Birthday Girl!

For those of you who know me and my family, there have been some tough times of late. The happy times have been few and far between, so when my daughter Arlaux's fourth birthday came around, we decided to try our best to have a nice little party. It was our first official party since the accident, so we decided to keep it simple and small. Luckily, Arlaux's easy to please.
See it here!
A good time was had by all!
If you don't see yourself in the pictures & you were there, I'm sorry. It was hard to chose which pictures to post.
Hopefully this marks a turning point in our family's future.
We miss you Pony.
We'll never forget you.
Stay gold.

Watchin' Too Much TV

Okay, so it's occured to me that with not a lot of creative duties on my plate, I find myself watching too much TV. Hell, I'm watchin' TV I can't even stand just because it's there. Surface, for instance, is a show I hate to watch and watch to hate. In my last little rant, I bashed a bunch of the new shows this '05 season, claiming there's little in the way of programming worth watching. I have however found two exceptions that are not only worth watching, but brilliantly executed. The first is NBC's My Name Is Earl, starring Jason Lee of Kevin Smith movie fame, about a bad guy trying to go good. It's funny, well-written and well acted, so I look forward to it being cancelled any day now. The second is one of Cartoon Network's fifteen-minute-long segments during their Sunday night Adult Swim format. I'm not exactly sure if fifteen minutes qualifies it as a show, but hell, it's good TV, so that's gotta count for something. Anyway, it's called Squidbillies and it's about, yeah, you guessed it, hillbilly squids. I don't think I need say anything more.

Maybe It's Just Me

Maybe it's just me, but is there nothing worth watching on TV these days? I tried giving the new shows a try, but got little or no entertainment out of any of it. I had an english teacher who used to say that true entertainment had three tasks: entertain, educate and inspire. I've carried this around for years and apply it to everything from movies and music to TV and comic books. The new shows this season, thus far, have missed the mark.

There was no way I was going to watch the new Night Stalker. I grew up on the original. It would be like remaking Nightgallery. There are just some things you don't do! But, flipping through the channels, I came across it and the only reason I stuck around was because I saw Gabrielle Union on it! MeeeooooooooooW!
Ah-hem, sorry. Anyway, aside from the delovely Ms. Union's presence, there was nothing remarkable about this show.


Supernatural is another in the long list of, well, supernatural thrillers out there clogging the airwaves. All I can say about this one is, at least it's not a remake of Night Stalker. And although there was no Gabrielle Union to be found, we find two brothers carrying on in their demon-slaying father's footsteps. Wasn't there a show like this back in the 80s or something? It seems to me there was a rash of supernatural shows back in the 80s and what they lacked in SPFX, they made up for in plot. The same can't be said for Supernatural.

I gave Surface a shot and really wanted to like it, but here's what I got out of it. Single mom saves the world from the Beast from 20,000 Phathoms. If you haven't seen this one yet, you can probably catch it on Lifetime pretty soon.

So, if you want my advice on what to watch this fall season, stick to your video stores. At least there you can rent the original Night Stalker.

One Last Go Around

And so, another Michiana Comicon came and went. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. For twenty-three years, Michiana has played host to this fun, little show. I remember my first time there. I was still in high school. I met one of my heroes, Jeff Dee that day. In the shows that followed, I met a lot of people, some famous, some imfamous, which as we all know, means more that famous (thank you Three Amigos).

I met Nik there two years ago, bought a copy of his comic Rocket Girl #1 off of him (my daughter Arlaux's nickname at the time). Nik took one look at my online portfolio and we've been good friends ever since. "Great zombie Jesus!" I think was what his email read. "Why aren't you working for anyone?" Truth was, I'd given up. Thanks, Nik.

Along the way, I met Joe Fuentes as well. Most of you have seen his coloring work all over my website. I can't say enough good things about either of those two.

But as is the nature of all good things, fall '05 marked the end of an era and the last Michiana Comicon. The shows were kind of like family reunions. It was fun to see familiar faces twice a year, catch up on things and, when it was over, shake hands and say, "see ya' in six." Was it a great show? Not on a national standard. But it had it's own character. Will there ever be another comic book convention in Michiana? Probably. Will there ever be another one like the Michiana Comicon? Probably not. Thanks, Jim, for everything.

Looking very much like a police line-up, myself (your left), Nik & Joe strike a pose for the camera.

Bizzarro Nik gives the old "hang loose."

Do not attempt to adjust your perscription lenses. I flipped the picture hust for fun.

Don't let Joe's toughguy look fool you. Like all good fathers, he's a softy around his daughter. Watch the purple sunglasses hanging from his collar.

Joe, seen here with his daughter Isabel (with sunglasses) & his wife Deb, brought future comic book geek, one-week-old Joe IV (mini boxing gloves and all).