FUBAR FCBD signings, AHZ and beyond!

We're steadily barreling toward some big release dates for some books I've worked on.  The folks over at FUBAR central are gearing up for a push in this and the coming months, and we're all excited about what's on the schedule.  In a matter of weeks, the third volume of FUBAR, American History Z, hits shelves and it clocks in at a massive 436 pages, more than a few of which are written by me.  I've seen a PDF version of this thing and I think that it will impress.

To celebrate, a signing event, the size of which is rarely (if ever) seen in indy comics, is in the works.  Pictured above is a current list of all the shops that'll be hosting at least one FUBAR contributor on May 4th, or Free Comic Book Day!  You'll notice that there are quite a number of stores represented across the country and even into Canada.  For my part, I'll be in Boston at several of the New England Comics locations.  The Tick is obviously a big focus of this event for me, but I'll be there with FUBAR writers Jennie Wood and Kevin Johnson for part of the day and I promise to peddle our new FUBAR projects as well, including the ever-important Free Comic Book Day issue that'll hopefully be intriguing enough to convince a few people to pick up the collection.

Speaking of the third volume, the books recently arrived and were dropped off for folks like Jeff McComsey and Steve Becker to lug inside.  I hear that there were around 200 boxes of books in total, which led to some heavy lifting, I'm sure.  But oh, man, do they look great!  I can't wait to lay hands on some of these beauties.

Jeff made a social media push a few days ago and posted the above picture to Reddit, and within a few hours, the post was the #1 trending thread in the comic book category.  Jeff was a public relations madman, answering questions and selling books left and right.  And somewhere, in the middle of it all, someone started talking about me:

That was pretty strange.  I'm not sure if the post near the bottom, asking if the weird name was supposed to be hyphenated, was referring to me.  If so, I haughtily shake my fist in the air in the general direction of whoever left the comment.

The engine isn't cooling down, though.  In May's edition of Previews, we'll have a listing for the newest FUBAR project, By the Sword.  This will be a traditional comic book (as opposed to a collection) and it'll run for two issues.  The first takes place in medieval times, and I've got a Chaucer sendup to tell in that issue.  The second issues's cover is above, pencilled and inked by none other than Steve Becker, who has been really outdoing himself lately.

I'm pretty grateful to be a part of something as fun and successful as FUBAR.  Check out some of our new projects on May 4th and then again...whenever!  Seriously, we're all over the place.

Gender Through Comic Books week two progress report

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I had signed up for Ball State's open-registration online class titled "Gender Through Comic Books".  The class started up on April 2nd and it's met twice since then.  I am, apparently, one of around 70,000 attendees, making this (if the number is accurate) akin to a giant comic convention in its own right.

I've never taken an online course before, so I'm trying to pay attention to the structure of the course as opposed to just going along with the flow of things.  I'm taking down notes because if this is at all successful (and, heck, even if it's not) I might try to run my own massive online class one day.  At this point in the course, I'd say that things are going well.  If nothing else, I've had the opportunity to pick up some interesting comics as texts for the class:

Our first session centered around Terry Moore and the Strangers in Paradise series.  We read the first issue of Rachel Rising and the first two volumes of the SiP trades.  These trades were hard to find and I had to do some searching to come up with a copy for myself.  The stores that I checked were all out of the volumes in question, but they all had all of the other volumes, which led me to believe that others in the area are also taking this course.  New Dimension Comics at Century III mall came though for me in the end, though they were also out of stock of the "pocket" volume, which collects both of the larger format volumes into one book.  For the other issues, eBay has been busy tallying up my transactions, but I haven't had too much of a problem.

During each week, we have a live video chat with a comic book creator about the topic of the course, gender identity.  Terry Moore was on the docket last week, and this past Tuesday Mark Waid showed up.  In all, the class has had its choppy moments, and there's a lot of reading to do - along with selected comics, there's also an academic article to read every week, videos to watch, surveys to take and posts to make on discussion boards.  I can't imagine how much work this must be for the developers of this course.  After the class ends in May, I plan on trying to bend the ear of the teacher to get some tips, and we'll see where it leads.

I'll post some more updates when we're further into the class.  For now, I'm excited to be a part of this big event.  I'll bet that the creators of the books we're all buying are also pretty excited.  They must be getting a nice bump!

Thing sketch cards, part 1

It's been a while since I've updated the ol' Thing sketchbook on the blog, and that's because it's been a while since I've gotten any new sketches.  But convention season is just around the corner and I'm sure to grab a few new sketches once that takes flight.  In the meantime, there's plenty of the Thing to go around thanks to the sketch cards that I'll start sharing to fill in some of the gaps.

Sketch cards don't hold the same emotional appeal that the sketchbook does, but since they do involve the Thing, I've accumulated a few over the years.  It is a nice way to collect a sketch that I otherwise couldn't; location keeps me from meeting some artists, and no matter how much I'd like, there's never enough time to pass the book around at a show.  And I'm certainly not going to trust it to the postal service on a two-way trip.  So without further ado, here's the first installment of the Thing sketch card series!

This is the first sketch card I bought, a March of Dimes eBay charity auction by none other than the great Fred Hembeck.  Fred was kind enough to put his name and the date on the top of the card so I can keep all of the important information straight.

After I got the Hembeck card, I poked around online and saw that plenty of people were selling sketch cards of the Thing, and the beast was born.  This next card is by Erik Burnham, and it remains one of my favorite cards to date.  It's the jaw, I think, that does it.

One nice thing about sketch cards is that you're much more likely to get color work than in a sketchbook.  This card is by Peter Simeti, who, interestingly enough, I would later come to work with as members of the FUBAR team.  Peter is in charge of distribution for the books, and it took me a little while to put two and two together.

I'm...honestly not sure who drew this card.  And it was never my favorite, but it sat in my eBay watched items list for far too long so I had to buy it (it was cheap at any rate).  I do, looking back at it, enjoy the pen points that must have taken some dedication to produce.

Five is the magic number for these things, so I'll end with this last one.  It's by Denise Vasquez, and at first I thought it was a pretty awesome piece of art.  But it didn't take me long to figure out that the reason I liked it was that it's a fairly blatant copy of a particularly familiar piece by John Byrne.  I don't know why it took me so long to make that connection.  Even so, I still like it.  The colors are all done in markers!

There'll be more, so don't despair, Thing fans.  Because everyone loves the Thing.

The post-DC, post-conference, post-March wrap-up

Time flies and so does Superman.  My time in Washington DC for the Pop Culture Association conference is done, but the pictures and the memories remain.  Oh, the memories.

I arrived in DC on Wednesday evening and spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday bouncing between conference-related events and tourist attractions, and I had a nice time overall.  When I parked my car on Wednesday night, I saw this advertised in a nearby storefront window:

I've heard that the Superman musical is pretty bad, but still, I'd like to give it a try as hey, it's Superman, and I hear that he sings a song about beef at some point in the show.  What a shame that it's not showing for another few weeks and that it's not a bit closer.  For $15, I'd watch the heck out of it.

My presentation was scheduled for the bleary-eyed time of 8:00 in the morning, which, if you know anything at all about me, was a challenge, one compounded by the fact that I got up at 5:00 so I could drive into the city and find the hotel with enough time to register and find the conference room.  It was a long day.

The presentation itself went off without incident, I'm happy to say.  Mine was one of three presentations going on for this 90-minute session, and at the very least I didn't embarrass myself.  As I mentioned in my last post, my presentation was on Frank Miller's Holy Terror - the picture at the very top is a slide from the accompanying PowerPoint - and the possibility that the whole book was satirical in its intent.  Someone even asked me a question this time around, which was a first for me, and I even half answered it in a round about fashion.

I sat in on a few other panels over the weekend, including one that discussed using comics as teaching tools and another that looked at the nature of fandom in properties such as Firefly.  On Thursday night, the comics group hosted a dinner where I got to chat about comics with a number of other like-minded folk.

On Friday, I took the Metro into DC and saw some sights, including the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, where I'm pleased to say that they had on display crystals from the Fortress of Solitude.

They also had a Beast Wars display, interestingly enough.

Afterwards, I walked up Pennsylvania Avenue only to come across a line of stopped traffic on an adjacent street.  Curiosity got the best of me and I stuck around, and in a few minutes the motorcade for President Obama came rolling by.  You can't, of course, see inside any of the presidential limos, but it was a pretty fun experience nonetheless.  So I took a picture outside of the White House, along with about a hundred other people.  No sign of Biden on a dog sled.

academic conferences: like blogging with fewer followers

There's been a lack of posts here over the past few weeks, but fear not, blog readers, it's not because I don't still love you.  I do, I do, deep in the cockles of my heart.  But I've had a few projects that have come up to take away a lot of my free time, two of which are at least semi-academic in nature.  But don't worry; like most things in life, I do my best to take a shortcut around actual work and research and just talk or write about comics.

CASE IN POINT!  Next week I'll be speaking at the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association's national conference in Washington, DC.  As far as academic conferences go, it's pretty unpretentious, which is good, because I'll be keeping a straight face as I give my presentation on Frank Miller's awful "Holy Terror", talking about the potential unintentional satire contained within the book's pages.  Here's kind of proof!

I'm actually not a stranger to Dr. Wandtke, as he hosted panels at which I spoke in 2005 and 2006.  It'll be fun to catch up and talk comics with a few like-minded individuals.  And getting back to Holy Terror hasn't been as painful as I imagined it would be...if you squint real hard, there does seem to be at least the possibility that the book is just one big satirical look at American culture as opposed to the racist, hate-filled tome that it, in all likelihood, probably is.

The next opportunity came out of the blue, and it also fits into the professional/semi-professional category of writing.  I came across somebody's reference to the Journal of Venture Studies, an online publication that takes an academic approach to analysis of The Venture Bros. show that I love so very very much.  According to the editors of the book, the first volume (which you can read in its entirety online) caught the eyes of some folks at Adult Swim, who agreed to sponsor a second volume of the journal as a way to promote the upcoming fifth season.

I learned about this call for papers about 36 hours before the deadline, but I was able to get a proposal in that was accepted and, as long as I sit down and do the work (which I will), and that work is good work (which I hope and pray it will be), will have an entry in this sure to be prestigious volume in the storied annals of Venture analysis.

My topic this time around?  Ben Edlund and the Tick's influence on the Venture Bros. show and an analysis of "¡Viva los Muertos!", which is the only episode of the series not at least co-written by Jackson Public or Doc Hammer.  So I'm not straying too far from familiar ground, but I'm looking forward to it in any case.  And for all of you who enjoy instant gratification, this should be published in April, before the new season airs.

Maybe I'll get an honorary degree in comics for these.  Or something.

The Thing "Ben Cooper" Halloween Costume, Dustin Tokarski's goalie mask, Kickstarter(s) and more RANDOM NOTES!

It's been a while since we had some random notes here at blog central, and the masses have been clamoring.  I am, of course, but a humble servant, so here we are with more thoughts about a bunch of stuff, most of which is actually comic related.  And also Franks and Beans.  Away we go!

- Ben Cooper was a company that made popular Halloween costumes a few decades back, and for a while they had a licensing agreement with Marvel Comics to produce costumes based on some of their more popular characters.  One of those costumes happened to be of the ever-lovin' Thing, and I managed to land one of my favorite non-pornographic website in the world, eBay, for a great price.

The costume and box have some scuffs to them, but overall these are in nice shape and I'll be happy to wear this costume to every Halloween party until I die and also if I ever decide to start committing crimes.  I have a feeling, though, that if I would ever start to go down that dangerous path, the goodness and rightness of the Thing would pull me back before I was too far gone.

This costume is, of course, hideous (though the mask is surprisingly well done), but this is part of its charm.  Ben Cooper, as I said, made a number of costumes and all of them were embarrassingly simplistic and/or ugly, but this was the style of a kids Halloween costume in the 1960s, '70s and '80s and I love this find.  I appreciate the sticker on the box, as seen above, that tells you just how one is supposed to wear the costume.  Thanks, B.C.

- I've gotten a few pieces of art framed recently at the Wood Street Frame shop in Pittsburgh, and they've done a good job at what I've turned in so far.  The latest item is Jeff Lafferty's original Teddy and the Yeti art, which I'm relieved to say that I've finally got behind glass.  Much of what I have framed tends to be big and therefore a little cumbersome, but this here is small enough that I can close my hand around it, which should make finding a place for it much easier.

- If you're a fan of the NHL, then you're aware the city of Montreal exists in real life.  They have hockey there, and they speak French.  And also the goaltender for the Canadiens has the Tick on his goalie mask.

Dustin "Tic" Tokarski is enough a fan of his nickname and the popular '90s cartoon that he decided to emblazon his helmet with the big blue hero busting out of the side.

This isn't the first time he's done it, even.  He spent last season with the Tampa Bay Lightning and put the Tick on that helmet as well.  If I had to choose, I'd say that the Lightning helmet is my favorite of the two, as the blue works better as part of the overall scheme.

Should I...should I send this guy a copy of the Free Comic Book Day issue?  Maybe we'll become fast friends.

- There are a couple new Kickstarter projects going on right now that feature work from friends of the blog.  First, Paul Tucker is teaming up with Tim (Hack/Slash) Seeley and others to work on a project called "Mini Comics Included", which takes its cues from those little comics that would be packaged with action figures most famously in the 1980s (He-Man springs to mind).  There are six tiny comics in all and Paul is drawing two of them!  The've got some great rewards up for grabs so check out the page and back it if you can: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1168046118/mini-comics-included-0

The other Kickstarter project I'm backing is a short film adaptation of FUBAR head honcho Jeff McComsey's "American Terror"!  I inquired about how much I would have to donate to play a role in the short of someone who gets killed, but alas, the film is in post-production and the fundraiser is just to get it over the hump.  Regardless, you can check out the American Terror page here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2097901631/american-terror-short-film

Everyone's buddy "Artboy_X" brought this one to my attention from Art Thibert, who might be best known for his work on a whole bunch of X-Men titles.  Thibert is Kickstarting his own title, Chrono Mechanics, about company that specializes in repairing problems in the timeline.  The CM Kickstarter page is here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1461073089/chrono-mechanics-potholes-in-the-cosmic-road?ref=home_location

- I bought an early issue of Marvel Team-Up a few months back with Spider-Man and Mr. Fantastic teaming up to, I don't know, battle evil or something.  I thought the first page credits were pretty funny - specifically the inking credit.  At first I thought that it was a charming reminder of the "seat of your pants" attitude that must have reigned at Marvel in those early days, but then I remembered that there are still plenty of books out there today that employ four or five (or more) inkers for a single story.

- Lastly, it's been a while since I've posted any new Franks and Beans.  So here's our 58th episode, "A Watched Pot"!  Enjoy!  Or just watch it.  Please.

There's a new "most annoying comic book ad" in town

The above image is from a new promotion for the TBS series "King of the Nerds".  This has been running as the back cover ad for a number of comic books recently, and it's distinctive enough that it's something I notice every time around.  There are plenty of annoying comic book ads, but it take a special combination of pervasiveness, repetition and design to rise to the level that this new ad reaches.

A while ago, I posted some thoughts on what I consider to be the most annoying comic book ad of all time - the Gap ads of the late 1990s that featured kids in strange poses wearing bright Gap clothes: namely the one you see below:

There are a few similarities between the two ads beyond the physical look of the piece, but the thing they have most in common, to me, is that they both feature people with weird, forced expressions to the point that I want to punch the models.  That's right - I want to punch that kid in the face.  He's got to be like 25 at this point, so it's less illegal than it used to be.

With the "King of Nerds" ad, it's again the expression that rubs me the wrong way.  It's the drawn up mouth, the crooked smirk, the shifty eyes...pretty much everything that's going on here.

I don't even care that much about the tedium that is the 'crown-made-from-game-controllers' joke to the image.  I just don't like the guy, even though I have no idea who he is and I've never watched a minute of the show he's apparently on.  I suppose that this post is a look into some of my psychoses.

I doubt that I ever would have watched the show, regardless of the type of ad they ran for it.  TBS seems to be trying to capitalize on the success of shows like "The Big Bang Theory", which I'm not a fan of at any rate, and maybe there's a market for something like this, though it doesn't seem to be for me.  The show is hosted by some of the actors from the "Revenge of the Nerds" movies, which I enjoyed for what they were, and that's nice.  But even if the show was a fantastic piece of art, I'd have a hard time tuning in because of this ad.  It just drives me crazy, and since it's crept into the realm of "memorable comic book ads" for me, I'll remember it forever.  FOREVER!  This is my curse.