"Sister Powers" miniseries from Keenspot - and an Inktober mini-comic!

Hey everyone. Did you realize that I wrote a series that's out now from Keenspot? I will admit that it kind of caught me by surprise, too.

"Sister Powers" is a book that I wrote quite a number of years ago under the title "Faith and Charity" (after the two main characters) with artist Mario Wytch. Mario and I have known each other for a while, and we've worked together on a few stories that have been published - FUBAR and a short Teddy and the Yeti story among them. Faith and Charity was a story that I enjoyed, but had filed away for some time. I never really expected it to go anywhere. So I was surprised when, earlier this summer, I got a message from Mario letting me know that not only was he drawing it, but that it was going to be published as a three-issue limited series from Keenspot.

Mario was kind enough to let me go back through the script and make a few pre-publication edits. It had been about 13 years since I wrote the story and I was worried that not everything would've held up in the time that had passed. I was happy to see that I still liked most of it, and what I didn't like (mostly melodrama) could be fixed with a new line or two.

I met Mario in person - for the first time in my life - at Comic-Con in July. He had a booth with Keenspot, and a banner for the book under its new title. I do like the logo, which does, of course, take some inspiration from DC's "Super Powers" book from the '80s. Keenspot had a preview book to hand out with a short introduction to the characters in it that I was able to snag.

The first issue of the series came out in September, and it's (probably?) still available through Diamond. The next issue comes out in December, and the final issue of the miniseries follows in March (I think).

Mario and I worked on a new short story with the characters that we're releasing a panel at a time for Inktober. Should I use the hashtag for that? #Inktober? Sure.

We're posting the panels to various social media, and if you'd like to follow along, you can start here with this Twitter post:

For #Inktober this year, @MarioWytch and I are creating a six-page, 31-panel comic where we work on and release one panel per day for the entire month! Here’s the first installment of our story titled “We All Wear Masks”: pic.twitter.com/PRzpCSlJ38

— Jeff McClelland (@JeffMcClelland) October 2, 2019

Here's the Diamond Previews information for issue #2, out in December!

Pictures from the 2019 Comic-Con International, part 8 (Sunday, 7/21)

Let's see some pictures from Sunday at Comic-Con, shall we? I've said this before, but Comic-Con is the one convention where I almost always say, "I could do one more day" after it ends. There's never enough time to do everything and it's all physically taxing after five very full days, but I love it. Here's to Comic-Con 2020!

These books were all behind glass, of course, but I have to believe that I'd be a nervous wreck if this were my booth. There's tens of thousands of comics just in this picture alone. Check out that 8.0 Fantastic Four #1!

Spidey 2099 always remembers to stay hydrated.

I think this is a TV mashup, but I like it. The mask is top notch.

There were more than a few Bob Ross events going on around the convention this year. This human canvas was the most creative costume of the bunch that I saw.

Are we watching She-Ra? We are, right? It's very good.

I didn't see many Batman Who Laughs costumes this year, as opposed to last year, when they were everywhere. This one brought a Robin!

I asked this guy his character's name and he said "Endor Presley". I approve.

Ian sold his Usagi Yojimbo cover with The Tick on Sunday. Neat!

Vic, a Tick superfan, brought this beautiful Tick model for us to look at this day. I believe that there are only 30 out there in the universe. It was great to see.

At the end of the show, she flew away, no joke.

There were other Stranger Things costumes out there, and not just Scoops Ahoy.

I haven't seen the episode, but yes, I know about the Game of Thrones Starbucks moment. This person took advantage, and good on her for it.

Jane Foster Thor!

Around 2:00 on Sunday, I tend to get a little restless and I have to walk the floor one last time. I usually travel to parts that I never found the time to see, wistful for a few more hours.

Weekend Wolverine.

I hardly made it to the TV/entertainment section of the floor at all this year. There was a Star Trek set! Heck!

DC's booth merged with the WB booth this year, which I think was to the detriment of DC. There's so much of a focus on DC's television properties that sometimes the comics get overshadowed, and it's hard for that not to happen here, with a combined presence.

Though I will say that I always like to see displays with multiple levels.

It's a group of video game characters that I've never seen before!

Walking around the convention floor was Cooper Andrews, who pays Jerry on the Walking Dead! I'm stunned that no one else recognized him. Maybe it was because he didn't have his axe?

I almost missed this Pop's Chock'lit Shoppe display, near the WB booth!

Stop hogging the attention, Cap.

This guy was kind of born to dress up as Morpheus, yes?

Right before the show ended, I made my way upstairs one last time, and ran into this Lt. Jim Dangle.

When the show ends, everyone's gotta pack up, even you, Beetlejuice.

And that's a wrap for Comic-Con 2019.

The tear-down began swiftly.

Even the carpet comes up pretty quickly. Everyone seems to be quick to box things up at 5:00 sharp. I wouldn't mind another hour.

Oh, and here's the New England Comics booth! It looks the same as it usually does.

And then we all have to brave the sunny afternoon in San Diego! There could be worse things.

I'll wrap things up with one more post. Nine of 'em this year. Sheesh!

"Scoops Ahoy" Stranger Things costumes at Comic-Con

"Stranger Things" is one of those phenomenons that I can unabashedly get behind. Yes, it's a nostalgia-fest from beginning to end, but I love the characters and how well those behind the curtain seem to understand all of the tropes they're paying homage to. Plus, it allows us all to tell jokes like this:

Strange Things by the Duff Brothers

Stranger Things by the Duffer Brothers

Strangest Things by the Duffest Brothers

— Ciara Knight (@Ciara_Knight) October 30, 2017

When I went to Comic-Con in July, the third season of the show had only been available to watch on Netflix for a few weeks, so on Preview Night, I was excited to see some people dressed up in the "Scoops Ahoy" ice cream shop outfits that featured prominently in the season. This kind of snowballed and I ended up seeing dozens of different takes on these characters. I realize that the costume isn't the most difficult to duplicate and doesn't require, say, the extensive makeup that you might see for other Comic-Con-featured characters, but it was still really impressive to witness just a few weeks after the show aired. I think it speaks to the show's popularity with the young-adult-and-older crowd.

After seeing a whole bunch of these costumes, I decided to take a picture of whomever I saw wearing one. I didn't get them all, but I ended up with quite a few, so I thought I'd share them all here. This was, by far, the most popular costume that I saw at the show.

There were quite a few more where I just wasn't quick enough to snap a picture, and naturally, plenty of others that I never even saw in the vast expanse that is Comic-Con.

On Thursday of the show, I decided to share some of these pictures on Twitter:

By far the most popular costumes at #ComicCon on Thursday: #ScoopsAhoy #StrangerThings pic.twitter.com/778FDdiawk

— Jeff McClelland (@JeffMcClelland) July 18, 2019

This has, curiously, become my most popular Tweet ever (praise me, Internet), probably because the official Stranger Things account responded thusly:

putting seven tally marks in the You Rule column because of these

— Stranger Things (@Stranger_Things) July 20, 2019

That was pretty neat, right? You can, uh feel free to like the original Tweet and give me further Internet validation.

So. When's season four coming out?