Yesterday evening was a great night on all fronts. First we (and by "we" I mean the Ottawa Senators) beat the evil Toronto Maple Leafs 3 - 2, then I found a Pez dispenser (still in the package), and then the Killer63 premiere went incredibly well.

I took it upon myself be the ticket seller in the box office, and it was a roller-coaster heart-stopping ride of constantly almost running out of change. The Mayfair folks were quite impressed with the large crowd who came out not only to see a bunch of indie shorts, but who did so very late at night on a Saturday during the Holidays. I hope that this might mean that the theatre is open to the idea of more late night and indie screenings there.

I'm not sure what's immediately next for us in the K63. I've already gotten requests for DVD's and for another screening. So keep and eye out and check the K63 blog every so often and we'll do our best to keep you all posted of related news and upcoming events. We'll definitely be back next year for another round, only maybe a bit earlier, like around October 31st or so. Great job to all the filmmakers, and a big thank you go out to everyone who came to check out the movies. Especially the ones who coughed up six bucks to get in, not like those free-loading filmmakers. Happy New Year everyone.

The big Killer63 premiere finally happens tomorrow night. Eight brand new short horror movies for one low six dollar price.

Was interviewed today for a segment on Friday Special Blend on CKCU. It'll show up sometime during the shows broadcast tomorrow, which is in between 7AM-9:30AM. If you're not in Ottawa, you can even listen to it from the stations website.

Yesterday I also did an interview for CTV news. That ones going to show up on the 6PM and 11PM shows on Thursday, and I believe the noon one on Friday. Both interview segments were done in regards to this Saturday's Killer63 premiere (Saturday the 30th at 11:30PM...come one come all).

My friend Hellboy and I just wanted to check in and wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Or a happy fill in the blank towards whatever you do or do not choose to celebrate on or around this about time during the calender year. Hope everyone gets to gorge themselves on endless amounts of good food, that lots of swell presents are opened, and that most importantly of all, I receive the Shaun of the Dead and / or Bubba Ho-Tep action figures from Santa.

Alas no...there isn't really a movie called 'Evil Dead: Dead in the Water' screening at the Mayfair Theatre here in Ottawa. Why not? Well...because unfortunately that's an imaginary movie title that we made up and slapped on the marquee of the theatre while shooting a project called 'Mythic Hero' some years back. We actually got the hopes up of a few passers by who thought that there actually was a real 'Evil Dead IV' screening there that night. Good times.

What IS set to soon premiere at the Mayfair though is the inaugural batch of Killer63 short horror movies. You can find the listing on the new schedule that runs from (December 10th - January 13th). We're on Saturday December 30th at 11:30PM. Tell your friends.

Some folks know about this development already, but I didn't want to 100% spread the word until everything was official and organized. After much paperwork (oh how I do hate the boring, necessary evil of paperwork) and e-mailing back and forth, things are finally in line to have some Batturtle stuff shown on CHUM's Drive-In Classics channel. The bad vampire / good vampire set-up to the feature length movie version starring the characters, 'Gwen' and 'Mercy', along with the horrifically bad night at the office story 'Thursday' will all start to be shown on the channel sometime in the near future.

There's a link on their website that says: 'Seen it on DIC? Ask us to play it again!'. So if anyone does subscribe to the channel, and does happen to catch one of the shorts while watching, please do feel free to drop them a quick e-mail (only if you have nice things to say...bad things to say, please disregard).

This exciting behind the scene picture was taken on location during production of my latest short a couple weekends ago. As I go over the scene with actress Tara MacKenzie, actor Mark Courneyea mugs it up for the camera (which evidently is a sickness on his part, as he does so in every single bit of still photography that he's ever been caught in ever).

The short ('Checklist') will be premiered along with a batch of other horror shorts on Saturday December 30th at the Mayfair Theatre in Ottawa. On one hand, the screening is happening during the busy holiday season, so that might keep things too hectic for a lot of folks to tear themselves away from winter-y plans to check out the movies. At the same time though, it's on a Saturday night, post Christmas and pre New Years Eve. Plus, I just really wanted to make a lil' dream come true and have a screening at the Mayfair.

So it's actually not all that exciting of a shot, and much delayed in being posted. But I wanted to put an update on here and this is the only new-ish picture that I have handy. My blogging time has been all taken up over on the Killer63 blog, which has had many more updates and exciting pictures of late.

Did the first day of shooting for my contribution to the K63 this past weekend. Our second bit of shooting is this afternoon. Shouldn't take too long, just a couple hours of shooting in a coffee shop to intro the characters and lead in to all the fun horror stuff from the second half of the script that we've already shot. There were some pictures taken on Saturday, but I'm kind of hesitant to put any up just yet. Being that it's a short horror movie with a twist in it, I don't want to go and give anything away and play the spoiler.

The first issue of the Bonesetter comic book is now available to order. Written by Brett Kelly with art by Chris Herndon (Living with Zombies). The cover is by Nick Bradshaw of 'Army of Darkness' and 'Danger Girl' fame (well...comic book geek fame anyhow) with colouring from my friend Bao Phan (who cursed Nick's attention to detail with those dozens and dozens of bones). If you want more info on the comic, check out Brett's site, which you can link over to from here. Or you can order the comic directly through Comixpress. I've written a pair of stories set to appear in upcoming issues.

Some logo roughs for Comic Book Connection
from Barry Bradfield at Basement 24

Arthur Masters over at The Ottawa Local Podcast did a bit of a behind the scenes segment covering our audition process for the Comic Book Connection project. Then there's a bit of a comic book related interview with myself tagged onto there too.

You can check it out, along with the rest of the program right here.

A lil' behind the scene glimpse from Brett Kelly's latest directorial effort 'Prey for the Beast'. The shoot happened for the most part somewhere in the west end forests on the outskirts of Ottawa. On the left hand side of the picture you've got producer / actor Jodi Pittman looking on, Ralph Gethings on camera, and Howard Sonnenberg doing sound. You can just catch a glimpse of me (or at least my Sens cap) hiding in the background behind everyone (think I was on camera assist / clapper board duties that day). On the right you have actor / director Brett and the rest of his cast. The movie is set for release in early 2007.

Wheels continue to be in motion along the path towards geeky world domination. Tomorrow: a round of auditions for the host position for the Comic Book Connection.

Friend and Batturtle actress movie alum Mary Mac has gotten herself in the running to be the new Kokanee Glacier Girl. She's good people, so you should take a second from your hectic web-surfing day and go vote for her, 'cause I say so.

http://www.citytv.com/glaciergirl/

Here's a couple of logo designs for the new top secret project. Unless you can read...then it's not so much of a secret I guess. They're created by Barry Bradfield from Basement 24, check out his website over in the links section. His Minimate toy designs are awesome.

Another delayed update. This one on last weekend's Comic Book Expo in Toronto. Above you'll see a Commander Rick sketch by Ty Templeton. If you're not in the know, Commander Rick hosted a comic book / science fiction themed show called 'Prisoners of Gravity' that was on from '89-'94 on TVO (the public TV channel in Ontario on the off chance that anyone from far away is reading this). It was the best show. They interviewed everyone: Niel Gaiman, Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Sam Raimi, Jack Kirby (!) and many many more. Anyhow, Ty did the art for the opening of the show, so it was very kind of him to add a very nice sketch to my collection.
As fate would have it, I ended up being alongside a few other folks keeping Mark Askwith (PoG producer, interviewer and mastermind) away from his being set-up surprise birthday party. Which I got to tag along to. Met bunches of other cool people, including none other than (Commander) Rick Green himself.

So that night was the highlight hands down. Managed to add a few other sketches to the book. The couple below are from Yanick Paquette (who's currently in the midst of doing some Civil War stuff at Marvel) and Andrew Barr (check out his site at: www.somethingagogo.com ).
Got a lovely bizarre sketch of some kindah' unicorn monster from an artist who you should check out at www.yargot.com. And got in my annual visit with and comic book purchase from Tyrone McCarthy. Check out his comic book titled website at www.CorduroyHigh.com and buy many of his comics.

Went to see an evil movie about an alien invasion with the rather appropriate title of 'Evil Aliens'. Bought some Hellboy toys. Hung out at Brett Kelly's booth for a bit as he peddled his wares. They sold out of 'My Dead Girlfriend' DVD's. Always nice. By Sunday I was completely worn out. Didn't pace myself well enough. Need to remember to get in more sit down geeking (panels and movies) at the next con. I did bump into the actual Carrie Fisher, but alas, no geek-girl metal bikini Leia pictures this time.

The Bulleteer sketch by Yanick Paquette

Undead Space Monkey sketch by Andrew Barr

Off bright and early to the big bad city of Toronto for the Comic Book Expo tomorrow. Not there screening any of my stuff, purely visiting for geek fan reasons alone.

Though I did work part-time on the crew for 'My Dead Girlfriend', which will be screening Sunday-September-3rd at noon as part of the Rue Morgue Festival of Fear portion of the con.

I'll return next week with sketches to share and photo's of at least one Metal Bikini Leia.

Happy Snakes On A Plane Day!!! Hope everyone has a good time skipping work, ditching out on family obligations, and dropping every single much lesser important of a thing you might have to do this day while all of us (by us I mean North America) are going to view what I'm sure will be the greatest film of the year if not all time, Snakes on a Plane. It's a great time to be alive.

Sun 23rd -

A Usagi Yojimbo sketch from Stan Sakai. The nicest guy in comics.

Last day of the con. So sad. Went back and got that Spike toy that they were giving away as a prize at the blood drive. See, I went and gave 'em my blood a couple of days ago 'cause I thought it was a humorous promotion (a vampire in trade for blood), and 'cause it would be an awesome birthday gift for a friend of mine who's b-day party happened while I was off in California. They ran out of Spike's, but I got some secret info on the QT that if I went back today there might be more. So I returned and used what little charm and charisma I could muster and tricked them into giving me one.

Didn't get an award from the film fest. Wasn't really expecting one, that 'an honour just to be accepted' cliche really is true after all. How about that? Who knew?

Bought some kewl stuff. Got a really nice 'Yeah Yeah Yeahs' concert poster and a Skull the Troll stuffed animal. Managed to ge a batch of last day sketches (Gene Ha, Zander Cannon, Josh Howard, Shannon Wheeler...). Strolled by one booth and there stood Jim Steranko. No one was bothering him, so I went up and we chatted about his current projects. Great guy, and he looks like he should be a character in a James Bond movie or be doing an interview from the Playboy mansion or something.

At the end of the day, the sarcastic voice-of god female announcer that had been updating and chastising all weekend announced that the 2006 Con is now closed. This gets a giant cheer and a big round of applause. Think everyone's just happy that they survived. I'll miss the con so. Barring imprisonment or death, I'll be back next year.

Sat 22nd -

Geek girl dressed like Phoenix. Just walking around. What's better than that?

Met a couple of very kewl NYC artists, check out their sites ( GBTRAN.com and joannarchy.com ...though the latter is 'coming soon' at the time of this writing). Went to the Robert Rodriguez / Grind House panel. Supposedly geeks were lined up since the early AM hours outside in the scorching heat all day to secure a seat. I strolled in a few minutes before show-time and got myself a 2nd row centre chair. His special surprise guest was Quentin Tarintio, along with a whole bunch of babes who are starring in the movies. They're an odd pair. Robert showed some stuff from his 1/2 of the double bill. A zombie movie in which Rose McGowan has a gun for a leg. What more could you want our of a motion picture? Later in the day was blessed to be in attendance of the Brisco County Jr panel, featuring the man himself, Bruce Campbell. This guy knows how to work an audience. I'm pretty sure that if Jesus had had a panel going at the same time, that Jesus would've gotten a pretty good turn out, but Bruce's would have a slightly longer line. He announced that they were going to be doing an autograph signing downstairs. I bolted from the room. Sprinting Ferris Bueller style the mile or so between the panel hall to the Warner Bros booth at the main convention centre. Managed to secure myself a place 2nd last in line before it was cut-off. More impressive was that I didn't cause a scene upon meeting Bruce. Shook hands, brief conversation, gave him a DVD, got a couple autographs, didn't pass out form geek-citement.

Got a lot of kewl sketches. A Tick from Ben Edlund, Flaming Carrot from Bob Burden, and one from Ahmet Zappa (yup...Frank's kid). Scored a Green Lantern ring from the DC area. Went to see the Firefly / Serenity doc 'Done the Impossible'. Hung out with Vancouver folks afterwards at the unofficial con after party thing. Including former 'Prisoners of Gravity' master-mind Mark Askwith. He works at Space (the TV channel...not in space) and was integral in getting my stuff onto Drive-In Classics.

Fri 21st -

Monique (wife of Tom) accompanied me to a Hellboy cartoon panel. We got free T-shirts. I love the free swag. Got to meet Guillermo Del Toro and Doug Jones thanks to the Pan's Labyrynth autograph session. Guillermo asked for a copy of my short films (which he got). Gave one to Doug too. Good folks, can't wait for P.L. and Hellboy II. The cool thing about San Diego, is that there's celebrity folks walking around for no other reason than geek-ness. I bumped into and had a nice lil' conversation with David Arquette. Ran into Craig, an Ottawa comic book artist friend. Strange running into someone from home amongst a crowd of some 100,000 people. He had just seen Joss Whedon walking about. I was not so lucky as to see Joss. Had great luck in the in the meeting artists and getting sketches game. The highlights were ones from Phil Hester, Erik Larsen, and David Llyod. My personal favorite is a very quick Leia sketch that I managed to get from Adam Hughes. He did it in about 5 seconds with a Sharpie. Awesome. I'm the envey of all my geeky friends.

My screening for '07-07-13' was that night. Their projector was having issues, luckily I had a back-up disc on hand (the poor bastards in front of me didn't think to bring one). It went really well. Folks in the audience seemed to genuinely applaud at the end, I answered a bunch of questions afterwards. Even better was the actress who was there to speak about the film that was on after mine...well, how can I put this diplomatically? She was a bit of a train wreck. People started sneaking out. We did the same after a while. She was just very passionate about the film and no-one else really was. Uncomfortable and hilarious all rolled into one.

At the hotel bar that night had a long conversation with Erik Larsen. Which was pretty cool, I've been reading Savage Dragon since day one. Later found myself talking with Jim Lee. Said I was looking forward to WildCats (just 'cause it's written by Grant Morrison...but I left out that). He said that he should really start working on that...I think it's gonna' be late. Met Dean Halund. He was in X-Files (one of those Lone Gunmen guys) while I was living in Vanouver years back. He also did Improv stuff with my non-blood relation big sister. Spinning from that ended up meeting and re-meeting a bunch of other Vancouver folks who knew her. Like Simpsons comic writer Ian Boothby & his lovely wife Pia. Good folks. Funny how Canadians manage to find each other during their world travels.

Thurs 20th -

Here's a sketch from Tom's artist alley neighbour and all around nice guy Drew Johnson.

Went to an incredible panel featuring my favorite writer on the planet, Grant Morrison. He was with Deepak Chopra (yes...that Deepak Chopra) discussing comic books and mythology and stuff. Whenever Grant wants to start up a crazy alien based Scientology type religion you can count me in. I'll be first in line. Then I rushed off to the Guillermo Del Toro / Doug Jones panel for 'Pan's Labyrynth'. They were a hilarious Odd Couple. A big fat friendly foul mouthed Spanish comic geek and his lil' thin polite blonde character actor mime side-kick. Somehow at one point found myself chatting with, and then over the weekend befriending, one of Rob Liefeld's entourage. I've never been a fan of Rob's art, but the nice guy reputation of he and his his posse is spot on. Got sketches from Cully Hamner and Kyle Baker amongst others.

Chatted with Amanda Conner at the after party type mingling that goes on every night once the con shuts down for the day. Had met her a couple months previous at another comic con in Pittsburgh. There's a reason that she and her partner Jimmy Palmiotti have become the possible king and queen fan favorites amongst the comic geek community. Besides for talent, they're both just plain nice. And I think that every guy who meets Amanda develops a geek crush pretty much instantaneously.

Look! A token babe dressed as slave girl Leia shot. Good times. Good times. It's much over-due (considering that I've been back on Canadian soilsince very late at night on July 24th), but here's my San Diego Comic Con update. I'll just break things up day by day so things aren't too mashed up in a mess of random yelling 'This is the coolest thing ever!' over and over again.

Wed 19th -

This is supposedly the preview night that only 4 day pass holders and pro's (that's me!) get into. Evidently there's a lot of 4 day pass holders and pro's. Upon walking into the main area of the Comic Con, one's mind is blown. I think I may have actually had a small stroke and / or heart attack. That might have just been the sun-stroke though. It's hard to explain how big of a gathering it is, except to say that it's geek for as far as the eye could see. Met Mike Mignola (but no sketch dammit). Did get sketches from genius animator BillPlympton, Scott Kurtz (PVP), the Penny Arcade guys, and the highlight of the night for me, Scott Shaw. Gushed to him that Captain Carrot was my favorite comic when I was a wee lad and he was nice enough to gimmie a sketch.

That evening I accompanied my comic artist friend (and roommate for the week) Tom Fowler to the nearby hotel where all the pro's hang out. We were staying in a condo a mere few blocks from the con, very convenient. Met Judd Wynick and managed to remain pleasant and refrain from saying 'Man...that bringing back Jason Todd story-line sure was stupid'. Then, strangely enough, met my high school gym teacher's son. What's the chances of that? And, met a fine Austrailian fellow named Shane who's writing some Zombie stuff for IDW.

Well, it's nearly 6AM on Sunday morning. 24 hours from now I'll be heading off to the airport for my trek down to San Diego. I've just finished gathering together a handful of things that I'm bringing along in hopes to get autographed. Tomorrow I gotta' get some DVD cases, bind some scripts, do laundry and other such last minute pre-trip excitement. I'm not sure if I'll have easily accessible internet access down there. If I don't manage a post from U.S. soil, there will be one soon after my return. That is unless I meet, fall for and elope with a nice Tomb Raider booth babe, then you'll never hear from me again.

Ok...so I'm actually really truthfully going to try and make a go of this thing here.
As you might notice, I reserved this domain (is that what they're called?) back last year and really haven't done all that much with it.
I'm not all that skilled with all things computer.
And I have so so many comics to read.

But evidently this here blog-website is fairly easy to wrangle (a comic artist friend of mine makes use of it and claims so anyhow). Maybe soon I'll even figure out how to put up pictures (dare to dream)

I just needed a lil' corner of the 'net to put up some Batturtle related updates since there's some cool things happening.

The biggest thing right now is that the last Batturtle short, '07-07-13', was accepted into the Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival. So I'll be travelling down to San Diego for that. I've wanted to go to The Con forever, and this is a great excuse to do so.

There's also some TV news. But I'm not sure if I can officially talk about that until contracts are signed and payment recieved and such.

Ok...I'm gonna' go watch 'Nacho Libre' now.