S'no Problem with the Universe

I often wonder what I'm doing in an alternate universe, and how similar I am there. 

Click to enlarge comic strip.

Words will never hurt me

Click image to see larger.

Our good pal, Roy Duck, shares one thing in common with me:  books are better with pictures!  In this case, he had to add some.

Thanksgiving Chill

Click image to see larger.

Over-reaction to a situation?  Nah, try being a turkey during Thanksgiving!
Still, I think pet turkeys MIGHT have a better chance of NOT getting eaten.  Maybe.  Sort of?

Thanksgiving Plans

Click to see larger image.

With daily thanksgiving, I'm appreciative of the blessings of my friends, family, pets, shelter, food, transportation, work, clothes, and talents.  I feel that I have been given talents to hopefully bring joy and entertainment to people.  If I can get a smile or a laugh, I feel accomplished and that someone has given me a gift of joy.

Friendly Fire

Click image to enlarge for better viewing.

Some friendships are so perfect there are never any dark moments.  I have one of my best friends that I've probably offended or disappointed more than once, and yet he's still always there with open arms.  I have another friend and almost inevitably every conversation ends in debate (which I hate!).

This comic strip comes from a conversation with one of my closest friends and confidants, Janet Wade, the performer of Missy Mule, and a talk we had about some conversation between Muley and Missy, and the culmination of their friendship (and her obsession).

Muley's talking Turkey Nov 18th

Come hear what Muley has to bray at the First Congregational services on November 18th.  The address is 1000 S Cooper Street, and services begin at 10:30 am.

End of (Dog) Days

Ever walked into the middle of a conversation and got the wrong impression because you couldn't put context to the dialogue?  Poor Buford walked into the wrong conversation as Muley and Missy discussed the Dog Days of Summer.  Of course, it all confused Roy Duck; but, that's usual...

Helping Save our Pup!

Not Buford the Dog; but, our other friend - Bebe!  For more information, click the photo below.

Muley's Kids Message Schedule July 2018 - Feb 2019

Hey, gang!  Want to hear what the talking mule has to say?  He's speaking at First Congo, 1000 S Cooper Street in Memphis, TN, on the following dates!  Church starts at 10:30 am (there is a children's church and a nursery), and meet-n-greets with members of the church will be in the sanctuary at 10am with some refreshments.

Hope to see you there!  (Dates are subject to change.)

August 5

September 9

October 14

November 18

December 30

February 3

Kev's Children's Church Schedule

July 22

August 12

September 2

October 7

November 11

January 20

Superman Celebration 2018 Re-Cap (Photo Album)

This year was BUSY!  Thanks to Joan Wentjes for her tireless (yet tiresome!) work at the Smallville Tent and all the kids' activities.  LOTS happened there.  Our recap is in the captions of the photos.  Enjoy!!

Thursday, June 7, 2018

Smallville Tent before the weekend got started!

Mystery Machine!

Smallville Tent!

 Friday, June 8, 2018

Puppet Making Workshop

Puppet Making Workshop artist

Puppet Making Workshop folks creating!

Puppet Making Workshop artist

Prepping for the Cake Eating Contest

The Cake Eating Contest Contestants

Muley the Mule and Michelle Lyzenga

Art Baltazar gave an artists demonstration.

Stephanie Doo and Muley Two

Mystery Inc.

Saturday, June 9, 2018

Puppet Making Workshop

Puppet Making Workshop with Joan Wentjes and artist

Jeffrey Breslauer, Muley and me.

With Animator Philo Barnhart

A poster from Years' Past!!

Muley before his Saturday Show!

Muley and Poison Ivy

Muley and Penelope!

Muley and Harley Quinn

When I ask for hot fudge and a biscuit, and I get
hot fudge and a biscuit: dinner's on!!

Winners of the kids' costume contest 2018!

SuperMule with Superman and Super Joan!

Our Schedule for Superman Celebration 2018

We love all the fun times, the events, the festival food; but, mostly?  We love the PEOPLE of Metropolis, IL, and the Superman Celebration!

Thankful to Karla Ogle, Lisa Gower, Joan Wentjes, and the entire staff and volunteers of Superman Celebration, the Chamber of Commerce, and our Super Friends who we get to see at least one time per year in this great big little city that we love to call our second home.

If you haven't gone before, you should:  Second weekend in June every year.  See you next year?  I hope so!!

Special thanks to Micah Riley and Lin Workman for the photos.

Superman Celebration 2018

It's that time of year again when everyone descends upon Metropolis, IL, for a super weekend!  It's SUPERMAN CELEBRATION 2018!  After so many years, Metropolis is like a second home and this event is just like a family reunion for us.  It's always great to see so many old friends and make new ones!

Special Media Guests at Superman Celebration this year are:
Brandon Routh, Shaun Sipos, and Blake Ritson!

Come join us at the Smallville Tent for the making of puppets!  It's a huge event, so it's being presented on both Friday and Saturday.  We'll have a short discussion of puppetry, and then we'll dive right in to taking socks and making them into lovable creatures to perform.

The Muley and Friends Show - Live! will be presented on all three days, with a new showtime added on Sunday!  We're going to have Muley present one of his special kids' messages that he gives to First Congo that morning before presenting  his friends one final time during the weekend!

Don't forget to dress your kids up and bring them to the Super Kids Costume Contest hosted each year by Joan (in one of her fabulous costumes!) and Muley!  This event is fun for all ages!

Teeming with guests and artists/authors, there is someone for everyone!  Other guests this weekend are John Haymes Newton, our pal Aaron Smolinski, Jeff East, Jack O'Halloran, Ilya Salkind, Philo Barnhart, Alex Saviuk, Art Baltazar, Peter Poplaski, Michael Eury, John Pinto, Charles D. Moisant, Daniel Peretti, and more!

Be sure to come to Artist's Alley next to the Smallville Tent for even more great guests!

Save the Earth! Muley's Earth Day Message at First Congo

Delivered to the congregation of First Congo on 4/22/2018:

So, today is the day:  EARTH DAY!  It’s a day that we celebrate the earth!  Yeah, “Happy Earth day to you, Happy Earth day to you, Happy EARTH DAY dear Ear-erth!  Happy Earth day to you!”  And what a planet to celebrate!  It gives us air to breathe by having all the big, beautiful trees make oxygen, and food to eat from the clean soil, and water to drink!  Earth takes good care of us.  None of the other planets do that!  You can’t get that on Mercury, or on Venus, or on Jupiter, or on Mars, or on Pluto, or on Saturn, or on Neptune, or on the other planet which name I won’t say in church!  But, the planet Earth has everything on it for all of us and it takes good care of us.

And, what do we do when someone – or, I guess in this case, something takes care of us?  We say “Thank you!”  But, how do we say “thank you” to the planet Earth?  Like this:  “Thank you, Earth!”  Just like the Earth takes care of us, we have to take care of it.  You might say, “But, I’m only one person!  What can I do to take care of the earth?”

Well, plenty.  In the book of Genesis, we’re told to “till the earth and keep it.”  That means that we can work the land, but keep it safe also.  All we have to do is pay attention to the things we use every day.  Can the things we use be reused or recycled?

I brought some items and stuck them to the stage-podium-box thing here.  And you’ll see some numbers next to them.  Now, what number is next to the plastic straw?  7.5?  Right now, there is an estimated 7.5 MILLION straws on the edge of the oceans of the United States, and around the world the land that touches the water is covered by possibly 8.3 billion plastic straws.

Do you see that plastic bag?  What number is next to it?  100?  Every year there are 100 BILLION plastic bags used in the US, and 500 BILLION used around the world.  That’s one plastic bag for every man, woman and child every 4 days.  The city of Memphis spends $5.6 million dollars every year to bury plastic bags in landfills.  Guess what:  It takes between 10 years to 1000 years for a plastic bag to decompose!

See the plastic bottle?  What number is next to it?  1?  Seeing that number, how many plastic bottles do you think are used every minute? 1 million bottles are used per minute, and each bottle takes more than 450 years to decompose!  Less than 14 percent of plastic gets recycled per year, and that means that there’s a lot of garbage out in our planet that will never go away – unless we pay attention to the things we use!

And, now, what’s that number next to the earth that I drew?  1.  Hold up one finger.  There’s only one earth like our earth, just like there’s only one of each of you.  You are special because nobody else is like you in the world, and we only have our one world which makes it special so we HAVE to take care of it!

So, I just put down a bunch of numbers, and what does it all equal?  I have NO clue!  I stink at math.  But, I do know that your adults can help you figure it out, and that there are ways we can save our planet.  There are now stainless steel straws that can be reused, and we reuse plastic bags all the time at our house.  Oh, and the plastic bottles?  Forget about it.  I have washable and reusable containers at home. 

I once asked, “What can I do to take care of the earth?  I’m only one person!”  It only takes one person to be a leader.  I get my friends and we pick up garbage from the neighborhood, or at the park, and while it may not have been a ton of garbage at one time, it was enough to make a difference.  And you and your friends can do that, too.  We only have one beautiful earth, and we have to take care of it and keep it just as God gave it to us.  And you know why God gave us such a beautiful planet?  Because God loves you, and your pal Muley loves you, and I’ll see you real soon.

###

The following photos were borrowed from internet searches with no recollection where they were found; but, we'll be happy to list proper credits when given them!

What God gave us and what we did to it...

What God gave us and what we did to it...

What God gave us and what we did to it...

The Evolution Pop Culture Community Summit 3/10/2017

The Evolution Pop Culture Community Summit

featuring Actor, Producer, Director - Robert Townsend (Meteor Man, Five Heartbeats, Hollywood Shuffle, B.A.P.S. etc.) will be hosted by Heal the Hood Foundation of Memphis and MAW Productions. The Summit will feature comic book story telling classes, a Community Summit with a Q&A session discussing African American Heroes, Meteor Man, Black Panther, social and economic empowerment, Meet and Greet opportunities and many more surprises. 

There will be live entertainment, autograph signing, and a huge opportunity to connect youth and adults in a growing culture of minority heroes. This exciting event gives you a in-depth experience with the first African American Super Hero to appear on the silver screen as well about powerful artists, writers, storytellers and visual effects experts. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and it is absolutely FREE. Please RSVP to reserve your spot.  In addition to the Summit, we will have a Comic Book Storytelling class for 40 students that are interested in a massive opportunity to see how it's done first hand.

Please RSVP for the classes as well. Here's the schedule:

1pm - 1:45pm - Comic book Story Telling (Hero Empowerment Center)

2pm - 3:50pm - Community Summit featuring Robert Townsend, and a Celebrity Panel hosted by Amy Spears Speropoulos (Community Room) 

4pm - 5pm - Meet and Greet, Autograph signing and Mixer (Hero Empowerment Center)

Hickory Ridge Mall - Hero Empowerment Center
6075 Winchester Road
Memphis, TN 38115

Saturday, March 10, 2018 from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM (CST)

Heal the Hood Foundation of Memphis

Heal the Hood Foundation of Memphis (HTH) is a nonprofit organization that uses creative methods of the arts and media science to enact community change in the city of Memphis and surrounding areas.

http://www.hthmemphis.org

Muley's Kids' Messages - Jan - July 2018

You know we love visiting our church at 1000 S Cooper St with a monthly message for the kids (and congregation!) at 10:30 am on Sunday morning.  There's usually some coffee about 10am somewhere that you can meet and greet church members and ask questions.  Come out to First Congo and visit with us!

Muley's Message Schedule

February 11

March 11

April 22

May 20
May 27

June 17

July 1

Photo by Chris Cooper. 10/29/2017

Muley never fails to captivate during the Children's Sermon!
Thanks to Kevin Williams for his talent and commitment to our
children's ministries. 6/18/2017

Muley and his human assistant, Kevin Williams, wait quietly
and very still in a tight box for at least a half-hour until it's time
for the Children's Sermon (below). But their dedication is rewarded
when they can see how much the children enjoy their special gifts! 4/23/2017

Kevin's Children's Church Lessons

February 4  Kevin Williams

March 18  Kevin Williams

April 15 Kevin Williams

June 3 Kevin Williams

July 8 Kevin Williams