DOOMED WIZARD DIARIES

Yesterday, after watching his mother go through a harrowing experience with the dentist, our son Ayden (age 7), drew this zebra for her. He said if she took it with her next time, things would be better. I don't know what goes through a kid's mind sometimes, but then I don't know what goes on in my mind half the time. Why else would I have done this with it?

Big news, boppers. Now that beach beauty Marisa Miller has gotten your attention, listed here is my convention schedule for this year. March 10th there's a one day show in nearby Portage, IN I plan on attending just because it's local and to see what it's about. Aparently it's the second annual show, so maybe they're doing something right. For some reason I lost the link to this show so I can't post it. I'll be setting up at SPACE , in Colubus, OH, April 21st-22nd with Nik Havert, Mike Indovina , Robert "Hollywood" Swinton and hopefully a few other good guys. Along with all the great stuff available from Pickle Press , I personally hope to have my Big 'Fro Brown t-shirts ready. Look for them at both our table and the table of the "Man In Brown's" creator Robert Swinton. About a month later, Nik and I will be setting up at Motor City , which is actually in Novi, MI May 18th-20th. It'll probably be more like the 19th ...

Reading all the old comics from my youth has gotten me nostalgic for some of the superheroes I myself had created. From about 1975 to 1980, I must've created a million of 'em. Some were hopeless pastiches of popular characters, but a few were pretty cool. Or at least I like to think of them as being pretty cool. As I've said before, at first I drew a number of mini comics (folded over 8 1/2" by 11" typing paper) of my friends and I as the Fantastic Four . One day, when I can figure out how to avoid a lawsuit and getting pummeled by my friends, I plan on recreating those little gems. The first issue will be called "It Was A Dark & Stormy Night." But soon after I started creating "original" characters of my own, though still based on friends and myself. So, I thought it would be fun to recreate some of the less embarrassing ones for your view amusement. Never one to pass up a chance to embarrass myself for the sake of entertainment, I...

I've wanted to share this painting with you gentle boppers for quite some time, but never felt that the time was right. Back in '04, I painted this picture of Arissa's favorite Power Puff Girl for her as she was getting ready to leave us and go to school out of state. It was the first time I'd picked up a brush that wasn't to paint a house since high school nearly two decades ago. Well, she loved it but we later found out the school wouldn't allow her to bring it. It was some sort of religious rule, I guess. Well, their loss as it sits prominently displayed atop my computer desk, beside my 12" Taylor (from Planet of the Apes ) action figure and my Frank Frazetta's "Death Dealer" statue. Since doing this painting, I've gone on, with my wife's encouragement, to do many more paintings for friends and family. Keep it here, boppers.

She was a "True Hollywood Story" in the making, one we knew wouldn't end well. From humble beginnings to a meteoric rise in fame to a Eriwn Allanesque disastrous ending, love her or hate her, everyone knew who she was. Anna Nicole's life played out like a 1950s Hollywood starlet, forever immortalized in a tragic tale that will mutate over time but will never be forgotten. I'll admit I was a fan of her Guess Jeans ads and own her Playboy issues and her reality show was one of my guilty pleasures. I often called her a "pink train wreck," something you couldn't look away from. I empathized with the tragedy of her last remaining days, from the death of her son to her own sad end. I'm sure the world hasn't heard the last of her bizarre life as the news channels and tabloids will bleed every drop from it they can and therein lay the true tragedy of it all. I guess the moral of her life story would be never give a hillbilly too much...

I just checked the temperature outside. It's eight friggin ' degrees out there! So, here's a little something to warm us all up a bit. This beach beauty is Mallory Snyder, brought to you courtesy of my handy-dandy Sports Illustrated desktop calendar . I just might have to make this a regular post, what do you think?

Here's another one from my past. Probably one of the most important comic books I ever bought, or rather my parents bought as I was only nine or ten at the time and didn't exactly get a weekly allowance. The Old Man didn't believe in allowances of a financial nature. We had a roof over our head, clothes on our back and food in our belly, what more did we need? As I've gotten older and have kids of my own, I see the logic in the Old Man's philosophy. I've also adopted His "If you don't work you don't eat" mantra, but I'm getting off track. Fantastic Four #185 pitted the Fantastic Four against the evil warlock Nicholas Scratch (one of my favorite badguy names of all time), a mess of hooded witches and a sky full of gargoyles as they desperately attempted to rescue li'l Franklin Richards. As usual, the cover was misleading. In the Mighty Marvel tradition, the issue ended on a cliffhanger. Comics veteran Len Wein really knew how to...