BRING BACK THE MIDNIGHT MOVIES.

You guys know I love independent… well everything. Most times the most creative work comes out of the subcultures or the dark side of the underground. Main stream art for the most part has never found a way to lose…. If anything the direct hits have been lucky shots in the dark.

This time let’s talk about those hundreds of thousands of independent movies out there going straight to D.V.D. Sure you can find them at your Block Buster and F.Y.E about three years after it’s been made. You can find the actors and actresses and directors of such films (all stars in their own right) hanging out with the Hollywood types at Horror Conventions world wide. Some of you even know their names, the companies they work for and the magazines that write about them. But maybe that’s just not enough.

Some of the wild child directors and performers break through all the time. This is quite impressive all and all. However I think that it’s not quite enough. Once it was much easier to get that happening on a higher scale, more often. We have a whole generation of big wig director and styles of film to a little thing called Midnight movies.

The local theaters and drive in’s use to test new directors and some of the most experiment films ever. Grind House, Exploitation, Horror/ Sci-Fi, Spaghetti westerns and Black comedies grew to power with in the day of Midnight movies. It wasn’t always pretty or even good, but trust me freedom (even in art) hardly ever is. But when it was good it was great and the commercial world borrowed from them readily. Then it was no longer a universal constant. It’s now all but gone.

Part of this is due to the big chain theaters and multiplex that has cropped up all over the place. Much like malls and Walmarts are putting stress on mom and pop stores country wide the local theater isn’t really there anymore to release these films nearly as often.

It does still happen, in some corners of the country where these single and double screen theaters hang on… along with indie film-fest and such, but I’d like to see a full scale return of the drive-in and the little family own theater. Maybe if that starts happening more often and in more places we can see the movies that are put on hold waiting to for direct release sooner.

As always there are outlets for the underground art… for film and such is the World Wide Web in the form of webcast and web shows. I also believe that when cable channels like Sci-Fi, Chiller and other less main stream broadcasters gain ground we may see more of these works on the television. Well here’s to hoping anyway right?

If you ever, find yourself in the position to get this type of thing happening where you live, for art sake… do it.

SAINT

How about some comic convention photos for fun

SAINT v.s Preacher
The Robin of today (Tim Drake)
Drinking with Pikachu
Choked by Dr. Satan
Cover of the Dark Knight Returns great book.
Wolverine cover... one of the most popular comic book charters of all time
Tank Girl one of the indie comics main stays
Me and fabled X-Men writer Chris Claremont
Me and Al Feldstein original artist/ writer of Tales from the cyrpt
Me and Captain America...
Me and a few slave girls from Star Wars, in front of the General Lee (The Dukes car) you figure that one out yourself lol
The Phantom

Comic Relief.... sort of.. yeah... sort of

"It's been a long time...I shouldn’t have left you without a strong post to step too...

think of how many weak blogs you slept through.

Times up... sorry I kept you."

SAINT play off the incredible Rakim (Respectfully)

Sadly the tech I have at hand does me more harm than good. I've been unable to post and anyone who knows me, know, anytime I can't run my mouth is a bad day. So let’s get this restart shall we... and no matter how long I'm away… trust and believe, I'll be back more often than the Governor of Cali.

Now let's talk comic books...

When I was growing up my mother tried on several accounts to tell me that comic books where just garbage...more kid stuff than anything else and if I was to become a sensible man I had to as the fames lines go (Put childish things aside)

At a different time, she may well have been right. But when I was a teen ager, a young man, comics had started their complete and utter effect over all of media as we know it.

So much so that today every tenth movies was something first imagined in comics. Even odder is the fact that many movies and books and T.V shows lend themselves to the medium in hopes of continuing story arcs in them. Comic books in many ways are the natural evolution of the nickel novel of old, and if you read Alan Moore's League of extraordinary gentlemen, you'll see as he does. There is little difference between the most famous novels of all time and the comics of the last 60 years.

I have had the great fortune of hobnobbing with some of the great comic creators in history and the new masters of the age to come.

I did a great deal of conversing with people from the top ten comic brands and many indie labels at The New York City Comic Con a few weeks ago and The Mid West Comic con Just this last weekend. In this case I'm not asking you... I'm telling you, it is art. It also promotes reading to kids and teens.

There are also more adults reading then children these days, as once a comic book fan always a comic book fan.

Now it’s not too late to join in on the fun, comic book conventions happen all the time all around the country, even the world. Some focus on Manga (Japan’s comic books and cartoons) some on American comics or T.V show and films that are comic relevant… Star Trek, Star Wars, and Buffy the vampire slayer, the list goes on and on. The creators, artist, writers and even actors of the products come out to meet the fans and discuss the work that has been done and maybe done in the future. If you’re the type that has an old comic book wrapped in plastic gathering dust up in the attic maybe just maybe the artist who drew that book will autograph it for you.

To date I’ve meet the artist of the original EC horror comics Al Feldstein. Now if you never read a comic in your life you may still know his work… as his work as been recreated as T.V shows and Movies under the same title as his comics ‘Tales from the crypt’. As well as the creator of The Ghost Rider Gary Friedrich (Ghost Rider was played by Nicholas Cage in the recent hit film.) and the man who’s writing first made The X-Men the most well known comic book series in the world Chris Claremont.

The next one I’m going to is back in the Big Apple… name aptly the ‘Big Apple Con’ that will be on June 7-8^th Saturday 10am-7pm and Sunday 10am-6pm at the Penn Plaza Pavilion 401 Seventh Avenue at 33rd St. New York, N.Y., 10001-2062

Admission $15.00 Go out and have a ball.

SAINT

P.S. While I’m on the topic of comic books I’d like to bring up this real cool group called ‘The Hero Initiative’. Like with most things that start out small and become huge money makers the earlier artist and writers of comics really got raw deals… creating the characters that entertained the world for generations have not saved them from going broke. While the publishers who hold the copyrights for sometimes 50 years and over, have gotten rich. The Hero Initiative exists to give all but forgotten comic creators help. Such as medical aid and financial support… if you find yourself interested in hearing more about this group, check them out at www.heroinitiative.org.