Meeting Frank Stallone, Part II

Craig / / 2009, Frank Stallone

On Sunday, November 8, 2009, Frank Stallone dropped by City Line Pizza in Edgewater, Florida. Store co-owner, Joe V, is a SZoner, and gave me advance notice so I made plans to be attend. It was a totally cool experience.  Frank was down to earth and spent the time talking with fans, signing autographs and CDs.  You can read part one of my report here.

That’s Mike Tourney getting Frank to autograph his ultra-rare Valentine record album cover.  [Valentine was Frank’s band back in the early 70’s.]  Mike is a long-time Frank Stallone fan who collects autographs and guitar pics!

That’s me, Frank and SZoner Stephen Isaia. Stephen sent in the photos used last week and has provided us with photos before. He’s a true Stallone and StalloneZone fan and I was pleased to meet him!

We close out with a final shot of my wife, Doralya, Frank and me. It was great meeting Frank and I want to thank him again for all the support he’s provided the StalloneZone over the years.   Frank is a great guy, an amazing artist [singer, song writer and actor].   It was a true pleasure to meet him.

I also want to thank SZoner Joe V. of City Line Pizza [great food!!] for the “heads-up”.   Hopefully, Joe will be able to have Frank back again some time.  If so, we’ll report it here!

“Black Friday Stallone” Event

Craig / / 2009, Craig's Sly Art

The art above was drawn by my buddy, John Beatty.  It’s his take on Sly as Cosmo Carboni from “Paradise Alley”.  John has done quite a few drawings of Sly for me over the years and he’s about to do another this coming Friday.  Only this time he’s drawing it LIVE on UStream and you can tune in to watch it being drawn.

As an added bonus, I’ll be co-hosting the event.  We’re calling it “Black Friday Stallone”.  While our wives are out dealing with the holiday crowds, we’ll hopefully have a small crowd of our own watching as John gives us his take on… well, that would be telling, wouldn’t it?  We’ll be talking about Stallone, movies, tv, art, comics and more.  We plan to get things started at about 11am. John will have a direct link on his site.  Hopefully you can join us and add to the fun.

Sly as The Black Beetle

Craig / / 2009, Craig's Sly Art

I’m a fan of Francesco Francavilla’s art. Usually when Francesco releases a new sketchbook, he offers free “quick” sketches with each purchase.  My first piece from Francesco was Sly from “Cop Land”.  My second quick sketch was in Francesco’s sketchbook of classic horror movie characters and for that sketch he did a “Jack Carter” zombie.

My most recent Francesco sketchbook was dedicated to a character that Francesco created, “The Black Beetle”.  Francesco came up with the idea for my sketch — what would the Black Beetle look like if played in a movie by Sly Stallone.  LOL.  How could I not go with it?  You can learn more about the Black Beetle here.   You can see more of Francesco’s art here, here and here.

Rambo #1 Again!

Craig / / 2009, Honors, Rambo, Rambo 2, Rambo 3, Rambo 5

EmpireOnLine.com recently posted their list of The Top 25 Best One Man Armies in the Movies. Of course, Rambo came in at #1. Who could argue with that? The rest of the list can [and should] be debated. Isn’t that the purpose of lists? Here are my suggestions for the top ten:

  1. Rambo played by SYLVESTER STALLONE in FIRST BLOOD, RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD, PART II, RAMBO III, RAMBO
  2. Lee played by BRUCE LEE in ENTER THE DRAGON
  3. Bryan Mills played by LIAM NEESON in TAKEN
  4. Geno Felino played by STEVEN SEAGAL in OUT FOR JUSTICE
  5. Creasy played by DENZEL WASHINGTON in MAN ON FIRE
  6. Walker played by LEE MARVIN in POINT BLANK
  7. El Mariachi played by ANTONIO BANDERAS in DESPERADO, ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO
  8. John Matrix played by ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER in COMMANDO
  9. Blade played by WESLEY SNIPES in BLADE, BLADE II, BLADE TRINITY
  10. John Preston played by CHRISTIAN BALE in EQUILIBRIUM

To see the full list, click here.

Meeting Frank Stallone

Craig / / 2009, Frank Stallone

On Sunday, November 8, 2009, Frank Stallone dropped by City Line Pizza in Edgewater, Florida. Since the store co-owner, Joe V, is a SZoner, I was given advance notice and made plans to be there. Talk about a cool experience. Frank was totally down to earth and spent the time talking with fans, signing autographs and CDs.  Frank has a new reality tv show in the works.  Of course we’ll keep you updated as it moves closer to production.

Although Frank and I had exchanged e-mails over the years, it was my first time meeting him in person. Frank was very gracious and thanked me for my efforts with the StalloneZone. He explained that Sly doesn’t mess around on computers much and at first had reservations about someone using his name and creating a website about him. Frank explained to Sly that “Craig is one of the good guys” and the StalloneZone is a positive place for Stallone fans to gather. Frank also wanted to make sure that all SZoners knew how much he and Sly appreciated our support.

I also met a couple of other fans at Frank’s appearance. The first, Stephen Isaia, is a huge Frank Stallone / StalloneZone fan. Stephen flew down to Florida to attend a Frank Stallone concert and come to the store appearance. It was a pleasure meeting Stephen. I also met Mike Tourney who collects autographs and guitar pics. Mike had an original Valentine record album for Frank to sign. Valentine was Frank’s band back in the pre-Rocky days. Talk about rare!

I’ll post more on Frank’s visit next weekend along with a few more photos. The pictures today come to us from Stephen Isaia!

Rambo Plot Change News Everywhere

Craig / / 2009, Expendables, Fan Art, Rambo, Rocky Balboa

Since we broke the story of Sly’s e-mail to the StalloneZone about changing the direction of the next “Rambo” movie and the potential for Hunter to be made, several sites picked up the story and ran with it:

Otis Frampton’s Jack Carter

Craig / / 2009, Craig's Sly Art, Get Carter

Otis Frampton is an extremely talented artist who loves drawing for his fans. Every Sunday [okay, ALMOST, every Sunday], Otis has a live UStream broadcast that he calls the 7×7 Sunday.  Lucky fans can get a headsketch of ANY character drawn live by Otis on a 7X7 inch bristol board for 7 bucks postage paid.   It’s the best deal going.

I’ve been lucky enough to get four pieces from Otis and the Jack Carter shown above is just one of them.  I’ll be showing the rest in the coming weeks.  In the mean time, check out Otis’ Gallery.  Most likely, after seeing more of his work, I’ll be competing against you in Otis’ next 7×7 Sunday.