Dan Conner's Blog, page 8

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Here’s one of my #Favorite illustrations!  It’s a My Gal, the Zombie piece by Golden Age comic artist, Allen Bellman!  I’ve been able to get to know him quite well over the past few years.

He is best known at this time for his early work on Captain America.  However, he spent much of the 50′s drawing pre-code horror, crime, and romance comics.  In fact, I first came in contact with his art through his romance work for Lev Gleason.  You may know that 1950′s romance and crime comics are among my favorites to collect.

He worked personally with Stan Lee, Dan DeCarlo, Al Jaffee, and many other comics legends in the Marvel/Timely bullpen of the 40′s, so this piece is especially unique.  He drew it this year and I am not aware of any other instances of a golden age artist doing an illustrations for a comic by my generation of cartoonists.  I may end up coloring it, but if I do, I still want to preserve his pencils as a separate piece.

You can see lots of the title pages from his 50′s work for Marvel/Timely at http://www.comicartville.com/bellmansplashgallery.htm

His personal website is http://allenbellman.com

Here is a photo of me and him, at the Denver Comic Con where we first met, when he signed my copy of Boy Meets Girl #4, from 1950!

 

Enjoy!

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This piece is especially fun since it is the direct market comic shop variant cover to the My Gal, the Zombie graphic novel!  Lamp Post is working with Antarctic Press, who has solicited the book to comicbook shops world wide, through this month’s Diamond Previews.  What’s really neat about this is that the variant cover is by Ben Dunn, of Marvel Mangaverse, Warrior Nun Areala, Ninja High School, and many more.  In fact, he drew the adaptation of King Lear and some Pirates vs. Ninjas stories I wrote.  But beyond that, he was also the first person to do manga styled comics in the US and was one of my favorite artists when I was in high school.

Here is a photo of the Diamond Previews Catalog listing.

Make sure to tell your local comics shop to order you a copy AND another few to keep on the shelves!

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Scary Christmas!

Scary Christmas, Gals and Ghouls!  Having the Holiday Special this year has been a fun run and I have been really happy with everything.  We’ve seen some of the most  interest in our art [and I say "hour" because so many people participate in this comics nonsense with me].  As I type this, it is almost 2 am on the morning of December 22, the second day of winter and three days before Christmas.  I suppose that means that we only have a few days while the Holiday Special is still relevant.  So, I figure I should give it all I’ve got!

If you haven’t seen it yet, the video is actually embedded to this page to the right or above what you are reading now.  We have gotten a ton of great feedback, some of which is noted in the image above.  The URL shortcut, however, is:

http://MgtzTv.com

I’ve made a Facebook event page, which I’ve used to invite most everyone I know, and provide information on the film.  In fact, you can stream the movie from that page itself, which follows.  I would greatly appreciate it if you were also to invite those you know to that event page, so they can get that information.

http://www.facebook.com/events/1395702444056725/

Next, I’ve decided to post an abridged version of the Christmas soundtrack [not the regular soundtrack, which we released last summer] to Bandcamp for you to download for free!  Get it here:

http://mygalthezombie.bandcamp.com

Basically, I left off the tracks which I don’t have the rights to give away and just a few of the public domain ones.  If you’d like, download that version and then buy the tracks from the Jekylls, Huntingtons, and Grave Robber direct from them, or on Amazon.  In fact, you can get the Grave Robber track free from Rottweiler Records at http://noisetrade.com/fndbestof/best-of-fleas-naughty-dog as a part of their own free Christmas Record.  If you’re into heavy metal, hardcore, punk, and rockabilly, you’ll especially enjoy that one.  Visit http://thejekylls.com to get their track, First Song About Santa, as well as Jingle Bells and Mele Kalikimaka for a buck ninety-eight!  The Huntingtons track, “It’s Always Christmas At My House,” is probably most easily purchased from iTunes or Amazon off of their record “Punk Sounds.”  Honestly, I would rather you buy these tracks directly from them so that they get more money and then get the other songs from me for free.  There are also a couple tracks from the Nutcracker suite, which you can pretty much get anywhere, even for free.  But all in all, if you bought the Huntingtons track and the three Jekylls ones, you’d be getting our whole record for $3, as well as the rest of “Fleas Naughty Dog,” for free.  Not bad, I suppose!

 

For you collector’s out there, I also have a unique product for you.  I have assembled a very limited quantity of the the movie, with special features including the trailer, Black Friday Ad, my behind the scenes segment, and an alternate cut music video with “It’s Christmas,” by the Chucks.  These are completely DIY, burned and labeled at home by myself [and some help from my daughter]!  The labels are also black and white because I only print B&W at home- but I think that lends to the DIY aesthetic.  They come with a sticker and are packaged in a recycled cardboard sleeve.  You can purchase them for only $10 at:

www.crazygoodcomics.storenvy.com

I’m trying to throw everything festive at you which I can, since it’s just fun that way.  We have lots more fun things planned for the coming year of 2015, but I think that what we have accomplished in 2014 has been really great!  I am culminating it all with the first diary styled comic, of which I will post the last page on Christmas Eve.  I hope you enjoy these, too.

Thank you everybody for participating in this dream with me!

Dan

 

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