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NOW Comics Videos

This is a detailed list (with time codes) and screen shots of the Ghostbusters-related portions of the video files that USED TO BE ON the official NOW Comics website. All of these files were taken down by Tony Caputo, as the company folded in 2005 and dissolved in February 2006, so these files probably won't be put back online.

All screen shots were done using NOW's video files, so the quality is only as good as the original video file. Click on the thumbnails for actual size screen shots. Please note that a few of the thumbnails below ARE the actual size screen shots.

18-Minute Promotional Video #1
Date: 1992 / Length: 21:41 / Picture Size: 176x144
Hosted and narrated by Tony Caputo, head of NOW Comics.
Interestingly, it mentions that in 1993 Warner Bros. will be making a live-action Speed Racer film produced by Joel Silver and directed Richard Donner. For reasons that I don't know, this film was never made.

08:03 - Tony, wearing 3-D glasses, mentions several comics with future 3-D special issues, including RGB.
20:01 - Three women wearing GB2 painters caps.
20:04 - Side view of one women wearing the cap.
20:17 to end - GB comic covers can be seen on the wall behing Tony and Mr. T.

1988 TV Commercial
Date: 7-28-1988 (produced) / Length: 0:35 / Picture Size: 320x240
Made to promote NOW Comics and their booth at San Diego - Comicon '88 (August 4-7,1988).

0:26 - GB comic stills, then text mentioning the GB appearance at the convention. The audio that plays over this is: "And now, the all-new adventures of Slimer and The Real Ghostbusters. Come and see the Ecto-1 live at the San Diego Comicon."

Caputo Publishing, Columbia Pictures, and Fuji Film co-sponsored The Real Ghostbusters tour at the San Diego Comic-Con and the Chicago Book Expo Show. Peter Mosen and his gang attended the entire show generating enormous traffic and sales. Here are some photographs of the Ghostbusters at the convention. The first photo was taken from The Real Ghostbusters #6 comic. The second photo was taken from the NOW Comics website. The third and fourth photos are from pages 129 and 130 (respectively) of Tony Caputo's book "How to Self-Publish Your Own Comic Book..."

The What NOW Caper! (1989) (aka Mel Mudd, The Comic Book Detective [proposed 2004 DVD title])
Website / VHS Cover / IMDB

Bootleg DVD available from Stories Comics

A very cheesy film made to promote NOW Comics and give you an inside look at how comic books are made. You may recall seeing ads for this in The Real Ghostbusters comics. It sounded interesting, and was even promoted as starring some of the NOW Comics characters, such as The Real Ghostbusters. I always wanted to see it, but with a price of $29.95 (for VHS or Betmax!), I felt it was too pricey to considering purchasing - especially since the ads never really told you WHAT exactly was in the film (like how were The Real Ghostbusters involved, for example).

Official Synopsis: "Step into the dark under-world of a comic book company, in this full length docu-drama video. See the comic book characters of Now Comics, and find out how comic books are made. You'll be shocked! It's what collectors have been waiting for and what enquiring minds want to know!"

My Synopsis: All of the NOW Comics characters are missing and pranks have been pulled on the NOW staff to prevent them from doing their jobs. "Comic Book Detective" Mel Mudd has been hired by the head of NOW to help solve the mystery of who is trying to ruin the company. As he interrogates the staff (all of whom play themselves), we learn how comic books are made. 60 minutes later you realize that they would have been better off cutting out the lame comedy/drama schtick and just making this into a 30 minutes "straight" documentary about the comic book-making process. At least then you'd have 30 minutes more of your life left.

TRAILER (2:05)
* Quicktime (160x120, 643 Kb)
* Quicktime (192x144, 916 Kb)
* Quicktime (320x240, 4.3 Mb)
* Windows Media (???x???, 289 Kb)
* Windows Media (???x???, 5.3 Mb)
* Windows Media (640x480, 22.5 Mb) ENTIRE MOVIE (61:26)
* Real Media (176x132, 15.4 Mb)
* Real Media (???x???, 292 Mb)
* Quicktime (???x???, 26.1 Mb)
* Quicktime (480x360, 19.2 Mb)
* Windows Media (???x???, 12.3 Mb)
* Windows Media (???x???, 19.5 Mb)
* Windows Media (640x480, 448 Mb)

The list below may make it appear that there's lot of Ghostbusters footage in the film, but it's really just quick shots. It you add it all up, you'd be lucky to get five minutes total. Also, nobody actually works on The Real Ghostbusters & Slimer! comics in the film itself. All of the footage is shown to illustrate the processes and techniques that the artists are telling Mel Mudd about. Think of them as flashbacks, or pre-recorded footage at least.

04:51 - Tony leafs through the Slimer trade paperback.
05:42 - Suzanne Dechnik(?) says "My desk has been totally trashed, and The Real Ghostbusters are all slimed."

07:16 - Katie Llewellyn (editor) has the Slimer #2 comic on her desk.
23:41 - There's a GB2 movie poster on the wall of Brian Thomas' (penciler) office.
24:21 - Close-up of a Slimer or RGB script.
24:26 - Pencil drawings of the script(?).
24:43 - Brian drawing the above, Slimer toy on his work desk.
25:37 - Close-up of a panel in the pencil drawing.
25:40 - Close-up of a few panels in the pencil drawing.
25:54 - Brian again drawing the pencil sketch.
26:39 - More of Brian drawing, with the RGB opening sequence playing over it ala "picture in picture".
26:48 - Great close-up of RGB art, goes from black & white to color as it pans down.
29:04 - Letterer Patrick Williams works on a RGB or Slimer (?) comic, putting in the rough lines.
29:29 - Patrick puts in the words.
30:15 - Patrick adds in the sound effect words, "Slurp" for the Slimer! story "Slimer Takes The Cake" from issue #17.
30:20 - An entire view of the art he's working on.
30:27 - A close-up of Patrick inking "Slurp".
30:31 - Now he's inking the though bubbles.
30:36 - Inking the borders and page numbers.
30:48 - Inking the main title, starts close-up then zooms out.
33:13 - The GB2 Advance poster hanging on the wall of Jim Brozman's (inker) office.
33:35 - Jim inking Egon in a RGB comic.
33:58 - A close-up of Jim inking Egon.
34:14 - More inking, this time on the panel above Egon of a curly-mustached man.
34:31 - A close-up of the above.
34:52 - Large fingerprints on the black & white inked artwork for the cover of RGB #23. The fingerprints are part of the plot of this film. (How dare they desecrate sacred RGB art like that, all for the sake of the story which is what makes this film so stupid and lame.)
35:43 - Colorist Suzanne Dechnik working on a Slimer! comic, close-up of flames.
36:16 - Suzanne matching up the colors in the art to a color chart, the "mechnical coloring" method. Here's Suzanne to tell you how that works: "Well it's the colorists job to bring life to the comics, and we do this in two ways: the easy way and the hard way. The easy way is mechnical coloring. What we do is we shoot the original down to comic book size on a Xerox machine, and we take markers, color it in, and we match the marker colors to a color coded sheet that the separator... [interupted by a lame bit in which Mel asks Suzanne for her sandwich] ...We match it up to a chart that the separator gives us. And this gives the work a very flat look. The colors are very bright, and so we use it for our kids books, like Slimer and Speed Racer and things like that."
36:21 - The cover of Slimer! #9 and the first page of the "Cool Slime" story from Slimer! #8.
36:44 - Close-up of blue-lined panel art, using the "full painting" method for another Slimer! comic.
36:52 - A full shot of above, with all of the panels showing. A frisket (clear sheet of plastic) is layed over the art.
37:01 - A close-up of more blue-lined Slimer! art with one panel slightly colored, pans from the blue-only art to part of the colored art.
37:04 - Airbrushing of the Slimer! art, close-up of airbrush pans down to close-up of the art being colored.
37:14 - Close-up of airbrushed art being cut.
37:17 - Another close-up with Slimer's mouth being painted.
41:29 - The separator putting the colors into an RGB comic, the final film image is shown.
41:32 - Blue RGB art, zooms out from extreme close-up of the tiny dots that make up the image.
41:38 - Same as above but in color, zooms out from extreme close-up of the tiny dots that make up the image.
41:57 - Yellow version of RGB comic page.
42:01 - Yellow & red version of RGB comic page.
42:04 - More color added, then a plastic sheet is layed over the art, thus providing the final colors and words.
42:16 - Various NOW Comic covers, including RGB #1 and RGB #17 (middle bottom, covered by Speed Racer and Fright Night).
56:56 - All of the NOW Comics characters are returning to "work" (yea!). Footage from the RGB opening sequence is used to show the RGB coming back: zoom in on the firehouse doors with Ecto-1 racing out, cut to all four RGB pulling their neutrona wands ready for action.
57:03 - Now Slimer returns to NOW, with more RGB opening sequence footage (of course): Slimer kissing Janine, then riding on top of Ecto-1.
57:13 - A couple quick shots of a RGB comic page featuring Janine going through the entire comic-making process from rouch pencil sketches to final colored art. This is followed by RGB comic work shots that were shown earlier in the film.

The approximate time code listed below each image relates to the list above.

04:51	05:42	07:16
23:41	24:21	24:26
24:43	24:43	25:37
25:40	25:54	26:39
26:48	26:48	26:48
29:04	29:29	30:15
30:20	30:27	30:27
30:31	30:31	30:36
30:48	30:48	33:13
33:35	33:58	34:14
34:31	34:52	35:43
36:16	36:21	36:44
36:52	36:52	37:01
37:01	37:04	37:14
37:17	41:29	41:32
41:38	41:57	42:01
42:04	42:04	42:16
56:56	56:56	57:03
57:03	57:13	57:13
57:13	57:13	57:13

The movie was supposed to be released on DVD for $19.95 in October 2004 under the new title "Mel Mudd, The Comic Book Detective" (ISBN 0-9745205-5-1). Unfortunately, for unknown reasons, it was never released.

I e-mailed Tony Caputo about it before the scheduled release date, and afterwards. I've formatted those e-mails into a brief Q&A, with the dates of his e-mail replies in parthensis after his answers. Following that is the DVD press release he sent me when the DVD was still scheduled to be released.

Q: Why did you change the name?
A: I changed the name to Mel Mudd, The Comic Book Detective to make it more general and outside of NOW Comics, although NOW is still featured, it’s still an old NOW. (Mon, 16 Aug 2004 00:42:04 -0500)

Q: Will the DVD only be for sale on your site or will I be able to also buy from Amazon.com and offline stores?
A: It'll be available online, comic shops, blockbusters and bookstores. (Mon, 16 Aug 2004 16:57:02 -0500)

Q: Was the Mel Mudd DVD released yet? It was supposed to come out in October 2004, and that's now two months ago.
A: The Mel Mudd DVD has been delayed. There's some TV stuff brewing for it, so I'm seeing what happens first. (Mon, 06 Dec 2004 02:34:47 -0600)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NOW Comics
P.O. Box 527
Plainfield, IL 60544
tel: 815-254-2673, fax: 815-254-4193
http://www.nowcomics.com
info@nowcomics.com

Give Mudd for the Holidays
Mel Mudd, The Comic Book Detective DVD that is!

Chicago, IL -- Mel Mudd, The Comic Book Detective DVD follows the live action adventure of a private eye (played by Jim Vincent of Meet the Parents), who searches for the complete truth! The complete truth about how comic books are produced, including every step of production from concept, plotting, writing, layouts, pencils, inks, coloring, separations and printing. Updated and completely re-edited with new digital production content, scenes and animation, Mel Mudd, The Comic Book Detective DVD also includes a new Mel Mudd comic book and guest appearances by Ralph Snart, Speed Racer and The Real Ghostbusters.

The Mel Mudd, The Comic Book Detective DVD is a 30 minute, re-edited, re-mastered version of The What NOW Caper, a docu-drama produced in 1989 by City Video Productions and NOW Comics. It's a timeless, entertaining look at the full production of a comic book, but now updated a re-edited for higher production quality.

“We’re making dramatic changes to increase the production quality,” said Tony Caputo, President of NOW Comics and Executive Producer of The What NOW Caper. “This new version will focus on Mel Mudd, played by professional actor and producer Jim Vincent, and his uncovered details of his investigation in the comic book production process. Ralph Snart will also be fully animated for his debut in the feature.

The original release of The What NOW Caper on VHS sold out 7500 copies in 1989 and is now impossible to find. Caputo recalls discovering the What NOW Caper for rent in many Blockbuster videos at the time. "“I'm happy we're improving the film,” said Marc Hansen, creator of Ralph Snart, who is one of the crime suspects in the film. “Ralph Snart will make his animated debut.”

This new DVD package will also include a brand new Mel Mudd, The Comic Book Detective comic book, written by Jeff Kapalka and illustrated by Gordon Morrison. Special Features include an interview with the theme music composer David Injeski, actor Jim Vincent (playing Mel Mudd) and a behind the scenes view of the production.

Barry Petersen, Creative Operating Officer for NOW Comics stated, “Yes, Mel Mudd is a Sam Spade wannabe, but like Inspector Jacques Clouseau, he does stumble across some solid information. It’s fun.”

Mel Mudd, The Comic Book Detective DVD (ISBN 0-9745205-5-1), will ship in October 2004 for Holiday gift giving for the comic book enthusiast that has everything. This updated, reedited, re-mastered version will retail for only $19.95US for a unique adventure through the making of a comic book -- everything from concept, plotting, writing, drawing, inking, coloring, separating to printing. The special bonuses include a new Mel Mudd, The Comic Book Detective comic book written by Jeff Kapalka and illustrated by Gordon Morrison. Special Features include an interview with the theme music composer, David Injeski, actor Jim Vincent (playing Mel Mudd) and a behind the scenes view of the production.

Watch the trailer at http://www.nowcomics.com/whatnow.asp

About NOW Comics

NOW Comics produced almost 1,000 publications since 1986, attracting millions of fans for such titles as Speed Racer, Astro Boy, The Terminator, The Real Ghostbusters, Fright Night, Ghostbusters II, Vector, Ralph Snart Adventures, Married...With Children, The Twilight Zone, The Green Hornet, and Mr. T & The T Force. NOW has worked with such creators as Harlan Ellison, Neal Adams, Jim Steranko, Bill Sienkiewicz, Mike Baron, Jeff Butler, David Dorman, Chuck Dixon, Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam, Mr. T, and Van Williams (best known as TV’s Green Hornet). NOW also introduced acclaimed painter Alex Ross to world of comics in the pages of Terminator: The Burning Earth in 1990.

A virtual company, with editors, managers and artists scattered around the globe, NOW Comics can be reached by mail at P.O. Box 527, Plainfield, IL 60544, or at info@nowcomics.com. The company’s website is www.nowcomics.com.

# # #

Contact:
Tony C. Caputo
Tel: 815-254-2673
Fax: 815-254-4193
Email: tony@nowcomics.com.