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Swabby Luke

At some point circa 1999, in the pre-Star Wars: Episode I, The Phantom Menace days, there was a slew of new Star Wars action figures being released. One such figure, Luke Skywalker “Escape from Mos Eisley”, was referred to around the office as “Swabby Luke”, on account of his wearing a “Swabby Hat” (see Fig. 1)

swabbyluke_fig(Fig. 1 – Luke Skywalker “Escape from Mos Eisley” – note “Swabby Hat”)

Credit where credit’s due, the use of “Swabby” was not my doing (credit goes to one Mark Powers who may have picked it up from Mike Rockwitz, if memory serves), but regardless, a good handful of us in the office found it quite entertaining…

The time I got to draw everyone.

My first work in comics, in 1997, was penciling issue #104 of the comic book title WHAT IF? (Vol. 2). The comic starred the Silver Surfer and a character called The Impossible Man, a shape-changing last survivor of the destroyed planet Poppup, a planet of shape-changers. In his appearances, The Impossible Man typically wreaked impish havoc for the heroes he comes across (typically the Fantastic Four).

In this particular comic, the Impossible Man, using newly acquired infinite power, recreates his home planet, Poppup.

The result of this action plays out on the last page of the comic, when a variety of Poppupians appear. The last page of the plot (the text document a comic artist works from to draw the comic) for this story, written by Tom Virkaitis, read as follows:

PAGE TWENTY-SIX

This is an epilogue. We are now back on Thanos’ old altar. The Impossible Man (as Santa Claus) is returning the gems to the Elders of the Universe (who Impy resurrected). The Silver Surfer is also in attendance. The Elders thank Impy who transforms into Captain America and salutes them all. The Elders teleport away as a group. That’s when another Poppupian shows up as the Red Skull and tries to shoot the Impossible Man. Another Poppupian shows up as the Captain America werewolf and yet two others are arguing as to which one is the “real” Bucky (one is the original, the other is the Heroes Reborn Bucky). The Silver Surfer stands silently as all this craziness surrounds him. We pan back as the Surfer tries to convince himself that he made the right choice. “Right?”

Seems simple enough. A good amount of stuff going on, but pretty straightforward.

“IT IS ON! We are approved.”

Remember that story about the “NEW Marvel Tails” project that never happened? (if you don’t, scroll down two entries and learn all about it)

Well, following that second attempt, the editor we spoke to had suggested possibly exploring another Marvel Comics property for any potential story ideas. After a bit of brainstorming, a new proposal was developed and pitched. And today we got word: “IT IS ON!  We are approved.”

It’s still way too early to talk details as this project’s not on any official schedule as of yet (and even then, you never know; more on that another time)…matter of fact I’m not even going to say what the characters or property are. But it should, when it’s all said and done, be a fun, action-packed, and sometimes even funny bit of comics.

I can say that I’ll be writing. Jacob Chabot will be illustrating. And hopefully you all will be buying/reading.

More news as it becomes “safe” to reveal it.

The Attic Sketch

Today is tax day, which means local and national news outlets will undoubtably have a reporter “on the scene” at a post office, commenting on the long lines and waits for people to get their returns out postmarked by the 15th.

Seems to happen every year, despite April 15th falling pretty much on April 15th every year.

Want something different? How about a comedy sketch that is so tangentally related to tax day that one could only call it a stretch to make the connection? Check it out right here.

From the Reject Pile: The NEW Marvel Tails

A couple of years back I submitted a proposal to Marvel Comics for a 4-issues series starring Spider-Ham and the rest of Marvel Comics’ “Funny Animal” characters. Working with me as the artist was the very skilled-in-his-own-right Jacob Chabot.

For those who understood about 8% of that sentence: Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham, is a cartoon pig version of Spider-Man. He, and other animal versions of Marvel heroes and villains, first appeared in Marvel Comics’ Marvel Tails, a punny/homonyminous take on their Marvel Tales title. Later, he headlined his own series as part of the Star Comics line which was aimed at younger readers. Since then, this funny animal take on Spider-Man has been a bit of an oddity/fan favorite.

Unfortunately, because a recent attempt at the time to use the character didn’t do very well, sales-wise, the interest in the series I’d conceived was less enthusiastic, regardless of content. The character, essentially, was “radioactive” for the time being.

That was two years ago. Recently, we gave it another shot, figuring enough time had passed for the fallout to have properly dissipated. And it had, because someone else was doing something with Spider-Ham.

A case of bad timing…twice over.

But rather than let it sit on a digital shelf where no one can see it, I’ve decided to share a “what could have been”. So click here and read the pitch as it was submitted…including a wicked piece of art by the aforementioned Jacob Chabot.

Oreo v. Hydrox: Taste Test & Analysis

It is rare for there to exist one version of a thing. Superman is not the only super-powered hero. MS Word is not the only word processing software. And Kellogg’s Raisin Bran is not the only raisin bran.

This is the case with chocolate sandwich cookies, which is the generic name for “Milk’s Favorite Cookie”, the Oreo. But if you visit your local cookie vendor, you’ll discover Famous Amos makes a chocolate sandwich cookie…Newman’s Own has their Newman O’s…and there are always the more generic, off-branded versions as well.

In the beginning, however, there was the Oreo and the Hydrox. And any trivialist or food nerd will quickly tell you that the Hydrox pre-dated the Oreo.

But the Oreo is the most well known. Oreo, like Xerox for photocopiers and Kleenex for tissues, has become the common-use term for the chocolate sandwich cookie (by way of example as MS Word spell-checks this very document, “Hydrox” gets the “you spelled this wrong” red underline; “Oreo”, no problem. In fact, it only corrects you if you fail to capitalize the O). This was the case for me even as a child, where I just assumed Hydrox was the “off-brand” version of the Oreo. I may not have been the only one, as years ago the first cookie, the Hydrox, was no longer available for purchase.

More recently, however, the Hydrox has returned. Labeled as a 100th Anniversary Limited Edition, you may once again find Hydrox in your local grocery.

Which led to the question: despite their chronology or popularity, what’s the difference, really?

“New Look” Hatter Entertainment Dot Com

In 1964, Batman debuted with his “New Look”. This “New Look” amounted to essentially the appearance of a yellow oval around the bat symbol on his chest. A simple change, to be sure.

In that spirit welcome to the “new look” Hatter Entertainment Dot Com…a two-point-oh, if you will. Aside from the surface aesthetics, you’ll hopefully find cleaner, clearer navigation. And perhaps the most notable change is this very news page with real, live blog technology.

In theory the new site will lead to easier and theoretically more frequent updates. So, be sure to check back from time to time…or even subscribe to the RSS feed (on the right side over there) if you’d like.

In the meantime, take a look around…there’s a bunch of new stuff to see and read and (hopefully) enjoy.

ad_new_lookA new wave of excitement, indeed.

End of 2008: No News Is News

It seems my slow-going revamp of this site isn’t quite ready just yet. But please, check back in the early part of 2009 for what I hope will be a hardly noticeable yet distinctly different Hatter Entertainment Dot Com.

In the meantime, have a happy holiday and all the best in the coming new year.

Gregg.

San Diego Comic-Con 2008

San Diego Comic-Con 2008 is right around the corner and I’ll be there, sitting in Artists Alley table II-18 (alongside pals and talented fellows Jacob Chabot (a real live Eisner Award nominee (for the uninitiated, that’s like comics’ Academy Award) and Chris Giarrusso (whose book Mini-Marvels: Rock, Paper Scissors will be available on 7/23 in comic shops everywhere). Stop by for sketches, sketchbooks, miniature comics (including chapter 2 of Pix: Teenage American Fairy (check the “Comics” section for chapter 1), and of course, banter. Lots and lots of banter.

In other news, a new hatter entertainment dot com, a two point oh, if you will, is in the works. My hopes are (a) it won’t take as long to get that up and running as it took to get this version up and (b) it’ll be SLIGHTLY more easy to update.

If those two things take, well heck, I just might be on to something.

Gregg.