Thing sketchbook, part 22 (plus some new Thing toys!)

It's Leap Day! It's the Thing sketchbook! Here are five more entries!

Christine Larsen - 2017

Christine Larsen is a criminally underrated artist; she's one of my favorites and I grab some artwork from her whenever I can. This sketch is officially the last one where I was willing to mail the book to the artist, but hey, it was good while it lasted. Check out this full-color Thing bust! Yippee!

Luke McGarry - Comic-Con International 2017

In 2017, I took the sketchbook to Comic-Con in San Diego for the first time, and I have to say, I managed to get some great artwork on this trip. On Preview Night, I found Luke McGarry, who was selling a poster for a music festival that he drew. Included on the poster was Weird Al, so I grabbed that and managed to get a Seussian Thing sketch as well. Here's a look at the poster, too!

You can see Al in the top right corner!

Billy Tucci - Comic-Con International 2017

The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, the industry standard for price guides, releases an update every year, and like many comics, they now come with different cover art for different versions. 2017's oversized edition came with a Tick cover by Billy Tucci. Naturally, I grabbed one at the show. Tucci was offering up quick sketches with every price guide purchase (his booth was near the New England Comics booth, too), so I managed to talk him into drawing the Thing in my sketchbook.

Heck, let's look at the price guide, too!

Lots of Easter Eggs in this cover.

Douglas Paszkiewicz - Comic-Con International 2017

Douglas Paszkiewicz is probably best known for his Arsenic Lullaby comic, but I became familiar with him after her drew and issue of The Tick that came out in the fall of 2017. I got a chance to meet Douglas at Comic-Con and, of course, I had my trusty Thing sketchbook with me at the time. I really love this one.

Travis Sengaus - Comic-Con International 2017

Last up is a sketch I never thought I'd get. I've known Travis Sengaus for a while and we've worked together on a few projects, but I had never met him until we bumped into each other at Comic-Con. He wasn't at any booth or table, but he still found some time to hide away for a few minutes and draw this great cigar-chompin' Thing. 

One more item for today! With Disney's recent acquisition of Fox's media properties, Marvel is back to admitting that they own and publish the Fantastic Four, and that means that there has been quite a bit of FF merchandise on the shelves lately. My friend (and yours) Larry found these giant Funko Pop! Thing toys at Target and picked up two for me. There's also a new Fantastic Four Marvel Legends series out there, including this really impressive Thing figure. Both are now mine, and I'm happy to have 'em!

Pictures from the 2013 New York Comic-Con, part 3: the Aftermath

I've got a few more pictures to share from October's New York Comic-Con - these were taken just following the show.  I've also included some of the swag I picked up and feel like displaying.  Let's get to it!

New York can be a lovely city at both day and night.  Above are some of the well-known landmarks, all lit up and the like.

The FUBAR crew got together at an Irish pub just a few blocks from the convention center on Saturday night.  We pulled tables together and had a nice night of it.  Pictured jutting his head in front of Jeff McComsey on the left of the picture: Rafer Roberts.

On Sunday, while the show was winding down, I hit the road to nearby Metlife Stadium to see the Steelers wallop the Jets.  Wins have been a precious thing this year for the Steelers, but this was one of the good days for sure.  As the clock ran down, fans of the black and gold took over the stadium.  Here I am with some new friends.

Unbeknownst to them, I also took some pictures with Jets cheerleaders.

In my one day at the con, I managed to pick up a number of really cool items.  Here's what they all look like piled up next to each other for some reason.

First off, we've got some original art.  Both the above and below pages are original inks over reproduced blue line pencils (so these are both original and not original art pages).  At top is Scott Hanna's inks over the blue lines of Stuart Immonen (doing his best Bryan Hitch impression) from Fantastic Four #569!  Despite my misgivings about the Thing's doomed wedding from this issue, having an image of Ben Grimm in a tux is a wonderful thing.

I bought this page directly from Joe Rubenstein.  It's his inks over the blue lines of Mark Bagely from the very recent Fantastic Four (current series) #12.  We've got all four members of the team, Franklin, Valeria, an alternate reality Human Torch PLUS some weird dinosaur thing!  Super neat.

Upon buying the highly recommended Battling Boy, I was given a poster, a shirt and a limited print for free!  It was quite a deal - and Paul Pope signed both the poster and the book as I waited.

Here's another installment of "it pays to know people".  I met up with Rafer Roberts - artist on FUBAR, Plastic Farm and the above comic - and I convinced him to give me a copy of the newly printed, fantastic mini comic Thanos and Darkseid: Carpool Buddies of Doom.  It's every bit as good as it looks.

Roberts previously worked with writer Justin Jordan on a short Thanos/Darkseid carpool story that knocked everyone's socks off.  How do you top a story like that?  You add in Dr. Doom, of course, and the result is just magical.  I have no idea if any of these books made it out into the real world, or if they were just handed out to fellow creators at NYCC.  It's a great item, to be sure, and I'm happy to have one for myself.

I also met briefly with Jon Goff, a fellow writer who had issues of Big Hitters on sale.  Goff works on Big Hitters with Travis Sengaus, who has done some art for Teddy and the Yeti and Ultimate Hero with me.  The book itself comes highly recommended.  It's an epic space romp and it plays very well.

Lastly, I picked up this tiny page of thumbnail art from Jeff McComsey!  At it says, this is some mini art from the upcoming Mother Russia graphic novel.  I'm a big fan of production art (and pretty much any art, really), so this is going up on the wall at some point.

The New York Comic-Con is a fun place to be.  It's definitely over crowded and it doesn't live up to the hype of, say, Comic-Con in San Diego, but it's still one of the country's premier comic conventions.  I hope to be able to go next year as well.  If I do...I'll take some pictures.

IGN update; Dark Knight Rises trailer; NFL SuperPro and more!

- A few days ago I mentioned that FUBAR: Empire of the Rising Dead had been nominated by IGN.com for their "anthology of the year" award.  After tallying the votes, it seems that Rocketeer Adventures from IDW got the nod, and I can't say that it wasn't undeserving, as it was jam packed with top-tier talent.

It looks like FUBAR can grab a "People's Choice Award", however, with some feverish online voting, and as soon as I figure out how to, uh, do that, I will post a link here, and then demand that everyone vote for it.



- The Dark Knight Rises full trailer came out a few days ago, and BOY! does it look good.  I even made it on screen during the Heinz Field scenes, though you'd need a screen as big as a house and a magnifying glass to see me (i.e. I'm a blurry part of the faceless thousands).

One person who does get some good screen time, however, is current Pittsburgh Steeler and future Hall of Famer Hines Ward!  When the filming was taking place, I wondered to myself how much footage of (Super Bowl XL MVP) Ward would make the final cut.  It seems that the answer is "a lot".  Heck of a guy, that Hines Ward.

- Speaking of the NFL, friend of the blog Travis Sengaus drew this pinup of NFL SuperPro, making the character look much cooler than he really deserves.  SuperPro's 20th anniversary was this year, and the NFL Network even ran a short special about the character.

Travis drew a few pages for Image's Haunt #18 - check it out if you get the chance!

- Next we have a cover homage to the classic Fantastic Four #51...made out of yarn.  I have no idea in what context this should be taken.

- Lastly, a friend of mine, Eric Ross, recently started a blog all about mustaches.  As if that weren't enough reason to view it, Eric has posted a few things that might be familiar - Franks and Beans episode 7 (titled, wait for it, "Mustache") and the above Strange Tales clip by Jacob Chabot.  Check out "THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UPKEEP" here: http://justamoustache.tumblr.com/

- Oh, and happy 400th blog post for me.  Great.

Teddy and the Yeti trading cards

I wrote a while back about putting together some trading cards for the fast approaching New York Comic Con.  I'm happy to say that they're no longer just an abstract concept, because UPS brought the final products to my door a few days ago and boy!  Am I excited with how they turned out.

Here's the details: there are a total of 18 cards.  Cards one through nine are "story" cards, each highlighting the first two issues of the story.  Cards 10 through 17 are "character" cards, with pinup-style artwork of main characters (and, honestly, whoever I felt would look cool on a card).  Card 18 is a sketch card for...you know, sketches.  There's some great artwork by artists like Duane Redhead, Alan Gallo, Jorge Correa, Mario Wytch, Travis Sengaus, Leonardo Pietro, Karin Rindevall and Paul Little.

I'll be selling these at the show as a set, but I printed out extra copies of card one to give away.  And perhaps to practice throwing at watermelons just like they do on TV.  Check 'em out!  I'm proud.

Issue #3 preview

The time is almost upon us - Teddy and the Yeti #3 will go on sale this Friday, April 23rd, at the Pittsburgh Comicon - I'll be at booth S088 with all three issues, the Josh Howard Presents: Sasquatch anthology, a few copies of Strip Search and a few other things.  Below is a preview of the issue; as I've mentioned before, this issue features three stand alone Teddy and the Yeti tales, including a colored version of their origin story, as well as a short backup story with the Ultimate Hero.  The following is the cover and the first pages of all four stories (so if reading them in succession doesn't make sense, don't worry - you're not stroking out).

The cover is by Godland's Tom Scioli, with Alan Gallo providing inks and Karin Rindevall on colors.  The interior pencils and inks are all by regular series artist and co-creator Duane Redhead, and there are a bevy of colorists in line for the Teddy and the Yeti stories: Giuseppe Pica, Karin Rindevall, Omi Remalante, Jr., and Paul Little.  The short Ultimate Hero story is penciled by Travis Sengaus, inked by L Jamal Walton and colored by co-creator Mike Adams with help from Paul Little.

The official solicitation info is after the preview.  Hope to see you at the show!  Look for the me there - I'll be the one shamelessly promoting this book.  Also, I'm very attractive.

Solicit info:

Thrill to three titanic tales in the third issue of Teddy and the Yeti!  Discover the origin of Teddy and the Yeti!  Witness an undersea battle!  And marvel at the one villain who could turn Teddy and the Yeti against each other!  Plus: Ultimate Hero with Travis Sengaus and an interview with cover artist Tom Scioli!

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.