Before our signing at Red Hot Robot (more on that later), we used our free time to visit McFarlane Toys. As a long time fan of McFarlane Toys, it was nice to get the office tour and spend some time with the great people at the company. Todd McFarlane's success at turning his Spawn comic into a successful toy line was a big inspiration for making our Lucha Libre characters into Designer Toys.

While there we saw some pages of Kirkman and McFarlane's upcoming 'Haunt' comic (it's looking great!). We briefly met singer/actor and soon-to-be-published comic author Tyrese Gibson. Unfortunately, we didn't have the chance to meet with Todd McFarlane (he was in meetings all day).

Before we left, Ohm did some sketches for Matt, Joe, and Todd McFarlane. Matt brought out the official Image Comics comic art paper and Ohm went to work. Ohm said it's some of the best paper he's worked with. He raised his sketching standards a bit to do the paper justice. Ohm does his sketches directly with ink. No pencils. No planning. He just drops his pen on the paper and go to work. The results were amazing (as can be seen below).

Matt also showed us one of the prized possessions in their Granite Conference Room: Ash's chainsaw from Evil Dead 2. It's a chainsaw that was actually used in the filming of the movie!

Started my day of driving at 9:15am. Ended it at 8:15pm. As the primary driver on the trip, I'm pretty exhausted. It was great seeing all the beautiful desert terrain. It's pretty trippy how the desert begins looking way more red once you cross the Arizona border. I love California, but I must admit that Arizona deserts are way better looking. They have way cooler looking cacti, redder dirt, and crazy storm showers with lightning in 100+ degree weather.

On Jerry's urging, we stopped by in Palm Springs for Lunch. Jerry has this strong fascination with Palm Springs. For him it's Paradise. For me, it looks alright... but there are tons of old people and it's too freakin' hot. I couldn't imagine making love in that Palm Springs heat. All it makes you want to do is sip drinks by poolside.

Below's pics of the Muttpop Crew finding a fine balance of being geeky tourist, acting tough and celebrating the West Coast summer heat.

'Omiyage' is a Japanese word that refers to small gifts you give to people during travel. I'm normally not a fan of 'Omiyage'. I'm just happy to meet or catch with long time friends... but with the AMAZING gifts I got from Nicolas and Ohm I can surely make an exception! Nicolas gave me a beautiful comic by the comic-genius Blanquet. As I cannot speak a lick of French, it's the perfect 'French' comic to give me since Blanquet's fine sequential art is wordless. I cannot wait to delve into the mind of that twisted black & white world. Ohm gave me an original piece of art. He noticed I loved one of his illustrations on his website (as I had posted it on our blog) so he gave it to me! It's funny, because I was telling Ohm how much I love his original art on our car ride from the airport. His color stuff is wonderful... but what you don't realize until you see his original work ink illustration is his incredible attention to clean consistent linework and detail. The finished pieces are meticulous. And now I am the owner of one. I am so freakin' lucky!

Now we're off to Arizona. Wish us a safe trip on our journey to the land of deserts, heat, and Red Hot Robot!

I'm making the trek up this weekend to the Bay Area to visit a bunch of my dorm buddies from college. I've been up to Northern California many times since a graduated from Cal in 2000 (I can't believe it's been NINE years!). But this will be the first road trip I'm taking specifically to catch up with my good friends.

I found college to be an instrumental part of my life. It's the first time where I had an extended amount of time away from family. For better or for worst, decisions change drastically when you begin to think primarily for yourself.

The cherished moments are countless, but one thing everyone can agree upon is what I call 'College Comfort Food'. During those late night cravings amidst studying for Finals or when you just can't handle another helping of USDA Grade 'D' beef hamburgers at the Dining Commons, you can always rely on those handful of eateries to fill the void in your belly. Restaurants of this sort must fill 2 of 3 needs: 1. Cheap 2. Open Late 3. Filling. Chances are your college has AT LEAST 1 pizza place, 1 mexican place, and 1 hot dog place that fits into 2 (if not all 3) of these qualities.

At Berkeley, the hot dog place of choice was TOP DOG. Now Top Dog was a bit of an enigma because it wasn't cheap (around $4-5 per sausage) nor was it really filling... but because it was the place that was opened the latest in all of Berkeley and had a prime location that was super close to a handful of bars and (more importantly) Fraternity Houses, it became a haven for Berkeley-types looking for some yummy comfort. The sausage/dogs are suprisingly sophisticated for a late night food option. It's a helluva late night/drunk/hangover food but it'll set you back quite a bit of money, particularly if your on a student budget and have a major case of the munchies.

More Pizza is probably consumed at College campuses than anywhere in the world. That's probably because it's one of those foods that consistently fulfills all three categories. It also happens to add a super special bonus option to the list: DELIVERY! But if you are a true pizza-snob, you walk to your pizza place of choice since eating it in-store is ALWAYS better than what they pass for pizza through delivery. The battle of Pizza comfort foods at Cal (at least during my years as a student) was consistently between FAT SLICE and BLONDIE'S. For some reason, students originally from the Bay Area and older classmen were into the delicate balance of zesty sauce, hot melted cheese, and cracker-dry bread crust of Blondie's. Young kids (particularly from LA) loved the greasy gooey cheese fest that was Fat Slice. I was a diehard Fat Slice dude my first 2 years in school. Then something clicked during my Junior year and I became super loyal to Blondie's.

Before the days of Chipotle (or even Baja Fresh for that matter), Berkeley had LA BURRITA. For me it was ONLY about the Carne Asada burrito. Super basic: beans, cheese, sour cream, and meat. But what really made this burrito sing was the jalapeno salsa. You'd grab one of those dinky plastic salsa cups (or ask for an 8 ounce plastic water cup), fill it up with super picante jalapeno salsa and drown every bite of burrito in that stuff. I swear that salsa did wonders to my digestive tract (no need for herbal colon cleanses when you can get ahold of this stuff!). My buddy Wallace would sweat like he was in a sauna every time he ate it (beads of sweat on his nose, sweat POURING from his brow and sideburns). But despite the pain of eating something so spicy, we'd be back at least once a week for some demented taste bud punishment.

I plan to make a visit to Berkeley on Sunday primarily to revisit these comfort foods. I have no clue how I'll hold up, but it's sure to be a fond nostalgic trip for my aging tastebuds (and a horrifying one for my stomach)!

Last night after work, I drove out to Palm Springs to visit a childhood friend. He was attending a work related conference after a 15 month tour in Iraq as an Army Bomb Technician. We grew up together. It's pretty wild seeing how divergent our career paths have gone. I'm still residing in Los Angeles making toys and editting comics. He's out putting his life on the line fighting a war in Iraq by disarming and detonating bombs.

When meeting up with longtime friends, there's a constant sense of familiarity that comes with seeing them. It could be years between visits. Somehow despite the occasional lapse in communication, everything feels like old times the moment you see them. As a child I could have easily seen my buddy as a professional voice actor or basketball player. He had the uncanny ability to perfectly imitate Jim Carrey's and Jamie Foxx's best bits from "In Living Color" at the age of 13. He was also the first person to dunk a basketball at our Junior High. Despite that, the path he took led him away from Entertainment to a career in the military.

These days he's in the US Army EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal). He's the bomb guy. During his two tours of duty in Iraq, he and his team would be the ones to survey the scene and disarm any explosives. Most of the time that'd involve an impressive robot that can disarm bombs via remote control. Sometimes, usually in the case of a second explosive device on scene, he'd have to risk his own life to quickly disarm a bomb by hand. He'd also be the guy that would investigate the devastating remains of any explosive detonation. Those charred remains often involved bits and pieces of an abandoned car. Those were the good cases. The bad ones involved indistinguishable parts of someone that was once living.

I am amazed and humbled by the work he does. The horrors he sees and sometimes experiences are the sort of thing I wouldn't wish on any enemy. And yet through it all, he continues to be the genuine friend I've known since the age of 3. Mad love to him and everybody else who has bravely chosen to serve their Country.

Lakers have been making it tough on fans by being so unpredictable as of late. It's still been a heckuva fun ride! Game 7's win against Houston was impressive. And more than ever, it made it clear to me how important the combination of Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum are to the Lakers success in the 2009 Playoffs and immediate future for the organization.

If Lakers end up winning the Championship I expect Pau Gasol to get Playoff MVP honors... but the possibility of both a Championship and Pau as MVP are majorly dependent on Andrew Bynum's play.

As complementary Post Players, Bynum's defensive and offensive presence frees up Pau Gasol to take more risks on Defense and Offense. Bynum's physicality and length forces his defender to play him closer in the post, freeing up Pau to have more space to work his post up magic. If Bynum's man decides to give Pau more attention, Pau can either dish it off to Bynum for the Dunk or take the contested shot which has a reasonable % chance of being grabbed by Bynum as an offensive rebound for a put back dunk or triangle offense reset.

The same goes for the Laker Defense. When Bynum is able to play help defense in the key, Pau can play his man a little closer and take the occasional risky block or steal. If Pau's move leaves his man open, the opponent still has to worry about Bynum.

No other NBA team has a Power Forward/Center combination with the same physicality, height, and post-up presence as Bynum and Gasol. Most other teams have a combination of a scoring Center/Forward and a hustle-play/energy/rebounding Center on the court at all times (the one exception is the fabulous Rocket duo of Ming & Scola). This works to the Lakers advantage because they can have Pau Gasol match up with the more offensive minded post/inside player and have Bynum taking on a more roaming defender role to help when there's any breakdowns on the Lakers team defense.

In order for it to work to it's fullest potential, Lakers have got to consistently feed the post when either Gasol or Bynum is on the block down low. Unlike guards or small forwards (especially excellent ball-handling ones like Odom) post players need to be given the ball in the proper position to work their magic and become a threat to the opposing team. Lakers have been at their worst in the Playoffs when they forget the post and start launching three-pointers and/or attempting to play primarily isolation basketball. In fact, if the Lakers first establish an offensive post presence, both 3-point opportunities and penetration will open up as opposing defenses begin placing more focus on Bynum and Gasol.

Of course, the Lakers are still known for being a high scoring offensive minded team. How's that going to work if they're going to slow things down with all of this post-up play? Well, first off, Lakers should focus on fastbreaks. With the athleticism, length, and high number of good ball handlers on the team, the Lakers need to master the ability to transition steals and missed shots into quick fastbreak points (something that will actually increase if Bynum can establish himself as a defensive threat in the key). Also, post ups should be done in the first 10 seconds of the shot clock and go primarily to Gasol (who's quicker, is a better passer, and has more moves in the post than Bynum). Bynum (when he's fed in the post) should keep his post up moves short and sweet (his drop step and hooks are solid and fast) to ensure the Lakers are still running their offense at a fast pace.

You heard it hear first: Pau Gasol; 2009 Playoff MVP. I just hope he give "thanks" to Bynum when he accepts the reward! :-)