THERE IS NO TRY

Watch my new 5-minute movie!

That's a wrap!

Whitney Matheson and I expanded our Nightwork Studio horizons by taking an intense two-week film school boot camp at The Manhattan Film Institute in Long Island. It was rigorous, exhausting, illuminating and life-changing. We came out of it with a few short movies and can now call ourselves writers and directors of cinema.

MFI employs a 3-2-1 method of teaching film. Three pages, two actors, and one location. Most writer/directors write a 5-page scene (as I did).

The beginning of the week is filled with learning the tools of the trade and steeping in movie making philosophy while getting to know your tribe in tight living quarters. After a couple of discussions with my director of photography and some rehearsals with actors, we were given four hours to block, shoot, and adjust (including loading in/out and camera lighting/set-up). I basically had an hour and a half to get my takes. It was a great exercise and I learned a lot.

Cheers to our Do-Or-Die MFI 2022 community! Big Ups to Shannon Goldman, Tony Spiridakis and Lisa Gillooly for making it possible for me.

Here is a link to my short film THERE IS NO TRY:

Next time I’ll share a link to THE TIP, a short film I co-wrote and co-directed with Whitney.

Meanwhile, check out Whitney’s short film, CONTINUITY ERRORS:

When I got back home from MFI, Jen Ferguson took me and The Huestons to see/hear Kraftwerk at Radio City Music Hall. They put on a psychedelic 3D show that looked like an old Atari video game and performed all their classics. Including “Autobahn,” which I first heard a sample of in my favorite hip-hop song of all time, “Planet Rock,” by Afrika Bambaataa and The Soul Sonic Force.

CHECK OUT:

Josh Neufeld's "Vaccinated at the ball: A true story about trusted messengers."

Iris Smyles’ DROLL TALES. 

The comedy of Sharief Johnson in Jersey City, NJ.

My best friend Mike Hueston is debuting his new band HOLEY SWEATERS at Otto's Shrunken Head in NYC this Friday night. 

DC Comics published SUPERMAN’S PAL JIMMY OLSEN’S BOSS PERRY WHITE, reprinting a great Perry White and Wildcat story Neil Kleid wrote and I drew (colored by Joe Infurnari & lettered by John J. Hill) 11-years ago.

The third issue of the 12-issue IMAGE! 30th Anniversary anthology drops this Weds, featuring the third installment of my 12-page Billy Dogma comic, “I will Break You But I Won’t Kill You Because I Need You.”

PODCASTS and PANELS:

On the IzzyVerse podcast, I enjoyed a rip-roaring parlay about Harvey "Pecker," American Flagg!, The Thing, The Fox, The Red Hook, Keyhole, webcomics, my formative years and NYC parking woes. This interview includes a Whitney Matheson cameo directly from Nightwork Studio.

“Why Jack Kirby is Still the King” — a panel discussing the life and career of Jack Kirby with panelists John K. Snyder III, Adam McGovern, Dan Hort, Jamal Igle, Dean Haspiel, and Roy Schwartz at CradleCon 2022.

"Panel to Panel: Approaches to Graphic Narrative," led by Lesley University MFA faculty Peter Rostovsky. Streamed live on Jun 19, 2022, with speakers: Emil Ferris, Dean Haspiel, Mark Thomas Gibson, and Bishakh Som.

Calling ALL comix pros & fans. Please nominate THE RED HOOK in PTSD: Post-Traumatic Superhero Disorder for 'Best Webcomic' in the Ringo Awards at Baltimore Comicon.

THANK YOU.

—Dean