Thursday, October 11, 2007

Gypsy Witch Vaults Of Mystery

Return with me now to the days of long-ago, before blogs and Iphones and snowclones and webisodes and LOL cats and disposable contact lenses and Pixar films and Coke with vitamins and Whoopi on 'The View' and toilet paper with aloe and special pink-gooed "Breast Cancer Awareness" York Peppermint Patties. Back to the days when I proudly wore the title of - "Comic Book Guy!"

Yep, for a little less than a decade back in the '90's I did what every other self-respecting lazy, sarcastic, slightly anti-social geek does in order to avoid finding a real job and associating with people outside of their personal comfort sphere... I owned a comic book store. It was called Gypsy Witch Comics which proves that my brain has been stuck in Hallowe'en mode for quite some time now. And nothing about that is really interesting, but I had to mention it in order to introduce today's Hallowe'en-o-riffic scan. It's a snazzy little mini-comic made especially for the store by one of the coolest people I've ever known, Mr. Tom A. aka Sam Riddleburger. Tom is a true Renaissance man... besides having a bad case of the pox and none of his real teeth Tom is a writer, artist, juggler, blogger, coprostasophobiac, newspaper columnist and voice-over artist. (He was the voice of Petey on "The Puppy's Great Adventure" and currently narrates those Walgreens commercial that everyone loves so.) For a brief while Tom also produced a series of mini-comics in which the character of Me, played by a cartoon version of Me, occasionally appeared. This is my second biggest claim to fame in life right after that time I waved on The Today Show.

"Gypsy Witch Mystery Theater" is a perfect choice for inclusion in our Hallowe'en Spooks-travaganza (hey, I'd kinda forgotten I'd named it... where'd I put that logo?) since it features a ghost, a masked villain and one of the coolest witches ever right on its front cover. (Edit- And speaking of that cover... Tom has just dis-un-rememberated me that it was lovely wife Cece who was responsible for its creepy but cute Hallowe'eny awesomeness) It also features a cameo appearance by Manny, a talking plastic monkey head on a stick who now that I come to think of it, may just be the inspiration for about 90% of the stuff I do on this blog...






Did you guess who did it? Answers will appear at the end of our show.

If you enjoyed this mini-comic than you should check out Tom's current work, The Qwikpick Adventure Society. And while you're clicking around go check out the work of Tom's wife, as well. Cece Bell has never written anything starring the character of Me, but her stuff is still pretty swell!

Hmmm, I wonder if Tom could find the time in his busy schedule for an issue of "Plastic Pumpkins Mystery Theater?"

3 comments:

Sparkle Plenty said...

Hey! That was YOU waving on the Today show!

Well, how very nifty. I'm enjoying checking out all of these links. Great sock monkey stuff. Excellent haiku. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Was it Mr. Tortelli's wife's husband?

I would leave a beautiful, moving testimony to the greatness of the Gypsy Witch Comic Shop, but I'm saving that up for my tell-all book: The Legend of BatMan's Face.

Steven Altis said...

Husband #1 or Husband #2?