“I have enough work with those who die of natural causes. You can be sure, I’ll charge double to bury anyone I kill.”

Last night J. and I attended a screening of At Midnight I Will Take Your Soul, Brazil’s premiere horror film, with the legendary actor and director José Mojica Marins in attendance. He was decked out in full Coffin Joe garb, and I would include a picture, but my camera broke down just as he walked on stage. We attempted to use J.’s camera phone, but the photo was mysteriously deleted immediately afterward. Cursed!

One of the more interesting topics during the Q+A was Marins’ influences. He claimed that he was inspired by comics as opposed to film. Marins revealed that his look had been cribbed from Mandrake the magician and that he was especially fond of EC’s horror line, evident in one of the opening scenes when an old gypsy woman speaks directly to the audience, warning them of the blasphemy to come.

While I’m on the topic, it appears that I never did mention that the Macho Movie Review tackled the Thai martial arts extravaganza Ong Bak 2 a few months back over at Film Junk. Excessive swearing awaits you.

That ripping sound you just heard was the three Macho Movie Review hosts simultaneously sporting boners that ran out of skin.

One of my biggest obsessions when I first started comics blogging was the ownership of Marvelman. The debate at the time was whether Eclipse had the right to sell the entire property to Todd McFarlane, or if the rights as transferred from Alan Moore and company to Neil Gaiman and company were still valid. What I couldn’t understand was just how Dez Skinn got got a hold of the character in the first place, because if he didn’t acquire them legally, it would seem that Marvelman would belong to none of the above, and could actually be owned by Mick Anglo.

Since that time, original Marvelman artists Mick Anglo has stepped forward to claim Marvelman, and Marvel Comics, who once threatened legal action against Eclipse over the character, has acquired the rights, solidifying the parallels to the Superman/Captain Marvel court case that began this mess in the first place.

Regardless, I’m happy to hear that Mick Anglo is finally getting his due.

I’m finally getting around to learning Flash. I’ve been taking random comic scans from my desktop and converting them to vector art for use in the tutorials I’m working through, to mixed results. The picture above is one such mess. Any guesses as to which comic book character it is?

Today was the big event. I finally dug in and purged the dead weight from my book and comic collection. It was tough, but necessary. I’m one of those people who holds onto almost everything, with certain books holding barely remembered sentimental connotations or on the off-chance that some dusty tome will prove useful one day. Most of the books in the discard pile had traveled through nearly ten apartments in four cities over the past decade without being cracked open more than once or twice, if that. I got rid of numerous DC Archives, Peanuts paperbacks that doubled up with the Fantagraphics collections, a couple of cartooning instruction books from the middle of the 20th century, and a bunch more that are already dim memories.

I have to admit, it took a lot of willpower to keep from blowing the proceeds from the used bookstore on a ton of comics.

“I know, you miss the love you lost long ago, and when nobody is nigh you cry.”

Image from Billie Holiday, by José Muñoz and Carlos Sampayo.

The fine folks at Cannabis Culture Magazine have been kind enough to put up the tale of my crazy hijinx in Japan. A special shout out to the brothers Wintle for all the support.

Word!