POP-A-LOOZA: UNFINISHED AND ABANDONED! Memories Of The Snowman

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post is a continuation of a post from last week, with further words about my aborted comics creation The Snowman, and my abandoned efforts to become a comic book artist: Memories Of The Snowman.

This was written as a sequel to Pop-A-Looza's presentation of The Snowman, the first and only page I wrote and drew for an unfinished notion of a comic book story. I've since discovered a few of my scribbled early '70s rendition of the character. I don't believe superstar comics artist Neal Adams was ever concerned with competition from the likes of me.

Perhaps The Snowman wasn't destined for greatness. But earlier this year, I returned to a preposterous childhood creation called Rain-Hat Sam. I didn't attempt to draw our waterlogged Sam, but I did write a pretty good new prose short story about his final adventure. Earlier this week, that story was purchased by AHOY Comics for publication as a one-off in a future issue of one of AHOY's titles. If the preposterous Rain-Hat Sam can be realized, maybe it's time to revisit The Snowman.

Whether I follow through with that notion, or leave it in its native Unfinished And Abandoned state, The Snowman's real-life back story is a chronicle of my history of trying to learn how to create. And that story is the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider supporting this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC's Tip Jar. Additional products and projects are listed here.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

POP-A-LOOZA: UNFINISHED AND ABANDONED! The Snowman

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post is a look back at the one page I did for a proposed comic book feature to be called The Snowman.

The Snowman was a vague concept that never fully gelled. Its original inspiration came from ads in the back of Vampirella magazine. Wait, let's pause for a picture of the lovely Vampi.

Awesome. Anyway, my love of 1930s and '40s pulps and movie serials was fueled in part by ads in Vampirella, including one ad for something supposed to be like a serial supervillain's mask. I swiped that mask to create The Snowman, first as an attempt at a pulp novel (written in cursive in a spiral notebook early in my high school years, probably circa '74 or '75, and palpably influenced by cliffhanger serials and The Shadow pulps). Actually the aborted Snowman novel may have been preceded by a Snowman comic book story, written and penciled for my freshman Spanish class (with captions and word balloons en español). Similar time frame, either way. Much later, I used an entirely different version of The Snowman as a potential Batman villain in the journal for my 1979 Fantasy And Science-Fiction class, when I was a senior in college.

The 1979 version of The Snowman. The EVIL One!

Back to today's shared post. Although this undated single page of The Snowman was originally posted in my Unfinished And Abandoned series, it's also a good fit for He THOUGHT He Was An Artist! (Memoirs From Back At The Drawing Board). I still scribble little drawings--the illo at the top of this post was done a few days ago, when I realized I needed a new picture of The Snowman--but I have long since given up any notion of being an artist. 

And that's okay. I'm never going to stop doodling, but I'm a better writer than I am an artist. As I kick around the notion of self-publishing a collection of my short stories, I've toyed with the idea of doing the cover myself. I probably won't do that. I'd prefer that the book, y'know...sell.

I had a slightly more realistic shot at becoming an artist than I ever had at becoming a musician. It is possible that I could have honed my drawing skills with a little more dedication and a little more encouragement. My eighth-grade art teacher was a kind and positive mentor; my ninth-grade art teacher was not. I eventually put aside dreams of professional pencil-and-ink work, and concentrated on my words. (That story is told as part of a memoir of my childhood superhero creation Jack Mystery.)

Jack Mystery in the '80s

Other entries in He THOUGHT He Was An Artist! have revisited a pair of eleventh-grade high school art projects (done for a different teacher), Agent 690: Man Of Action! and Hero. Both are stronger on enthusiasm than they are on execution. My artwork did improve--a lot, I think--after I graduated from college. My sketches in the '80s showed some potential, but I was not prepared to pursue it. There were bills to pay, beers to drink, records to hear, and writing to do. The artwork couldn't be a priority. 

That's on me. Can't blame my ninth-grade art teacher for that. And really, I'm not putting myself down when I say that maybe he was right; I don't think my artwork could ever have become ready for prime time. But I still do it, for myself. It's still fun. And it's still mine.

One of these days, I'm going to do a deeper dive into my '80s sketchbook. Today, we look back on a single page--the only page--of an unfinished and abandoned comic book project. The Snowman serves as the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

Writing? Drawing? Saving the world? All this stuff makes ya hungry.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider supporting this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC's Tip Jar. Additional products and projects are listed here.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

POP-A-LOOZA! UNFINISHED AND ABANDONED: Pop Compilation CDs

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post is an Unfinished And Abandoned look at some pop compilations I sort of almost slapped together for a record label in the '90s. 

At the moment, Dana and I are trying to put the finishing touches on an actual rockin' pop compilation CD: This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5, due (we hope!) in September from our friends at Kool Kat Musik. Kurt Reil has completed the master at his mighty House Of Vibes studio, it sounds freakin' amazing, and we can't wait for it to become available. Here's the line-up for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5:

THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO, VOLUME 5

1. MEGHAN JEAN CAFARELLI: Still At It

2. LAURIE BIAGINI: Hey Mr. DJ

3. THE MAYFLOWERS: Sunflower Girl

4. PERILOUS: Rock & Roll Kiss

5. POP CO-OP: Extra Beat In My Heart

6. MAURA AND THE BRIGHT LIGHTS: Perfect Girl

7. HOOVER AND MARTINEZ: What The Heart Wants

8. CAROLYNE MAS: In The Rain

9. JEFF SHELTON: See On The Radio! [TIRnRR ID]

10. DEADLIGHTS: Pretend To Pretend

11. IRENE PEÑA: In This Room

12. CHRIS VON SNEIDERN: Goodnight Sailor

13. ARIELLE EDEN: Sagittarius

14. STEVENSON AND COMPANY: Talking Down To Me

15. JUSTINE AND THE UNCLEAN: Vengeance

16. THE JANGLE BAND: So Long

17. KID GULLIVER: Forget About Him

18. GARY FRENAY: Just Like Me

19. KELLEY RYAN: The Church Of Laundry

20. VINCE MELOUNEY: A Bee Gee's Benediction [TIRnRR ID]

21. TALL POPPY SYNDROME: Come Some Christmas Eve (Or Halloween)

22. IN DEED: Peace & Quiet

23. BALLZY TOMORROW: Out There

24. THE VILLAS: Someone To Hold On To

25. RICH FIRESTONE: Seltaeb's Revenge [TIRnRR ID]

26. AMY RIGBY: Tom Petty Karaoke

27. EYTAN MIRSKY: This Year's Gonna Be Our Year

This compilation © 2022 Dana Bonn and Carl Cafarelli

Individual tracks © the respective owners

Produced by Dana Bonn and Carl Cafarelli

Mastered by Kurt Reil at House Of Vibes, Highland Park, New Jersey houseofvibes.com

A KOOL KAT MUSIK RELEASE, and proud of it!

The set's liner notes are almost done. If all goes well, well, all will go well. Meanwhile, a bunch of proposed compilations that never did see the light of day provide fodder for the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider supporting this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC's Tip Jar. Additional products and projects are listed here.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

POP-A-LOOZA: The Comic Book Telephone Pitches, Part 1

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post is the first of two reminiscences about the times I dialed up comic book companies and tried to get work, "The Comic Book Telephone Pitches, Part 1."

Although I've sold prose fiction to the good folks at AHOY Comics, I never did get around to writing comics professionally. Some of my abortive attempts to do so have been examined on this blog: DC Comics, Marvel Comics, The Green Hornet (a teaser blurb and some initial script pages), and my own character Jack Mystery. Getting back to prose, I wrote a Batman short story, the start of a Wonder Woman short story, a DC Comics Crisis fantasy called "The Loveable Lunkhead Returns," and the first five chapters of an original novel, Eternity Man! And, of course, there are the connected short stories I've sold to AHOY: "The Last Ride Of The Copperhead Kid," "The Copperhead Strikes!," and "The Copperhead Affair," plus the recently-published "Chaos At The Copperhead Club," discussed here but not yet available to share on the blog. For humor, there's also my foul-mouthed sci-fi rock 'n' roll farce "Guitars Vs. Rayguns," and a bunch of unsold stories: "Home Of The Hits," "Pop Friction," "Sword Of The Chosen One," "Montie Pylon Finds His Holy Grail," "The Greatest Thud Never Heard," and "Dreaming Deadly."

"Chaos At The Copperhead Club," illustration by Ed Catto

For now, we turn the clock back a few decades to the first of a couple of stories about me calling comic book people and saying, "HIRE ME!" "The Comic Book Telephone Pitches, Part 1" is the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl.

UNFINISHED AND ABANDONED: Chaos At The Copperhead Club

Unfinished And Abandoned digs deeeeep into my unpublished archives, and exhumes projects that I started (sometimes barely started) but abandoned, unfinished. I am such a quitter.

This Jaime Hernandez sketch of Hopey from Love And Rockets has nothing to do with my story.

This is the beginning of a short story I started writing late last year. "Chaos At The Copperhead Club" was set in the same continuity as three of my previous short stories, "The Last Ride Of The Copperhead Kid," "The Copperhead Strikes!," and "The Copperhead Affair." Let's have a look at the work so far, and then we'll talk a bit after that.

CHAOS AT THE COPPERHEAD CLUB

by Carl Cafarelli

She was just 17, if you know what I mean.

Her name was Copper; I didn't know if that was her real name, or just a nickname inspired by her close-cropped red hair. As she pogo-strutted on the stage, playing a bass guitar as if it deserved a sound thrashing, singing Beatles and Kinks songs with a teenage punk rock group that seemed to think it was still 1965, I stood in the small and sweaty crowd, transfixed. It was the summer of 1983. I was a week away from my own 17th birthday, and a cosmic truth struck me with unshakable certainty:

I was in love.

This was my first slammin' visit to The Copperhead Club. I didn't need my fake ID; The Copperhead did all-ages shows, and I didn't care about booze anyway. Gimme a cup of coffee, and gimme some rock 'n' roll, loud and fast. Copper was on stage, I was in my heaven, and if all wasn't right in the world, I woulda said, "Close enough!"

I had heard about this place, and I had heard about Copper. She ran The Copperhead Club, owned it and operated it, even though she was just a minor. People knew not to mess with her. The stories about Copper were crazy, rumors that she was the club's only bouncer, that her dad had been some kind of James Bond type of guy in the '60s. Nuts, right? I don't know if anyone really believed that nonsense, but it didn't matter. Everyone deferred to Copper as if they believed.

Watching her perform was the first time I realized that I liked girls, not boys. I was gay? I was gay. I'd had no idea until that moment.

Which was precisely the moment when some jock decided to start hitting on me.

I tried to shrug him off, even tried to do it politely at first. He was drunk. Duh. I slapped him, hard, lighting a dim spark of anger in his gray and stupid eyes. He raised his hand....

And Copper was there. 

The rest of the band never stopped playing. I guess they'd seen this all before. Copper had jumped from the stage, unplugged bass in hand, and gotten right in the drunk thug's face. "Shove off, asshole," she said in an even tone. "I don't like bullies." It was as close to a warning as the dummy was going to get.

He didn't take it....

***

That's as far as I got before abandoning the piece. The problem wasn't that I didn't know where to go next; the problem was the next wasn't going anywhere. I have a nice start of a snappy li'l vignette here. It doesn't strike me as a stand-alone story.

I do think this could serve as part of a longer narrative. As a chapter in a novel, this could follow those earlier stories about The Copperhead Kid (which is set in 1885), The Copperhead (which takes place on a winter evening in 1939), and Codename: Copperhead (December 31, 1965) in setting up a storyline that connects these characters from different eras. 

1885. 1939. 1965. 1983. And one later year still to be designated. The long-term goal of bringing them all together has been in the back of my mind ever since I started writing the second story, "The Copperhead Strikes!" And it draws on an inspiration that predates any of these four stories. 

This is unfinished and abandoned for now. But don't count it out just yet.



TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download

Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 165 essays about 165 tracks, each one of 'em THE greatest record ever made. An infinite number of records can each be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Updated initial information can be seen here: THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! (Volume 1).

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA: The Movie (a random notion)

Some years back, I had a vague notion of a major motion picture starring comics' original super-team The Justice Society of America. It was just a series of passing fancies, not something I would have wasted time trying to plot out or conceptualize to any degree. If someone ever attempts to make a JSA movie, there is no plausible chance that I would have any involvement whatsoever. (I mean, y'know, beyond buying a ticket.)

But back to the fantasy. My ideal JSA movie would be set around 1940 or so, prior to America's official entry into World War II, but with much of the rest of the world already engulfed in that conflagration overseas. The villains would be Axis, because I like adventure stories that involve punching Nazis.



Practical considerations (a factor even in fantasy) would preclude the use of characters like Superman, Batman, or Wonder Woman, plus the original Captain Marvel. We would probably steer clear of some Golden Age characters that share a name with modern heroes--specifically The Flash and Green Lantern--but would be free to use Hawkman or The Atom if we wish.

My vision of this story is slightly more down-to-earth, so I wouldn't really want to use the most powerful characters. I might or might not want to use Hawkman, but I would use the 1940s Atom, who was a short guy with a penchant for fightin' but no super powers.



My most integral JSA member is an unlikely one: Ma Hunkel, The Red Tornado (often derisively nicknamed "The Red Tomato"). Yeah, I know she was just comic relief (a brawny homemaker who put on an ad hoc costume to bop bad guys in her working class urban neighborhood), and that she wasn't really a member of the Society anyway.  But Ma Hunkel is essential to me, more so than any other character we could use; I just like the idea of a headstrong, stubborn Jewish tenement scrapper takin' on Adolf's boys and unceremoniously kicking their collective ass. Repeatedly.

(Brief aside: I've written elsewhere of my introduction to The Red Tornado, and it's worth repeating this passage describing what I would do if I were given a chance to write a Justice League/Justice Society crossover: "Although Ma Hunkel never appeared in any of the old JLA/JSA meetings, I would have definitely wanted to include her if I'd had an opportunity to write such a story. I picture a scene of a group of non-powered JLA and JSA members, huddled in hiding while surveying an enemy army, Batman urging caution as he comes up with a plan of attack, only to see ol' Red Tomato break ranks and dive-bomb headfirst into battle. Green Arrow joins the fight, saying 'I like this dame!,' and Wildcat replying, 'Told ya so!'" Yeah, that's the Red Tornado I wanna see in a JSA movie.)



Hey, speaking of Wildcat, he would also be an essential JSA member for this film. Another scrapper--specifically a champion heavyweight boxer--I see Ted "Wildcat" Grant as a character connected to his own working class upbringing, possibly from the same general neighborhood as Ma Hunkel. We may as well call it Suicide Slum, and potentially bring in Simon & Kirby's hero The Guardian and his kid gang The Newsboy Legion.




I would also ignore comics chronology and bring in The Black Canary as a founding JSA member, the blind hero Dr. Mid-Nite, and possibly The Vigilante, too. Ol' Vig was never in the JSA--he was in The Seven Soldiers Of Victory and The All-Star Squadron--but the idea of a singing radio cowboy by day/masked crimefighter by night is irresistible to me, and it carries out my long-standing belief that any adventure story can be improved instantly just by adding a cowboy. 



So: The Red Tornado, The Atom, Wildcat, Black Canary, and maybe Dr. Mid-Nite, The Vigilante, or The Sandman (DC's answer to The Green Hornet). Or maybe wealthy overachiever Mr. Terrific, to ultimately fund our fledgling supergroup, former Fawcett Comics hero Spy Smasher to help combat the Fifth Columnists, and/or Air Wave to rally the public via radio. Let's add Hourman and Starman (two heroes enhanced by science, the former with chemically-induced strength and the latter with hi-tech weaponry), and reserve some real cosmic heavy-hitter for the film's climax. Either the dormant ancient Egyptian power of Hawkman or the mystic might of Dr. Fate could be inadvertently resurrected by the Nazis as their evil plan literally blows up in their goose-stepping kissers. And a Society of Justice is formed to defend America and fight for justice. A swell bunch of guys and gals!





I could also see bringing in folks like the aviator Blackhawk or Green Lantern's cabbie buddy Doiby Dickles as supporting characters. I’m tempted to include the JSA’s comic relief member Johnny Thunder, but his magic genie Thunderbolt would feel out of place, so best to skip Mr. Thunder entirely. Potential sequels could have any Golden Age DC/Fawcett/Quality hero we want, from Midnight to Liberty Belle to Bulletman and Bulletgirl to Merry, Girl of 1000 Gimmicks. And Ibis the Invincible. I’d love to bring Captain Marvel and the power of SHAZAM into the mix, but even flights of fancy require some slight tether to the real world.

And yeah: no script, no plot, no outline here, no grand idea of a superhero movie that needs to be made. And it's not the Justice Society of the comics, so purists would cry foul. It's just a notion, and an ill-defined one at that.

But wouldn’t it be cool? Keep 'em flying, JSA!



TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

Fans of pop music will want to check out Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, a new pop compilation benefiting SPARK! Syracuse, the home of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. TIR'N'RR Allstars--Steve Stoeckel, Bruce Gordon, Joel Tinnel, Stacy Carson, Eytan Mirsky, Teresa Cowles, Dan Pavelich, Irene Peña, Keith Klingensmith, and Rich Firestone--offer a fantastic new version of The Kinks' classic "Waterloo Sunset." That's supplemented by eleven more tracks (plus a hidden bonus track), including previously-unreleased gems from The Click Beetles, Eytan Mirsky, Pop Co-Op, Irene Peña, Michael Slawter (covering The Posies), and The Anderson Council (covering XTC), a new remix of "Infinite Soul" by The Grip Weeds, and familiar TIRnRR Fave Raves by Vegas With Randolph, Gretchen's Wheel, The Armoires, and Pacific Soul Ltd. Oh, and that mystery bonus track? It's exquisite. You need this. You're buying it from Futureman.

(And you can still get our 2017 compilation This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4, on CD from Kool Kat Musik and as a download from Futureman Records.)

Hey, Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 100 essays (and then some) about 100 tracks, plus two bonus instrumentals, each one of 'em THE greatest record ever made. An infinite number of records can each be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Updated initial information can be seen here: THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! (Volume 1).