAGO vs MANLY TALES OF COWARDICE crossover from 2008 was written by BRIAN BASTIAN, pencilled (and inked) by BOB LIPSKI, and inked (and pencilled) by me.   Brian and Bob are here to join me for some reflections on this project:

BRIAN BASTIAN:  I’m sure you guys covered all the ideas we went through before settling on this cover idea. I just sat back and said “Yeah, that sounds good.”  I do remember you, Danno, saying that you had a hard time drawing the stew because you’re a vegetarian and don’t know what meat looks like. I thought that was a little odd.  Not being a vegetarian–but I myself have dabbled in vegetarianism–I would think that one of the keys to being a vegetarian is knowing what meat looks like so you don’t accidently eat it. I kept that to myself. Until now. I’m glad I waited.

BOB LIPSKI:  The cover was inspired by the Marvel miniseries “The Infinity Gauntlet” from…1991? I loved this series. Danno pencilled the cover, I inked it, and my friend Ben Mudek colored the hell out of it.  Inside front cover (Who’s Who) was all Danno’s idea.  I really liked the idea of adding who would play the characters in the inevitable (not really) movie.  Danno did all the art on this page and most of the captions.  I designed all the characters in Tommy Chicago way back when, so it’s not a real surprise that Uptown Girl and Stella look similar. I always thought that Drew Barrymore could play Uptown Girl in a movie  so it was kinda funny that Danno “cast” her as Stella.

DANNO KLONOWSKI:   Actually Bob, Brian cast her.  We all cast are own characters the day we met at Kinkos to look over the art when it was all done.  But I’ll get back to Stella soon… as far as the cover goes I remember there being some back and forth on what parody it would be–because from the outset we knew we wanted to parody SOME major crossover cover.  The whole idea of this crossover was just ridiculous fun inspired by things we read growing up like INFINITY GAUNTLET and SECRET WARS that we just had to acknowledge this from the get-go.  I did both a “SECRET WARS” and “WORLD’S FINEST” parody that were used as pin-ups in the back of the book.  I remember I was initially against the INFINITY GAUNTLET one though–mostly because I thought just having our 9 characters on the front would go against George Perez’s vision of over-doing it.   But when I hit upon the absurdist idea of including a bunch of our characters on the cover who don’t even appear in the actual issue, well then I just fell in love and had lots of fun drawing.  Bob and Ben’s respective inking and coloring really made it sing.

Retrospecticus: STAPLEGENIUS #6 (June 2001)

Staplegenius #6--cover by myself, Nels, and Mike Toft. And yes, copies of STAPLEGENIUS did actually manage to make their way into an actual work-house, and were extremely popular among the cons

    Like I said in the Retrospecticus for issue #5, two big but despairing events were occurring at the time of creation and publication: 1) Nels, the last hold-out STAPLEGENIUS collaborator, was focusing on his band END TRANSMISSION and effectively leaving STAPLEGENIUS as Pat and Matt had before him, and 2) I was creating a universe in which to play and tell longer, connected stories of a regular cast of characters.  With the exception of STAPLEGENIUS #9 and #11 (which still seem more like flukes than anything), issue #6 would mark the last ‘old school’ style STAPLEGENIUS–meaning lots of gags with a couple shorter stories made by multiple creators. 

MIKE TOFT:

   MIKE TOFT was a godsend.  Just as the STAPLEGENIUS team was breaking apart, Mike contacted me out of the blue (via actual Snail Mail) by sending me copies of his mini-comic BRAIN FOOD and a nice letter about how much he like STAPLEGENIUS.  He asked if I’d like to meet and discuss making mini-comics.  He, like I, knew there were other creators in town, he just didn’t know how to contact any of them.  I agreed, and shortly after we met at SPYHOUSE coffee shop.  Both meeting Mike and this specific location would become very significant to me (and the Minneapolis/St Paul cartooning scene in general) about a year, but that was still off in the future.  In the present of early summer 2001 what this meant was that Mike contributed to STAPLEGENIUS #6 a few shorts that were to be a part of his upcoming BRAIN FOOD #7.  I have to give Mike a lot of credit in helping keep the STAPLEGENIUS dream alive.  I was pretty bummed about the STAPLEGENIUS family falling apart, so it was wonderful having someone new in my corner cheering me on to keep doing more.

NELS:

    Even though NELS was busy with his band and touring and all that, he still did find some time to do some doodlin’:

 Oh Nels and those damn cats….Then, like now, I really wished Nels would do a page-a-day calendar of this stuff:

   And while Nels may have never delivered on the continued “ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF MONSTER PIG-FACE BOY”, he did make this gem:

   As for myself, I was still on the Mullet Clown and company jag.  What started as a one panel gag months earlier now transformed into the longest comic I’d made in about 10 years at that point (I was 25), and it clocks in at only a whopping eight pages:

   As you can see by how that ended, what started off being a lame excuse for an auto-bio comic was quickly becoming something weirder with storyline larger in scope than “Why don’t girl like me”.  I had lots if ideas I wanted to get out there.  My only problem as I see it (and as you can probably see by the above tale), is that I had no sense of “pacing” or “storytelling”.  I wasn’t scripting then drawing.  I was just doing–making scripts with pictures.  In my mind I was consciously choosing “telling” over “showing” (kind of the opposite of what comics are supposed to be doing…right?), but looking back it was laziness.  For example:

  So yeah…I’m not the proudest poppa in the world when it comes to this issues content, but I see now how it was all a learning process, and this issue was just another step in my still-evolving and highly questionable talents. 

  Next time:  I try a full-length story, and drag Nels kicking and screaming along with to do so.

MANLY TALES OF COWARDICE–LUTEFISK SUSHI ‘C’–pg 6(of 6) and the back cover, also: “This blog was designed ONLY for killing”

   The end?!  Already?!  Nice!  BRIAN BASTIAN and I will wrap this one up then:

BRIAN BASTIAN:   I don’t know how the heck Betsy is traveling up and down those stairs, but I love it.

DANNO KLONOWSKI:  Uhhh….gyroscopes?  Actually what I think is funny is that more than anything–the Star Wars ‘toys’ Fleming plays with, the political rant against Dick Cheney’s America–is that people were taken with Betsy using the steps.  Like Brian, I got several compliments on the impossibility and silliness of it all.  I was just being lazy, but I’m glad it entertains. 

BASTIAN:  Also, I’m not sure if this counts as killing an Atlantis Lad or not. The Star Wars guys were already dead, and even though you know he’s going to be dead soon, he ends the issue alive.

DANK:  GAH!  I hadn’t even realized that until now!  You duped me, Bastian!

BASTIAN:  Nor do I have Fleming eat him.  I’d understand if you’d think I didn’t write any of this.  But I did.  Honest!

   Also:  Here’s the back cover to the Lutefisk Sushi ‘C’ special this story appeared in…

   The original art for this back cover was purchased by fellow Conspirator ROY T. COOK.  Somehow Roy all but doesn’t exist online.  How odd in this day in age.  Anyway, you can find his work in jams from the ST PAUL Conspiracy Cell, as well as in the MUSCLES AND FIGHTS books.

  Well that was short and sweet.  A refreshing change, no?   This of course can only signal one thing–a BIG-ASS LONG story is up next.  That’s right!  Prepare yourself for the weeks and weeks and weeks of posts that will be the “UPTOWN GIRL vs TOMMY CHICAGO vs MANLY TALES OF COWARDICE” special, by BRIAN BASTIAN, BOB LIPSKI, and myself.  It starts here–MONDAY!

   Speaking of big ass and long, the RETROSPECTICUS for STAPLEGENIUS #6 will also fit that bill.

   FINALLY:   I was impressed as hell when my client knew who todays Daily Goal Sketch was.  Turns out he only knows of the character cause he’s used in a show/toyline aimed at fucking toddlers!  Toddlers are being taught about things ONLY. DESIGNED. FOR KILLING!!!!  What a fucked up world we live in.

MANLY TALES OF COWARDICE–LUTEFISK SUSHI ‘C’–pg 5(of 6), also: Jam Comics Tonight, and “Yeah, he wears ‘bling’ now”

This ”one week only”  tale was written by now-frequent collaborator/writer BRIAN BASTIAN.   It was originally the second story featured in MANLY TALES OF COWARDICE #0, but also a part of our submission for LUTEFISK SUSHI ‘C’ .  Brian is here to join us–once again!–for some behind-the-scenes retrospectacizing on this 6 page epic:

BRIAN BASTIAN:  It was the Bush era.  8 years of…well, you know.  You were there.  If you weren’t there, I really don’t think there are words that could really capture it.

DANNO KLONOWSKI:  *bleck* comes to mind.  That or the noise of a really long fart  that ends in all your internal organs shooting out thru your urethra. 

BASTIAN:     Anyway, I try not to bring too much politics into my writing (although that might change in the future) but I was getting really tired of reading article after article, or seeing interview upon interview, where the government would bring up Al-Qaeda and say they have evidence….AND THEN NEVER TELL US WHAT THE EVIDENCE WAS!!  I know there are probably lots of reasons, some of them might even make sense, but it was just killing me.  If even once I could have seen an interview where someone even asked what that evidence was it might have calmed me down.  But they didn’t.  And so I had to write this, or have a stroke.  Time will tell if I made the right choice.

DANK:  Well that “era” was all about keeping us all on the brink of losing our shit.  Everyone ground their teeth.  It was that kind of vibe.  Now we’re treated like children being told “Everything is fine.  Nothing to see here” as Godzilla rapes the Statue of Liberty.  But the iPAD will be out soon and then I can upload my comics to ibooks and make millions, so who cares, right?

   ALSO:  Maybe the iPAD will be a topic of tonight’s MINNEAPOLIS CARTOONIST CONSPIRACY JAM.  Or maybe Godzilla raping the Statue of Liberty.  Who can say?  Stop by DIAMONDS and find out for yourself.

  FINALLY:   Bling-a-ding-ding.  I sure like today’s Daily Goal Sketch–SCARFACE:

MANLY TALES OF COWARDICE–LUTEFISK SUSHI ‘C’–pg 3/4(of 6), also: “CAPTAIN CONFEDERACY” returns, and “I miss your pointy hat”

This ”one week only”  tale was written by now-frequent collaborator/writer BRIAN BASTIAN.   It was originally the second story featured in MANLY TALES OF COWARDICE #0, but also a part of our submission for LUTEFISK SUSHI ‘C’ .  Brian is here to join us–once again!–for some behind-the-scenes retrospectacizing on this 6 page epic:

BRIAN BASTIAN:  I don’t know what to say about this page.

DANNO KLONOWSKI:  I do.  It’s about one of my favorite things I’ve ever drawn.

BASTIAN:  My favorite part about writing comics is when I put something in that I have no idea how the artist will pull it off, but I know it’ll be awesome.  Here’s a great example of that. 

DANK:  I feel the same way when I’m writing something for someone else.  It’s a good feeling.

BASTIAN:  I think I just wrote “add any Star Wars characters you want”.  I especially enjoy the Death Star Atlantis Lad.  It would have been tough, but I would have liked to see an Admiral Ackbar.

DANK:  It wouldn’t have been impossible, and now I think I know what to draw you for Xmas.

  ALSO:  A few months ago when this blog started I did a “cover” of the cover to CAPTAIN CONFEDERACY #1.  It was a blast to do, and I think a nice way to say “Thank You” to WILL SHETTERLY and VINCE STONE, whose work on the Cap inspired me ‘lo those many years ago to waste my life drawing comics (and I couldn’t be happier!).   And when I was done with it, I just wanted to keep going and do the covers to all 18 issues.  Time went on.  I got wrapped up in other ventures.  That plan fell by the wayside.   But I’ve been so inspired of late by things like SLOTH FIGHT and GO! GO! ILLUSTRATION that over the weekend I made a challenge to myself: 

    I will–by December 31st, 2010–do every CAPTAIN CONFEDERACY cover.

   It seems like a feasible goal.  So…here we go.  May I present the cover to CAPTAIN CONFEDERACY #1 (special edition), the re-written/re-drawn re-do of issue one that Will and Vince put out towards the run of the series (I think thats the timeline). 

   In addition to being  a blast to draw, I should note I’m also re-reading each issue I do.  Its been fun revisiting these old friends.  And YOU  can read the whole series for yourself over at http://captainconfederacy.blogspot.com/ .

  Finally:  As lame as the ‘classic’ Electro is, I’m still smitten with his ultra-lame costume.  The EGO it would take to wear that in public and commit evil!  Astounding.  And I can see why they revised him quite extensively for a new generation: