Uncle Harry, RIP

My Uncle ,Harry Tellalian, passed away on February 18th after a tough struggle with cancer. Growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, some of my fondest memories are of the times I spent with him. Later, when my family moved to Florida, Uncle Harry [ really my older cousin ] would visit fairly often.

Uncle Harry would write me quite a bit, which, looking back is pretty amazing. How often do any of us find time to write and send a letter. I have a lot of cousins and I always wanted to be the sort of Uncle or relative Harry was. Well, those are some tough shoes to fit into.

I have a lot of great Uncle Harry stories - but besides all the rough housing, [ he was a HS wrestler, so even if I was a grown man I would of still been tossed around like a rag doll! ] my favorite memory of Harry is from one day after school...

I lived in Florida at the time [ probably around when the top picture was taken with his mother and father ] and Uncle Harry was visiting and staying with our family for a few weeks. Being at school wasn't easy because all I wanted to do was hang out with him. Anyway, he decided he would meet me after school. I lived about 4 miles away and generally rode my bicycle everyday unless it was raining. So when I got out of class I noticed Uncle Harry was waiting for me. I have to describe this scene: As you can tell by the pictures, back then he looked like one of the Blues Brothers meets Elvis meets a Pro Wrestler. He was dressed pretty much as he was in the first picture as he sat on my mother's Schwinn bicycle. Of course, it was a girls bicycle and it had an old skool white basket on the front handle bars with flowers everywhere. Seeing Uncle Harry on that bike was quite a sight. He was just sitting there wearing sunglasses with a cigarette dangling from his mouth and I'll never forget it. Looking the way he did, who would say anything? But it was hard not to chuckle! I thought to myself, only Uncle Harry could pull this off. As I jumped on my bike, the girl I was madly in love with came walking towards me and I felt like my stock had risen 600 points because Uncle Harry was there with me. That's how much I looked up to him and loved him.

Thanks Uncle Harry for all the comic books and all the laughs. Having you in my life meant more to me than you'll ever know.

More X-Factor Forever!

You asked for it! Or maybe you didn't. I don't recall - but regardless, here it is! The cover to X-Factor Forever #3! Pencils/Inks/Colors by your friendly neighborhood Urbanbarbarian!

I'll post some more black and white pages once the first issue hits the stands in March! Louise "Weezie" Simonson has really crafted a perfect X-Factor story and every page has been a treat to draw. I feel like I'm watching the story unfold as I go and I'm getting more and more into it! But, I've been very lucky so far at Marvel. Each project I've been a part of has had some super writers! Maybe I did something right in a past life, because I've sure made some mistakes in this one!

TORPEDO

My take on this cover by Jordi Bernet - not nearly as cool, mainly because Bernet's version rocks and I didn't show his gun... But in the right hands, a newspaper can be used as, um, well - reading material, I suppose. Click on the image to enlarge ( if you dare! ) Cheers!