Captain Midnight Returns in New Comic Book Coming in 2012

Take to the Skies with Captain Midnight and Commander X: New Comic Book on the Horizon from Moonstone Books and Nemo Publishing

At the end of this year, Nemo Publishing and Moonstone Books will publish a cross-over one shot comic book featuring the legendary Captain Midnight and Commander X from Nemo Publishing’s “The Undersea Adventures of Capt’n Eli” graphic novel series. This 28 page, full-color book will be written by longtime DC Comics writer and editor Brian Augustyn. Artwork and co-plotting will be by Jay Piscopo, author and illustrator of “Capt’n Eli.”

"When real life casts long shadows over us and time seems to be running out, that's the time to look to the skies for the antidote to modern worries,” said Augustyn. “I couldn't be happier to be working with Moonstone, Nemo, and my great friend Jay Piscopo on this thrilling and timely project.”

This new book will feature guest stars from other Moonstone books, including Airboy and the Air Fighters, and will pay homage to the great heroes of yesteryear, particularly aviation heroes.

“I’m a huge fan of Captain Midnight and what Moonstone has done with the character. I see this as an opportunity to introduce new fans to this once very popular hero from American pop culture,” said Piscopo. “Working with a friend and a creator I admire so much and to team up with Moonstone is a dream come true.”

Captain Midnight is relevant today because he existed in a time similar to our own when the United States was in the midst of economic upheaval and the world was at war.

Augustyn noted “Captain Midnight has been a multimedia legend for 70 years and remains as vital today as when he first took wing. As ever, Cap delivers sky-high adventure and heroism in the classic style. Commander X is completely in sync with those ideals and will be the perfect partner in crime-fighting. Featuring the Air Fighters only makes it all that much more thrilling.”

Piscopo think it’s perfect timing to reawaken these WWII era characters and see what made them strong and interesting. “These characters stood for ideals; particularly the ideals of freedom, equality and fighting against fascism. The superhero genre blossomed during WWII because this is what they stood for.”

More about Moonstone Books: Moonstone publishes fine and distinct comic books, graphic novels, and prose featuring classic and new heroes in thrilling tales of adventure, mystery, and horror including wayward thriller-adventure heroes like Kolchak the Night Stalker, Buckaroo Banzai, Captain Action, The Green Hornet, The Avenger, The Spider, The Saint, The Justice Machine, Domino Lady, Zorro, The Phantom, Operator 5, G-8, The Green Lama, Honey West, Sherlock Holmes, Airboy, Zeroids, Secret Agent X, The Phantom Detective, and more. www.moonstonebooks.com

More about Brian Augustyn: Augustyn is an award-winning comic book editor and writer. He got his start in the industry in 1984 as an editor for Tru Studios’ “Trollords.” He then edited “Syphons” and “Speed Racer” for NOW Comics. In 1987, he joined DC Comics, starting out as a co-editor on “Action Comics” during its period as a weekly title. He then went on to edit “The Flash,” “Justice League” and the “Impact Comics” line of titles. Augustyn was recognized for his work in the industry with the Wizard Fan Award for Favorite Editor in 1994.

More about Jay Piscopo and Nemo Publishing: Piscopo is the author and illustrator of Nemo Publishing’s “The Undersea Adventures of Capt’n Eli” graphic novel series and “The Sea Ghost #1: The Sea Ghost in the Machine” comic book. Captain Midnight and Commander X are similar and unique in that they both were created as a vehicle for advertising a product. In the case of Captain Midnight, it was Ovaltine in the 1940s. Commander X is part of the Capt'n Eli universe of characters tied to the Capt’n Eli’s line of hand-crafted sodas from Portland Maine. Capt’n Eli is the namesake of real-life World War II veteran Eli Forsley who was also the inspiration for Capt’n Eli’s soda. Read the story behind the story at this link. On the web at www.captneli.com and www.theseaghost.com.

Jay Piscopo interviewed on WCSH6

PORTLAND, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- Metropolis has Superman, Gotham City has Batman, and now Maine has its own superpowered protector.

Sea Ghost is the creation of Portland-based comic book artist Jay Piscopo. After years as a supporting player, the character is taking center stage as the star of his own title.

Piscopo recently shared his plans for Sea Ghost with NEWS CENTER's Lee Nelson.

Piscopo said Sea Ghost first appeared in "The Undersea Adventures of Cap'n Eli" series of graphic novels. The series began as a promotion for Cap'n Eli soft drinks, but took on a life of its own.

In his solo comic, Sea Ghost is transported to an alien world that is being ravaged by war between two races. One side is based underwater while the other lives in the jungle. Sea Ghost takes it upon himself to uncover the secret instigator behind all of the turmoil and bring peace to the planet.

Sea Ghost brings some formidable powers to his crusade. He is super strong, able to breathe underwater and shoots bolts of lightning like an electric eel.

Piscopo said he created Sea Ghost as an homage to the heroes of his youth. He said he was heavily influenced by the animation work of Alex Toth, who created such characters as Space Ghost for the Hanna-Barbera studio.

Piscopo named comic book artist Ramona Fradon as another major influence. She is best known for illustrating the adventures of Aquaman. Piscopo said he was honored to have her contribute a drawing of Sea Ghost for the inaugural issue.

Piscopo said he was pleased by the warm critical reception "Sea Ghost No. 1" was given by the comic book community. The popular industry website Comic Book Resources ranked the title character among its top six aquatic heroes of the year.

"Sea Ghost No. 1" is on sale at Casablanca Comics shops in Portland and Windham. You can also follow the character online by clicking here for a link to his website.

Capt'n Eli: Five out of Five Tips of the Hat from All Pulp

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

HANCOCK TIPS HIS HAT TO CAPT'N ELI...A LOT!

TIPPIN' HANCOCKS' HAT-Reviews of Things Pulp by Tommy Hancock
THE UNDERSEA ADVENTURES OF CAPT'N ELI: VOLUME 1
Written and Illustrated by Jay Piscopo
Cover Art by Steve Rude
Nemo Publishing, 2008

WARNING!! If you are one of those adult type readers who believe that as you age, your reading choices should mature, become less exciting, more prose than picture, and border on bland and spoon fed to you, then STOP READING! This review IS NOT for you!

For the rest of you who actually probably enjoy life and love things both nostalgic and cutting edge, continue on with my blessing...

For those who aren't Facebookers like most of us, you might not know who Jay Piscopo is. If you travel in the social network circles most of our readers do, though, it is likely. Jay is an accomplished creator that has also proven to be one of the best I've seen at self promotion. Whether it be work on his original creations or his awesome takes on classic pulp characters or his breathtaking renditions of the work of others (He's the guy behind my much bally hooed YESTERYEAR novel cover), Jay has made a name for himself as being up and coming, awesome, and dead on with his work.

That reputation is furthered by this first volume of THE UNDERSEA ADVENTURES OF CAPT'N ELI, Jay's own tale put out by Nemo Publishing set in a wild and wonderful universe all his own. This graphic novel/digest like tome centers around Capt'n Eli, a genius of a boy who has a very familiar feeling origin and takes off almost from birth on adventures that while reminding some of us of things we've read or seen in the past, manage to be innovative, original, and exciting.

Jay brings all his creative wonder to bear in this first volume of Capt'n Eli's adventures. Within this you see tips of the hat to adventures and creators of the past as Jay's influences for both art and story are pretty obvious. Capt'n Eli has traces of Johnny Quest, Superman, Doc Savage, Tom Swift, and the list goes on. But what makes this cool is although you, if you're a reader steeped in this Saturday morning/pulp magazine stuff, get all the references, they are simply that. References, little things that Jay does with the story or the art to put you in mind of what we all thought was a simpler time, a time when storytelling was about telling the story and the art backed up the story, but didn't overshadow it.

In this first volume, we get Capt'n Eli's origin, his first meeting with and hints of connection to Commander X, Jay's mix of Doc Savage and Captain Nemo that is DEAD ON, Eli's teaming up with a crack team of sea based heroes, and two of the coolest sidekicks in a long time-Barney, the knot tying dog and Jolly Roger, a parrot of some years who knows seventy languages. Oh, and time travel, strange ships, a historic moment (literally) and so much more!

Also included in the volume is a story from 'the golden age' of Jay's universe done very much in a golden age style that showcases Commander X in his hero days along with two others that make up the Big Three. Stir this in with words from Jay, a hit-the-head-on-the-nail introduction from argon Zark! creator Charley Parker, and pin ups by Steve Rude, Herb Trimpe, and Howard Chaykin, and you have one classic, now and later, tale that makes me want to watch Boomerang late at night to see more stuff like this!

The layout of the book is awesome, part action adventure comic, part edutainment (and not boring edutainment, but story supporting, mind enhancing edutainment), and part sunday newspaper comic strip! I enjoyed the size of the book, not a TPB size, more digest like, and the overall layout does what a layout should do, makes the book stand out among others and not only compliments, but adds to the tale it tells!

The only thing I found a bit hard to deal with at first was the mix of art with 3-D backgrounds. Although stunning in many places, I initially had a little difficulty with this, mostly because the look is a bit jarring at times. I will say, though, about halfway through the first read of this, I was not only adjusted to this mix of things, but actually enjoyed it quite a bit. It added a bit of uniqueness to the book as a whole.

THE UNDERSEA ADVENTURES OF CAPT'N ELI: VOLUME ONE is a high sailing, deep sea divin', time travellin', ocean explorin' story that cannot be missed!!!

FIVE OUT OF FIVE TIPS OF THE HAT-Probably the best comprehensive (touching many points of my inner fanboy) read that I've had in a long time! Thanks, Jay!

The Pop Culture Network Reviews new comic book: The Sea Ghost #1

The Sea Ghost #1

Friday, March 04 2011
DiRT takes a look at The Sea Ghost #1 by Jay Piscopo and Nemo Publishing!

As a father of two young children, I can appreciate an “all ages” title a little bit more than the average comic book fan. To most, the idea of a “family friendly” book usually carries a connotation that it's written for kids and won't appeal to their more mature senses. However, often a book comes along that isn't written for children as much as it's just so strongly wholesome that it finds itself often overlooked by fans who have grown accustomed to dark and gritty tales. The Sea Ghost #1 from Nemo Publishing isn't really aimed at children. In reality, it's more of a throwback to a simpler time in comic book publishing where wholesome was the norm in society. If it weren't for a few modern publishing touches, this could easily be a long lost silver age gem and comic book fans of any age should stop and take a look.


Spun out of the pages of the Capt'n Eli graphic novels, The Sea Ghost comes from Atlantis and hosts a variety of powers. He seems to be very strong, can shoot energy beams from his hands, and has psychic abilities. Of course, ha can also breathe underwater, but shouldn't everyone from Atlantis? The Sea Ghost seems to occupy a character space somewhere between the classic version of Space Ghost and the Superfriends version of Batman. He's smart as well as strong, and often mediates matters instead of simply resorting to fisticuffs. His look is classic Alex Toth and creator Jay Piscopo plays the Toth-esque style for all it's worth. For every aspiring artist who says all the good classic looks are taken, Piscopo has them schooled with my number one new choice of character dying for an action figure.

Despite the classic look of the characters, the overall art has many post modern touches. The word balloons are not white slabs covering the artwork, but instead are translucent cells layered over the artwork. All the lettering has that crisp look of professional typefaces and colors are vivid and sharp. In some instances, even the layout of the individual panels seem to be based off of 3D modeled figures, though they still appear hand drawn. When Piscopo often seems to be looking backward for inspiration in his characters, he also seems to be looking forward to blaze a new course in the production of the book.

The story is probably the best throwback for classic comic book fans. Anyone familiar with the Kirby-esque stories of the past will instantly feel at home. The Sea Ghost finds himself mysteriously transported to another world where a Cthulhu inspired tentacle monster feeds a war between two races. To end the war, The Sea Ghost must fight off a dragon, escape from prison, and unite the two opposing sides together in a battle against this monster. It's a whimsical sci-fi tale that still retains that inability to shy away from discussions of death and loss in tales of battle often seen in classical literature. It's certainly safe for children to read, but I think it really is geared more towards adults and mature minds.

For $3.99, you get 31 pages of story, several pin-ups, and a note from Jay Piscopo explaining how much he loves classic cartoons, Alex Toth, Jack Kirby, and classic comic book “cartoonist” Ramona Fradon. It's a $4 love-fest of classic comics books and super-hero culture and simply can't be beaten.

Great Comic Book Heroes recommends Sea Ghost #1

The Great Comic Book Heroes

Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Review of Jay Piscopo's Sea Ghost #1!

Jay Piscopo is the man! I've been seeing Jay Piscopo's fantastic creations on Facebook for a few years now. He is the kind of friend you want to have on Facebook! It seems like every day Jay is posting new and incredible drawings of the most interesting super heroes that you've ever seen! Jay has an incredibly inventive mind and prolific output.

Jay's done a number of books from the Cap'n Eli universe. I got to see Sea Ghost, a 30 page, full color one-shot. It’s a great book!

Jay's fit a lot of info into a very small space here! Not only does he introduce Sea Ghost and his children, Coral and Triton, but he gives a quick origin of Sea Ghost AND to top it off he has a whole slew of characters popping up on what seems like every page, and he does it seamlessly without slowing down the fast pace of the book! Now this is what superhero action comics are suppose to be (Marvel take notes)!

He even has a fascinating text page explaining his influences; people like legendary Ramona Fradon, who actually does a pinup for the comic; Noel Sickles; and most notably Alex Toth. Jay states, "Mr. Toth's body of work in comics and animation is vast and deep. Anyone looking to work professionally should study his work and philosophies."

With Jay's work you can really feel the Silver age Marvel, Kirby influence, as well as the great action cartoons of the 60's and 70's like Space Ghost (this influence being the most obvious) and the Herculoids! But you never feel like he is copying or ripping them off. No this is the best kind of homage that is all Jay!

One thing about Jay's work, like the Saturday morning cartoons they are influenced by, it is geared towards kids, ages 5 and up. Sea Ghost, as a character, is a strong man ready for any adventure and yet at the same time a loving father and devoted husband. This a great book to read to your children or indulge in yourself!

I highly recommend Sea Ghost to any lover of action and adventure! You can see more of Jay's great work here at his website -- The Undersea Adventures of Cap'n Eli.

Summer Reading has Begun!

Youth Services Librarian Jan Hamilton had a fantastic turnout for the Summer Reading Program Kick-Off event at Prince Memorial Library in Cumberland, Maine.

Young readers turned out in full force to enjoy the festivities including free sketches from The Undersea Adventures of Capt'n Eli all-ages graphic novel author/illustrator Jay Piscopo and collectible Capt'n Eli card games.

The Capt'n Eli's Soda crew was also on tap handing out free samples of this handcrafted Maine made soda.

Summer reading has begun -- stand by for adventure!