Thing sketchbook, part 24

I've been thinking a lot about comic book conventions lately. I will say that after more than a year away, I am looking forward to the opportunity to go to shows once again. The New York Comic Con is preparing to sell tickets to their October show soon and others are on the horizon, as well. So with that in mind, I thought it might be appropriate to show off another five convention sketches of the Thing from my personal collection. Let's get to it!

Nathan Kane - Comic-Con International 2018

Nathan Kane, in addition to having a very comic book-y name, also works in the comic book industry. He was one of the head editors at Bongo Comics, as well as a colorist on many of their titles. I had met Nathan a few years before and would always bug him about letting me pitch some stories for different Bongo titles - he outlasted me, though, because it was at Comic-Con 2018 that they announced that Bongo would stop publishing. This is a bummer. But I did get this Simpsons-themed Thing sketch from him! I guess that's some consolation.

 

Dave Garcia - Comic-Con International 2018

Dave Garcia is a fun guy and a great comic artist who has worked on quite a few issues of The Tick - first as an inker of Ben Edlund's pencils, then as a penciler/inker on books like Paul The Samurai, also from New England Comics. I had a nice chat with Dave on the day he drew this really charismatic Thing sketch for me. I hope to see him again at the show in 2021 or '22!

Jenni Gregory - Comic-Con International 2018

I was booth neighbors with Jenni Gregory in the small press section at Comic-Con in 2018, and at the end of the show, she was kind enough to add this broad-shouldered Thing to the sketchbook. Jenni is a fantasy artist, caricaturist and comic book creator on books like Abby's Menagerie and and DreamWalker!

Ben Edlund - New York Comic Con 2018

There's not much to say about Ben Edlund that I haven't said time and again. Ben is a creative genius and a comic book hero, not to mention a really wonderful human. He created The Tick and he was a creative force behind Firefly. And he drew the Thing in my sketchbook! Good gravy.

I saw Ben at the New England Comics booth at NYCC 2018. Season two of Amazon's Tick series had recently wrapped and Ben was as relaxed as I've ever seen him; booth traffic was slow so I got a chance to chat with Ben and NEC art director Bob Polio for a while. As Ben was sketching, Bob mused that "All men struggle with the Thing," and thus this masterpiece was created. This is one of my absolutely favorite Thing sketches.

Tom Raney - New York Comic Con 2018

Tom Raney has had a long career in comics, working for both Marvel and DC as well as many smaller publishers. I love the extreme closeup sketches that I've gotten, and I love the "single crack down the middle of the mouth" look that has been so popular with the Thing in the last 15 years or so. Raney's Thing is definitely a great one!

Well, that's it for now. It's time to get more Thing sketches! Hopefully I can add a few more this year.

The Tick FCBD and SDCC issues, and where to get 'em

Folks, Comic-Con would have started yesterday in a non-pandemic year. I know that it was the right thing to cancel the show, of course, but it's hitting me hard right now. I miss it!

For their part, the fine people at Comic-Con are trying to make the best of a bad situation by broadcasting free panels on YouTube, and they've released some official merchandise, too. There's a lot of branded exclusive merchandise for sale, as well, though this might be stretching the definition of "exclusive" to the limit. Oh well! I still went for a few items...and I downloaded a PDF of the official program, too.

Anyway, this is all to say that there is some new Tick merchandise that is out now, including two books written by me, and there's an update on the Free Comic Book Day issue, as well. Let's start with that one!

Simply put, the FCBD Tick Special will be out on August 5th. It'll still be free, but you'll forgive comic shops if they're not advertising the event as much. This is probably happening because most stores have to limit the number of people who can come inside at one time (and for some stores, that number is still zero), but it's also because the folks behind FCBD decided to spread the schedule over a few weeks, between July and September. August 5th will see a handful of titles besides The Tick, including a new printing of Invincible #1 from Image Comics.

I've managed to get my hands on a copy of the book a little bit early. I think it printed well, and I hope that everyone who wants a copy is able to get one.

The Comic-Con special, which reprints the FCBD story with a sketch cover by Ian Nichols, is actually available now, a couple weeks before the Free Comic Book Day version! Weird how that happened. But I'm glad that it's out, because I didn't know if New England Comics would be able to put out anything at all. The book is limited to 300 copies and you can get it directly from the NEC website!

There's also another new-ish book to check out if you click on the link. NEC printed a store-exclusive version of the 2019 Comic-Con special and they just released it! You'll note that, at the top of the cover, it reads "2019 Limited Edition", and yet this is decidedly 2020. There's no great reason that this didn't come out in 2019, it just...didn't. But now it has! This one has a print run of 1000, and I have it on good authority that each and every one comes hand-numbered by NEC art director Bob Polio. Poor Bob!

You can get this one at http://www.necpress.com/TickSearch.aspx?q=sdcc as well. I hope you check 'em out! 

The Tick panel at the 2019 Rhode Island Comic Con

One of the nicest things for me in all of 2019 was being invited to November's Rhode Island Comic Con as part of the show's celebration of The Tick, past and present. This all came about because Ian Nichols, artist on many of the Tick issues I've written, did a lot of legwork to contact and book some of folks associated with the character. When he brought it up and asked if I'd be interested in being a guest at the show, I naturally jumped at the chance.

I had a nice time at the show in general - it's a mid-level show that reminded me a lot of the old Pittsburgh Comicon from the late '90s. There were, of course, plenty of entertainment celebrities at the show, but there were a lot of retailers and comic creators and other areas that were represented, too.

New England Comics had a booth there, and they packaged up Ian and my Tick convention story for the show with a new cover by Ian. It was one of two show exclusive comics available over the weekend - the other being X-Men #1 from the current series.

Bob Polio from NEC was there!

Saturday of the show was the biggest one for me, because I was asked to be part of a panel that included Ian, Bob and actors Patrick Warburton and Griffin Newman (Peter Serafinowicz wasn't able to make it). I took a picture of the schedule! I do not regret it!

I've been on a few panels before, many of them very low-level and lightly attended (I've appreciated them all, to be clear). This one was set up to be one of the biggest of the entire convention, with actors I admire from shows I enjoy. I'm grateful to have been involved with it at all - I know that the folks in attendance were there to see the actors on the panel, but I was excited nonetheless to share the stage with everyone else.

The panel started at 11:00, not long after the convention opened for the day. A handler came and corralled me at around 10:40 and took me through the bowels of the building. It was all very official. We picked up some of the other guests and made our way to the ballroom.

When I got there, I got to be one of the people allowed behind the mysterious panel curtain. Once 11:00 rolled around, we were all called out to the stage area.

Did I take a picture once I got onto the stage? Yes I did. At the very left we have our moderator, followed by Griffin, Patrick, Ian and myself. Bob Polio is just to the right.

Let's post a few pictures from the actual panel. These ones come mostly from the convention feed. A big Tick fan, Maryellen, sent me a few of these as well.

There are more, but you, uh get the idea.

It was really enjoyable to get to be able to be on stage with these fellow Tick creators. I knew that most people weren't there to see me, so I tried to keep from jumping on every question (but I have so much to say!). I think that it all went well and that the audience enjoyed it. I even got to ask Patrick a question of my own (there had been rumors that he might have eventually played Barry Hubris on the Amazon show - his answer was, basically, "no"). But more than anything else, it was so much fun to get to talk about The Tick and how much we all loved the characters with a room full of fans. I'm extremely grateful to have been a part of it.

And yes, the whole panel was filmed. There was a crew with a camera and several other pieces of camera-crew-like equipment in the room! I saw it being filmed. I filmed the filming with my eyes!

That might raise the question, "why didn't you just show the recording?" And that is quite the pertinent question. I have yet to see the footage, even though I'm pretty much dying to. I know it's out there. I want to see it. I want to share it! It was a fun panel that I think other people would like to see. If I'm ever able to get a copy...it'll be out there to view. The reason I didn't write this post in December is because I've been trying to wait for the footage to appear.

Once the panel ended, I managed to get a few pictures: one on stage with Ian and Griffin...

...and one behind the curtain with everyone (except Bob, who wasn't up for it)!

We all hung around for a few minutes, talking about the convention, the Amazon series, the comic...just The Tick in general. I enjoyed every second of it, and I'll always be grateful that I got to be a part of this panel (and the Tick universe). Now that the Amazon Tick series has been cancelled, will I ever see some of these folks again? I sure hope so.

Let's look at a few other Tick-related images while we're at it. The convention folks snapped this picture of Ian and me on Sunday, before I left. Did I get heckled about wearing Steelers gear deep in the heart of New England? Yes, I did. But hey, all of those people can go straight to hell! I hate them all.

I'm pictured here with some fans dressed as Hobbs and Ramses IV from the Amazon series. On the right is the aforementioned fan who took some of the panel pictures!

And someone dressed up as The Tick himself on Saturday!

Here's the show program.

Open it up the featured guest page, and who do you see? Some well known creators...and there at the bottom right...

...there's my picture! This picture originally included a goat! I demand to know why they cut out the goat!

Here's the Tick and X-Men covers.

After the Amazon show was cancelled, the studio unloaded a lot of props from the series. I got a few things...more on this later (I think).

I found a '90s kids Tick Halloween costume! This one didn't have the mask, but I already have a mask, so now I have the whole thing! It's a kid's large. Maybe I could wear it?

I also was able to get two badges from last year's Wondercon in Anaheim. All of the badges had The Tick on them! It's some of the only promotion Amazon did for season two!

And lastly, I found this sound bite CD from the 2001 Fox series. It's in perfect shape and sealed - which means I can never open it to listen to the tracks. So now I guess I have to find another copy? Such is life.

New England Comics Newsletter #14 - the first appearance of The Tick!

I had a stroke of luck (better than a regular stroke) recently and was able to get a copy of New England Comics Newsletter #14. Most newsletters, especially from local comic shops, aren't anything to get that excited about, but this one is different as it contains the very first appearance of The Tick! Published in the summer of 1986, this pre-dates the "special edition" of The Tick #1 by almost two years, and prints the first comic artwork of Ben Edlund, who would have been a few months short of his 18th birthday at the time.

The front cover uses the template that Marvel did for their 25th anniversary covers from '86. Instead of the barcode, The Tick shows up on the cover, too, along with characters like, um, the Thing.

The Tick's first story was only two pages, and even then NEC put them both sideways to fit on a single printed page. Let's look at each of them a little more up close:

The Tick was originally drawn with a fuzzy suit and with distinguishable toes, as opposed to the boots that he's seen with today. You'll also notice that the character's antennae are kind of droopy. This look carried over into 1988's Tick #1. You'll also probably notice the very obvious appearances by two characters who appear to be borrowed from the Muppets, Bunsen and Beaker. 

So does this mean that The Tick escaped from TWO asylums, as The Tick #1 features a similar scene with The Tick leaving a clinic just outside of The City? Or does The Tick #1 simply re-tell this short with a few edits? Since NEC has made it clear that this is in-continuity, I'd say that The Tick made his way across the country and stopped at more than a few asylums along the way. But why is The Tick punching poor Beaker? What did he ever do to him?!

Perhaps presciently, above the two pages is a note telling readers to hang onto their copies. "And it's not totally beyond the realm of possibility that the Tick may appear in his own comic book one day." Two-for-two, I guess.

That's it for The Tick in this publication, but let's take a peek a few more items to appear at the same time. On the very next page, we see an ad for Watchmen #3!

And here's a quick paragraph on the upcoming Transformers movie!

Highlighted is a short description of Fantastic Four #296, the 25th anniversary issue that featured the return of the Thing!

Here's the back cover.

My copy came with a certificate signed by Ben Edlund, George Suarez (publisher) and Bob Polio (art director). It looks like they printed these things out in 2013.

Since we're here, let's take a quick look at New England Comics Newsletter #16, which I picked up at the same time. I've never seen a copy of issue 15 - does it even exist? Keep your eyes peeled.

NEC classifies this as the third appearance of The Tick, which, I suppose, is correct, because there he is on page seven! This Christmas-themed Edlund drawing is pretty tiny, and it's the only mention of the blue guy (who I suppose wasn't even blue at this point) in the newsletter. And it'd be the last we'd see of him until 1988!

There are a few other interesting items in this issue, including a Batphone drawing by Bob Polio.

Also printed is a comics survey, which NEC hoped people would fill out and mail back to them (but then they'd ruin their copies of the Tick's third appearance!!).

Included in the survey is "What do you think about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?" (Actually, it says "What you do you", but these things happen.)

And lastly, checking out these 30-plus-year-old correspondences, we find this one from Anton Selisky of Truro, MA, who somehow worked up the gall to complain about people hiring Jack Kirby to draw for their books. 1986 was, as mentioned, the 25th anniversary of Marvel (not really, but just go with it), and at the time, some of Kirby's friends were pointing out that the co-creator of much of the Marvel Universe was being kept away from the company. This was an early example of the creator's rights struggle that many people didn't talk about at the time. It's kind of funny that this reader wrote a letter complaining about putting politics in comics, given some of today's more ridiculous positions on the matter. I guess nothing changes!