Returning guest and Co Host Jameel Key and I shot the breeze before the episode and I handed over the Bonus Clip camerawork to him. We both agreed that Jameel’s clip from Season 1 was bad. Really bad. Back then, I had Rob Bender ask Jameel about the evolution of a joke. It was awkward and starchy. So I figured I’d let him decide when and how to film Kevin Thomas Jr. He started rolling right after the episode, which is typically when we all get up, stretch and breathe a sigh of relief. The three of us had a really good dynamic during the show and Jameel ran with that. Here’s the result:
Thanks to Jameel for circling back, Kevin for coming on and as always, producer Richard Wicka for having us. You know how I mention SUBSCRIBING to the channel on YouTube? For updates, new episodes, that kind of thing? You should do that.
#BigWordsVideo will return this month with award-winning country band
There’s something about stand-up comic Clayton Williams that I’ve liked from the second I saw him hosting at Mr. Goodbar some two years ago for their ‘Uncle Jerry’s Comedy Showcase’. He’s got a comedic style and a completely off-the-wall delivery that I’ve never seen around here. I couldn’t wait to get him on the show and I knew he was going to be great, but I had no idea how great. By contrast, Co Host Becca Barnum has been on my radar for one reason or another for the last year. When I had someone in film on the show, she just so happened to be in some of the movies, when I had someone with a cosplay background, she just so happened to be in the same cosplay groups, and so on, and so on.
The dynamic was so magical and the conversation was so fluid while we were filming that I barely scratched the surface on my questions, and that’s okay. We kept on talking after the show and they both got an invite back at a later date and time. Oh yeah, here’s the show:
Thanks to Clayton and Becca for doing such a great job and thanks as always to Producer Richard Wicka. We wound up with what I’m sure will go down as one of my favorite show memories, but there’s still a lot more to be made.
I tell every guest about the idea behind having a Bonus clip to complement each episode of the show. Some bring one, some have a great idea that we do in or outside the studio, sometimes things just fall through or people run out of time. I asked producer Richard Wicka what he thought of rolling the camera during the post-show photo session and he thought it was a great idea, very “Cinema Verite” (sp?). In the 3 years that I’ve been doing the show, this was the most fruitful photo session we’ve done to date. Clayton and co-host Becca Barnum were camera gold, and they came alive during the show as well as before and after it. If you Instagram, you can see ALL of the photos in the next few days @tomfoolery444. I’ve been trying to get away from just dumping all of the outtakes in one payload. Or you can ‘Like’ @bigwordsvideo on FB and see all of the photos there. Here are the results of the live video feed from the session:
A big thanks to Clayton Williams and Becca Barnum for their enthusiasm, their comedy and the terrific dynamic in the studio. You’ll see them again soon, but I’m not telling you when. Here’s the part where I beseech you to SUBSCRIBE to the Channel on YouTube for notifications on new episodes, ALL of the bonus clips and extra incentives that I’m not going to spell out at this juncture.
Comic writer/artist Jason Yungbluth and I share the same twisted mindset. We originally met back in 2002 for one of my very first ArtVoice print interviews (back when I was freelancing) and hit it off right from the jump. His ongoing comic Deep Fried stands next to Reid Fleming: World’s Toughest Milkman as one of the funniest, most off-the-wall comics I’ve ever read. His art isn’t the weaker end of the bargain either. Going back through his issues to prep for the show, I picked up some strong shades of R. Crumb, a little Bill Wray and his own distinctive style, which is just…fully realized. As co-host Mark McElligott put it, ‘He’s got IT.’ After the interview, Jason moved to Rochester to blaze his own trail and find a larger comic market. This was the first time we’d been in the same room together since ’02. It was more fun than I expected.
Thanks to Jason, Mark and the ever-present producer Richard Wicka for a great episode. I’ve got a soft spot for the comic book industry, and I wish I could land more local talent in the field. Oh and hey, SUBSCRIBE to the show for updates, bonus clips, yada yada. A thumbs up wouldn’t hurt, either.
#BigWordsVideo is doubling down in December, so don’t adjust your monitors.
I was trying to come up will some alliteration there, but I’m at a loss for words at the diversity and ingenuity of the following 3 Bonus clips. Guest Jason Yungbluth was kind enough to provide a dark, gritty, gruesome trailer for his incredible 400 page Weapon Brown graphic novel as well as a holiday-themed stop-motion festive pancake clip that’s also wrong on a number of levels. Check ’em out:
Conversely, perennial Co Host Mark McElligott brought something to show, too. His lifelong project and character Starchy is almost a reality. You can check out one of his animated cartoons to promote the project right HERE:
Thanks to Jason and Mark for bringing a level of professionalism with their videos that is heretofore absent from most of my proceedings. I like the variety and the breadth of their humor showcased in these clips.
#BigWordsVideo shall return. Sooner than you think. Please SUBSCRIBE in the meantime.
These two Big Words Video bonus clips were a cinch. I was really pleased with the over-the-shoulder artist’s perspective we got with Graham Nolan for 18.5. Let’s face it: It’s cool to watch an artist at work. This time (to avoid shaky-cam), I posted a tripod behind artist Jeff Perdziak while he fleshed out two of the central characters from his upcoming creator-owned graphic novel ‘The Menagerie’ (which is coming out this fall from the Visions Comic Art Group). See both installments for yourself:
You know, if you like this sort of thing, it’s twice as nice to ‘Like’ it on YouTube. You can also take it one step further and PLEASE SUBSCRIBE to the Big Words I Know By Heart Channel on YouTube. Just putting that out there. #BigWordsVideo will return on February 23rd along with ‘Dr. Dirty’ John Valby! We’ll see you then!
Author’s Note: Everything old is new again. With ‘Lucifer’ hitting the small screen next week on Fox, I felt it was appropriate to dust off my print interview with creator Mike Carey from my 2007 book If They Can’t Take A Joke (Authorhouse). Nine years later, Lucifer remains my favorite comic series of all time. Fox better not fuck it up. -Tom
For the uninitiated, comic writer Mike Carey is the second coming as far as Neil Gaiman’s fantasy masterpiece Sandman is concerned. After the Sandman library ended its epic run, he resurrected Samael, also known as the Morning Star, better known as Lucifer. The Eisner Award-Winning Vertigo title has gone on to a great deal of financial and critical success and, never one to rest on his laurels, Carey has kept busy writing a number of inspired story arcs for John Constantine: Hellblazer, Batman, and the one shot hardcover The Furies.
Lucifer: The Wolf Beneath The Tree (DC/Vertigo) explores the series roots while rushing towards its sad but inevitable conclusion. Writer/Creator Mike Carey and artists Peter Gross, Ryan Kelly, P. Craig Russell and Ted Naifeh delve into a fable behind the construction of the kingdom of heaven and what happened to Lilith after her exile from the garden of Eden. Furthermore, the volume follows Lucifer’s continuing struggle to escape the grip and shadow cast by his father and his battle for universal autonomy.
For the uninitiated, the series is a high watermark for quality in adult graphic fantasy, chronicling the Morning Star’s resignation from the duties of Hell and subsequent dealings on the earth and beyond. Over the course of the series, Lucifer has double crossed God, created a world in his own image, battled the heavenly host on his own terms and tangled with more than his share of adversaries while somehow managing to come away stronger with a clever remark in tow. The dialogue is incomparable for the medium, and the series is a lightning rod for some of the most talented artists in the business. In terms of fantasy, there are no substitutes for Lucifer.
I had the opportunity to speak with Mr.Carey on an overseas call from his London home regarding his writing, his love for comics, and his obsession with myths, fables and fairy tales.
TW: Have you put a great deal of research into the occult and demonology in order to write Lucifer, or is it part of a life long fascination with myths and fables in general?
MC: It’s more the second than the first. It’s a lifelong fascination. I do specific research for specific storylines, but I was a lit major at university (Oxford) and I did Latin and Greek at school, so I’ve always been sort of interested in myth. I’ve always been saturated with the myths of certainly Mediterranean cultures. As I’ve sort of gone through my first degree and my higher degree I continue to sort of revisit the themes I was fascinated by.
To some extent, it comes from my weird background. I was born in Liverpool, and my dad was Catholic and my mom was Anglican and this is in one of the most sectarian cities on the British main lands. Mainly second and third generation Irish immigrants. So religion was a big part of my childhood and yet I was slightly detached from it because I came from this family where there was a kind of religious truce going on. And this was a city that was experiencing a religious Cold War. It was a part of my upbringing without my ever being a believer.
Okay, so this was really, really cool. As a Big Words Video bonus clip, this is something that was in the back of my mind for a long time. We did an over-the-shoulder shot with Graham Nolan while he went from a blank slate on his IPad Pro to a rough finished sketch. The entire process took about seven minutes while we peppered the clip with some follow-up questions. Just a really, really cool way to complement Episode 18. Check it out right HERE:
Thanks again to Nolan for doing the show! And for those of you reading, SUBSCRIBE to the Big Words I Know By Heart Channel on YouTube already, will ya?
Brian Azzarello is a tricky interview. I knew this going in, and tried to set up enough pitfalls and death traps along the way that he’d be bound to open up. Who knew that grilling was the topic that would wind him up and get him to open up a bit? The comic writer has turned the industry on it’s ear over the last five years, creating the award winning crime series 100 Bullets and applying his own personal hard-boiled genius to Batman, Superman, The Incredible Hulk (Banner), Hellblazer and Lex Luthor, infuriating some traditionalist fans and picking up some more of his own at the same time. He is to comics what Lon Chaney was to method actors. He dives into his dialogue head first and soaks it up on subways, street corners and dive bars. He knows the street and the words his characters bluster and swear and shout with is genuine. He’s also released Johnny Double, re-tooled Marvel’s Cage and worked on El Diablo. To be short and sweet (which is the way he prefers to write his dialogue and the way he prefers his music, conversation, and art), he is a bitch to interview. He’s squirrely and you need to move mountains very quickly to get past those defenses.
TW: Who was your inspiration for Agent Graves?
BA: Who? Lee Marvin. TW: You’re obviously a fan of hard boiled crime fiction. Would you care to name some influences?
BA: Oh, god, just the usual suspects, I suppose. Thompson, Wolvert, Goodis. Goodis more than the rest. TW: You’ve been known to listen to dialogue on subways and in bars. Do you research specific locales for specific titles and has it ever put you in any dangerous situations?
BA: No. No, it’s never…I’ve never been in a situation I couldn’t handle. TW: How many other creator-based projects are you hiding?
BA: Hiding? I’m pretty open with ‘em to be honest with you, you know? I’ve got a series coming out in October called Loveless, which is a Western. It’s gonna be another ongoing series like 100 Bullets. It’s about a husband and wife…a pair of outlaws during Reconstruction. We’re calling it a noir spaghetti western. TW:Are you serious about hanging up the capes after your tour of duty with Superman, Batman and Lex Luthor?
BA: Am I serious? Hell yes. TW: You’ve been well praised for realistic and faithful dialogue of the underworld. Are you a fan of David Mamet?
BA: Yeah. Yeah, sure. Not everything. (laughs) TW: Who are your favorite country singers?
BA: You mean like current? TW: All time, current, if you want to go back to the great storytellers or current day…
BA: All time, it’s gotta be Cash. Current, I like Jim White a lot, and definitely Steve Earle. TW: Cage was phenomenal.
BA: Thanks. TW: Why did you decide to leave the ending open, though, and do you have any plans to revisit the character?
BA: No, he’s dead, c’mon. I’m…maybe. I think Marvel took that character in a different direction, though. TW: Between your script and Corben’s artwork, it really blew me away.
BA: Well, you really can’t go wrong with the source material. I just basically did ‘Red Harvest’. TW: What’s your working relationship like with Eduardo Risso? Have you met him yet at this point?
BA: Oh yeah, I have, we’ve met. We see each other basically about once a year. It’s great, you know? We communicate mostly through email. TW: Do you have any plans to work with Richard Corben again?
BA: We’ve talked about it, yeah. I definitely would like to work with Richard again. TW: You’ve been very vocal about fan boys in the past. Why do you think they hang on to their franchises so tightly?
BA: (long laugh) You mean… TW: A lot of them have complained in the past about directions that you’ve taken with Hellblazer or some of the other big titles for DC and Marvel. They piss and moan about…
BA: They want what they remember, you know? And basically, yeah, it’s not what you remember, or what they remember. It’s…for a lot of these people, it’s like, comics, it’s like…they still read the things?
But they’re reading it for something that they’re not gonna get. They’re chasing that first orgasm again. TW: What’s your favorite whiskey?
BA: I can’t drink the stuff anymore. TW: Not even Knob Creek?
BA: Nah, that was my favorite. No man, I just look at a shot glass of whiskey and I get a hangover these days. Now I drink tequila. TW: That’s how you wake up in another state with no pants.
BA: That isn’t necessarily a bad thing! TW: How did you plan John Constantine’s cross-country trip initially?
BA: Initially, I just threw him in prison. I didn’t plan to move him anywhere. TW: You write a lot of your best scenes in a bar environment. Do you write any of your outlines or scripts while you’re in bars?
BA: I used to, but I really don’t anymore. Well, if I’m outta town, yeah, but I can’t do that here anymore. TW: Too loud?
BA: No. Like…I don’t know, I get interrupted. TW: Hard Time was one of the best story arcs in the series. Did you have a ball writing the script or is it more like a job when you’re assigned to an established series?
BA: No, definitely it was not a job. I had fun writing Constantine. A lot of fun. TW: Any more hints on the finale to 100 Bullets?
BA: No hints. Nothing. TW: It felt like you lived and breathed New Orleans in 100 Bullets: The Hard Way; Have you vacationed there and if so, for how long?
BA: Yeah, I’ve been there a number of times. I’m going again this winter. TW: Raymond Carver or Raymond Chandler?
BA: Oh man, that’s hard! TW: If you had to pick.
BA: If I had to pick? I can’t! I can’t pick…no! That’s tough! You know, on one hand it’s like…you go with Chandler, but…if you go with Carver, there’s so much more stories. TW: Well I know you’re a fan of minimalism and economy of dialogue, and Carver was great at doing that.
BA: Oh yeah, I think so too. He would use the fewest amount of words to just bum the piss out of you.
(laughs) TW: I found out today that you enjoy cooking. What’s your favorite recipe?
BA: Oh god, I don’t know. I cook all the time. It’s probably…five nights a week, sometimes six. I just got a new grill so I’ve been grilling every night. TW: I got a Sunbeam a few months ago and took a ’phd in grilling’.
BA: See now, I had a gas grill, and all the guts had to be replaced, so like, in between doing that, I just pulled out a little smoky grill, and I’m using that thing again. I forgot how wood makes food taste. Then after a while I got this thing called the Big Green Egg. It’s this big, ceramic, wood fire grill, like a kiln. It’s all ceramic. TW: I used to be a prime rib fan and now I’m all for Porterhouse.
BA: Oh, yeah! Porterhouse, you get the two best cuts. TW: Why did you decide to humanize Killer Croc?
BA: He needed it. I mean, I think…I think the Batman villains work better if they’re human. ‘Cause he…Killer Croc started out as human! I just brought him back to his roots is all. TW: Have you ever considered doing anything with Swamp Thing?
BA: Probably not. We talked about it, but I don’t think so. Not at this point, anyway. TW: What was the last comic you read that humbled you?
BA: Whew, geez. TW: Something that really blew you away.
BA: Let me look here. I’m looking at, like, all the recent stuff I got. Oh, well the last thing that really, really blew me away was Joe Kubert’s Yossel. A hardcover came out from, I think IDW…the publisher. I-Books rather was the publisher. TW: I read Ex Machina right after Cage and it just hit me like a ton of bricks.
BA: They’re two different tons, too. (laughs) Brian (K. Vaughn) comes from a completely different place than I do with his stories. TW: Frank Miller took Batman backward and forward. Mark Waid took the entire DC Universe into the future. Will you ever pen an aging icon in the industry?
BA: Man, I don’t know. I have no clue. TW: (exasperated) I gotta say, you’re a tough interview! (laughing)
BA: Yeah, I’ve heard that before. TW: I keep hoping I’m gonna hit some landmine here…
BA: Yeah, well, working on the company of characters right now, it’s just, it’s not anything I really want to do. TW: Well, I know that working on superheroes isn’t what you enjoy…
BA: No, it’s not what I enjoy, and after working on ‘em, it’s…I know why I don’t enjoy them! (laughs) It seems like a lot of the stuff…the whole point is to get to the punch, and that’s kind of juvenile. Especially when there’s guns around. TW: Speaking of guns, Sgt. Rock: Between Hell and a Hard Place was very good.
BA: Thanks. That was a good experience, working with Joe (Kubert). I mean…it…I’ve been lucky with my artists, know what I mean? TW: What would you like your epitaph to say?
BA: One more for the road (laughs) TW:How did Jim Lee talk you into a chat room with Kilgore Trout? The interview came off with this particular fan boy as a bit obnoxious.
BA: With Kilgore? TW: Yeah.
BA: I don’t know if he was obnoxious, he just like…ehh…I think he was a little close-minded. It’s not just him, but a lot of people have very, very specific ideas of what these characters are and how they’re supposed to operate. And if you deviate from those, you are, you don’t understand them. TW: They hang on too tight.
BA: Yeah, you know, and it’s…yeah. TW: You’ve mentioned that you don’t have any plans to work with Jill (Thompson, Azzarello’s wife) on anything, but do you two compare notes, or…
BA: We talk about stuff, yeah. That’s one of the reasons why we probably won’t work together.
It’s much better to approach each other’s stuff with a fresh eye. TW: (exasperated) That’s all I’ve got! I put two weeks of work into these questions!
BA: Well, do you wanna revisit some of these questions? You can pull something else out if you want. TW: (sighs) I uh…really wanted to reread more of your stuff. I got to volume four of 100 Bullets and have been tied up with a lot of other things, reading other things. What are you working on right now?
BA: What was I working on today when you called? 100 Bullets. TW: Are you one of those writers who gets up at the asscrack of dawn at 6 am with a cup of coffee and goes to work?
BA: I usually am up about six or seven. Coffee, newspaper, sit down… TW: You said once before that you wanted to do a sequel to Johnny Double. Is that on the horizon?
BA: No, I doubt that’ll ever happen right now. There’s other things goin’ on. The next…after Loveless, right now, I’m in development with for three graphic novels. One a year for the next few years. TW: Do you see any other spinoffs with any of your work? Once 100 Bullets is done, do you see any of the peripheral characters off on their own?
BA: Not for me. When it’s done it’s done, as far as I’m concerned. Unless I’m broke and say, ‘Hey, let’s go back’. TW: I heard that DC approached Alan Moore to do a sequel to Watchmen and it just seems wrong.
BA: Eh, it doesn’t hurt to ask. The guy could say yes. After 100 issues of 100 Bullets, though, I’m pretty sure it’ll be done. TW: Did you have the storyboards and the outline worked out from the first issue?
BA: Our original contract was for just a year. So…I kinda…a decision had to be made. Can you get this down to a year or maybe eighteen months. If it’s not doing well, we’ll give you six issues to wrap it up. That was an option. Instead I just said, well, I said yes. I said I could do it…but there was no way I coulda done it. So I figured, we’ll just tell the twelve and if that’s all we tell that’s all we tell. Fine. TW: What’s it been like working with Jim Lee? He seems a bit more traditional than a lot of the artists that you’ve worked with. Corben’s got a very recognizable look and Risso has a very distinct style.
BA: Well, so does Jim. As far as the superhero stuff goes, I don’t know if there’s anyone any better than Jim. Working with him, I didn’t treat him any differently. I left him a lot of room to improvise…especially the fight stuff that was in there. I left that kind of choreography to him…how to do it. ‘Cause he does it better than me. TW: I think that’s everything I’ve got. I appreciate you taking the time out for me.
BA: (laughs) I mean, I’m a terrible self-promoter. TW: You’d rather let the work speak for itself.
BA: Absolutely. I don’t want to be a celebrity. The point of my life is to work.
Miller takes another payday from DC Comics for this fall’s upcoming mini-series The Dark Knight III: The Master Race.
Author’s Note: ‘*Fill-In-The-Blank* Can Blow Me’ was a regular column (and for all I know, still is) at Acid Logic, the site I’ve written and contributed to since the early 2000’s. So I was trying to write for that format. With the pre-release controversy machine already gearing up for The Dark Knight III: Master Race, I figured this’d be a good time to post the following click-bait. First-time visitor to the site? Then please feel free to Like, Subscribe and stick around for awhile! -Tom
Originally appeared on AcidLogic.com on August 1st, 2008.
Frank Miller can toss my salad and gargle with the creamed corn. Every one of his ‘great works’ is going downhill at the speed of sound the longer he keeps coming out with new projects. And by projects, I mean the realm of film that he’s somehow blown his own way into.
I love Batman, but I’m not touching the new All Star Batman compilation by Miller with a ten foot pole. My comics retailer told me to buy it and that I’d hate it. Why in the fuck would I buy some piece of garbage for thirty dollars knowing full well that it was going to upset me? Apparently, Miller takes his disgust for the franchise that made him the overly-compromised whore he is today and ‘turns the series on it’s ear’ by ‘shifting the paradigm’. Those phrases are about as original as anything he’s done in the last fifteen years, so they felt warranted.
Frank Miller has lost his motherfucking mind. The Dark Knight Strikes Back had an uninspired title, poor computer generated artwork and a storyline that was more brass balls than character arc. It was a sad, pale imitation of it’s predecessor. I’ve explained these books in full detail many times over, so you’re not getting a synopsis here because I’m too fired up.
In his old age, he’s become a paranoid delusional maniac with a full tilt delusion of grandeur. Sin City the ‘film’ may be a wet dream for frat boys and tough guys, but it didn’t carry over well onto celluloid. 300 was such an obnoxious case study in slow-motion overuse that I wanted to drive out to Hollywood and smack the director in the face with my dick. After giving him the ‘mushroom bruce’, I’d walk over to Frank Miller’s house, where he could commence to blowing my ‘soup can’ of a cock.
Sin City (the black and white graphic novel series) wasn’t really that hot, either. Take every pathetic dime store novel stereotype you’ve ever read, suck the ingenuity that a great crime novelist like Chandler or Hammett would infuse the story with, fuck that story in the ass, water it down some more, give it some ‘hardcore’ balls-out abstract artistic leanings in the panels, take a steaming shot between seven or so perfect bound collections, smear your taint-cheese right at the anti-climactic stupidity of each interconnected ‘story’ in this city, and you have something that resembles a grade school-serial-killer in training’s circle jerk session with a cat he just tortured and drowned in a barrel of lye. Over-rated tripe.
And now, this Christmas, Miller takes the director’s chair a second time to torture the world by fucking up the very spirit of Will Eisner’s Spirit. How fucking dare you, Frank. Climb a chair, slip through a noose and take your own life. Is that too harsh? Too goddamned bad. You’re embarrassing yourself and the rest of the comic enthusiast macrocosm in tinsel town. The last ten years of your artistic life have been a pathetic, flaccid facsimile of your former glory.
You’ve peaked. Call it day. Hang up your hat, kick off your shoes and go home. I don’t like you anymore. My friend doesn’t like you either. Rip that line from Star Wars and work it into the next sequel that you whore yourself out for with DC, you little bitch! Ooh, but you make me mad!
Many writers write their best work before they become financially successful. You’re obviously on the other end of that spectrum. Trust me, I’m not jealous. I make decent money doing what I do, I have leverage where it matters and at the end of the day I sleep on a bed of residual and commission cash (from freelancing and books) with a woman who has (and always will have) the ass of a 16 year old cheerleading captain in Catholic school. Both of these factors give me enough werewithal and gumption to write another twenty books, each one successively better than the next.
Dark Knight Returns is looked upon as one of the most important comic legends in the history of the medium right up there with Alan Moore’s The Watchmen. Alan Moore continues to break every mold and genre he’s compared to while ever-striving to grow the collective audience for the artistic field. Miller continues to back himself into a corner like a half-wit obsessively slapping his own flimsy prick up against a corner.
Batman: Year One is the template upon which Batman Begins was drawn from, and for good reason. Daredevil: Elektra changed my life and the lives of many others with it’s gritty artwork (also drawn by Miller) and it’s haunting ruminations on unrequited love and the prospect of one-time resurrection. After that, Miller has been going downhill faster than Barrack Obama in a soap box derby cotton gin on wheels. He’s done. Finished. Washed up, whored out and stretched to the point of being worse than a contract soap opera writer. If you could travel back in time and see how inspiring and original and ground-breaking you were, you’d climb a clock tower, install a diving board and then jack-knife onto the concrete fifty feet below.
Listen, Frank. If you can’t strive to improve with each literary or cinematic outing, then you’re done. Throw in the towel. Drop your pencils, your word processor, your agent, and then I’ll drop my pants and stuff all seven and a half inches of my ‘babie’s arm holding an apple’ into the back of your tonsils. What’s the smartest thing that ever came out of Frank Miller’s mouth? My dick.
-Yeah, I stole that joke. Just writing about Miller makes me a derivative hack, too, so I’m stopping now to invest my creative energies into something infinitely more satisfying than meditations on a nobody. You fucked up, Miller. Now wipe the spunk of your chin and go away.
These sessions are getting to be TOO much fun! As I told guest Emil Novak after taping the show, I can tell my guest was great when there are still a handful of questions left on the table. Emil was a real prize fighter; a good sport with a great sense of humor who rolled with the punches. Here is your synopsis:
Big Words I Know By Heart Episode VI: ‘Reanimating Dead Flesh’
Tom talks to Buffalo producer and jack of all trades Emil Novak Sr. (Buffalo Nickel Productions, Queen City Books) about the impending release of his film ‘Frankenstein’s Patchwork Monster’, a new idea for a syndicated strip and the technological probability of resuscitating dead flesh. Mark McElligott gets the works in the Co-Host Hot Seat.
You can view Episode VI right HERE:
Please take a moment to Like the video & Share it!
Thanks are in order to producer Richard Wicka, Emil, actor Bill Kennedy for bringing Big Words Video 6.5 (below) to life and returning champion Mark McElligott for being on the receiving end of all my abuse.
#BigWordsVideo will be at the Buffalo Night Life Music & Club Awards next week, so I’ll talk to you all real soon!
The Bonus Clips continue to entertain and surprise me. While I hold the reins pretty tightly for the actual show episodes, my guests are encouraged to do whatever they like for the companion videos. Emil Novak Sr. opted to perform a script reading for ‘Frankenstein’s Patchwork Monster’ with actor Bill Kennedy. The result was intimate and intriguing. Viewers can see how Bill and Emil breathe new life into the Frankenstein lexicon and their back-and-forth banter gives us all a behind-the-scenes look at the cameraderie on set for the film. As always, please take the time to click the ‘Like’ icon on YouTube and feel free to Share the clip. Enjoy!
The bonus segments are turning into off-the-cuff guerilla film clips.
Much like the podcast, I have faith that the show format(s) will evolve with every ‘webisode’. For this bonus clip, Kyle Kaczmarczyk and myself thought it would be fun to let our action figure avatars do the talking. We continued the interview while playing make-belive. Please take the time to click on the link here:
Also, please take the time to ‘Like’ each clip and ‘Share’ ad infinitum. This segment was filmed in 1080 High Definition, which was totally unnecessary considering the backdrop, but perhaps funnier within the context.
We’re only a few days away from filming Big Words I Know By Heart Episode II (and 2.5, respectively) on ‘the Youtubes’. The first episode was so much fun that I can’t wait to get back into the studio. My guest this time around will be New York Times best-selling comic book writer/artist Kyle Kaczmarczyk (Fubar, The Red Eye, The Misadventures Of Silent Boy, Igor: Occult Detective and many other titles). Kyle and I have a long history together. He was around for the first season of the Big Words podcast and he’s accomplished quite a bit since then.
My co-host will be Jenny O., who’s practically a sister to me. This will be her first time on the show and I can guarantee you that she’s going to be hilarious. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your point of view), she’s exactly like me, but female. So (in a word), she’s completely insane. It should be a blast.
I’ll post the link as soon as both shows are up. Word of mouth is everything, so please be sure to Like, Share and Comment. If you haven’t seen Episode I (and 1.5) yet with guest Jon Elston, feel free to click on the Big Words Video Links in the ‘Links’ section to the right of this post on the Home Page.
On a side note, my Twitter account is now Private for reasons that are really nobody’s business but my own. You are welcome to follow me @tomfoolery444, but again, you will have to request access in order to follow my Tweets.
To be completely honest, I went into the studio with the preconceived notion that cartoonist Tom Beland was going to be pretty square as a guest. Having only met radio host Michael Hoffert Jr. before, I also assumed that his soft-spoken demeanor wouldn’t gel well with the spirit of Big Words Radio. You know what they say about assuming. I was wrong on both counts. Beland was a riot once he opened up and Mr. Hoffert balanced out my random insanity with a lexicon of rote knowledge about the comics industry as well as a genuine zeal for the art form. Here is your synopsis:
Episode 69: ‘Common Motherf#$@*ers‘
Tom & Executive Dual Host Michael Hoffert Jr. (‘It Came From The Longbox’) talk with writer/cartoonist Tom Beland (‘True Story, Swear To God’) via ‘The Skype’ about romance, comics, profanity, stand-up comedy and smoking too much weed.
-To hear the show on the Think Twice Radio roster, click your way over to:
-In addition, you can subscribe to Big Words Radio for free on ‘the iTunes’ by searching ‘Big Words Radio’ in Podcasts and selecting the Comedy listing.
My apologies and thanks to Tom Beland and Mike Hoffert for assuming the worst only to discover that they brought their A game to the table. This was a great show and after we taped, I came to the conclusion that it was a great show whether I was a part of it or not. Tom opened up with some personal information he’s never offered before. Mike (who’s used to discussing newly released comics rather than talking to their creators) truly shined when he had a chance to talk to one of his heroes. All I did was insert my usual brand of insanity into the program. It was a neat blend of personalities that made for an entertaining listen.
We’re setting our sights for unusual game next month. Co-host William Dyson (who’s the very definition of bizaare) and myself will be talking to Buffalo rapper Art Shepard/a.k.a. ‘Lex’ about his debut album. Last year, Big Words Radio got ‘back to its roots’ and I focused more on intriguing guests instead of brand name celebrities with stock responses. It paid off. This year, I’ll be getting back to the artists (local and national) who are more deserving of a wider audience. While the show is erratic and goofy and all over the place most of the time, there is a definitive blueprint that I’m trying to reinforce.
Playing outside the boundaries of the traditional interview remains the framework for a show that’s been anything but formulaic.
The fourth year for Big Words Radio could be the final one.
Downloads have been dropping steadily for the last two months. I like to stay productive, but I don’t see a discernable benefit to putting so many man hours into punching up a prospectus, booking guests and slaving over the production, sound editing, intro and outro music and everything else involved with each show if the audience isn’t there. This time last year the show was on a roll while it was nearing extinction on Mypodcast.com. Roll the calendar forward by twelve months and we’re moving in the wrong direction. I’m not quite sure what’s happening or where my crowd went where the radio show is concerned. The books are selling better than they ever have. Site hits here & everywhere else have been blowing up. The new Twitterverse following is growing exponentially. Big Words Radio is dying a slow death & it doesn’t make sense. Like some hosts I could pretend that the show is better than ever, but I deal in facts and abide by honesty.
Here’s what’s going to happen: If I don’t see a marked increase in free subscriptions on iTunes or a spike in downloads on Mevio.com by the end of this summer, the show is over. It’s that simple. I’m not going to keep investing what little free time I have into trying to make people laugh with over the top outrageous comedy if you’re not down with the cause. In for a penny, in for a pound. Now’s the time to show me if you’re listening because if you’re not, I’m not doing it anymore. I’ll pick up my toys and go home.
Maybe the podcasting boom has burst. Maybe all of you are busy this summer (very probable). Maybe my readers only have so much time that they’re willing to devote to waxing my ego. I get that. In case you haven’t noticed though, I deal in absolutes. If the show isn’t growing, then it’s time to close the door.
My career as a writer is turning a very sharp corner this year in an incredibly positive way that I never imagined it would & it’s all happening this year at a lightning pace. As a podcaster, not so much. Half of my life is most likely over, so I’d like to make good use of the next half. Please let me know how to invest my time wisely.
Some radio hosts and some writers can create without one person reading or listening. I’m not that kind of person anymore. I’ve got too many plates in the air to play by those rules.
If you want the show to go on, hop onto iTunes & subscribe to Big Words Radio in the podcast section under the ‘Comedy’ listing. Download your ass off. There are almost 92 hours of material that’s pretty damned funny. It’s been a good run, but it might be time to hang up my hat and say farewell.
Download 5 episodes. Download 92 episodes. Tell a friend. Listen in your car. Please spread the word. It’s been real and it’s been fun, but this could be the tail end of it.
I’m going to apologize right off the bat for behaving myself. I respect writer/artist Mark Kalesniko and I value my friendship with Atomic Don too much to batter either of them vocally on the show. While I goof around on most of the shows, I played this one straight and we had fun despite my apparent professionalism. Here’s your synopsis:
Episode 59: A Big Basket Of Shameful Joy
Tom dials up Mark Kalesniko (the writer and artist for the new book Freeway by Fantagraphics) along with returning co-host Atomic Don to talk about Asian women, working for Disney and ‘the acid shits’. Diets are changed, beers are consumed and Mark plays along with the boys like a champ.
To hear the show in full audio quality, click on over to:
You can also subscribe for free to The Big Words I Know By Heart Radio Hour on ‘the iTunes’ by searching ‘Big Words Radio’ in the Podcasts section. Dial it up and rate high, folks!
Thanks to Mark Kalesniko and Atomic Don for rolling with the punches. Thanks are again in order to producer Richard Wicka for putting up with/dealing with my horrendous artistic temperament before, during and after the show.
With a recent cancellation for my May show, I’m putting a call out for a new guest! If you’re a local artist, musician, writer, painter, etc., now would be the ideal time to get ahold of me. Kindly send me a query email at: bigwordsmailbag@yahoo.com. The Big Words I Know By Heart One Man Mobile Unit will be taping in about two or three weeks, so speak now or get lost in the vacuum. If you have an observable talent and a small degree of conversational savvy, now’s the time to let me know!
That’s all for today. I’ve got a few more aces up my sleeve later this week, but I’m saving them for the time being.
After a scheduling snafu with guest Joe Matt (without a home computer, he didn’t have time to check the original date at the library), we reconvened the phone interview at Think Twice yesterday on December 8th. This worked out well, as one of my original co-hosts dropped out (Ian Chrystal) due to the fact that he moved to New Orleans and my other original co-host (Don from Don’s Atomic Comics) couldn’t make the original studio date. During the interim, former Monster Of Verse and gifted comic writer artist in his own right Kyle Kaczmarzcyk (The Red Eye) joined the co-hosting team for the show and brought his own brand of spiced summer sausage into the mix. At any rate, here’s your synopsis:
Episode XXXXVI: ‘Peep Show’ : Tom and dual co-hosts Don (from Don’s Atomic Comics) and Kyle Kaczmarczyk pick mythic writer artist Joe Matt’s brain (Spent, The Poor Bastard, Fair Weather) about his next graphic novel project, the future of the comics industry, digital inking and Viewmaster Reels.
If you want to listen to the show in addition to bonus episodes, sound clips and pretty pictures, park your butt over at: http://www.bigwordsradio.mypodcast.com
…and you can still subscribe to the show for free on ‘the iTunes’ by searching ‘Big Words Radio’ under your podcast browser.
…and finally, you can rate the show, become a fan, or post comments on individual episodes over at: http://www.bigwords.mevio.com
A big thanks goes out to Joe Matt for rolling with the punches during the show, Drawn & Quarterly Publishers for putting me in touch, Don for peppering the show with glowing praise, Kyle for continuing to tolerate my abuse, and producer Richard Wicka for playing ringmaster during the proceedings. I’d also like to bid a fond farewell to Ian Chrystal and his lovely girlfriend Rachel now that they’ve uprooted. We’re going to miss you, your pithy commentary and your surly demeanor.
My next studio date is at the beginning of February and I’m hard at work on booking a quality guest. Don and I both talked on the ride home about finding a happy balance on the show between completely over-the-top offensive comedy and an informative interview talk-show format. Obviously, I’m still working on that. Stay tuned for more episodes. I’m sure I can fit one in some time in January if the right guest(s) pop up…..
Initially, I tried to secure comic wunderkinds Mike Carey OR Joe Matt for the show. By some quirk of fate, writer Mike Carey AND artist Peter Gross (Unwritten, Lucifer) agreed to a dual interview. To top it all off, Joe Matt agreed to the next studio show on December 3rd! Here is your synopsis:
Episode XXXXIV: ‘Two Rooms At The End Of The World’
Tom talks with Eisner-Award winning writer Mike Carey and Eisner-Award winning artist Peter Gross about their new best-selling DC/Vertigo series ‘The Unwritten’. Co-host Jeff Schmithe shows up and fails terribly.
You can also subscribe to the show by searching ‘Big Words Radio’ under the Podcasts section on ‘the iTunes’.
Thanks to Mike and Peter for coordinating the interview even with the time difference in England. Thanks also to Ian Chrystal for an assist on the Q&A where artistic questions are concerned. I’d also like to wish producer Richard Wicka a happy birthday.
Tune in on December 3rd for Joe Matt with co-hosts Don and Ian from DON’S ATOMIC COMICS!
I just got done doing two back-to-back radio shows yesterday and boy is my mouth tired.
Seriously though, folks, there are two very different and very interesting shows up on a number of sites as of this morning. Yesterday afternoon, Uncle Hal came back swinging after a six month break for his 63rd episode and was nice enough to invite me back as co-host. If you’ve never heard The Pissed Off World Of Uncle Hal before, be forewarned. This is not your grandma’s comedy. We pull NO punches, anything and everything gets goofed on and every episode is more brutal than the previous ones. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Here’s your synopsis for 63:
Hal is back and joined again by the ever whacky Tom Waters. The show is off the hook! Tune in because even Hal cringed a couple times…whew! There’s the Popeye’s Chicken fiasco that has a whole group of patrons clucking! A new installment of Porntards! A racist teachers gets suspended for using the “N” word! When you hear the lost old man phone prank you’ll piss your pants! Kids get shocked with electric dog collars and shot in the ass with BB guns. Hal’s Happy ending asks the question “Why do we need all these stupid constitutional rights?”
You can listen to the show on my site (www.bigwordsradio.mypodcast.com) or you can listen to the show (along with the other 62 episodes of full tilt comedy) over on Hal’s site (www.powunclehal.com). You can also subscribe to the Pissed Off World Of Uncle Hal on iTunes by searching ‘Uncle Hal’.
Last night at the Think Twice Radio studios, I had the honor of interviewing Harvey Pekar along with my co-host Mike ‘ring a ding’ Mariani. Here’s your synopsis for that one:
Episode 38: ‘Making It Big’
Tom and co-host Mike ‘ring a ding’ Mariani talk to comics legend Harvey Pekar (American Splendor) regarding his life, his career, and the supposed sanity of ‘close personal friend’ Alan Moore.
You can listen to Big Words 38 on the Think Twice radio site (www.thinktwiceradio.com/tom-waters/tom-waters.html), over at the official Big Words Radio site (www.bigwordsradio.mypodcast.com) or again, you can subscribe to the show on iTunes by searching ‘Big Words Radio’.
A big thanks goes out to producer Richard Wicka, Mike Mariani (for behaving himself), Harvey Pekar and Pamela Mullin at DC Comics for helping to make the show happen. It was a much tamer show than we expected and you’ll actually be surprised at the Bob Costas-style interview that took place.
For the last few weeks, Don, Ian, Brian Platter and myself have been building a new patch of real estate on the super-information off-ramp we call the intraweb. As of today, the site becomes a reality. If you steer yourself over to the official Don’s Atomic Comics web site, you can click on ’The Dirty Bomb’ and find dualing comic book reviews, comic related rants and engaging posts from Ian and myself. I’ve been a big fan of Ian’s Dirty Bomb over the last two years and the two of us decided to team up in classic superhero fashion and join forces to combine our readerships.
From here on out, those of you who have been following my graphic novel reviews over on Comics Bulletin will be able to read them days, even weeks in advance before they go up over there. Comics Bulletin has been very good to me in the last few months, but Don has been good to me for almost a decade, and we had a very appealing idea: share the reviews with the regulars I shop with. Long and short, that’s my goal on the site. I’m sure a lot of other things will happen as a result of the new site, and Ian and I are looking forward to the curveballs that will come across the plate.
For your convenience, I’ve posted a direct link here on the home page to the right along with the 5 million other direct links provided. There are two posts up already, so pop on in, read some exclusive content (!) and say hello!
We’re entering a brave new world and I couldn’t be more excited about it. Thanks again to Brian Platter of Six Shot Studios for doing the hard work by creating the site, Don for letting us set up shop on his official site, and to Ian for crossing swords with me yet again (in that way). I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Don’s Atomic Comics is family to me. Now you get to meet my twin brother Ian. And read what he has to say on a semi-regular basis. Tread lightly, ladies and gentleman, and treat him with the same respect you’d treat me with. He’s an Irishman too, and I certainly wouldn’t pick a fight with him (or, for that matter, try to beat him when it comes to drinking good scotch), so keep that in mind. Ian is also a great writer, and I’ll be tuning in just as often as everyone else to read what he has to say.
I’ll wrap up there. Enough work for one Saturday morning! Click your way over to:
Yesterday morning, I had forty minutes with a group of students from Clarence High School’s poetry club, as well as a representative from their literary magazine, Chrysalis. I spent the majority of my time reading pre-screened poems from Breathing Room Vol. I and II. and fielded questions from the kids while discussing the mechanics of style, form and creativity. After being inspired in the eighth grade to journal thanks to a guest speaker in my Science class, I feel compelled to give back and hit area schools in an attempt to do the same. It went very well. I’ll be returning next Tuesday to teach a workshop on poetry to the same cross section of Clarence youths. A big thanks is due to Anne Foster as well as Kevin Starr for making the in-school appearance possible. Yesterday’s session was recorded and should be up online by about eleven pm tonight under the Monsters Of Verse banner at Think Twice radio at the following link:
And after a month out of the studio doing Big Words One Man Mobile Units, I’ll be returning to record Episode XIV with guest artist Jeff Brown (Every Girl Is The End Of The World For Me, AEIOU, Clumsy, Unlikely) from Top Shelf Comics along with co-host SoCo Mike.
I’m hoping that Jeff Brown is more of a good sport about things than Alex Robinson (Episode III) was after the show. Odds are in my favor as Brown (Incredible Change-Bots) not only seems to have a finely tuned sense of humor but also happens to be the exact same age as yours truly. Brown is one of the few writer/artists that Lindsay took a shine to, which is saying quite a bit.
Top Shelf has been outlandishly good to me in the previous four or five months, sending review copies, advance copies and publicity materials for a lot of their best and brightest creators. While I haven’t had a hell of a lot of time to write any reviews, I’m planning on dropping some new critiques into Comics Bulletin’s lap in the coming weeks. The title at the top of my list right now is Swallow Me Whole from writer/artist Nate Powell. I was so bowled over by the book (along with the staff at Don’s Atomic Comics) that I feel obligated to shower it with praise and get some work back in to Comics Bulletin at the same time.
That’s right, my sphere of influence continues to spread like an open sore. My new beloved editor at Comics Bulletin and myself have agreed to throw my graphic novel reviews up once a week until further notice. I coudn’t think of a better venue for comic book opinions, and honestly, it’s refreshing to find an online site that’s more than ready and willing to take my reviews ‘as is’ without frequent retooling (lke Buffalo Rising, for example). Check out the ‘Escape From Bizarro World’ review over at:
And speaking of Buffalo Rising, ain’t it sad how few comments they’ve gotten in the last two, three and four weeks? How very pathetic. Either no one is reading or their own contributors aren’t signing in under their psuedonyms to chime in on their own work. Boo hoo. What is it going to take to have Elena Buscarino’s job, I wonder? I’m not sure, so I’m just going to keep at it. Now that we’ve learned that Newell is no longer in charge and that so and so and what’s his face are emptying their pockets trying to keep the ship afloat, I guess we’ll just have to dig deep and try harder, won’t we? Or failing that, destroy someone else’s life with a minimum of effort. It’s getting SO much easier, and it’s always been ever so much FUN!
I just talked to my beloved editor (Ed Honeck) at Night Life today along with my longstanding contact at ArtVoice (Geoff Kelly) and all is right with the world. It’s incredible just how much mud you can sling about one person behind the scenes as well as in front of. It helps to have contacts, networking partners and so forth. That’s neither here nor there, though. I’ll just say that you can’t buy a stellar sphere of influence for destroying people, now can you?
My Deepthroat connection is mute this week. Perhaps he’s occupied, run out of good muck to rake, or just bored. Time will tell. I’m sure there are other platforms and crusades I can move on to, but I’m still waiting for word from Buffalo Rising that Elena Buscarino is dead/fired/insane/committed. If anyone else has any good scoop, I’m all ears.
The movie was perfection, plain and simple. See it. Multiple times. On the opening weekend. Bring friends, loved ones, pets and enemies and overpay for your tickets and concessions. Above all else, see it.
As for the Buffalo Rising Online 5-parter, it is accomplished. My work is done now, and I can relax and be at peace. Think of Andy Kaufman from time to time. I put some hard thought into the ‘trolls’ who post frequently with their two cents along with the other fifty percent of the readers who have some interesting, amusing and insightful feedback and came to this salient decision today: the forum is for them. That’s their headspace, not mine. It’s not my right (nor my obligation) to chime in to the way they react to whatever nonsense it is that I have to contribute.
Again, though, I’d like to point out that I care less than nothing about personal criticism or attacks. Rip my writing to shreds all day and all night long. That I can take. I realize that my writing is an acquired taste (not unlike a single malt scotch) and that some people are never going to get a hankering for said taste. That’s fine. My objective has always been to polarize. Love it or hate it, I want a response. And that’s worked for me for a long, long, long time. I’m more than happy to be the humble scribbler or the sinister villian: whichever role suits you best. I’m cool with that, too.
But don’t take it out on the comics. I love comics, and as Ian (from Don’s Atomic) and I were discussing last night during a bar review at Marinaccio’s in Amherst, comics are taken a lot more seriously in the rest of the world. The culture in Canada, Japan and Europe is much more advanced, supportive and encouraging where graphic novels and adult black and white stories are concerned. Isn’t it time we got with the program where this is concerned? I love rooting for the underdog, and comic books happen to be one of those horses that you don’t back. So I’m taking the cause up. I write columns for Night Life, bar reviews for the Buffalo News, and celebrity interviews and graphic novel reviews for Buffalo Rising. Something different for everyone. You can’t look at one piece of the pie and honestly think that that’s all I do. It’s foolish to churn out the same creative rhubarb for every single publication in town and out of town, though. Think on that for a bit and maybe it will make sense.
Turning in for bed. What a beautiful day. Goodnight, moon. Goodnight stars. Goodnight, Christopher Nolan, Christian Bale and goodbye forever, Heath. Great way to say adieu…
big words i know by heart 
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