Captain George's Penny Dreadful

Hi, Everybody!

38 more sleeps until the Remastered Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #8 from The Waverly Press Kickstarter launches:

Guess what Heritage has?

I faxed Dave about it:

And Dave faxed me back, and faxed Todd Hignite at Heritage:

And Heritage updated the description.

Speaking of Auctions, Special Friend to the Blog, Steve Swenson (7/13/2020) sent in a link to an eBay Auction for Jeff Seiler's personal copy of the Strange Death of Alex Raymond Fundraiser Edition:

And so, Steve gets his SECOND AMOC Special Friend of the Day Award:

(Suitable for framing)

___________________________________

If you have not purchased one of these:

You totally should.

Here's how to get yours:

1. Go to www.paypal.com and PayPal Bill directly at - billmessnerloebs@gmail.com if you don't have PayPal, or PM me (Mike Jones).
2. The amount is $50 each (we pay postage in the U.S.)
3. Pay all Paypal fees or use "friends/family" to avoid fees.
4. IMPORTANT! Include on PayPal, your mailing address.
5. Sit back and wait for your print....maybe get a frame ready.
6. First come first serve until all prints are gone. All money goes directly to Bill.

Thanks for your support.

Come on! Don't be *THAT* guy...

___________________________________

Cerebus in Hell?

CIH? Presents AV TEAM UP featuring CEREBUS & THE WOMAN THING

And Signed.

And the new one:

CIH presents: New Varks #1

New Varks #1 Signed:

___________________________________

Physical copies of Cerebus Archives on CerebusDownloads.com

____________________________________

Oliver's Cerebus movie: The Absurd, Surreal, Metaphysical, and Fractured Destiny of Cerebus the Aardvark it's currently available on "Plex", "Xumo", "Vimeo On Demand", "Tubi". If you're in Brazil... And now on Mometu. And, Oliver let me know:

The best (and only:)) nobudget CGI feature is now also playing on the brand new streaming service "Nuclear Home Video". NHV is an alternative to mainstream blockbuster movies specializing in Independent, Arthouse, and B-movies. Go Indie! 

____________________________________

Heritage has a bunch of neat original art.

____________________________________

The AMOC TeePublic Shoppe

Up to 40% off site-wide:  

January 25-29.

Tell your fans! Remind them that everything will be up to 40% off 

___________________________________

Next Time: What else of Jeff's turns up?

Hi, Everybody!

39 more sleeps until the Remastered Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #8 from The Waverly Press Kickstarter launches:

"HEY! YOU'RE ALWAYS STARTING THESE THINGS WITH TURTLES 8 SKETCH CARDS!"

Yeah...you got a point there, imaginary AMOC reader who lives rent-free in my head?

"YEAH! WHERE'S THE CEREBUS PART OF THESE G**DAMN THINGS?!? I WANT AN AARDVARK G**DAMN IT!!!"

Oh! You want an Aardvark do ya...

The Strange, Sad, Mildly Disturbing, and Mostly Completely Unnecessary Origin of Fernando, the Aardvark

"son of a bitch..."

It's okay imaginary AMOC reader who lives rent-free in my head, it's okay...

Say, ya ever get "headcanon", ya know, about Cerebus?

Here's mine:

So back in 1994, Wizard Magazine ran their End-of-Year review issue for 1994. And one of the articles (which I'm sure I've mentioned before) was a preview of where Wizard saw comics ten years in the future:

I highlighted the most AMOC-able bits.

Anyway, on the second page was this:

Having sorta heard about Cerebus (mostly through Wizard, partly through Spawn #10,) this kinda embeaded itself in the back of my head. Specifically this bit:

Cut to 1997, and Toyfare #2 hits stands and my possession. In an article about the Mego Corporation and their toys, there's this bit:

"with his stylin' brother Fernando."

(You can read the full issue here. If you're into that sort of thing...)

For some reason that picture, with that description just makes me laugh. Every time.

Within a few years, I started buying Cerebus regularly, starting with the issues that were later collected as Going Home.

And I connected the Wizard bit about Cerebus' missing brother, with Dr. Strange's "stylin' brother" and this bit from Going Home:

With this bit by Eddie Izzard:

Problems viewing this video? Watch directly on YouTube...

And I got the idea that Cerebus had a twin brother, who was given away by his father (who didn't need TWO freaks to raise), and raised in the Estarcion version of Italy, where he sits in cafes and drinks espresso and says:

And becomes the legendary lover: Fernando the Aardvark!

If I had the money, I'd pay Gerhard to do a Gerebus of Fernando riding a Vespa around the Italian seaside in a little beret.

I know he only exists in my imagination, but:

VIVA FERNANDO!

Problems viewing this video? Watch directly on YouTube...

Next Time: Does Fernando become the Pope too?

We're not in Rockcliffe any more (Dave's weekly update #471)

Hi, Everybody!

40 more sleeps until the Remastered Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #8 from The Waverly Press Kickstarter launches:

Holiday Bundles are being shipped if they haven't already arrived at your house.

Dave's Weekly Update:

Problems viewing this video? Watch directly on YouTube...

___________________________________

If you have not purchased one of these:

You totally should.

Here's how to get yours:

1. Go to www.paypal.com and PayPal Bill directly at - billmessnerloebs@gmail.com if you don't have PayPal, or PM me (Mike Jones).
2. The amount is $50 each (we pay postage in the U.S.)
3. Pay all Paypal fees or use "friends/family" to avoid fees.
4. IMPORTANT! Include on PayPal, your mailing address.
5. Sit back and wait for your print....maybe get a frame ready.
6. First come first serve until all prints are gone. All money goes directly to Bill.

Thanks for your support.

Come on! Don't be *THAT* guy...

___________________________________

Cerebus in Hell?

CIH? Presents AV TEAM UP featuring CEREBUS & THE WOMAN THING

And Signed.

And the new one:

CIH presents: New Varks #1

New Varks #1 Signed:

Parody of:

___________________________________

Physical copies of Cerebus Archives on CerebusDownloads.com

____________________________________

Oliver's Cerebus movie: The Absurd, Surreal, Metaphysical, and Fractured Destiny of Cerebus the Aardvark it's currently available on "Plex", "Xumo", "Vimeo On Demand", "Tubi". If you're in Brazil... And now on Mometu. And, Oliver let me know:

The best (and only:)) nobudget CGI feature is now also playing on the brand new streaming service "Nuclear Home Video". NHV is an alternative to mainstream blockbuster movies specializing in Independent, Arthouse, and B-movies. Go Indie! 

____________________________________

Heritage has a bunch of neat original art.

____________________________________

The AMOC TeePublic Shoppe

Up to 40% off site-wide:  

January 25-29.

Tell your fans! Remind them that everything will be up to 40% off 

___________________________________

Next Time: Fernando?

A Song from Rappin' Ronnie

For the last couple of weeks we’ve been looking at Dave Sim’s notebook which covers Cerebus #114: notebook #13. The last couple of pages we looked at were near the end of the notebook, pages 83 and 84. Today we’ll look pages closer to the start of the notebook.

On page 27 are a bunch of sketches:

Notebook #13, page 27

Looks like some guy, possibly a precursor to Pud or possibly just a sketch of some random guy. Then that is definitely Ronald Regan. It’d be hilarious to see him sparing with Mrs Snatcher. Then Jaka. There is a tune:

I’d like to teach
The world to act
And look like
Every-thing’s 
Okay
Like Bush is great 
And Nancy’s mate
Can take it all the 
Way
I’d like to teach the world to play
A harmless kind
Of song
About the U.S.A.
And

There are also a bunch of Jaka’s Story logos. Those logos continue on to the next notebook page:

Notebook #13, page 28

Along with the logos is some text. The only reference to anything by Harlan Ellison with Pistolero in the title is A Punk Is Not a Pistolero. And I don’t know this Todd fellow, but I’ve blanked out his phone number. Not sure if it is still his, or someone else’s by now, but now one needs to try calling it now do we?

~~~

41 more sleeps until the Remastered Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #8 from The Waverly Press Kickstarter launches:

Comment Comments: featuring BTVRK

Benjamin Hobbs:

First a word from Matt:

42 more sleeps until the Remastered Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #8 from The Waverly Press Kickstarter launches:

Then:

Last week in the Comment section, Michael R. wrote in:

"Hey. I know the it came out a couple of months ago, but I just read BTVRK: The Earth-Pig Without Vowels and hands down this was the best issue. You know why? Because I read the whole comic without spinning the comic around and around.

"It was probably more of a pain to get this issue done than the usual 4 sideways panel pages with the little quip on the top of the page, but well worth it. It actually read like a comic book. I would love to see more CIH? comics done this way."

Thanks for writing in Michael! I'm glad to hear that BTVRK was the BEST issue of CIH? yet. The issue was one of the most time intensive issues of CIH? to create. 

 

Dave wrote pages 1-7 and 24, David Birdsong made the cover and IFC and I wrote the rest. (With some revisions from Dave.) I had my script for the book, but I couldn't visualize how the pages would flow. To remedy this, I printed out the pages as they were finished, and had rough layouts for the rest:

 

Throughout this process, I kept moving pages around. I stared at these closet doors a LOT. The Balloon handler pages started as a two page spread, but became a front/back when a pause for emphasis was needed. The Whore Of Babylon page moved so the LGBTQ ETC PEOPLE page could become a 2 page spread:

 

 

The Baby Yoda Cerebus page originally had another Mutilation at the bottom of the page, but the gag needed to breath. So I let it. The Hermann pages had a LOT more panels on them. Panels were cut to get to the Mutilations quicker. 

After all the printed pages were marked DONE, there were still some changes made, most notably on the Satan pages. From the earliest versions of the script the Paradise postcard was meant to be a panel at the bottom of page 22. There has been a long standing "Don't show Paradise" rule in CIH?, and I was going to ignore that rule, since it was a postcard. At the last minute, I decided that it was funnier if the postcard wasn't shown. This change was made right before the proof went to Dave.

Christon wrote in:

"Michael R., I agree with you. I also really liked that format and enjoyed that issue"

 

Christon, you have impeccable taste. Thanks for reading and for the kind words! Feedback on CIH? is always appreciated.

Hopefully there will be more ALL VERTICAL issues of CIH? in the future. The majority of the 2023 books are finished, but there's always hope for 2024!

 

Next Week: It's the last Wednesday of the month! There's a new CIH? at you LCS!

A Moment of the Strange Death of Alex Raymond: Day 14 Update

Jen DiGiacomo, Interim Head of SDOAR Division, Aardvark-Vanaheim, here yet again with another weekly update on the SDOAR 2023 GoFundMe campaign.

"Possibly the most creative and imaginative piece of cartooning by one of the best cartoonists of all time.” - Jimmy Gownley, author of Amelia Rules! and 7 Good Reasons Not to Grow Up.

Enough with the accolades, let's check in on the official SDOAR 2023 GoFundMe tote board  -- as Jerry Lewis used to say (way to skew young, Jen!):

• $2030 raised in 14 days from 37 donations
• 14 new pages released as mocked up by Dave Sim from June 11 to July 14, 2021
• 35 total pages available on Dropbox when including Dave's 2019 mocked-up pages
• $170 away from the next unlocked page

In other words, if you're interested in seeing what's been posted so far, simply donate $5 or more to the SDOAR 2023 GoFundMe campaign and I'll get you added to Dropbox.

SDOAR 2023 GoFundMe -->> https://gofund.me/4e2e1c96 <<-- SDOAR 2023 GoFundMe

Now for a mea culpa. Last week, I announced ways to get original SDOAR production art -- and I'd like to clarify a few things as well as share a fax from Dave. 

The production art that I am adding to these posts is not necessarily the production art that Dave is going to send out to folks who unlock pages, donate very generous sums, or are randomly selected on a monthly basis. 

I, and I alone, made a mistake by trying to allow donors to select the art they would like to receive. As Dave explains below -- that is going to require more bookkeeping than makes sense. As a result, I would like to rely upon Dave's judgment in selecting production art for donors. Dave also responds to a long-time supporter (name redacted) who I encouraged to ask about receiving production art for their long-time support. Basically, ignore anything I have to say and things should be fine.

So ... let me add a few more pieces of production art -- solely for the sake of seeing what Dave's been working on recently -- and we'll trust Dave to send out cool SDOAR production art as warranted. Cool? Cool.

That's all I got.

Basically -- please support SDOAR via GFM >> https://gofund.me/4e2e1c96  -- and ignore anything I say.

Back to Manly and Mo' Sleeps!

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43 more sleeps until the Remastered Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #8 from The Waverly Press Kickstarter launches:

Hey! I KNOW that Aardvark! (Eastman Edition #1)

Hi, Everybody!

44 more sleeps until the Remastered Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #8 from The Waverly Press Kickstarter launches:

Holiday Bundles are being shipped if they haven't already. But you didn't get yours today if you live in the US of A, since it's Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so the mail-people have off. And how fitting that on this day where we celebrate the life of a man who dreamed that "one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together," we see an image of Aardvark and Turtle coming together in a Spirit 

I say, in a Spirit of brotherhood and...and, uh...a, um...fistbumps?

(That sentence was going someplace. I don't know where, but someplace...)

Anyway, speaking of "the Lord":

Mondays:

And speaking of turtles, I decided to re-read my First Comics reprints, and saw this in what would have been Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #2:

And SPEAKING of First Comics, over on his website, Kevin Eastman has a treat for all youse guys that got sixty-five bucks (plus shipping):

This promotional flyer was released in 1987 to help sell the TMNT Book III Collection. I found a small stack of these in flat file storage recently. In fact these were still in the envelope mailed from First Comics in Chicago to us in Northampton (see gallery image).

I have recently signed these flyers and we’re making these available for purchase. These one sided flyers ship flat and measure 8.5″ x 11″

For serious collectors of vintage turtle ephemera, adding this to a collection is a high point and these are VERY COLLECTIBLE. We will accompany this vintage collectible with a signed Certificate of Authenticity and Hologram Label of Provenance.

I bought one. I dunno if it's for me, or for Dave...

(Tip of the Shiny Metal Helmet to Justin Silliker for sharing this on the Faceybook group.)

___________________________________

If you have not purchased one of these:

You totally should.

Here's how to get yours:

1. Go to www.paypal.com and PayPal Bill directly at - billmessnerloebs@gmail.com if you don't have PayPal, or PM me (Mike Jones).
2. The amount is $50 each (we pay postage in the U.S.)
3. Pay all Paypal fees or use "friends/family" to avoid fees.
4. IMPORTANT! Include on PayPal, your mailing address.
5. Sit back and wait for your print....maybe get a frame ready.
6. First come first serve until all prints are gone. All money goes directly to Bill.

Thanks for your support.

Come on! Don't be *THAT* guy...

___________________________________

Cerebus in Hell?

CIH? Presents AV TEAM UP featuring CEREBUS & THE WOMAN THING

And Signed.

___________________________________

Physical copies of Cerebus Archives on CerebusDownloads.com

____________________________________

Oliver's Cerebus movie: The Absurd, Surreal, Metaphysical, and Fractured Destiny of Cerebus the Aardvark it's currently available on "Plex", "Xumo", "Vimeo On Demand", "Tubi". If you're in Brazil... And now on Mometu.

____________________________________

Heritage has a bunch of neat original art.

____________________________________

The AMOC TeePublic Shoppe

Up to 35% off site-wide: 

January 19 and 

January 25-29.

Tell your fans! Remind them that everything will be up to 35% off 

___________________________________

Next Time: Jen Ben Mags! Jen Ben Mags! Jen Ben Mags!