My Disenchantment pitch comic - "Baby Trail Fairy Tale" with Dani Grew

Following up on the previous Disenchantment post, I thought I'd offer up a look at a pitch comic that artist Dani Grew and I made for Comic-Con 2019. My intention was to use this as a pitch to Bongo Comics, which published Simpsons Comics, Futurama Comics, and was overseen (in a broad sense) by Matt Groening.

I knew some folks with the company and I felt pretty good about the quality of the story, but when I got to Comic-Con and made my way to the Bongo booth, I found out that the company in the process of closing up shop, at least for the time being. The lack of a Disenchantment comic is a big oversight in the licensed comic game, and I have to believe that several companies would leap to publish it if it were available. Maybe it'll happen one day!

This comic takes place during the first season, of course, but I think that I got the characters' voices right despite only having a few episodes to work from. I hope you enjoy this Disenchantment comic!

Executive producer Josh Weinstein posted this on Twitter a few days ago. The bottle of mermaid mead was apparently given to some of the folks who worked on the show. Maybe one will (quietly?) show up on eBay one day!

Bean & Mora, together forever on my shelf (or at least 'til an earthquake.) pic.twitter.com/QyJ8dL90oW

— Josh Weinstein (@Joshstrangehill) January 17, 2021

Merry Christmas from The Tick!

Hey folks - here's a short Tick story that Ian Nichols and I worked on for Christmas! Hope you enjoy!

 

The Black Terror by Ramona Fradon and Duane Redhead

Perhaps you recall my Black Terror: Wednesday at the Diner webcomic/comic strip/mini comic/whatever that Rafer Roberts and I worked on a few years ago. It's been a while, but I'm slowly putting together some new material on that front for an eventual book, and two cool pieces of that recently came together from two great artists, so I thought I'd share them here!

The first is an image of the classic Black Terror from Golden Age artist (and personal favorite) Ramona Fradon. Fradon is an underrated legend in the comic book industry, and I'm kind of stunned that I was able to commission her in the first place. She's been drawing comics for almost 70 years and might be best known for co-creating Aqualad and Metamorpho for DC Comics. What a thrill it is to work with her in even the slightest capacity.

Our next piece is from a familiar source, Mr. Duane Redhead! Duane took some time from drawing the Tick to pencil and ink this lovely image of an elderly (but still muscular, check out those biceps) Black Terror and Mr. Q. The backdrop for this image is the city of Cleveland, because Cleveland is just kind of a funny place.

I'll update this page with more info on my take on the Black Terror in the future. For now, I'm excited to see these images.

"Weird Al at Comic-Con" poster

I'm back from another fun time at Comic-Con, and before the inevitable deluge of pictures, I thought I'd share this image from a poster I created just for the event. "Weird Al" Yankovic made a few appearances in and around Comic-Con, so I decided that it would be fun to mark the event with my own tribute in the form of a poster, itself a tribute to a 1905 "Little Nemo in Slumberland" strip by Winsor McCay.

I gave the posters away on Wednesday and Thursday of the show, and before Al's Thursday-night appearance at the Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre in San Diego, about ten miles away from the convention center.

I took the opportunity to, I suppose, skirt the edges of legality and toss in some of my other favorite fictional characters, such as the Thing, the Tick, Spider-Man 2099 and others from Futurama, the Venture Bros. and the like. This is me living on the edge.

Artwork on the print is by none other than Duane Redhead, who did a lovely job at squeezing a lot into a little bit of space. I'll talk more about this in a future post, but it went over pretty well and I was able to get a few copies to Al and his band during the convention. It was a lot of fun to put together.

Visit Teddy and the Yeti on Tumblr!

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.

"Weird Al" Yankovic in "Eat It", a FUBAR comic by McClelland, McMunn and McComsey

Read the story for free here!

I've been involved with FUBAR for about five years now, and there are a lot of stories that I'm proud of and enjoyed working on. A while ago, I wrote a story featuring Elvis Presley and the many conspiracies surrounding his death. It ran much longer than I had planned, so it was eventually decided that it could support its own single-issue book, which soon grew to a full 32-page issue to be filled out with a few backups. These backups would all focus on musical artists. I almost made the biggest mistake of my life (possibly) by not putting two and two together and writing one of the stories about "Weird Al" Yankovic. But soon enough I came to the obvious conclusion and the eight-page short "Eat It" was born.

The story itself might just be the easiest thing I've ever written in my entire life, as the inspiration was of course there. I tried to add in as many references as I could and sent the script off. Jeff McComsey provided the pencil roughs before sending it off to Jim McMunn for the finished art. I lettered the final product, which I'm very happy to see completed. McComsey and I decided to show the entire "Eat It" story online, and you can read the whole dang thing for free here: http://imgur.com/gallery/17maB/new

The entire issue, titled "All the King's Corpses" and featuring an Elvis cover by Danny Cruz and Paul Little, while be solicited in Previews soon. In addition to the Elvis and Weird Al stories by me, there's a Jim Morrison story by Michael McDermott and Will Perkins, a Waylon Jennings tale by your friend (and mine) Larry Franks and Kelly Williams, and a new Combat Quiz by Jennie Wood and Williams.

When I was at the Baltimore Comic-Con a few months ago, Jeff McComsey surprised me with the eight pencil roughs, all framed up and looking great. I was really taken back. This is hanging up right behind my computer, actually, so I'm looking right at it as I type this.

Not only that, but soon after, Jim McMunn was kind enough to send me the original page art for the story. Here are a few images of that.

Jim finished all of the artwork digitally, so the physical pages are in different states of completion. They look just fantastic and I'm absolutely thrilled to have them in my possession. This was a passion project that will hopefully have some appeal for others as well. I'm so glad that I finally got to write a Weird Al story. I'm even more grateful that some friends helped out and that it turned out as good as it did. I hope you all enjoy it as well!

Addendum: Sometimes I think, "what can I title this post that might make it show up earlier in search results?" Or, "if someone sees an image from this post on a Google search, how can I try to make sure he or she knows that I had something to do with this?" (this usually occurs when I am shouting into the void). And then, a title like the one at the top of this post is born. Carry on.

The Naked Man at the Edge of Time: Homecoming

The Naked Man lives!  Last month, a friend put a Facebook group called "The Prompt" together, the purpose of which was to create one page stories based on a single theme.  It was a fun idea so I threw my figurative hat into the ring (don't want to waste literal hats) and teamed up once again with Naked Man co-creator Kurt Belcher to create a new story about our favorite nude time traveler.

The theme for this first prompt was "going home".  I probably copped out and went with the most obvious title that there was, but nevertheless I'm happy with the results.  Joining us this time around was inker Silas Dixon and colorist Tomas Marijanovic, all the way from sunny (?) Australia.    The new guys did a great job.  The story may be published this year in an anthology if all goes well, but here's the finished product to read no matter what happens to it.

If nothing else, I got to use the phrase "nude yourself" in a story, so I can mark that one off the list.  I hope you enjoy this short story!

Zombie Shark: the Baby Zombie Shark

Last year, I posted the finished version of the one-page comic, written by my nephew, titled "Zombie Shark".  The premise...is exactly what it sounds like.  This year for Christmas, I helped put together the next one-page chapter of the Zombie Shark, titled "The Baby Zombie Shark".  It's got that same madcap feel to it that can only be created by someone under 10.  So here I present to you the next Zombie Shark, complete with other sea creatures and, for some reason, a guy on a hang glider.

The art on this comic was once again provided by the very adept, Pittsburgh area Meredith Moriarty, of whom we should be hearing more from in the next months.  FUBAR's Jeff McComsey graciously provided the greyscales, and this time I lettered the comic myself.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, though I'm slightly taken aback at just how easy it apparently is to write an entertaining comic strip.

Below you'll find the original layout of this tale, straight from my nephew Bobby.  As before, I tried to do my best to capture the feel of the original while presenting it in a professional manner.  The kid's got an eye for layout.

Original "Thanos and Darkseid: Carpool Buddies of Doom" art by Rafer Roberts!

One of the highlights of this year's New York Comic-Con was getting one of the few physical copies of "Thanos and Darkseid: Carpool Buddies of Doom" by Justin Jordan and Rafer Roberts.  The book has been selling well on eBay even though you can view the whole dang thing online.  It's a fun story that features Dr. Doom doing what Doom does.

Last week, I browsed Roberts's online store via DC Conspiracy, and I walked (not literally) away with a page of original art from the story, which you can see above.  It came in today, so I thought I'd show it off.  It's a comic book blog.  This is pretty much what it's set up for.

Here's the finished art for the page:

I made the decision to buy the page because of, naturally, Dr. Doom.  Rafer has just enough Kirby in him (that sounds dirty) to draw a perfect homage to comics' greatest super villain.  All four pages of the story feature Doom, though, so I had to choose which one I wanted.

The cameos on page four made my choice for me.  The final page of the story features not only Dr. Doom, along with Thanos and Darkseid, but also two Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles...in their party van.  And there's Mr. Mxyzptlk, too!

The page also features...okay, I have no idea who these guys are.  Certainly these are deliberate inclusions, right?  Any help from the outside world?  I suppose I could just ask Rafer, but...

While I was shopping, I also picked up trade collections of Roberts's ongoing "Plastic Farm" series.  I got all three volumes for a great price.

This is a great addition to the collection.  The other three pages from the story are still available.  You (you!) should pick 'em up before I inevitably do.

Plastic Farm Tumblr: http://plasticfarm.tumblr.com
Thanos and Darkseid: Carpool Buddies of Doom: http://plasticfarm.tumblr.com/post/67356039004/the-second-thanos-and-darkseid-carpool-buddies-of
on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/THANOS-and-DARKSEID-Carpool-Buddies-of-Doom-NYCC-2013-Mini-Comic-JUSTIN-JORDAN-/131049594259?pt=US_Comic_Books&hash=item1e832a1d93
Rafer Roberts DC Conspiracy store: http://dcconspiracy.storenvy.com/collections/186424-rafer-roberts

Magic Bullet #6: The Naked Man!

Lost in the shuffle of Free Comic Book Day and other such festivities is news that a new issue of DC Conspiracy's Magic Bullet is out!  Issue 6 of the Washington, DC-area free comic newspaper in on stands now, and it features an oversized, one-page comic written by me that you can read by clicking the image above.

My entry is titled "The Naked Man at the Edge of Time", and it's drawn by Kurt Belcher with inks by Jonathan Brandon Sawyer and greyscales by Tom Ziuko.  It's about a guy who time travels, but has to do so naked.  That's...pretty much all you need to know about it.  I got the idea while reading an issue of Dark Horse Presents, specifically a story titled "The Marked Man".  I just glanced over the title and had to look at it again, because I mistook "Marked" for "Naked".  Who knows what kind of Freudian analysis that conjures, but let's just take it for what it's worth.  Anyway, I thought the idea was funny, so here we are.

The whole issue turned out really well, if I can say so.  I love the format and I love the idea of a bunch of creators getting together to work on something of this scale.  It's pretty neat.

Also in the issue, FUBAR bigwig Steve Becker gets inadvertently name-dropped in a story...about...heck, it's a comedy story about a time traveler.  Oh well.

This issue also features an ad for Franks and Beans!  That's right, we convinced someone to actually advertise for our Internet show.  I'm sure this will drive viewership through the roof...I mean, if it wasn't already.  THE ROOF, I TELL YOU!

I do have plans to do more with the Naked Man.  Okay, that sounds a little weird, but you know what I mean, right?  The Naked Man idea.  That doesn't sound any better.  Whatever, there are still plans for a full length (that sounds bad in this context as well) story later this year.  I'll post updates...whenever.

Visit the Magic Bullet website here: http://magicbulletcomics.blogspot.com

You can even buy a copy of this issue for your very own self.  It's only 99 cents!  http://dcconspiracy.storenvy.com/products/1352276-magic-bullet-6

This comic strip will make its way onto the webcomics section of this site.  Look for more soon!

Read "Zombie Shark"

A few months ago, I shared a hand-drawn comic that I got from my seven-year-old nephew titled "Zombie Shark".  For Christmas, and with a lot of help from some talented comic folk, I was able to recreate his idea into a one page story that you see above.  In all, I think that it turned out rather well, and I'm a bit miffed that a story like this could come from a kid in elementary school and not, well...me.  Whatever.  Above is the completed story, free to Internet read and to print out and stick on the inside of your locker.  I'll put a copy of this up on the "webcomics" section of the blog.

The art on this page was provided by Pittsburgh's own Meredith Moriarty, with greyscales by Tom Ziuko and lettered by Hannah Partlow.  It all came together pretty well.  A couple weeks before Christmas, my nephew handed me the further adventures of Zombie Shark, in which Zombie Shark has a baby and they go camping.  Hmm...

Karin Rindevall's Teddy and the Yeti, The Din and more!

If you've followed this blog at all since it started up in 2008, the name Karin Rindevall won't be an unfamiliar one - the Swedish artist has been a contributor to Teddy and the Yeti, Andromeda Jones and other various projects since the beginning.  It's hard to even remember the exact circumstances under which we met...I'm sure it was a generic Digital Webbing ad in some context or another, but in any case, Karin has been a major help with a number of my comics and she does a heck of a job on her own work as well.

Karin has been hard at work on a number of projects recently, not the least of which, from my perspective, has been a new, four-page Teddy and the Yeti story that will run in issue #6.  The first page from this story is above, both drawn and colored by Karin.  Her distinctly European, animation-influenced style is on display and in great form with this page, and I couldn't be happier with the results.  I'm not even sure how to letter this story yet - if I should try it myself or opt for a hand letterer, one who might mesh better with the artwork at hand.

Karin, who works in animation and game development, also puts together the webcomic "the Din", a story about a civilization in which all technology has been abandoned hundreds of years in the past.  In the Din, society is slowly reinventing itself as it reintroduces new machines and other technology into its midsts.  It's a fascinating read and, while some chapters are under construction and the story is far from finished, it's well worth the time it takes to check out.  The webcomic is housed at http://www.dincomic.com!

Karin's also got a blog that she updates regularly where you can find smilin' Steve Rogers as well as other gems.  Take a look and enjoy at http://www.karrey.com!

"Weird Al" Yankovic's "UHF" Six Panel Cinema

Back when the FUBAR 2 Kickstarter fundraiser was under way, I pledged much more than I had originally intended because one of the rewards was too enticing for me to pass up (I suppose that this is what makes some Kickstarter projects successful and others not).  The reward in question was a "Six Panel Cinema" page by none other than FUBAR head honcho Jeff McComsey.  The idea behind Six Panel Cinema is simple, yet brilliant - you take a movie and whittle it down to its six most important or memorable scenes.  Jeff has given a number of movies the six panel treatment, most of which can be seen here: http://sixpanelcinema.wordpress.com/

I jumped at the chance to choose one for myself, and it should come as no surprise that I chose "Weird Al" Yankovic's 1989 classic, UHF.  I'm a big fan of Al's and the movie is one of the highlights of his career.

After I paid up, I buckled down and watched the movie one more time, choosing the six scenes you see depicted in the image above.  It was tough going with only six - there are so many more important scenes (and I wanted to include a panel of the Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies music video, but alas...).  Other than a cameo in the last panel, I completely cut out Victoria Jackson's character, and that's a shame.  But I did manage to work in most of the other main characters and, ultimately, I think that I chose the most important scenes.  I'm very happy with the way this turned out.

I told Jeff that I wanted to letter the page when it was finished, and he was gracious enough to turn it over to me for that purpose - I had to be involved with the creative process in some capacity.  I also took the opportunity to hand draw the UHF movie logo.  I'm no artist and what I ended up with isn't perfect, but it's my honest best and a tribute to just how much I like UHF and how much of a fan I am of Al and pretty much anything he does (check out his great new web series, "Face to Face"!).

I also colored a version, using the original movie poster colors:

In the end, we used colors that matched the theme of the rest of the page, which was the right choice.  Jeff and I also chose Lee-and-Kirby-style nicknames from the movie.  I went with "roooad maps!" and Jeff took "dog snot" - I was tempted to use the entire "festering bowl of dog snot" line, but perhaps simpler is better.

This is the second comic featuring Weird Al I've been involved in.  Last year I worked with Adrian "Bago" Gonzalez in creating "Accordion Theory", which I mention at every opportunity.  I can't help it.  Whatever.

Anyway, this Six Panel Cinema will find its way over to my webcomics section before too long, where it'll live forever in reverence.  I hope that you, faithful readers, enjoy this short comic.  And if Al finds this via a web search for himself...hi, buddy!

Digital Marketing for the Print Medium

Comics have always been a visual medium, but much to the dismay of many within the industry, they are also a print medium and that presents challenges that many similar forms of entertainment are facing: how to stay relevant and profitable in an age of increasing digital competition.

Even though comic book companies have seen and acknowledged an oncoming digital presence for their characters for more than a decade now, most are still struggling to define just how they want to represent themselves in an electronic field, and some attempts to branch out are better than others.

Both Marvel and DC, for example, are experimenting with selling digital copies of their comics in the very comics themselves - that is, if you buy a copy of the book, you can download an electronic version as well.  Marvel is, so far, including a download code for free, while DC is charging an extra dollar for the privilege.

This practice irks me at least a little, because behind this good deal (at least on Marvel's part) is a bit of sneaky marketing.  Both companies polybag their combo books, sealing them in until after they're purchased.  On the surface, this is so someone can't walk into a comic shop, scan the code, walk out without buying anything, have the comic on his or her e-reader, and render the one-time code invalid for someone who might actually purchase the book.

It's also, though, a way for companies to boost sales by having some of the more rabid consumers purchase two copies of the same book.  Due to their (perceived) collectibility, some buyers won't want to tear open the bag these comics come in, leaving them with a choice - either seemingly deface their collectible item, or spend twice as much to keep one copy in tact.

Companies obviously are aware of this, and while I won't say it's malicious on their part that they do this, it does seem to me like taking advantage of the psychosis that is collecting (that's consumerism for ya).  In a matter of weeks, Marvel's entire Ultimate Comics line will ship exclusively in polybags with download codes, which will put this practice to the test.

Other practices, however, are more in line with what I think comic book companies should be doing, taking advantage of the new capabilities that technology offers while still remaining true to the spirit of comics.

Marvel's recent relaunch of Daredevil, written by Mark Waid, has been a highlight of superhero comics in 2011.  Not that I'll ever discount Waid's writing, as he's been involved with some of my favorite comics of all time, but DD is really a treat to read every month.

Daredevil has always, for obvious reasons, had a strong following with visually-impaired comic readers, and Marvel finally took advantage of that by releasing an audio version of the first issue, read by Waid and a few others, free for download.  This is both a nice treat for fans in general as well as the aforementioned visually impaired, and is exactly the type of thing that big companies like this should be doing.

The direct link to the file is here: http://marvel.com/files/podcasts/DAREDEVIL_1_edited.mp3.  A little more info is on Marvel's site, here: http://marvel.com/news/story/16485/daredevil_1_audio_edition.

USA Today, while not being my favorite site for actual news, has had a pretty good relationship with comic companies over the past several years.  I still wonder why the paper doesn't print daily comic strips, but every once in a while they'll print comics and put them in front of a substantially larger audience size than they'd otherwise get.  When DC put out Wednesday Comics a few years back, the paper actually printed some to promote the series, and it had a strong web presence as well.

Dark Horse Comics went a bit further and released an exclusive digital Conan the Barbarian comic by Ron Marz and Bart Sears, who coincidentally (a hem) went on to produce a two-issue miniseries, Conan: The Island, another example of a company taking advantage or digital means to promote the physical product.

The full Conan story, "Kiss of the Undead", can be read here: http://www.usatoday.com/life/comics/2010-11-22-kissoftheundead22_ST_N.htm



Lastly, Marvel and Toyota have teamed up for an ad campaign that features short Robot Chicken-inspired videos with action figures and the Toyota Yaris.  It's a pretty bizarre combination, and it's beyond tame, but it's just another example of what a comic company can do when management embraces digital marketing.

This video is, of course, just an advertisement when it comes down to it, but it's still fairly interesting.  You can watch more of the Marvel/Toyota videos here: http://www.earnhardttoyota.com/tag/its-a-car/.