If comic book artists were rock stars, Billy Tucci would be more of a Yo-Yo Ma – a man whose talents would be recognized immediately by those fortunate enough to discover him.

I first met Tucci, an award-winning illustrator and graphic novel writer, at San Diego’s massive Comic-Con International in 2010. Tucci was intently drawing away in his display booth seated next to an aged but unbowed veteran of WWII’s famous 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

On closer inspection, I saw that that Billy was personalizing a panel connected with his then-current offering, “Sgt. Rock – The Lost Battalion.” This illustrated novel was a beautifully rendered fusion of the fictional Sgt. Rock combat hero with a historically accurate account of the 141st Regiment’s rapid advance into German lines only to be cut off in the rugged Vosges Mountains region.

Running low on food and ammunition and with casualties running high, the divisional commander made the decision to break the German siege of the 141st by sending in the 442nd. The 14,000 men who would serve in the 442nd, a regiment of Japanese-Americans recruited out of internment camps, earned 21 Medals of Honor, more than 9,000 Purple Hearts, and more than 18,000 medals overall – the greatest number of decorations for any unit of its size and duration of combat service.

Tucci has an eye for detail and, in the case of his military-themed work, this detail is fortified by personal service in the Special Forces as an enlisted man in the 1990s.

I saw Tucci again last weekend at the Austin Comic-Con, where his latest work caught my eye because it was so decidedly out of his usual superhero, military, beautiful fantasy samurai/geisha woman pinup genre: a graphic novel about, as Tucci said, “The greatest superhero of all time.”   (more…)

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–TICKETS FOR ‘110 STORIES’ GO ON SALE IN NEW YORK TODAY–

People I trust tell me this is a play exactly as advertised and attached to a very worthy cause:

Via BroadwayWorld.com:

To commemorate the Tenth Anniversary of 9/11, a highly distinguished cast of film, TV & amp; stage actors will gather for a benefit reading of Sarah Tuft’s “110 Stories” on September 8th & 9th at The Skirball Center for the Performing Arts i n Manhattan. The illustrious cast – including, subject to availability: Lauren Ambrose, Andre Braugher, Billy Crudup, Edie Falco, Melissa Leo, Aasif Mandvi, Chris Noth, Vincent Piazza, Andre Royo, Susan Sarandon, Stelio Savante, Pablo Schreiber, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Michael Stuhlbarg, Kathleen Turner, Merritt Wever & others TBA – will share first person accounts of the tragedy.

According to 110 Stories’ Playwright/Creative Producer Sarah Tuft, “It’s the human side of history, without politics & agenda, giving voIce To those who experienced 9.11 directly.” A love letter to New York City, the play was most recently performed by an esteemed cast at The Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles in 2010 with proceeds going to LA Red Cross for Haiti relief.

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I first heard about Battle: Los Angeles last year while attending Comic Con in San Diego.  As you can imagine, there were quite a few projects being hyped that weekend and, honestly, I didn’t pay too much attention to this particular film.  Why?  Because, when it comes to projects that feature our military, I’ve been let down too many times before.  My first reaction is typically, “Here we go again.”

As the trailers started to circulate the web, I begrudgingly admitted they looked pretty cool.  My geek streak is certainly wide enough to get down with some old-fashioned alien invasion stuff and I realized that the movie would feature my beloved Marine Corps, OSR (Ooh-Stinkin’-Rah). However, my distrust still prevented me from getting excited about it.

As the release date neared, I was torn.  Do I go see the movie, take my licks and try to enjoy the action aspect of it or do I give it a pass?  I decided on the latter.  I was not going to pay good money to go watch my brothers and sisters get crapped on again.

Then, last week I read an article in which Aaron Eckhart talked about the film:

“This movie, in my opinion, is meant to be a love letter to the Marines. We had their full cooperation. They had my full cooperation. I tried to get it right. I think this movie is very reverent towards the military and reverent towards the ranks, both the officers and the Marines and the grunts. I don’t see how any Marine can see this movie and feel like they’ve been at all taken advantage of. I think this is going to be an oo-rah moment for them.”

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Producers of popular culture tend to evince the belief that the public strongly desires titillation, vulgarity, obscenity, violence, sexual references, and depictions, and other such lurid matter. It is true, of course, that a little spice makes for a tastier meal, but often people go to habañero-laced movies in spite of these things, not because of them.

Too great an indulgence in adolescent exhibitionism can often suppress the audience appeal of a work of culture.

That’s apparently what happened to the new film Kick-Ass this past weekend. It had an unexpectedly weak first three days, finishing second in U.S. movie ticket receipts, behind How to Train Your Dragon, which is in its fourth week of release. The newly released comedy Death at a Funeral finished third, with a $17 million box office take, about what was expected.

Kick-Ass is by no means a a sleazy film, but it’s more than a little sanguinary and includes some very nasty language—spoken by children, no less. (more…)

Hard to believe the lovely actress Cindy Morgan was once told she belonged behind the camera, not in front of it.

Morgan, who became a pop culture sensation by playing Lacey Underall in “Caddyshack,” started her career in broadcasting. “I ran camera, I ran sound,” Morgan tells Big Hollywood. “But they wouldn’t let me on camera. ’You’ll never get a job,’ they said.

A few years later, she was sharing the screen with Chevy Chase in the 1980 comedy classic.

Morgan’s “Caddyshack” role gave her an early lesson in how Hollywood works, and it wasn’t pretty. The day before her nude scene, a producer called to say a Playboy photographer would be on set to snap pictures which would run in the nudie magazine. (more…)

It happens all the time in Hollywood: A friend has a dream of making a movie and wants to hire his friends as cast and crew. But most of the time, those dreams stay dreams, as the money to fund those projects rarely materializes.

For South Pasadena-based actor Greg Sestero, however, the dream became reality when his friend Tommy Wiseau managed to raise $6 million to write, direct and star in a movie called “The Room.” Keeping a promise he made years before when the two thespians met in a San Francisco acting class, Wiseau hired Sestero to be his co-star.

That should have been a happy ending, with the film either fading into oblivion or rising out of Sundance-style film festivals to become an indie sensation. Instead, “The Room” became wildly popular for an entirely different reason: it’s regarded as one of the great camp classics of all time, a movie considered so bad it’s brilliant.

Its monthly midnight showings at the Laemmle Sunset 5 theater in West Hollywood routinely sell out all five of the theater’s screens simultaneously, with crowds that have turned the viewing experience into the craziest interactive movie party since “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” (more…)

“You made a movie about pimps and there ain’t no black people in it? I don’t know whether to slap you or kiss your face.”

Eddie Murphy said something like that to Ron Howard on SNL back when Howard was making the transition from Opie Cunningham to big-time Hollywood auteur. And now I know how Mr. Murphy feels: Fox has green-lit a sitcom called “Rednecks.”

When I saw the title, I winced, then thought, “I wish I could write for that show.” This illustrates the relationship I have with stereotypes and character-based clichés; I keep them at an arms length embrace. It thrilled me to see white trash characters north of the Mason-Dixon line in “Gone Baby Gone.” But you change the accents, swap Boston, MA for Austell, GA, and I’ll act offended while secretly admitting the portrayal is dead-on. “Rednecks” it turns out, is set in Buffalo, NY. Let the head-scratching ensue. (more…)

Like college, Comic-Con was something I’d heard about but never planned on attending. My interest in the “graphic novel” faded sometime in the 70’s when Superman comics hit thirty cents and God created an endless supply of old movies on cable television. Besides, in my mind’s eye the picture wasn’t pretty.  I saw Comic-Con taking place in one of those dreary, sterile hotel banquet halls with off-white walls, harvest gold carpeting and long tables filled with dusty action figures surrounded by excited, pot-bellied fanboys speaking Klingon in homemade Spock costumes.

Which might have been how it was, and even how some purists wish it had stayed, but no more…

Uhm, I mean, No More! (more…)

Sitting at home with another Comic-Con behind us I look over my box of comics and deposited business cards sprawled across the floor like a Trick or Treater dumping his hoard after a busy Halloween night. This convention represents the week that Hollywood took over the event.

Many comic creators dreaded the move-in of the film and video-game industry. The center of the convention center is year-by-year sprouting more and more fancy studio spaces as evidenced by towering signs and a hogging of square footage. Meanwhile, fledgling artists with books under arm can barely afford their tables though there’s still a four-year waiting list to get booth space. With maximum occupancy filled by both exhibitors and attendees only one thing can happen…prices will go up. It’s the law of supply and demand. (more…)

Another great day of selling books, meeting fans, I sold out of my posters and blah blah blah. Tonight I’m officially burnt. Don’t worry, that’s part of the Con too. Sundays are notorious for hosting crowds of The Living Dead staggering around on fumes from media overload. At least tonight I’ll be in bed by 11, which will give me just enough sleep to push me through the final day.

I got a boost when half way through the day Jon Heder and Dan Heder came by my booth. Jon was wearing a Dan costume and Dan came as Jon. I loaded them up with books and Jon told me about his new series he’ll be doing for Comedy Central and Dan is doing CG pre-viz work on a Gore Verbinsky project.

I keep bumping into one of my favorite artists, Eric Powell, who is a great artist and a good family man. He’s living the dream with his “Goon” comic book being developed into a CG animated feature by David Fincher. (more…)

Today the costumed conventioneers started showing up, but it’s not as big as the big event. The Saturday night costume contest that brings out a freak show of innovation and geekdom. I don’t know why but there are always a lot more Boba Fett costumes than Darth Vaders. Perhaps because the isolated nature of grown men who would wear a costume gravitate toward the go-it-alone ethic of a bounty hunter.

In a convention first, I ended up in a meeting at the Warner Brothers booth where I pitched a prime time TV show. The best thing about the convention is that instead of me having to scatter fifty meetings across the year to catch up on the usual folks to whom I pitch, they’re all in one room. Okay, it’s a big room, but somehow we’re managing to find each other.

At the Gotham Group/Darkhorse lunch party I met pals from Sony animation, Disney, Tyler Perry’s company, Warner Brothers, Dreamworks and Universal. Now we’re talking convenient, we got em’ all in a 30′ x 30′ room. I made my way through the mosh pit in front of the bar and ended up having three beers. They were free, and I left pretty wobbly. A few hours later I met with some executives from an unnamed family entertainment company that also has a theme park and rhymes with Schmalt Schmisney where they bought me two more drinks. So now I’m returning to my booth hammered. (more…)

I just got home from Comic-Con. In a couple hours I have to take a shower and head back downtown for a big party my Hollywood management company invited me to. Every year they team with a bunch of other companies and throw a huge industry mixer. They’re usually really crowded and noisy, but there’s free food and drinks and I usually met interesting people.

This year they also teamed up with Wired magazine and set up a private green room called the “Wired Cafe,” where select people from the press and the industry are invited during the day. They have a bunch of laptops set up for people to blog and tweet and a cafe with an open bar and great food. I decided to go there for lunch instead of my usual haunts. I had a Smoked Turkey Panini and considered a Dim Sum sampler, which the person at my table ordered with his Burger. Maybe tomorrow. (more…)

From The Hollywood Reporter’s interview with “Avatar” Director James Cameron at San Diego Comic-Con 2009:

THR: You’ve mentioned this ["Avatar"] is a parable.

Cameron: Really what this film ultimately does is hold a mirror to our own blighted history, where we have a culturally advanced civilization supplanting more “primitive” civilizations. Some of these civilizations and cultures have a lot more wisdom than we’ve shown. We just have bigger guns. We have ships that can cross oceans, we have horses and armor. And this country we’re in now was taken from its indigenous owners. And it’s kind of owning up to our own human history.

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Today I got to meet the grown son of the man who gave me my first entertainment job in 1991. He said he was a big fan of Earthworm Jim and I told him there would be a very good chance my most famous character wouldn’t have existed without his dad.

Twenty years ago a retired lady bumped into me while I was in line to see “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” when she said, “Oh, you like to draw? You should come to the San Diego Comic Con. Here’s two free passes.” She came to my booth today and I gave her a big hug.

I had over ten young industry professionals who work in comics, animation and video games and tell me that they decided to learn to draw because they liked my work. An incredible 25-year-old Russian kid said that he was raised on a pirate version of my game, “The Neverhood,” I did with Dreamworks in the mid ’90s. I looked at his comic pages and he could draw better than I could. I drew a character for him and he gave up a tear. (more…)

What does Voltron, Gumby, “Gods of War III” and Bone have in common? Nothing and everything. This is the great cultural collision that occurs at the San Diego Comic-con. I moved into my booth as all of the exhibitors to the world’s most popular cultural event prepares to overwhelm, nay, smother an unsuspecting public when the doors open.

The last ten or so years has seen a deliberate migration of Hollywood into what used to be a convention to celebrate just comics. A general sense of grumbling can be heard from the true comic fans who resent the beautiful rich crowd carpet-bagging onto Will Eisner’s turf. But what many don’t realize is that this has contributed to the mainstreaming of comics into the rest of culture. With entertainment’s money comes stability of the comics medium, a broadening of a market, more books sold, artists, writers, publishers and bookstores able to stay alive a little longer this is good for our tribe. (more…)

It’s hard for me to believe that the San Diego Comic Con International is now close to 40 years old. I’ve been going to them since 1975. Since 1981 I have only missed 2 Cons. Over the years I’ve seen it grow from a small local convention for comic book collectors and fans of geek culture, into a vast industry unto itself. Something that rivals Cannes for cultural significance.

In many respects, Comic Con International (aka the San Diego Comic Con to us attendees), is America’s Cannes Film Festival. But it’s much, much more.

Cannes is basically for film industry people only and the press. Comic Con is for everyone, and it’s becoming more relevant to the entertainment business as the years go by.

When I went to my first convention, I was in high school. I lived in San Diego at the time. I attended Point Loma High, so it was local for me. Only a couple thousand people attended. It was held at the El Cortez hotel which once dominated the San Diego skyline downtown. Now the El Cortez is a converted condo complex, dwarfed by the surrounding super condos. (more…)