Some belated Tick FCBD reviews

Let's say that you're a guy or girl who has a personal blog, and you're starting to wonder if it's really worth it to keep writing when you don't know if anyone is really reading.  Sure, they may find your blog while searching for pictures on Google Images, but are they taking any time to digest all of the thoughts you're putting into your site?  Let's also say that you write for a comic book blog, and that you decided to review some Free Comic Book Day titles.  There are dozens of others out there doing pretty much the same thing, so why does it matter?  Well, I'm here to tell you this: if you review a book that I am involved with in any capacity, I WILL READ IT.  That's right.  I've spent the last month looking up reviews about the 2014 Tick special because I apparently need to know what other people are thinking about books I write.

So stick in there, comic book blog writers.  I am (almost desperately) reading what you have to say.

I'm happy to hear that most of the comments on the issue were positive.  And unlike last year's comic, I didn't have to look as hard to find reviews, so the fact that people were actually talking about it was another nice thing.  So let's toss some links out and go through a couple different reviews.  The image at the very top of this post isn't from a review per se, but it is from NPR and we'll go with it.  Right before FCBD arrived, NPR posted an article about the event and they used the Tick as their cover image.  This was very cool!  The link to the article is here:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2014/05/02/308599735/cyborgs-simpsons-and-ticks-all-about-free-comic-book-day

Bleeding Cool posted reviews of 60 books, including the Tick, and had this to say about it:

Oh, and a review for FUBAR was right below it!

If there was one review that might not have liked the book, it came from Comic Vine:

If you follow the link, you'll find that the author of the review is a fan of the Edlund stories and can't quite get into later adaptations.  To this I say...yeah, you've got a point.  No one and nothing can match the original run.  But the alternative to having others work on the property is not having a book, 'cause Ben isn't planning a secret comeback any time soon (OR IS HE?!).  (He's not.)

Here's some of the other Tick reviews I found:

http://www.rhymeswithgeek.com/fcbd-2014-rundown/

http://curiosityofasocialmisfit.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-tick-fcbd-2014-review.html

http://rayvanhornjr2.blogspot.com/2014/05/cool-comic-o-week-tick-free-comic-book.html

http://www.forcesofgeek.com/2014/05/cosmic-treadmill-triple-shot-free-comic.html

http://www.fortressofsolitude.co.za/2014/04/free-comic-book-day-2014-comic-books/

http://bamsmackpow.com/2014/05/03/free-comic-book-day-2014-mini-reviews-guardians-galaxy-new-52-futures-end/

http://comicsbeat.com/fcbd-2104-read-it-or-leave-it-part-three/

The point of this all is to say 'thanks' to everyone who took a little bit of time to write about something I worked on.  I read each one that I came across.  Sometimes I was a little too close to the screen.

Free Comic Book Day is here with the Tick and FUBAR!

Happy Free Comic Book Day, everyone!  Today's a day that I've been looking forward to for quite some time, as I get to pick up some great free comics...and also a couple that I did a little bit of work on.  I hope that we all get a chance to make it to a participating comic shop today for the event - and if you're out there and you happen to see a copy of the Tick or FUBAR specials, well, I hope you'll grab one of those as well.  As a personal favor to me.  I'll owe you.

I got a peek at both books a few weeks ago, but now they're out in the wild and I'm pretty excited about it.  I drove up to Boston yesterday and I'm set to sign some books at three different New England Comics locations this weekend.  My schedule is as follows:

NEC Quincy: Saturday 11-2
NEC Cambridge/Harvard Square: Saturday 4-6
NEC Malden: Sunday noon-2

I was able to write a two-page editorial piece for the Tick special.  Here is proof that I mentioned Franks and Beans in a publication being distributed around the world.

If anyone picks up the book and finds this page as a result, I hope you'll let me know what you thought of it, good or bad.  According to the above screenshot from Reddit (sent to me by FUBAR EIC Jeff McComsey), someone is preparing to bring things to one of the stores for me to sign.  This is pretty bizarre, but of course I will sign anything (car tires, dog collars, liquid nitrogen) that anyone brings my way.

And speaking of FUBAR, today's the day for a pretty big release for this book as well.  The FUBAR: FCBD Special will reach more readers than all of the other publications combined, so we're all crossing our fingers with this one in the hopes that it leads to some new exposure and interest.  Judging from the picture below, it might be working:

This is the stack of the newly-released FUBAR: American History Z that Beyond Comics in Maryland ordered in anticipation of either the apocalypse or some brisk sales.  There's nearly 200 books piled up here.  AHZ came out in stores last Wednesday - just in time! - and hopefully they're in a prominent place come tomorrow.

And as we all know, Mug Cream Soda is hard to come by in Pittsburgh for some ungodly reason, so whenever I take a trip that takes me anywhere near New York City, I stock up.  Suffice it to say that I'm stocked up for a little while, now.

Some quick news items:
- NPR has a handy guide to Free Comic Book Day, and the author of this article lists the Tick as one of his "Best Bets"! http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2013/05/01/180290321/which-comics-should-i-get-your-free-comic-book-day-cheat-sheet
- Rue Morgue has a pre-FCBD interview with a number of FUBAR contributors here:
http://www.rue-morgue.com/2013/05/free-comic-book-day-2013-an-interview-with-the-creators-of-fubar/
- IGN also spends some time talking about the FUBAR special here: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/05/03/a-guide-to-free-comic-book-day-2013

If you're in the Boston area, stop by tomorrow or Sunday and say hi.  If not, you can still, as incredible as it sounds, enjoy Free Comic Book Day without seeing or coming into physical contact with me, so I hope you still make it out to grab some free books.  I'll post some pictures from the day here soon, so you can wait in staggering anticipation until those arrive.  It's a big day.

FUBAR gets some high profile attention

Suffice it to say, FUBAR keeps surprising me with the amount of exposure it continues to gather.  The book has been well received since the first volume and it's continuously done well at conventions.  A few weeks ago, I was at a comic shop and someone approached me because he recognized me from a signing earlier in the year.  He was excited to talk about FUBAR and I, honestly, was excited about someone recognizing me.

There's a difference, though, with having a good convention and seeing the book included on the New York Times bestseller list, and recently, FUBAR got more of the high-profile attention that is a continued source of amazement.

A few days ago, Kickstarter revealed a "best of 2012" presentation on their site, and front and center in this was a full slide dedicated to FUBAR and its NYT accomplishment.  FUBAR was one of only a handful of projects that the site highlighted for the entire year-in-review show.  That was quite the accolade, though it wasn't the only one to come our way.

On January 9th, National Public Radio mentioned FUBAR in a piece about Kickstarter's accomplishments, and they were even kind enough to put a direct link to the FUBAR homepage on their website.  The combination of these two events, I'm told from a reliable source, is already leading to increased website hits and a higher demand for the books themselves on sites like Amazon.com.

What a great thing it is to be involved with a project like FUBAR - there was certainly a significant amount of luck in the mix on my end, as I was basically at the right place at the right time to jump on the creative wagon before the first volume came out - and it's been very gratifying to see it reach even the outskirts of the cultural zeitgeist the way it has.

The FUBAR Winter Special, as it turns out, will be in stores on the last Wednesday of this month, followed by the third volume and several other smaller projects later in the year.  Who knows where we'll be in another year.  Maybe it'll go even higher.