50. Super Fiends


Today is the first day of HorrorHound Weekend!

I will be there tonight and for the whole show through Sunday selling prints and doing sketches. I’d already talked about this a little bit and showed a preview of some of the prints that I will have for sale. Today’s drawing is the 4th print I will be selling at the show.

A while back for Ok, PANIC! our topic was Universal Monsters. I love all the old Universal Monsters (except The Mummy) and this idea for a Monsters/Super Friends mash-up popped into my head. The original drawing I did got some love, but it’s a terrible piece that I barely put any effort into. It was ripe for a re-do, and that’s what we’ve got here. I’ve been working on this for a while and had to make a mad dash to finish it and get it printed for the show, which is why I stayed awake until 3am the other day. I’m an idiot.

So come on out to HorrorHound Weekend in Cincinnati at the Sharonville Convention Center. I will be sharing a table with Kurt Dinse. Come by, say hi, buy some art and witness how two grown men will learn to hate each other over the course of three days.

My pal Matt Brassfield will be there too, along with Baron Von Porkchop and the possibility exists that they might be taping a special episode of Terrifying Tales of the Macabre during the show.

I’m super excited and work is just gonna be a drag to get to 4pm.

No movie last night, I didn’t even bother to try to watch something. I can’t imagine I’ll watch anything over the weekend either. But hopefully I can get online and upload some drawings over the weekend and share some cool pics.

49


So tired. I was up until 3am last night working on a project and had to get up at 5:30am for work. So I watched a couple movies and an ass-load of Twilight Zone eps.

3/20/13
Monkey Shines. A non-zombie George Romero movie, which would be refreshing if this hadn’t been made in 1987 or whatnot. Also, I could have sworn this was based on a Stephen King story. It is not. Anyway. It was okay.

The Ward. John Carpenter’s newest movie. It’s well made, has some jolts, but good lord is it dumb and hobbled by a terrible twist. But it stars Lane Pryce and Daughter from HIMYM and other pretty girls.

48. Jeopardy


This is my interpretation of the guy who won the Tournament of Champions on Jeopardy a few weeks ago. I remember when he was on the show originally and I absolutely hated him. When I saw him on the ToC, I just rolled my eyes until they sunk into my brain. He just had a punchable smugness, and was more like a Saturday Night Live parody of a Jeopardy contest. Plus looked like he was one midget standing on another midget’s shoulders inside of a giant suit. Or like Brain from Animaniacs when he went on Jeopardy, although Brain is awesome and this douche is not.

3/19/13
Hotel Transylvania. You know how non-Pixar animated films get a bad rep? This movie is a clear example of why. Distracting and often terrible voice-acting (Adam Sandler), fart and poop jokes (seriously, when I get tired of fart and poop jokes, you’re doing it wrong) and a paper-thin plot. Just not good.

47. Probin’


The streak is over. I tried, I really did.

I watched about 45 minutes of The Mummy (the original, Boris Karloff version) last night (3/18/13) before just giving up and passing out. I had dinner with my parents and then did a podcast, which I then edited, rendered and uploaded. By the time I sat down to work on my big art project, I was already pretty damn tuckered out.

46. The Punisher’s balls


Post-it doodle, camera-phone “scan”. Next thing you know I’ll be taking bathroom mirror self-portraits and throwing gang signs.

3/17/13 Addendum:
Lovely Molly. Slow-paced horror movie from one of the guys whut brung you The Blair Witch Project. It’s not a bad movie, but I didn’t like it. I found the main characters to all be unlikeable from the jump, which hurts when you’re supposed to feel bad when bad things start happening.

The Dunwich Horror. Weird psychedelic horror movie starring a wild-eyed, jew-fro’d, porn-stached Dean Stockwell and based on an HP Lovecraft story. There are worse ways to kill an hour and a half.

Dirty Work. Apparently something was up with Norm Macdonald yesterday, but I didn’t know a thing about it until after I’d already watched this movie directed by Bob Saget. It was funny and it follows the formula of every Adam Sandler SNL movie ever made.

Machete Maidens. Documentary about exploitation and grindhouse movies that were made in the Philippines throughout the 70s and 80s. Enjoyable, but made me want to watch a documentary solely about Roger Corman.

If there was ever a week where I can’t watch a movie, it’ll be this one. There’s also the possibility this is the week I forget to draw something one day. I might have to start taking a sketchbook to the bathroom with me. For poopin’. And sketchin’. While poopin’.

On the other hand though, I’ll probably be working ’til 1 or 2 in the morning for the next few days (and getting up at 5 for real work), so it might still happen. All I know is that I’m looking forward to next Sunday so that I can sleep.

45. Batgirl


3/16/13 Addendum:
American Grindhouse. Documentary about exploitation films and grindhouse theaters. Enjoyable, interesting.

3/17/13
Sleepwalk with Me. Comedian Mike Birbiglia’s semi-autobiograpical film about his life as a stand-up, relationship with his girlfriend, and his sleeping disorder. Watching it right now. It’s okay. May have been over-hyped for me. Probably the first of like 6 movies today.

44


My favorite part of this is the word “fuck”.

3/15/13
Cat Run. Not a great movie, but enjoyable. Action comedy with no recognizable actors except for Shooter McGavin and Rasputin from Hellboy.

3/16/13
Oz: The Great and Powerful. Took my mom to see this one at the theater. We enjoyed it. It’s fun and gorgeous and it’s awesome to see Sam Raimi throw in a ton of “Evil Dead”-ish things into a kids movie.

43. Superior Spider-Man


You can’t tell me this Spider-Man isn’t superior. This image entered my head and wouldn’t leave. It was funnier in imaginary execution. A character with a mouth would have sold it better.

3/14/13 Movies:
Warlock. To be honest, I barely paid attention. But it seemed awful.

Goon. Once I got over the initial disappointment of this not being about Eric Powell’s comic, I fucking loved this movie. It’s about the world’s sweetest, kindest hockey goon who gets hired to get into horribly brutal fights. Seriously funny and touching and just plain good.

The 40 Year Old Boy: Almost

  • Filed under Other

  • March 14, 2013

The 40 Year Old Boy iTunes feed

I love Mike Schmidt.

Mike Schmidt is a brilliant comedian and fantastic storyteller. Mike was one of the founding cast members of the award-winning podcast “Never Not Funny” and currently hosts his solo show “The 40 Year Old Boy”. He has a natural genius comedic timing and the ability to improvise a tale that circles and circles and reaches an often hilarious and sometimes touching and emotional end. I have had the joy and pleasure of not only listening to his podcast every week for the last 4 years or so (I jumped in late) but seeing him perform his incredible one-man show and then hang out with him for hours after the show ended. Mike is gracious and friendly and absolutely hilarious. And like most comedians, Mike has some damage. I see a lot of myself in Mike – a short temper, struggles with weight and relationships, struggles with success and a lack thereof. Mike has found an outlet though, and the world is the better for it.

I love podcasts.

I didn’t, initially. It took me a while to warm up to the idea of them. I started listening to comic book related shows and quickly graduated to comedy shows. Of course at the time, the only one I knew about was called “Never Not Funny”, and you had to pay to listen to that one. Eventually, not only did I start subscribing to that show, I bought some of the archives, including the 1st season which featured Mike Schmidt. From there it was a short jump to find “The 40 Year Old Boy”. It took a few episodes to get into it, but once I got the rhythms of the show and used to the idea of a show done entirely by one guy talking, I was hooked. It quickly became my favorite show.

I do three podcasts. They’re dumb, they’re fun and the most important topic any of us talk about through all three shows is that Superman looks dumb without red underwear. Real life rarely seeps through, and when it does, it’s inconsequential. I like my shows, but they’re not required listening.

The 40 Year Old Boy is required listening. Particularly the newest episode “Almost” (Year 5, Episode 49).

“Almost” is at times brilliant, incredibly funny, incredibly moving and touching and ultimately brutally heartbreaking. Even now, just remembering the show, I am tearing up. Podcasts are mostly dumb fun, and even the “serious” ones are dry and tedious. Mike – by exposing raw and powerful emotions and honesty – elevates podcasting into an art.

The 40 Year Old Boy is not the most successful or popular comedy podcast around, but when everything comes crashing down, his show will be looked upon as one of the best, and it’s episodes like this one which will be a benchmark of not only what this show can achieve, but which podcasting as a whole can accomplish.

I can’t recommend this show – and this episode – enough. It’s tough to get through and there is no real satisfying conclusion, but that’s not what it’s about. It’s about a human experience and the price we sometimes pay for it.

It’s beauty. Soul-destroying beauty.

42. Doctor Lecter


After watching “Manhunter” last week, I decided to draw Hannibal Lecter. I’m not good at likenesses, so I hope I hit close to the feel of the character. Word balloons help. I tried to base it more on Brian Cox’s version over Anthony Hopkins. Hopkins is obviously great, but Brian Cox had something extra about him when playing Lecter, even though he is in that movie for about 5 seconds.

3/13/13 Movie:
Sinister. Flawed but incredibly effective horror movie starring Ethan Hawke. It hits all the beats and has exactly what I want when watching a horror movie of this type. It’s a spooky, tense, slow burn and some decent jolts. The villain is one that you want to know more about and thankfully the filmmakers don’t reveal a ton. Sometimes not knowing a lot about a character is the best thing for it. Leave ’em wanting more, but don’t give ’em what they want. Right, Wolverine?