The image that started it all:
I want to say that Dave Baker cranked the above out a year ago.
It’s the cover to a mini comic I wrote based on countless conversations he and I have had about the mystical, otherworldly cool that is John Siuntres.
A dialogue snippet:
Eric: “We need a name. Something that’ll makes us sound cooler than cool…”
Dave: “Something that communicates that we’re cold hearted, lady killin’ crooners at the absolute top of our game…”
Eric: “Something that’ll strike awe and respect into the hearts of undersexed teenagers everywhere”
Eric & Dave (in unison):”‘The Illegitimate Sons of John Siuntres!’”
For the uninitiated: John Siuntres is the host of “Word Balloon”, the absolute best comics centric podcast in the world (yes, even better than this one ). He has a voice somewhere in between Sinatra and Black Bolt, and is more knowledgeable in the realm of American pop culture than anyone ought to be. He’s essentially the The Watcher of the midwest.
Oh, and he’s also Spider-Man’s principal:
(Siuntres is friends with the author & allows his name & likeness to be used by him in the book)
Anyway, I had a ball writing the script, Dave worked himself into a giggling frenzy drawing the cover–but in the end some other project distracted us, we deemed the mini “too inside jokey”, and plopped it in our collective “we’ll get around to it someday” folder (along with that “Boy-Thing meets Kid Punisher” Marvel pitch, the “Superboy & The Eradicator Go To Town” mini series, and countless (about fourteen) other nuggets we have deemed YOU, the world at large, both unprepared…and lets face it: UNWORTHY to behold.
I sent the cover to Mr. Siuntres over Facebook on a lark, and he was kind enough to sling an email my way, expressing that he got a kick out of the fact that two schmucks halfway across the country viewed him as the epitome of all that is suave.
Egged on by this token act of gratitude, I immediately sent him a “Facebook family request”, asking him to publicly recognize me as the heir to the Word Balloon empire.
To my complete astonishment: he accepted.
I immediately called Dave (him being my only friend–and I’m pretty sure that’s just because I land him paying illustration gigs, occasionally), we squealed like school boys over it, and I completely forgot about it.
As did John, apparently, because this is the first conversation I had this morning (via Facebook, with my favorite writer ever, the Patron Saint of Time Management, Kelly Sue Deconnick):
Subject: John Siuntres
Kelly-Sue DeConnick 27 March at 11:23
Is he seriously your dad?!
I never really met my actual father, but when I was little I used to pretend that I was Superman’s kid, & that he placed me in protective custody with my Mom to hide me from Braniac.
But, if anyone asks you: TELL THEM I AM. Maybe it’ll get me a gig sharpening pencils at Marvel, or something.
Eric M. Esquivel 27 March at 12:57
DEAL.
Which led to this on Twitter:
Johnwordballoon:@kellysue I am so embarassed
Kellysue:@johnwordballoon Embarrassed? Why? Did I do something?
Johnwordballoon:@kellysue no,didn’t you explain to Kris, that I’m not Eric Esquivel’s dad? I had forgotten about that whole FB inside joke. maybe a diff KS?
Kellysue:@johnwordballoon Oh, no–that was me. Don’t be embarrassed–Eric’s a clever kid. I thought it plausible…save for his Beatles aphasia.
ericMesquivel:For the record, @johnwordballoon is not my Dad. That was all a misunderstanding, that’ll be cleared up on www.ModernMythologyPress.com later
ericMesquivel:Thank you to @johnwordballoon for being so gracious about the whole thing & thanks to @Kellysue for spreading the word of my bastardhood.
Kellysue:@ericMesquivel I told them you were Kent’s kid and the Siuntres thing was a cover. People deserve to know the truth.
ericMesquivel:@johnwordballoon @kellysue Having said all that, who wants to make #SiuntresGate2010 a trending topic? No? Nobody. Okay. That’s cool.
It turns out that a fan of Siuntres’ sent him an email saying that he “has a wonderful, creative son” and that he “should be proud”.
Hilarious.
And sort of sad (considering my own father doesn’t even know who I am. Boo hoo, boo hoo).
All in all: it was a weird day. A weird, weird day.
Maybe I can sell the story to Rich Johnston, over at Bleeding Cool, or to the good folks over at Newsarama.
Cheers,
e2
ericMesquivel@gmail.com
Posted under eric's blog
This post was written by Eric on March 27, 2010
