2003 - 01/2003 Meeting

Page Created: 09/18/10. Last Update: 09/22/10. Last Google Group Page Update: 08/26/10.

TONY DIGEROLAMO / CHRIS MORENO

TONY DIGEROLAMO (Writer, Comedian, Publisher, Bon Vivant)

Tony graduated with a BS in Scriptwriting from Ithaca College, where he produced the award-winning comedy show, The Nothing Special and majored in wasting his parents' money.

From 1993-1994 he produced and hosted The Comic Book Show, a nationally syndicated TV show about the world of comic books.

He wrote jokes for Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher.

In May of 1996, he started his own comics company called South Jersey Rebellion Productions <http://www.thefixsite.com>. SJRP publishes the nationally distributed Jersey Devil comic book, based after the 300 year-old legend. Stories on the comic] have appeared on national television, newspapers and magazines.

In August of 1998, SJRP launched a second title, a fantasy, adventure comic called The Travelers.

Tony wrote the screenplay for a horror film called The Evil Within that went direct to video in 1999. He also wrote the

screenplay for The Father, The Son starring Leo Rossi.

The Travelers was picked up by publisher Kenzer & Company <http://www.kenzerco.com/>, in 1999. In February of 2002, Kenzer released a crossover special starring The Travelers and Knights of the Dinner Table: Illustrated. Tony co-wrote the crossover and wrote all eight volumes of the Hacklopedia of Beasts for Kenzer & Company. The Travelers moves to Wingnut Games <http://www.wingnutgames.com> as of the April 2003 issue.

DiGerolamo's novel, Fix in Time, was recently released by Padwolf Publishing <http://www.padwolf.com/> and the comic book series, The Fix, was published by SJRP. The Fix character (AKA: Mark Mammon) is based after the real life Tony DiGerolamo and the character is portrayed very close to the author's look and personality.

Currently, Tony performs comedy improv with the Next Line Improv in Philadelphia. He also wrote Slaughterhouse Indigo, an upcoming adventure module for the Hackmaster RPG and is now the regular series writer for Everknights for Kenzer. His comedy/sci-fi TV pilot, The Crusaders of Science, is currently in production and he is a freelance writer for Bongo Comics, publishers of The Simpsons comics.

{The Travelers and The Fix are registered trademarks and copyrights of Anhtony M. DiGerolamo. Jersey Devil is a trademark and copyright of Anthony M. DiGerolamo. Knights of the Dinner Table: Illustrated, The Hacklopedia of Beasts and Everknights are a trademark and copyright of Kenzer & Company. The Simpsons are a copyright and registered trademark of Bongo Comics. The Crusaders of Science are a copyright and trademark of Tony DiGerolamo and Dave Jusko.}

Tony DiGerolamo's Website is: http://www.thefixsite.com/sjrp/tony.html

* * * * *

CHRIS MORENO

Chris Moreno, a hot new artist, made his debut as the regular penciller on The Travelers # 12 and -- starting with issue # 17 -- regular cover artist on Tony DiGerolamo's The Travelers for Kenzer & Company. He has frequently collaborated with fantasy illustrator Tommy Castillo for such companies as Blackout Comics and Indigo Comics, and Punkin' Moon Publications.

He recently designed characters for an animated short film called Rasbury. Chris' sly wit and attention to detail make this hot new star one to watch.

Chris Moreno's Website is: http://www.tommycastillo.com/chrismoreno/

MEETING SUMMARY:

Meeting Date: January 11, 2003.

Meeting Site: Bergen Highlands United Methodist Church, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Official Attendance: 36.

Meeting Program: Talk and Art Display from Comic Book Writer and Artist.

Notes:

Meeting Memories:

Newsletter Account:

The first general meeting of the new year went off smashingly well on Saturday, January 11, 2003. Club members who passed up the event because they were uninterested in listening to a comic book writer and artist did themselves an injustice. The meeting was held in our normal meeting site, the Bergen Highlands United Methodist Church in Upper Saddle River.

Our coterie of Japanese Animation fans enjoyed the Anime Associates feature, THE EXCEL SAGA, which played in the Wesley Room before the meeting began. Our thanks to Charles Garofalo for supplying the tape.

Gary Blog moderated the other pre meeting event, The Final Frontier's television update. This started with only Gary, Joan Hardy and Pamela Webber in the room, people kept arriving as the discussion continued, and those taking part in it would gladly have kept it going.

Our evening's guests were Tony DiGerolamo and Chris Moreno, the writer and artist respectively of the black and white comic book, THE TRAVELERS. The comic is in the Sword & Sorcery / Dungeons & Dragons genre and is currently published by Kenzer & Company, a small player in the comics field.

Tony is the more outgoing of the duo and carried the load of the early talking. The twosome met at the first JerseyDevil Con where Tony had a dealers' room table and was hawking his wares. At the time, Chris was just breaking into the field and was assisting the more established artist, Tony Castio. When the artist then working on the strip moved on to other projects, the two Tonys talked about working together. That did not happen, but Mr Castio recommended his aide, and DiGerolamo and Moreno were soon a team.

Tony had already created one comic, THE JERSEY DEVIL, and created THE TRAVELERS out of frustration at reading other writers doing Tolkien rip-offs. He created an alternate world of magic where the wizards of western Europe teleported their countrymen to the New World to escape a plague. The tales are set in a fantasy Middle American States region. Each issue of the comic is a complete story as Tony (mirroring comments made by Denny O' Neil last year) has no patience with twenty issue story arcs which finally resolve to reveal that - gasp! - it was the Green Goblin behind it all.

The Travelers are a band of adventurers consisting of an idot savant wizard, an alcoholic, semi-reformed ex-thief turned priest, a staward gladiator, and a couple of other companions. They are assisted or opposed by a wide range of supporting characters ranging from the world's meanest elf to the incredibly eager and saintly Father Thomas Acquinas.

Mr DiGerolamo did not set out to become a comic book author. He wanted to be a screenwriter, and he spent as much time talking about Hollywood and low budget film making as he did about comics.

After years of writing scripts that went nowhere, he came back to New Jersey and was contacted by a producer to write a screenplay. Turns out that this was going to be a mafia movie and DiGerolamo is a nice, Italian name, so he should write the script.

The sequence of events that followed is impossible to recapitulate. Highlights include eleven rewrites, not counting one by the lead actor and another by the producer/director ("Hey, Tony. We have some problems with this script. It doesn't make sense."), doing a low budget horror movie to raise money for doing a low budget mafia film, and the actor playing a hitman going home and killing his wife.

After the intermission, the mic went over to Chris Moreno. Chris proved to be zany and articulate, and used a small lightbox to project pages of art before they were lettered. Although the setting was far from ideal, the format did allow him to show things that would not be possible in most venues.

The meeting was yet another proof that the best presentations are often made by people you have never heard of.