If you write, you should already be familiar with Vaughn and Mark Bodé's work.  Here's a quick Q&A we did w/ Mark recently:


SMART CREW: You went to SVA in the early 80's, any crazy stories/memories of the old NYC before it became what it is today?
MARK BODE: Well, first artist i noticed was Keith Herring.  He was just graduating from SVA when i went in.  His work was everywhere on the subways.  I wish i had foresight to grab one of those adds he drew on, but i didnt.  I had just moved from Cali to NYC in 1982, I thought I was the only skate boarder in all of NYC at that time. People on the subway would look at my board like it was a weapon or something.  Boarding was big in cali at the time but had not hit the east coast yet. In the year at SVA, I never saw another boarder or BMX rider either.  People thought i was nuts weaving in and out of rush hour traffic in Manhattan.  It was cool to be one of the first to skate in NY.  I've told people this before and they dont believe me, but I was the only one out of millions of people that i saw in that year...

SMART CREW: Did you pay any attention to graffiti during those times?  If so, who were some of the writers that you noticed that don't seem to get any mention these days?
MARK BODE: The first writers i noticed were Kel and Mare. They, in fact did the first Bode piece i ever saw on a train. It was Deadbone Mountain and a bunch of lizards and flying things. I didnt get a pic ,but i remember it like it was yesterday.  It was a non-stop train so i didnt get the names  of who did it,  but over the years I figured out it was either Kel or Mare or both of them.  They didnt know which Bode piece it was cause they did so many.  I dont remember that many writers but I did a painting of a bum passed out on the subway and Dinone was in the background so i remember that writer because he was in the painting I did.

SMART CREW: I don't think a lot of people realize your involvement with the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book.  Could you shed some light on this?
MARK BODE: I met Kevin Eastman, the co-creator of TMNT at the San Diego Comic Con in 1985 (or so.)  He was a fan of my dad and he had a hit comic book but was not a millionaire yet.  Anyway, we decided to do a collaboration together and it ended up in Miami Mice # 4.  Miami Mice was my effort to jump on the black and white boom that was happening in comics at the time and it worked.  I sold 180,000 comics in a years time.  I quit as the sales started slowing up.  It was still selling 20,000 when i quit and I just didn't want to ride it to the end as i knew it was a joke and that was all it was to me.  After Miami Mice, I moved Molly (my wife) and Zara (my daughter)  to Northampton, MA from Berkeley, CA and worked for Kevin for a number of years and ended up finishing Cobalt 60 at that time.  We became good pals and those were good years where anything could happen since money was everywhere around the Turtles.  I actually did 3 issues of the original  TMNT series numbers 18, 32 and a special color edition called Times Pipeline where the Turtles go to a Bode planet and get majorly fucked with.

SMART CREW: I heard that Comedy Central was interested in creating a Cheech Wizard cartoon for adult swim.  Is this true and if so, how far along are you in the development process?
MARK BODE: Yes, we were working on it and i did all this development on the project and wrote 15 short descriptions of possible stories and then radio silence.  I think they got busy with Lucas's computer animated series Attack of the Clones, and that was the end of  The Cheech Show (for now.)  I have a feeling that  this will get done eventually  Cheech is too unique not to be animated at some point.. This aint the first time ive got my chain jerked and nothing happened..

SMART CREW: Tell us about the Cobalt 60 movie that you are currently working on.  When could we expect to see this in theaters?
MARK BODE: Yes, now this is happening!  Zack Snyder, director of 300 and The Watchmen is going to Direct Cobalt 60 in live action with CGI with Universal Studios.  Frank Miller told me himself i couldn't be in better hands.  Me, and Cobalt 60 writer Larry Todd just made our first changes to the screenplay so that is where we are on that.  I would imagine we are looking at  2012 or 2013 at this point for Cobalt 60 to hit the big screen.  I am also working on more stories of Cobalt for possible sequel material which i am writing myself this time.  Taking my dad's work to this level  was kind of like arduously dragging a dead corpse up a mountain and finally throwing it over the other side after years of struggling an uphill battle to revive a dead artists lot..  And there I stand on top on my own, as my own artist. Feels groovy!