FRANCO’S FREE-FOR-ALL-FRIDAYS! By FRANCO So once upon a time in my younger years I was introduced to the Muppets. Not in the traditional way like most kids in America. I never watched Sesame Street as a kid. Eventually I would come to learn of the Big Bird and the Grover and Oscar and the rest. Apparently they had an intrepid news reporter on there named Kermit that decided journalism wasn’t for him. He said “Imma open my own theater and put on some skits with my pals!” I loved The Muppet Show! Tuned in every week! Every show was fun! Standouts were when both Mark Hamill AND Luke Skywalker were on the same episode. Christopher Reeves being too strong for his own good and Miss Piggy flirting with him. Rita Moreno with Animal accompanying on the drums! “You give me fever!” One of these days I might even tell you of the time younger me (not the young me that was watching The Muppet Show. An older than that me, but a much younger me than now, was invited to the Jim Henson studios in Hollywood. Short version: I nearly plotzed! OK — enough of that. I could go through every episode. Now, when you work in comics and entertainment you get asked to do some weird and/or cool stuff sometimes. I’ve learned you should always consider whatever it is in all earnestness. And then you need to consider which ones to run from and which ones to try. I won’t tell you which to do when, but I will tell you it varies. Sometimes it’s both. And that’s when it’s fun. And a lot of times it never works out and in the worst-case scenario, you work on it for a very long time and then it never sees the light of day. Over the years I’ve been approached to work on different things. And one of the coolest was “Hey, you like the Muppets?” What a question, right? SPOILER ALERT: These never saw the light of day. Until now. Somewhere in my notes is the actual dialogue that went with these. Lost to the storage room somewhere. Maybe some day I’ll find it. (Ha! See what I did there? Rainbow Connection — OK, never mind) I do remember it being something about finding a new member for...
FRANCO’S FREE-FOR-ALL-FRIDAYS! By FRANCO So when reflecting on Batman, whose 86th anniversary was this week, I had a few thoughts on the subject of writing and drawing him. It happens when dreaming up these FREE-FOR-ALL FRIDAY columns. And since I write and draw stuff, I figured I would talk about what makes things work for me in both of those categories. When asked who my favorite superhero is, I will almost always without hesitation say Spider-Man. But Batman is a pretty close second. Now, if you ask who my favorite superhero to draw is, well, that’s a toss-up. Depending on the place and time and mood, it changes but I would have to say that Batman just barely edges out Spider-Man. First, I have to say as an artist, they both are fun to play with and change visually with colors and shapes and stuff. But Batman strikes me as the more visually dynamic chameleon of the two without much change to his costume. I make art with both constantly. Paintings, drawings, even just doodles, but Batman can be changed so drastically and look so different from medium to medium and paper or canvas without a huge overhaul of his costume. Ears long, ears short, large bat, small bat. He can look so different, yet always easily recognizable. When creating Batman art, or art of any kind in general, the rule is, there are no rules. Without those broken rules we wouldn’t have had so many versions of him. From the first Bob Kane/Bill Finger Batman to the Dark Knight by Frank Miller… but yet, always recognizable if you show any version to any person. When I think of the written Batman I tend to think, is Batman more relatable because he’s human? He’s got no powers. His mind is far superior. He’s an analogy for humanity. Arguably he’s the best superhero in comics. The best in cinema. Writing Batman is unique, because the no-powers thing allows for the most interesting and grounded ideas to happen. Let me tell you a little story. One that illustrates my point about Batman being the best superhero out there. One night during a convention, a group of us gathered for dinner. We were somewhere… things tend to blend together for me, so I wanna say it was Chicago. There was a good...
FRANCO’S FREE-FOR-ALL-FRIDAYS!
An APPRECIATION for the actor, who has died at 65. By FRANCO…
FRANCO’S FREE-FOR-ALL FRIDAYS!
