Thing sketchbook, part 17

So many great Thing sketches in this round of the Thing sketchbook show...thing.  This might be the best grouping of five consecutive sketches yet...though I suppose I've said that before.  There are some great ones, though, to be sure.  Check 'em out!

Zander Cannon - Comic-Con International 2014

After pulling in a half dozen sketches at Comic-Con in both 2012 and '13, for some reason I returned from San Diego in 2014 having added only one Thing sketch to the book.  But what a sketch it is!  This beauty, done entirely in colored pencils, is by Zander Cannon, perhaps best known for his work on the graphic novel Heck! and his work on the America's Best Comics line with Alan Moore.  I know him best, though, for his short lived Chainsaw Vigilante series, a spinoff of the Tick line.  The rounded figure and the stubby arms and legs really make this piece for me - along with, of course, the beautiful bright orange and blue.

Dani Grew - Toonseum 2014

I worked with Dani Grew during my time volunteering at the Toonseum in Pittsburgh.  Dani is an artist in residence at the museum, and she does a lot of work in coordinating the various exhibits as well.  I was hesitant to ask her to draw something in the sketchbook as I wasn't sure if she's want to do it or not...but as always, my desire for Thing sketches overrides any semblance of manners or couth.  And this time, my lack of social grace paid off in the form of this great sketch.  I love the subway figures to each side and how expressive everyone is.

Katie Cook - Pittsburgh Comicon 2014

One of my big regrets of going to Detroit's Motor City Con was forgetting to take the sketchbook with me.  I partially made up for it by buying a blank cover and having Katie Cook draw on it, but it's just not the same as getting something in the ol' sketchbook.  When I saw that Cook was coming to the Pittsburgh Comicon in 2014, almost four years after the Detroit show, I knew that I had to add a sketch and I was lucky enough to grab this great, tiny watercolor before I ran out of pages.

Let's check out that sketch cover!

Okay, obviously the scrapbook joke is a theme of Cook's, but I'll go with it.  Now that I think about it, I have a few of these blank covers with sketches on them.  Maybe one day the world will be ready for a sketch cover post.  Who can say?

Christopher Peterson - New York Comic Con 2014

I made it back to the New York Comic Con in 2014 and was able to spend one day at the show.  NYCC is always packed to the gills with people and it's hard to see everything in one day, so I try to make a point to add one sketch into the book when I go there - there's usually not time to get more than that unless that's what I want to do all day.  Anyway, this year I was able to get a sketch from Christopher Peterson, a fellow FUBAR alum who has gone on to work on some fairly high profile books.  Here we see another appearance of the Thing with a trench coat, which I am always grateful for.  This is a very moody piece!  I think Christopher was happy with it and I certainly am as well.

Don Simpson - Pittsburgh Indy Comix Expo 2015

It's pretty difficult not to just stare at this piece when I look through the book.  It's a full-figure drawing, it's in wonderfully rendered color, it's by Megaton Man creator Don Simpson...and it's the Thing!  It's hard to find fault in any of those reasons.  It's difficult to rank the drawings in the book, but if I absolutely had to, this would certainly occupy one of the top spaces.  Not only did I get to strike up a conversation with Don, but I at least hold out a little bit of hope that one day we may work together on something fun.  For certain, he drew one of the signature pieces for the book, and I couldn't be happier with it.  It's, in a word, incredible.

It'll be hard to top these five as a group.  We'll see what I can do with the next batch, some of which have yet to be drawn!

The blog is mobile! Plus, Mr. Massive CGI, FUBAR and more!

- Technology is an ever changing beast, my friends, and if you don't keep up with it...well, you're liable to be left behind, like...Napster or something.  Oh, wait, Google tells me that Napster is still around.  Really?  Huh.  That's nice.  Anyway, this blog recently took a small leap forward as I was able to update it for mobile devices.  So if you're reading this on an iPhone or some equivalent piece of technology, it now is simpler and easier to read.  Fantastic.

- Hey, and speaking of rampant, unwarranted self promotion, Blogger was also helpful in pointing me to the site www.wepostalot.com, a site where a lot of people go to...uh...well, hope that other people will find and read their blogs about random things.  I joined up and put links to a few posts I thought were interesting (they're all interesting, right??), and what do you know?  Those posts got a bump in readers almost immediately afterwards.

This picture from the Motor City Comic Con is floating around the Internet, thanks to the site www.conpictures.com.  This site collects pictures from various comic conventions and posts them online for all to see.  It seems localized to the Michigan-Ohio-Pennsylvania area right now, but I suppose that just means there's room for growth.  Check 'em out and send them some pictures of conventions you've been to if you can.

- I got this image in my e-mail a few days ago of a CGI version of Mr. Massive and his alter ego, Andy Vann.  I will be honest here - I have no idea what it's for, but it does look pretty cool.  I'm not crazy about Mr. Massive's explosive hair, but the rest works and overall it's pretty intriguing.  If there are more...I'll show 'em.

- My new FUBAR story (with artist Mario Wytch) is slowly coming together - this is an image from the fourth page.  The FUBAR guys are in Philadelphia this weekend for a Wizard World convention, and from everything I hear things are going very well.  Volume II is out in August for the Baltimore Comic-Con!

- If you're looking to apply in person for the new Batman movie filming soon in Pittsburgh, today's the last day!  So get to it!

- Lastly, I just got the complete series collection of Beast Wars in the mail and woo! is it cool.  It comes with a comic that serves as the official prequel to the series, new special features, and oh yeah, 52 episodes of the best Transformers series ever produced.  Buy it.  Buy it!!  Beast Wars!

More Horror

Artist Paul Tucker and I are currently working on a new concept titled "John Watkins: Phantom for Hire", which is right now just a short story exercise that threatens to take up more of our time in the future, as it's been loads (just loads) of fun to this point.  Paul even went so far as to draw a mock cover for the character, an homage to old EC Comics horror books that carries the title "Oh! The Horror!"  Interestingly, what I like most about the image is the furniture - that's not to say that everything isn't great, but just take the time and look at couch and endtable set!  Seriously, I love it.

I have no idea if this cover will ever be used for anything, which is why I wanted to get it up here for more people to see.  It's too swell for me to keep all to myself.  The title, by the way, is a reference to a short-run book that Paul and I put together a few years ago under the same name.  It contained three short stories, and...oh, I'd show the cover to it if I still had the image on this hard drive and not hiding away on a DVD-R in the closet.  Oh well, the best I can do is this picture from the New York Comic Con, with the book next to the Teddy and the Yeti paper heroes and the Franks and Beans DVDs.

That's a robot holding a sword in the desert underneath the title on the cover - that's how cool it is.

I currently have one single copy of this book left with me from the orignial print run.  One!  It traveled back from the Motor City Comic Con all alone.  The person who buys it at the upcoming Baltimore show goes home with a prize, no joke.

"Weird Al" Yankovic now has a copy of "Accordion Theory", new FUBAR, Franks and Beans and more notes!

As I've mentioned a few times in the past couple weeks, the above "Accordion Theory" comic strip was created because of a new "Weird Al" Yankovic coffee table book that's set to come out in 2012.  There was a call for photos and artwork from fans, and since I don't have any uniquely good pictures and I can't draw a decent portrait to save my life, Adrian "Bago" Gonzalez and I put together the short strip you see at top.

The file has since been submitted to the publisher, which was one leg of the journey, but I also had an opportunity to see Al on tour this past Sunday at the new Stage AE in Pittsburgh, and I knew that I might be able to directly give the man himself a copy.

The show itself was unbelievable beyond the fact that Al and his band always put on a high energy, fun performance.  I managed to situate myself in the absolute front, pressed up against the stage, and - get this - I got to sing into the microphone twice during the show.  It was a really incredible experience all around and it's something I'll remember for a long, long time.

After the show was over, I had a chance to talk with Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz, Al's drummer and all around good guy.  I've met Jon a couple of times after shows, and he's always very friendly and willing to chat.  I'm also pretty convinced that the submission e-mail address goes directly to him, as he does a lot of archival work of Al's career and has a big online presence, so I managed to hand him a print of the comic along with the high resolution file on CD.

A handful - maybe 30 or 40 - of fans stuck around after the show long enough to say a few words to Al (it was nice of him to take the time after probably exhausing himself on stage for 2 1/2 hours), and I was able to ask him really fanboy-ish questions like "Why was the single version of 'UHF' put on your Essentials album instead of the longer version?" and "Is Victoria Jackson really crazy, or it is all an Andy Kaufman-like stunt?", and perhaps more importatnly, I was able to get him a copy of "Accordion Theory".  I have no idea if he's read it.  But man oh man, he got a print.  He even signed one for me, which you can see above.

This is the best picture I could manage to get while Al was signing stuff.  From our expressions below it looks like I'm giving him a speeding ticket or something.

And here's just a random picture from the show.  That "Fat" costume is great...but I'll bet it's pretty disgusting inside at the end of a touring season.  That's guitarist Jim "Kimo" West at the bottom left.  Fingers crossed for the coffee table book.

I knew it was a good sign when, the day after I posted the comic strip up for the first time, I checked the statistics on it and 27 people had viewed it overnight.  The number 27 is one that gets referenced a lot in Al's songs.  Oh, and after the show was over, I stopped at the casino next door and won exactly 27 dollars, no kidding.

A few more notes before I go:

- My good friend Paul Tucker and I are working on a new short story about a dead guy who solves murder cases.  Okay, that's an oversimplification, but Paul has really run with the concept and has taken it to greater heights than if I were the only one in chage.  The below panel is just some test art from Paul - it doesn't actually appear in the story, but it's gotten me to change a few things and incorporate some of the concepts of the panel itself.

Paul has been working on refining his craft for a number of months now, and the results should be obvious.  He's really got that old-time EC Comics look down.

- I'm beginning some work on a new FUBAR project; I won't give it away just yet (because I really am just getting started), but it involves the below comic strips and, well, zombie, of course.  It'll be different and, hopefully, exciting.  The Baltimore Comic-Con should be bunches of fun when it rolls around this August.

- Lastly, I took one of the Motor City Comic Con pictures into Illustrator and made a mock postcard for Franks and Beans.  Since we all love Franks and Beans (WE ALL DO), I thought I'd post it here as well.  That guy in the top right corner still makes it all work.

Pictures from the Motor City Comic Con, part 3

Aaaaaaaand one more of these should just about do it, right?  Right.  So let's get to it, one week after the actual convention began.

This was the line to get it.  Look how patient everyone is!  Seriously, one of the best things about exhibiting is that you just get to walk right in every morning.  It's lovely.

This guy did a pretty fantastic Jack Sparrow impression.  And look, he even let Larry wear his hat.

This is a yeti, right?  I mean, it looks like a yeti with horns, and...wait, what?  It's from Star Wars.  Really?  Oh.  Okay.

Shoppage.

Wow!  And a great time was had by all.  Look at how happy I am.

Thursday night, hours before the con, I was lying in bed, about to fall asleep, when I realized that - horror upon horrors - I forgot to bring my Thing sketchbook to this show.  This sucked.  However, I did manage to get a sketch nevertheless: I bought a blank version of the new FF #1 and got the extra talented Katie Cook to draw a cute cover for me.  When I asked her why the Thing was wearing a neckerchief, she answered "because he's got style."  She's right, of course.

I got some swag at this show for sure!  On Sunday, when any bargain hunter knows to look for deals, I snagged some great books that I had been looking for for a while, including Fantastic Four #s 47, 117 and annual #9, Astonishing Tales (co-starring the Black Panther and Dr. Doom!) #s 1 and 4, and a handful of early-ish Marvel Team Up issues, most of them featuring the Human Torch (sometimes as the lead character).

My next post will be about something different.  But I had fun putting these pictures up in any case.

Pictures from the Motor City Comic Con, part 2

As I sort through more pictures from the recent Motor City Comic Con, here are some of the better ones:

This mask was so realistic - if it wasn't so eerily terrifying, I'd have been absolutely impressed.  Well, I guess I was still impressed, but the horror overshadowed it a little bit.  It brought about, in fact, the following reaction:

Yep.  That's how I felt.

Some GI Joe guys...and Larry's wearing a shirt from a book in which the Thing beat up the Hulk.  Thanks for supporting the Thing like that, Larry.

I am, honestly, not a fan of either Family Guy nor Star Wars, but I know quality when I see it.  What's surprising about this costume is its simplicity and yet effectiveness.  The eyeball glasses really make it.  Good job, fella.

I raffled off a Thing statue on Saturday - the rule was, if you bought a book, you got a ticket.  It was surprising the number of people who bought a book and then said "no thanks!" to the statue ticket.  Lookit that thing!  It's a fantastic bust.  This is a picture of the guy who ultimately won it - he put his ticket in about four minutes before the drawing.

There was a party after the show at a local hotel.  Except for Larry and me, this picture is 100% candid.  I like how it turned out.

Heck, I've got more pictures to show.  Next time, everyone.

Pictures from the Motor City Comic Con, part 1

Well, the 2011 Motor City Comic Con is a thing of the past, and now all that's left are the memories, the cool swag, and pictures.  Let's take a look at some of the latter, shall we?

I think I'm starting to run out of original poses for these desperate booth shots.  I've probably made this face before...got to come up with some new ones.  In any case, this is perhaps the biggest table I've ever had.  It was nice to be able to spread out, but I think some of the graphic novels got overlooked because they were all the way at one end.  In any case, I was able to lay out copies of the Magic Bullet, Mr. Massive, Teddy and the Yeti, FUBAR, Strip Search, and other stuff with no problem.

Ernie Hudson was at this show.  I'm pretty sure he didn't drive this to get there...but that would have been cool.

Ugh, look at these books.  Fantastic Four #1.  Amazing Fantasy #15.  Avengers #4.  Superman #...whatever that one is.  This is like a list of "books I'll never be able to afford."

A lot of this costume was made out of couch cushions (seriously).

There was an empty table across the row from ours, so Larry decided to set up his own Franks and Beans booth.  I paid him a few visits.

This was a pretty good costume, and it was funny, too.  Weird kid, though.  No offense, weird kid.

Hey, where's the Cesar Romero Joker?  That would have made it pretty much complete.  The Jack Nicholson Joker actually came off creepier than the Heath Ledger Joker, which was an accomplishment.

I'll post more later.  I will!  I promise.

Notes from the Motor City Comic Con, new Franks and Beans, and more!

- Day #2 has just ended at the Motor City Comic Con, and so far it's been a very interesting trip.  I'd say that this show has been different from any other convention where I've ever exhibited, and it's all a good learning experience.  I've met some cool people and, hey, I've got Teddy and the Yeti out in front of a lot of new readers.  Oh, yeah...and there was this horrifying (but very well done) Superbaby guy there, too. I'll put up more pictures and write more about this show in the next few days.

- I watched the final episode of Smallville last night - it was the first time I caught the show in more than five years, but it was still pretty easy for me to follow.  I don't know if that's because the show's producers really made an effort to make everything accessable or if it really hadn't changed that much over its history.  In any case, I thought that it was fine - nothing spectacular, but okay.  The show's love affair with the Richard Donner-era Superman is still burning bright, and the glimpses of Clark in the suit were pretty cool.  But wow!  The show certainly hasn't lost any of its angst over the years.

I thought it was strange, though (and hey, spoiler alert), that throughout the entire episode the impending arrival of Darkseid and Apokalypse was built up and built up and built up...and then at the end of the episode, Clark just takes ten seconds, throws the planet back out into space, and everyone's happy.  Really, that was the big confrontation?  Oh well.  The show had a nice long run and it's good that it got to end how those who cared for it wanted.

- As the above flyer shows, FUBAR's second print is in the May edition of Diamond's Previews with an order code of MAY110785.  Check out that new cover!  Good stuff.  And check out a clip from a story of mine from the second volume, due out in the fall, with art by Mario Wytch:

- There's a new episode of Franks and Beans that's just been released, and you can watch it below.  If anyone's just stumbling on this site because of the cards I handed out at the convention this weekend, do yourself (and, well, me) a favor and check out all of the F&B videos and other stuff at www.franksandbeansonline.com!

- And lastly, I've been getting some nice comments on yesterday's "Accordion Theory" strip, and I appreciate all the kind things that have been said.  If you haven't seen it, well...here it is again.  So...read it.

FUBAR: 2nd print!

I mentioned some time ago that the WWII zombie epic FUBAR had sold well enough to warrant a second printing: the image you see above is the cover to that print, which will be available to order soon. This cover is by the great Danilo Beyruth, whose website (with tons of great art) can be found here.  It's easy to see that he nailed the image.  If I were in charge of such things (I'm not), I'd have this piece be the first of three interlocking covers, one for each planned volume.  Heck, I'd chip in some money to make that happen if it were a possibility (hint hint!).

Speaking of further volumes of the book, below is an ad from Jeff McComsey for this fall's volume 2 release.  I'll have some more work in this book, and as I posted about recently, it's looking good.

I've still got some copies of the first print to take with me to next month's Motor City Comic Con, so if you're going to be attending that show, be sure to check it out!  Since that print run is basically sold out, perhaps you could buy it and then turn it around for...100 times the cover price.  Perhaps.

Wagon Wheel Comics at the Motor City Comic Con!

I took a cursory glance at the website for Detroit's Motor City Comic Con yesterday and saw that, hey, apparently I'm going to be there this May!  I applied a while ago but hadn't heard anything from the show organizers since, but seeing my name on the "guest" list clears things up a bit.  I even made the front page, which is either a signal of my rising star in comic fandom or a sign that bigger talent that will push my listing to the back is still yet to be announced.  Take a peek!

Ooh, hey, Tim Sale and James Robinson and Tony Harris!  Plus some people from Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica!  Cool.

I should have more information soon on things like a booth number and the floor plan, but for now it's just good to get confirmation that this will actually be happening.

Conventions, The Dark Knight Rises, Franks and Beans and a slew of new random notes!

Here I again, with lots of things to say just a little bit about.  How has anyone lived without these short updates for such a long period of time?  Seriously, I expected people to start killing themselves or something.  Or perhaps something much less drastic.  In either case, let's begin:

- A few hours ago, I sent in the mail an application for the Motor City Comic Con, which takes place in just a few months, from May 13th through the 15th.  I'm optimistic about my chances of attending and grabbing a booth.  I'm not sure what to expect as far as most of the other guests or turnout, but Brent Spiner from Star Trek: The Next Generation will be there, so...I might as well go, too.  I'm still waiting to hear back from the Baltimore Comic-Con people, though as I mentioned before, they've cashed my application check, so I imagine that'll happen as well.  In both cases, we will see.

- Duane Redhead, your favorite artist and mine, was nice enough to send me a Christmas card last year (you know, around Christmas-time), and he included this nice doodle that you see above of Teddy and the Yeti.  I'm thinking of putting it at the end of every T&Y letters page from here until eternity.  It just has that "thanks for reading!" vibe to it.  I like it.

- Speaking of doodles, I'm sure everyone saw the Will Eisner Google Doodle a few days ago.  I thought it was a great tribute for what would have been Eisner's 94th birthday.  Obviously, the Spirit takes the focus in the art, but there are more subtle references to A Contract With God and other Dropsie Avenue stories, which was a nice touch.

Interestingly enough, the stats for this blog show that my Contract With God hardcover review spiked after this art showed up on Google's homepage.  Thanks for the hits, Google.

- Your friend and mine, Larry, half of the machine that is Franks and Beans, went to Pittsburgh's Steel City Con this past weekend and got his picture taken with the Batmobile from the 1960s TV show (for 20 bucks).  He did not pony up the $60 to meet Adam West, also in attendance, which I understand.  Sixty dollars!  Wow.

Here's the picture:

Here's a picture Larry took, what, 20 years ago (?) with the same Batmobile:

Larry hasn't changed a bit, but it looks like the Batmobile has had some detail work done in the meantime.  The bat-symbols are all outlined in white in the more recent picture.  Which is show accurate?  I can't be bothered to do the three minutes of research.

- Keeping with the Batman theme, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is reporting that PA Governor Tom Corbett is keeping Pennsylvania's film tax credit program in his new budget.  Never before have I been excited about budget news as this means Pittsburgh will most likely keep the Dark Knight Rises movie; that is, the newest Batman sequel should film in the 'Burgh as I was hoping.  This also means that I will show Batman-like determination in trying to be an extra on this movie this summer.

And to think, to present a balanced budget, all Governor Corbett had to do was cut education spending by $500 million.  I'm sure there won't be any negative repercussions from something like that.

- Last month, Taco Bell offered several promotional comics featuring various Marvel characters; one of which featured the Fantastic Four. Since I've never gone into a Taco Bell before, and since the only time I've ever eaten anything from Taco Bell was when a friend handed me a taco (really) as I was sitting behind a booth at Myrtle Beach's XCon World, I did the American thing and went to eBay to find a copy for myself.

The story contained within is a fun, short tale by the same creative team that worked on issues of Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four (Paul Tobin and...well, that's all I care about).  At the end of the issue, though, there was a one page story by Colleen Coover (Tobin's wife, as it turns out) that featured the following image:

The Thing fights a yeti.  I thought that was pretty cool.

This wasn't the first FF comic that Taco Bell has sponsored, though.  A few years ago they put out another one with another stock cover:

- Congratulations to James from Greer, South Carolina for winning every single one of my eBay auctions over the past weekend.  He bought 74 Spider-Girl and Spider-Girl-related issues that all went out in one big box this afternoon.  Good for you!

Just so you're aware, James, I turned about a third of that money around right away and bought this gem from artist Roger Andrews, who, according to the description, did design work on Marvel's Super Hero Squad toy line packaging art:

It's a Thing sketch card!  Hooray!  I remain shocked at how cheap I am able to get sketch cards online, unless they happen to have a Marvel stamp on them from an existing card set.  Marvel Masterpiece sketch cards, for example, always sell in the $40 range regardless of quality.  And yet I can get the above card, one that features really tremendous art, for a fraction of that.  Go figure.

- Jeff McComsey and I are working on a promotional piece for the upcoming second volume of FUBAR.  Once it's done I'll post the entire image here, but for now, check out one of the panels.  I've seen the rest and they live up to this one.  It's a really fun project and it should have some legs!  Oh, and the first volume of the book is getting a second printing!  Exciting stuff.

- In the picture above, you see stacks and stacks of the second issue of the Magic Bullet, which McComsey and I have another story in.  This is not my car, but that of the publisher...in any case, it looks like the issue will be out sooner rather than later!

Click here to read the press release for Magic Bullet #2!

- Matt Kuhns of the Modern Ideas website (he who once proved that there was cool stuff to do in Cleveland) put together this great timeline cataloguing the Fantastic Four's ongoing series over their 50-year history.  I'd love to see one that included the many miniseries for a comprehensive look, but I also realize that would be a real pain in the ass to compile.  In any case, I was surprised to learn that there was at one time a Fantastic Four radio program, which I didn't know before checking this graph out.

- Lastly (finally!!), there's some new content on the Franks and Beans official website in the form of animated gifs! I remember posting an animated gif on this site before only to see it sit motionless, so you may not see the "animated" aspect of it until you visit the site, but regardless...go there.  And see them.  And save them to your computer and your phone.  There are more than I'm showing here, but...these are my favorites.