Thursday, July 30, 2015

SICK IN THE HEAD


I read a lot of books.

Recently I read this one because,
well...
JOHN SCALZI!!!


After that I read this series,
which was fun:


But while 
space colonization
and
sadistically evil fallen angels
are awesome,
I'm currently 
obsessed with 
THIS BOOK:


Now I always knew I kinda liked 
writer/director/producer Judd Apatow.
Of the eleventy billion films he's 
written and/or produced 
I've seen:

Bridesmaids
Superbad
Anchorman
The Forty Year Old Virgin
and
Knocked up.

And I absolutely 
LOVED
Trainwreck.


I also watched a couple episodes of
Freaks and Geeks,
which I loved.
I'm not sure why I never 
got around to finishing it.

So yeah,
 I like Mr. Apatow for the funny.
But this book has made me like him
for his unrelenting love of what he does.

Judd always had a passion for comedy.
So a long time ago he decided 
to interview his favorite comedians
 for the radio station he worked at.

Never mind that he was only 15 years old.

Ignore that the radio station
was in his high school.

And forget that most of the interviews 
never went on the radio anyway.

All these funny people expected 
someone from a real radio station.
But instead a kid from Long Island 
shows up with an enormous tape recorder.

To their credit,
everyone was awesome
and indulged young Judd:

Jerry Seinfeld
Garry Shandling
Martin Short
Sandra Bernhard
Steve Allen
Harry Anderson
Jay Leno
and more!


Judd did these interviews to meet his heroes
and find out what made them tick.
To get advice about comedy.
And just to bask in their funny.

And he was 15 years old.


As Mr. Apatow grew to become
a sizable figure in Hollywood comedy,
he continued to interview 
his equally sizable peers, 
his stars and his heroes:

Harold Ramis
Chris Rock
James L. Brooks
Key and Peele
Louis C.K.
Lena Dunham
Jon Stewart
Mel Brooks
Sarah Silverman
Stephen Colbert
Steve Martin
and lots more.

The book is a fascinating look into what drives people to comedy:
Broken families.
Trying to get girls.
Feeling like an outsider.
The ability to control what people are laughing at you about.


It's also a view into Mr. Apatow's thought process.
The best creative-types 
are those that have a pure passion for what they want to do
and they'll do anything to get it.
I mean, this was a guy that audio taped
Saturday Night Live and then transcribed it on paper afterwards
 to study how the whole show worked.

One of the reasons I love this book is because
I did a similar thing:

When I came to NYC in 1990,
I started an interview series for the
ASIFA-EAST newsletter about
animators and animation studios.

Just like Judd,
I wanted to meet the people that did
the stuff I wanted to do.

It was also a great way to get my foot in the door
and get to know people at the studios around town.
I actually ended up getting some jobs out of those contacts.

Anyway,
if you're looking for a wonderful
(and sometimes dark) 
look into the mind of great comedians,
go get


Monday, July 20, 2015

SAN DIEGO COMIC CON 2015 (cosplay edition)


One of the 
sooper funnest
things about going to a con
is seeing the abundance of sooper creative cosplay.

And the San Diego Comic Con is
ground zero
for some of the best.

Although
I never feel like I get enough 
really good pics.

Still,
I did get this great one from
Wreck It Ralph:



And a killer
Galactus/Silver Surfer 
combo:



Here's Jon Snow at the infamous
weapon check booth.
Gotta make sure that 
Valarian steel is
TIGHT 
but before you hit the floor.







While I was hanging out at the booth of
killer illustrators
and
this guy showed up:


That's
Houston Rocket


He drew quite the crowd and hung out for a long time,
checking out the boys' work!


There was also some
Miyazaki cosplay
happening:














And sometimes,
after a long day of Comic Conning,
you just need a little
neck adjustment.


So much fun!

My only drag is that
every year
I'm told there's some
KND cosplay happening--
But I never see any!

STOP HIDING FROM ME, KND COSPLAY!




Thursday, July 16, 2015

SAN DIEGO COMIC CON 2015

Another year,
another Comic Con
kicked to the curb!


This one was a bit different as my usual wingman,
Maxwell Atoms,
didn't attend because he's a dummyhead.


But who needs him, right?
Comic Con has
EVERYTHING 
I need anyway.

Like zombies:




Stormtroopers:



Disney TVA panels:


Here's composer Andy Bean 
rocking the
Wander Over Yonder theme song:

TVA 
ALWAYS
has great
goodies
for the crowd:

And here's 
Future Worm,
someone you'll be seeing on
Disney XD 
real soon!


There were also lots of
cheap comics:


My annual Yu-Gi Oh card:


Starships:


Videogames:


Cool statues:


And
of course
PARTIES:


The Warner Bros party is
ALWAYS
epic.

This year they had custom screen printers on hand to
make shirts from virtually every WB show
in existence.


I got this one:


I hung out with a lot of sooper pals but probably had the most fun with
Khary Payton
(Cyborg from Teen Titans Go)
(Numbuh 9 aka Maurice fro KND)
and Scott Menville
(Sneezy from The 7D and assorted KND characters)

We thought this pic of us with
fireworks and a mermaid was killer.


But then we found out the fireworks were
from JJ Abrams taking the entire 
Star Wars panel out to the harbor to see 
John Williams conduct as orchestra 
playing Star Wars music.

Then we felt lame.

So we got another drink and hung out with
Mike Tyson
for a while.
Which was surreal.
Wish we got a picture.

But I did get this video for my kids:


Speaking of my kids,
I'd love to take them to Comic Con.
But they'd get crushed to death and then I'd lose the bodies and
Mrs. Warburton would get all mad at me.

So I take
LOTS
of pictures of all the stuff
they like.

For instance, Legos:




And Minecraft:






They especially liked the 
Comic Con exclusive
Gold Creeper figure I scored!
(I got one for each of the boys by sneaking back in line)


There were also books they like:


And oversized chibi Marvel characters:



And what,
may I ask you is
Comic Con
without 
cosplay?

Well, it's not today.
I'll show you pics of that next week!