Wait, there's another Paul Ryan? From Wisconsin? And he's an unapologetic ultraconservative just like Sarah Palin, teamed up with an historically moderate yet now supposed rightest-of-the-right-wing presidential candidate in John McCain/Mitt Romney? Weird.
Paul Ryan the artist was my absolute favorite artist growing up in the early-to-mid '90s - something that was undoubtedly a result of him drawing my favorite book growing up in Fantastic Four. Ryan's artwork, I think, still holds up even though the stories now seem a bit goofy in places, and I wish that he would return to the FF in some capacity, even just for an anniversary issue or something similar. Ryan spends his time these days on the Phantom comic strip, so he's still got a presence, though I miss his work in comic books.
I'm sure Mr. Ryan is getting a lot of attention these days due to mistaken identity. But he can take some solace (I guess) in the fact that at least one person, upon hearing that Paul Ryan had been selected as the official Republican vice presidential nominee, looked at the news with incredulity and said, "the comic book artist?"
It's a shame that the Venture Bros. cartoon isn't more widely known. For one thing, it's a fantastic program - one of my favorite shows off all time - that's smart, funny, edgy and action-packed like few others can ever aspire to be. For another, more people would be making the connection that Rex Ryan, former Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator and current New York Jets head coach, looks EXACTLY like the character Sergeant Hatred.
The similarities between the two don't stop there, though - there's more to it than just looks. On the cartoon, Sgt. Hatred is a 50-something, overweight loudmouth who loves, well, feet. Please tell me that statement doesn't describe Ryan as well.
Your friend and mine, Larry, first made the connection and sent me the picture at the very top (he's also the one that pointed out how similar Sarah Palin is to a certain GI Joe villain), and I think it's spot on. If there is ever a live-action Venture Bros. movie (a cartoon one would suit me just fine), Rex Ryan NEEDS to play Hatred. It's a match made in heaven. Or wherever Rex Ryan comes from.
I mean, really. Just look at it!
Speaking of football, next up on the playoff schedule has the Jets traveling to Pittsburgh to take on the Steelers. It's greedy of me, but I'm really hoping the Steelers can win two more games this season to capture the Lombardi trophy for a record seventh time. That way I can be happy and every other fan of every other team can be very, very jealous. Make it happen, boys.
I had a chance to make it to the last game versus the Ravens, a thrilling beat down that Baltimore has had coming for quite a while. Seriously, they like to talk. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editor Dan Gigler was there with a camera and I just happened to be in the right place in the right time to get my photo snapped with the aforementioned Larry as we celebrated the victory. Gigler put it up on the PG website with other pictures from the game. Check out the entire post or, for my fantastic image, look no further than directly below:
Larry and I took a few videos of the game which we promptly uploaded to our YouTube page, each of which now have more views than almost all our Franks and Beans videos. The Steelers videos took literally minutes to shoot, edit and upload. Franks and Beans takes hours of our time and thoughtful creativity that involves more thought than just hitting the 'record' button. And yet the people have spoken, I suppose. Check out the most popular so far, the playing of the "Renegade" song that the fans and defensive players get so excited to hear:
We also filmed some Franks and Beans while we were there, since we are so crafty and opportunistic. That footage will be part of episode 52 (or thereabouts), but in the meantime, check out our newly released episode 50, in which we did something strikingly similar by filming a clip at the Pittsburgh Penguins' new stomping grounds, the Consol Energy Arena. I hate that it's named after a coal company (I'm sure Consol is spending more money on marketing and advertising than, say, researching clean energy solutions or improving employee health benefits), but man, is it a top-shelf arena.
This post had almost nothing to do with comic books, the theme of this blog. I apologize for that. Oh, the Fantastic Four "death" issue comes out next week. I'm sure it'll make me want to vomit. There we go.
In either a sign that the book is gaining some form of cultural relevance or perhaps a sign of the apocalypse, Teddy and the Yeti now has its very own entry on Wikipedia, the encyclopedia that anyone can add crap to. Now anyone who types that phrase into Google (I've never been known to do that) will find the Wiki article staring them in the face.
I'm happy that the characters have reached such a cultural benchmark, in all honesty. Looking at the article itself, it seems that, uh...whoever wrote it certainly does have a big, uh, insight into the book. Yes. Well, *ah hem*, I will let others click on the link and decide that messy business for themselves. And if anyone decides to add in that Teddy and the Yeti #4 will feature the Yeti vs. Sarah Palin (in a steel cage match), well, I suppose that's your prerogative. That's Wikipedia for you!
...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.
- 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.
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