S2E21: Mike Vosburg Is Drawn To The Dark Side

01/31/23 • 62 min

Mike Vosburg’s cover art for the Crypt episode “On A Dead Man’s Chest”, directed by William Friedkin: Drawn to the dark side

If you’ve ever seen an episode of Tales From The Crypt, you’ve enjoyed the work of artist and comic book creator Mike Vosburg. When you sit and talk to Mike – aka Voz – you can’t help thinking “Wow, what a terrific person!” And then you look at his comic book art and you can’t help thinking “Wow, and he’s so drawn to the dark side.” I mean that in the nicest way possible of course!

Gil and I first met artist Mike Vosburg when we went aboard “Tales From The Crypt” at the start of its third season. Each Crypt episode began with a comic book cover depicting the episode’s most horrific moment. Mike drew the covers. Though Mike had been working in the comic book business for a long time by then, the Crypt gig suited him. He was already “drawn to the dark side”.

Comics Are Mike’s Life

Mike’s love of the comic book form began early. As a teen, he produced and edited the fanzine Masquerader. In time, his passion for comics took him to New York City where he worked for Marvel, DC and Charlton Comics among others. He worked with Stan Lee (as did Gil and I!) Before he headed west, he’d put his imprimatur on series like Thor, She-Hulk, Starfire and GIJoe.

Arriving in Hollywood, Mike got work drawing storyboards for feature films and TV shows. Storyboards help directors articulate their vision. That work eventually led him to Tales From The Crypt. We’ll talk comic books and working at Marvel. Penciling vs inking. John Frankenheimer, Ninja Turtles and film noir among other things. And, did I mention that Mike won an Emmy for directing episodes of Spawn on HBO? And, of course, we’ll talk a whole lot of Tales From The Crypt.

Mike Vosburg’s cover art for the Crypt episode “On A Dead Man’s Chest”, directed by William Friedkin: Drawn to the dark side

Comics Are Mike’s Life

Previous Episode

S2E20: “Charlie Fleischer Is In ‘Toon’ With The Universe”

Charlie Fleischer: Still in ‘toon’ with the universe.

If you don’t know Charlie Flesicher’s name, you know his voice. He’s the voice of Roger Rabbit. He’s appeared – in human form – on TV and in movies since the 70’s. We worked with Charlie on “Demon Knight” – the first “Tales From The Crypt” branded horror movie. He plays Wally Enfield. It’s been a while since either Gil or I have spoken to Charlie. In this conversation, we all get to catch up! The headline: “Charlie Fleischer’s Still In Toon With The Universe”!

The Crypt Family

Now, as we’ve said here a bunch of times, one of the really great benefits of working on film and TV sets is that you work with – and hang with – some really fascinating people. Like Charlie Fleischer. Charlie was “family”. He’d worked a couple of times for Bob Zemeckis already (in addition to casting Charlie as Roger Rabbit, Bob also cast Charlie in “Back to The Future 2”). When casting suggested his name for that role, there never was another suggestion.

Even then, Charlie was way more than just Roger Rabbit. He was a regular on “Welcome Back Kotter” and “Laverne & Shirley”. He appeared on “Laugh-In” and “The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson”. The second time Charlie did the Carson show, he did panel. Sitting beside Johnny was the point of the exercise. Charlie had – and has – a solid body of acting work to his name and credit.

But, Charlie Fleischer is way more than just an actor. He’s a creative Renaissance Person. He paints. He creates music. And he writes scientific papers. In this interview, we’ll hit the Charlie Fleischer you might know already – the super talented stand up comedian who voices an iconic animated character. And then we spend considerable time with the Charlie you might not know yet.

That Charlie Fleischer will surprise you again and again. He really is in “toon” with the universe.

Here are the art pieces we reference in the podcast –

The Rhythmic Shimmer Of Glimmer Waves Museum Of Self Reflection Monroe Boat Zappa’s Zircon Zipper Picasso What Jade Racoons Frighten Cotton Mice

Charlie’s TED Talk about Gamma Ray Bursts and Moleeds –

Next Episode

S2 Bonus Episode – Our Visit To CreepIE-Con

Alan & Jason visit CreepI.E.Con

Welcome to a special, bonus episode of the How Not To Make A Movie Podcast: Alan & Jason visit the CreepIE-Con horror convention!

This past weekend was the Creepie-con horror convention in Ontario just outside Los Angeles. It’s not one of the big horror conventions, but being as it’s here in Southern California, it still attracts a fair amount of on-screen talent for signings and photos because “proximity”.

Now, I really hadn’t been to a horror convention before. That seems strange considering all the horror I’ve done. I went to Comic Con once – the year they first started releasing “Tales From The Crypt” DVDs. We did a panel about the show to a very packed room. It was a blast.

It was a while ago, too.

And, as Gil and I are about to unleash a streaming horror series upon the marketplace – and then, hopefully, the world – it seemed like a good time to get into the horror convention flow. So, I called Jason Stein – my other partner in crime on this enterprise. And, together, on Saturday, we headed east – to the Ontario Convention Center. And CreepIE-con.

Among the talent lineup: some of the cast of Scream, Matthew Lillard, Skeet Ulrich, Jamie Kennedy, Alex Winter, Lee Waddell, Lauren Lavera, Eliot Fulham, Felissa Rose (one of Jason’s favorites) and Damien Leone from “The Terrifier” (another of Jason’s favorites).

Also in the house – our friends Chelsea Rebecca and James Janisse, hosts of the spectacular “Dead Meat Podcast” and YouTube channel.

The most striking about the horror community – and the horror community already knows this about themselves – they are some of the sweetest people on the planet. And it is downright fun watching them have fun.