SICK IN THE HEAD

I read a lot of books.

Recently I read this one because,

well...

JOHN SCALZI!!!

After that I read this series,

which was fun:

But while 

space colonization

and

sadistically evil fallen angels

are awesome,

I'm currently 

obsessed with 

THIS BOOK:

Now I always knew I kinda liked 

writer/director/producer Judd Apatow.

Of the eleventy billion films he's 

written and/or produced 

I've seen:

Bridesmaids

Superbad

Anchorman

The Forty Year Old Virgin

and

Knocked up.

And I absolutely 

LOVED

Trainwreck.

I also watched a couple episodes of

Freaks and Geeks,

which I loved.

I'm not sure why I never 

got around to finishing it.

So yeah,

 I like Mr. Apatow for the funny.

But this book has made me like him

for his unrelenting love of what he does.

Judd always had a passion for comedy.

So a long time ago he decided 

to interview his favorite comedians

 for the radio station he worked at.

Never mind that he was only 15 years old.

Ignore that the radio station

was in his high school.

And forget that most of the interviews 

never went on the radio anyway.

All these funny people expected 

someone from a real radio station.

But instead a kid from Long Island 

shows up with an enormous tape recorder.

To their credit,

everyone was awesome

and indulged young Judd:

Jerry Seinfeld

Garry Shandling

Martin Short

Sandra Bernhard

Steve Allen

Harry Anderson

Jay Leno

and more!

Judd did these interviews to meet his heroes

and find out what made them tick.

To get advice about comedy.

And just to bask in their funny.

And he was 15 years old.

As Mr. Apatow grew to become

a sizable figure in Hollywood comedy,

he continued to interview 

his equally sizable peers, 

his stars and his heroes:

Harold Ramis

Chris Rock

James L. Brooks

Key and Peele

Louis C.K.

Lena Dunham

Jon Stewart

Mel Brooks

Sarah Silverman

Stephen Colbert

Steve Martin

and lots more.

The book is a fascinating look into what drives people to comedy:

Broken families.

Trying to get girls.

Feeling like an outsider.

The ability to control what people are laughing at you about.

It's also a view into Mr. Apatow's thought process.

The best creative-types 

are those that have a pure passion for what they want to do

and they'll do anything to get it.

I mean, this was a guy that audio taped

Saturday Night Live and then transcribed it on paper afterwards

 to study how the whole show worked.

One of the reasons I love this book is because

I did a similar thing:

When I came to NYC in 1990,

I started an interview series for the

ASIFA-EAST newsletter about

animators and animation studios.

Just like Judd,

I wanted to meet the people that did

the stuff I wanted to do.

It was also a great way to get my foot in the door

and get to know people at the studios around town.

I actually ended up getting some jobs out of those contacts.

Anyway,

if you're looking for a wonderful

(and sometimes dark) 

look into the mind of great comedians,

go get

SICK IN THE HEAD.

SAN DIEGO COMIC CON 2015 (cosplay edition)

One of the 

sooper funnest

things about going to a con

is seeing the abundance of sooper creative cosplay.

And the San Diego Comic Con is

ground zero

for some of the best.

Although

I never feel like I get enough 

really good pics.

Still,

I did get this great one from

Wreck It Ralph:

And a killer

Galactus/Silver Surfer 

combo:

Here's Jon Snow at the infamous

weapon check booth.

Gotta make sure that 

Valarian steel is

TIGHT 

but before you hit the floor.

While I was hanging out at the booth of

killer illustrators

Sean "cheeks" Galloway

and

Ryan Benjamin,

this guy showed up:

That's

Houston Rocket

Dwight Howard!

He drew quite the crowd and hung out for a long time,

checking out the boys' work!

There was also some

Miyazaki cosplay

happening:

And sometimes,

after a long day of Comic Conning,

you just need a little

neck adjustment.

So much fun!

My only drag is that

every year

I'm told there's some

KND cosplay happening--

But I never see any!

STOP HIDING FROM ME, KND COSPLAY!

SAN DIEGO COMIC CON 2015

Another year,

another Comic Con

kicked to the curb!

This one was a bit different as my usual wingman,

Maxwell Atoms,

didn't attend because he's a dummyhead.

But who needs him, right?

Comic Con has

EVERYTHING 

I need anyway.

Like zombies:

Stormtroopers:

Disney TVA panels:

Here's composer Andy Bean 

rocking the

Wander Over Yonder theme song:

TVA  ALWAYS has great goodies for the crowd:

And here's 

Future Worm,

someone you'll be seeing on

Disney XD 

real soon!

There were also lots of

cheap comics:

My annual Yu-Gi Oh card:

Starships:

Videogames:

Cool statues:

And

of course

PARTIES:

The Warner Bros party is

ALWAYS

epic.

This year they had custom screen printers on hand to

make shirts from virtually every WB show

in existence.

I got this one:

I hung out with a lot of sooper pals but probably had the most fun with

Khary Payton

(Cyborg from Teen Titans Go)

(Numbuh 9 aka Maurice fro KND)

and Scott Menville

(Sneezy from The 7D and assorted KND characters)

We thought this pic of us with

fireworks and a mermaid was killer.

But then we found out the fireworks were

from JJ Abrams taking the entire 

Star Wars panel out to the harbor to see 

John Williams conduct as orchestra 

playing Star Wars music.

Then we felt lame.

So we got another drink and hung out with

Mike Tyson

for a while.

Which was surreal.

Wish we got a picture.

But I did get this video for my kids:

Speaking of my kids,

I'd love to take them to Comic Con.

But they'd get crushed to death and then I'd lose the bodies and

Mrs. Warburton would get all mad at me.

So I take

LOTS

of pictures of all the stuff

they like.

For instance, Legos:

And Minecraft:

They especially liked the 

Comic Con exclusive

Gold Creeper figure I scored!

(I got one for each of the boys by sneaking back in line)

There were also books they like:

And oversized chibi Marvel characters:

And what,

may I ask you is

Comic Con

without 

cosplay?

Well, it's not today.

I'll show you pics of that next week!