Teddy and the Yeti cameo in "War of the Independents"!

Yesterday at Pittsburgh Comics, I picked up the first issue of Dave Ryan's War of the Independents, an ambitious crossover event with independent comic characters galore from dozens of different publishers.  Dave first previewed the book at the 2010 New York Comic Con, and the first part of this miniseries is now out in comic shops everywhere.

As I made my way to the back of the issue, I came to the following spread:

There are a lot of recognizable characters to be seen - Bone, Hack/Slash, the Tick, Ms. Monster, Todd Nauck's Wildguard, Digital Webbing's Fist of Justice...oh, and if you look near the top left corner, you'll see the Yeti!

I knew that Teddy and the Yeti would be making an appearance in this book at some point, but I didn't know it'd be so soon.  The image is taken from Jorge Correa's cover to T&Y issue #3 - it seems that there was a lot of cutting and pasting when it came to characters in this shot.

This won't be the last appearance of either Ted or the Yeti in this series - I'm told that they'll both have a part in issue #3 and, if I'm remembering correctly, we'll see them in issue #6 as well.  So check for this at your local comic shop...if you can't find it, I'll try to get some ordering info to pass along.  Issue #2 arrives this December!

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.

Another ad

I mentioned a while ago that I worked out an ad swap with Digital Webbing.  Fist of Justice has an ad in Teddy and the Yeti #1 for its fifth issue, and T&Y has the reciprocal - an ad for issue #1 in their issue #5.  The book came out a few months ago, and Teddy and the Yeti had an ad on the back cover, which was great placement.

The image to the left here is the ad I threw together for the Fist of Justice book, and as you can see, I sure am getting my money's worth from issue one's Phil Hester cover...as you'll recall, the Diamond ad and the mailer each used parts of this particular cover as well.

I chose the phrase "against all odds!" not because it reflected any story element or theme, but because I thought it sounded cool.  And it does!  What can you do?  Also, I obviously didn't know where to stop when putting names of contributors on the ad.  I'm so proud of the book and all of the talent working on it, I just couldn't help it.  I honestly almost left my name off of the ad (since I'm guessing no one really knows who I am and thus it wouldn't convince anyone to buy the book), but I figured that, hell, I wrote the damn thing, I'm gonna self advertise.  It wouldn't be the first time!

In case there is some crazy person who wants to collect EVERYTHING Teddy and the Yeti have appeared on - stranger things have happened, I'm sure, but I doubt anyone other than me does this - Fist of Justice #5 can be ordered here.  You might also want to order the book...because it's a fun book.  The E-Man variant edition of issue five does not have the Teddy and the Yeti ad, in case you were curious.

Fist of Justice

The folks over at Digital Webbing were kind enough to do an ad swap with me - there's an ad in Teddy and the Yeti #1 for the newly released Fist of Justice #5 (as seen above), and T&Y gets the back cover to THAT book. That's some very generous placement as the back cover is a premium spot on any book, especially one with a built in audience.

Digital Webbing has been publishing comics in one form or another for the last seven years, which is an eternity for a small press company. In comparison, Wagon Wheel Comics has been publishing for ZERO years. What a difference! They've been responsible for giving a lot of creators their start - The Goon was first published in an issue of Digital Webbing Presents.

In any case, digitalwebbing.com is where I met Duane and, now that I think about it, just about everyone associated with the book. If you're looking to put a creative team together, then this is the place to do it. If you see a DW book at your comic shop, pick it up! You can also buy books at their online shop...so check it out. DO IT!