Del Toro is finally 'At The Mountains of Madness'

Today, visionary director Guillermo Del Toro announced he will finally direct one of his passion projects...At The Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft.

Check out the /Film story right here.

This is big news for horror and movie film geeks. For all of those unaware, Lovecraft was like the Stephen King of his time. Creating moody, psychotic worlds filled with eerie creatures, demons and demi-gods hell bent on taking their anger out on the world.

In my opinion, Del Toro (who was attached to direct the The Hobbit for producer Peter Jackson before bowing out) hasn't created a bad movie yet. Some of my favorite works from Del Toro include Mimic, The Devil's Backbone, Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy and Blade 2. If you havent seen any of these films check 'em out espeically Backbone and Labyrinth.

For many older horror movie directors, Lovecraft's work has served as inspiration for many of their visions including John Carpenter (who filmed In The Mouth of Madness), Stuart Gordon (who filmed Dagon), Del Toro among others.

After reading about the announcement - and never reading this particular story - I was intrigued enough to search for it online.

Well, what do you know...I found it! Courtesy of Dusty Library:

Click here to read At The Mountains of Madness

Oh yeah, another plus (or negative, whichever way you view it) visionary James Cameron (Terminator, Aliens, Avatar, Titantic) is set to produce - which means we'll get some very meaty visuals courtesy of Digital Domain, which was founded by the Oscar-winning Director.

Eimertoons - Passion of the Groundhog

Last night, I noticed that The Passion of the Christ was on TV. You know, that little Jesus of Nazarath film mixed with a little original Texas Chainsaw Massacre - directed by Mr. Mel Gibson.

Coincidentally, I've been reading a very interesting book by Richard Dawkins called The God Delusion, which is sure to put all Christian, Jewish and Muslim readers into a panic. (Very good book by the way.)

In any event, both of these occurences reminded me of a 10-page cartoon that I drew waaaaaaay back in 2006 - before my daughter was born when I was unemployed and living in Cleveland.

It's the longest of the three long-form cartoons that I have drawn - thus far. I should add that I took great pleasure and pride in creating this. If anything, it showed that I could tell a long-form story in cartoon form, which was a big break through.

Now if I only had time to do some more......

Check it out. And, as always, (click each image to enlarge).

Two months. Three rejections.

It's funny.

After I finished editing my children's book for mass consumption, I thought the hard part was over and the easy part was coming up:

"Send it to a literary agent who would take one look at it, call me up and tell me that I am the Steinbeck of Children's Book Literature."

And continously praise me for my innovation and geniusness (is that even a word?).

Well, as all writers know...it's a tough road to hoe. I assumed I would just send this story out and people would be clamoring for the chance to turn this story from my head into a bonafide children's book - with movie rights to come in a couple weeks.

Not the case.

I've since sent my 'exclusive' story out to two agents and one publishing company.

To surmise all of their feedback:

- You've got a great story here
- But its not for us
- There are a lot of great ideas out there.
- We have to pick and choose the great ones.
- But we may be wrong.
- We encourage you to try other publishers and agents.
- Blah, blah, blah.

I agree. Living the life of a copywriter and cartoonist, you learn to live with rejection.

It feeds the fire.

That why, I'm going to keep sending it out for representation. I believe in this story. I think it needs to be told. I think it's fun.

But, if nothing happens within a month or so, I just may have to rethink my strategy and do this one on my own.

Maybe a version1 with my drawings.

Then, down the line, a version 2 with a professional illustrator's drawings.

In any event, onward and upward.

BreakupwithLebron.com

My buddies at work thought up this website and campaign concerning the departure of Lebron James - http://www.breakupwithlebron.com/.

Basically the campaign invites former Lebron James fans to bring in their old #23 jerseys to your local Your's Truly store in Canton, Cleveland and Akron and donate them to homeless shelters in Miami. In exchange you get a "It's not us, it's you" shirt. All donations go to charity.

I know these guys paid for this out of their own pocket, so let's give them some support so they can recoup the costs. I thought this was a great idea and encourage you to visit the site. By the way, video was shot, non gratis, by Stonekap Studios, located in Canton, Ohio.

Check er out.

Sketchbook - The Grapes of Wrath

Drew this while watching the 1940 movie version of the famous book by John Steinbeck. My review: the book is much, much better. Would make a better 8-hour HBO mini-series than a 2-hour film.

(click image to enlarge)

Sketchbook - Gospel Cash

(click image to enlarge)

Field of Beans

I've talked about my many different jobs on this planet.

However, I forgot to bring up my short stint as a Children's Book Illustrator.

And, yep, I totally forgot about it until now. Can you believe that?

Waaaaayyy back in 1998, I illustrated a children's story called Field of Beans for a small start-up children's book publishing company in Columbus called Berry Books.

Take a gander at it right here.

The cool thing about this particular project was that I thought up the actual look and feel of the characters. In fact, the publisher (Curtis Paulson) liked my characters so much, he kept them around in other books.

Another cool thing: According to the website, a total of nine books have been printed and distributed in every state and several countries.

Eat your heart out J.K. Rowling.

Granted, I didn't make a ton of money off of this project (I think it was about $600 for about 70+ hours of work including meetings, revisions, sketches, etc) and the final product isn't that spectacular. But, this particular experience not only helped hone my illustrating/cartooning skills, but it introduced me to the wonderful world of Photoshop - and its endless possibilities.

In any event, when I talked about writing and illustrating my own book, I had totally forgotten that I already have one in the coffer. Cool!

So, in addition to this new copywriting job, and the book illustrator job, I now have had a grand total of 37 jobs - in almost 38 years.

Yay me!