12/1/2014 -- Start the month with a Christmas Creepsville teaser.

Here's a teaser image from my upcoming Creepsville Collected book. The story is titled "Another Thing From Another World." I knew you'd get it.

Click on the image to see a larger version.

11/30/2014 -- This Week's Creepsville - More Laughing Reindeer Postings!!!

The brain is an amazing thing. Somehow, despite the sheer exhaustion of dragging my rotting carcass around a whole bunch of stores and and at least one major Chicago area mall, I have made it here to tell you all the following: Don't go to Carson's! I think they really want to kill me. And when you come to save me, they will get you. The damned fools haven't hired enough people to handle the zombie crowds and have virtually no cash registers to pay and escape.

Ah, but Colette and I did escape or I wouldn't be posting this update today of this week's Creepsville. And if I hadn't had that dinner last night, I wouldn't be fighting heartburn today... though I'm not really  fighting that. It's a joke. Ya hear me, boy?! That's a joke, son!

Anyways, click on the artwork below to see the legible version. Meanwhile, I think I will work on a turkey hash. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Also, please do keeping checking back up here, because the holiday spirit... the kind of spirit that inspired the Dean Martin Christmas Specials, is forcing me to post more often through the end of this year. There. I said it, now I gotta do it. Is that Tom Atkins' glow-in-the-dark-mustache?

11/27/2014 - Eddie Einstein Daily Strips All Done

As I mentiond recently, my Eddie Einstein comic strip proposal has run its short course. This week I have posted the last of the daily strips, with a common theme of Eddie in the dating scene. Next week, will be the actual last of Eddie with the two Sunday comics.

After that, there will be loads of things that I have pulled screaming out of the vault here at the Reindeer Ranch.

For example: I'm bringing back my Agents of Peril strip. While it took a break, I still continued working on it. When it comes back, I'm hoping to also have it presented in a way that it will be easier to read the whole story so far. This Blog site's design cabilities are good looking but fairly limited for comics work. It's a real pain in the patootie having to push the links on each page which will take you back, but you have to wait as you go backwards from the most recent strip to the beginning.

Also coming will be a new Creepsville strip, of which I have quite a bit of material.

There's a lot more, but I hesitate to say much about those yet, preferring to reveal names and premises when they are just about to appear.

And, of course, there is the Creepsville Collected book, which continues to move forward slowly. I can hardly wait until I get it truly done. Besides offering it to comic stores through direct market distributors, I'm planning on going to the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo this coming June. This will be the first comic oriented show I plan on going to since my days at HERO Illustrated magazine. I'll have more details as we get closer to that time (after the dreaded Chicago winter).

That's all for now, except... have a great and safe Thanksgiving. I expect you all be back here this Saturday for more Creepsville. Meanwhile, take a few minutes and read those Eddie Einstein strips, true believers. Click on the iamges to see the larger legible versions.

11/23/2014 - This Week's Creepsville

What the.... ?!! It's almost Thanksgiving already! Seems like only a few days ago it was Halloween, and I was wearing my Tom Atkins glow-in-the-dark mustache mask.

I'll make this quick, because the dog is whining. Coming soon will be the first appearance of this series' strangest and most controversial character: Rugface. My publisher hated him, which I always found amusing. Most of the fanmail with artwork that got sent in had him prominently featured. When he appears, I'll attempt to explain him.

Relax, relax... Rugface won't hurt you. Really!

Also looming on the horizon is a look at the trading cards that were bound into the first 4 issues of the comic.


Click on the image below to see this week's comic page.

Oh, and Wednesday this coming week will have the last of my Eddie Einstein daily strips. I'm putting together loads of weirdness to take over its Wednesday slot, in a couple of weeks.

Ahem.. don't forget to read that comic below.

11/19/2014 -- More Eddie Einstein

Last Wednesday I posted the first few strips that I drew years ago as part of a pitch for a syndicated newspaper strip.

I believe a lot of comic artists wish they could be doing something like this. It would be a true creative challenge. Unfortunately, mine did not get picked up, but I did enjoy working on it. My daughter, Molly, watched me doing it and often asked questions about it while I was working. It was another opportunity to bond with her, which has resulted in years of good experiences.

Meanwhile, the folks at Blogspot have informed me that this posting is my 100th Blog posting. Over the years doing this blog have been loads of fun, especially when I've heard from those of you reading it. Thanks to all of you for interacting. I'm looking forward to many more projects that I'm working on now. Of course, I will show you them as time marches by.

Here's another one of my old projects, Eddie Einstein. After this, there will be just two more installments before I run out of strips I wanted to show. Click on the images to see the larger versions. Oh, and please do check here again on Saturday for more of Creepsville.

11/17/2014 -- This Week's Creepsville... A Day Late

Sorry for the one day delay, but I had computer bugaboo issues to fix (which are no more). Besides that, we had to get the last of the leafs cleaned up in the backyard, before it snowed. The snow came, and fortunately not much of it.. and those pesky tree dandruff are all on our burn pile. Whew!

I also went though two storage containers from my attic, pulling out loads of art for the Creepsville Collected project (space permitting).

As usual, click on the image below to see the legible version of this week's Creepsville comic page from the first issue.

Wednesday will also see more Eddie Einstein daily strips.

Wha? Who? Eddie Einstein?

During the Halloween festivities, I was posting loads of strange material on the Reindeer Ranch Blog, particularly on Wednesday... and having a great time doing it, too. I also noticed that the traffic on the site had increased, which is great news. As a result of this, I've decided to continue to post material up on Wednesdays while continuing to keep Saturday posts being Creepsville-centric. There will be a mix of things here, including other comics work I have done as well as some really oddball editorial material.

To kick off the official middle of the week posts, I thought I would share something unusual that I put together back in 2010. Like many artists who have worked in the comics biz, I had always wanted to do a newspaper comic strip. Sadly, these days, the newspapers that once included comic strips (which were enormously popular decades ago) are steadily declining. Despite this fact, I still put together 6 weeks of daily comic strips plus 2 Sundays of a comic I called Eddie Einstein. I wish I had thought of something a little more original to call it.

I sent it in to a number of syndicates, and got very polite rejection letters... from all of them.

Some time later, after pulling them out of the vault, I thought a good number of them were funny, though some were not. I removed the flat gags. The remaining bunch is what I will be posting here until they are gone.

You may also notice that Eddie looks fairly familiar. I have to admit that as I developed Eddie's look, I started leaning towards Specs Malone from Creepsville. I even thought about it actually being Specs in the strip. I finally decided that he was a completely separate character in his own little cartoon universe.

So, here's Eddie Einstein, which I will post here for the next few weeks. Click on the image to see the legible versions.

Have a good evening and avoid talking kitty cats...

Eddie Einstein, its logo and artwork are (c) & TM 2014 Franklin J Kurtz. All rights reserved.

 

11/09/2014 -- Creepsville Resumes

Welcome back to the Laughing Reindeer Ranch. After a short break due to loads of materials posted for Halloween, I have returned (once again, very early in the morning) to continue posting material from the original Creepsville comics while I continue working on the Creepsville Collected book.

Regarding the book, some interesting print possibilities have popped up of which I will say... nothing. I'll just keep my mouth shut until a much better time, which is looking like it will be in the Spring.

As for the comics posted here, I just got done with the Robot Monster short comic story. Now, we jump into my take off on Invasion of the Saucer-Men, called "Invasion of the Martian Men." This story has a very special place in my heart. A few years ago, I had the opportunity to meet Bob Burns for an interview. For those of you who don't know who Bob is, he played Tracy the Gorilla in the Saturday morning Ghost Busters TV series of the early 70s, working alongside Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch. (This was before the Bill Murray starring classic comedy film). Bob also worked with Paul Blaisedell on the monster suits and special effects for such drive-in classics as It! The Terror From Beyond Space, It Conquered the World, The Day the World Ended, and Invasion of the Saucer Men. When we were introduced, Bob floored me, saying that Creepsville #1 was his favorite comic book of all time. In fact, Bob still owned the last existing Saucer Man mask, keeping it safely tucked into a protective clear glass box... along with Creepsville #1. The interview (combined with interview material by Steve Smith) was a cover story for Monsterscene magazine, probably still available on eBay.

So, without any further delay, here's Bob's favorite comic story. Click on the image to see the larger legible version. After you get done reading that, please head over to my house and please pick up the rest of those darned leaves in my back yard.

See you next week, kiddies!