Celebrity Endorsement

Hey, look!  It's TV celebrity John Schneider from such shows as the Dukes of Hazzard and Smallville!  This picture makes it obvious that Mr. Schneider is a huge fan of Teddy and the Yeti.  Well, okay - all it proves is that he reads Teddy and the Yeti.  All right - okay!  All it proves is that he was coerced into taking a picture holding the book in a manner that made it look like he was reading it.  Fine!  Geez.

This all came about thanks to my friend (and yours) Larry, who is not only an avid supporter of T&Y or a dedicated co-star of Internet sensation Franks and Beans, but also probably the biggest Dukes of Hazzard fan on the planet - and that's no lie.  Larry has one of the most impressive (or disturbing, depending on your point of view) collections of Dukes material that you're likely to see, and he wasn't about to pass up the opportunity to spend some time with John Schneider, who was in town attending Pittsburgh's Steel City Con, a toy and pop culture show.

Larry was able to take a few issues of Teddy and the Yeti with him, and managed to make plans to get the book in a number of stores that otherwise hadn't had any copies, including one from Canton, Ohio.  Unless I'm mistaken, I think that this comic store (I'm still waiting to hear the store's name) will be the first to carry the book in the entire state of Ohio, which is a little distressing seeing as I have a number of comic book reading friends from Youngstown.  Why can't they be as reliable and as selfless as Larry?  Perhaps we'll never know.

Mr. Schneider got hold of Teddy and the Yeti's second issue - and I'd like to make the offer right now (I've mentioned his name so often in case he has a habit of Googling his name, which I've never been known to do): if he wants the first issue (or the third, for that matter), I'd be happy to mail it to him.  He doesn't even have to pay for them!  That's right, people, if you are a celebrity, you don't have to pay for stuff!  Why is that?  They're the ones who can easily afford stuff!  Oh well, I guess that's just another one of the many ironies of life.

An unbelievable amount of MORE random updates!

It's time once again for a barrage of news-like items that probably don't deserve their own singular topic. THIS IS WHAT YOU LIVE FOR, PEOPLE! Or...something like that. Let's get started, shall we?

- The floodgates have opened at Google.com, where there are now two suggested phrases waiting for you when you begin to type "Teddy and the Yeti". The newest edition to the family is "Teddy and the Yeti 1", which gives me a better idea about how Google's suggestion engine works. I can't imagine that many people are actually searching for something like that, so it must suggest terms based on how many results are available. There are lots and lots of websites that have the solicitation information to issue #1, so I'm assuming that's why this all took place. There are hardly any sites listing the solicitation information for issue #2, which is something I have to work on. Haven Distribution is taking a while in getting the solicit into their system, so hopefully once that is done, there'll be a few more hits for "Teddy and the Yeti 2".

- I recently conducted a quick interview with issue #3 cover artist Tom Scioli. Tom's responses will be published in the aforementioned issue, just as Phil Hester and Todd Nauck had interviews in the two previous books. Tom lives in Pittsburgh, but is originally from Philadelphia, so I asked him about his sporting allegiances. Who you root for is a big deal in the 'Burgh! People live and die black and gold, except when it comes to the Pirates, who have been so enormously mismanaged in the past 17 years that they've lost all relevance (which makes me cry a little). I don't think he thought it was a particularly good question.

- The folks at the Pittsburgh Comicon have updated their guest list once again, and this time they've gone ahead and added a picture to my listing (at my request, of course). This is one of my favorite images of the Yeti, because it looks like she's frightened of whatever is right next to her. In this case, it's my short comic biography.

Also, they hotlinked the homepage! So now lazy people can just click on the link, as opposed to all the work it would have taken to both copy AND paste or, perish the though, RETYPE the url in the address bar. Hooray!

In case anyone was wondering, yes, I'm still listed directly above Scott McDaniel.

- The Lawrence Public Library (located in...um...Lawrence) now lists Teddy and the Yeti's first appearance in Josh Howard Presents: Sasquatch in their online library catalogue. If you're anything like me, and you enjoy seeing other people randomly reference my name, just click on the link and go crazy! I also think it's funny that they spelled my name correctly, but refer to Duane as "Duan Redhead". Are there really people named "Duan"?

- "Someone" has listed an autographed copy of Teddy and the Yeti #1 on eBay. According to the counter, people are actually looking at the page! According to the bid history, no one has actually committed to buy it yet! Perhaps they're just waiting for the last minute...um...yes, that's it. Only two days left, people!

And speaking of eBay, I recently suggested that others buy copies of Captain America #602 (the "Tea Party" issue) and list them on the auction site. Taking my own advice, I did all right for myself. I sold four books and, after costs, shipping and eBay/Paypal charges, I made a net profit of...let's say eight bucks. YES!!!

- Teddy and the Yeti has once again made it to someone's Twitter account. Adding Teddy and the Yeti to the Collectorz Comic Database is apparently news! I'll take it.

- Lastly, here's something that has nothing to do with anything. However, I have been added to YouTube in a manner other than Franks and Beans and it MUST NOT GO UNDOCUMENTED! I'm currently teaching a public speaking course - students in the class are now presenting their informative speeches. One student asked to use me as a subject for his Photoshop lesson, to which I agreed only if the picture could involve me getting punched in the face (what can I say, I enjoy physical humor). Below is the result, and if you follow the direct link to the YouTube site, you can see instructions to duplicate this photo manipulation tool - so the video might actually make sense rather than just consisting of a fast moving cursor and a remixed "Jurassic Park" theme. Who decided to remix the Jurassic Park music?? Strange.

This is just one more way in which I am slowly taking over the Internet(s).

Franks and Beans ad

Yesterday I posted the Ms. Monster half page ad that will be printed in Teddy and the Yeti #3 - here's the other half!

I've posted about - or at least cryptically referenced - Franks and Beans on previous occasions, but it bears reiteration here: anyone reading this blog should go to the F&B website and watch the videos contained therein perhaps dozens and dozens of times.  The ad at top takes a number of its cues from our as-of-yet unposted 40th episode - we've had some problems uploading the thing to both YouTube and Funny or Die, but Larry (my co-star) and I hope to have those resolved by the time issue #3 hits the stands.

Larry has told me that he plans on coming to the New York Comic Con with the Wagon Wheel Comics crew (me and whoever else decides to come along, basically), and it'd be great to have a DVD of the series there for people to check out.

Some of you may be asking, "Jeff, I'm interested in seeing what Franks and Beans has to offer, but I am much too lazy to click on links.  Why don't you just embed a video on this site?"  Why, various reader, you have quite the point!  I think that's what I'll do - and to make sure I put my best foot forward, I'll show what just might be my favorite episode of all time, #12 - "Mailbag/Bloopers".  Enjoy!

Ms. Monster ad

Ads have always been a part of comics (they fostered my love of sea monkeys), and as I've said before, one of my greatest thrills in putting Teddy and the Yeti together is selecting a few ads to put in each issue.  I don't want to overdo it, of course, as I'd rather reserve most of the space for...you know...comics...but there are always a few things I want to show off to the world that don't fit in otherwise.

One is, obviously, Franks and Beans (new episode up today, kids), but I'm not always so selfish or at least self referential.  Issue #1 had an ad for Digital Webbing's Fist of Justice as well as a big, back cover ad for the Hero Initiative -  which allowed me to say "hey!  Captain America is in my book!" and not be a liar about it.

Issue #3 gives me the opportunity to toss in the above ad for Ms. Monster and her website.  I first met Ms. Monster and the B-Minus crew at 2006's San Diego Comic Con International, where we had booths side by side.  The group  works together on a television show that airs in San Francisco (and if I'm not mistaken, they were on at one point in Salem, Massachusetts).

Ms. Monster is something of an Elvira-style throwback character, reminiscent of "Chilly Billy" late night horror movie hosts, and her enthusiasm for her craft (as well as, uh, guts and entrails) really shows through in everything she does.  Beyond all of this, she and the others are AWESOME, so that should be reason enough to check out her website and browse through the wares.  I've got volume one of the show's DVD set, and it looks like volume two is up and ready to order.

The picture below is from the '06 San Diego Con - if you can manage to look past the blue woman in the center, you'll see on the left someone, his mouth agape, holding up a copy of Mr. Massive #1 - that would be Ratha, the artist and co-creator of Mr. Massive.  As people were snapping pictures (including this one, which later showed up on Ms. Monster's website), Ratha said "hey, free advertising!" and shot his arm up just in time to get this ridiculous result.  I'm not sure if anyone other than me ever noticed this when looking at Ms. Monster's pictures, but perhaps that's why I find it so funny.

As an aside, I really like Ms. Monster's blue and orange color scheme.

issue #3 cover

Karin Rindevall recently sent me the colored version of the cover to Teddy and the Yeti #3!  How Kirby-esque!  Pencils for this beauty are by Tom (Godland) Scioli with inks by Alan Gallo, who drew the New Dimension Comics version of T&Y #1.  In the meantime, I am hard at work at actually putting issue #3 together...so I'm going to get back to that.  The end.

Other stuff, part 5 - Ultimate Hero

One of the co-creations that I feel most fond about has to be the "Ultimate Hero".  Unfortunately, it is also one of the most frustrating.

The Ultimate Hero began as the Ultimate Avenger - it's since changed for obvious reasons ("satire" gave way to "blatant copyright violation" once Marvel actually released a book titled "Ultimate Avengers").  Mike Adams and I developed a story where an egotistical jerk of a super hero had his powers taken away - transferred to an eight-year-old boy - to teach him a lesson in humility.  The result was one of the funnier, more complete stories I think I've ever told, but trying to get this concept off the ground has run into any number of speed bumps.  More than once we've been told that the project had been picked up for publication, but each time the fates conspire to stop production in one phase or the other.  Even though I manage to get my heart broken every time, I still hold out hope that one day - one day! - the right situation will come along for UH to see the light of day as an actual series.

The page you see posted above is from Teddy and the Yeti #3 - the Ultimate Hero plays the role of the second feature in this issue.  Occurring before the events in the proposed series take place, this short story lets loose one of my favorite aspects of the UH story - Ultimate Hero and his contempt for the old-school super hero "Super Supreme".  The art is by super Canadian Travis Sengaus, who has a flashy style that really suits the story.  Travis at one time was working on an actual issue of Ultimate Hero...maybe one day I'll be able to twist his arm enough to continue.

For now, though, I'm just happy to get the concept to print, even if it's just a short story in the back of Teddy and the Yeti.  Small steps.

Weekend signings

As part of Teddy and the Yeti #2's release, I was able to take the book around to a few Pittsburgh area stores, stopping to sign some copies at Evil Genius Comics in California and New Dimension Comics in the Century III mall.  The turnout was light at times, but the overall flow was good - I managed to not only sell some books (including a copy of the hefty Josh Howard Presents: Sasquatch and a few copies of the NDC exclusive #1), but I got to have some good conversations with fans who ventured up to the table at both locations as well.  It was even more satisfying to hear from people who read issue #1 and were back for more.  Hooray, the book has followers!

My thanks go out to the proprietors of the two shops, who continue to be more than generous in giving me the space to show off Teddy and the Yeti.  Evil Genius and New Dimension Comics - all five locations, at least as soon as copies are split up - have plenty of copies on their shelves right now, so if you weren't able to make it to the stores this weekend (all six and a half billion of you, roughly), there's still time!