every fall, I take an English class to go see something Shakespeare at Playhouse Square in downtown Cleveland. It’s not Stratford or Kent-on-Swansea-Rye (ok, I made that up) but it’s usually good stuff. We dress up (sorta) and act sophisticated, then write papers and speak in iambic pentameter. They did a Hamlet a few years ago where the young grad student looked just like EA Poe.

ANYWHO so now my movie is going to play in the same theater. Just got the confirmation today. As part of Ingenuity 2009 and the Screaming Tiki Super-Con, it will play on Saturday, July 11 at 3 pm at the Hanna Theater. Not only that, but it will be followed by a really crazy historical event: for the first time in all of recorded history, the surviving members of the Siegel and Shuster families will be on one stage answering questions about Joe and Jerry. I’ll give more info as it gets closer (I’m debating twittering the event but I’m afraid that will make me a total you-know-what). For now: clear the weekend, get your tickets and come on down. The Screaming Tiki is going to be really something — lots of celebrities, stormtroopers, toys, and overall good geek vibes. Get your tickets now! There will be something for everyone. Oh, and ADAMA will be there too.

and LUTHOR.

Thanks to Peter, Jamie, Dick, and James, for setting this up.

LINK EXPLOSION:

SCREAMING TIKI SUPER CON

INGENUITYFEST

so yeah LAST SON got into the SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON! The Geek Prom is a huge deal for a little film like this and I was really astonished it got in, for a long laundry list of otherworldly reasons. But no reason to dwell on that — this is a big deal, probably the biggest a DIY film about a freaking super-hero with no backers can get, so we are going to show up in force. No time yet, but looks like Saturday night around 7. So that’s great. If you’re going, let me know.

I’m also going to be chairing a really cool panel too, look it up as well. Some other announcements soon — for now: first day of summer, Father’s Day, yeah + yeah.

<

june! school is out, time for bikes, water balloons, and popcorn movies. Or modern-day translation: my knees still hurt, work to do, world unrest, and it’s been rainy for days with millions of midges (the bugs not the Archie girl). But summer is summer (YES) so here’s a NEVER-BEFORE-PUBLISHED Joe cartoon — it’s part of a really cool 4-panel piece he did while at Alexander Hamilton Jr. High (you can see it in the movie).

so every memorial day we go to lakeview cemetery, specifically the monument for Pres. James Garfield. There, they have some wreaths, a speech, and the best live band around — one made entirely of vets, most of them WWII, all dog-eared songbooks, thick glasses, trombones, trumpets, and bright white hats. After the somberness of the occasion (which includes Garfield’s greatx4 grandkid playing the bagpipes and walking away), they usually cut loose with Glen Miller songs and all the ladies dance on the pavement. A sad fact is that every year the band gets a little smaller, but that’s somehow worth playing about, too.

But this year someone new came: in a wheelchair, with a nurse, and his mom, a probably 23 year old man who couldn’t move. On his hat? Marines.

One by one people came up to him and expressed themselves. I struggled with a) taking this picture and b) posting it, but I figured he wanted to come to his ceremony for a reason, right?

What does this have to do with Superman? Absolutely nothing.

Ok, experiment time. In my line of work, one usually shares/proclaims things in two ways: presenting it at a conference or publishing it in a journal or book. For the Superman stuff I’ve done some of the conference stuff. But what I was finding was that beyond the people in the room, it wasn’t doing anything. So I’m trying this movie idea — and well, we’ll see. But I don’t want any of this to be completely in adherence to the rules of academic work. Why? For one, I think the rules are a bit boring and they tend to exclude a lot of people. But the real reason is that I want to, with this whole endeavor, evoke what Siegel and Shuster did — and what they did was pretty non-compliant.

So, I *think* this is a first, but if it isn’t, just let me know and I’ll say so. I am going to start publishing bits and pieces of my research on Superman’s origins — on T-SHIRTS.

That giant sucking sound was my career going down the drain.

Nevertheless, here we go. The subject of the first research tee is my favorite summertime topic: Mars. There is no doubt that Jerry and Joe were heavily influenced by Burroughs’ books (lots of people say this). But no one shows their math. And they should, because there are some very interesting connections to be made here. So I’m not going to do ALL the work for you, but reproduced on this shirt are bits and pieces of stuff I found with direct ties to Superman. Some of it is clear, some of it is abstract — but there are major connections here. Buy it, read it, wear it. Find NEW clues to the puzzle! Smarten up the world. No library cards needed and you won’t muck up the microfilm like I do all the time while the research assistant (who is actually very nice) gives me a slightly evil eye.

Go to the main page and hit STORE.

Ok, since Superman is such a pop symbol, I always like to see how he interacts with other pop culture icons. Some work better than others. Then I found this — the result of some fan’s fevered dream of spiral galaxies, heat vision, and Doctor Beverly Crusher. Both Superman and Star Trek are *the* pop culture narratives of America, I think, though Superman certainly speaks more to the immigrant experience where Trek speaks to physical and intellectual expansion. Really liked the movie, too. Lots of McCoy love. Plus Uhura. Uhura.

so anyway the Last Son dog and pony show (what does that mean anyway? I’m not sure I want to know) made its way to gorgeous downtown Buffalo last week as part of the Buffalo Niagara Film Festival. Now this was actually big because it’s a pretty long festival (10 days) with lots of films from all over the world. Plus they had the world premiere of some movie with Hilary Duff in it (no I didn’t see it). But it was really important because it was the first film festival where I didn’t know anyone or knew a friend of a friend, etc. It was also the first time the movie was shown in an actual movie theater on an actual screen (as opposed to art museums, etc.). Really cool — I really wanted the kids who are in the film to be there so they could see their mugs reflected onto that huge screen — they would have freaked.

The turnout wasn’t crazy (Tuesday night) but everyone said very positive things from “this buried anything at Toronto this year” to “I am nominating you for Best Documentary” (I didn’t win — some Sudan film about water won though so hard to get mad at that….right?). So, true or not (I suspect the latter), that was all good. It was still the old WIP version though, so the real world premiere is still in future tense. But it was just nice to be around other people doing this stuff — it’s all kind of silly and unimportant really but a lot of life is like that anyway, right? I got to drive up with my dad during the day, we saw the film, and then drove back to Cleveland that night. Good stuff. Right before it started I was in the bathroom washing my hands and my friend Chris calls. No one is in there so I pick up, tell him where I am, and he goes, “You know what they say Ricca, first Buffalo, then Cannes.” I was reading some particularly colorful graffiti on the hand-warmer at the time so it was pretty funny. Who said this wasn’t glamorous? Here’s pics.

Scenic downtown. A ton of people showed up right before the movie…but then they all ran across the street to go see A Chorus Line. Seriously?

Big screen! Remember when it used to start with that pyramid thing? That used to give me goosebumps.

Um, my movie was in the same theater as WOLVERINE and STAR TREK. Again: seriously? It had extra irony because the last time I was in Buffalo was about ten years ago (yoy) when I was on my way to Toronto where I had a tiny mini bit pseudo part in the first X-men movie (basically because I was such a huge nerd). But that experience really made me want to make a movie myself so it was pretty cool.

So this was my red carpet shot. I look like I’m five when I smile and my eyes close so someone told me to shoot a look like I was utterly annoyed. So I tried it. Never again. I look like Joshua Jackson’s mug shot. If you had 80/10 vision.

Notice however (and the only reason I’m including this pic) is that I am sporting the brand-new LAST SON t-shirt! Confound your friends! Help the economy! Click the STORE link on the main page! GO!

Hope to see you there.

About 2-3 years ago, I was in an unnamed Ohio library basement when the archivist handed me a box with a couple of sort-of-magazines containing images like the one above. I just stared. Not because of the subject matter (ok maybe a little) but because I *KNEW* who the artist was — Joe Shuster, the co-creator of Superman. I got copies, stuffed them in my bag and ran out of there like I had the Crown Jewels. This was a huge, crazy discovery.

So flash forward to about a year ago and comics guru Craig Yoe emailed me and asked if I knew about “Nights of Horror,” these evil little magazines (at this point, to great expense, I had acquired, through shady dealers, FIVE of them). Craig had them all but ONE(!) I lent Craig the one book he still needed and found out that he had uncovered layers to this story — dark layers — that I had no clue to. What Craig does in his book is not, in my opinion, the shameful act that some Superman fans have decried, though I can certainly understand their feelings. What Craig has done here is what no one EVER does — tell a story just about Joe that is both respectful and incredibly informative. This book is a mighty work of art, carefully designed and stitched together by the genii at Yoe! Studios like a super-hero costume. This is good good stuff, and like any history, it isn’t something we can just turn away from. If you like Joe’s art, you will be amazed by this book. Sure, he drew these because he needed the money (I’ll let Craig tell that story) but he still didn’t phone it in like he easily could have. No, instead he did something that is not always the same thing as “drawing comics” in terms of an assignment or an editorial mandate — instead, he made art. Sometimes creepy, sometimes funny, and sometimes really creepy — but imaginative and technically superior every time. The reason I love this book is that Craig should have dedicated it to all the people who kept saying — for decades — that “Joe, sadly, was legally blind by now, and it took him 2 months to draw a stick figure.” Enough with the martyrdom — never underestimate the greats.

The book’s blog here! Stay where I can see you, kids!

Buy Secret Identity here! — or better yet, go up to Borders — please? They need the business and I used to work there.

UPDATED: Firefox News (is that real?)