ALLRED MAD MAN!

And my MAD MAX: Fury Road art inspired me to do this:

ALLRED MAD MAX!

One of my favorite movie-going experiences was seeing the original MAD MAX at an old movie theater not knowing anything about it going in.  The movie poster art looked like Frank Frazetta might have done it (couldn't fool me now) and the poster said BRIAN MAY did the music.  Being a huge fan of QUEEN, that was all I needed to grab my buddies and head for the movie house.  Of course, I found out later it wasn't THAT Brian May.  But the movie with its ground-breaking kinetic action and "other-wordly near-future setting" blew us away!  A few years later, we were the "coolest kids in the room" when THE ROAD WARRIOR blew up and we were the only ones who knew it was a sequel. Loved BEYOND THUNDERDOME too!  The fourth "MAX Flick", FURY ROAD has been a rumor for years, and while I would have been crazy excited to see an old grizzled Mel Gibson play Max again, I'm jazzed to see what the incredibly talented Tom Hardy will do with the character.  Love the character and the immeasurably influential world George Miller has built.  So I was over the moon when asked to contribute to the Vertigo Art Book.  Here's my contribution with Max and Charlize Theron's Furiosa!

WAY? YES WAY! GERARD WAY T-SHIRT!

I teased this a few weeks ago.  And now it's available from Gerard's store:
http://store.gerardway.com/allred-alien-unisex-t-shirt-649714.html

MADMAN LIVE ACTION MAKEUP DESIGN!

In interviews and conversation I've often described how
Frank "Madman" Einstein would look in a live action
film and how the makeup design would allow him to be
completely expressive.  My preference would be for him
to wear his leather jacket most of the time.  Obviously,
this is without the jacket, but I was very happy to see it
come very close to what's been in my head.

THANK YOU CRAIG THOMPSON!

I was just rearranging my bookshelves and ran across this lil' gem
that was left at our house after Craig and Sierra Hahn visited us on the coast.
Crazy excited for Craig's upcoming sci-fi book to be published!

G-MEN FROM HELL!

This was a great experience.  Soon after Madman was optioned by
Universal, I was approached by other folks interested in "getting
into the Michael Allred Business".  Producer Rick Albert had a
vision to turn one of my earliest efforts into a flick.  Packed with a
grab bag of fun familiar faces (Robert Goulet as The Devil?!) and
directed with panache by Christopher Coppola, this baby was birthed.
 Our family held up at the Disneyland Hotel for several days while I
hung out on set in Long Beach (Don't worry.  I got a LOT of time
with the wife and kids in the "Happiest Place On Earth".)  When the
shot with Cheetahman on the roof was setting up, I noticed the full
moon and pointed out how cool it would be to move the camera in
order to get the moon over Gregory Sporleder's shoulder.  Whoosh!
Just in time. The moon soon ducked behind the building.  But the
shot was got.  I was rewarded with a little cameo where William
Forsythe's Agent Dean Crept gives me the keys to the car just crashed
into the church, and I got to share the screen with Bill, Tate Donovan,
Kari Wuhrer, and Vanessa Angel.

ALLREDS IN THE TREEHOUSE!

Here be that CBG cover I mentioned in the last post.
The Horror.  The Horror. Huge thanks to our pal Bill Morrison!

ALLRED ON THE SIMPSONS!

More reflections of pop culture connections past.  In "Mayored to the Mob" (Season 10 episode 9 of THE SIMPSONS) I was able to briefly share the stage with THE Mark Hamill (in his Luke Skywalker togs no less!) as I rushed him from the left.  It's a don't-blink-or-you'll-miss-it-moment, but thrilled us out of our noggins just the same.  I also got "Simpsonized", and Laura too (as Michael and Laura All-bled), on the cover of The Comics Buyers Guide promoting the very first issue of TREEHOUSE OF HORROR where I wrote LITTLE SHOP OF HOMERS.  Look to the lower left!  THERE I BE!

There was also a dude in the front row wearing a white "Excite-ning Bolt" T-shirt!

And THE ATOMICS!  The week the episode originally aired there was a promo with yours truly in the black shirt running up and between Homer and Hamill!  Wish I could get a clip of that!  So nifty!

DUM-DEE-DEE-DUMB DADDY!

Kelby and I on a ride with Jim Carrey & Jeff Daniels.  Rubbing shoulders with more big shots.  Wink.

CHASING AMY FLASHBACK!

Doing some looking back.  The making of Chasing Amy doesn't feel that long ago…but I guess it's been a while.  This movie comes up at least once at every signing appearance we do.  I shared my first movie scene with the great Ethan Suplee (with his awesome back to us here) with the opening line of, "I love Chow Yun-Fat, but I don't think he'd be right to play Madman".  Now, where's my Oscar!

And speaking of Oscars, Ben Affleck won his first for co-writing Good Will Hunting very soon after this.  Look how much he's enjoying reading that MADMAN collection! The Universe has just opened!

Notice how my booth is completely opposite of Ben & Jason's (Holden & Banky's).  It was great fun getting to know everyone including Scott Mosier on the left (the Producer), who I met for the first time in San Diego the same time I first met Kevin Smith, and Ben's younger, and extremely talented brother Casey Affleck. The big Madman poster in the background is to my right from where I'm sitting.

Somewhere I have lots of behind the scenes footage that I shot of this day, including take after take of  the great Jason (Syndrome/Buddy Pine) Lee thrashing Scott Mosier.

And, of course, the amazing Joey Lauren Adams!  I was privileged to draw her on the cover of the CHASING AMY comic seen at the end of the film.  Jason is sporting a Madman "Excite-ning Bolt"from that year's "Fall Collection".  A new version of the shirt is now available in the "Shirt Shop" (at right)!

Here's "Jay & Silent Bob" (The hilarious Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith) looking at the latest issue of BLUNTMAN & CHRONIC (with my cover art). I designed their costumes, and drew all of the art attributed to Banky & Holden.  With a great deal of help from my great pal, Matt Brundage, I did the opening title sequence too (with Laura's colors of course). I have so many great memories associated with this movie and its production...  

Kevin had a giant condo at the Sundance Film Festival where CHASING AMY debuted that a bunch of us stayed in ( I think Miramax sprung for it. Not sure).  The film received an extremely enthusiastic standing ovation at its screening.  Lots of famous faces in the crowd.  I remember being pretty excited about meeting Roger Ebert (even though he'd slammed a lot of my favorite movies).  The after-parties were insane.  Joey wanted to keep going and going (it was her week after all).  Because I was the only one with experience driving in the snow I ended up being the one behind the wheel of the rented SUV.  We plowed through some serious banks of snow going to various fancy mountain homes.  A thrill, but I was terrified of being responsible for wrecking a vehicle full of so much talent on their big night.

Look who Ben's hiding behind at the end of the flick!  That's Jimmy Palmiotti and Joe Quesada (super swell fellas! You may have heard of them!)!

Heeeeeere's ETHAN! And my favorite of the covers I made:

BIG BANG SECRET TO SUCCESS!

Feature a cool comic shop and shoot to NUMBER ONE!
Wait!  What's that on the wall in the back?!

I get a big kick out of stuff like this, when our stuff squeezes into the Pop Culture Zeitgeist.
So, I'll admit to having a great time being able to show off these stills when Madman, Hellboy, The Goon, and other indies were featured heavily in the earliest appearances of the Comic Shop on TBBT!

Sheldon expresses the joy of smelling new comics getting unboxed (in the background).

Also happy to report that the Big Bang cast were all staying at the same hotel as us at SDCC and all of them could not have been nicer to us and our kids when we were all at the pool together. Terrific folks!

Laura had actually met Johnny Galecki years before when he was on the ROSEANNE Show and had a great impression of him then.  Always nice to see good folks do well.

3D CUBE 3D-O-RAMA!

Here's the last free sneak peek, Gang!  The book is in stores now so
get yer own, ya cheapskates! Our great friend, David Mack,
showed us the way on this lil' cut-n-paste cube, but we took it a
step further with Christian LeBlanc's 3D mastery on each surface.
Now go get out the scissors and glue and cut up yer book!

MADMAN MEETS NEMO 3D-O-RAMA!

If you like this strip and want to see it in 2D and at a whopping
16 X 20 inches, make sure you pick up the PHENOMENAL
Locust Moon Press publication, LITTE NEMO: DREAM ANOTHER 
DREAM!  My piece doesn't even scratch the surface. It is jam-packed
with masterpieces (not exaggerating, folks) from pals Paul Pope,
Craig Thompson, Bill Sienkiewicz, Jill Thompson, David Mack,
Maris Wicks, Joe Quinones, Charles Vess, John Cassaday, Jim Rugg,
Fabio Moon, Gabriel Ba, Dean Haspiel, Aaron Conley,
Peter Bagge, Marc Hempel, Scott Morse, Paolo Rivera, Farel Dalrimple,
Mark Buckingham…etcetera, etc… AMAZING INCREDIBLE STUFF!

ANDREW ROBINSON 3D-O-RAMA!

If you're not already a GIANT fan of Andrew's stuff, just check out 

his amazing graphic novel THE FIFTH BEATLE!  Some of the

best artistic renderings I've ever seen of The Beatles (four fellas from 

Liverpool who influenced the whole world in the best way possible.  

You may have heard of them). Now rock out to this "Atomics"number!

PAOLO LEANDRI 3D-O-RAMA!

Paolo Leandri's just concluded four-issue NIGHTWORLD (with Adam
McGovern.  Hope there'll be more to come!) is one of my most favorite
chunks of glorious weirdness I've seen in a very long time.  So you can
imagine how thrilled I with what he did with my "Madman world" here:

MATTHEW ALLISON 3D-O-RAMA!

I fell in love with Matt's stuff the second I first saw it!  It all takes place
in an alternate universe that is terrifying and enticing at the same time!

CLIVE GOODYER 3D-O-RAMA!

Clive is a phenomenal children's  book illustrator and commercial
artist extraordinaire!  And now in 3D!

SEAN GORDON MURPHY 3D-O-RAMA!

ROCK n ROLL!  Sean's work always has a punchy electric vibe
to it, no matter the subject! Knock out some power chords when
you look at this crackling rocker for the full effect, kiddies!

IAN BERTRAM 3D-O-RAMA!

Ian is an up and comer whose art demands your attention. You can start
by checking out his mind-blowing shorts in BATMAN ETERNAL #11,
SECRET ORIGINS #4, and this last year's DETECTIVE COMICS #27 
Special.  Exciting, unique, and rich with detail!

EMMA RIOS 3D-O-RAMA!

I was blown away with what Emma did with Kelly Sue DeConnick
on PRETTY DEADLY.  Love her version of Doctor Strange too!