APAMA: THE UNDISCOVERED ANIMAL

 A NEW SUPERHERO IS COMING TO AND FROM CLEVELAND - 
THE ORIGIN CITY OF SUPERMAN -
GET READY FOR APAMA!

Back in 1932 two guys from Cleveland Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created the world’s first super powered crimefighter, Super-Man. Over the years thousands of characters have been created in the genre but almost none have ever called Cleveland home. Now longtime friends and filmmakers Ted Sikora and Milo Miller are co-writing and producing a new comic book series entitled “Apama – The Undiscovered Animal” whose adventures take place all over Cleveland.  

Apama made his debut at San Diego’s Comic Con International, in the independent film “Hero Tomorrow” which has been an international film festival sensation, screening at festivals everywhere from New York to Montreal, Rome, Brazil and Australia. 

In the Cleveland based film, David is a struggling comic book artist who can’t sell his original superhero idea, Apama, to a publisher. His girlfriend, being an aspiring costume designer, makes him a costume of Apama for Halloween. Once David’s life goes to pot, he decides to embark on various misadventures in real life dressed up as his own superhero—a premise similar to the film Kick-Ass that Miller & Sikora envisioned three years earlier!

The comic book “Apama: The Undiscovered Animal” is a realization of David’s dream that imagines what David would have created had he succeeded in his comic book creating career.

So what is an Apama? With so many great super-heroes based on creatures from nature (Spider-Man, Bat-Man, Wolverine) the creators asked themselves, ‘What if there was another creature that was so powerful and stealth that is was still undiscovered by modern man?’ That creature is the Apama. In the comic book, Hungarian ice cream truck driver Ilyia Zjarsky goes hiking one day and finds the ancient Native American scroll that reveals the key to enabling the Apama’s spirit in a human. Says Sikora, “This isn’t just some adaptation of a movie – Milo and I felt that we truly had something new to say in the genre. This book will stand on its own two feet without any knowledge of our film.”

When the team decided to make this into a comic book they put an ad out for an illustrator on the website ConceptArt.org. “To our shock over 100 artists from all over the world applied for the project. It was tough to narrow it down, but Spaniard Benito Gallego was our ultimate choice.”

“Benito’s art reminded us of the classic ‘70s comic book style we all grew up loving,” says Sikora. “Many artists can draw nice panels and characters, but the way Benito lays out his pages, he is able to tell such beautiful stories visually that some pages don’t even need dialogue—a very rare quality. He draws beautiful intriguing females, rugged ‘everyday looking’ men, and does wonderful work with architecture. He has done a lot of animal-beast themed comic art in the past too, so he was just the perfect fit.”

Says Gallego of the project, “It’s a very mature approach to the superhero genre, It goes from comedy to horror passing through romance. There are references to spiritual knowledge, ethnicities, culture, religion, and mythology.

To help Benito capture authentic Cleveland, Sikora went all over town, photographing various locations to create the right feel. “It was just like scouting for our film all over again. I actually got permission to show some actual storefronts and apartment buildings as well.”

The first issue of “Apama” will be available for free downloading on the film’s website (www.herotomorrow.com) in June; the comic is expected to publish on a quarterly basis, with T-shirts and posters featuring Apama becoming available soon.

The DVD for “Hero Tomorrow,” which has over four hours of material, is currently available for purchase on the film’s website, Amazon.com, and iTunes.

 ORIGINAL CAST RECORDING FOR CRITICALLY
ACCLAIMED MUSICAL—DUBBED “THE WIZARD OF OZ
OF HORROR”—IS FINALLY AVAILABLE FOR
DOWNLOAD ON iTUNES AND OTHER SITES 

The original cast recording of “Nothing Like Vaudeville,” the critically acclaimed 1994 musical that was touted in its initial run as “Rocky Horror meets The Music Man” and “The Wizard Of Oz of Horror,” is finally being given its due in the digital age.

The soundtrack, which was initially released in 1995, is now available for download on iTunes and numerous other internet sites.

The show’s main composer, Ted Sikora, has taken the revolutionary step of promoting the revamped version of this dynamic recording with a unique YouTube trailer featuring black and white footage and title cards—reflecting a style of silent filmmaking from the 1920s, the era in which “Nothing Like Vaudeville” is based.

The promo video can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdULL1ZqwDo.

Sikora, whose recent Indie film Hero Tomorrow debuted at Comic Con International in San Diego, is currently in the process of revamping the show to bring it to the stage once again. His success as director, co-writer and co-producer of Hero Tomorrow has also inspired the idea of ultimately adapting “Nothing Like Vaudeville” as a feature film.

From its modest beginnings at the Phantasy Theater in Cleveland, the show evolved and received praise from publications worldwide. In the later ‘90s, it was slightly rewritten and staged at Daytona Beach Community College.

The National Operatic & Dramatic Association said of the “Nothing But Vaudeville” soundtrack recording: “It is a must for any cast album collection.” The disc also scored a positive review by legendary Broadway critic Max O. Preeo in Show Music Magazine.

“Nothing Like Vaudeville” emerged from the early ‘90s vaudeville-influenced rock band of the same name launched by Ted and his brother Kurt Sikora. The group released a ten-song concept album and performed at numerous clubs in the region; in October 1993, the band performed a 15-minute horror show in Canal Fulton, Ohio as part of the annual Clay’s Park Haunted Halloween Festival. The “Nothing Like Vaudeville Wax Museum Horror Show” was developed and subsequently seen by nearly 3,000 people. One of those in attendance, Kevin James, who had an extensive background in theater, offered to help the brothers take the project to the next level.

THE WORLDWIDE FILM FESTIVAL HIT
IS AVAILABLE ON ITUNES FOR DIGITAL RENT
AND PURCHASE BEGINNING FEBRUARY 16

This Award-Winning Comic Shop Romance With A Superhero Twist
Ushers In A New Era As One Of The First DIY Indie Films To Be Available
On iTunes Without The Assistance Of A Traditional Distributor
 

First-time writer and director Ted Sikora has experienced an abundance of worldwide positive feedback with his “high times” comic book reality and superhero fantasy film, “Hero Tomorrow.”

This punk-rock version has captured the attention of iTunes. It is one of the first true DIY Indie films to be available on the application, and will be released February 16.

World-premiered at Comic Con 2009 in San Diego, “Hero Tomorrow” was the only narrative feature selected out of a pool of more than 50 films

A trippy comic shop romance with a superhero twist, the film was conceived, written and produced by Sikora and Milo Miller, who thought it would be cool to try a new spin on the superhero genre and came up with a comically dark new idea: Spidey meets “Taxi Driver.” The film focuses on a young man named David who, when he’s not working at the comic shop, enjoys smoking weed, writing a comic of his own, and soon transforms into the Native American influenced superhero character “Apama” by putting on the costume made by his wannabe fashion designer girlfriend and fighting minor crimes around his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio.

The film’s been a hit everywhere, from Sikora and Miller’s hometown of Cleveland (two jam-packed showings at the Cleveland International Film Festival) and New York (Comic Con 2009, the only Indie narrative feature film shown) to Santa Fe, Rome and Sydney, where it was one of ten feature films from around the world shown at the Fantastic Planet Film Festival.

Just like David’s character strives to create a comic book of his own, Sikora and Miller are in the process of bringing a spin-off comic of Apama to life. The first issue is slated to launch in May 2010. 

The hard copy of the film, which has over four hours of material, is currently available for purchase on the film’s website, iTunes (digital download purchase or rental), and Amazon.