Kung Fu Bean

Mike Adams is a familiar name around these parts (I've always wanted to say "around these parts") as a colorist and co-creator of Ultimate Hero and the Protector.  In addition to those two properties, I've been lucky enough to collaborate with Mike on a few other projects in the past as well: he colored Mario Wytch's pinup in Teddy and the Yeti #2 and a Mr. Massive pitch as well.  Mike is much more than a colorist, though - he's always brimming with new and exciting ideas for comic plots, and he's great with design work to boot.

I got some good news the other day that Mike was bringing a long-time favorite concept of his (and mine...I'm a big fan), "Kung Fu Bean", to Viper Comics (publisher of Josh Howard Presents: Sasquatch) as an exclusive webcomic, and lo and behold (I've also always wanted to say "lo and behold"...dreams do come true!!), the Viper-hosted site seems to be up and running.

Kung Fu Bean is a tongue-in-cheek comic about a baked bean imbued with both sentience and a martial arts background after falling from space through the broadcast signal of an all kung fu television channel.  As crazy as that plot seems, I think it really works and it sets up a lot of the laughs that follow.  At one point I had written something resembling a KFB comic with Mike - I have no idea if any of that plot will be used in this webcomic, but I'm excited to see where it goes.

You can check out the KFB webcomic here.  The site is updated with new pages every Monday!  Best of luck to Mike in his new endeavor.  The only negative thing to come out of this is that Mike now has the martial arts vegetable market cornered.  So much for my new comic, "Tai Chi Broccoli".

Teddy and the Yeti changes distributors; world does not explode

I'm sure there are plenty of quotes out there from others infinitely more famous than I am dealing with the subject of adversity and perseverance and persistence, so I'd like you, the reader, to take the time and find one, read it, reflect on it, and then come back to this posting.  It doesn't have to be from some stodgy reference manual like Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (though that is a good source, and I've got the 17th edition sitting on my bookshelf right now) - Google works just fine.  Anyway, let's take a few minutes, find a good, uplifting/conciliatory quote, and meet back here in a few minutes, okay?  Okay.

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Are you finishe-oop, sorry, I'll wait a bit longer.

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Ready?  Okay, good.

As the title suggests, Teddy and the Yeti has switched distributors from Diamond to Haven.  This is because Diamond has decided not to carry the title; the preorders were not to their liking and thus they went ahead and cancelled all orders placed, modest as they were.

Obviously, this creates a few issues, few of them good.  Diamond does not explain why titles are cancelled from their distribution list; retail shops simply get a letter or e-mail with a notice that the book will not ship.  When dealing with a brand new book from a brand new publishing company, such as Teddy and the Yeti, the invariable assumption is that the book was not completed or was egregiously different from the solicitation information.  Neither is true regarding Teddy and the Yeti #1, but in that regard, the damage has been done.

Additionally, those individual customers who did place orders will most likely just assume that the book was never completed, which discourages them from trying out not just Teddy and the Yeti but small press books in general, and that's a shame.  You've certainly got to be picky with books from small publishers, because the quality varies tremendously, but there are some great books out there to be read if you look for them.

Make no mistake, these are discouraging signals from Diamond, but it in no way means that you can't still get a copy of Teddy and the Yeti #1 (and subsequent issues, for that matter) if you want it - you may just have to search a little harder for it, and I hope that you, the comic book reader, will do that.

First, a few hours after being dropped by Diamond, I was contacted by the fine folks at Haven Distributors.  Haven, frankly, does not have the market share that Diamond does, but they are a solid #2 and a lot of successful companies have their books shipped by Haven, such as Top Shelf, Bongo (they publish the Simpsons and Futurama comics) and Viper (publisher of Teddy and the Yeti's first appearance in Josh Howard Presents: Sasquatch).  If your comic shop orders from Haven - and there's no reason it can't - you can get Teddy and the Yeti shipped to your pull folder just as you had before.  The order code is TEDYWAG001, and it should be listed on their online catalogue as I type this.

Second, I've done my best to create an actual online store where you can order the book directly from me...the guy who currently has nearly all of the books stored in his spare bedroom (let me tell you - that comic book ink smell, I'm convinced, will kill you if you stay in that room too long.  It's overwhelming).

I just ran a rudimentary test and everything is working fine, so you can order directly and save yourself some hassle.  I've lowered the price to $2.99, though shipping comes into play.  I tried to be as fair as possible when it comes to shipping, and I decided on $1.50 for up to five books, which is a total that probably won't be reached until there's at least the second issue up and ready to purchase.  It's still cheaper for you to buy the book from your local comic shop, but if there's no other way for you to get the comic, you can find it on the official website.

Third, I'll be contacting comic book stores directly, and I will be leaving copies of the book personally at whatever stores I can.  This increases the chance that I'll be doing more signings like the one I'm doing at the Century III New Dimension Comics in West Mifflin, PA, which in turn increases YOUR chance at meeting and, perhaps, assaulting me at your hometown comic shop.  Stores with big online shipping sections like Mile High Comics and Lone Star Comics are also on my hit list, so to speak, which should make things easier for everyone involved.

Fourth and lastly, I will be stepping up my convention schedule.  Originally I had planned on reserving a booth at 2010's New York Comic-Con to show off the book.  Now I'm trying to add Pittsburgh and the big show in San Diego to that list.  None of these shows are confirmed yet, but I'm going to give it the ol' McClelland try and see what happens.

I'd like to apologize to anyone who preordered Teddy and the Yeti #1 from Diamond.  I can sympathize with your frustration, to be sure.  I hope that you can see that I'm doing everything I can to make sure that the book is available to as wide an audience as possible, and if it comes down to it, dammit, send me and e-mail and I'll do what I can do mail you the book myself.  The book is complete, printed, and sitting in my house right now.  I will do my best to make sure it gets in stores so you can plunk down some cash for 32 pages of comic book goodness.

We'll see how that works out.

Popgun

I just received a copy of Popgun vol. 1 from Amazon.com (along with the fourth season of Entourage and Weird Al's "Polka Party!") and I have to say...it looks great.  There was so much hype surrounding the Image book - especially for an anthology - that I had to pick it up, and I'm glad I did.  Anthologies tend to be exciting in theory but sometimes disappointing in practice, but this one might break that trend.

One of the neat things about anthologies such as this is that you get to see styles that you wouldn't normally get to enjoy if you just picked up a monthly stack of Marvel and DC books.  There are so many great artists and writers out there that don't fit into the superhero niche, and that's a shame.  Another fun thing is getting to see a lot of up-and-coming creators...every once in a while I catch a name of someone I know.  It's a good place to scout talent, and I plan to do this, too, at least to some extent.  I'm looking for a colorist for one of our eight-page stories (Karin's still the regular colorist - I'm just getting a different look for this particular story), and I'll probably try to get in touch with one through their work on this book.  There's certainly a number of them to choose from.

Flipping through the book, I thought about submitting a Teddy and the Yeti story for a subsequent volume (the second just came out, and I think they're working on a third as I write this), but I doubt I'll do it - I want to keep the characters to their own book for a little while, and I don't want to heap more work on the rest of the creative team, as they're busy enough with this initial three-issue run.  But honestly, if Viper Comics decided to go ahead with another volume of the Josh Howard Presents: Sasquatch anthology, I'd probably break that rule.  It's just so...specific.