CD's under
Popular
Music Tab by Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Riders in the Sky, Sons
of the Pioneers, Sons of San Joaquin, Bob Wills
Books Tab on
Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, John Wayne, Allan Rocky Lane
ZORRO SNAPS
INTO 2ND YEAR-HELP KEEP WESTERNS RIDING IN NEWSPAPER COMICS!
Date: Tue,
1 Feb 2000 21:13:10 EST
From: MMcGregor5@aol.com
Joe, Sorry I haven't written in awhile. That doesn't mean that I
don't mosey on by CowboyPal all the time.
I'm putting
a few visuals from the ZORRO NEWSPAPER STRIP into the CowboyPal Corral.
What you see here, in the Sunday strips, are the colored pencils
by Tom Yeates, with all of the codes given to the Syndicate. You'll
never see such textured
rendering in the printed version. Everything there is in those little numbers
and letters.
I've
also included the last Zorro daily strip of 1999, and the first of 2000!
I hope you enjoy them.
And you
can see more of the Zorro strip, and ZORRO: MATANZAS! at the
http://www.donmcgregor.com
I've just started writing
the 2nd years worth of strips, with a new story entitled EASY VICTIM.
There
were a few dicey moments there where the debate was on as to whether the
strip would have a second year. It's almost like a T.V. series being
decided if it will have a renewal. It wouldn't hurt to have a few more
newspapers carrying the strip, that's for sure! Any of you western fans
who don't get the strip in your area, and would like
to see it, writing or calling
your local paper about it might help us get a few more papers. I
sure would love to see it in the California area, especially with all the
California history that is integral to many of the story-lines.
And if
you do get the strip, in, say, the New York Daily News or the Houston Chronicle,
or wherever, letters to the editor saying you want to see the Fox keep
riding lets them know there are people out there who care.
Hope
you enjoy the strips here! Adios, Joe!
I should have included that TOD SMITH does the initial
pencils from my detailed scripts, and does a fine job
of it, with JOHN COSTANZA,
one of the finest letterers in the entire comics biz taking care of the
dialogue balloons and captions. TOM YEATES wonderfully refines and
inks Tod's pencils, and Tom and I discuss the coloring
approach for the Sundays.
He does wonderful color pencils on those. The pencil texture is
not the way it prints. By the way, the coach scene (it is really
Monasterio's military carriage being used as a hearse by the Fox) was an
effort to do a coach chase using B-Western stunts, and was an exercise
in momentum. They are on top of that
coach, beneath it, on the
side of it, hanging from the rigging! There's even a little bit of Ben
Hur thrown in for good measure! There is new ZORRO: MATANZAS! full
color up on the
http://www.donmcgregor.com
site now, and the HOPALONG
CASSIDY page has photos right from some of the Hoppy films, as well as
a picture of GRACE BRADLEY (MRS. HOPALONG CASSIDY) BOYD and I together.
One of my cherished moments. You can also
read some of the interview
I did with Grace. She's an incredible story-teller, setting right
many of the stories that have been told again and again and just aren't
true. She's stunning. Folks should write Jerry Rosenthal at http://www.hopalong.com
about a Commemorative Album
featuring all of Grace's interview if they are interested. We talked
about the time period BEFORE the films, the
years when the HOPPY MOVIES
were being done, the years when and how Hoppy hit television and its incredible
aftermath, and then life after Hoppy. I'd love to do it. I have a
feeling if Jerry got enough response from CowboyPals around the globe,
he'd love to hear it, and who knows, such a project just might get done!
I tip
the hat to you again, Joe. Take care,
Don
Zorro strip from 11/22/1999
Color strip olor strip that
follows beneath it, where Zorro leaps onto the coach, and then faces
Eulalia and the Padre is the
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1999 
LAST STRIP of 1999 follows:
This is Zorro handing the reins to Eulalia.FIRST STRIP of 2000 is the one
with Zorro leaping
off the seat, cloak
spreading out as he is caught in mid-air over Capitan Monasterio, who has
his sword to Tornado's throat.
Zorro Color mat 1/09/2000
Zorro Color mat 1/16/2000
Zorro comic
strips coming soon to your local newspaper
Zorro dailies, login
with your Zipcode and gender
http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/comics/Zorro.g.gif
Update: Zorro Whips Up
New York
Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1999
19:08:56 EDT
From: ZorroComix@aol.com
Joe,
Creators Syndicate just told Zorro Productions, who kindly informed me,
that the ZORRO NEWSPAPER STRIP has been sold to the N.Y. DAILY NEWS, printing
both the Dailies and the Sundays. Since the News is shipped to a
number of different states, this is a major, coveted place by comic strips.
I grew up in the state of Rhode Island, and I can still remember going
up to my Grandparents' house and rummaging through their stacks of old
newspapers. My Grandfather only bought the Sunday news, but in going through
those thick stacks, seeking
out the brightly colored pages, I could read the Sundays of
such strips as Dan Spiegle's
Hopalong Cassidy, Chester Gould's Dick Tracy, George Wunder's Terry and
The Pirates, among others. And some of those Hoppy's had great Sunday
cliff-hangers. Since, he didn't buy the daily paper, I never saw
how Hoppy managed to live after he and Topper plunged off a rickety, swaying
bridge, severed by the bad guys, leaving them hurtling towards death!
But now, Tom Yeates, the illustrator of the Zorro strip, and I are part
of the News comics. Zorro has also been picked up by the SALT LAKE TRIBUNE,
and they will print the daily and Sunday strips, as well.
I've started writing the second story in the series, titled, "Dead Body
Rising."
The strip starts publication on Monday, APRIL 12, 1999.
Don Mc Gregor
Zorro comics stories
by:
About
Don McGregor
http://www.donmcgregor.com
ZORRO: MATANZAS! MAY NOT
SEE PRINT UNTIL 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY
Date:
Thu, 9 Sep 1999 22:32:25 EDT
From:
ZorroComix@aol.com
Joe,
Sorry
I haven't written in awhile. I've been on the move, trying to get
ZORRO: MATANZAS! mini-series ready for a September start, after five
years
working to get the comic
a reality; overseeing the graphic album of DETECTIVES INC.: A TERROR
OF DYING DREAMS; staying with Zorro on a daily
basis in the comic strip.
Sam Parsons is coloring the ZORRO: MATANZAS! material, and
its a gorgeous water-color technique. On my new web-site we'll have
editor/consultant Jim Salicrup's in-depth critique on the first issue,
replete with lots of visuals. The new website, which supercedes the
one at comicon.
http://www.donmcgregor.com
You'll
note, by the way, that there is a bigger LINK to COWBOYPAL now, than on
the old one. And I intend to do a write-up on CowboyPal, indepth,
as
we get more of the site
put together. Would be great if you could put the new web-site address
in with the Hoppy covers and the Zorro material.
I do believe a lot Zorro
lovers would like to have a chance to see some of what this looks like,
so I'd like to share some of it with you and CowboyPal. The only
other place where you'll see more of this, to my knowledge, will be up
on my website in the coming weeks. I can tell you the ordering number
from the Diamond catalogue that comic book stores buy their comics
from is
JUL990760
At this late date, I
suppose even doubling the sales wouldn't help, but you never know.
If you do nothing, nothing happens. I know Zorro would do
something. At the
very least, if people were waiting for it, they can let Zorro Productions
know they'd like to see the book.
Anyhow, here's
Mike Mayhew's painted cover for the 2nd issue of MATANZAS!
plus the SPLASH PAGE
from the first issue, as well as a cutaway schematic of
ZORRO'S CAVERN TIERS.
SPLASH
PAGE from the first issue
Mike Mayhew's painted
cover for the 2nd issue of MATANZAS!
Hope you like 'em!
Don
ZorroComix@aol.com
