Stan Lee’s World of Heroes YouTube channel just got significantly better because I’m in one of the videos! I was thrilled to get to work with director Sean Becker and writer/actor Jeff Lewis again, this time for Episode 6 of Chatroom of Solitude. The episode stars Colin Ferguson (Eureka) as Marvelous Man, Annie Sertich (The Groundlings, correspondent for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno) as Sheila Marvelous, Vince Caso (The Guild) as Josh Marvelous, and Laura Ortiz (Holliston) as Tabitha Marvelous. Jeff Lewis (The Guild, The Jeff Lewis 5-Minute Comedy Hour) also shows up as Dirty Math Teacher.

It was a lot of fun to be a part of this. Colin really went above and beyond for our scene, as did the excellent crew. You’ll see me in one more episode, so go subscribe!

Throughout the month of April, DC Comics released all of their comics with special gatefold covers that folded out for a shocking reveal. This month-long promotion was initially marketed as WTF Certified, but that label was later dropped, possibly when the internet repeatedly reminded DC Comics of the meaning of WTF. Despite all of that, the comics were still released with a number of surprises. I teamed up with Weyward Sisters Productions to document my response to these comics.

So how did we team up? On March 20, I posted to Facebook that I had an idea for a short comedy video and asked if anyone wanted to produce it for me. I knew I was much too busy to produce it and knew that a number of my Facebook friends are creative like that. Honestly I didn’t expect anyone to take me up on my offer, which is why I described the concept so much. I figured if the idea’s life was just people reading my status and imagining it, good enough. But then Nancy Dobbs Owen less than 10 minutes later saying that her partners in Weyward Sisters might be interested. Nancy and I knew each other through our mutual friend Cindy Marie Jenkins, but we had never actual met. Still she was excited, so I was game. We exchanged Facebook messages to work out details and set up a meeting, where I met the Weyward Sisters for the first time. We easily hit it off, they tweaked my idea here and there to make it better, and we were off! The whole thing was a blast and I hope we get to work together again.

Here are pictures from our shoot.

Many thanks to Heidi Marie, Nancy Dobbs Owen and Samantha Macher for grabbing my idea and running with it. Also thanks to Mark Ostrander for being such a great abused bus passenger and Samantha for being oblivious.

In addition to my writing for Robot 6, the comics news blog at Comic Book Resources, I also chime in on their weekly What Are You Reading? column whenever I can. Sadly it’s not as regularly as I wish.

Anyway, I thought I would keep a record of what I’ve reviewed in that column. To be honest, I don’t like writing reviews, so I try not to think of them that way but I do like talking about cool comics I’ve read, and lamenting when something I thought would be cool misses the mark.

Click through the links to read the entire column that includes my thoughts on what’s listed below. I’ll add to this post as more go up at Robot 6.

July 29, 2012:

• The Sandman: Doll’s House [recolored edition] by Neil Gaiman, Sam Keith, Mike Dringenburg, et al.
• The Gutters by Ryan Sohmer, Ed Ryzowski, et al.
• Comic Critics by Sean Whitmore and Brandon Hanvey
• What Were You Raised by Wolves? by Vera Brosgol

August 26, 2012:

• Emo Boy, Vol. 2: Walk Around with Your Head Down by Steve Emond
• A Cartoonist’s Worldview by various (The Guardian)
• Insufferable by Mark Waid and Peter Krause

September 16, 2012:

• Elmer by Gerry Alanguilan
• Freeway by Mark Kalesniko
• Superman #423 & Action Comics #583: “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” by Alan Moore and Curt Swan

September 23, 2012:

• Little Nothings: My Shadow in the Distance by Lewis Trondheim
• Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy and Paul Maybury
• Tarantula by Mark Kalesniko

October 21, 2012:

• Cuba: My Revolution by Inverna Lockpez and Dean Haspiel
• Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson
• Rachel Rising, Vol. 1: The Shadow of Death by Terry Moore

November 25, 2012:

• Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton
• Love and Rockets: Maggie the Mechanic by Jaime Hernandez
• The Walking Dead, Vol. 15: We Find Ourselves by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard

December 16, 2012:

• Archie: The Married Life Book One by Michael Uslan, Paul Kupperberg and Norm Breyfogle
• Walt Disney’s Donald Duck: Lost in the Andes by Carl Barks
• Avengers vs. X-Men #0 by Brian Michael Bendis, Jason Aaron and Frank Cho
• Green Lantern #1 by Geoff Johns and Doug Mahnke
• Tales Designed to Thrizzle #1 by Michael Kupperman

January 6, 2013:

• The Complete Peanuts: 1950-1952 by Charles M. Schulz
• The Adventures of Hergé by José-Louis Bocquet, Jean-Luc Fromental and Stanislas Barthélémy
• RASL, Vol. 1: The Drift by Jeff Smith

April 14, 2013:

• Owly, Vol. 2: Just a Little Blue by Andy Runton
• You’ll Never Know, Book Two: Collateral Damage by C. Tyler
• Kill All Monsters by Michael May and Jason Copland

April 28, 2013:

• The Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg
• A Friendly Game by Joe Pimienta and Lindsay Hornsby
• X-O Manowar, Vol. 1: By the Sword by Robert Venditti and Cary Nord

May 19, 2013:

• Harbinger, Vol. 1: Omega Rising by Joshua Dysart and Khari Evans
• Thor: The Mighty Avenger, Vol. 1 by Roger Langridge and Chris Samnee
• Eve of the Ozarks #1: Guardians of the Bluffs by Gustav Carlson

May 26, 2013:

• Amulet, Book One: The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi
• Rust, Vol. 1: Visitor in the Field by Royden Lepp
• Minor Acts of Happiness #1 by Adriana Ferguson and Kristen Van Dam

The You Convention is the newest house team at The Improv Space. So new in fact, that the group makes its world debut this Wednesday, October 10 at 8 PM! This is YOUR chance to be a part of hyperbolic history! And it will only cost you $5 FREE DOLLARS!

Now I want you to guess who just happens to be a member of this brand new group. Go on, guess! Huh, the internet doesn’t seem to be as instantaneous as advertised. Oh I’ll just tell you: it’s me! I hope that wasn’t too much of a curve ball for you. But wait it’s not just me (thank god)! I’m thrilled to be starting this group along with Dan Adams, Hunter M. Altman, Brian Cooperman, Robin Higgins, Andre Radojcich, and Mark Royer! Great improvisers, all. And of course, we wouldn’t even exist as a group without Adam Macy and the rest of the fine and funny folks at The Improv Space. So I hope you’ll come out to see us this Wednesday so we can make YOU laugh!

But in the off-chance you can’t make a Wednesday night show, I’ll be performing more YOU-focused improv comedy this Saturday night with my other group the Magic Meathands! We’ll be joined by the improvisers Barney Five. Check out our Facebook event for more details.

The big news is that I am now blogging at Comic Book Resources’ Robot 6. I’ll be doing a weekly piece on whatever big goings-on are going on in the world of comic books. CBR is one of the biggest comics news sites and Robot 6 is one of the best comics blogs, so it’s really exciting for me to be joining their team. In my debut I challenge the notion of who should be going to Comic-Con and why they can’t, along with offering up some solutions and alternatives. Check out the comments too, as there are some good thoughts. Cartoonist Dave Roman offers up an interesting suggestion that really deserves to be explored.

Then I gave Four Tips for Beginners in the following Navigate the Arts interview conducted by Cindy Marie Jenkins:

We also recorded other interview segments on a number of comics-related topics, which will get posted in the near future. I’ll be sure to post them here as they hit the inter-webs, so I can be mortified anew. It’s amazing how uncomfortable I am being myself on-camera and seeing it back. I think Stephen Colbert has the right idea – play a ridiculous fictional character to directly address factual content and the real world. But anyway, Cindy and I had some great conversations.

I’ll be taking Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner down to Comic-Con for the day tomorrow. If you’re going to be there, let’s meet up! Message me on Facebook, Twitter, or email me.

And the comic-y goodness doesn’t stop because this weekend it’s Comic-Con: the biggest comics event in North America! My friend Cindy Marie Jenkins is always interested in how different industries reach their audiences, as well as interactive entertainment and media, so she decided to tap me for a special Navigating the Arts interview about Comic-Con for her innovative Beyond the Blurb live interview series. That will happen this Wednesday night at 8:30 PM Pacific time. You should be able to watch live right here.

I’ve also got a special editorial about Comic-Con appearing later this week, so I’ll post about that once it goes live.

Thank you all for your support!

Last month, we sadly said goodbye to our director Bill Johnson but that doesn’t mean the end of the Magic Meathands striving to get better and better. We’re now pulling from a number of experienced improvisers to serve as temporary coaches during our rehearsals.

Our first is Chris Ellis, a longtime member of the The Trans4merz, an improv group playing regularly at Fanatic Salon and originally directed by improvisation innovator Stan Wells. He is also co-creator/director of the hit web-series Fresh Hell, the comedy/tragedy starring Brent Spiner as himself in a world where a mysterious incident has destroyed his career. As you might expect, guest appearances and cameos abound, among them Star Trek: The Next Generation co-star LeVar Burton and The Guild‘s Jeff Lewis and Sandheep Parikh. The series was created with Spiner and writer/fellow Trans4merz Harry Hannigan (According to Jim). Meathands alum Heather Brumley can be seen in the opening credits of each Season 1 episode, and cameos as a Trekkie Nerd in Season 2, now playing on YouTube.

Oh and Chris Ellis is also British. So if you notice an inordinate amount of terrible British accents in our shows, now you know why.

Here’s a Fresh Hell promo:

The above was cross-posted on the Magic Meathands blog. I’ve been a member of the Magic Meathands for over 3 years, performing over 150 shows of improvised comedy. If you’re in the Los Angeles area, give yourself a treat and catch one of our shows.

Show tonight! We’ve got a ton of comedic performers – stand-up comics, improvisers – all teaming up for a big night for you!

Meanwhile at The Comics Observer:

• 3 recommendations of brand new graphic novels
• Comics symposium to be held at college

There’s a great energy to the show thanks to the able hosting of Benjamin Crutcher, and all of the players are supportive, and skilled enough to do fun and funny mini-shows. Usually with this kind of format, there’s that guy or that team that’s just kinda painful, but that hasn’t happened yet. (Maybe I’ve just lucked out on the nights I’ve gone. Or… maybe I’m that guy!)

It starts at 9 PM every Wednesday night and runs about two hours. And yes, it’s FREE.

Improv group Jump Start first to perform at Heyler’s, our new venue

This Saturday, the Magic Meathands Tag Team Comedy Show will be bursting with more funny people than ever before!

We had a great debut at Heyler’s last Saturday with our Family Friendly Show. Thank you to all who came out to help us celebrate our new home! We’ll be there again this Saturday night with our biggest Tag Team Comedy Show yet! Before you know it, Heyler’s will be known as the biggest comedy spot in LA! Or at least, the biggest on Pico Blvd. Surely somewhere between those two benchmarks.

We’re very happy to have three stand-up comics help us kick off the first Tag Team Comedy Show at Heyler’s:

• John Vargas made his debut at The Comedy Store and has been performing regularly at comedy clubs in and around LA.
• Vance Sanders is a Groundlings graduate who works the local comedy club circuit and is the host for the Scoomies, the award show celebrating stand-up comedy in LA.
• Pat Reilly is another regular of the LA comedy club scene, which helps him study sociology at UCLA.
• Ceci Noire came from Haiti to live the movie star lifestyle, and has unlocked the secrets of the universe.

A trio of comedians should be enough to pass the legal requirements of a comedy show, but that wasn’t enough for us! We’ve also got the improv group Distant Relatives! They perform every Friday night at The Improv Space, and now we’ve got them! All they need is one suggestion from the audience, and they turn it into a fully improvised long form show. The group includes former Meathand Eric Chad Ho, as well as Jason King, Tim Limbrick, Samir Forghani, and Stephen Perlstein.

To finish it all off, it’s the Magic Meathands! Yes, us! We perform a mixture of long form scenarios and short form games to create a lively and energetic show. So we’ll have you laughing one way or another!

See you Saturday at 8 PM!

Heyler’s
10659 West Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90064
(one block east of Overland)

Tickets: $7

PARKING: The meters on Pico Blvd. do not need to eat after 6 PM. They’re on a special diet. Yes, that’s right, free street parking on Pico Blvd.! But look closely at the signs if you park on the side streets off Pico.

The above was cross-posted on the Magic Meathands blog. I’ve been a member of the Magic Meathands for over 3 years, performing over 150 shows of improvised comedy. If you’re in the Los Angeles area, give yourself a treat and catch one of our shows.