BLOG: Day Off and RIP Ozzy \m/

Hey friends! So I had yesterday off cause I requested it off from the day job for a concert. I ended up not going and selling my ticket. Just didn’t feel up to it and I wasn’t that into going anyway. One of those late night drunken purchases that seemed like a good idea at the time. So I put the ticket up for sale for not a huge amount and it sold a day ago. So it goes. So I ended up just enjoying a day off.

I went to lunch with my pal Jamie and then we got new comics and hit the Mega Mall Thrift store. I got the new Battle Beast and Savage Dragon, as well as the Supergirl trade that everyone is buzzing about. At the Mega Mall I scored a Trek Hardcover and some TNG comics I didn’t have. Didn’t find too much. Out in the parking lot leaving I checked my phone and saw a text to me saying “I can’t believe Ozzy is gone.” My heart sank at the news.

I am absolutely a metal head. Got a “battle jacket” and everything. I wasn’t one as a kid, but the seeds were planted by my older brothers. They would come to the house and use the drive way to fix their cars and would put a tape in the car stereo and jam out. One of my earliest memories of that is looking through the cassettes and seeing Blzzard of Ozz… I remember staring at it, thinking it must be evil or too dark for my ears. But hearing all the songs off of it, that was the seed that grew. Mr. Crowley, I don’t Know, Crazy Train… all of em.

I heard a lot of the radio hits growing up but never really drilled down on Ozzy until 1996 when Ozzmosis came out.

One track after another, bangers! It was then I decided to check out all his stuff, including this first band… BLACK SABBATH. Holy shit. That opening track to the first record still is the scariest song I’ve ever heard. And if you know the origins of the song, its the scariest thought imaginable to me. I hope I never experience it.

I never saw Ozzy live, but I did see Sabbath. In 2014 they released their last record and I went to see them at Pine Knob in Clarkston, Mi. We weren’t close but we could see the screens. It was great to be in the presence of the absolute pinoneers of heavy metal. I must have heard Ozzy say, “Let’s see those hands” about a hundred times. It was a great show (despite Bill Ward not being there).

In the early 2000s, the Osbournes TV show came on and I watched pretty much every episode. I didn’t care so much for when the kids fought and all that, but I wanted to watch the behind the scenes stuff on the tour, him working, promotions and just his own general day to day life. It is pretty much the only “reality” show I ever got into. I just recently rewatched some on Amazon Prime and some stuff I remembered. I don’t think I saw all the later ones, but they are there if I want to see them. I’ve also seen other ones he did with his son and what not. He was always entertaining to watch. In time, I could even decipher what he was saying without subtitles! heh…

Yesterday was a gut punch to fans of music and especially metalheads. I don’t think any one of them would ever say “Ozzy sucks.” He was the pioneer. He was the icon. The face of the rock and roll lifestyle. His exploits are legendary. I watched some of the stream a couple weeks ago of what was deemed to be… and eventually was, his last concert performance ever. With solo stuff and then closing out with a fully reunited Black Sabbath. I was so happy watching that footage, especially now because he got to have that final bow. He fought through the pain he was in to deliver it to us one last time. And now, a couple weeks later, he is gone. He joins the beyond with other gone icons like Dio, Peter Steele, Lemmy, Abbot Brothers, Cliff Burton… shit… the list goes on and on. \m/

But I kept smiling at the thought of that if there indeed is a beyond… something after this life… then he and Randy Rhodes, his friend and the guy who basically launched his solo career (and died devestatingly young in a plane accident) are reunited and jamming.

It felt weird this morning to wake up and realize this is the first day now where Ozzy isn’t out there somewhere. Always a weird feeling when we lose someone we look up to or admire. What a life. What a legacy. What a catalog of art he gave us. When someone who seems so indestructible and an absolute legend goes away, it leaves a gaping hole in the collective of our united souls through music. The world doesn’t have him anymore and it will suck. We always have the music, the memories, the stories. We get to carry those onward now and feel pity for those to come who didn’t get to experience it as it was happening. If indeed there is something beyond this life, I hope I get a seat on the front row for that show happening right now. I’m ready to throw up the horns for them ALL. RIP Ozz. Thank you.

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I got a lot of drawing done yesterday after I got home. Three new SUPER detailed pages of Pleasant Life. I’ll give you a teaser of stuff I was messing with in the background… literally no one will see these details, but I like making them that way. Its where I have the most fun making these funny books.

I love background sight gags. I think I got that from my love of Mad Magazine and Sergio Aragones. I got two more pages to finish drawing and then issue 8 art is drawn and ready to color! Then on to issue 9. Issue 9 will be a bit of a challenge as I gotta draw repeatedly something I’m not super great at drawing. But I chose to put it in there cause I do like to push myself sometimes.

Speaking of comics, San Diego Comic Con is this week! I always get excited watching the con footage and reveals. I only went one year in 2008. Maybe return someday. But I have been looking forward to what is shown off and announced at the show. Definitely excited about the higher end toys. Sideshow is putting out a super nice Fantastic Four line… which I would LOVE to get a Thing of! (He my favorite Marvel character) .. which also early buzz on the Fantastic Four moving coming this weekend says its balls nasty, so that is exciting! But Sideshow/Exo6 are releasing new TREK related figures and I am finally interested in them! Here’s a peek of two figures that got me drooling:

I mean, I GOTTA get em, right? And I saw a tease for a potential display set which might be on the radar as well…

Thats wood man. Total wood! I hope its real. Cause then that would mean I gotta score the upcoming TOS versions as well. (sigh) Imma be broke! But I am still collecting my Trek stuff. As much as I have backed away from collecting things, TREK always remains. And things coming up look very exciting!

Anyway, I got a ton to do and I gotta head back into the day job the rest of this week. Next week I got a couple days off for JAZZFEST here in Lansing. Really looking forward to that! But for now, I will leave you folks with this Kurt Cobain drawing I did for the fun of it. (I rarely get to just draw something for fun anymore… so I make things fun!)

Thanks for reading. Rock on… forever. Cause you can’t kill rock and roll. Its here to stay. A wise man once said that. And I’m thankful he did.

-T