Archive | 8:47 pm

Critics Corner: Michael Mongello

7 Sep
September 7, 2010 

Hi everyone. I’d like to take some time away from my parade of bad B-movies, the Teutuls, Noots, and traveling teddy bears to showcase someone who actually has talent and deserves some broader recognition.

Michael Mongello is the talented creator of the comic book  Jungle Women vs. Dracula as well as the versatile illustrator of many other subjects. Below you’ll find just some of his work, spanning the superhero and fantasy genres, life-like portraits, and familiar movie and television icons.

Honestly, just picking a dozen was a Herculean task, and I was not up to it. Fourteen of his pieces are here for you, but I could have picked ten times that number and not a single one would disappoint. To see more of his work, please go to his websites, linked below and in the sidebar.

Michael has already reached a higher audience and certainly doesn’t need the exposure of this blog, but he has graciously allowed me to hang some of his artwork in my “virtual gallery.” Please enjoy!

A quick look at how a sketch becomes a finished product.

The Batmobile!

 

And another sweet ride.

 

 

Ask your local comic shop!

  

 

More than just comics.

 

By the Power of Greyskull!

  

Michael Mongello is the Artist and Illustrator

of Jungle Women vs. Dracula and Titans: Icons of Mythology.

 To check out more artwork visit

www.Supermonge.com

or

Michael Mongello on Facebook

 

 

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Mr. Blog Meets The Scrappers (part two)

7 Sep

September 6, 2010

The thing I really missed on my first blog about the Scrappers at the 18th Avenue feast was a picture. I really wanted you to see the dirty tent, to see the bikers, to see Frank Noots wasted. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera and I left my cell phone in the car. So I decided to go back later in the week and get some shots. That was Sunday.

I returned on Wednesday, camera in hand, and it was wrong, all wrong.

The big Scrappers booth was filled with young Italian women cooking trays and trays of sausage and peppers, calamari, steaks, and it all smelled great. Not a scrapper, not a bad t-shirt, not a Mimmo in the place.

Where were they? They were in a tiny booth, five feet wide at best, crammed between the food tent and a booth selling ganja t-shirts and necklaces. But it wasn’t the same.

I was in the Mirror Mirror universe, where Spock had a goatee and sold scrap.

This booth had lights, a sound system blasting music, Spike TV Scrappers posters, and a big video screen showing Scrappers. Instead of surly Teamsters it was full of kids, aged eight to twelve, wearing Scrappers shirts and laughing with the crowd, which swelled all around the booth. A woman was quickly selling shirts as fast as she could. The crowd was buying them like they were going out of style. Though I couldn’t see him through the crowd, I was told Dino was there high-fiving fans.

I knew that either I was being punked, or I’d turn around to see Rod Serling in an apron selling calamari.

Only one thing remained the same- Frank Noots. He was there, but  sober(!), wearing an official black shirt like you see on TV, and working the crowd.

(OK, two things were the same- the t-shirts still sucked.)

And also like last time, I didn’t get a picture, but this time it was because the booth was so crowded I couldn’t get a shot.

What happened between Sunday and Wednesday? Where did the phony scrappers go? Why were they in the other people’s tent? Did they muscle out the Italian food for the weekend? And why were there no real Scrappers there on Sunday at all?

To quote the Wise Old Owl, the world may never know.

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