Thing sketchbook, part 27

It's time for yet another round of "let's look at Jeff's Thing sketchbook, which has become so synonymous with Jeff himself that it's difficult to determine where one ends and the other begins." I mean, I like my Thing sketchbook, everyone. WHO WANTS TO SEE SOME SKETCHES?!

Phil Hester - 2020

2020 was a light year for Thing sketches - for the reasons we all understand - and I spent some time dropping the book in the mail and sending it to folks who agreed to draw in it at their homes. I was very nervous doing this. But it all worked out, and one of the sketches I got back was this absolute gem from Phil Hester. Phil's known for his Marvel and DC books like Green Arrow and The Irredeemable Ant-Man, which is a personal favorite of mine.

In this sketch, we not only get a despondant Ben Grimm, but also the Silver Surfer flying off with Alicia Masters. The Surfer and Alicia have a history that goes back to the classic Galactus storyline in Fantastic Four 48-50, and when the FF was stuck in the Heroes Reborn universe in the '90s, the two had a brief romantic relationship in the pages of the Silver Surfer's own book. So this scene of rejection has some pretext, even though I HATE IT. But Ben and Alicia ended up back together, so I guess it's all okay in the end.

Todd Nauck - 2020

Here's another sketch that I trusted to the postal service, from the always friendly Todd Nauck, known for his work on titles like Spider-Man and Young Justice. Todd is always thoughtful and kind, and oh man did he deliver a really incredible headshot of ol' Ben Grimm here for the sketchbook. This was done around the time that Todd was drawing a lot of headshot variant covers for Marvel, including one for the Thing's own series. The blue outline is a nice touch.

Jacob Quinn - 2020

I was really happy to have my nephew Jake draw a sketch in this book. It was 2020 and I didn't have a lot of movement with the sketchbook, so it seemed like the right time to open it up to a wider audience, I guess, but also having people I know and care about personally in the book makes sense to me at this stage as well. Jake was 10 when he drew this, and honestly, he did a really great job with it, and he added a unique version for the book. I'm really happy with it.

Anna Litofsky - 2021

The spring of 2021 rolled around and COVID restrictions were still pretty prevalent; there were certainly no conventions happening yet. I was teaching a class on scripting for comics at my current university at this point, where we met once every other week in person, and the rest of the time on Zoom. There was no requirement for artistic skill to be in this class, but Anna came in with her own polished style and a great perspective. Once the end of the semester rolled around, I asked Anna if she'd be willing to draw in my sketchbook, and she agreed, producing this as we had class.

The class would go on to produce their own full-length comic, Tales of the 399, which we funded on Kickstarter. This was a really fulfilling experience for me. Anna drew the cover for the book and we've kept in touch since. She's contributed to several issues of Planet Comics and I'm excited to see where her future takes her.

Chad Kelson - 2021

This is the last of my quarantine sketches, and it comes from Chad Kelson, who has the online persona of "Metal Al" for his death metal covers of "Weird Al" Yankovic songs, if you can believe it. I met Chad at Al's Hollywood Star induction ceremony in 2018; he's also a big comic book fan and an artist in his own right, so we became fast friends.

Chad went above and beyond the call of duty with this incredible recreation that combines the Thing and Al's 1985 "Dare to be Stupid" album cover, going so far as to adding in the background album elements, squeezing them all onto a 5x5 sketchbook page.

I managed to get six new Thing sketches in all in between conventions, which I think was pretty good, all things considered. I'm...really glad the book didn't get lost while it traveled the country.

Rewriting the Superman/Kenny Rogers PSA crossover by Curt Swan

Curt Swan's 100th birthday was on February 17th, and as such, folks were sharing images and stories of Curt and his work online as a tribute to the greatest Superman artist of all time. Some even shared pictures of the original Swan artwork they own, which was a special treat for me. Swan is one of my favorite comic artists and I'd love to own a piece of his art one day.

Phil Hester, probably best known for his DC work as both a writer and artist (he also drew a cover to Teddy and they Yeti #1, wouldn't you know), shared a piece from his own collection, an anti-drug public service announcement from the Reagan years:

This was from a time when Superman was teaming up with the Nestle Quik Bunny and the Kool-Aid Man had his own special, but I was still surprised to see this one-page team up between the Man of Steel and country star Kenny Rogers. I was even more surprised to see Rogers swinging a mean left hook as he confronted some drug dealers. The signer appears in all eight panels of this story, compared to only three for Superman. Someone's hogging the spotlight!

Another notable thing about this page is that it's presented in black and white, which means that it was easy for me to erase the words in the speech balloons and fill them back in with some nonsense of my own, which I then proceeded to do, because I apparently had nothing else going on at the time.

I wanna say that...I like the results. Now Kenny Rogers is an out-of-control murderer who has somehow blackmailed Superman into doing his dirty work. This is a story we didn't know we needed.

If DC Comics would ever want to hire me to ruin some of their other stories, well, I'd be up for it. Sorry, Curt.

Alex Ross at the Warhol - appreciation for the man, frustration with the exhibit

Today was the big day for Alex Ross's "Heroes & Villains" exhibit at the Andy Warhol Museum on Pittsburgh's North Shore.  I decided on which books I should take and got in the car a little before 12:30, drove through the Fort Pitt tunnels and parked along Sandusky Street, right across the way from the museum.

As I walked through the front doors, I was greeted with a sign that said "'Heroes & Villains' Exhibit open to the public beginning at 8pm" or something to that effect, which was disconcerting.  I entered the main hall and saw a few dozen others lounging around, many holding comics and similar items which made it clear that they were there for the same reason I was.  I made my way to the front desk and asked about the exhibit, at which point I was told that the only people who could see the exhibit before 8:00 in the evening were those who purchased $250 tickets to the private tour.

I found this to go against everything I had seen on the Warhol Museum website and elsewhere in the days leading up to the event, and when I told the woman at the desk this, she wearily turned to a man in the background and said "what are doing about that again?", which led me to believe that others entered with the same understanding I had.  I spoke with another employee and voiced my displeasure at, well, not being allowed in to see the event for which I showed up, but the best answer I got was that I must have mistaken the information on the website or got it from a different, more unreliable source.  Below are screenshots from the site specific to the exhibit:

...and from the page with hours of operation:

So...I'm not sure what I was missing.  But just as the squeaky wheel gets the grease, I apparently pointed out my misgivings long/obstinately enough and scored some free passes for a return trip.  I got the impression that others at the show were similarly placated.

It's nice to know that I'll be seeing the exhibit at a later date for free, but I can't help but wonder why, even if there wasn't a miscommunication, Ross's exhibit wasn't open from the start of the business day.  Ross, as (correctly) advertised, held a book signing in the main lobby at 3:00.  My eyeball estimate of the crowd that showed up for the signing was a couple hundred people, fewer than 20 of whom took the private tour at 1:30.  While a number of the people there (myself included) bought items from the gift shop, I can't help but think that a solid percentage would have also bought a ticket to see the exhibit if given the chance - but as it was, many stood in line, got some signatures and left without paying a dime to the museum.

As it worked out, I waited in line to see Ross from about 1:30 until 3:00, at which time he walked in accompanied by a few guards and some of the museum staff.  The line moved fairly briskly, with some friendly conversation being exchanged between Ross and attendees.  I made it to the front of the line in about 15 minutes, and I had all the drama captured on flim:

JUST LOOK HOW EXCITED THE GIRL NEXT TO ALEX ROSS IS!!  Fantastic.

There was a two-item limit on signatures, though I cheated a bit and had my wife carry an extra book to get signed.  I eventually decided upon the Mythos hardcover, Earth X #1 and Kingdom Come #1.  Ross was very cordial and seemed (in the 30 seconds I was in front of him) like a nice guy.

Naturally, I brought copies of Teddy and the Yeti #s 1-3 with me and gave them to Ross.  He remarked on the title and then noticed that Phil Hester drew the first cover.  Five minutes afterwards I made the connection, but at the time I only said something stupid like "yep!"  Ross (obviously) worked with Hester on several Dynamite titles like Black Terror, which I thought was the Project Superpowers line's strongest book.  I could have mentioned that Phil was our one degree of comic book separation or asked if that line would eventually continue now that Kirby: Genesis seems to have taken its publication space, but at the time I was just happy that he took the books and seemed to appreciate them.

Here are two of the signatures I got: first on the inner cover/first page of Mythos, then on Earth X:

As I mentioned, I did pick up some swag while there.  The museum store must have stocked up for the exhibit, because they had a number of collections with Ross's work (the cafe had recent issues of books like Invaders: Now to read!) and a lot of comic-themed items in general.  I left with the following:

- A "Heroes & Villains" comic book: this Silver Age sized book isn't really a comic in its usual sense; rather it's a brief history of Ross and some of his influences.  It has the feel of a newsletter but is still pretty cool.
- An Andy Warhol bookmark featuring Ross's painting.  I was handed a few when I got to the table for the signing.
- A Fantastic Four magnet with the cover to issue #49
- Two Fantastic Four stickers, including one of the Thing and his catchphrase.

Overall, I had a nice time.  Obviously, it would have been nice to get to enter the exhibit today, and I'm still a little put off by the lack of clarification on the museum staff's part.  But I still managed to meet one of the most talented and recognizable creators in comics today, and I was able to leave him with some work of my own.  I'll take that for what it's worth and look forward to coming back at some point in the next few weeks.

Joe Sinnott is Yetitastic

Here's a preview of some new cover artwork I just received in the mail from none other than the illustrious Joe Sinnott, longtime inker of the Fantastic Four and all around great guy.  I met Joe at this year's Pittsburgh Comicon and I've gotta say - what a thrill it was to meet such an industry legend.  As you can tell, Joe's still a top-notch artist.

If I had to guess, I'd say that Joe used Phil Hester's cover to the first issue of Teddy and the Yeti as inspiration for this piece - he even drew in the faux ears that you can see on that cover if you look hard enough.  It'd be enough just to have this artwork done and in my possession, but I can't pass up the chance to use it in the book in some capacity as well.  The plan is to print it right away - I think I'll use this as a special "sketch" cover to issue #4 (in addition to Pat Olliffe's regular cover), due out whenever it feels like going to the printer.

Of course, that means that I might just have to get a sketch of Ted to use as a special cover to issue #5.  Oh, the life of a comic book publisher.  Such decadence.

Issue #2 off to the printer

Issue #2 went thorough its proofreading stage, some small edits were made (I can't believe I wrote "onto" instead of "on to"...seriously, I should know better), and now the pdf file is off to the printer.  It's out of my hands!  And that's a great feeling.  We're still on schedule for a February release, which is just where I wanted it to be.  Most folks got a hold of issue #1 at the December 30th Indy Comic Book Week release, so those people will have to wait even less than the folks who got it when I took it around to stores myself.

Issue two, just like the New Dimension Comics exclusive edition of #1, is being printed through Comixpress, a fairly well-known small print run printer.  Issue #1 (the one with the Phil Hester cover) was printed through Brenner, and the folks there did a wonderful job; I'm not switching because of any problem I had with them.  Their pricing scale, combined with Diamond's suggested minimum print run, is set up more for larger print runs, and that ultimately doesn't fit the numbers for an independent book like Teddy and the Yeti.  Now that I'm distributing through Haven (and going door-to-door in some cases), I can be a little more conservative in how many books I print at once.  If I run out of books (what a great problem that'd be!  Assuming they didn't just get dumped in a lake or something), I can just place another order with them as necessary.

I'll be taking a few days off before getting down to the details on issue #3, but that issue, honestly, is pretty well put together as it is.  The entire book is colored (minus the cover) and about a third of it is already lettered.  So maybe I won't have as many late late nights this time around.  One can dream...

Another ad

I mentioned a while ago that I worked out an ad swap with Digital Webbing.  Fist of Justice has an ad in Teddy and the Yeti #1 for its fifth issue, and T&Y has the reciprocal - an ad for issue #1 in their issue #5.  The book came out a few months ago, and Teddy and the Yeti had an ad on the back cover, which was great placement.

The image to the left here is the ad I threw together for the Fist of Justice book, and as you can see, I sure am getting my money's worth from issue one's Phil Hester cover...as you'll recall, the Diamond ad and the mailer each used parts of this particular cover as well.

I chose the phrase "against all odds!" not because it reflected any story element or theme, but because I thought it sounded cool.  And it does!  What can you do?  Also, I obviously didn't know where to stop when putting names of contributors on the ad.  I'm so proud of the book and all of the talent working on it, I just couldn't help it.  I honestly almost left my name off of the ad (since I'm guessing no one really knows who I am and thus it wouldn't convince anyone to buy the book), but I figured that, hell, I wrote the damn thing, I'm gonna self advertise.  It wouldn't be the first time!

In case there is some crazy person who wants to collect EVERYTHING Teddy and the Yeti have appeared on - stranger things have happened, I'm sure, but I doubt anyone other than me does this - Fist of Justice #5 can be ordered here.  You might also want to order the book...because it's a fun book.  The E-Man variant edition of issue five does not have the Teddy and the Yeti ad, in case you were curious.

Random updates

...get it? The image is of the character "Random" from X-Force...or X-Factor...one of those X-Men spinoff teams. Whatever. Anyway, a few updates to pass along, none big enough to warrant a long rant:

- I've updated this blog site just a bit by adding a few widgets to the side bar over on the right. Now you can search all posts (just like you've always wanted!), and wander through the maze that is the largest, most incomprehensible tag cloud with all the many, many labels I've used in the past.

You want to know how many times I've used "The Thing" as a tag? Four! (well, now it's five.) How about "Pittsburgh"? Take a peek on the right...and you just might find out! I've even tagged Sarah Palin once, for who knows what reason.

- Todd Nauck has agreed to do an interview for Teddy and the Yeti issue #2. As you'll recall (YOU WILL!), Todd drew the Mr. Massive cover to the same issue. Phil Hester was kind enough to do the same for issue #1 - a cover and an interview. I wasn't sure if I could get a hold of Todd, but I was able to a few days ago.

- They're having a ridiculous sale over at Toyrocket.com, the place I preorder most of my Futurama toys from. I'm not sure how long the sale - 50-90% off their entire stock - will last, but I moved on it as soon as I got the e-mail: among a few other things, I got the Marvel Legends 1st Appearance Thing figure for five bucks!

- I got an e-mail from Pat Olliffe on Thursday saying that his Teddy and the Yeti cover is done. He both penciled and inked it, and I'll be getting it in the mail in a few days. This is theoretically the cover to issue #4, though Duane and I may take some time off after #3...so we'll see what eventually happens.

- Teddy and the Yeti #1 is officially on its way from Brenner Printing to my house. I should get all 2,000 issues by Tuesday, at which time I'll have to figure out where to put them between now and when I ship the orders off to Diamond's various warehouses.

- Teddy and the Yeti #1 is currently number 40 on Exclamation Comics' top 100 best selling comic books of the day, outranking Dark Reign: Hawkeye #5, Haunt #1 and Deadpool Team-Up #899. I have no idea what this means in any real context.

- Artist Nick Acs has a new blog with art from a backup story that will be featured in a future issue of Teddy and the Yeti. It was posted on October 25th, and as of now it's very much the only post on the site. Which is awesome.

That's all I've got! And a great time was had by all.

Teddy and the Yeti - scourge of the Internets

Perhaps "scourge" isn't the right word, but it sounded so cool when I was writing the title, I kept it. We all live with disappointments.

One of the most satisfying things about slowly introducing Teddy and the Yeti to the outside world - and by "outside world" I mean "now more than three people potentially know about it" - is witnessing people I've never met discuss the book and characters. It lends a bit of relevance to them...or at least it's fun to find when I, once a day at least, type "Teddy and the Yeti" (using the quotes) into Google's search engine. Below are some of the results I've found, and they are each very exciting in their own ways.

Badger Comics, an online retailer, was to my knowledge the first site to offer Teddy and the Yeti #1 as a pre-order. In fact, it's listed first on the list of Google's results, even before the actual homepage. Why www.teddyandtheyeti.com isn't listed first is confounding - the website is the EXACT name you're typing in...but oh well. Perhaps that means that lots of people are going to Badger Comics and pre-ordering the book.

Exclamation Comics is a retailer based out of the Netherlands (the Netherlands!). For reasons unknown, they've "hand picked"(?) the first issue of Teddy and the Yeti as a title they think you, the discerning reader, will enjoy. They've even given me my own hyperlinked name that leads to a list of books I've worked on...which currently includes one book. Someone (ahem) should set them straight and let them know that I have two or three books out. Come on, Netherlands! Get it together!

On a Comic Book Resources blog about books coming out in December, my new best friend Josh B. asks "What about Teddy and the Yeti #1? It's right at the back of the comic section and easy to miss, but it's got a Phil Hester cover and the promise of at least one yeti!" Well, Josh, I hope I don't disappoint you when I reveal that the book only has one Yeti. It sounds like you were hoping for me. I swear that I do not know who "Josh B." is. The "Larry" who posts later on...yeah, I know him, so that one doesn't count.

Lastly, I just about fell out of my hypothetical chair when I learned that HOH Comics is taking pre-orders of the first issue on eighth wonder of the world eBay! I have no idea if anyone is ordering the book or not (the information on the site says that they have 100 available), but just having something of mine on eBay...it fills me with emotions that possibly amount to pride. Hopefully not of the "seven deadly sins" variety, but hey, I'll take what I can get.

Cover preview, part 3

If you look back far enough, you'll find cover previews parts 1 and 2...posted December 12th and 13th of last year. This one is a bit overdue, but once the whole thing is seen, I think it'll be worth the wait.

Wednesday of this week is the deadline to send solicitation information and cover images to Diamond for inclusion in the December Previews catalogue, and as such, I thought it'd be a nice time to show a little preview of the cover to Teddy and the Yeti issue #2.

Issues #1 and 3 will have covers drawn by Phil Hester and Tom Scioli, respectively, but this cover is all Duane's, and I have to say that he's done a knockout job. The detail, the action, the...ninjas...it's all a sight to behold.

Colors on this cover are once again by Karin Rindevall. You'll be able to see the whole cover, logos and all, pretty soon.

Cover preview, part 1

The past few weeks have been pretty exciting, as I've seen artwork continue to roll in as we inch closer and closer to releasing the book in stores.  It's always fulfilling to see a creation come to life, and I know that Duane and I are both just as thrilled to see some great artists put their stamp on a few Teddy and the Yeti covers.

The clip you see to the left here is from our first issue.  The pencils are done by none other than Phil Hester, a super talented guy whose work you might recognize from runs on Green Arrow and The Irredeemable Ant Man, to name a few.  Duane showed us his versatility in inking and Karin did her usual bang-up job in the colors department.

I'm just releasing a clip for now, but I'll show the entire thing soon enough.  I've got another preview from the cover to the third issue coming up soon, but for now...marvel at the awesomeness that is this part of our first cover.