DAVE DORMAN’s PODCAST IS AVAILABLE TO YOU NOW!

Hi Everyone,

I hope you’re all having a great week. I remembered to take the garbage out on time, so our garage stench won’t be knocking over the buzzards this week.

My big news of the week: Our FREE podcast chronicling comic book industry, art, and pop culture news, reviews & interviews is finally up on iTunes for all of you to subscribe to or download at your convenience.  The Web site that takes you right there to subscribe or download episodes is here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id373866909. The Web site describing the shows, etc. is http://www.itscomicbookday.com. Our production company is Farpoint Media out of Arizona, and we offer up a huge thanks to our audio engineer/producer Michael Mennenga for all of his technical support. If you have any comments, questions or guest requests for our show, please call our podcast hotline at 206.350.6326. We’d love your feedback.

The shows we’ve recorded thus far include Charlie Athanas (the artist for the first digital comic, “Shatter,” from First Comics), Scott Hampton (comic book artist, Simon Dark, Batman), Steve Smith (Editor in Chief, MonsterScene magazine, author and my best friend) Michael W. Kaluta (illustrator, Starstruck, Shadow) and Craig Elliott (illustrator/animator, Bee Movie, The Enchanted, Princess and the Frog).  If you are interested in advertising opportunities on our show, please contact my wife through email – denise@writebrainmedia.com and she will brief you on the various plans.

Movie Review: I just saw “Robin Hood” and if you, like me, are into visuals, go see it. The film is gorgeous. The story? Not so much. I was sorely disappointed in the writing, but the visuals made up for it.

The Oil Spill: This Gulf oil spill reminds me of the time I lived in Fort Lauderdale as a kid. We always had to check first before going to the beach to see if the beach and water were clear of the tar balls naturally forming from leaks in the ocean floor.  I wonder if it’s still that way.  Anybody know?

As an adult, I lived in Shalimar, Florida (greater Fort Walton Beach, in the Florida Panhandle) for more than 25 years.  I’m told by our videographer friend Steve Baker (of SB Video Productions) that so far, the beaches are still pristine and there’s no oil in the water there, so do vacation there if you can. It’s an incredibly beautiful part of the U.S. and I hope it stays that way. I know my environmentalist friend and author of many of my books, Del Stone Jr., will be the first one volunteering for beach clean up duty.  If you like great horror or sci-fi, do check out his work. He’s a wonderful writer and a great friend to me and my family.  He won a Bram Stoker Award for writing my book “Dead Heat,” about my character Hitch, a motorcycle zombie. Del and I were always ahead of our time. If only we had waited until this century to publish that book…

Cool Blog Alert: If you’re interested in reading comic book industry blogs, check out Chris Ryall’s blog: http://ryalltime.wordpress.com/2010/05/26/30-days-of-x/. He’s the Editor in Chief of IDW Publishing and quite an interesting guy.

Appearances: I will be at the “Drink and Draw” event at the Lucky Number Bar & Grill in Chicago this Friday at 7 p.m., doing live drawing.  The first weekend in June I will be at HeroesCon in Charlotte, NC. Please come by & say hello!

Stephen Perry Update: In other news, I read that two people have been arrested for allegedly being involved in the disappearance of my colleague, comic book writer Stephen Perry. If I hear more, I will let you know. I’m told his son is safe with his mother, and that was a relief to hear.

How to Connect with Me Online: As always, thanks for reading. Your feedback and comments are always welcome. I’m on FaceBook, and please follow me on Twitter: @DaveDorman. If you’re on LinkedIn, connect with me and my wife (Denise McDonald Dorman).  Neither of us will “IDK” anyone.

Dave.

Dave Dorman Special Guest at SDCC 2010

Hi Everyone,

As always, thanks for reading my posts. I received great news this week that San Diego Comic-Con would like me to be a Special Guest this year. It is a great honor to be recognized by the folks at SDCC, especially since the Con is at its apex in terms of popularity and traffic through the show. To the folks at “Attack of the Show,” I AM available to you for interviews this year. As always, I will have an end cap booth this year, same bat time, same bat channel with WriteBrain Media. I’m kicking around ideas as to who will be with me in the booth this year, and I may have a really fun announcement to make, but I’ll have to wait a while longer to share that news.

The Joe Kubert School has asked their distinguished alumni – and also me – to join in an international gallery exhibit, so I just shipped some fun pieces to them for display in Spain, which officially makes me an “internationally exhibited artist.”

We are still working with Farpoint Media on the logistics of my podcast, and I will keep you all posted on that. I do know it will be available via their site and iTunes. Anyone interested in advertising on our show, please let me know. It will be a weekly show about “insider” news in the comic book industry, interviews with artists, writers, creators, pop culture celebrities and more. I hope you all really like it, because it’s a huge investment in time and energy.

In other news, I will be a featured artist doing a live painting at WildClaw Theatre’s big fund-raising event, “Dance of the Demented” at the Viaduct Theater in Chicago on Saturday, February 20th. My other artist friends painting there will be Charlie Athanas, Tony Akins, Alex Wald, Ray Frenden Anthony Kosar and Jessica Joy. This event is a horror/art mash-up, so be sure to bring your sketch pads or tablets. For details, please visit http://wildclawtheatre.com.

Speaking of horror-meets-art, my best friend’s son is in a band called the Turbo Vamps. This is a punk rock horror band in Chicago, so if you like this kind of music, check them out at http://www.myspace.com/turbovamps.

I want to say a special thank you to Chris Ryall, Editor in Chief at IDW for mentioning me on his blog, and to all others out there who post my stuff and comment on my work. I appreciate it.

Also, a special thanks to Colin Wilson, who just emailed that he saw the Imagine F/X issue featuring me in December. For those of you who don’t know Colin Wilson’s gorgeous art work, I’ve been a fan of his for years and finally got to meet him in person this past year. He is committing to making the 15 hour flight to San Diego again this year, so watch for him there. He’s a great person and it’s an honor to know him.

I don’t want to go buzzkill on you, but I must mention that we are mourning the loss of my wife’s longtime business partner, motorsports legend, Mr. Jan Gabriel, or as gearheads know him, the voice of “Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!” He was a mentor to my wife and a steadfast friend to our family. He even filmed our son’s baptism. The loss is huge for us. Keep his family & friends in your prayers, if you’re the praying sort. If you’re New Agey like John Edwards’ mistress, just send good vibes.

I also send a shout out to my brother Jeff, sister-in-law Vicky, niece Stephanie and nephew John who are being snowed in this weekend in greater D.C. Stay safe, Bro & Co. To my sister Nancy in Alexandria, LA and her husband Dave, I have revoked your license to complain about your weather.

To Howard Feltman up in Michigan, I hope you’re staying warm.

Until next time, thanks for reading,

Dave.