Inside Jokes, part 2

My last post mentioned a little "inside joke" I snuck into the "Presidents and Precedence" tale that leads off our third issue.  That joke was subtle and had some great backstory regarding my relation to Civil War General George McClellan, a story which I think was worth telling.

"Presidents and Precedence" has another hidden joke in its pages, and I'd like to say that there was some deep meaning behind it as I feel I've set the bar at least somewhat high; however, they can't all be winners.  The title of this series, of course, is Teddy and the Yeti.  In the scene pictured above, where the Yeti is being attacked by mechanical constructs of historical figures, we see none other than a representation of 26th U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt (Duane drew him biting the Yeti, which I think is spectacularly funny).  Teddy...and the Yeti.  Get it?!  I know...this one was much more obvious.  But I've got the original art to the page hanging in my house, and I still chuckle at it every time I see it, which it quite often.  Maybe it's where that FATE Magazine article came from.

Teddy and the Yeti gets its (Google) due

My good friend Larry sent me this picture on Monday - it appears that Teddy and the Yeti has become so (Internet) famous that search engine benchmark Google has added it to its auto-complete function.  I'm really not sure how this comes to pass - perhaps enough people have to search for a term for it to be included, or perhaps it's the number of online references.  Regardless, it's nice to see Teddy and the Yeti getting its due in this manner, if for no other reason than it was frustrating to type in "Teddy and the Yet" and STILL get no Google suggestion.

Now it's time to sneak up on stalwarts such as 60s rock group Teddy and the Pandas, teddy and the bear mechanical bank - a coin bank featuring the US President KILLING A BEAR - and Teddy and the Frat Girls, named after mass murderer Ted Bundy.  It's a tough road to the top.

Fate Magazine

As has been mentioned before, I do the "occasional" Google search for mentions of Teddy and the Yeti. Many times the results point right back to this blog, while others come from the standard Previews issue description online retailers have picked up on. In all, there aren't a whole lot of surprises, save for one curious result from Fate Magazine. Their online preview of the January-February issue includes a table of contents listing for "Presidential Bigfoot: Teddy and the Yeti" by Gary W. Hemphill, which, upon making this discovery, scared me right to high hell.

I'm sure a listing like this might make a lot of people worry. For one, the magazine is using the EXACT NAME I've chosen for the book, but beyond that, Teddy and the Yeti's first appearance in 2007's Josh Howard Presents: Sasquatch anthology dealt with the duo taking on robotic doppelgangers of historical figures, prominently including US Presidents, making the "Presidential Bigfoot" title all the more troublesome.

I didn't want to jump to conclusions, but I also didn't want to turn a blind eye to something that could end up being a serious case of copyright violation and cause me problems in the future, so I went ahead and plunked down $10.95 ($5.95 for the magazine, $5.00 shipping!!) to get a copy of the issue in question, which arrived in my mailbox today.

To my relief, there's no connection between Teddy and the Yeti the comic and Teddy and the Yeti the Fate Magazine article. The article in the magazine deals with Teddy Roosevelt and his experiences with a man who at one time MIGHT have encountered Bigfoot, and nothing more. Apparently Gary Hemphill also finds "Teddy and the Yeti" to be a clever title...but the similarities end there, much to my overwhelming solace.

I now have to deal with the fact that there is a searchable record of me purchasing a conspiracy theory magazine. This issue of Fate Magazine came with the can't-miss offer to purchase "Species Link: The Journal of Interspecies Telepathic Communication", which I can't imagine is an actual journal of academic repute.

The magazine itself had a section on psychic predictions for 2009 (remember, this was the January-February issue), which included one that stood above the rest: "Our government", predicts noted medium Jennie Easterling, "will obtain a device that will break a hurricane when it is several hundred miles out, so when it reaches land, it will be broken up into several tropical storms scattered along the shoreline." Well, I guess they still have almost two months to reveal this secret hurricane buster, but...I'm a bit skeptical.

Finally, if you look at the scan of the cover I took, this issue of Fate Magazine also offers tips on how to sell a haunted house, which, during a recession, is quite topical...so kudos on whoever thought to put that on the cover.

In 20 years or so, I'm sure there will be some congressional hearing not unlike the McCarthy hearings of the 1950s in which this purchase will come back and damn me. And I'll have no recourse but to admit I bought it.