BOB HITS THE ROAD TO HOLLYWOOD TO SHOOT HIS SEGMENT FOR THE 

IRON MAN MOVIE'S DVD RELEASE!

Well—I’m back from sunny California and trying to get into the groove again.  It’s a little difficult coming back to my tiny studio after spending a entire week in Hollywood.

A little while back, I was contacted by Jon Mefford from Sparkhill--a prestigious video production company in Hollywood that specializes in creating special features material for the DVD release of major motion pictures. Amongst their body of work are exclusive materials created for such classics as 20.000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Wizard of Oz as well as modern blockbusters like the upcoming Spider-Man 3.

Although I was a bit hesitant to participate at first (the rumor mill has not been kind to the production of this film so far), Jon proved to be very persuasive--and, as it turned out, a long-time, die-hard Iron Man fan to boot. Mr. Mefford felt that his job wouldn't be complete with some words from me about ol' Shellhead and was willing to fly me out to the West Coast to get it done.

Needless to say, such flattery will get you everywhere with me . Besides, David Michelinie and I have our own movie project in the works out there--so this situation gave me an opportunity to touch bases with our producers over at the Warner Bros. lot.

So, on September 19th, I was on a plane and winging my way to Hollywood. 

I was met at the Burbank Airport by Sparkhill's 'Girl Friday'--the lovely Emily Mefford (yep--Jon's lil' sis!) who was kind enough to shuttle me around during my stay in Tinseltown.

On the morning of the 20th, Emily escorted me to the studios where I met her brother Jon, Mike (our cameraman for the day) and Sparkhill's head honcho, Eric Young.

After a quick tour of the facility (including the really cool 20.000 Leagues Under the Sea pool table) and some hasty intros to the staff, it was time to knuckle down and do the job.

A few words about my interviewer, Jon Mefford:  And--without swelling his head too much, Jon's was the best interviewer that I've ever worked with in my long career in comics.  He was totally knowledgeable on the character, asked very probing questions and never lost his sense of humor throughout.

It was a blast doing the Iron Man interview, which I learned, will be broken up between the Iron Man film's DVD and the Iron Man cartoon DVD.

Afterwards, Eric and Jon took yours truly to lunch, where I spent the next hour discussing my current projects in Hollywood with them. During the course of the conversation, Eric mentioned that he was a good friend of one of my all-time favorite writer/directors, Nicholas Meyer (Time After Time, The Seven Percent Solution, Star Trek 2,4,6, The Day After) and shared a few humorous stories about Nick's career. After being dropped back at my hotel, I set up my roaming office at the local Starbucks and began making calls to my contacts in the movie business.  I also took the time to hook up with a terrific Burbank-based CGI artist and Iron Man fan, Brandon Perlow.  Brandon and I shared some coffee while he showed me some awesome computer models of Iron Man's armor that he created and a few choice stories about working in the system in Hollywood.  (By the way, former co-star of UPN's Pepper Dennis, Brooke Burns, was sitting on one side of us and screenwriter Key F. Paxton on the other during most of this conversation. Hi, Key!!) I always make an effort to meet with Iron Man fans when I travel and I really enjoyed spending some 'quality Iron Man time' with Brandon.

When I got back to my hotel, I got a call from Eric Young.  Eric phoned  Nicholas Meyer earlier in the day and arranged for me to have lunch with the two of them the following afternoon. Needless to say, I was blown away at the level of respect and courtesy I was shown while I was out there and for this opportunity to meet one of my favorite screenwriters.

The next day, Eric picked me up at my hotel and we drove to downtown L.A. where we had a fantastic 90 minute lunch with the legendary Mr. Meyer.  I discovered that Nick and I had a common friend--former Valiant and Future Comics penciled, Bob Hall. 

As it turned out, Nick and Bob were once college roommates. Small world, eh?

So after sharing a few 'juicy' Bob Hall stories, Nick spent the next 45 minutes weaving a yarn that he thought would make a good comic book.  It was the true story of a forger of Dutch paintings in the 1930's--with sex, drugs, political and legal intrigue and Nazis! I can't remember a time where I was more enthralled than sitting there listening to this master storyteller's comically-tragic tale. It was truly an honor to meet Nick and exchange ideas with him.  Needless to say, Eric Young will be on my Christmas list for life! (and, no--I didn't ask Nick a single Star Trek question!)

But, with little time to waste, we were back on the freeway and hauling ass back to Burbank to hook me up with my main man in Hollywood, Producer Robert Keyghobad, for our afternoon appointment on the Warner Brothers lot. 

After some delays and a few political issues in the last year,  the meeting was productive in getting the problems sorted out and it looks like we got the ball is rolling again on the big Michelinie/Layton film project. (And, no...I can't say a word. I'm sworn to secrecy. Sorry.) 

While I was there at Warner, I stuck my head into David ("Batman Begins") Goyer's office (located down the hall from my meeting place).  Although David wasn't in at that moment, his lovely assistant Glynis took the time to show me the long trailer to his new film, "The Invisibles".  It looks like another winner to me!

After that exhausting day, it was back to the hotel to prepare for the long trip home in the morning.  And, wouldn't you know, my plane breaks down during my lay-over in Denver on Friday and I wind-up spending four hours sitting on my ass at D.I.A. (Hi, Nancy!)

Bad flight aside, I had a fabulous time in Hollywood and got a lot accomplished. All in all, this trip turned out to be one of the best experiences that I've  had in Los Angeles in a long time.

I'd like to thank Eric Young, Jon & Emily Mefford, Nicholas Meyer and my friend & business associate, Robert Keyghobad once again for their consideration and kindness during my stay.