Specs

Every major comic book company will keep on file character sheets, which are, basically, front, back and sometimes profile shots of their major characters.  They do this because, at big companies like Marvel and DC, a number of different artists will be drawing the same character at any given time, and the companies want to keep their characters looking as consistent as possible.  Gone are the days when a company had a "house style" - at least on the surface, it seems, companies are much more open to an artist's interpretation of a given character.

My inbox was delighted (yes, that's right - an event so wonderful happened that my inbox felt emotion) to receive the above and below character specs for Teddy and the Yeti - and I think you'll agree that they look utterly fabulous.  It's easy to see that Duane took his time and was meticulous with the detail...and why not?  These are now the definitive images of the two characters.

These images serve a dual purpose, though - these might, I don't know, work as pretty good models if we were to try to have some action figures made.  Now, don't read too much into that, as there are no plans in this area right now.  But I am talking with one of my friends who runs Urban Rascal, a designer toy website, and we've at least started talking to see if there might be any interest in a line in one form or another.  We will see where that takes us, but I imagine that any news would be pretty far off.  I'm trying to be optimistic in this regard.

All I know is that if this does happen, my friend Larry will kill me if I don't make one of him at some point, which is one of the reasons I designed the character "Many Man" from an upcoming story to look like him.  Hold on to that hope, buddy.

Dinner and a (Slide) Show

Monday's Free Comic Book Day-inspired comic book panel went off, if I do say, without a hitch.  There were comics, presentations, door prizes and - oh yeah! - free chicken nuggets.  I'm not sure what more you could have asked for.  I suppose that last statement was hyperbolic.

There ended up being around 75 people, not including comic store workers or comic creators, at the New Hanover County public library for the two-hour presentation.  A lot of that time was spent listening to illustrator Tom Fleming recount his career, which was really interesting.  Tom's really had a varied career, designing paint cans, costumes for World Wresting Federation characters, comic book playing cards and Cracked magazine covers, to name a few.  The stories he told went beyond just a list of what he's done - I think everyone there was interested in hearing more.

I gave a 15-minute presentation after Tom was finished, and I talked about writing for comics and questions I hear every so often - a lot of it was based on an article I recently wrote for the Brownsville Telegraph - and I think that it went over well.  A few of my jokes (okay, most of them) fell flat, which was actually pretty funny in itself, but I heard good things about it afterwards, so I imagine that at least a few people took something from it.

After the presentations, those there from Fanboy Comics - sponsor for the event - held a raffle to benefit the creation of a graphic novel section in the library, and then chicken...glorious, delicious chicken.  If you haven't been to a Chick-Fil-A yet, do yourself a favor and go (RIGHT NOW)!  They had chicken nuggets and chicken salad sandwiches, and I had...let's say more than my share.  Delicious.

The event ended with several local creators selling and signing books.  I sold a few issues of Teddy and the Yeti - someone even came by to buy a whole set - and talked with a number of people about T&Y and comics in general.  In the picture above, you can see me talking to a young comic fan and his mom.  She looked at the books and said "Wow!  [Young child], would you like me to buy you one of these books?" very enthusiastically.  The kid hung his head, frowned and said "NO!"  Oh well, maybe next time, fella.

In my opinion, the turnout was great, and I can't thank the folks at Fanboy Comics enough for sponsoring the event.  Certainly, it was nice to make people aware of Teddy and the Yeti (which I mentioned during my presentation more than a few times), but in general it was just nice to get to talk comics with a few dozen fans like myself.  I even had a couple friends show up unexpectedly to hear my talk, which I appreciate to no end.  There was talk of putting together a comic creating workshop for some of the area kids, which would be lots of fun.  I'm sure it'd go off without a hitch - "hey kids, who here likes Teddy and the Yeti?"  Kids: "BOOOO!"  Me: "What the hell is wrong with you?!?"  Good times, good times.

Come and see my magical comic book presentation.

No - the title isn't a sly euphemism.  I'm really going to be speaking as part of a presentation on comics TONIGHT! at the Northeast branch of the New Hanover County public library.  I wrote about this a few weeks ago and mentioned that this is being sponsored by Wilmington's Fanboy Comics as part of their extended Free Comic Book Day celebration.  It takes place from 6:00-8:00 pm, which means that I should still be able to catch most of the Penguins hockey game...because clearly, that is the most pressing thing going on for me this evening.

The program will highlight the comic book career of local artist Tom Fleming and will include a Q&A session with Tom and other local creators (I'll try to use as little sarcasm as possible when answering questions).  Chick-Fil-A will be providing sandwiches - like manna from Heaven - for all attendees free of charge, as well!  Did I ever mention that I met the Chick-Fil-A cow?  Well, I did, and it was very sweet.  Oh, and I guess I'll sign some comics or something if anyone is interested.

This is all a rather auspicious moment for me, and I'm looking forward to being a part of the program.  I spoke with Tom when we met at the Pittsburgh Comicon, and he suggested I put some information together on how writers approach the comic book creation process...so I did, and I'll be talking about that tonight for a few minutes.  I've even put together a PowerPoint and everything (and posted a damn picture of it, of all things)!  Here's hoping that I do a better job at presenting than my students do in the public speaking class I teach...because those are usually pretty terrible.  On the other hand, if watching people fail miserably brings joy to your life, show up and watch, because there's always the chance!

If you'd like to show up, here's the address:

1241 Military Cutoff Road
Wilmington, NC 28405

Remember, it's not the main branch - it's the Northeast branch.  If I hadn't just done a search for the address, I would have honestly gone to the main branch and thus missed the entire thing.  That would have been bad.  See you there!

Spoiler alert: Iron Man 2 features a rocket that farts. REALLY.

Let me start off by saying that the first Iron Man movie really exceeded my expectations.  The action, the humor, the casting, the characterizations...they got almost everything right, highlighting Tony Stark and how his self-destructive personality would come into conflict with his natural genius and his genuine desire to help people live better lives.

Very rarely do I venture out to see a movie on its opening weekend - a crowded movie theater full of obnoxious people is one of my pet peeves in life - but events were such that on Friday night I went to see Iron Man 2 with my wife and father-in-law.  As this was a rare event for me, I realize that there are probably a lot of other people waiting until things slow down to catch this sequel, so I won't go into many details here.  There are plenty of other reviews that will tell you everything that happened, so if you're really curious...you'll be able to find them.

In short, I really don't think the movie lived up to the first.  It might just be my expectations - I didn't expect much from the first, but since it was so spot on, I thought the second would follow suit.  Wthout getting too deep into things, what I ended up seeing was more suited to those who like cheap jokes, because really - that's almost all it was.  Gary Shandling - who looked like someone connected an air pump to him and left it run for four hours - was cast as a Senate member who reminded me a bit too much of Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter.  Tony Stark cracked jokes almost the entire time.  Pepper Potts was little more than a damsel in distress.  War Machine said variations of the line "I'm doing this under protest!" over and over and over.  Whiplash, the film's villain, was so one-dimensional it's almost like he wasn't there at all.  The "after the credits" ending was predictable to the point where I knew what was coming almost immediately.

All of the above I could have lived with and walked away feeling ambivalent about Iron Man 2, the movie.  But there was one scene - one little thing, really - that put me over the edge.  I feel justified going into a little detail here, because this particular occurrence doesn't have any bearing on the move other than the fact that it makes me want to strangle someone (not you, kind reader).  There is a scene toward the end of the movie where War Machine fires a rocket from...well, wherever he fires rockets from.  To get the point across of just how ineffective this particular weapon is, it bounces off of its target, hits the ground...and then farts.  Sigh.

In many cases, I enjoy a good poop joke.  I do!  And there aren't a lot of situations where they aren't funny!  But in this case, in Iron Man 2, where almost every other joke was the equivalent, it was just annoying.  The girl in back of me thought it was the best thing she had ever seen/heard (at the time she shouted "yes, yes, yes!!"), but she loved EVERYTHING.  She loved the conjunctions and punctuation in the sentences of dialogue.  I, however, did not like being treated like the only humor I like is the "lowest common denominator" type.  I mean, hell, I like that, too, but not ALL the time.

I bet there'll be another one in 2013 or some time around then.

guest appearance

Take a peek at the cover posted above.  I'm willing to guess that the hidden Teddy and the Yeti covers aren't the first things people are going to notice.  Or the second, etc., but since this is a Teddy and the Yeti-centric blog, it's my duty to point them out to readers and general passers-by.

This image was just passed on to me by my good friend Todd at New Dimension Comics.  The folks at NDC are working with the creators of Hack/Slash, the Devil's Due horror/monster title that recently made the switch to Image Comics, to put out this exclusive cover.  If I'm not mistaken, this will be a special cover to the first issue of the miniseries Hack/Slash: My First Maniac, which will be the first issue that Image is releasing.

To say that I'm thrilled is an understatement.  Obviously, the image of the NDC version of Teddy and the Yeti #1, with cover art by Alan Gallo and Karin Rindevall, is a minor aspect of the cover that I'm sure most people will skim right over (because, hey, there are sexy girls on the cover, and one of 'em has a knife), but seeing my work in this regard, on the cover of an Image book that has a movie in some form of production, is really fun to see.  Beyond this, I can now make the claim that the Teddy and the Yeti comic book exists in the Hack/Slash universe along with Invincible (#46, bottom left, next to the pizza box).  Perhaps we'll have a crossover or something.

I'll keep an eye on the release date for the book and update this blog when it shows up in stores.  And if you STILL can't pick out Teddy and the Yeti on the above cover, I've cropped the images out for you.  Now that's service!

What is that, a bent corner?  Man, you gotta be more careful with those things.

For those who like vague, brief references to Teddy and the Yeti...

Wilmington's Star News did a nice (if not surface level) piece on this past weekend's Free Comic Book Day event at Fanboy Comics, discussing the event itself and all that Fanboy had planned for the comic book celebration.  Above is a picture from the article, featuring shop owner Thomas Gilbert pretending to organize comics that I know he already had out and in order.

The entire article can be found here, but let's be honest - all you're concerned about is the brief and fleeting reference to both me and Teddy and the Yeti.  Well, okay, I hate to disappoint:

Fanboy is also sponsoring an appearance by Wilmington-based comic artist and fantasy illustrator Tom Fleming, who’ll give a slide show and retrospective on his work with DC, Marvel and others at 6 p.m. May 10 at the Northeast Regional Library, 1241 Military Cutoff Road.

Local self-published comic creators Bill Cofflin (Cape Fear Comics), Jeff McClelland (“Teddy and the Yeti”) and Mike Pigford (“Bleedfish”) will be on hand for a question-and-answer session and comic signings. During the event, Fanboy will hold the drawing in its raffle to raise funds for the New Hanover County Public Library.

This is a reiteration of something I posted a little while ago regarding the New Hanover County Library panel that takes place on Monday, May 10th.  I met with Tom Fleming at the Pittsburgh Comicon and we talked about what I could possibly bring to the appearance.  Beyond my general attractiveness, that is.  I'm looking forward to it!

costume show

The Pittsburgh Comicon has been over for just about a week now, and I'm just now recovering from all of the traveling (oh, and it's finals week at school), so I thought I'd post some pictures from the con to show off some of the great costume acts there were over the weekend.  Of all the ones I saw, the Venture Bros. henchman was probably my favorite, though she couldn't tell me if she was supposed to be 21 or 24.  Come on!