Thundarr Gangnam Style

Long time No see!

Here's my own Gangnam Style music video  I threw together from some old Thundarr VHS I had laying around, enjoy.





-Swinebread

Captain Power... I remember

-Swinebread

Comic Acquisitions 6-12-11

-Swinebread

Top Ten TV Cartoons (plus Three Honorable Mentions)

-Swinebread

Crappy Comics in My Collection

-swinebread

Recent Comic Buys

Post 2

Brett Warnock Talks About the Top Shelf Name

Here's small part of my interview with Brett Warnock that didn't make it into my Portland Comics Documentary. Brett talks about the Top Shelf Comics name and how that name is perceived in the UK.




-Swinebread

Portland Comics Part 5

image by Michael Russell

In Part 5 we get a taste of the DYI/zine scene in Portland Via the IPRC and we learn little about Excalibur Comics




Oh and here's the credits... there might be a small surprise at the end if you wait around for it.




-Swinebread

Portland Comics Part 4

In the Part 4 we get to know three different comic artists and some of their artistic output: John C. Worsley, David Hahn, and Nicole Georges.




-Swinebread

Portland Comics Part 3

In part three we are introduced to Brett Warnock of Top Shelf Comics and we learn a thing our two about Craig Thompson's Blankets.




-Swinebread

Portland Comics Part 2

In part 2 more of Portland's Comic Culture is revealed and Dark Horse Comics is introduced.





-Swinebread

Portland Comics Part 1

This is part one of a short documentary about the comic book scene in Portland Oregon.

It was made in 2005 and shown at the 2nd annual Stumptown Comics Fest.




on Youtube you can watch it in High Quality


-Swinebread

Periscope (Mercury) Studio

A mini-doc done in 2005 I did with some of the folks that work at Periscope Studio formally called Mercury Studio

see their blog here






-Swinebread

My oldest and dearest friend Josh Westhaver died this morning. He’d been on life support for the last couple of days because of extreme complications caused by a massive asthma attack that resulted in cardiac arrest. I visited him last night after work and I thought I’d get a chance to see him one more time today… but it was not to be. He was 36 years old.

Josh was such a peaceful and kind person and on top of that was very creative. We went to college together and shared many a dramatic moment on stage back in my acting days. He was that fantastic guy that you felt you already knew your whole life the first time you met him. He was also a strong environmentalist too and actually walked the walk, so to speak, and I always felt he was the prototypical Portlander. His essential goodness, simply put, made this planet a better place…. and I can’t even begin to imagine the rest of my life without him.

Here's Josh in a mini-documentary I did about him and his cat in 2003.


UPDATE: I've started a new blog about Josh here

-Swinebread

A Modest Request

An immature goob on youtube didn’t like a throwaway joke comment I made on a random video. So this person, along with their friends, went through all my uploaded videos and gave them poor ratings (1 star) out of spite. They didn’t rate my clips based on the merits of the videos themselves but rather on simply being petty. Since my vids don’t get a lot of traffic this is a major blow to possible future viewership. If someone generally doesn’t like something I’ve posted that’s fine but to go through, systematically, and rate everything I’ve posted poor is ridiculous. They even downgraded the positive comments for goodness sake! I would ask my fellow friendly bloggers, if you have a youtube account, to please rate my videos with five stars, check the thumbs up on previous posted comments, and leave comments yourself. It would be much appreciated. Of course, if you truly don’t enjoy what I have uploaded, I wouldn’t ask you to comprise your integrity but if you feel inclined, it would be very helpful. I’ve mitigated the damage somewhat but I’m sure this person and their friends will return under other accounts to further push down my ratings so your assistance is greatly appreciated.

Link to My Account Here


On another note, here’s an outtake from my one my favorite documentaries Comic Book Confidential. This vid starts out with William Gaines of EC comics but then goes into a propaganda film about why Comic Books are an evil abomination. This was part of the big push to ban comics in the 1950s that led directly to the creation of the Comics Code Authority. Don’t let anybody ever tell you that the government and “polite society” wasn’t out to get comics.



-Swinebread

Tagged by The Moody Minstrel

Moody tagged me here (scroll down).
The rules:

* Link to the person who tagged you.
* Leave a comment on their blog so that their readers can visit yours.
* Post the rules on your blog.
* Share the seven (7) most famous or infamous people you have met. Or go with the original 7 weird things about yourself. Or with Sandra's change and list your 7 favorite writing websites. Lots of choices!
* Tag 7 random people at the end of your post.
* Include links to their blogs.
* Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

I’m going with 7 famous people.

Bruce Campbell

Bruce was showing his film Bubba Ho-Tep around at various venues in 2002 to interest a distributor. Dean Wormer and Misses Dean were kind enough to invite me and the SO along. We waited for hours outside the Hollywood Theater in the cold to get in. Well, the gals waited outside as Dean and I got to go inside and wait in another line to do a meet and greet with the B-Movie legend before the film started. I had brought my DVD copy of The Evil Dead for Bruce to sign. While there, I decided to buy a hardback copy of his book If Chins Could Kill. I thought: “hey, why not get two things signed.” Well just before I got to meet him the crew told me that Mr. Campbell only signs one thing per fan. Oh well, I did want to read his book at some point.

Bruce was very nice and shook my hand and I sat and talked with him a few moments. As he signed my DVD with “Stay Groovy.” I mentioned that I really enjoyed his mini doc Fanalysis that was on the DVD and wondered if he was going to do another one. He said that they had something in the works. I never saw it but I’m sure it ended up on some DVD. I then blabbered some dumb crap about myself that he could have cared less about, but I was feeling ill so I wasn’t thinking clearly. I did have the good sense to say that I enjoyed his work and wished him well before I left.

Mr. Campbell was nice of enough to meet all the folks that had waited to get something signed, so nice in fact that the showing of Bubba Ho-Tep was delayed much to the dismay of our spouses waiting outside in the cold. Eventually, we all sat down together and, after a lively introduction by Mr. Campbell, enjoyed the film.


Erin Grey

I think it was in 1998 when Erin Grey stopped by Portland during a comic convention. I had a big crush on her when I was in grade school because of her staring role as Wilma Deering on the Buck Rodgers TV show. You know the one that was a little too disco for it’s own good right? Well, as the years went by I realized that she was the best part of that program (well, her and Doctor Theopolis that is) so; when she came to Portland I decided to meet her.

When I got to the comic show, I realized I was actually a little nervous, which was strange because it’s not like she was mega famous anymore but, maybe it was due to the fact that hardly anybody ever came to Portland. She looked great, Erin had taken care of herself over the years and she reminded me of one of those hot moms. I talked to her a little bit and asked if she had anything coming out, and she responded that she up for a role and she hoped she was going to get it. That made me a little sad because I think that Grey is good actor, but Buck Rogers typecast her. She was seriously considered for the role of Janeway on Star Trek Voyager. How awesome would that have been?

I bought a signed copy of one her Buck Rogers pictures and I also bought a copy of her book Act Right. Incidentally, it was at this convention that I realized the Portland Comic book show was held in really awful space, the basement of the Memorial Coliseum. I felt a little ashamed that guests had come from all over the place and were stuck in this dank, dark dungeon. And Sure enough, she never came back to Portland just like all the other media guests that have come for the convention.


Will Eisner

Yes, the godfather of American comics and the creator of the Spirit actually came to Portland once thanks to Dark Horse Comics. In august 2000, Things From Another World (Mike Richardson’s other company) hosted the meet and greet with the grandmaster. He was obviously in town to convene with the Dark Horse bunch and it was a simple matter for him to cross the street for the event at the comic shop.

I was having trouble deciding what to have him sign, but I ended up bringing the first two volumes of the Spirit Archives that had just been published previously that year. I arrived early with my niece and we ended up being the first in line. My niece didn’t have a clue who Eisner was but I hoped that someday she’d realize how special it was to meet him, although I’m still not holding my breath.

When Will Eisner came into the shop, he looked just like I thought he would, like a kindly grandfather. He was very affable and was very happy to sign my copies of the Sprit archives especially since he hadn’t seen them yet. When he recognized that Alan Moore wrote the forward, he examined fondly “Oh Alan!”

My niece got mildly annoyed because he kept confusing her name with the name of one his great-granddaughters, but I had great time. I would have loved to chitchat with him but the line was already very long. I had my picture taken with Will and I used one of those disposable cameras, which I promptly lost. Oh well, it was great to meet one of my comic creator heroes particularly given that he passed away a few years later in 2005.


Linda Harrison

Linda played Nova in the first two Planet of the Apes films which are part of my favorite Science Fiction film series of all time, so there was no way I was gonna’ pass up seeing her. She came to Portland in 2004 (I think?) to the Portland comic convention.

I hauled along my Niece again, she didn’t know who Linda was either but I figured she might watch the Planet of the Apes movies eventually. Linda was very nice and agreed to have a picture taken with my niece. As you can see from the shot, she looked great. I bought and had her sign one of her photographs. It was she, the cast and the crew from the first POTA film. Everybody was on the beach where they shot the scene in which Dr. Zaius gets tied up. When I later took to look at the picture, I realized that everybody in that photo was dead expect for Linda Harrison and “Chuck” Heston.


Cat Yronwode

Author, critic, hippie, and sex magic promoter, Cat Yronwode, has worn many hats throughout her life but I knew none of that when I went to see the Eclipse Comics booth back in 1985 or 86. At that time, she was the editor-in-chief of one of my favorite comic companies and that was good enough for me as a pimply-faced teen. Being a huge fan of Eclipse Comics because they published lots of different genres, I collected many of their titles and I couldn’t believe they were actually coming to Portland. Plus, I had read many of cat’s editorials so meeting her personally was something I built up in my mind.

When I first got to the Eclipse table, Cat Yronwode wasn’t there but she soon walked up with some Eclipse titles in hand. She commented to her crew how she was able to find some good back issues to add to their library. I knew what she was talking about because Eclipse had been flooded out a few years before and all their back issues were lost. Cat then sat right down and began interacting with the fans.

Now being a celebrity novice, I didn’t realize that bringing a ginormous stack of comics for her to sign was a pretty rude thing to do. But she was very cool about it and said something nice about what great fan I must be. I realized my mistake when Dean Mullaney, Eclipse’s publisher, said he was only going to autograph one title and suggested she do the same. She ignored him and went right on putting her name on all my Scout comics, Miracle Man comics and Alien Encounters comics (my three favorite titles). Then, when she was done, she handed me one of the Eclipse Comics metal buttons they were selling because I was such a big fan. I wore that button proudly for many years before I stored it away someplace.

Cat Yronwode became one of my favorite comic book people that day. She treated me so nicely when she could have totally blown me off. Cat didn’t and so created a very loyal Eclipse Comics fan. I always felt she was the major reason that Eclipse had been such a success in the 1980s. Eclipse Comics went out of business in 1994, but she had left in 1993. What does that tell you?

Paul Chadwick

I met Paul Chadwick, the creator of Concrete, in 2005. He was nice enough to do an on camera interview:



Mike Richardson

Mike Richardson is the founder of Dark Horse Comics. Back when the company was first starting out in 1986, Dark Horse always had a booth at the Portland Comic Book Show and Mike was often there. He was a soft-spoken, easygoing sort of guy that was happy to meet the fans. Nowadays, Mike’s a bigwig with 300, Sin City, and Hellboy, being huge media successes so he has no need to slum it with the little folk or modest comic book conventions that take place in dank dungeons, but this year he is gonna’ be at the Stumptown Comics Fest, so I think this newer, homegrown convention has, shall we say, arrived?


I’m just gonna tag Lady Bug… I broke the rules… sorry Moody...

-Swinebread

It’s a Beautiful World

Another video I made back in the day. The original footage at the end was changed to protect the guilty .

It’s a Beautiful World



-Swinebread

The Amazing Adventures of Captain Catsup

A hero that defends the rights of free loving Tomato based products everywhere!

This was a class project I did most of the work on back in the fall of 2004.

One of those voices in there just might be mine!

Josh & Lady

Here’s a video that has shot up as my most viewed on youtube.

Again, it was for a video class. The assignment was to essentially do a very short documentary. This buddy of mine has a strong bond with his cat so I chose him. He was happy to do it. This video was shot and edited in early 2004. Both Josh and Lady are still going strong.



-Swinebread