Tamas Jakab

El Gorgo! #3!!!!

2009-12-16T23:48:00.002-05:00

New things El Gorgo!: Interview, T-Shirts

2009-02-22T19:32:00.002-05:00

New goings-on in the world of El Gorgo!

1. There's an interview with me and writer Mike McGee, where we discuss all things El Gorgo! and some of our observations on the state of comics today. Thanks to Tom Mason for taking the time to chat with us. And thanks to Journalista for picking up the interview!

2. El Gorgo! #2 is shipping out this week! If you haven't already ordered it, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

3. We now have El Gorgo! t-shirts for sale! In partnership with Spreadshirt, The World's Most Awesome Comics Magazine now offers The World's Most Awesome T-Shirts! We've been working on this for a few months now (when not working on the comic itself) and have quality tested the shirts and designs, and are now pleased to offer them for sale. Designs will often only be available for a limited time, so get them while you can!

And now, back to work on El Gorgo! #3.

El Gorgo! #2 is here!

2009-01-04T02:20:00.002-05:00

El Gorgo! #2 is here at last!!!!!

El Gorgo! Issue #2 Preview!

2008-11-19T11:57:00.002-05:00

(in all the excitement I forgot to post this here earlier …)

I proudly present the first 8 pages of El Gorgo! #2, available now exclusively at ElGorgo.com!

The adventure continues! Trapped on Titan, ten-thousand years in the future, El Gorgo! and Nika face a new breed of Deep Ones as the Hour of Dagon approaches! Meanwhile, the Humanosaurs prepare for war! Will the Deep Ones succeed in resurrecting a greater, more powerful Dagon? What is the shocking secret of the Humanosaurs? Does El Gorgo! still have a shot at making that gig back home on Earth? All this and more in "Terror On Titan!"

El Gorgo! Issue #2 Cover Preview

2008-10-05T15:34:00.002-04:00

The adventure continues! Trapped on Titan, ten-thousand years in the future, El Gorgo! and Nika face a new breed of Deep Ones as the Hour of Dagon approaches! Meanwhile, the Humanosaurs prepare for war!

Will the Deep Ones succeed in resurrecting a greater, more powerful Dagon? What is the shocking secret of the Humanosaurs? Does El Gorgo! still have a shot at making that gig back home on Earth?

All this and more in "Terror On Titan!"

Always Remember …

2008-10-03T18:38:00.005-04:00

Lemmy is watching you.

Friday Night Fights - Ladies Night Round 8!

2008-09-26T21:45:00.003-04:00

Bahlactus, What could be more awesome than … fighting gorillas?!?

Bonus! Silver-Age Bear-Punching!

From "The Big Super-Hero Hunt," The Brave & The Bold #62, as presented in DC Archives Black Canary

Friday Night Fights - Ladies Night Round 7!

2008-09-19T19:55:00.002-04:00

Kicking it new-school this time. I give you …

Street Angel vs. Ninjas!

Because really, you can never go wrong with either!

Can you dig it, Bahlactus?

From Street Angel, one of the most AWESOME comics ever made! By Jim Rugg & Brian Maruca

Love for El Gorgo!

2008-09-12T20:35:00.003-04:00

Here's a smattering of reviews we've received for El Gorgo!:

First off, major thanks to Chris Sims for the fantastic writeup:

El Gorgo!

… So yeah, I flat-out love it, and if you’re into the type of things I usually get behind here on the ISB, then you’ll probably love it, too. But here’s the best part: Even though they’re selling hard copies of the first issue at the aforementioned $3.95, McGee and Jakab have offered up the whole damn thing as a free download JPG, PDF, and CBR. That’s right, folks: Three formats free of charge and a hard copy you can buy if you like it, which I’m pretty sure has officially taken the lead in terms of online convenience. …

Second, we've just gotten reviewed by a puppet. A PUPPET!

Truly, how awesome is that?

And more recent reviews …

Linkstravaganza! September 9, 2008

… El Gorgo calls itself “The World’s Most Awesome Comic Magazine” and it’s hard to deny that it’s at least in the top four, particuarly as it has a gorilla luchador. …

GORILLA+LUCHADOR+LOVECRAFT=100% AWESOME

It's....it's so beautiful I actually cried
You can catch a bit of Kirby in there as well, as far as storytelling and overall style goes. Truly, a masterpiece of our times.

Suddenly ... EL GORGO!!

… If you have any love for comics in your heart, you'll love El Gorgo. The comic crams a ton of awesome into a story in which Lovecraft's Dagon, Kirby-crackle and a super-intelligent gorilla luchador are only the beginning. And while it owes a definite debt to the Silver Age, the title avoids becoming a shallow imitation without sacrificing any of the fun; every time El Gorgo opens his mouth it's like listening to a happy-go-lucky Namor, and I can't wait to see more of a supporting cast that apparently includes a dog in a wrestler's mask. …

Thank you to everyone who's reviewed us so far, and all the emails we've received! There's more on the way!

Friday Night Fights - Ladies Night Round 6!

2008-09-12T19:23:00.002-04:00

It's Friday Night Fights again!

Tonight's Ladies Night battle is, uh, short and, um, sweet?

From "The Invasion from Fairyland," All Star Comics #39 (1948), as seen in DC Archives All Star Comics, Vol. 9.

Friday Night Fights - Ladies Night Round 5!

2008-08-29T20:25:00.002-04:00

Elasti-Girl vs. Multi-Woman, Multi-Man's GIANT ROBOT GIRLFRIEND!

Originally presented in CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN #48, reprinted in THE DOOM PATROL ARCHIVES, Vol. 3

Multi-Woman, playing dirty right from the get-go ...

But it's not enough to stop Elasti-Girl ...

OH SNAP!

Finally a quick flip from Miss Yo-Yo Girl of 1965...

Care for a pretzel, Bahlactus?

Bonus: More Pimp-Hand

Since I missed the fights last week, one more from Doom Patrol #104

Because when it comes to mad skills, Elasti-Girl's got the only five that really matter ...

Happy Birthday, Jack Kirby!

2008-08-28T07:47:00.009-04:00

Today Jack Kirby would have been 91 years old.

It's a poorly-kept secret that his work is a huge influence on El Gorgo, and pretty much any comic book from the last 40+ years.

I first recognized Jack Kirby's work at around age 8 or 9, having been exposed to it as early as 5 or 6, but not really being aware of him as being a different artist from everybody else. I remember having a few paperback-sized color reprints of the early Silver-Age Marvel comics (The Hulk, Fantastic Four and Captain America), and basically reading them repeatedly until they fell apart. I would wonder why these books seemed so much cooler than the contemporary comics of the time, not fully realizing it was because I was reading work by the original creators, Jack Kirby and Stan Lee.

I went through a period later on where I thought Kirby's work was awkward and juvenile, as I sought out more "mature" comics. Thankfully, I came to my senses as I grew older, and have since developed a finer appreciation for Jack Kirby and many of his peers. And besides, nobody does dynamic storytelling like Jack Kirby. Nobody. And he never stopped creating, never stood still. Some of his best work came when he was already in his fifties, when many of his peers were slowing down.

Kirby is The King. End of story. Thanks for everything, Jack!

Jack, by Jack:

Kamandi, possibly my favorite series by Kirby:

WHO IS ... EL GORGO!?! ... PART TWO

2008-08-24T09:52:00.001-04:00

In part one I covered the fateful creation of El Gorgo! back in March 2007. Mike McGee and I came up with the character and basic premise: El Gorgo is a super-intelligent luchador gorilla adventurer starring in a Silver-Age-style comic book. In the first story he would start off fighting the Deep Ones as they resurrected the sea-god Dagon, then he would be transported to Titan far in the future to battle humanoid cyborg dinosaurs. And it would all be resolved in 22 pages for a black & white anthology book. Sounds easy, right? We sure thought so at the time. But it wasn't quite to be.

Mike started working on the script, and I think we both quickly realized that the story was just too big to fit into 22 pages. So it became part one of a larger story. We both decided that since we owned the characters and could do anything we wanted, we would also publish the story online, since color is pretty much free on the internet, and El Gorgo really wanted to be in color.

Mike also added in the supporting cast for El Gorgo!:

Nika: Kidnapped by the Deep Ones to be sacrificed to Dagon and originally conceived as a typical damsel-in-distress, Nika's role in the first story will be significant.

Eddie Devil: Like El Gorgo, Eddie is a freelance agent for LUCHA LIBERTY. He's a blue-colar luchador and total gearhead. His name is inspired by the legendary guitarist Eddie Angel of Los Straitjackets.

Lucy: A full-time agent for LUCHA LIBERTY, Lucy is a technical genius and assists Eddie Devil in finding El Gorgo.

Senor Grande: The mysterious blind luchador leader of LUCHA LIBERTY, his history dates back to World War II and the heroes of a bygone era. Though blind, Senior Grande is one of the greatest fighters alive today.

Gorgo-A-Go-Go: El Gorgo's surf-rock band, currently very miffed at El Gorgo for potentially ruining their biggest show to date.

By late May, the first script for El Gorgo! #1 was complete, and I started what would turn out to be a very slow process drawing the book. The first issue was finally completed in late June of 2008. About halfway through, we agreed that the first issue should be 24 pages instead of 22 to open up some of the art. By that point the anthology project had long fallen through, so El Gorgo! was now on his own, published online in glorious color!

During the yearlong effort, we continued to develop El Gorgo! and work out future stories and characters. Some spoiler-free highlights of what's coming up:

El Gorgo meets... THE YETI!!!!
-- (plus we get a brief glimpse of some heroes from World War II)

The Island of Doctor Cat-Head
-- At last! We've dropped some hints about this guy in the first story. Now, meet El Gorgo's greatest arch-nemesis, Doctor Cat-Head. He may seem a bit silly, but trust us, he's not somebody you want to mess with! This cat's got some mean claws!

Vikings!
-- That's really all I can say about it. It will be awesome though.

The Secret Origin of El Gorgo!
-- El Gorgo is stricken with amnesia and lost to his friends. Learn about El Gorgo's history and the dark secret that haunts him TO THIS VERY DAY!!!! This is a big one, as it will establish a lot of the tone for the series going forward.

More concept art:

Early Deep Ones concept drawing:

Early Dagon concept drawing:

Early Eddie Devil concept drawing:

Another Early Eddie Devil concept drawing:

When in Doubt...

2008-08-20T09:04:00.004-04:00

Just ask yourself...

(thanks to The ISB and BeaucoupKevin)

Thrilling Monkey Tales!!!

2008-08-17T10:41:00.003-04:00

Presented here is the metafictional essay by Mike McGee found on the inside covers of El Gorgo! #1. The idea behind this was to have a bit of fun with comics history, and staying true to El Gorgo's Silver-Age roots, have his first appearance be in an anthology title. Back in the Forties through the early Sixties, it was common for publishers to simply re-title comics rather than start new ones. Part of this was a perception that low issue numbers were bad; it was better to give the impression that the title was already well established. The other reason was that publishers would try to avoid having to pay for another second-class postage permit, which was fairly expensive. Sometimes they'd get caught doing this and have to pay for it anyway.

This essay makes me smile. A lot. It's they type of thing that gets my imagination going. Someday we'll present some stories from these fictional books. Personally I can't wait to take a shot at HELL AWAITS THE GUILTY.

Thrilling Monkey Tales!!!

A capsule history

When Dynamo Comics debuted its THRILLING MONKEY TALES series in the fall of 1957 (cover date February-March 1958), there was no obvious reason for excitement – science fiction anthology comics were a dime a dozen (well…they were a dime apiece, but you know what I mean), all but ubiquitous at the drug store spinner rack. All THRILLING MONKEY TALES had to distinguish it from its competitors was the promise of thrilling monkeys; or at least thrilling tales about monkeys, thrilling or otherwise. Dynamo seemed to gamble on the presumption that monkeys were themselves inherently thrilling, and apparently – judging from the lackluster hackwork that filled the pages of its first year – they were on to something: TMT sold well enough to go monthly with its April 1960 issue (#37), and sales only got bigger as Dynamo marched into the age of Camelot.

The first issue of THRILLING MONKEY TALES had not been numbered #1, but #30. The series debuted as HELL AWAITS THE GUILTY in October-November 1951, a high-selling crime/horror/suspense anthology title that ended abruptly with #17 (June-July 1954). Issue #18 (October-November 1954) featured the adventures of an Archie Comics-style heroine named ROBIE RENARDE, and was retitled accordingly. Intriguingly, Robie – other than being a redhead – bore a striking resemblance to a real-life (brunette) pinup girl who had briefly had a Dynamo series in 1952. Robie's single-issue adventure was extremely difficult to read due to extensive "edits" made throughout the story, notably a number of awkwardly pasted word balloons (a few of which do not completely obscure the original dialogue) and occasionally quite sloppy applications of Wite-Out and Zip-A-Tone "shadowing" to the art (these all occur near unmentionable areas of Robie's rather modest anatomy). Issue #19 (June-July 1955) reprinted the WWII adventures of patriotic wrestling heroes LUCHA LIBERTY, and was retitled accordingly; #19 sold moderately well, but the two issues of original Lucha Liberty material that followed (set in then-modern times) failed to hold onto an audience.

Issues #22 and #23 – whatever they featured – appear to have been pulped; no known copies exist, and the accounts of those who claim to have read them are suspect at best.

Beginning with #24 (February-March 1956), the series began to cycle through variations on a theme – it first became the adventure anthology THRILLING TALES, an unfortunately generic title for a series that ran the gamut from western to science fiction to war story to police procedural. It is hard to say whether this was a bold experiment or simply an instance of Dynamo unloading a wide array of inventory material all at once. The western and the sci-fi tales must have been most popular, for #25 appeared as the unlikely THRILLING TWO-GUN COWBOY OUTER SPACE TALES, a title the series would maintain until #27. The comparatively prosaic TALES THAT THRILL! was next, a sure sign that Dynamo had absolutely no idea where to turn. In desperation, THRILLING TALES returned with #29… but what was beneath those desperate words – that cover – made it plain where the book was headed, even if its publishers didn't know. Yet.

The THRILLING TALES title surely grabbed no one (it never had before). But its feature story, "MONKEYS TAKE MANHATTAN!!" – shown off by a striking cover depicting a swarm of heavily armed spider monkeys in battle fatigues, knives clenched in their teeth, using ropes and spike-treaded combat boots to climb the Empire State Building while office workers stare out its windows in screaming terror – surely did. One of the fightin' monkeys carries a huge, fluttering flag (it has a picture of a monkey on it) that we presume he intends to plant atop the Empire State; this one barks out: "I claim this land for… Monkeytopia!!!" These words, as it happened, were prophetic.

When Dynamo saw the sales figures on THRILLING TALES #29 – to say nothing of letter after letter praising "MONKEYS TAKE MANHATTAN!!!" – its course was clear. THRILLING MONKEY TALES #30 hit newsstands across America two months later, and although two of its four stories had nothing at all to do with monkeys (but did feature monkeys as background characters, clearly drawn into the stories by a different artist), three were terrible, and one was a reprint of a story from TALES THAT THRILL! #28 ("ORRGO THE UNSPEAKABLE!!" … except that Orrgo, originally a giant rock monster, was now a gigantic monkey, and one obviously drawn by the same uncredited artist who had drawn the incidental monkeys into the rest of the issue, and whose monkeys also sort of looked like dogs), it was a smash success.

Over the next few years, THRILLING MONKEY TALES told us of the monkey secret agent who assassinated Hitler; of the monkey into which Hitler's brain was implanted; of the brilliant surgeon monkey who was forced to implant the brain by circumstances beyond his control; and of the heroic monkey who managed to kill Hitler's brain without killing the monkey into which the brain had been implanted; of the monkeys who conquered Mars; of the monkeys from Mars; of monkey Vikings and monkey race car drivers and monkeys with wings and monkeys who hunted humans for sport and humans who hunted monkeys for sport but learned the error of their ways when Orrgo the Unspeakable (still a monkey) hunted them. The mileage in this idea was really pretty startling.

Of course, all most of you are really interested in is THRILLING MONKEY TALES #80 (March 1963) – an issue that came about solely because a little rival comics company had managed to get superheroes to sell again! But what was the angle? After all, Dynamo had only ever had a spandex hit with LUCHA LIBERTY…

Well, I think you can guess the rest! THRILLING MONKEY TALES FEATURING EL GORGO! #83 (June 1963) was the first issue that gave the big guy cover billing; by #96, he went from being the book's lead story to having all twenty-four glorious pages to himself! But soon that wasn't even enough – and now here we are at an all-new #1, with a title that won't ever change – EL GORGO! The most thrilling monkey of them all!!!

Great googly moogly!

Mike McGee
Alexandria, VA
June 1, 1968

WHO IS ... EL GORGO!?! ... PART ONE

2008-08-15T23:24:00.021-04:00

So anybody who stumbles upon this blog is going to see the phrase "El Gorgo!" a lot. "What's an El Gorgo?" you may ask. El Gorgo! is a brand new online comic book written by Mike McGee and drawn by me. The first issue is available entirely for free at the afore-linked website in your choice of JPEG images, PDF, or Comic Book Archive (.CBR) formats.

You should go and read it. Right now. I'm sure you'll have questions when you're done. It's OK. I'll wait.

Done? All right then ...

So how did El Gorgo! begin? Where did we come up with this crazy thing?

It all started way back in March of 2007. One of Mike's online associates was planning a comics anthology and was soliciting 22-page stories. At the time we were spinning our wheels trying to develop a full-length horror graphic novel, and the anthology seemed like a nice break from development hell.

So on an unusually warm Sunday afternoon (warm for Cleveland, OH, anyway), I got to thinking about what we could possibly do. The first idea I had was a throwaway story set in the 1940s/1950s about a Luchador superhero and his intelligent luchador gorilla sidekick fighting a giant robot. So I called up Mike to pitch the idea to him.

"I like the luchador gorilla better. We should do a story about him." he said.

And then over the next hour or so, we rapidly hashed out the basic concept of El Gorgo! I came up with the name (more like randomly went with the first thing that popped into my head), and Mike quickly fleshed out his personality. El Gorgo was a genius, and played in a surf-rock band. We both immediately knew we wanted to do this as a Silver-Age-style book: all-ages, high energy, big, crazy cosmic ideas ... The immediate motto for the book became "If an idea seems too outrageous, it's not outrageous enough.

We started hashing out the story. I randomly threw out the idea that he should be transported into the future to fight cyborg dinosaurs, and that we should begin in the middle of a story, as though it was an established comic. That was pretty much the extent of my contribution to the writing, and the rest has been all Mike. At one point we considered having the story be set firmly in the 1960s, with El Gorgo meeting his "future" counterpart from the present-day, more inspired by Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. That idea quickly went out the window.

I rushed to my trusty iMac and created the first concept sketch of El Gorgo! while doing my best Jack Kirby impersonation:

As I worked up the sketch, Mike came up with the idea that El Gorgo would be fighting the Deep Ones and Dagon (very loosely based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft) in the beginning of the story, and then be transported mysteriously to Titan to fight dinosaurs.

We had a concept. We had a story. It was time to get to work.

To be continued ...

Friday Night Fights: Ladies Night

2008-08-15T22:45:00.007-04:00

It's Friday Night FIghts: Ladies Night, and Elasti-Girl shows off her Righteous Pimp-Hand. From Doom Patrol #117, by the legendary Arnold Drake and Bruno Premiani, as seen in Doom Patrol Archives Volume 5.

A serious note

2008-08-15T20:29:00.004-04:00

This has been cross-posted all over the comics blogosphere today. Sexual harassment in the comics industry and comics fandom is a pretty serious issue. I love the comics medium, but after reading the post below I again shake my head at comics fandom. This is one of the reasons I usually keep my distance from fandom, because of disgraceful behavior like this.

Following the lead from The ISB, Mike Sterling, Kevin Church, my man Mike McGee and others:

http://bullyscomics.blogspot.com/2008/08/serious-note.html

Hello, everyone. John here. I "help" Bully out with his blog, but there's some things can't be said in the voice of a little stuffed bull.

A couple weeks ago at San Diego Comic-Con incidents of sexual harassment were confided to me and I overheard others. I wanted to write about it but was uncertain whether Bully's blog was the proper place. After much thought and discussions with friends and colleagues I've decided to post it here:

Overheard at San Diego Comic-Con while I was having lunch on the balcony of the Convention Center on Sunday July 27: a bunch of guys looking at the digital photos on the camera of another, while he narrated: "These were the Ghostbusters girls. That one, I grabbed her ass, 'cause I wanted to see what her reaction was." This was only one example of several instances of harassment, stalking or assault that I saw at San Diego this time.

1. One of my friends was working at a con booth selling books. She was stalked by a man who came to her booth several times, pestering her to get together for a date that night. One of her co-workers chased him off the final time.

2. On Friday, just before the show closed, this same woman was closing up her tables when a group of four men came to her booth, started taking photographs of her, telling her she was the "prettiest girl at the con." They they entered the booth, started hugging and kissing her and taking photographs of themselves doing so. She was confused and scared, but they left quickly after doing that.

3. Another friend of mine, a woman running her own booth: on Friday a man came to her booth and openly criticized her drawing ability and sense of design. Reports from others in the same section of the floor confirmed he'd targeted several women with the same sort of abuse and criticism.

Quite simply, this behavior has got to stop at Comic-Con. It should never be a sort of place where anyone, man or woman, feels unsafe or attacked either verbally or physically in any shape or form. There are those, sadly, who get off on this sort of behavior and assault, whether it's to professional booth models, cosplayers or costumed women, or women who are just there to work. This is not acceptable behavior under any circumstance, no matter what you look like or how you're dressed, whether you are in a Princess Leia slave girl outfit or business casual for running your booth.

On Saturday, the day after the second event I described above, I pulled out my convention book to investigate what you can do and who you can speak to after such an occurrence. On page two of the book there is a large grey box outlining "Convention Policies," which contain rules against smoking, live animals, wheeled handcarts, recording at video presentations, drawing or aiming your replica weapon, and giving your badge to others. There is nothing about attendee-to-attendee personal behavior.

Page three of the book contains a "Where Is It?" guide to specific Comic-Con events and services. There's no general information room or desk listed, nor is there a contact location for security, so I go to the Guest Relations Desk. I speak to a volunteer manning the desk; she's sympathetic to the situation but who doesn't have a clear answer to my question: "What's Comic-Con's policy and method of dealing with complaints about harassment?" She directs me to the nearest security guard, who is also sympathetic listening to my reports, but short of the women wanting to report the incidents with the names of their harassers, there's little that can be done.

"I understand that," I tell them both, "but what I'm asking is more hypothetical and informational: if there is a set Comic-Con policy on harassment and physical and verbal abuse on Con attendees and exhibitors, and if so, what's the specific procedure by which someone should report it, and specifically where should they go?" But this wasn't a question either could answer.

So, according to published con policy, there is no tolerance for smoking, drawn weapons, personal pages or selling bootleg videos on the floor, and these rules are written down in black and white in the con booklet. There is not a word in the written rules about harassment or the like. I would like to see something like "Comic-Con has zero tolerance for harassment or violence against any of our attendees or exhibitors. Please report instances to a security guard or the Con Office in room XXX."

The first step to preventing such harassment is giving its victims the knowledge that they can safely and swiftly report such instances to someone in authority. Having no published guideline, and indeed being unable to give a clear answer to questions about it, gives harassment and violence one more rep-tape loophole to hide behind.

I enjoyed Comic-Con. I'm looking forward to coming back next year. So, in fact, are the two women whose experiences I've retold above. Aside from those instances, they had a good time at the show. But those instances of harassment shouldn't have happened at all, and that they did under no clear-cut instructions about what to do sadly invites the continuation of such behavior, or even worse.

I don't understand why there's no such written policy about what is not tolerated and what to do when this happens. Is there anyone at Comic-Con able to explain this? Does a similar written policy exist in the booklets for other conventions (SF, comics or otherwise) that could be used as a model? Can it be adapted or adapted, and enforced, for Comic-Con? As the leading event of the comics and pop culture world, Comic-Con should work to make everyone who attends feel comfortable and safe.

Hello world!

2008-08-15T20:11:00.004-04:00

Crap! I've gotten the blogging bug again. I'll be using this space to post about comics (mine and other people's), and pretty much whatever the hell else I want.

I used to have a blog over at http://rednever.com that I haven't touched in ages, and I'm not quite sure what I want to do with it. But for now I'm working on El Gorgo! The World's Most Awesome Comics Magazine and it's time for something different. Let's see where this freakish experiment goes.