Bill Black Takes It Off

He's never done it before, and he may never do it again... but....

My buddy, Bill Black is having a 50% off sale on all dvds in his catalog ordered through his on-line store. If you like old-time movie serials, tv detectives, old westerns and more, then click here and start shopping!

"Z" and Wild Bill

I love getting mail from my buddy, Jim Ivey. He doesn't use a computer so it's snail mail only. The great thing is, that Jim always includes a doodle or two. His most recent letter contained caricatures of me and Bill Black. Jim used photos from his 83rd birthday bash for reference. You read that right, Jim's 83 and still full of "prunes and macaroons" as he often says.

I not only hope I have as much energy as Jim when I'm 83, I wish I had it now.

The Ghost of Gargantua

A trailer for Wild Bill Black's "The Ghost of Gargantua" is now on-line. "Ghost of Gargantua" is the sequel to Bill's ever-popular "The Amazing Colossal Woman." Long-time ZONErs may remember this post where I talked about filming that was going to take place at one of Tim Gordon's Tampa Cons. It did and much of it appears in the trailer below.

Here's some trivia before you watch:

* The screaming crowd scenes were filmed on August 20, 2006 using fans in attendance at Tim Gordon's con.

* At 2:09 in the trailer there is a close-up reaction shot of "The James" Howell. If you look closely at the collar of his shirt, you'll notice its red. The red was from fake blood. Earlier in the day, we had shot a scene of "The James" being attacked by a vampire in a hotel room. That scene will appear in a future Bill Black release.

* You may recognize the four mugs featured in the trailer and pictured below: starting at the top and going clockwise - 1] "The James" Howell - comic book and art collector, writer and director and all around great guy 2] me 3] John "The Master" Higashi - comic art collector, master of sketches, leader of the pack 4] John "Big" Beatty - comic book artist, king of nonsense, and my oldest friend [although not as old as Jim Ivey or Bill Black].

* John Beatty is wearing a patch in the trailer. It's a running gag that his character, "Patch," shows up in several of Bill's movies. This is his second appearance with a third soon to follow!

* John Higashi gets a close-up in the trailer where he yells "Godzilla." It was totally ad-libbed and brought down the house.

So sit down, relax, let your mind take you back to the days of drive-ins, Nightmare Theater and watch the trailer for "The Ghost of Gargantua!"

Wild Bill Checks In

My old buddy [okay, he's not that old], Wild Bill Black dropped in to say that he's going to be a guest at Tim Gordon's August 10th comic show. Tim's shows are always a blast and having Bill there just adds to the fun. Wild Bill says that he'll bring some of his comics and dvds for fans to purchase. Autographs are free. ; )

Bill said that he'll also bring some trailers and film clips for the show's film room. But why wait, you can see the trailer for The Blue Bulleteer Captured by the Cloak by clicking here.

If you're able to make the show, you should. I can gurantee a fun time.

The Black Sleep

Last night I was in the mood for an old-time horror movie. But what to watch? How about one starring Basil [Sherlock Holmes] Rathbone [as the mad scientist], Lon [The Wolfman] Chaney, Jr. [as one of the monsters], Bela [Dracula] Lugosi [as Rathbone's assistant], John [Dracula] Carradine [as a madman] and Tor ["Plan 9 from Outer Space] Johnson [as another monster]? Yep, "The Black Sleep" fit the bill perfectly!

What, you've never heard of "The Black Sleep"? I wouldn't be surprised. Unless you're a real aficionado of the horror genre, you probably haven't. I guess that's what makes it a cult film. The sad thing is, "The Black Sleep" is one of the better low-budget 50's horror films. So let's take a look at it...

The Pitch: "Frankenstein" meets "The Island of Doctor Moreau." A mad scientist [Rathbone] frames a former student [Herbert Rudley] for murder and then helps him escape the gallows. In return Rudley must help Rathbone with his evil experiments which turn his subjects into monsters.

The Good: The movie is introduced by Lon Madnight! Having Lugosi [in his final role] along with Chaney, Carradine, Johnson and Rathbone sharing screen-time is a hoot for any horror fan. Akim Tamiroff as Odo the Gypsy steals every scene he's in. The screenplay is more complex than most of the genre -- we have the mad scientist performing evil experiments, but he does so in hopes of learning a way to save his dying wife -- we have a framed hero who must solve a murder mystery in order to clear his name -- we have monsters chained in hidden cells below the castle, but they are victims of Rathbone's experiments -- at the same time the police are following leads leading to... a great climax with the monsters breaking free just as... ah, but that would be giving it away! [Be sure to keep watching after "The End" credit appears -- there's an added bonus!]

The Bad: What the experiments do to the subjects! Poor Bela is regulated to the role of a mute assistant -- he was in terrible health in his final days. The hero's name is Gordon Ramsay [and yes, it reminded me of him.]

The Ugly: Tor Johnson, Lon Chaney and the rest of the monsters! Also there's a great scare with a beautiful girl who's suddenly revealed to be one of the monsters!

In Summary: "The Black Sleep" is a welcome addition to any horror fan's library. The transfer is crisp and clean with excellent sound. The disc also includes trailers for other films in the AC DVD library [some you can see HERE], as well as the first chapter of a Blackhawk cliffhanger serial. "The Black Sleep" is another winner from Bill Black and AC DVD.

Jock Layin' the Smackdown

Chris Mills [the creator of one of my all-time favorite crime comics, Gravedigger] wrote yesterday about being a fan of Jock Mahoney. Nearly a year ago I posted about Jock being a guest at OrlandoCon and how I was lucky enough to appear on stage with him. Then I remembered that my buddy Bill Black had sent me a photo of Jock giving me a knuckle-sandwich. So thanks to Chris for tweaking my memory and Bill for forwarding the picture.

PS - Regular ZONErs can probably guess who it is sitting under all that curly hair. LOL!

The Man Who Turned to Stone

Longtime ZONErs know how much I enjoyed watching horror/monster movies as a kid growing up in Indiana... especially those shown by late night horror host Sammy Terry. For years I've been saying that someone needs to find a horror host and run a double feature of scary movies late on Saturday night. Although, no major network has stepped up to the plate, my buddy Bill Black has released a series of dvds that fits the bill [as in black].

Last night I watched "M is for Madman" the third in Bill's Crypt of Horror series. It's a double feature of "The Man Who Turned to Stone" and "The Brute Man" hosted by Lon Madnight. Madnight [whose name is a play on "London After Midnight" - the lost, silent horror film starring Lon Chaney] maintains the perfect balance of insightful trivia about the movie to be seen and bad puns. He's just what the doctor [or at least I] ordered. The production values on the dvd are top notch. The films are crisp and clear with excellent sound. The movies can be seen without the Lon Madnight openings and closings, but they're so much fun, who'd want to miss them? Priced at less than twenty bucks for two remastered movies and Lon Midnight -- you'd be hard pressed to find a cheaper evening of family fun.

So let's take a look at "The Man Who Turned to Stone"...

The Pitch: Mad scientists run a woman's reformatory and drain the "bio-electrical" life force from inmates in order to prolong their unnatural lives.

The Good: The special effects are surprisingly well done for a low-budget film of this era. You're slowly made to realize that the people in charge of the reformatory aren't just bad, they're...

The Bad: This isn't a classic horror movie -- it's bad in all the right ways. The hero kind of looks like Lee Harvey Oswald.

The Ugly: What happens when Eric doesn't get enough "bio-electrical" life force.

The Summary: "The Man Who Turned to Stone" isn't a classic, but it's better than you'd expect given it's lack of budget and notoriety. It's exactly the kind of movie that works when you're in the mood for an old time horror movie that you haven't watched a million times. I can't wait to watch it with friends/family who love scary movies.

Comics, Movies, and Lon Midnight

This morning I headed over to the the Daytona Beach Comic and Toy Show. My buddy, Steve Myers, runs it and I knew that several other friends were going to be there as well. The plan was we'd all meet up at the show and then some of us would cut out for lunch. It was great seeing Bill and Reb Black, Nick Northey, Tim Gordon, Mark Gmuer, and Chris Hanson. I'd hoped to meet Jerry DeCaire, but he was running late and arrived just as I was leaving. John Beatty and his fiance Bella were also running late, and decided to just meet us at Uno's for lunch. When we left the show there had already been over 100 people through the doors, so it looked to be a success.

Lunch at Uno's was fun. How could it not be when you're sharing table time with Bill Black and John Beatty? Bill brought me some dvd's that I'd been wanting to see from his online movie store. The amount of product that Bill has available [ranging from horror to superhero to tv detectives to...] is amazing. I'm especially looking forward to the horror movies hosted by Lon Midnight! [That's Lon and me in the photo above. If you're not sure which of us is the horror host, it's the guy on the right.]

After lunch we all headed in different directions, but all plan to get together at Tim Gordon's August Show. Maybe we'll see you there!

Happy 83rd Jim Ivey

Yesterday, my wife and I joined Jim Ivey and several of his friends to celebrate Jim's 83rd birthday. Long time readers know that Jim Ivey is one of my oldest [as in been a friend the longest], oldest [as in age] and dearest friends. I first met Jim in the mid 1970's when he was running The Cartoon Museum in Orlando, Florida. At the same time Jim was working as a syndicated cartoonist [The Thoughts of Man], a political cartoonist [The Orlando Sentinel], a publisher [CartooNews], teacher [UCF cartooning class] and even a comic book convention organizer [OrlandoCon]. At the time, I was into collecting comic books and later original art. Jim's shop was like heaven.

Going to The Cartoon Museum became a weekly trip [almost always accompanied by my best friend, John Beatty]. When I moved to Orlando to attend UCF, my trips to Jim's became even more frequent. We'd spend the day shooting the breeze and playing cards [blackjack, gin, hearts] and would occasionally stop for lunch or Jim to make a sale. Jim hated it when business got in the way of fun!

You never knew who would come through the store. Sometimes it was other buddies like Bill Black [pictured in the photo above with Jim and I], Mike Kott, Rafael Kayanan, or Robert Smith. Sometimes it was established artists like Mike Zeck, Bob McLeod, Bruce Stark or so many others.

As the years have gone by and we've all gone in different directions, I'm happy to say that most of us are still in touch fairly regularly. Many of us correspond via e-mail, but Jim doesn't mess with computers. So it's snail mail correspondence for us. I love getting my letters from Jim. Just like when we'd go to his shop and you'd never know what would be waiting; it's the same experience opening an envelope from Jim.

But, I digress... back to the party.

Jim was happy to see the number of folks who made it to his party. Jim opened the festivities with a speech in which he talked about everything from the state of political cartoons today to the origins of Aborigines in Australia. We ordered our meals and while we were waiting Jim opened the gifts that had been brought to celebrate his 83rd. He received cigars, lottery tickets, and money -- three of his favorite items -- and more! The meals arrived and as we ate we shared stories... and more stories... and even more stories. Three and a half hours passed in what seemed less than an hour. There was enough laughter and fellowship packed into the short time, that it made me really wish that we could go back to the days of The Cartoon Museum with Jim running the show.

Oh well, if nothing else, we have Jim's 84th to look forward to.

Jim & Mike & Cartoons I Liked

One of my highlight's from MegaCon was getting to spend a bit of time with two old friends. That's Jim Ivey on the left and Mike Kott on the right. I've known these guys for over 30 years. Jim is an award-winning political cartoonist and founder of the original Cartoon Museum. Mike is the founder and co-owner of The Intergalactic Trading Company. Together they [along with Bill Black] put on OrlandoCon, one of the best comic book conventions you'd find anywhere. I knew them because of their respective business enterprises, but we became friends over countless hands and hours playing cards. I only get to see these guys about once a year now. But when we do see each other, it's like the years melt away.

It's hard to believe that I'm almost the age that Jim Ivey was when we first met! And speaking of Jim Ivey, he has a new book out called Cartoons That I Liked. It features some of his favorite cartoons from the thousands that he did over the years. It's available as a or $3.00 pdf download or $9.95 for the actual book. You can even order one from Jim which will come autographed and with a sketch for $20.00. If you're at all interested in political cartoons, then I'd appeciate it if you'd order a copy. The pdf is a steal at three bucks and getting the autographed copy at $20 is a bargain. If you order a copy from Jim, please tell him I sent you his way. Who knows, I may need some goodwill from him should we ever get into another poker game.

Time for Tampa

On Sunday, August 19th, I'll be joining Big Beatty and hundreds of other fans of comics, movies, sci-fi and other interesting hobbies as we converge on Tim Gordon's Tampa Comic Book & Toy Convention.

You've heard me rave many times about what a great show Tim puts on. This one could be the best ever! In addition to John Beatty, guests will include Bill Black, Alex Saviuk, Herb Trimpe, Gary Friedrich, Chuck Dixon, Pablo Marcos, and many others. There will be something for everyone... artists sketching and signing autographs, a costume contest, a continuously running film room and more.

If you're able to make it, swing by Big Beatty's table and be sure to say, "Hi!"

Hard to Believe... Jock Mahoney

Hard to believe, but that's a photo of me that appeared in 1980 on the inside front cover of Bill Black's Fun Comics #1. Although it was 27 years ago, it seems like yesterday... ok, maybe not really yesterday, but definitely not 27 years ago.

OrlandoCon 1980. Bill Black, Jim Ivey, and Mike Kott were all friends of mine [still are in fact] and the main men behind OrlandoCon. That year Jock Mahoney was the media guest of honor.

Jock had a long, successful career in movies and on tv. He started out as a stuntman, but soon was playing the lead as The Range Rider, Yancy Derringer, Tarzan [in 3 movies], and in so many other roles. Jock was also Sally Field's stepfather!

Because of my connections with Bill, Jim and Mike, I was able to appear on stage with Jock when he did some demonstrations of how fights are filmed for movies. Jock was a great guest. He even posed with Bill and his wife Rebecca for the fumetti below. Hard to believe that it was done over 1/4 century ago...

Mallow-Con Report

That's Brenna Barry surrounded by Keith Mallow and Wild Bill Black. For some reason the guys seem much happier than Brenna. I wonder why? That photo and those that follow were taken yesterday at Collector's Comic-Con in Fort Pierce, Florida. Keith puts on the show and brought in Brenna, Bill and John Beatty as special guests. Keith and Big John always invite me along and since I enjoy their nonsense, I always make an effort to attend.

That's Aleissa [hope I spelled that correctly] and her boyfriend. Aleissa is one of John's returning sketch customers. This time she opted for a Batman and Beatty came through in style.

Jesse "Cadre" Hansen was set up selling prints and sketching!

Wild Bill Black brought in a bunch of his movies and showed us the latest trailer [which features me, Big John Beatty, James "The James" Howell, and John Higashi in a cameo - where's our IMDB listing?] for "The Ghost of Garganta." Bill also talked about plans for future movies as well as a possible syndicated horror movie package complete with a horror host [the excellent Lon Midnight]!

Big Beatty was sketching away and each one was a winner. He was in the ZONE [and I don't mean this ZONE... although he IS in it as well]. The Punisher sketch below got a lot of attention from fans, but it was the final sketch of the day, a Joker piece, that won the Best Beatty Sketch of the Show Award.

As always, Keith's shows are a lot of fun. His next one is scheduled for late October. If you can make it, you should!

Collector's ComicCon Are You "N"?

On Sunday, July 22nd from 10am - 5pm, the Collector's ComicCon is going to be the place to be in Fort Pierce, Florida. Not only will my best bud, John Beatty be a guest, but he'll be joined by Bill Black [artist, writer, publisher of AC comics, writer, director and producer of "GARGANTARAMA" ] and Brenna Berry star of "GARGANTARAMA".

It's a fun little one day show. Click HERE for all the details. Hope to see you there!

Captured by The Cloak

My buddy, Bill Black, CCABW [Chief Cook and Bottle Washer] at AC Comics has decided to take the plunge and regularly produce movies based on his comic book characters. Bill has jumped in with both feet and fan reaction has been extremely positive. Bill is currently finishing production on The Blue Bulleteer: Captured by The Cloak. You can learn more about it HERE.

Patching Things Up

My best bud, John Beatty has a post over at his blog that I think will interest most ZONErs. Big John presents storyboards that he's created for another of Wild Bill Black's low budget cheese-o-ramas. Not only has John done the storyboards, but he will also return in the film as the evil "Patch."

Happy, Happy to JBI

Yesterday I received an e-mail from my buddy, Wild Bill Black that several of Jim Ivey's friends were getting together to belatedly celebrate Jim's 82nd birthday. Although it was short notice, I worked it out so that I could get over and share in the festivities.

I first met Jim back in the mid-70's [the decade, not his age]. Jim was the owner of The Cartoon Museum in Orlando, Florida and the main man behind OrlandoCon. My buddy, John Beatty and I were still in high school, but would make the trek over to buy our comics and original art from Jim. Jim's shop was an amazing place. At the time there weren't many places that you could buy original art, but Jim's Cartoon Museum was wall to wall art. Kirby, Steranko, Barry Windsor-Smith, Paul Gulacy, John Buscema... and so much more. You never knew what you'd see or who you'd meet while at The Cartoon Museum. I can't begin to tell you how much time I spent there and I wouldn't trade one hour there for a day anywhere else. Beatty and I made the trek to Jim's at least once a week. Usually we'd end up playing cards but always having a great time no matter what we were doing. When I moved to Orlando to attend UCF, I'd go to the shop several times a week [my wife always knew where to find me]. We've stayed in touch over the years, but never as often as I'd like.

So today about 15 of us met to celebrate Jim's 82 birthday. Jim, true to form, had prepared cards for each of us [and true to form -- had enclosed a scratch off lottery ticket. Mine was good for a free ticket!]. Each of us had brought cards and gifts and a story or two for Jim. In fact, Jim looks shocked in the photo above... I hope it wasn't from something I said!

It was great seeing Jim again. It was also a lot of fun hanging with Wild Bill Black. Special props to "The AAB" for putting the plan in place. And once last shout out to Jim Ivey -- "Happy, happy, SIR!"

Back Home from Tampa Con

Well, I'm home from Tampa. Although it was a quick trip, and I didn't get much sleep; I did get to accomplish my major objectives of assisting Bill Black with filming some scenes for two movies he's currently shooting and seeing my old buddy, Jim Ivey.

That's Brenna Barry, star of Bill Black's Gargantarama, and Jim Ivey [looking pretty content at 81] in today's header photo. I'll tell show and tell you more about the trip later this week. You'll also get to see some cool reports over at John Beatty's Blog. As for now, I need a rest!

Tampa Con, Here We Come!

In just a couple of hours I'll be heading down to Tim Gordon's Tampa Comic Book and Toy Convention. Tim holds the show three times a year and it's always a fun time. Although the show is on Sunday, "Big" John Beatty, "Johnny Star-Warz" Higashi, "The James" Howell and I go down the night before. It's always a blast with these guys and the convention is like an added bonus.

This trip could turn out to be even more fun than most since our buddy, "Wild Bill" Black is going to film some scenes for one of his movies. Bill is a guest at the show and decided that while he was in Tampa he could combine work with pleasure [or in Bill's case pleasure with pleasure]. He's even enlisted "The James" to play the role of a 70's lounge singer who gets attacked by a vampire!

Then tomorrow we'll head to the show. It's got a pretty impressive guest list for a small one day convention. There will also be a costume contest, door prizes and a film room. I'm really looking forward to seeing an old [as in longtime, not because he's 81] friend of mine, Jim Ivey.

If you're within driving distance of Tampa, come on over and join us. If you want to hook up with our group, more than likely I'll be wearing a StalloneZone shirt, or just look for a 70's lounge singer who was bitten by a vampire.

Shawn Surface

Shawn Surface is an independent comic book artist best known for his work at Bill Black's AC comics and "Bubba the Redneck Werewolf." I first met Shawn a few years ago at a TampaCon. We talked about comics, movies and art. I left the show thinking that I'd like to get Shawn to do a piece for my Stallone Gallery.

Finally at this year's Heroes Con things worked out. Shawn decided to draw Sly as The Punisher. Click HERE and you can see the result.

Shawn is available for commisions and is reasonably priced. Check out his website and tell him I sent you!