Back in Black

It's been a week or so since I posted and I guess it's because a lot has happened. I fractured a tooth. I got a new job. I'm leaving my old one today after sixteen years. When I was waiting at the pharmacy for some Vicodin I phoned in to a radio station and won a prize package. I found a cold lucky penny on a warm day. My parents moved. We hosted Thanksgiving and nobody drove away with their middle finger out the window for a change. My nephew turned nine. A basketball hit me in the face and bent my glasses out of whack. My brother loaned me a tall stack of comics. The world keeps moving under my feet.

I have been watching Lost Season One on DVD with my wife and daughter, on loan from my brother, who stated that he wished he could sustain a head injury so that he could rewatch the whole season and not know anything about it. I got my wife and daughter hooked on it after some initial reluctance and now we are gulping them down three and four hours at a time. It's a smart, complicated story with great backstory that you have to pay close attention to--and people like it. Something to think about.

I got a screener copy of Black Mass from the Polonia Brothers this weekend and was really happy with how it turned out. Hopefully others will feel the same. As I suspected, my wife got a little uneasy seeing my head get blown off, which is a good sign for our marriage, methinks.

Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

From the Archives: A Bit More From 1976

Another thinly veiled tribute to my favorite comic book of the time period, The Secret Society of Super-Villains.

From the Archives: Yet More From 1976

If this isn't inspired by 70s comic book covers, nothing is.

From the Archives: More From 1976

Bica the Bicentennial Man returns with his misfortunately named sidekicks The Wizz and White Miracle.

From the Archives: Even More From 1976

In this shocking issue, White Miracle grabs a surfboard and turns rogue, with only some thinly-veiled ripoff characters to stop his rampage. I especially love the startling original Shadowman, an idea which came to my brother and I when we put Mego Batman's costume on Mego Spider-Man's body.

From the Archives: Comics, 70s Style

From 1976, Bica the Bicentennial Man travels to help "The Future Superheroes."

Comics, 70s Style Part 2

Another, better spelled edition features a different Future Superheroes lineup, and by the looks of things they aren't faring much better against some sort of band of disco-robots.

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Drawing an editorial cartoon for the school newspaper, 1980. I know, my cartooning hasn't gotten any better.

From the Archives: TV, 1993 style

I know this looks like the cast of "21 Jump Street," but this is me and my student production crew in the summer of 1993, posing for an article that was going to appear in--wait for it--Video Toaster User Magazine. I believe this fine publication folded before the article on our Toaster-loving production center came out. I still have that tie, but fortunately not the suspenders.

From the Archives: TV, 1987 style

Recently unearthed from an old filing cabinet by a colleague and brought to work on a great wave of ridicule, here I am from the 1987-1988 "Spotlight on Students" at my beloved alma mater Ball State University. The photo accompanies a PR piece where I talk about becoming a "Midwestern independent filmmaker." Would you buy a college from this man?

Gridiron Glory

My Little Brother Harold and I being recongnized in the endzone at Saturday's Ball State vs. Akron football game during a former Big Brother/Big Sister of the Year recognition. The weather was nice, and my hometown Cardinals won. On Halloween, when Harold and I went trick or treating, we saw a deer and a rainbow. That prompted Harold to tell me that life is good. It's a good life, indeed.

Navel Gazing

I'm feeling kinda meta today. Every once in a while I start really drilling down on my blog stats and seeing what people read and what they seem interested in and where they come from and so on. Since the advent of Google's photo service I've seen a marked increase in photo grabs off my site. As a public service, I'm putting the three most popular here, to aid in further downloading.

Sort of obvious.

Really pretty cool.

I'm not making this up, and it makes me feel a little creepy when I stop and think about it.

Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

A Foot Without A Sock

New readers might not know the plot of Black Mass, the latest script I wrote for the Polonia Brothers, so I might mention that it's basically a World War II-era feature about a group of soldiers sent to blow up a Nazi tank factory, only to stumble across an evil entity released by the Nazi's occult tampering. And then yesterday I find this, in the Hollywood Reporter:

Matt LeBlanc will make a return to the big-screen in the sci-fi thriller The Watch. Based on a original screenplay by John Claflin and Daniel Zelman, the World War II-set film revolves around a team of highly specialized soldiers sent to blow up a Nazi fuel depot, only to discover they are being hunted by an evil spirit unleashed by the Nazi's secret occult experiments. Matt will also produce.

I guess it's time to start wearing that tinfoil hat again.

Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.