Teddy and the Yeti cameo in "War of the Independents"!

Yesterday at Pittsburgh Comics, I picked up the first issue of Dave Ryan's War of the Independents, an ambitious crossover event with independent comic characters galore from dozens of different publishers.  Dave first previewed the book at the 2010 New York Comic Con, and the first part of this miniseries is now out in comic shops everywhere.

As I made my way to the back of the issue, I came to the following spread:

There are a lot of recognizable characters to be seen - Bone, Hack/Slash, the Tick, Ms. Monster, Todd Nauck's Wildguard, Digital Webbing's Fist of Justice...oh, and if you look near the top left corner, you'll see the Yeti!

I knew that Teddy and the Yeti would be making an appearance in this book at some point, but I didn't know it'd be so soon.  The image is taken from Jorge Correa's cover to T&Y issue #3 - it seems that there was a lot of cutting and pasting when it came to characters in this shot.

This won't be the last appearance of either Ted or the Yeti in this series - I'm told that they'll both have a part in issue #3 and, if I'm remembering correctly, we'll see them in issue #6 as well.  So check for this at your local comic shop...if you can't find it, I'll try to get some ordering info to pass along.  Issue #2 arrives this December!

Thing sketchbook, part 5

Here's the next five Thing sketches that I've collected!  These five have a few things in common beyond the obvious: they're all from the 2006 Comic-Con International, and they're all AWESOME.  Check 'em out, with witty commentary on each:

Fiona Staples - Comic-Con International 2006

Fiona Staples was the art half of Markosia's "Done to Death" book.  Ryan Stegman told her to draw ears on the Thing (as I bugged him about doing the same in previous pieces of art), so she did - and then put flowers growing out of his head.  I love the uniqueness of this sketch.

Comic-Con International 2006

I really should remember this artist's name (Scott?), as he sat in at my booth for an hour or so at the 2006 San Diego show.  He had a pinup in Image's Invincible a few months later.

He apparently ran into Rosario Dawson a few minutes before stopping at our booth, and he was kicking himself for not being able to talk to her.  "She was just so beautiful", he kept saying.

Jason Martin - Comic-Con International 2006

Jason Martin (creator of "Super Real") had helped promote Mr. Massive, the book I had at the San Diego show this year, so we chatted a few times over the weekend.  The all blue Thing was a great touch.

Aaron Farmer - Comic-Con International 2006

Aaron Farmer (part of Ms. Monster's illustrious crew) had a booth next to ours at the San Diego show in 2006, and he did this cute rendition in no time flat.  I especially enjoy the Disney-esque look to the words.  This from a mohawk wearing hard core guy like Aaron...spectacular.

Todd Nauck - Comic-Con International 2006

Todd Nauck is a great artist and a really nice guy.  I apparently even cut in line to give him this book, but it all worked out - Todd even drew a really cool Mr. Massive cover for me that I was just able to use in the second issue of Teddy and the Yeti.

More to come, some of which even top these, as hard as that is to believe.

Public Financing

I recently got a message promoting the upcoming miniseries "War of the Independents" (a play on words, I get it!), which is a big crossover event featuring lots of independent creations.  If you look at the image above you'll see some fairly big names on the independent circuit: Savage Dragon, Zot!, Hack/Slash, Kade...oh, and hey!  Ms. Monster in the top right.  I'm not quite sure how this all came together (or how many permissions the people working on this had to get), but it seems like a pretty cool idea.

The message included a link to the website Kickstarter, which allows people to raise money for various causes - in this case, the creators are looking for funding to create the project and are asking the Internet comic community at large.  I'm not sure how I feel about something like this.  I mean, if someone wants to ask for money for a project, then he or she is more than welcome, and if someone is willing to drop a few dollars in the cyber hat, then all the better.  But I don't think it's something I'd ever do with Teddy and the Yeti.  Maybe I just want to keep the creation process as simple as I can, or maybe I just want to focus on putting the book out and not asking for donations.

In any case, there's a tiered structure that awards several "prizes" based on how much one donates.  Donations start at $5.00 and go all the way to $350, which gets you a bunch of things including the miniseries, a page or original art from the series and - oh yeah - a cameo appearance by characters of the donor's creation.  It's a unique concept.  I'd be happy - naturally - to get Teddy and the Yeti in this book (hell, almost any book), but it's not something I want to spend $350 on.  For that price I could get a top-rate cover for the book or a bunch of other production work.  Now, if I could talk the people putting this together down to, say, $100 for just the cameo, well, that might be a bit different.  Ah hem.

"War of the Independents" debuts at the New York Comic-Con in October.  The Kickstarter donation page is here.

Franks and Beans ad

Yesterday I posted the Ms. Monster half page ad that will be printed in Teddy and the Yeti #3 - here's the other half!

I've posted about - or at least cryptically referenced - Franks and Beans on previous occasions, but it bears reiteration here: anyone reading this blog should go to the F&B website and watch the videos contained therein perhaps dozens and dozens of times.  The ad at top takes a number of its cues from our as-of-yet unposted 40th episode - we've had some problems uploading the thing to both YouTube and Funny or Die, but Larry (my co-star) and I hope to have those resolved by the time issue #3 hits the stands.

Larry has told me that he plans on coming to the New York Comic Con with the Wagon Wheel Comics crew (me and whoever else decides to come along, basically), and it'd be great to have a DVD of the series there for people to check out.

Some of you may be asking, "Jeff, I'm interested in seeing what Franks and Beans has to offer, but I am much too lazy to click on links.  Why don't you just embed a video on this site?"  Why, various reader, you have quite the point!  I think that's what I'll do - and to make sure I put my best foot forward, I'll show what just might be my favorite episode of all time, #12 - "Mailbag/Bloopers".  Enjoy!

Ms. Monster ad

Ads have always been a part of comics (they fostered my love of sea monkeys), and as I've said before, one of my greatest thrills in putting Teddy and the Yeti together is selecting a few ads to put in each issue.  I don't want to overdo it, of course, as I'd rather reserve most of the space for...you know...comics...but there are always a few things I want to show off to the world that don't fit in otherwise.

One is, obviously, Franks and Beans (new episode up today, kids), but I'm not always so selfish or at least self referential.  Issue #1 had an ad for Digital Webbing's Fist of Justice as well as a big, back cover ad for the Hero Initiative -  which allowed me to say "hey!  Captain America is in my book!" and not be a liar about it.

Issue #3 gives me the opportunity to toss in the above ad for Ms. Monster and her website.  I first met Ms. Monster and the B-Minus crew at 2006's San Diego Comic Con International, where we had booths side by side.  The group  works together on a television show that airs in San Francisco (and if I'm not mistaken, they were on at one point in Salem, Massachusetts).

Ms. Monster is something of an Elvira-style throwback character, reminiscent of "Chilly Billy" late night horror movie hosts, and her enthusiasm for her craft (as well as, uh, guts and entrails) really shows through in everything she does.  Beyond all of this, she and the others are AWESOME, so that should be reason enough to check out her website and browse through the wares.  I've got volume one of the show's DVD set, and it looks like volume two is up and ready to order.

The picture below is from the '06 San Diego Con - if you can manage to look past the blue woman in the center, you'll see on the left someone, his mouth agape, holding up a copy of Mr. Massive #1 - that would be Ratha, the artist and co-creator of Mr. Massive.  As people were snapping pictures (including this one, which later showed up on Ms. Monster's website), Ratha said "hey, free advertising!" and shot his arm up just in time to get this ridiculous result.  I'm not sure if anyone other than me ever noticed this when looking at Ms. Monster's pictures, but perhaps that's why I find it so funny.

As an aside, I really like Ms. Monster's blue and orange color scheme.

Pictures from the con

The New York Comic Con has been pretty much the only thing I can focus on since I found out that I'll be attending this year.  Already, even though the show isn't for another eight months or so, I've contacted people about attending (Duane might make it after all!) and have started making plans on what to take.  Since October is football season, and the Steelers play the Jets at some point, I've started making contingency plans in case the game is in New York and the Steelers just happen to be there that Sunday (unlikely).

The only experience that I might find comparable to this upcoming show is San Diego's Comic-Con International that I attended in 2006...so in honor of that, I thought I'd post some pictures from that show.  It was lots of fun, as if the picture of me and Frankenberry didn't quite illustrate that well enough.