I've been doing some spring cleaning with the website recently - removing broken links and trying to streamline things a bit. One of the things on this page that I've never been quite happy with is the "webcomics" link at the top of the page, which gets a lot of hits but isn't very user friendly. One of the problems as I saw it is that old entries get lost at the very bottom of the page and the dimensions of some of the pages weren't always big enough to easily read the comics, especially on a desktop.
I decided that it would be best to just scrap the entire page and load all of the comics that I feel like sharing onto a new, external page, and so teddyandtheyeti.tumblr.com is born!
There's still some work that I need to do on the page, with placement and other functional issues, but I'm happy enough with it at least to share the link and make it public. I'll be looking to do other things with it in the coming weeks, including following some other dang accounts and trying to drive a little bit of traffic to the page. One thing that I enjoy is the archive section, which serves as a way to compile all of the webcomics in a way that's easier to navigate that what was previously available. There's also an "ask me anything" tab which I'm sure won't fill my inbox with spam any time soon.
So if you're looking for the comics I've poster, the "webcomics" link at the top of the page now redirects you to Tumblr. I'm sure we've all been looking for a convenient site at which to view the Franks and Beans comic and that "Accordion Theory" strip, and now you have one.
Here's a bunch of pictures from Comic-Con, these ones from the Thursday of the show. Was it awesome? Yes, it was.
I had mentioned this in a previous post, but the New England Comics booth seemed more crowded at this show than it had in previous years. At least part of this was due to the sketch covers that were available at the booth, which proved to be pretty popular. Here's a shot from the booth early on Thursday. Note the loving faces of people who were paying no attention to me. I'll take it.
This kid was, I think, 16 years old and he made his own Galactus costume. He's going places.
While waiting in line, this gentleman approached me and asked if I was in Franks and Beans. I mean it. It actually happened. Apparently he had bought the DVDs that Larry and I took to Comic-Con a few years ago...and he watched them...and recognized me. Phillip (who I found out works on the show "Bob's Burgers") here is in the Franks and Beans Hall of Fame from here on out.
Mary Marvel with...that rabbit Marvel character.
The Taco Truck was back for another year, thanks be to all that is good. Best place to eat at the convention is outside the convention.
I probably scare this guy by asking him to take pictures with me every year. But I'm just so dang excited about the Taco Truck. So excited, it seems, that I capitalize the first letters in "Taco Truck".
I was lucky enough to get a ticket to the William Shatner panel being held early on Thursday at the new Nerd HQ location. After leaving the Taco Truck (with a tear in my eye), I walked to the offsite location.
This year's Nerd HQ moved from Petco Park to the brand new Children's Museum a few blocks away. I picked up my wristband and took a quick look around before heading down to the panel area, which was separate from the rest of the building.
I had pretty good seats for the panel, which was probably as crazy as you might expect. I came hoping for a Shatner-esque time and was not disappointed. The aggrandizing, the aloofness, the fun of it all...Shatner even hit on a few women during the hour-long show. It was a great time and I left happy. The new panel room was a bit stuffy and cramped compared to years past. It's the only thing that I thought Nerd HQ had done better in previous incarnations. But there were bound to be some growing pains the first year at a site. I expect that they'll work out some bugs for 2016.
Here's a video of the entire panel, which is worth watching from beginning to end.
Scott Pilgrim's Ramona continues to be a popular costume choice. This one was pretty good.
After the panel ended, I decided to try my luck with Skeletor's Lair once again, as there was a huge line late into Wednesday night. On the way there, I spotted this car, which had been advertised leading up to the event. Adult Swim was sponsoring free rides for anyone who could flag down this (or a similarly-outfitted) car.
I didn't have very far to go, but I wanted to get a chance to take a ride, so I hopped in the front, sharing the ride with the two folks in the back. I got out after a block.
It was a good choice trying to get to Skeletor's Lair, the Mattel and Super7 pop-up store, on Thursday. There were probably five people in line ahead of me when I got there, as opposed to maybe 150 the night before. Still, it took me about 20 minutes to get in, as they were keeping the crowd inside to a safe number.
The store was tiny inside, but it was fun to see. There were a few paintings of Skeletor adorning the walls. The people putting it together had a lot of fun.
This is what the inside of the store looked like. A lot of things had been bought by the time I got inside, but I still managed to get some M.O.T.U.S.C.L.E. figures (He-Man-style M.U.S.T.L.E. toys) before leaving.
Someone had his collection on display, and why not?
The nicest addition to Skeletor's Lair was this Battle Cat trophy behind the register.
On the way back to the convention center, I saw more of the mysterious "Bart Club" art that I had seen the night before. Was it a part of the convention? Was it advertising anything? What's the story with these things?
Here's more from the same block. I checked, and "@bartclub" is not a Twitter handle. Instagram, maybe?
Ketchup is also a theme on these things, apparently.
Bart Club. I hope it's not some horrible sex club advertisement that I'm posting here on the blog. But I guess that's the chance I'm taking.
The new Sharknado was advertised fairly heavily during the show, including with a parade that had people dressed in shark costumes and stilt-walking Uncle Sams.
This Lego mashup was outside of the Hard Rock Cafe' in the Gaslamp district.
Back to the convention floor. Disney remains a popular costume choice at Comic-Con.
Oni Press recently started publishing the comic tie-in to the Adult Swim cartoon "Rick and Morty". The show is fantastic - easily the best new show on [AS]. Creators Dan Harmon (Community) and Justin Roiland (Adventure Time) showed up for a signing toward the end of the day. It was a ticketed event, but the ticket was easy to grab (I just had to ask for it). The line was long by the time I arrived and it moved slowly, but eventually I got to get a few autographs.
Also, Dan Harmon and I took a lovely, intimate photo together. It looks like we're about to kiss.
This was as close to Conan O'Brien that I got all weekend. I got tickets to the "Conan Bingo" event on Thursday evening, but I was part of the "B" team, I guess, and there wasn't any room for me once all of the A-listers showed up. This is a shame as I would have loved to at least seen what this was all about.
After being rejected at bingo (a phrase I never anticipated typing), I went over to the MTV part at Petco Park. I did this once before in 2013, but last year's event was so packed that I never made it in. MTV required badges again this year and I was able to get in with little waiting.
Some of the carnival rides from '13 made it back this time around. There was free food again, which I gobbled up.
...oh, and a unicorn.
...and a plant person.
I rode some of the rides before the show (an awards program) stared.
I was on the Ferris wheel when the program started, and I got outta there pretty soon afterwards. Not that this should be a big surprise to anyone, but I'm certainly not in the key MTV demographic so I snuck out after disembarking.
In contrast to previous years, Nerd HQ had two nighttime parties as opposed to one, the first being Thursday night. I checked it out with my brother-in-law and some friends. The photo booth is always a popular attraction, which is pretty funny to think about, because pictures have been around for 150 years.
Here's a shot of the main floor from the upstairs video game-themed section.
We didn't stay at Nerd HQ for very long as part of our party had to leave for parts unknown (or Los Angeles). But it was a full day with more excitement to come. I'll probably post pictures of that stuff. Oh, heck, I'll absolutely post pictures of that stuff. It's inevitable.
- The latest of the installment of the Steel City Con was held at the beginning of April. I'm continually surprised at how popular this show has become. There are three shows a year and you'd think it'd suffer from fatigue by this point, but it seems to still be gaining steam. It'll be interesting to see how it holds up after the Wizard World Pittsburgh show later in the year.
I was able to snag a few cool items from the show, including some Thing items and some comics.
All of these books were around 50 cents each, so I grabbed about 40 of them and spent way too much time looking through boxes...but there were some cool finds to be had, including Superboy #101 (in rough shape, but still), the last issue of Strange Tales vol. 2 (the only issue of the series that featured the Thing, a mainstay in the first volume) and the second issue of Simpsons Comics.
- I'm pretty sure this Thing magnet is homemade, but when I saw it at Pittsburgh Comics I had to grab it. I can't quite place the artist, and it's driving me nuts. Needless to say, I love it.
- The Pittsburgh Indy Comix Expo came and went at the end of March, and it was better than I expected. I managed to sell some books and buy a few that came home with me. There was a lot of talent at this small show, which was encouraging. I also met Don Simpson there, and we struck up a dialogue, at which point I learned that he...works at the same school that I do. That is really bizarre.
Don is offering up a class for the fall semester in cartooning and character design. This would be an awesome class to take.
- The second volume of Jennie Wood and Jeff McComsey's is currently up on Kickstarter and it's nearing its goal. This is a great book and a the kind of comic the industry needs more of. Check out the campaign and pledge if you can!
And speaking of Kickstarters...the UHF movie campaign is nearing its end with some work to be done. It's finished on the evening of Sunday, April 26th, so if you haven't pledged yet...there are only a few more days to do so!
Some of the rewards for the campaign are making their way to me, including these 8-bit pins featuring characters from the movie.
- I'm currently catching up on some lettering work. Whenever I letter, I use a page from IDW's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic as a template. I type in "that's turtle power!" every time I start a new project to make sure that my letters are the size they should be. This continues to amuse me, so I'm sharing it.
Just what am I lettering? Among other things, some FUBAR for the By the Sword collection, including this short story titled "The Leper King", written by Mark Bertolini with art by Chris McFann.
- And lastly, there's a newly released, really short episode of Franks and Beans to watch! This episode was originally released as a Vine, hence the brief time limit. There's also a loop of the video (100 times, over and over) in case you want to feel the cold grip of insanity.
Wow, these random notes are fun. Look for them again whenever the hell I feel like writing them. See you then!
This one goes under "how did I forget to post this before now?" Because I have categories like that, in a filing cabinet, next to my desk. Whatever.
Jeff Lafferty is not only a great artist, and not only a great guy, but he's a great artist who's a great guy who has drawn Teddy and the Yeti before. He's also drawn Doom 2099 for Marvel. I wonder if he gets tired of me saying that, because it's not like he hasn't done other, more impressive things in the years since then...but I guess I just can't let some things go.
A while back, I commissioned Jeff to draw the above image of our favorite cryptozoological adventuring duo. I eventually used the finished product for a series of trading cards that I gave out at Comic-Con. Jeff sent me the final piece, which I promptly had framed:
I wrote about this briefly at the time, but since then, Jeff has created a YouTube video that shows off his process in creating the image (with some of that space age time lapse video, too), and it's worth a look, even a few years after the fact (and he name checks Franks and Beans!). Thanks again to Mr. Lafferty for producing such a fantastic image of these characters!
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