Up-and-coming animator... Fabio!

[The Mad Hatter]

This is from the news briefs of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette... I'm not making this up.


Fabio Lanzoni, 42, a former model and romance-novel cover hunk who made a name for himself in front of the camera, is now behind the scenes as an animator, running his own film production company, and his first project is the coming animated feature Thor: God of Thunder, according to People magazine's issue next week.

Going to go lie down now...

[don Jaime]

Wow, this is the biggest thing he's done since he collided with a goose at an amusement park!

[BourgeoisBuffoon]

Thor....anyone wanna bet Fabio is the one who's the character model for our favorite ancient Norse god? Sigh....I'm going to cry at this....heck, poor Thor is probably rolling up in his grave at Vahalla!:D

[Jowy Blight]

.........................Now were did I put me Hanging rope?

[Nftnat]

Well, this just seems wrong. My first instinct was to do a Gary Coleman "whatchoo talkin' 'bout Hatter?" That said, I'll wait to see what he comes up with before I pass judgment. There's always a chance he might not come up with crap. I mean, do any of us know that he has absolutely no talent in animation? Like I said, I'll wait.
Btw Hatter, I assume this article isn't in today's Style section as I just read the print off of it looking. Might I inquire where & when? Thank you.

[Joe Tully]

Jerry Beck has this news too at www.cartoonresearch.com

[The Mad Hatter]

Nftnat, the article was one of the briefs on the side of the front page.

Oh, and brace yourself for a change next week... the newspaper will physically shrink (the pages will get narrower) and the axe will fall on numerous comics then, too.

[BourgeoisBuffoon]

Like Watterson, I cringe when comics get axed/shortened. It's a pity. These things could be colourful, zany, and fun to read, now they are just panels with talking heads on a white background; the heads making a snappy one-liner. Foxtrot being a perfect example.

I feel for the paper's readers, believe me. And I feel for anyone who bothers to watch Thor.

[RockItShipper]

Ok, about the goose thing... How does one get smacked in the face by one while riding a roller coaster? I'm completely lost on that one, but it's fitting- in any case.

[don Jaime]

I don't know how, but he did. He was inaugurating a roller coaster at Busch Gardens or someplace and somebody forgot tell the local wildlife a train had been installed. Bloodied his nose and everything. The most peeved I've ever seen Fabio.

[Nftnat]

I'll be looking forward to nextt week, Hatter --- NOT! Like Mr. Wilson said in Dennis the Menace a number of years ago: "Hah! They USED to be the funnies. Now they're nothing but talking heads. And you need a magnifying glass to read them." I know what he's talking about from reading the old comics; there's microfilms of the Texarkana Gazette & other Texarkana papers in the college library going back over 100 years. And I've gotten more laughs out of The Gumps or Out Our Way or Joe Palooka than a lot of what's currently in the papers.

[BourgeoisBuffoon]

Man, It'd have been interesting to see how messed up Fabio's face was...I feel more sorry for the goose than Fabio, anyway. It was Apollo's Chariot he was inaugerated; I've been on it. It's just a big drop, really. The Alpengiest or Loch Ness Monster is more worthwhile.

[DR. BELCH]

BorgeoisBuffoon:
[A]nyone wanna bet Fabio is the one who's the character model for our favorite ancient Norse god? Sigh....poor Thor is probably rolling up in his grave at Vahalla!
Technically, the grave is on earth, isn't it? Valhalla is like VIking heaven, so he'd be up there drinking or dueling or pinching the bottoms of wenches or whatever it is Vikings like to do. But at the news of Fabio's big project, I imagine he slammed down his beer stein and vowed to make a comeback to personally kick Mr. I Can't Believe It's Not Butter up and down Santa Monica Boulevard.

don Jaime tells us:
He was inaugurating a roller coaster at Busch Gardens...and somebody forgot tell the local wildlife a train had been installed. Bloodied his nose and everything.
Boy, I've heard of getting goosed, but this is ridiculous!

[Joe Tully]

Actually, I believe Valhalla is where all brave warriors go. They fight there all day, at the end of the day anyone who was killed up there in Valhalla gets resurrected and the fight begins again. Pretty cool if you like beating the crap out of people.

[don Jaime]

Norse mythology divvied the world up into three realms - Asgard (the divine realm, including Valhalla which was Odin's manor of sorts), Midgard (the human realm, "Middle Earth), and the kiddie book I just checked gives Utgard as the land of evil giants. Thor lives in Valhalla in Asgard, along with his relatives and "deified" (for lack of a better word) heroes. At the end of time Asgard and Utgard will have an all out war (Ragnarok) that will culminate in the deaths of everyone and everything.

Fabio wasn't messed up much - just a bloody nose. They showed him pulling into the station on The Daily Show.