Benito Gallego

Apama - The Undiscovered Animal is back on track with the amazing artist Benito Gallego.

When our very talented and dear friend Eddy Newell became unavailable to illustrate the series we placed an ad on ConceptArt.org explaining the project and looking for artists. We were completely overwhelmed by about 100 extremely gifted illustrators from all over the world. The decision was difficult to say the least, and we hope to do pin-ups with a bunch as the series goes forward, but in the end it was Benito's style and storytelling that really struck us and felt so right for this project. This piece in his portfolio entitled ESCAPE TO MADNESS absolutely sealed the deal.

Comic books today are wonderful - I love what is going in in the Marvel Universe - but as the cliche goes.... they sure don't make 'em like they did in the 70s. Milo, Benito, and I are absolutely products of that era, and we trying to do something that is really groundbreaking by picking up the 70s torch and making a u-turn away from the 80s/90s evolutions.

We're beyond excited, and percolating with ideas that will make this series a wild mix of action, romance, horror, and comedy.

Nothing Like Vaudeville

Back in the early 90s my brother Kurt and I had an original rock band called Nothing Like Vaudeville that recorded a concept album. The tagline read "Somewhere in the 1920s a runaway freak clashed with bizarre mob violence and a diabolical ringmaster."

At some point it seemed that this concept album would be better served as a stage production. In November of 94 "Nothing Like Vaudeville - The Musical" opened in Cleveland at the Phantasy Theater.

After the show's initial run we went into the studio to record a demo with audio engineer Chris Keffer. When the demo was completed it was sent to Michael Kerker of ASCAP publishing who suggested that it be released as an original cast album.

The disc was subsequently picked up for international distribution by Original Cast Records and scored some rock solid reviews. The show was next retooled in 1999 for a run at Daytona Beach Community College directed by Derek Mason.

This video is a trailer for the original cast album. I had a great time putting it together using Magic Bullet Looks filters to give it that dirty old time film look.

Hero Tomorrow's Tara Kamman makes an appearance at around the 2 minute mark.

www.nothinglikevaudeville.com