Happy holidays, everyone! Let's look at some Thing sketch cards I've picked up semi-recently!
D. Lynch - I like this card for several reasons: 1) It's a different shot of the character than what you might normally expect; 2) It's fully colored; 3) It might be drawn by David Lynch, creator of "Twin Peaks" (I mean, who can say for sure?).
Shawn Atkins - Atkins is a Pittsburgh local and even though he writes swear words on sketch cards, I like his work a lot. I picked this up at the Toonseum last summer; he's also got an Invisible Woman card there that I have to believe I'll eventually purchase.
Carl Yonder - I backed artist Carl Yonder's "Leo Cosmos" Kickstarter project and pledged at the level that got me, among other things, a sketch card, so naturally I requested a drawing of the Thing. Carl drew a mashup of his character and Ben Grimm, which is why the Thing sports hair in various places. Carl has previously drawn the Thing in my sketchbook and is a fellow FUBAR contributor!
Matthew Buttich - I found this card on eBay and watched it for an estimated million years before finally pulling the trigger on it. I think the different shades of black add a lot to this card.
Tim Shinn - This card was also an eBay find, and I love it because I love trench coat Thing, just as everyone in his or her right mind loves trench coat Thing.
I've been lucky enough to be pretty busy with comic work over the last few months - this year, even, I guess. One of the (admittedly few) downsides to that is that I don't have very much time for this blog or other types of recreational writing...but I'm still out here, doing...stuff.
Somewhere on that list of stuff sits a new issue of DC Conspiracy's Magic Bullet! This recently released issue is currently being circulated primarily around the Washington, DC area. I've had a few comics published in previous issues, and this time around I teamed up with a few friends to create a one page comic titled "One Wish".
"One Wish" came about after a conversation with your good friend (and mine) Larry a few years ago. I'm not even sure what the context of the conversation was, but he let it spill and I decided that it might make a good Magic Bullet-style comic, so I plotted it out and put the letters into the final product. Providing the art is the incomparable Joe Badon. It all came together pretty well, I think, and I'm happy that I was able to put this together with those two guys.
I got a bundle of comics in the mail and have been working on distributing them around the Pittsburgh area. I spent the summer volunteering once again at the Toonseum, so it was a good bet that I'd leave a stack at the entrance to the comic/cartoon art museum. I'll also be bringing some with me to the inaugural Wizard World Pittsburgh show, which is coming up in just a few short weeks (more on that later)!
Before I go, here's one more peek at something else that I'm working on, this time with Ian Chase Nichols. I worked with Ian on a few Tick projects and I'm happy to be collaborating with him again. I'm putting this clip up here because this comic is also for a newspaper-style publication, but it's not the MB. I'll give out some more information on that project when it gets a little further along.
So many great Thing sketches in this round of the Thing sketchbook show...thing. This might be the best grouping of five consecutive sketches yet...though I suppose I've said that before. There are some great ones, though, to be sure. Check 'em out!
Zander Cannon - Comic-Con International 2014
After pulling in a half dozen sketches at Comic-Con in both 2012 and '13, for some reason I returned from San Diego in 2014 having added only one Thing sketch to the book. But what a sketch it is! This beauty, done entirely in colored pencils, is by Zander Cannon, perhaps best known for his work on the graphic novel Heck! and his work on the America's Best Comics line with Alan Moore. I know him best, though, for his short lived Chainsaw Vigilante series, a spinoff of the Tick line. The rounded figure and the stubby arms and legs really make this piece for me - along with, of course, the beautiful bright orange and blue.
Dani Grew - Toonseum 2014
I worked with Dani Grew during my time volunteering at the Toonseum in Pittsburgh. Dani is an artist in residence at the museum, and she does a lot of work in coordinating the various exhibits as well. I was hesitant to ask her to draw something in the sketchbook as I wasn't sure if she's want to do it or not...but as always, my desire for Thing sketches overrides any semblance of manners or couth. And this time, my lack of social grace paid off in the form of this great sketch. I love the subway figures to each side and how expressive everyone is.
Katie Cook - Pittsburgh Comicon 2014
One of my big regrets of going to Detroit's Motor City Con was forgetting to take the sketchbook with me. I partially made up for it by buying a blank cover and having Katie Cook draw on it, but it's just not the same as getting something in the ol' sketchbook. When I saw that Cook was coming to the Pittsburgh Comicon in 2014, almost four years after the Detroit show, I knew that I had to add a sketch and I was lucky enough to grab this great, tiny watercolor before I ran out of pages.
Let's check out that sketch cover!
Okay, obviously the scrapbook joke is a theme of Cook's, but I'll go with it. Now that I think about it, I have a few of these blank covers with sketches on them. Maybe one day the world will be ready for a sketch cover post. Who can say?
Christopher Peterson - New York Comic Con 2014
I made it back to the New York Comic Con in 2014 and was able to spend one day at the show. NYCC is always packed to the gills with people and it's hard to see everything in one day, so I try to make a point to add one sketch into the book when I go there - there's usually not time to get more than that unless that's what I want to do all day. Anyway, this year I was able to get a sketch from Christopher Peterson, a fellow FUBAR alum who has gone on to work on some fairly high profile books. Here we see another appearance of the Thing with a trench coat, which I am always grateful for. This is a very moody piece! I think Christopher was happy with it and I certainly am as well.
Don Simpson - Pittsburgh Indy Comix Expo 2015
It's pretty difficult not to just stare at this piece when I look through the book. It's a full-figure drawing, it's in wonderfully rendered color, it's by Megaton Man creator Don Simpson...and it's the Thing! It's hard to find fault in any of those reasons. It's difficult to rank the drawings in the book, but if I absolutely had to, this would certainly occupy one of the top spaces. Not only did I get to strike up a conversation with Don, but I at least hold out a little bit of hope that one day we may work together on something fun. For certain, he drew one of the signature pieces for the book, and I couldn't be happier with it. It's, in a word, incredible.
It'll be hard to top these five as a group. We'll see what I can do with the next batch, some of which have yet to be drawn!
I haven't posted any entries into the Thing sketchbook for a while. Time to rectify that terrible (almost unforgivable, really) mistake!
Derek Fridolfs - New York Comic Con 2013
I only spent one day at the 2013 NYCC, and I only got one sketch there as well. This one comes from Derek Fridolfs, who might be best known as an inker on a number of DC books with Dustin Nguyen. As the Thing sketchbook isn't just for the "classic" Thing but Thing offshoots as well, it was high time to get a drawing of the Thing from the Ultimate universe. This Ultimate Ben Grimm started out looking fairly similar to the Marvel proper version until after the Ultimate Fantastic Four version was cancelled, at which time the character busted out of his rocky cocoon and gained energy powers...purple energy powers. He has since gained the ability to shift into his rocky form as well (probably because it looks cooler), but nevertheless, this is a unique version of the Thing and it's welcome in the book for sure. Glad I was able to add it to the list.
Ryan Dunlavey - Comic Book Jones 2013
The December, 2013 Comic Book Jones anniversary signing event was marred just a bit by a snowstorm and some bad driving conditions that followed, but I had fun nonetheless. Steve Becker, April Murphy and I made it to the store just in time for an icy snow to start falling from the sky, and by the time we left later in the evening, we were sliding all the way across New Jersey into Pennsylvania. Also in attendance were Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey of Action Philosophers! and Comic Book Comics fame. I was able to chat with them for a while, and Ryan was kind enough to add this poker playing Thing to the sketchbook. This is the first reference to the Thing's floating poker game that travels across the Marvel Universe, and it's a good one.
April Murphy - Comic Book Jones 2013
April Murphy might be better known for her tattoo designs and prints, but I was able to get her, at the same Comic Book Jones signing, to draw the Thing in the sketchbook. At that point, it's not like we were going anywhere, so perhaps I cornered her at the right time and only had to cajole her a couple times before she acquiesced. I believe that as she was drawing this, I snuck out of the comic shop to go and buy some Mug Cream Soda.
Duane Redhead - Free Comic Book Day 2014
Who'd have thought that I would ever get England's Duane Redhead, artist on Teddy and the Yeti and The Tick, to draw in the Thing sketchbook? Who would have thought that I would ever get to meet him in person in the first place? The Free Comic Book Day signing at Boston's New England Comics locations gave us the opportunity to meet and I walked away with a lot of good memories...and this awesome Thing sketch. Initially, I had concocted some huge, impossible scene for Duane to draw, with multiple versions of the Thing standing behind each other as cosmic rays flew in the background. This was an example of me being a bad friend, and thankfully I realized that before the trip was over. I still probably asked Duane to draw too much, but at least he didn't have to punch me to get me to tone my demands for the book down. As it is, I got a great Thing image with Ben Grimm in the foreground and those pesky cosmic rays saying through the scene. This is certainly one of the more complete images in the entire book.
Joe Wos - Toonseum 2014
In the summer of 2014, I volunteered at Pittsburgh's Toonseum, a museum for comic and cartoon art. It's a great place! Joe Wos was the head curator at the time (he's since moved on and has a nationally syndicated comic strip in the works!). Joe has an incredible collection of cartoon art and he's as big an aficionado as they come. I brought the sketchbook to the museum one afternoon and Joe was kind enough to draw this cartoonish Thing into the book, adding in the extra ice cream gag to boot.
Well! That's five more Thing sketches. There are more to come. Look for 'em...some time.
Pittsburgh has lagged behind other cities in terms of comic book conventions in recent years, but maybe that is finally changing. If you haven't heard, Wizard World recently bought the rights to the Pittsburgh Comic-Con, which will be held this September at the David L. Lawrence convention center in downtown Pittsburgh. There are good things and bad things about Wizard taking over, I suppose, and we'll see what the inaugural event brings later in the year.
I'm more excited about Pittsburgh's independent comic show, PIX, which takes place this year on Saturday, March 28th. This isn't the first year for the show. I heard about it last year after the registration deadline had passed, so I made sure that I got an early jump on it this year. I'm not quite sure what to expect, but the fact that there is a show dedicated specifically to small press and creator-owned comics is something to be pleased about.
The show, which is co-sponsored by the Toonseum, will be held at 10 S. 19th Street in Pittsburgh from 10-5 on Saturday, with programs taking place later that evening, from 7-11pm. Both admission and parking to the event are free!
I'll be there with a few of my new books, including the Naked Man at the Edge of Time mini comic, which hasn't been on sale anywhere before now. I filled out the requisite exhibition form, including information about myself and my publications. I am apparently a raging narcissist as my damn entry is longer by an exponential factor than anyone else's on the list so far:
In case you are wondering, yes, this is embarrassing, and yes, I wish I could change it, but I'm not going to mention it because I don't want to bring more attention to myself (...other than writing a blog about it, I guess).
Some other guests include Carolyn Belefski (Magic Bullet), Rafer Roberts (FUBAR, Black Terror) and Don Simpson (Megaton Man). I'll be interested to meet Simpson for the first time, and a bit nervous about bringing up The Tick with him, but I suppose it had to happen some time.
Saturdays at Comic-Con are often the busiest days of the entire event. It has a feeling of "let's squeeze in as much as we can before it's all over". Sunday, in contrast, is pretty mellow and relaxed.
I was nervous about this particular Saturday weeks in advance, though, because it was announced that "Weird Al" Yankovic was going to make a rare Comic-Con appearance in the form of a panel at the Horton Grand Theater.
The Horton was a new offsite location for Comic-Con in 2014, and it took some obvious cues from Nerd HQ and its intimate celebrity panels. Nerd HQ does everyone a favor and distributes tickets to its panels before the events, so there's very little time spent waiting in line, a staple of Comic-Con-run panels. As the Horton Theater seats only a few hundred people, I had nightmares of waiting in line overnight just to get the chance to take in this panel, which was at the top of my list for the entire show.
Comic-Con, though, chose to hold a random drawing for tickets on Saturday morning, much in the same way it gives out tickets to autograph signings and certain (LEGO) exclusive offerings. I had never waited in line for a random drawing, and I found the entire concept a bit suspect to begin with, so there was a lot of trepidation over whether it would even be worth it or not to try and get tickets for this event.
I'm glad I gave it a chance, because it obviously worked out, and it was much more painless than I imagined. Of course, I say this as someone who was able to get one of the few tickets available, but overall I think that Comic-Con has a good system in place when it comes to events like these.
I got in line about an hour before the doors officially opened for Saturday, and by this time the line was already stretched out of the convention center, down the stairs, across the street and onto the sidewalk near the water. Some people thought better of it and left when we didn't seem to be moving by 9:15, but soon after we were steadily on our way to the entrance.
Once inside the autograph pavilion, the lines split up further depending on what event you wanted to go and see. There were quite a few people who wanted to try for the Weird Al tickets, but still, I would say that before 10:00, it was my turn to grab a ticket.
The system is so low-tech to the point of being ridiculous. Comic-Con volunteers hold a cloth bag with generic "keep this ticket" tickets inside. You pick one, and if there's a stamp on the back (for me it was an image of a frog), you win. Luckily, if you get a ticket with no stamp, you can get in line once again, which by this time only takes five or so minutes to get back to the front. Even luckier, my wife pulled a winning ticket. Luckier still, each winning ticket gets you two event tickets, so we were all set, and not much worse for the wear.
At this point, I decided to press my luck, and I got back in line for the Weird Al autograph session, which required a different ticket. My wife took off for the George R.R. Martin line, and - wouldn't you know it - we both got tickets to those. I'll talk more about the autograph session in a bit.
The tickets to the event came in an envelope and looked like the picture above. For me, it was pretty cool to get a specially printed ticket with the Comic-Con logo on it, and I was even happier that we were able to keep our tickets after we entered the theater - they were checked, but not collected and not even torn. So I got a nice keepsake from the event that I was somehow able to keep in good shape all the way back home.
The Horton Grand Theater was a few blocks from the convention center, and it's obviously designed for small performances, either theatrical or musical. It sat probably 300 people. There was a lot of nervous energy in line as we waited to enter the building. Once inside, there was a poster with the Mandatory Fun branding on it, as seen above. I wonder who walked home with that thing. I'm sure someone claimed it.
Once inside, my wife and I got seats about six rows from the front, as assigned on our tickets, which were great. After a few minutes, the event organizers asked to see if there were empty seats, as they would then let in the "stand by" hopefuls, otherwise known as the teeming masses who took a chance and waited outside the building. There just so happened to be two seats in the very front row, and I grabbed them up quick.
Al and the host, comedian Jonah Ray, came out a few minutes later, after a video introduction, and the crowd, of course, went wild. Keep in mind that this was a matter of days after the Mandatory Fun album was released, and almost right after it was announced that the album had reached #1 on the Billboard charts (Al's first, and the first comedy album in about half a century to hit that mark...which is a really big deal!). Everyone was excited to be there and especially happy to be one of the few to see the event in person.
The panel itself was a lot of fun, though nothing revelatory transpired. Jonah Ray might have been the most excited person in the hall, and that led him to talk...and talk...and talk about how much he enjoyed being there. That's great, and I probably would have felt similarly, but I suppose he didn't realize (or didn't care) that no one in the hall was there to see him. Seriously, I hate to gripe about it, but rather than moderate the panel, Ray wanted to interject his own opinion into everything that Al said and every question that was asked by the audience. Now I know a lot about Jonah Ray, I guess.
About half way through the panel, a Q&A session broke out, and I was able to leap out of my seat and in front of a microphone, which was placed not too far away from where I was sitting. The session was as strange as you might expect, with some people asking the almost requisite "do you remember me from..." questions to one lady telling Al that she sat on his lap at some point back in the '80s.
From my time at the Toonseum, I had learned that Al had recently been given the ACE award (Amateur Cartoonist Extraordinaire) by the National Cartoonists Society. I knew that he had always been a fan of Mad Magazine, but I didn't have any clue that he did any drawing of his own, so I was able to ask him about it. The end of my question was something like "I'd like to know why don't we see any of these drawings...and can I have one?" The last part was a joke, of course, but it got me the meanest look you can imagine from the staffer who had earlier asked us all what our questions were going to be. This in itself was pretty funny.
Someone sitting on my side of the auditorium, near the back, managed to record sections of the panel (about half altogether), including most of the discussion between Al and Jonah Ray:
You can pick me out in my trusty gold Steelers hat near the beginning, as seen below. You could probably also see me by my enthusiastic fist pumping:
The panel ended after about 50 minutes...but it wasn't Al's last appearance of the day. I had mentioned earlier that I had also gotten a ticket to a signing event. This event was to take place before the panel. And even though I've got probably too many things signed by Al in my possession, I thought it would still be fun to get in line, say hello and get an autograph if I could.
Earlier that morning, Shout! Factory made the announcement, obviously with Al's Comic-Con appearance in mind, that they were releasing a 25th anniversary Blu-Ray edition of the movie UHF later in the year. I caught it, purely by chance, on Twitter, and as I knew that Shout! had a booth at the show, I decided to seek them out and see if they had anything - I was thinking a postcard or flyer announcing the release - that I could grab to get signed.
This was around 10:30, so the convention hall had already been open for quite a while, but I walked down to the main floor and found the booth, only to see an incredible UHF poster print resting against one of the sides of the booth. I looked the guy working the book in the eyes, pointed to the poster, and said, "uh, what is this?", fearing that they'd be on sale for, like, a hundred bucks.
HOWEVER! It turns out that I really hit it big. The first 50 people to ask ask about Weird Al were given a wrist band to an exclusive poster signing later in the day, right after the panel at the Horton theater. This was not announced! It was pure luck that I was there at the right time.
HOOOOOWEVER!! I was an idiot and was worried about getting back into the convention hall in time to make the signing. This wasn't completely unfounded, as it is difficult to walk from one side of the hall to the other at Comic-Con, and I was coming from outside and blocks away. So I asked the guy if I could forgo the wrist band and just get a copy of the poster, which, I figured, I could take to get signed at the event that I already had a ticket for.
The guy looked at me like I was crazy, and to his credit, I kind of was. The posters were on hold until the signing event, so I couldn't get a wrist band and still get a poster, but I could, he told me, get a poster with no chance of getting it signed later.
I took him up on this proposition and, a little bit later, went up to the autograph pavilion...only to see literally hundreds of people waiting in line to get Al's autograph. Realizing I had made the (terribly, horribly, inexcusably) wrong choice, I nonetheless waited at the back of the line for about 15 minutes...only to not move at all. I was one of the very last people in line, it seemed, and in the time I was waiting, only about three other people showed up to stand in back of me.
At this point, I had almost nothing to lose, so I went back to the main floor and the Shout! booth and asked if I could make the trade, once again, of the poster for the wrist band. It just so happened that there were still about six wrist bands left, so my monumental stupidity didn't end up costing me on this day. And it's a good thing, too, because the signing was really great!
After the panel ended, I beat a hasty retreat back to the convention hall. I, of course, understood that Al had to travel the same distance, but I imagined him taking a secret underground route or something reserved for celebrities and was thus anxious about getting there in time. Not to worry, though, as I was about 20th in line and it was still about 15 minutes before Al walked in.
Convention security did, as it turned out, kind of sneak Al in through the back. Probably for the purposes of crowd control, the signing wasn't advertised, so there were a lot of stunned people standing near the booth when "Weird Al" Yankovic came walking in to sit behind a table. A lot of people (innocently enough) tried to sneak in line only to be told of the wrist band policy.
Being first in line sometimes has its benefits, but I find that there are sometimes more benefits to being back a bit, as was the case with this signing. The first three or four people in line got a poster, said hello, got it signed and were on their way. As the signing progressed, everyone loosened up a little bit, and soon people were chatting away with Al, getting their pictures taken, shaking hands, asking questions, the whole bit. Al started personalizing the posters after the first half dozen or so, too. I know that not everyone likes to have autographs personalized, but this was one item I was happy to get my name written on.
Shortly after Al arrived, he was joined by another special guest - UHF director (and Al's longtime manager) Jay Levey! Not everyone knew who he was, but listen, people: he played the lead role in the "Gandhi II" spoof from UHF! This was a big deal!
The line moved fairly quickly and the crowd of onlookers grew. The overall mood was pretty low-key throughout. Check out that oversized UHF print behind Levey...I also wonder who walked away with that.
I've been looking to give Al a copy of the UHF "Six Panel Cinema" that Jeff McComsey and I worked on a few years ago for a while now. I took it to his Washington, PA concert in 2013, but didn't get a chance to see him after that show. So when I heard about his Comic-Con panel, I thought that I might was well lug it to San Diego with me in case I was able to toss it at him from me seat or something. It was a gigantic stroke of luck that this just happened to be the day that the Blu-Ray was announced. So many things came together - what were the odds that I'd get to meet Al in this context and actually have the UHF print with me? But it worked out and I was able to give him a copy, which both he and Levey seemed to enjoy. This was - of course - a big thrill for me.
Other things of note:
1) I was wearing my Transformers "Dare to Be Stupid" t-shirt on this day. Both Al and Jay noticed it and hadn't before seen it; "Dare to Be Stupid" is a song of Al's that made it onto the 1980s Transformers movie soundtrack, hence the reference on the shirt. I told Al where I bought it (the locally-based 80sTees) and he pulled out his phone to search it out.
2) This is probably the best picture that I'll ever take with Weird Al. I should have played the lottery this day. So much was going my way.
3) McComsey's Six Panel Cinema later took a trip to the first page of Reddit, at which point Al tweeted a copy of the UHF entry to his (literally) millions of followers (if you'd like to buy a print, you can do so here).
4) The poster, thankfully, made it back to Pennsylvania with me safely. I bought a protective sleeve at the show and it has stayed in there ever since. I realize that this is a pretty rare Weird Al collectible, but I'm just happy to have this memento from what turned out to be a pretty good day.
5) The poster had what turned out to be the front artwork for the Blu-Ray release of the movie, which is out and available to purchase now. It is very similar to the previous DVD release, with a notable exception: it includes the entire Comic-Con panel as a special feature (I wish it also included footage from the signing event, which was filmed in its entirety). It's a more professional feed than what was on YouTube, which is nice...and I also make a couple appearances on it.
6) Mandatory Fun won Al his fourth Grammy award, which continues quite a year for Mr. Yankovic, and he's also announced the dates for his upcoming Mandatory World Tour. He'll be in nearby Greensburg on May 31st. I'll be there, too. You should also come.
Well, hello there. It's been a while but it's time to wind The Yeti Speaks! blog back up with a heaping helping of RANDOM NOTES! In all caps. Let's get started!
- I got a nice Christmas card from friend of the blog and one of my favorite artists, Karin Rindevall! The card contained a nice greeting from Teddy and the Yeti. Thank, Karin!
- I backed the Kickstarter Campaign for Chipolo...which is basically a tag that links to your phone. If you lose stuff, and it's within a certain range, you can find tagged items by looking for them on your mobile device. I had the opportunity to label the different tags...and I went the obvious route.
- I took another trip to Pittsburgh's Toonseum recently and had a nice time. Here are a few pictures from the jaunt!
I might have shown this picture before (from my last trip), but I love that Mark Schultz dinosaur with the Pirate hat. Classy.
A fun surprise was seeing a page from one of my favorite issues of "What If...?" on display. Despite this page being filled with Captain America, it was a Fantastic Four-centric issue. The angry cap in the last panel really spooked me as a kid.
If only I had animation and comic art to possibly contribute to a future Toonseum gallery...such as...*cough*...this newly framed animation cel of the Thing from the 1960s FF cartoon!
The Thing artwork isn't the only item I had framed. I also got my ticket sheet from the 2006 MLB All Star Game under glass. It's been a long time coming and I think it looks really nice. I had to buy partial season tickets for two years just to get the opportunity to buy All Star Game tickets. It was a fun time, though, for sure.
- I got a few items of original art in the mail. The first is a series of rough sketches from Pittsburgh's own Tom Scioli! The image on the right is a Brian Hitch-inspired team shot of the Fantastic Four. The image on the left, I assume, is a goof, but still pretty cool. There were three more equally cool FF images included in this art buy.
- I recently renewed my Hero Initiative membership for 2014. Included in my "thank you" package was an original sketch card - and just my luck, it was the Thing by Marvel Two-in-One artist Alan Kupperberg! What a find.
- A few weeks ago, I posted about the closing of California, PA-area comic shop Evil Genius. Since the store was closing, I had to haul away my Ms. Pac Man arcade cabinet, but lucky for me, I didn't have to toss it in the river. The game is now sitting comfortably in McMurray at Pittsburgh Comics! It was a trial, of course, getting it there (just because the game is not particularly light), but I hope to house it there for years to come. If you visit Pittsburgh Comics, be sure to say hello. To the video game cabinet.
- As I was taking the game from Evil Genius, I made one last find and picked up this early '90s-era Marvel comic box. On the very top is a nice image of the Fantastic Four. The box itself has certainly seen some use, but I managed to reshape it fairly well once I got it home, and now it holds all of my comic convention programs and related material.
Oh, and here's a picture of my cat sitting in it.
- I got this Avengers-themed card for Valentine's Day, which includes all of the movie Avengers...and the Falcon. The message is interesting..."Hope your day is a HIT!" Nothing says "I love you" better than a metaphor for being punched.
- In case anyone was wondering if I still make comics, here's a panel from the upcoming "Naked Man at the Edge of Time" one-shot. Pencils by Kurt Belcher, inks by Alan Gallo. I'm still considering whether or not this will be colored or just grayscaled.
- Keen readers of the recent Thunderbolts #20.NOW (what a weird numbering system) will notice this veiled "Weird Al" Yankovic reference. I wonder what the third song is.
- One of the many commercials to air during the blowout that was Super Bowl XLVIII was a trailer for the new Transformers movie. Transformers 2 was so bad that I've given up on watching any further installments in the series, but the trailer was interesting in that it included mechanical dinosaur Transformers. This is probably just an adaptation of the G1 dinobots, but wouldn't it be cool if it was instead a reference to Beast Wars? Yes, it would be cool. Very cool.
- Here's an image that has been sitting on my desktop for far too long. It's the Fantastic Four as Angry Birds. Great.
- Your friend (and mine), Larry, went to the Royal Rumble a few weeks ago...and sat next to Ben Roethlisberger of your team (and mine), the Pittsburgh Steelers. Here's video evidence.
- Speaking of Larry, there's some new content on the Franks and Beans website. You should check it out, because...it's Franks and Beans, guys. That should be enough of a reason.
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