In collaboration with several artists, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Hulk, the X-Men, theFantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor, and many other fictional characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. In addition, he headed the first major successful challenge to the industry’s censorship organization, the Comics Code Authority, and forced it to reform its policies. Lee subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.

One of New York City’s own, Mark “Tex” Texeira was born amongst a concrete jungle and the confines of steel, finding himself indoors more often than not, as a child, and escaping via his imagination by drawing–That imagination taking him to locals far beyond the mere skyscrapers around him.

Mark attributes an all important Junior High School teacher, Ms. Honest, with guiding him to study at the famous Art & Design High School in Manhattan, which boasts alumni such as Tony Bennett, Harvey Firestein, Steve Asell, Eric Valazquez, Neal Adams and Willie Low, among many others.

Later, under the guidance of painters Max Ginsburg and Irwin Greenberg, Mark was granted the Presidential Scholarship at S.V.A. Later, he honed his craft even more by studying under portrait painter David Leffel at the Art Students League. It wasn’t long before Mark won mentions at the Salmagundi Club and Society of Illustrators for his oil paintings, which sparked interest and work in the form of cover assignments for books, magazines and record albums involving such properties as Remo Williams, Buckaroo Banzai and Public Enemy.

In truth, Mark is no stranger to movie tie-ins. His work has been explored and highlighted on the DVD of the “Ghost Rider” movie, the look of which he influenced. And most recently, also a natural, Mark was tapped to do the movie tie-in for “Wolverine Origins.”

Some of his continuing clients include: New York Magazine; Scholastic Books; MCI Records; Def Jam Records; Marvel Entertainment; D.C. Publications; Harris Publications; Wizards Of The Coast; Wizard Magazine; Image Publications; Black Bull Entertainment; Continuity Associates; and Fleer/Skybox International.

Recently returned from a signing tour in Belgium, France and the Netherlands, Mark was honored this year with a gallery show at Manhattan’s prestigious Society of Illustrators–a true milestone for this accomplished artist as his work occupied space with Rockwell, Lyndecker, Flagg and Parrish.

Barring traveling to see his work at the next gallery show, you can most recently find Texeira’s interiors currently on Ghost Rider, MoonKnight, Wolverine Origins and an upcoming Punisher mini-series, all showcasing the signature Texeira style.

With pivotal and groundbreaking work on “The ‘Nam,” “Micronauts,” “G.I. Joe Yearbook,” “Dr. Strange,” “Nightwing,” “Detective,” “Heroes for Hire,” “Hulk,” “Spiderman,” “Uncanny X-men” and “Iron Man” among much, much more– Golden, modestly never says which is his own personal favorite project… However, according to one art dealer, “Everybody in the business has been influenced by Golden’s Dr. Strange.

Michael, no matter on which character, is indeed known for his unique art style that at various times seems detailed and at other times seems to be amazingly streamlined–cutting away the excess and maintaining the true essentials of a piece. As a conceptual cover artist, Golden has penciled everything from Batman and Captain America to Vampirella and Conan– and “Virtually every character in the industry at some point or another. I’m the one they come to when they want one of those covers with a thousand characters on them,” he laughs.

Other milestones in Golden’s career include the co-creation of “Bucky O’Hare,” with writer Larry Hama, which led to an animated series and toy line designed by Michael, as well as the creation “Spartan X” with the input of Jackie Chan and editor/writer Renee Witterstaetter.

Current projects include “Manga Bucky O’Hare” from Vanguard Productions; “Michael Golden Monsters” portfolio from Eva Ink; “Heroes and Villains Sketchbook” from Eva Ink; “Modern Masters in the Studio with Michael Golden” DVD and trade from TwoMorrows; “The Creator Chronicles : Michael Golden” DVD from Woodcrest Productions, and the best selling “Excess: The Art of Michael Golden,” from Vanguard which sold out and is into a second printing. Michael’s new sketchbook “MORE Heroes and Villains” is due out in the fall. A massive all-encompassing coffee table book is also in the works!!

Honored with gallery shows in places as diverse as New York, Brussels, Antwerp, Gijon, Paris and Barcelona, Golden is sought after for his signature art class in storytelling, which he has conducted throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Michael has served as an Editor at DC Comics as well as Senior Art Director at Marvel Comics, and has worked on scores of movie production projects, including some currently in development. As well as design work for both Universal and Disney.

Shi has been featured on Fox, NBC, and E! television while also gaining recognition in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today. The character has also crossed over with many comic book icons including Daredevil, Witchblade, Vampirella and Wolverine. For more than two years Shi: The Way of the Warrior #1 remained atop Wizard Magazine’s Top Ten Comics list, a record for any single issue that still stands to this day. Billy is also one of the few comic book creators recognized by Wizard on both their Top Ten Artists and Writers list.

In 2006 Tucci began doing work for the “Big Two” in the American comic book industry, pencilling Marvel Comics Heroes For Hire, and DC’s VS cards. He also released the 576 page Definitive Shi, the Illustrated Warrior novel and penned Zombie-sama! with illustrator John Broglia.

In 2007, on Shi’s 13th anniversary, Tucci’s newest miniseries The Ring of Fire was released. Shi also had a crossover with Brian Pulido’s Lady Death/Shi through Avatar Press and with Peter David’s Fallen Angel through IDW. Dark Horse Comics is also producing a 200-page hardbound Art of Shi coffee table book showcasing several artists’ take on the character. Other Shi projects include a full color Zombie-sama! TPB with John Broglia and Definitive Shi Vol. 2.

Tucci is writing the screenplay of the Shi movie with Kevin Bernhardt and will serve as executive producer. Tia Carrere will play the titular role of Shi. He also wrote, produced and directed his own award-winning short film, some trouble of a SeRRious nature.

Tucci produced a six-part miniseries for DC, Sgt. Rock: The Lost Battalion, which premiered in Nov. 2008. The final part was released in June 2009. Describing the series, as a “labor of love”, Tucci spent time at a large reenactment with over 2,000 World War II reenactors in Pennsylvania as part of his research for the story. In the reenactment, Tucci acted out the part of a war correspondent, interviewed several veterans of the campaign, and visited the grounds where battles took place.

It started in the late 70’s – early 80’s, when Johnny was still working in the construction business. He had just received a speaker phone as a gift and one day, while searching want ads for a pickup truck, an idea popped into his head. Before long, he was playing tapes of his uproarious phone calls for family and friends. A “900” line soon followed and a number of the comedy routines were then compiled into an album and released on an independent label. Each new character started to come alive as a lead player in each of the hilarious comedy sketches. And that’s how the characters were first introduced to the legions of Jerky Boys’ fans.

Since the release of the first bootleg tapes and debut CD, The Jerky Boys characters have surely inspired imitators. “I remember sitting in a box at Shea Stadium one day, just sitting there, not for an event or anything,” Johnny explains. “And I heard two fans jeering one another. ‘Hey sit down there sizzlechest!! What are you some kinda toughguy? I’ll wrap your f@$#* head in with a ratchet if you don’t watch your step!!’ That kind of thing. I’d hear it all the time, in all kinds of places. What a feeling. Incredible. Who knew?”

Johnny’s biggest inspirations came from New York City’s ethnically mixed neighborhoods – full of wacko-crazy oddballs. “I pick up on everything around me,” explains Johnny, born into a big Irish-American family. The “Jerky Boys” audience, as well as the victims themselves, incidentally, cross all demographic barriers.

The characters’ names, in addition to the phone calls themselves, are often created spontaneously. When inspired to name Frank Rizzo, Johnny’s very popular Italian-American toughguy persona, Johnny didn’t even realize Philadelphia had had a long-time mayor with the same name.  “And to do Rizzo is not a stretch,” Johnny claims, since Rizzo is basically based on Johnny’s memories of his father when he was chasing Johnny around the house, looking to give him a good ass-whooping. Johnny then tossed in a few “toughguys,” “sizzlechests” and “nutty-asses” to complete the character.

“Every fan has his or her particular favorite,” Johnny explains.  There’s Sol Rosenberg – a neurotic, phobia-loaded little man. And then there’s flaming Jack Tor s, who has inspired reams of supportive fan mail from the gay community. “Jerky Boys 3” introduced five new characters:  Big Ole’ Bad Ass Bob – The Cattle Rustler (named after Johnny’s old CB radio handle); punch-drunk ex-boxing World War II vet, Mike Derucki; no-nonsense gyros and souvlaki wagon-owner, Nikos; and Puerto Rican sign language innovator, Rosine.

“The Jerky Boys 3” CD added a new twist on the calls with what Johnny labels the “reverse prank call” – “making the victim…the victim twice,” Johnny explains. “The Jerky Boys 3” contains eight such calls. For the two “Sol’s Chainsaw Shock” tracks, for instance, a classified ad was placed in the newspaper, prompting an unsuspecting party to call him. The resulting calls split your sides. “The Jerky Boys 4” featured twenty-three newly released prank phone calls, including seven rare early calls never heard before. That CD also introduced the groups first hit single “Jerk Baby Jerk,” which quickly rose to the top of the charts.

After over a decade of “legitimate” hit recordings (we have no idea how many millions of bootlegged cassettes made their way into tour busses, car decks and walkmen prior to the first album), the fifth Jerky Boys CD was released and titled “Stop Staring At Me!” which included 24 brand new calls – some of the most irreverent ever. In addition, “Stop Staring At Me!” was the group’s first enhanced product, a breakthrough at the time. As soon as the user pops the CD into his/her computer’s DVD/CD ROM drive, the interactive adventure begins. “The Jerky Boys” characters immediately spring to life on the user’s computer screen and the user is then able to embark on an unusual journey as they weavethroughout a surprise -filled apartment complex – “888 Jerky Plaza.”  The viewer is able to spy on their favorite characters’ personal lives, giving them an experience unlike one they’ve ever experienced before. Users are able “blow Sol’s hand off” while he screams at them to help mend him with his “nub rub.” They can try their hand at tormenting Frank Rizzo by dumping mustard on him as he sits in his chair. Or, they can get Frank absolutely “liquored to the balls,” while watching the tube. The interactive portion also includes the hilarious video game “Shoot Potatoes at Jack Tor’s,” as a cannon fires boiled potatoes at numerous uncensored moving targets of Jack Tor’s ass. And, if that isn’t enough…the user is able to access a complete “Sound Manager” which serves up a database of various character sounds and famous phrases which the user can then integrate into their personal computer system. A Jerky Boys’ screen saver and link to the official Jerky Boys website, www.thejerkyboys.com rounds out the “Stop Staring At Me!” release.

MTV soon partnered up with all the Jerky Boys’ characters to produce a collection of 20-second “hidden-camera” station ID’s. These ID’s were aired on the national music network up to 30 times daily. In addition, MTV filmed “Don’t Hang Up Toughguy!” – a prank-filled long form video, which is platinum and still selling briskly. In between projects, the “Jerky Boys” characters joined members of TLC and Salt N’ Pepa, amongst others, on vocals to the track “Gee Officer Krupke,” on RCA’s tribute to Leonard Bernstein, “Songs Of West Side Story” In 1994, Frank Rizzo and Sol Rosenberg even made a live appearance at Woodstock, generating an uproar from the crowd of over 400,000 people. In 1995, the movie “The Jerky Boys”, was released, starring such noted performers as Alan Arkin, Tom Jones and Blizzard of Oz, Ozzy Osborne. The motion picture was released in theaters nationwide. The movie’s soundtrack CD features tracks from Collective Soul, Coolio, Green Day, Superchunk, Tom Jones, amongst others, along with a cut from the Jerky Boys characters themselves. A self titled book was published at the same time, containing cartoons, anecdotes and very personal, inside information about the Jerky Boys’ characters.

“The Jerky Tapes” was then produced and made available exclusively on Laugh.com. “The Jerky Tapes” was a compilation of special prank calls, which were prohibited from being released previously. The CD contains some reverse prank calls as well as the infamous  “The Flower Lady” call, which was able to finally be heard by the public.

“I would say well over 388 calls have been made to date,” Johnny says, “90% of which have been used on projects.” “All I can say is we’re making a lot of people happy,” he adds.  “It just tickles the funnybone — people literally piss all over themselves laughing. It’s slapstick for your ears, improvisational “theater of the mind,” Johnny adds.

Old movie slapstick — The Three Stooges, Marx Brothers, Abbott and Costello — serve as a basis for much of “The Jerky Boys” comedy. “It’s something I’ve always identified with and loved,” Johnny expresses. Apparently, many others have identified with this type of comedy as well as The Jerky Boys popularity snowballed over the years. First, it made its way into frat houses and dormrooms. Then it crept its way throughout ethnically diverse East Coast toughguy towns like New York, Boston and Philadelphia, as it then moved on to fans both nationally and internationally.  In addition, The Jerky Boys characters are loved and imitated by a wide range of numerous fans among sports celebrities, actors and musicians, including Mariah Carey (Johnny was seen in her music video, “Honey.”)  “Lately,” Johnny laughs,  “I do these signings when I go around to record stores, and a lot of parents come up with their children, excited to show me that their three or four year old kids know the bits by heart!!”

And…that’s what it’s all about.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Product Summary: The first five Jerky Boys albums of clandestine prank phone calls have sold well over ten million copies worldwide. Two of the albums were awarded Best Comedy Album honors at the NARM convention for two consecutive years — not too shabby, especially when you consider that much of the material on those albums had previously been bootlegged three times as much as any Grateful Dead tape. The second album went gold in eight days, was nominated for the Best Comedy Album Grammy Award and raced with and beat out Radiohead’s debut “Pablo Honey” album, (actually named after Jerky Boys’ creator Johnny Brennan’s Cuban character on “Jerky Boys 2,” for the number one spot on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart. Subway Sandwiches pounced on the opportunity to use the Jerky Boys characters to sell their sandwiches via the use of prank calls to their shops nationwide. In addition, the The Jerky Boys assisted Anheuser-Busch by boosting Bud Light sales via the use of over one hundred and fifty actual recorded pranks – used for various radio and television spots.  Over fifty of these pranks have been used to date. Several of these spots won the coveted Mercury Award, given to the best commercial of the year.

JOHN BRENNAN

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

RECORDINGS:

The Jerky Boys – complete catalog of The Jerky Boys Albums – six to date. Created, and continues to create, new characters and voices for the project – over 110 voices to date. Johnny owns The Jerky Boys property. Multi-Platinum and Grammy nominated albums.

The Songs of West Side Story – A Tribute to Leonard Bernstein – Johnny performed with other recording artists including Aretha Franklin, Michael McDonald, Bruce Hornsby, Natalie Cole, Little Richard, Phil Collins and more.

MOTION PICTURES:

The Jerky Boys – Johnny starred in self-titled Caravan/Walt Disney motion picture with Alan Arkin, William Hickey, Alan North, Tom Jones, Vincent Pastore, Ozzy Osborne and others.

Big Money Hustlas – Co-starred as The Chief of police.

Independent Films – Merlin Studios

Spring Break ’83 “THE ZEROES” – Cameo as self. Performing his character “Frank Rizzo.”

Mind Of Its Own – Johnny is featured as Rocco the talking penis, also performs cameo in film as Mr. Hamby.

TELEVISION:

Television – Commercials:

Anheuser-Busch – Bud Light – “Bud Light I Said!” campaign – (Please see enclosed video). Series of hidden-camera comedy routines.

(Agency:  DDB Needham Worldwide)

Lee Blue Jeans – created and performed new characters for the Buddy Lee national campaign.

(Agency:  Fallon McElligott)

MTV Station Identifications – special project – partnering with MTV staffmembers to film hidden camera vignettes….

Television – Performance:

The Family Guy – Fox Television – Created and performed several characters for the weekly Emmy nominated network show, including, Horace – The Bartender, Mort Goldman, and others.

NHL “Cool Shots” – created and performed roles for weekly National Hockey League sports show.

Bobland – Australian-based cartoon series affiliated with Warner Brothers – performed various voices for the show.

Arj and Poopy – Johnny voices “Bouncy The Dog”

VIDEO:

“Don’t Hang Up ToughGuy!” – MTV / Sony Wonder Home Video – Compilation of hidden-camera comedy routines. Gold selling video.

“Honey” – Mariah Carey music video.

RADIO:

Subway Sandwiches – performed comedy routines for national campaign.

(Agency:  Hal Riney & Associates)

Anheuser-Busch – Bud Light – “Bud Light I Said!” campaign (Please listen to enclosed cassette tape). Won the Mercury Award for Best Comedy Radio Spot.

(Agency:  DDB Needham Worldwide)

Lee Blue Jeans – created three new characters and performed voices for the Buddy Lee national radio campaign. Also taking two more Mercury awards.

(Agency:  Fallon McElligott)

BOOKS:

The Jerky Boys – cartoon character profiles, project background, stories.

Kathy was named “Humanitarian of the Year”  by PETA and “Woman of the Year” by Ms magazine.

While stationed in Berlin (Semper Fi, dude) in the late 70’s he created The Crow as an attempt to deal with the death of his fiance at the hands of a drunk driver. It took nearly ten years to finish and no publisher was interested in it (“too gloomy, too confusing..”) until, on a whim, Caliber published the first issue in 1989. It is currently the best selling independent graphic novel of all time at over 3/4 of a million copies sold, though he is not rich by any means.

In 1993 his book was adapted into the cult film of the same name starring Brandon Lee. He would like you to know that nearly all of the money made from the film was donated to children’s charities and he had nothing to do with the subsequent 3 sequels or TV show (though he does like Mark DaCascos) and scoffs at the current plans to remake the first film. Pshawwww, he says.

He has worked for every major publisher, with the exception of DC who is apparently afraid of what he would do with Batman. In Italy, 1995, he won the Academy Award of comics, the Yellow Kid award for best storyteller and has been ignored ever since.

After 35 years in Detroit (shot, stabbed, and run over by Sanford and Sons are not too subtle hints it is time to move) he currently lives in Dallas collecting old books, records, skulls, and the hearts of young waifs. He does commissions from his website (JamesOBarr.net – how clever) in his free time he paints, draws and writes every day.

He is tall, happy, approachable, quite charming, and looks nothing like Robert Smith (except for, maybe, the smeared lipstick on Goth night at The Church).

His short fiction has appeared in the anthologies The Best New Zombie Tales 2, The Dead Walk Again!, Doctor Who: Short Trips: Farewells, If I Were an Evil Overlord, Tales of the Shadowmen 4: Lords of Terror, The Ultimate Hulk, and Untold Tales of Spider-Man. He also wrote the graphic novels Lorelei: Building the Perfect Beast, Stan Lee’s Alexa, and Sunn, and co-wrote the direct-to-DVD animated short X-Men: Darktide.

In addition to writing, Steve worked as a fiction editor, then later as Editor-in-Chief, for ibooks, inc., a New York–based publishing company. Among the many titles he edited during his tenure were: original licensed novels based on Terminator 2, The Transformers, Witchblade, Spider-Man, and Ghostbusters; the fantasies Dragonkin, Moebius’ Arzach, and The Orc’s Treasure; the science fiction series Isaac Asimov’s Robot Mysteries; and the Young Adult SF spoof Britney Spears is a Three-Headed Alien! These days, he runs StarWarp Concepts, a small-press publishing house that specializes in dark-urban-fantasy novels and graphic novels.

Steve’s current writing projects include the novel Blood Reign: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 2, and the Mature Readers graphic novel Lorelei: Sects and the City.