Wednesday, August 29, 2018

WONDERS OF THE WEB: MOOK GETS CRAZY AND BUBBLE TAKES A BREAK!!!

August has reached its stopping point.  Well, it will on Friday at least, but today is the last post of the month so for our purposes, August ends in a few paragraphs!  That relaxing art you see just above THIS paragraph signals that Bubble Fox and his critter pals will be going on their annual September vacation!  We got a great lineup of Guest artists ready and waiting, so be sure to check out all the fun over on the ComicFury site over the coming weeks!

And now it's time to wrap up our Web Comic Salute as we pay homage to a big party animal and monster who could give Beetlejuice and Maurice a real run for their money in the old attitude department!  Scroll down and let the good times roll!  Enjoy...

Why, it's Mook!  The sock-eating, color-changing, barking spider-wrangling pal of Wayne from Josh Hauke's Tales Of The Bothers 3!  Ever wonder why socks go missing?  It has nothing to do with dryers sucking them into lint traps.  It's all the work of hungry monsters who absolutely love the taste of filthy socks!  And there's no greater sock thief in the free world today than Mook, who's lucky to share a house with three wild boys that are always up to something!  It's amazing Mook's even able to keep such a lean figure with all the socks he routinely devours!

And that's all she wrote for the month of August!  Although Bubble and pals are going on a break, the ol' CRAZYVERSE blog will still be up and kicking because, well, these toons are relatively easy to get done compared to Bubble Fox.  Plus, it's just not in me to go into full Sleep Mode here!  So be sure to come back and see what's in store!  Until then, take care and I'll catch y'all later!

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

WONDERS OF THE WEB: SCRAPS GETS CRAZY!!!

Welcome back!  Summer's ticking down quite rapidly here!  I guess depending on where you live, that either sucks or is pointless given that most California schools are now year-around and are thus already back in school.  If that's the case for any kids reading this, take heart.  Summer break may be shorter now, but at least Christmas and Spring Break are longer.  That's a halfway decent trade off, right?  Anyway, I'm sure you don't wanna hear about school right now.  You want some art!  And I'm here to deliver!  We got another wacky Canadian to salute, and it's actually somewhat fitting as today's honoree has a sister-in-law named Wakky!  Who is it?  You'll find out as soon as you scroll down if the hint two sentences ago wasn't enough!  Enjoy...

HIYOOOOO!!!  It's Scraps!  The downtrodden, hard luck, dumpster-dwelling brother of Picpak Dog, the infallible, and highly inflatable, pink star of Kim Belding's legendary Web Comic!  Scraps is the modern day and canine equivalent of Charlie Chaplin.  No matter what misfortune befalls him, he's always able to roll with the punches and keep moving forward!  We could all stand to be a bit more like Scraps.  Kim has long been a friend and always surprises me with guest comics and fan art for my characters, so it's always a joy to return the favor.  Plus, Kim's characters are loads of fun to draw!  Everyone should be doing fan art for him!

And that is that!  We'll be back next week to close out August and our Web Comic salute with an homage of monstrous proportions!  Until then, take care and I'll catch y'all later!

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

WONDERS OF THE WEB: WARREN GETS CRAZY!!!

And we're back!  We're taking a metaphoric journey to the Great White North these next two weeks as we celebrate a couple of great characters from the land of Maple and Molson.  I'm talking, of course, about Canada!  Thanks to Twitter, I have many friends and fans up there.  Given some of Canada's legendary shows like You Can't Do That On Television, SCTV and Kids In The Hall, I guess silly and irreverent comics like Bubble Fox and Mike & Mindy fit like a glove with Canadian readers.  I'm very proud to have so many wonderful friends up there and hope I did two of Canada's funniest character some CRAZY justice.  So who's up first?  Scroll down and find out!  Enjoy...

Why look who it is!  It's the hippest, happeningest, hungriest, hockey-playingest character in ALL of Web Comics!  Its Gully Golz of Warren Frantz's always hilarious Off Season!  And you know he's ready for action because he's got his officially-sanctioned BrOlympics singlet on!  Whether he's fighting possessed tails, monster zambonies, dogs with gubble bum or kids trying to amplify farts through acoustic guitars, there ain't a whole lot that Gully can't handle, even a rousing round of Helium Hockey!

And so ends the mid-month post for this August of 2018.  Time just keeps flying by here, but we're gonna keep on truckin' because we must!  Our Canadian salute concludes next week as dumpster dive with a beloved and legendary figure in Web Comics.  Who is it?  Come back and find out!  Until then, take care and I'll catch y'all later!

Wednesday, August 8, 2018

WONDERS OF THE WEB: CARL GETS CRAZY!!!

Hello fellow CRAZIES!!!  Yeah, I know, no more con pics.  But Hey!  The art has returned!  That's pretty cool, right?  Oh come on!  After more than two months, y'all had to be sick of the past Comic Con pics, right?  Well, I only have so many, so back to the art we go!

A couple Octobers ago, I took part in my first Inktober event.  For those who aren't on Twitter or Instagram, Inktober takes place every October and has a pretty simple premise: Draw an inked piece of art everyday!  It's not always easy for me, as October tends to be my busiest month work-wise, but I managed to pull a couple of rabbits out of my hat these last two years.  For my 2016 debut, I chose to spotlight some of my pals in the Web Comic realm!  Since I try to do themes from time to time, I figured why not make August Web Comic month?  So here we go!  Enjoy...

First up is the sarcastic serpent who's usually on the receiving end of his blundering bruin pal's shenanigans.  That's right, it's Carl the Snake from PJ Day's hilarious comic, Flatt Bear!  Carl is more often than not the voice of reason among his wacky stable of friends, and usually suffers heavy consequences for it.  But he always bounces back and sticks by his pals no matter what.  He's a true friend through and through.

And that's all she wrote for today.  It's nice to be back to these smaller, simpler posts.  As much as I enjoy the con pics, it's a lot of work sorting, posting and captioning them.  This took maybe 20 minutes, if even that!  Anyway, we take our Web Comic party up north next week for some wacky fun with a wacky Canadian, so be sure to come on back!  Until then, take care and I'll catch y'all later!

Wednesday, August 1, 2018

COMIC CON 2018: HOT HOT HOT!!!

Comic Con 2018 has come and gone.  Actually, it ended two weeks ago, but I already had things queued up, so we're only just now getting to it!  Even now, as I type this, my feet are still killing me!  In all, Comic Con was an 11 day adventure for me as I went from setting up Hall H to building the Hasbro booth to going to the con and then taking it all down!  Yeah, I guess sore feet was kind of the best case scenario in this situation.

There were many highs and lows this year, but we'll get to that later.  For now, let's get to the pics, shall we?  Comic Con 2018 WAS a go!  Enjoy...

After a 25 year absence, the Rockafire Explosion made a triumphant return to San Diego, with Deadpool as their new frontman!  A brief history here for those born past 1990: Chuck E Cheese's wasn't the only restaurant that had an animatronic band.  There was also Showbiz Pizza which had a larger ensemble called the Rockafire Explosion.  Through various trials and tribulations, Showbiz and Chuck E Cheese's merged and the Rockafire was eventually phased out.  Some independent restaurants around the country bought their own Rockafire bands, Pistol Pete's in San Diego being among them.  Pistol Pete's closed up sometime around 1993 and reopened not long after as Peter Piper Pizza, minus the band (Ironically, if you go there today, you can actually see where the stage had once been!).  After many years and a membership shake-up, the Explosion was back and totally killed it!  I actually got to see them set it all up, so most of us 80's kids kept wandering over to Fox's booth to check it out!

 The Dragonball World Tour offsite behind the Marriott!  This was one of the few offsites I was able to do this year and one of the few that opened up before the Con, hence the reason I was able to beat the crowds and check it out.  It was pretty cool.  Lot's of life-sized statues of  Dragonball characters and some cool toy displays.  Also got a really cool swag bag!

 Beware the Killer Tomatoes!  They are always lurking!  Fun fact: The guy that did Attack of the Killer Tomatoes was a Southwestern College alumnus, which is where I started at!

 Pennywise's sister was out and about, looking to feast!

 My niece, Kristen, made her cosplay debut this year as Sandia, The Watermelon Warrior!  It was the last year I could get her a child's badge, so she asked me if I could make her warrior armor.  I said "How about a pumpkin warrior, since you like Halloween?"  She said, "Uncle, I can't be a pumpkin warrior in the middle of summer.  How about a watermelon Warrior?"  And thus began a looooooong journey that in all took six weeks of work to build!  But to see how much she loved it, and how well received it was from the SDCC crowd, it was well worth it!  She even made a brief appearance on The Jim Jefferies Show!  I don't have too many production pics of the build, unfortunately.  I didn't want to jinx myself since it was my first time making cosplay armor, but over all, I was very happy with the results!  And for those not in the know, Sandia is Spanish for Watermelon.  Kristen picked the name!

 Kristen got the real cosplayer treatment!  Lots of folks wanted pics with her, including just about EVERY Deadpool in attendance!

 YEAH YEAH YEAH!!!  IT'S DR. ROXXO!!!  THE ROCK 'N' ROLL CLOWN!!!  Thankfully, he didn't have any cocaine!

 Wa-Wild and crazy!
Wa-Wild and crazy!
Loved this show as a kid.  They likely had different music directors, but I'm convinced Jim Johnston worked for Nickelodeon under a pseudonym in the early 90's.  The themes of those Nick shows back then were WAAAAAY to similar to early-90's WWF intros!

 The Comic Con sensation before SDCC even started!  When vids of this cosplayer surfaced online roughly two weeks before the opening, people went nuts!  Everyone was on the lookout for Iron Spider and sure enough, we found him!  And yes, the legs were fully mechanical and the eyes lit up and moved!

 Even at Comic Con, the Dude abides, taking it easy for us sinners.

 The former Petco Park Interactive Zone stepped it up a notch and became The Experience At Petco Park!  And they delivered big!  A giant stage with a video wall showing movies and gaming competitions all throughout the con was just one of the new additions.  There was also an expanded food truck zone, a VIP Beer Garden for badge holders, numerous installations for such brands as Marvel, Sony and Norton and a giant inflatable shark that had working jaws that chomped stuff every hour on the hour!  It was a good option for those who couldn't get passes.

 This was easily the best cosplay of the con.  Not knocking my own armor build, but this was just so badass!  Most Labyrinth Cosplayers just go as Jareth or Sarah.  This Junk Lady Cosplay was simply amazing.  And the puppet head worked!  I'd love to build something like this someday.

 I've longed to see Willow Cosplay at ANY con I go to, and this year I finally got my wish as Queen Bavmorda walked through the lobby!  The good Queen said she was part of a group even, but alas, I was never able to find the others.  Next year perhaps...

 Easily the most popular cosplay of the con!  Most people thought this guy was a real In 'N' Out employee taking orders!  I told him that if he had found a legit way to get deliveries there, he probably could've retired after that weekend alone!

 The Undertaker, circa 1994-1996!  After taking this picture, he Tombstoned a security guard who was trying to check his urn!

 The Mattel booth had a life-size statue of Andre the Giant on display that also included his hand prints.  In my family, I am the giant one.  But I felt like a kid seeing how my hand sized up to Andre's!

 Will Ferrell group cosplay!  They just needed a Roxbury Guy!

 The formerly great Nintendo Lounge.  Last year, Nintendo implemented rules that anyone could still walk in, but to play games, you had to wait in a long line.  This year, they just plain said "Screw everyone!  No one gets in until we say so!"  Needless to, I wasn't gonna wait three hours just to walk around inside and take pics.  Was fun while it lasted.

Rick & Pokemon!  Holy crap Morty!  What an awesome crossover!!!

And we end things today on a video from the Cartoon Network booth that I hope will play!  I'm a big fan of Steven Universe and my niece later admitted that the Watermelon Stevens were somewhat of an inspiration for her choice of fruit armor!

And that was Comic Con 2018!  On the whole, I had a good time.  With my nephew and niece being old enough now, I was able to let them roam the halls on their own for a bit while I got to do the things I wanted to do and even went to a few panels, first time in four years!  Still had to deal with a few security guards thinking they were cops, but that's pretty much every year.  A down year for cosplay.  Not that there wasn't any good costumes.  There were plenty!  Problem was the weather was just not good for costuming.  Typically, San Diego's muggy season doesn't start until August.  These last few years though, it has started earlier and earlier, and if you're in a big, heavy costume, it's not the most pleasant experience I'd imagine.  Hopefully next year, things will cool down a bit.  And then of course, there were the lines.  Given all there is to see and do during the week, and the amount of people who come, I long ago accepted that some offsites just can't be done.  But these last few years, the lines have just been unacceptable.  Some people waited as long as seven hours to walk around a futuristic Taco Bell while others waited for four hours to walk into a store based on The Purge.  That just ain't right.  The worst part is, it's the people running the offsites that make it that way.  The offsites used to be very well-run and efficient.  If Disneyland can figure out line management on a daily basis, so can these guys, who have a whole year to figure it out no less!  Guess there's always next year. 

At last, we close the book on the CRAZY Comic Con Countdown 2018.  I hope y'all enjoyed the pics and stories.  I sure enjoyed sharing them with y'all!  We'll be back next June with another two months of Comic Con fun so be sure to mark your calendars now!  And if you're really missing the pics already, I'm sure I'll have some Long Beach Comic Con pics up in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!  The art returns next week and all month long, we're saluting some Web Comic greats, so come back and see!  Until then, take care and I'll catch y'all later!