Stan Lee's Soapbox

A couple of months ago, I sent Lois Lane: Intrepid Reporter over to figures.com to see what they thought of it. They liked it so much they asked me to create a new animated film every month.

This is my first commissioned piece. I took real audio of Stan Lee from the 90's Fantastic Four cartoon and mashed it so that he goes on and on. And on. Kind of like the real Stan Lee. Enjoy!

Ben Week 38 & 39

It's Renee's birthday today so I'm sure she'd like to see more pictures of her son. Most of these are from Colorado after I left. Looks like he had a good time.

Writer's Room in April!

Rififi's will be open until the end of time! So our next show is next Sunday. Drucker's out of town for this one so I am flying solo. Which means if you're not there, I'll take it personally.

Here's the info:
· Writers Room Comedy
· Venue: Rififi/Cinema Classics
· Times: Sunday, April 6th, 8:00 p.m.
· Address: 332 E 11th St between First and Second Aves East Village
· Price: $5
· Phone: 212-677-1027
· Travel: Subway: L to First Ave

Jon Clarke (McSweeneys) hosts
Ted Alexandro (Comedy Central Presents)
Liam Macaneeny (VH1)
Ed Murray (The 4 Hour Workweek)
sketches by Murderfist
Jeff Cerulli
Barry Rothbart

I Had a Dream Last Night...

I was attacked by zombies. I ran into an abandoned school but they came at me from every angle. One of them bit my forearm and it hurt. I fell down and came back as the undead. It wasn't so bad. "At least", I thought, "I don't have to worry about zombies."

Abesoc

Dad's coming home today but if you want to know more about him, here's his blog.

A Word From the Man Himself

The News

As the car pulled up to take us to the airport, I got a call.

"Your dad's in the emergency room. He's having a cardiological exam."
"Is everything okay?"
"Sure. Have fun in Colorado."

We flew first to Denver. An uneventful trip, if longer than Ben's patience. As we touched down in Denver, I turned my phone back on and checked a message form my uncle.

"Hi Jonathan, it's Uncle Peter. Call me back."

Renee was hustling Ben to our connecting flight as I called back.

"Hey Peter. How are you?"
"Better than you."
"Why's that?"

Peter's voice dropped.

"You haven't heard about your dad yet?"

I called my mom's cel. When Dad's test results came in, they showed he needed a triple bypass. Immediately.Should I come home?

"No, there's nothing you can do. Have a good weekend."

After two sleepless nights in Colorado Springs, Renee tapped me on the shoulder.

"You should go."

My brother-in-law Kurt drove me to the airport at 5 a.m. In the airport, I met a sergeant on his way back to Iraq. We traded stories and declared a tie. On the flight back, I couldn't focus enough to read so I spent the four hours watching Star Wars on my video ipod. Thank you, Steve Jobs.

I got to the hospital about five in the afternoon. The operation was over. Turned out it wasn't a triple bypass at all. It was a quintuple bypass. Had he been a car, it would have cost an extra grand. He was on morphine but responsive. Things are going as smoothly as can be expected. Today they moved him to a regular room and he should be home by Tuesday.

And that's why I haven't updated in a week.

Moment of Silence

We've had an unexpected death in the family so I'll be running around the next day or two. We're alsoflying to Colorado for the weekend where I'm told signal is spotty. I'll try to post when I can.

Ben Week 36 & 37

Ben stopped napping and got clingy. It's a wonder I have the one hand to type this.

And They Say the Biggest Springsteen Fans Are in Jersey...

An Australian woman pleaded guilty Thursday to fatally stabbing her boyfriend because he objected to her listening to Bruce Springsteen's music. In his defense, "Lucky Town" is pretty bad.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

In my last post, Bill left a comment that he had no idea there was a new Star Wars movie this summer. That's because, until last month, it was a tv show. At the last minute Lucas decided to move the pilot to theaters, a mere three months after Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. You can learn more about the show here. There's trailer on that page to give you an idea of how the cg animated movie will look. I'm positive it won't look anything as good as the Genndy Tartovsky version, which is better than most of Lucas' movies:

Indy Poster!

Looks as classic as the other three. The strange thing is it comes from a USA Today article that calls this summer 'shaky'. It even includes this quote:

"There's no question there's more uncertainty," says Rob Moore, vice chairman of Paramount Pictures. "Last year we had three franchises that we knew were going to be huge. This year, we have a couple that we know will be big, and more that we hope will be big."

What? This summer includes the new PIXAR, Indy, X Files, Iron Man, Hulk, Narnia, Hellboy, Batman and Star Wars! That's shaky? I can't remember a more loaded summer. Apparantly studios thought last year was stronger with Shrek, Pirates and Spider-Man 3, which, as I recall, all sucked. Apparantly I simply don't have my finger on the pulse of the industry.

Read an article I couldn't disagree with more.

Batman and Robin review at figures.com!

I learned two things last week:

1. When you have a baby, you get a lot of tax deductions.
2. My accountant is only 5 miles from Amok Time.

And that's how I ended up with these figures.

Read the review!

The Tyra Banks Incident

This is all we're talking about lately. My friends Adam Newman, Sean O' Connor and Sean Patton appeared on the Tyra Banks Show Monday in a bid for some screen time. It was a pyrrhic victory but a fascinating experiment.



Part 2:

John Clarke is Hilarious!

A long time ago, I posted about the other John Clarke, an Australian comedian I'd never heard of until I googled my name. Turns out he's phenomenal, according to this video Drucker found on his blog.

Louis CK Explains Animation

This is hilarious. But it was even better when Louis wrote this in the description:

sorry folks. I disabled comments. I just can't take how fucking dumb so many people are. It's depressing. Please don't misunderstand. It wasn't people who don't like the videos that bother me. Just dumb, dumb, badly spelled staggeringly stupid comments. I just can't take it. HOpe you enjoy the video.

He has since taken it down but he made a valid argument.

I'm on Yankee Pot Roast!

This is as political as I get. Which is not very.


Read "Become an Undecided Voter!"

Cobra Legions review at figures.com!

This one's been out awhile but it just got picked up by YoJoe.com. Somehow that makes it feel official.

Read the review!