Popgun

I just received a copy of Popgun vol. 1 from Amazon.com (along with the fourth season of Entourage and Weird Al's "Polka Party!") and I have to say...it looks great.  There was so much hype surrounding the Image book - especially for an anthology - that I had to pick it up, and I'm glad I did.  Anthologies tend to be exciting in theory but sometimes disappointing in practice, but this one might break that trend.

One of the neat things about anthologies such as this is that you get to see styles that you wouldn't normally get to enjoy if you just picked up a monthly stack of Marvel and DC books.  There are so many great artists and writers out there that don't fit into the superhero niche, and that's a shame.  Another fun thing is getting to see a lot of up-and-coming creators...every once in a while I catch a name of someone I know.  It's a good place to scout talent, and I plan to do this, too, at least to some extent.  I'm looking for a colorist for one of our eight-page stories (Karin's still the regular colorist - I'm just getting a different look for this particular story), and I'll probably try to get in touch with one through their work on this book.  There's certainly a number of them to choose from.

Flipping through the book, I thought about submitting a Teddy and the Yeti story for a subsequent volume (the second just came out, and I think they're working on a third as I write this), but I doubt I'll do it - I want to keep the characters to their own book for a little while, and I don't want to heap more work on the rest of the creative team, as they're busy enough with this initial three-issue run.  But honestly, if Viper Comics decided to go ahead with another volume of the Josh Howard Presents: Sasquatch anthology, I'd probably break that rule.  It's just so...specific.

How did I miss this?

How this slipped on by me is anyone's guess.  A few weeks ago, the news of a real live (well, real dead, I guess) Bigfoot showing up in rural Georgia captivated the country for, oh, a few days or so.  The men who found the body of the beast, tired of being mocked for what so obviously looked like a halfway decent Halloween costume shoved into a freezer, told the world that their naysayers would soon 'eat their words' once they were vindicated with sophisticated DNA tests and exams.

So, naturally, no one was surprised when the results came back and what was in the freezer turned out to be a Sasquatch costume and animal guts.

Stories like this are typically pretty funny (though I do wonder where they got all of those animal guts from...), but the fact that this hoax was so ballyhooed from coast to coast gives us an idea of how popular Bigfoot - or at least the concept of Bigfoot - still is and how much people may want to believe it exists.  It may be a myth but it speaks, I think, to our desire to believe in something ancient and mysterious, a gentle sentinel lurking in our still-wild forests.

What makes the Sasquatch (or the vastly more cultured Yeti) so intriguing?  Why do we continue to look after so many years?  There's the visual appeal, but...

Regardless, it seems like a great marketing opportunity for Teddy and the Yeti has passed us by.  "In this issue: See! A frozen monster and her best friend!  See! A Yeti in a refrigerator!  See! How to use opossum guts as garnish!"

...colors!

I haven't yet made much of the international crew we have here on Teddy and the Yeti (I will at some point, I'm sure), but I do often think of how fortunate I am to be creating comics in the age of Internet access.  As you can see on my profile, I'm a Pittsburgh transplant living in Wilmington, North Carolina (please don't stalk me).  Duane, our artist, is from the UK, and the colors you see at the top of this posting come from Karin Rindevall, who hails from the far reaches of Sweden.

I just got a batch of pages back from Karin and wanted to share a peek at one of the panels that I particularly love.  Look at that sunset!  A thing to behold for sure.

You can see more of Karin's work (on various projects) on her website, http://www.karrey.com.