FUBAR gets some high profile attention

Suffice it to say, FUBAR keeps surprising me with the amount of exposure it continues to gather.  The book has been well received since the first volume and it's continuously done well at conventions.  A few weeks ago, I was at a comic shop and someone approached me because he recognized me from a signing earlier in the year.  He was excited to talk about FUBAR and I, honestly, was excited about someone recognizing me.

There's a difference, though, with having a good convention and seeing the book included on the New York Times bestseller list, and recently, FUBAR got more of the high-profile attention that is a continued source of amazement.

A few days ago, Kickstarter revealed a "best of 2012" presentation on their site, and front and center in this was a full slide dedicated to FUBAR and its NYT accomplishment.  FUBAR was one of only a handful of projects that the site highlighted for the entire year-in-review show.  That was quite the accolade, though it wasn't the only one to come our way.

On January 9th, National Public Radio mentioned FUBAR in a piece about Kickstarter's accomplishments, and they were even kind enough to put a direct link to the FUBAR homepage on their website.  The combination of these two events, I'm told from a reliable source, is already leading to increased website hits and a higher demand for the books themselves on sites like Amazon.com.

What a great thing it is to be involved with a project like FUBAR - there was certainly a significant amount of luck in the mix on my end, as I was basically at the right place at the right time to jump on the creative wagon before the first volume came out - and it's been very gratifying to see it reach even the outskirts of the cultural zeitgeist the way it has.

The FUBAR Winter Special, as it turns out, will be in stores on the last Wednesday of this month, followed by the third volume and several other smaller projects later in the year.  Who knows where we'll be in another year.  Maybe it'll go even higher.

The haul, 2012

Perhaps one year, I'll ask for practical things for Christmas.  A nice potato masher, for example.  But not this year.  Every year I show off some of the cool things that I got for Christmas to share the excitement with random people over the Internet, and this year is no different.  So sit back and check out some of the stuff I got for Christmas!

In the picture at top, there are actually two Thing toys, though one isn't as obvious.  Larry (your friend and mine) got me '90s-era Marvel Universe Thing figure, denoted with a Roman numeral because he comes with his "disguise" outfit.  On the right of the picture you can see a "Bonk Zonk" Thing toy, which is part of a large game that I have no interest in.  Both of these are really cool!

As you all should know by now, I love me some TV shows on DVD, and I did all right this year.  I got the final two season of Star Trek: Voyager, which means that I now have every season of every Star Trek series (including the cartoon) ever created.  Took me long enough!  I also got "Freaks and Geeks", which I hear good things about.  I hope it lives up to the hype.

Hey, it's a new Wii game!

My friend Caitlin from Alaska (that is her designation; if you had a friend from Alaska, you'd call that person something similar) got me this great Adventure Time figure!

More DVDs: the latest volume of Futurama and the second volume of Space Ghost: Coast to Coast!

Remember when I predicted that the Steelers would win the Super Bowl this year?  Boy did I have that wrong.  I'm not quite sure what happened to produce an 8-8 season, but I still love the black and gold, and I got a few neat Steeler items for Christmas.  First on the slate is the Hines Ward Dark Knight Rises figure, which is soooooooo awesome.  I also picked up the new Steelers DVD, highlighting the impenetrable defense of the 1970s.

I can finally start reading the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen thanks to these two trades!

This gift was completely frivolous - more so than most of my other ones, even, but it holds a special place in my heart to be sure.  It's a neon light-enhanced Pac Man sign!  This one is Inky, if I remember correctly.  Since I've got my Ms. Pac Man arcade game set up at Evil Genius Comics in California, PA, I took this there and asked the folks there if they'd be willing to hang it up and display itin one of their windows.

They agreed!  And it's got a prime location in the window.  If you look at the bottom right of the picture, you can even see the Ms. Pac Man cabinet.  Hooray!

This item was actually bought for my wife, but it's too cool not to show off here on the blog.  It's a Star Trek Enterprise pizza cutter!  The saucer section is, of course, the cutter, and it looks ten times as awesome in real life.  It comes in its own case and everything!  It's almost too cool to actually use it...almost.

I bought this display piece for my wife, so it's not technically mine, but again...too cool to leave out, if I say so.  This is a metal-plated replica of the gun Mal Reynolds uses on Firefly!  It's got a nice heft to it and it comes with its own stand.

Even the box is great.  This beauty came from Quantum Mechanix, which makes tons of sci-fi collectibles, most of which I want to own.

Lastly, here's another item that's not mine, but it's something I thought really turned out well.  One of my nephews is a big fan of Jeff Smith's Bone from reading the Scholastic reprints, so my wife crocheted Fone Bone for him!  Needless to say, it was a big hit - she even made one of Bartleby as well!

That's a bunch of what I got for Christmas in 2012.  Great times, and thanks to everyone for the gifts.

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...

A holiday tradition! My students continue to draw the Hulk poorly.

At this point, we should know how this game works.  As an aside on the final I give in the composition classes I teach, I hint at the possibility of bonus points for renditions of the Hulk in/on the green books used for a final essay.  I never actually give out bonus points for this, but it's fun to see just who takes the bait and draws up a Hulk.

Not too many to choose from this time around, but then again, if you've seen one terribly drawn Hulk, I guess you've seen them all.  Please keep in mind that these are college students who are drawing these; I can't say that I would do a good job at drawing, well, anything, if given the chance, but some of these are just awful beyond any hope of redemption.  Case in point: the image at top is perhaps the best one I received.

THIS image, however, is probably the worse...EVER.

Yep.

I actually like this one, although it may pass better for a Sea Monkey or some similar quasi-aquatic animal.  I do enjoy the Hulk speech employed here.

What?  This isn't the Hulk.  It's a picture of me, wearing a shirt with my own name on it and a Pirate hat.  Come on.

This is how you draw the Hulk if you can't draw.  I can appreciate this one and it's probably no better or worse than my own art would be.

This artist started to draw something, but had to erase it and start over...and still, this is the best he/she could do.  The Hulk pants are nice, though.

See you next semester!

Comic Book Christmas Cards

Ah, the bounty of Google is plenty.  It's almost Christmas once again, and comic books have a long tradition of celebrating the holiday in their own way.  Here are some of the better comic book Christmas cards/greetings from over the years!

Marry Christmas!

Merry Beast Wars Christmas!

Beast Wars, without question the greatest Transformers cartoon of all time (trust me), has been off the air for quite some time, but it keeps on giving.  Here's David Kaye, the voice of Megatron, who apparently decided to start filming himself around Christmas of last year while using his best Predacon voice.  I have no idea why this exists, but thank all that is holy that it does.  Perhaps it's a Christmas miracle.

FUBAR: Free Comic Book Day 2013 special

A few days ago, I broke the news about the 2013 Tick Free Comic Book day special.  If you took a closer look at Diamond's list of all the FCBD offerings, you'll see another book with my name attached to it.  FUBAR, everyone's favorite zombie war comic, will have a special issue out with all new stories and a new Frank Frazetta-inspired cover by Mike Hawthorne!

This issue will feature four stories that span US history.  My story is in the familiar WWII timeframe and deals with Edward R. Murrow, journalist and patriot in one of his early war assignments.  Other contributors include Jeff McComsey, Steve Becker, Chuck Dixon, Shawn Aldridge and Jason Copland.

May just got a lot bigger for me.  Two books on the same day, with a pretty wide release for both!  It's very exciting.  So if you go to a comic shop on Saturday, May 4th of next year, you can be sure to pick up two books: the Tick and FUBAR, absolutely free!