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‘Nannaz, by Joe James – Twenty Tomorrows #1 | @MDWorld

April 22, 2015 Victor El-Khouri 0 Comments

I was staring at what looked like a one-sheet, a publicity ad, for a movie. There were four photographs on it and on the bottom right of the page a drawing of what looked like a plush toy monkey wearing a mask with horns on it and a cape.

I assumed it was a super hero outfit, but this was 1985, so I could have been wrong. The logo read; Nannaz. Each of the four black and white still images were moments from the film: a man about to be hit by a flying ax, a young man flying towards us in a massive kung fu kick, the others I don’t remember.

I was 13 years old and lucky enough to be working as a stock boy in a comic book shop named WonderWorld Comix which was located on Delancey Street in downtown New York City. It was one of those classic comic book stores of the time, the front of the shop was made up of rows of long white comic book boxes on one side and on the other floor to ceiling racks of comic books. There were also two arcade games; Galaxia and Mrs. Pac-Man, so that when no one was speaking there was a constant stream of game music and sounds. The back wall of the shop was the holy grail wall made up of older, expensive and rare comic books that were hung on the wall in plastic cases. Behind this wall is where I worked in what we all referred to as “the back”.

The back of the shop was…different, now the ceiling of the shop was very high, which meant you could stack boxes 12 feet high. And we did. Hundred’s of them. And since we received new shipments every week there was always new product to pull out, shelve and redistribute to our various accounts in the area. Distributing comics to local newsstands, candy shops and toy stores was my job.

Every so often I’d get the word from my boss, Mr. Moses, to find an issue for a customer and it would go something like this: “Eh—We need to get Ka-Zar number #1 it’s in a box, towards the left, close to the back wall, maybe the fifth or sixth box up. You’ll see a box of Voltron’s near there. And if you find any Sgt. Rock and the Howling Commandos, bring those as well!”

It may not sound like a lot, but this was easily a three hour job, for an issue of Ka-Zar. But it wasn’t all that bad, because there weren’t only comics in the boxes back there, some of the boxes were filled with Mr. Moses’ personal correspondence, photographs and other items from a very interesting life.  And thats why I didn’t mind so much being sent on a three hour journey for one issue, because not only was it a journey into the history of comics, but also an archaeological dig into the life of my boss and mentor, Mr. Moses.

It was during one of these digs that I found the one-sheet forNannaz in a box. I had no clue what Nannaz was supposed to be but I did notice the man about to be axed looked very much like Mr. Moses so I asked him about it and he said:

“Oh. thats a movie I made with Neal Adams”

I was surprised; Neal Adams? The artist?

I was already a fan of Neal Adams’ work on DC’s Green Lantern/Green Arrow comics, as well as his run on X-Men and Avengers. But I had no idea he was a film-maker as well.

Mr. Moses scanned the one sheet and pointed at the young man flying towards us in a kung fu kick and he said: “That’s Denys Cowan. A very good martial artist.” To which I responded: “His Kung Fu looks very good.” Now, I knew about Denys Cowan from his work, but in fact I would come to know and work for Denys Cowan within 5 years. But that’s a different story.

Soon I learned that Neal Adams had directed a movie about what happens when a scientist goes out to dinner leaving his two children at home with one of his world-changing inventions. Unbeknownst to the scientist many shady characters are out to steal this device and attempt to do so while the children are home alone.

But they are not truly alone. They are under the protection of their heroic plush monkey doll Nannaz; who may or may not be sentient.

The two kids somehow stealthily avoid capture and harm giving rise to the question; is the monkey actually helping these kids? Is it alive? Is it our imagination? Is it powered by the strange disco era hat? Action and suspense drive the movie as it plays out against the dark and strange place that was downtown New York City in the early 80’s.

One afternoon Mr. Moses announced that we were going to see a cut of the movie at Continuity Studios, he locked up the shop and off we went. It wasn’t my first time at Continuity Studios, in fact I’d been there twice before, and each time had met Neal, but that is also another story.

We were ushered into a room and watched it on a large tv. Nannaz turned out to be a great of fun, from the very 80’s rock song in the opening credits, to watching Neal play the scientist-dad, to the charming performances by the Adams’ kids the movie just swept you along and kept a brisk pace.

Much to my surprise I saw a veritable who’s who of comic book people on screen, from the great artist Gray Morrow to a cameo by Marvel comics’ writer/editor Jim Shooter (many stories there, but, we’ll save it for another time), to Denys Cowan and my boss, Mr. Moses and everybody was Kung Fu Fightin’….

What most impressed me was seeing professional comic book people translating their story- craft onto the discipline of film years before Hollywood turned comic books into a billion dollar industry. This was an indie, action-film comedy with a somewhat mystical undercurrent done by comic book professionals well before the rise of the indie film movement. Alas, what verve!

A few years later Nannaz was purchased by Troma Films and retitled “Attack of the Pee-Wee squad”. The poster features a Rambo-esque character firing a huge gun while the kids are running away. I liked the super-hero monkey drawing a lot better.

I went back to the shop the next day thinking about all of the talent contained in that one movie; the illustrators, the writers, the editors, the martial artists and the how they all came together and spun this wonderful tale and it occurred to me.

There are no “creative types” and “non-creative types”, we are all creative types with a role to play and a story to tell.

A shopkeeper is also an actor, a young comic book illustrator is also master of kung fu, a comic book icon is also a filmmaker and maybe a stock boy in a comic book shop could be…all I could think of was possibilities.

Soon I was in “the back” again, on another dig for an issue of Tales of Suspense when suddenly I found a parchment paper wrapped around three handmade wooden arrows. I unfurled the paper and realized that it was a hand drawn map, it seemed to indicate jungle and a river that split in two directions. The map was really old, and I felt that it would come apart in my hands if I mishandled it. Suddenly Mr. Moses called out to me, I didn’t see him standing there observing me, and he asked me not to touch the tips of the arrows. I asked him why.

He said: “They’re poisoned.”

But thats a story for another time.

Joe James is a creative concept developer with over 25 years experience in the entertainment industry. He honed his skills as an editor and artist at DC Comics, Milestone Media, Defiant Comics and Broadway Comics. Now he specializes in illustration and design as well as doing storyboards for some of the top directors in the world. He’s worked on many award winning commercials as well as an Academy Award winning short film.

 

 

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