The Ground Zero Mosque

Many people around the world are debating the merits of a mosque being built at the site of the Burlington Coat Factory on Park Place in lower Manhattan. Originally reported as the "Ground Zero Mosque" in the press, the Associated Press has released a communique to their reporters to not refer it as such. Now the media calls it the Mosque near Ground Zero, or in more unoffensive terms, and proponents of it even say that, being two whole blocks from the World Trade Center, it is nowhere near Ground Zero.

I have contributed an article to the Big Peace site illustrated by several photos of the surrounding neighborhood on September 11. 2001 and it sure looks like a Ground Zero war zone to me. Words matter and the politically correct are trying to defuse the controversy by divorcing the site from any connection to Ground Zero.

There is no doubt Iman Feisal Abdul Rauf (who originally referred to the building as "the Ground Zero Mosque") and his backers have a right to build the mosque there but it is not a Constitutional issue unless the government gets involved and says they can not build there. Putting it at the location is just in poor taste and they should move it without being forced to by some new law which would create a dangerous precedent. The mosque was first called Cordoba House and then renamed the more innocent Park51. You have to ask how is the name Cordoba significant to Islam? It refers to the invasion and conquering of Cordoba, Spain by the Muslims, where mosques were built over churches and synagogues to signify Islam's dominance over Judaism and Christianity.

I saw the World Trade Towers fall with my own eyes and knew I was watching the death of thousands of people instantly. What I didn't know was that my cousin, who was on Flight 11, the first plane to hit the towers, was already murdered. The horror of having been on that plane is unimaginable. Clouds of human dust covered most of Manhattan and surrounding areas making it a virtual graveyard.

Again, there should be no law preventing the building of a mosque there, but it is extremely insensitive of the developers and an affront to the events of September 11. If the plan was to improve relations between the Muslim faith and the West as they claim, they have failed miserably. And those in the media avoiding the term Ground Zero Mosque are not fooling the majority of informed people. If built it will be a Ground Zero mosque and could also be another in a long line of Victory mosques.

Sick New SADISTIK Music Video by PSYCHO CHARGER!

The wildest band in the world PSYCHO CHARGER has just released a new CD called MARK OF THE PSYCHO and one of the tracks is about your favorite international Diabolikal Super-Kriminal entitled "They Call Him SADISTIK!" Without further ado, here is the video:

The tune was recorded for the upcoming animated series SADISTIK: STRIP & KILL!

More about PSYCHO CHARGER and the MARK OF THE PSYCHO CD at
www.PSYCHOCHARGER.com

SADISTIK updates at
http://www.myspace.com/gosadistik
and more videos at
http://www.youtube.com/GoSadistik

R.I.P. Rasta Artist Tennyson Smith

One of my favorite artists, and a true friend, Tennyson Smith, recently passed away. He was a fantastic oil painter, but that medium also may have led to his death by leukemia at a much too young age. Perhaps not well known by comic fans, he was the only Rastafari artist to work at Marvel Comics.

A great pleasure in my life was to produce the Bob Marley biography Tale of the Tuff Gong as Editor-in-Chief of the Marvel Music line. We worked closely with the Marley family and estate through Bob's Tuff Gong Records Art Director Neville Garrick, who had painted some of Bob's album covers. I chose veteran Marvel artist Gene Colan (Iron Man, Daredevil, Tomb of Dracula) to pencil the series because of his cinematic layouts, but we wanted the finishes to be true to Bob's Jamaican and Rasta roots.

Neville introduced me to Tennyson, or Jimmy as he was also known, and he was the perfect artist to do the completed art. He did full oil painting over Gene's layouts and gave them a superb look that only a native Jamaican could bring to the project.

We spent a lot of time together and Tennyson gave the books a true Rasta perspective and opened my mind to an intense philosophy. Due to Marvel's distribution ineptitude (the graphic novels were only shipped to comic shops and not record or book stores as intended) only the first two books, Iron and Lion, were released and the final chapter Zion was completed but never released. Ever since then I have been working with the Marley estate to get the three graphic novels packaged as one trade paperback... so far with no luck.

Tennyson painted the three covers himself (plus a cover for the planned paperback edition) along with an incredible 10 page supplement that was a history of Jamaica and the Rastafari. Hopefully this reverent comic will again see print and enjoy the wide audience it truly deserves.

While at Marvel I also commissioned Jimmy to paint some covers for some horror titles. He did some wild covers featuring the muck-encrusted Man Thing and the Zombie from the classic Bill Everett comic.

After I left Marvel, I worked with Tennyson as much as possible and helped him sell some artwork including pieces from a series of African warrior paintings.

Recently I used Jimmy as a voice artist for an animated series about Sadistik, The Diabolikal Super-Kriminal. Jimmy played a character named Vex, who helps the King of Crime procure weapons and gets involved in other shenanigans. His character was inspired by the Rasta 'suffarahs' who faced persecution in the 1960s when the series is set.

Over the last six months of his life he kept painting, though he had switched from oils to watercolor. I miss Jimmy an awful lot and the world is really missing out on a uniquely awesome talent and his potential. I hope we can get the Marley book back in print to serve as a permanent testimony to his amazing skills.

I know with Jah as his guide he is in a place where Bob is able to express his thanks and praise for Tennyson's contribution to the understanding of the Rasta.

R.I.P. Tennyson--- RASTAFARI!

----Mort Todd

Sadistik Doc Film Now on DVD with Satanik!

The outrageous documentary THE DIABOLIKAL SUPER-KRIMINAL, produced by Mort Todd, has been released on DVD in Italy packaged with the cult film classic SATANIK!

Just released on the Cinekult series from CG Home Video, this double DVD set stars two of Italy's wildest super-criminals in wild action! THE DIABOLIKAL SUPER-KRIMINAL is directed by SS-Sunda and covers the controversial history of the Sadistik photo comics, interviewing the actors from the series along with filmmakers, comic book creators and cultural critics on the impact of the King of Crime!

Satanik (1968) is based on the Bunker/Magnus comic about a withered old hag who turns into a beautiful young woman after drinking a formula... beautiful but evil! The film, directed by Piero Vivarelli is infamous for the Diabolik-inspired strip tease performed by star Magda Konopka.

Extras include interviews with Piero Vivarelli, Lamberto Bava, Corrado Farina, Moreno Burattini, Luigi Corteggi, Maurizio Colombo, trailers, international poster gallery (including art by Mort) and the "Beware: Sadistik!" Music Video in high resolution. The DVDs are in PAL format and in Italian without English subtitles but this is the only way to see the film until an English NTSC DVD deal is negotiated and released.

The DVD set is available through many distributors at assorted prices, but here is ordering information from Bloodbuster (and here is the page in broken English).

Mort Todd Film at Reggae Film Festival in Spain

Among many other things, Mort Todd is also an "actor." He played the title character in the short film THE PIANO TUNER, directed by the musician Sugarcane. Because of its reggae soundtrack (based on the theme from Kurosawa's Seven Samurai) it has become a fixture of the Reggae Film Festival and is screening internationally.

The next screening will be at the 17th Rototom Sunsplash festival in Benicàssim on the Sunsplash beach (Playa dels Terres, nearby Escuela di Vela) in Spain on Thursday, August 26th. Besides the film festival there are tons of bands along with meetings on reggae music and Rasta culture, photo & art exhibitions and lots more. Here is a list of all the films playing there.

If you can't make it to Spain, here's the next best thing: the actual film itself!

The Piano Tuner

Harlemint | MySpace Video

I am DR. DEATH

The Comics Comics blog recently asked the comical question "Who is Dr. Death?" Well, as it was soon discovered the answer was Mort Todd.

The photo has been reposted all over the web and is a portrait of Mort Todd, Dan Clowes and Rick Altergott as the teen punk cartoonists pimp the first issue of Psycho Comics at a 1980s comic convention. It comes from the aptly-titled magazine Amazing Heroes #2 and shot by Mike Catron.

Here's the post that led to this viral phenomenon.

I Walked with a Zombie Video by Mort Todd

Mort Todd has just directed a controversial music video of a holiday version of Roky (13th Floor Elevators) Erickson's "I Walked with a Zombie" as performed by Mile Edison and the Space Liberation Army.



Besides being a musician, Edison has also been editor of such stalwart publications as High Times and Screw and has an autobiography out entitled "I Have Fun Everywhere I Go: Savage Tales of Pot, Porn, Punk Rock, Pro Wrestling, Talking Apes, Evil Bosses, Dirty Blues, American Heroes, and the Most Notorious Magazines in the World."

See more about Edison at www.mikeedison.com

See more of Mort's videos and animation at http://youtube.com/gosadistik

Mort goes Big Hollywood

Mort Todd has just starting writing columns for the BigHollywood.com site. His first contribution is entitled "The Super-Hero’s American Exceptionalism." Here's the beginning of Part One:

Super-heroes are uniquely American in origin and reflective of the “Greatest Generation” that created them. Their progenitors can be traced to ancient myths though their direct foundation springs from American legends like Paul Bunyan and John Henry. Pulp literature fermented these heroes from the 1800s with Buffalo Bill, Nick Carter and on to Doc Savage. By the 1930s super-powered and costumed characters showed up in the newspaper comic strips including Popeye and the Phantom.

The characters we now recognize as super-heroes crystallized with the debut of Superman in 1938. Representative of the American experience, Superman was the ultimate immigrant. Not merely from another country, the Man of Steel came from a whole different planet! With his success, publishers released a myriad of titles featuring crime-fighting patriotic adventurers who all fought for “truth, justice and the American way.” That included those who were born on an all-female island (the star-spangled Wonder Woman), from Atlantis (the Sub-Mariner), robots (the Human Torch) or even dead people (the Spectre and Kid Eternity)! Gaining super powers even reformed criminals as in Plastic Man’s case.

To continue reading this article click HERE!

Here's the beginning of Part Two:

The 1970s showed the once-invincible comic book super-heroes to be losers, in attitude and sales. Watergate had disillusioned the super-patriot Captain America with a storyline implying Nixon was the head of a terrorist group. The Captain trashes his outfit and becomes Nomad, The Man without a Country. My 11-year-old mind thought this was ridiculous, as Cap was originally a Depression-era 98-pound weakling until given a Super Soldier serum to bulk up and fight Nazis. It was unlikely that one of the “Greatest Generation” would bail on his country so readily. Even then I realized that this development merely mirrored a hippie writer’s attitude more than staying true to a character’s origins.

Super-heroes became bleaker and even homicidal in the 1980s. The Punisher, a murderous vigilante, has become a top Marvel character. The Dark Knight Returns, a re-imagining of Batman, introduced an elderly caped crusader fighting the corrupt U.S. government represented by a stoogish Superman. Watchmen was set in a dystopic alternate reality where Nixon is still president and the super-group is made up of, among other miscreants, a rapist and mass murderer. It was a transmutation of established super-heroes from the 60s with Steve Ditko’s Objectivist hero The Question recast as the psychotic Rorschach.

To continue reading this article click HERE!

New Playboy Superhero Cartoon by Mort!

Playboy has uploaded the second of three animated cartoons by Mort Todd and Cliff Mott, the sexy superheroine BUNNI POWER!

If for some reason the link doesn't work, paste this tongue-twister into your browser: http://www.playboy.com/articles/playmation-nation-bunni-power-up-skirt-upset/index.html

And if you haven't already checked out the first cartoon HISTORY BUFF, do so now!

You can find this historical hilarity at: http://www.playboy.com/articles/playmation-nation-history-buff/index.html

And coming soon, the third of these future classics: CUNNING STUNTS!

TRAN-imation by Mort Todd

JOEY ARIAS is a New York City performance actor who has appeared in such film classics as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, Big Top Pee-wee and been on Saturday Night Live and performed with Cirque du Soleil. He is the subject of a new documentary directed by Bobby Sheehan from Working Pictures called "Arias with a Twist." The film features interviews with David Bowie, Andy Warhol, Cassandra (Elvira) Peterson, Klaus Nomi and many other scenesters discussing Joey and his work.

Mort Todd has done some animated segments for the film which can be seen below.



Animation by MORT TODD for "ARIAS WITH A TWIST"

A New Film About International Cultural Phenomenon JOEY ARIAS and his collaborations with BASIL TWIST. Directed by BOBBY SHEEHAN. See clips from the film and more info at www.working-pictures.com

More MORT TODD Animation at www.comicfix.com