Costuming: Little Shop of Horrors

I wanted to begin posting some information and images about my costumes, and thought I would start with Little Shop of Horrors. The costume includes me as Seymour Krelborn with a walk-around Audrey II puppet. The puppet is based on the design of Sesame Street Muppets performer Martin Robinson (Mr. Snuffle-Upagus and Telly). For the original off-broadway version of the play (and I think each version of the puppet thereafter) he created the designs.

The puppet is made with a pod seperate from the rest of the pot. The top and bottom parts of the pod are sculpted from 4" cushion foam, then the mouth was pinched out into shape (the tongue is part of the bottom 4" and was pinched around to get its shape). The top and bottom of the pod was painted with watered down acrylic, then the teeth were added. The teeth are torn from 1" white foam. Obviously, there are some faux leaves added.

The stem is made either for my arm to go up into the pod, or that there is a seperate stem (as you'll see in the video below) that attaches to my wrist at the back of the pod. Thus, there are holes in the back and bottom of the flower pot, or I can just ignore the flower pot altogether if I'm using the stem as seen in the video.

The Seymour costume has a red jacket with a fake arm, and my arm goes through the chest and into the puppet. The glasses were from some Rayban Wayfarers I had years ago, and the hat was supplied by my pal Lin Workman. The rest of the clothes came from Goodwill.

At the convention where the video was show, an old pal of mine, Tim Brown, doubled in the same clothes I had on as Seymour and I took over the voice of the plant. On some other websites where I posted the video, there were some who replied, "The plant's too small," or "His voice is horrible for this role." Well, I would delete those posts because 1) the plant puppet serves its purpose and 2) Tim is a great vocalist and trained even for classical opera, here he's doing that with a bit of soul to it and, if it wasn't good, he can't get that kind of audience reaction just anywhere. Folks should acknowledge good singing when they hear it and shut up.

Speaking of singing, we performed vocals live. Now, we asked for two microphones, but there was only the one that the show host had. The sound system worked for the CD we gave them, but we had to sing over all that. Tim's wife, Traci, shot the video and was sitting a good ways back, so you can tell we were having to be loud--a strain on my voice as the plant.

Audrey II was used only for this one performance so far, although the puppet has been put on display in art shows.

Big Bird Makes Me Happy

That is the title of one of my favorite paintings I've ever done. You can see it here. It's 16x20" acrylic on canvas, and quite nice. You might recognize the shot from "Follow That Bird," the first Sesame Street movie, when he's talking to a little bird on the Sesame Street sign. It's one of my favorite shots of Big Bird. Of course, nearly all art posted on my website is for sale. Feel free to contact me via e-mail to discuss.

Sissies on the Net

Well, after having been slightly attacked on the internet by idiotic posting, I've decided to write an article about hiding behind internet anonymity to be a jerk, which you can find by clicking here.

Above Cuts and Styles by Bonnie

My mother, Bonnie Williams, has re-opened her hair salon near New Albany, MS. The Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting happened August 11, 2009, at 2 PM attended by the Mayor and members of the city's business association. Family in attendance was Deborah Hood and our pal DaMarco Randle.

The shop is located at 1142 St Hwy 30 W, in New Albany, MS 38652. For information how to schedule an appointment, contact us via e-mail.



Photo By Angie Barmer

MuleTV Making Move

Youtube has begun deleting the sound from several of our videos because we sampled songs in them. Instead, we have moved everything over to http://www.veoh.com/users/kevinmule for our MuleTV link. The only problem there is they have a commercial before each video. Until we find a permanent home for the videos online we will be using veoh.com. Or, we may just begin posting the videos directly into the blogs.

Muley in "The Metropolis Planet"

Volume #27, July 8th edition of The Metropolis Planet has a shot of Muley after the Kids' Costume Contest with the winners and Superman on hand! You can subscribe to the Metropolis Planet by clicking here.

Papa Roy Tribute Online and More

Chuck O'Bannon has produced a great tribute to Papa Roy at http://www.pickwicktv.com/. The documentary titled "More than Most: A tribute to "Papa Roy" V. Rhea" was written, Produced, and Directed by Chuck O'Bannon. It includes some of the Mule on the Street: Papa Roy's 100th Birthday Party (photography by Lin Workman). Be sure to visit the website and watch the 20 minute video for more good news about Papa Roy. You can see more at http://www.chuckobannon.com/




Speaking of Lin Workman, you can find our pictures in the special features of this DVD!



There are a few photos of us and a few of our friends, The Alabama Blues Brothers. To see what Lin and I have done before Isaac Hayes as part of Oscar Night America (which benefitted the Ronald McDonald House of Memphis) check out this video shot at a June 2009 anniversary party for my MAW Productions' bosses, Martheus and Janet Wade (video by DaMarco Randle) HAPPY ANNIVERSARY:




You can now see video footage of Muley at the Superman Celebration 2009 Kids' Costume Contest, co-hosting as SuperMule.



A bit of art from a good friend of mine, Joseph Scarbrough, known as GroverKent at Youtube.com (click the image to see his channel starring our friend Steve d'Monster). I thought the addition of Muley was a nice thing to see. "Thanks for the artwork, my friend!"



Hope you had a great 4th of July!!

MAW PRODUCTIONS TEAM SIGNING

The team from MAW Productions, creators of Jetta: Tales of the Toshigawa, will be signing the line of Jetta graphic novels at Comics and Collectibles from noon until 4 pm on July 4th.

Comics and Collectibles is located at 4730 Poplar Ave #2 and will be open from 10 am until 7 pm with a 20% off everything in the store sale (except new comics). www.memphiscomics.com

Be sure to come out and buy lots of neat things at C&C and meet the MAW team!

SUPERMAN CELEBRATION A SUCCESS!

I think this has to be my favorite festival/convention of all time! I love the city, I love the people there, I love the folks who come in from out of town...it's just something I can't help but love. Muley likes the attention, too, of course.

As always, my friends from the Mid-South Cartoonists Association and I worked hard to top ourselves from last year, and we succeeded! Special thanks to my partners Martheus and Janet Wade and Anakin Wade, Lin Workman and Tim Brown, Adam Shaw and Penny Register, Andrew Chandler, and Jay Chuppe!

It was really nice to meet Noel Neill again and her biographer Larry Ward, John Ostrander and Gail Simone (comics writers) and our ol' pal from the MSCA, Mike Norton. Movie stars Justin Hartley, Phil Morris and Beverly Washburn were all there as well. Beverly's table was right next to Muley's, so they got plenty of time to chat (bless her heart).

Muley and "Wonder Woman" Joan hosted the Kids' Costume Contest and it was so much fun with 53 entrants! Lots of great kids participated, and the audience was wonderful. Superman was fun for Muley to banter with while the judges deliberated.

Stay 'tooned to see what we do next year, and if you haven't been to Metropolis' Superman Celebration yet, you should! The best is yet to come!

Muley, Kev & Noel; Wade Family with Superman; SuperMule hosts Kids' Costume Contest


I forgot to update a tribute from a while ago that I did for D-Day, in remembrance of our brave men and women in the military then and now, and for Charles Schulz's work:

SuperMule Flies Into Metropolis

Schedule Updated, click here to view and scroll down.

The 2009 Superman Celebration will happen in Metropolis, IL, during June 11-14 (the second weekend of June each year). Come see Muley the Mule as his alter-ego, SuperMule, along with Kevin Williams, MAW Productions’ Martheus and Janet Wade who will be introducing Anakin Wade, as well as other MSCA Artists: Andrew Chandler, Penny Register, Adam Shaw, and Lin Workman. SuperMule will be found in the Artists’ Alley and co-hosting the Kids’ Costume Contest. More information and schedule information can be found at http://www.supermancelebration.net/. To find out more about Muley and MAW Productions, be sure to check out: http://www.toshigawa.com/ for a good listing!