Tuesday, October 30, 2018

The Birth of Dr. Zombie


A number years ago, I wanted to be a late night monster movie host. I wanted to be the Crypt Keeper or SvenGhoulie. I wanted to combine my love of crazy comedy and genre cinema. I saw a hole in the Phoenix creative market. No one was doing this at the time in Maricopa county. I sought to fill that hole. Dr. Zombie was born.

Dr. Zombie first saw the dark of night on Halloween of 2009. I used him as the persona that I would embody to host live screenings of black and white “B” level sci-fi and horror films of the 1950 and 1960s. I did this with my good friends Steph Carrico and JRC of The Trunk Space, when it was on Grand Ave. For a couple of years, I hosted public domain schlock primarily at The Trunk Space. 

My personal favorite night at that glorious space was when I hosted a film near Halloween, they had a pumpkin carving contest, and the sensationally macabre one-man band The Slow Poisoner opened the show. The weeks leading up to it JRC and Steph really did some fun creative promotion in designing a series of flyers with silhouettes of pumpkins, me, and The Slow Poisoner. Downtown Phoenix was covered with these flyers. There was excitement in the air. I still get chills thinking the fun we had that night and the promotion we did the weeks leading up to it. In 2011, The Phoenix New Times gave the Best of Phoenix Award to Dr. Zombie for Best Horror Movie Show. No doubt, the New Times writer that bestowed the award on Dr. Zombie was in attendance at the Trunk Space on that magic night.

Later that year, some film programmers took on a similar mantle. They hosted midnight schlock under the guise of a mad scientist host. A couple of my friends were upset about it. I respect their feelings, however, I didn’t feel anger about it. They’re film programmers. Film is one hundred percent of what they do as creative people. I do more. Comics, improv comedy, stand up comedy, writing, etc. So, Dr. Zombie became a character for all of those things and more. I wrote Dr. Zombie’s “Horror-Scopes” for the Trunk Space’s ‘Slide Rule’ zine. I did fake comedic radio plays with my friends as Dr. Zombie. I revived my stand comedy routine taking the stage as Dr. Zombie. I even designed a Dr. Zombie card game, which led to a Dr. Zombie fine art show. 

I did host one last movie in October of 2016 at Super Saver Cinemas as Dr. Zombie as a final celebration of what brought him into being.

However, let’s talk comics. Dr. Zombie is perfect for comics. You can get a comic book of Dr. Zombie’s twisted tales for your Kindle right now even. But, we are doing different comics now. Yes, the gag-a-week comic is now in Dr. Zombie’s lab. Like a fool, I have recently been trying to contact Rob Liefeld about making his “Shrink” comics into a calendar. I loved the idea of a psychologist treating a different superhero each month. But, he’s promoting things these days. Go figure. “Shrink” belongs to Mr. Liefeld, but the concept of a genre comic in the gag-a-week format can belong to everyone. So, that’s what I’m doing. I’m smashing sci-fi, horror, and the gag-a-week format together to create “Dr. Zombie: Monster Family Physician”. The concept is that he’s a monster family physician, because the mad science lab doesn’t pay much and he has to a do a day job to fund his passion. I hope you enjoy this bizarre journey of cartooning and comedy.


Check out the above link to see those monstrous comics.


Thank you.

Sunday, October 28, 2018

Logo Building

Here it is. I'm pretty happy with it. The "T" was modified. I was able to convert the text to a brush stroke in the graphic program and I slimmed it down. And, I added the "C" Monster! I like this "C" Monster because of the serif it has this triceratops/ rhino feel to it.

So it is only three colors, but it communicates a lot about me. The mustard packet, the monster, the snow cone party font all combine to tell my story as an artist.

It's bright, bizarre, and I love it. Thank you for joining me on this journey.

Saturday, October 27, 2018

Fred's Shade of Yellow & New Logo Build

So, as I build my new logo, I chose to use Fred's yellow. That's it just above.

So, here it is so far. I made the whole thing look like a mustard packet for Fred. I used my home made Snow Cone Party font to give it a fun feeling. Now, I might turn the 'C' into another 'C' monster. I might leave it as it is.

Let me know what you think of this logo. Thanks, everybody!

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Logo Design

There's the logo that I'm currently using, but it should change. Sure, I love the colors and the idea of the "C" monster. However, my favorite and most well known creation is this guy.


He has a new book. Aaron Johnson of Lawn Gnome Publishing (who handled that beast of a book like a champ) took the photo below.


So, a change in the logo might be necessary. The color yellow seems to be important here.

I'll keep you updated as the logo transforms.

Thank you,

Tommy

PS- Keeping up with all of my art stuff can be difficult. I want to make it easy with our boss awesome email list!

Fill out the form below if you want to be on that sweet, sweet Tommy Cannon email list.




Monday, October 22, 2018

Never miss a Tommy Cannon moment... join the email list. :)


Also, if you want to keep up with all of my comedy performances and my comics, I'm starting an email list! Better late than never.

Fill out the form below if you want to be on the boss awesome Tommy Cannon email list.




Thursday, October 18, 2018

Who wants a Fred the Mustard Packet button?

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpFgXZDFGGr/

Check out the above post to see what designs look like in a graphic design program.

Also, if you want to keep up with all of my comics and comedy stuff, I'm starting an email list!!!!! Woohoo! I'm only 20 years late to that party!

Fill out the form below if you want to be on Tommy Cannon email list.




Sunday, October 14, 2018

Boring Stuff?

It's not a boring game, but every game has some boring stuff to go through.

https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/dr.-zombie-s-creature-lab-of-doom-

Check out the above link for the Halloweeniest game in all the land!!!

Thursday, October 11, 2018

Monsters need Doctor visits too!


https://www.tggeeks.com/blog/2018/09/16/dr-zombie-monster-family-physician-14/

Some of my favorite drawings have been landing in the comic panels published on the website of The Two Gay Geeks. I'm doing a comic feature called Dr. Zombie: Monster Family Physician. I'm loving it.

Click the link below the image to see one of my favorite pieces that I created for it.

I'm proud of this work and I'm proud to be a TGGEEKS.com contributor.

Check it out!

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Check out Fred the Mustard Packet on WEBTOONS!


Webtoons is an exciting platform for webcomics.

Subscribe to Fred for free there and never miss a page!

https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/fred-the-mustard-packet/list?title_no=64685

Click the above link to see the latest Fred material. Get your lunch buddies to subscribe too. There's no other comic like it on Earth! Take in, Earth! Take it in.

Thank you,

Tommy