11/20/2006

It’s Monday of a short work week for most of us- and, it’s a welcome break for your friendly neighborhood Svengoolie crew! We’ve been working extra hard with all the new stuff for about three months now (we started work on the Universal shows before Labor Day) and this is actually the longest stretch of consecutive new shows in a long time…which will continue into December! So, a short week is appreciated- of course, until we get back and have to make up all the extra work to keep on schedule…but, at least we get a little break, to visit with family and friends. Speaking of which-how does rapper Jay-Z connect to Sven? It’s kind of a “6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon” thing…although with my diet, bacon is right out. Tomorrow- Jay Z releases his comeback album- “Kingdom Come.” The title and the song of the same name- are based on the famous graphic novel about the future involving DC Comics superheroes like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman- done by our good friend, the master comics artist Alex Ross. I’m sure a lot of you remember Alex making a special guest appearance on the show when we did the “Captain America” movie, where he made a beautiful sketch of Sven being carried to safety by Cap. He also contributed to our “TV Graveyard” show of Batman episodes. I was especially proud when Alex decided to use our Sven crew to pose for some of the panels in his tabloid-sized graphic novel “Liberty and Justice” with DC’s Justice League! We’re all in there- as workers at the Pentagon (you see Rich Koz with the Flash leaning on his shoulder, and our director Chris sitting at the same control panel with Green Lantern behind him.) Alex even hid Sven in the book a couple places – on Batman’s Batcave tv monitors, which show criminals in Gotham City’s “Arkham Asylum” for the criminally insane- there’s Sven in a strait jacket just near the middle crease of the book! And, later, as the monitors show disasters around the world- on a monitor right between Wonder Woman and Superman-you see Sven being pelted with rubber chickens on his dungeon set! How cool is that?! So, that’s like “2 Degrees of Jay Z” or “2 Degrees Above Zero” (the zero being- who else?-Sven!) Well, have to go- getting a call from the Justice League (Krypto the Super Dog had an accident, and they need me to clean it up…) I’ll return tomorrow with more top secret blog! Meanwhile, drop me a line at svengoolie@wciu.com…we’re about due for another blog answering your e-mail questions! # # #