Wagon Wheel Comics at the New York Comic Con

I just received confirmation that Teddy and the Yeti superstar writer Jeff McClelland (THIRD PERSON!) will be attending the New York Comic Con on October 8th through the 10th of this year!  That's right, folks, Wagon Wheel Comics will be hitching up (it's a wagon metaphor!  Get it?) and heading to New York City for the second biggest pop culture convention in the country.  Perhaps the world, I'm not sure.  Anyway, it's second to San Diego's con, which I attended as an exhibitor in 2006 - if it's anything like that, it'll be overwhelming, exhausting, and tons of fun.

The details are still being worked out, but I get five passes to the show along with the table space...so that's one for me, one for the wife, and one for Larry (yes, we will film Franks and Beans at the show).  That means there's two left over, people!  Duane is on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, so I doubt he'll be making it in (but if you want to, Duane, the pass is yours and I'll set you up somewhere, too...), so I'll be looking to take an artist to sit at the booth with us.  Any takers?

In any case, this is all around great news.  Now I have to start making plans.  What to bring?  What to wear?  Yeah, baby - New York here we come!

Teddy and the Yeti on Wikipedia

In either a sign that the book is gaining some form of cultural relevance or perhaps a sign of the apocalypse, Teddy and the Yeti now has its very own entry on Wikipedia, the encyclopedia that anyone can add crap to.  Now anyone who types that phrase into Google (I've never been known to do that) will find the Wiki article staring them in the face.

I'm happy that the characters have reached such a cultural benchmark, in all honesty.  Looking at the article itself, it seems that, uh...whoever wrote it certainly does have a big, uh, insight into the book.  Yes.  Well, *ah hem*, I will let others click on the link and decide that messy business for themselves.  And if anyone decides to add in that Teddy and the Yeti #4 will feature the Yeti vs. Sarah Palin (in a steel cage match), well, I suppose that's your prerogative.  That's Wikipedia for you!

Teddy and the Yeti #1 on sale at NDC!

I got word from the folks at New Dimension Comics (those of the great sale) that the exclusive edition of Teddy and the Yeti #1 is now on sale at their stores.  I'm still working out some of the details, but if you head over to www.ndcomics.com, you can contact them and tell them "I'll take eight!"  (Sorry, Futurama reference.)

I'm hoping to get the book listed on their website, so I can put a link on mine and anyone who wants to buy one will be able to, regardless of your relative distance from Pittsburgh.  Regardless, it's good to have another issue of Teddy and the Yeti on the shelves.  Only a few more weeks until #2 is released.

WHAT DID I JUST TELL YOU?!

The following is a preview from this month's Fantastic Four #575, featuring the Mole Man and...HOLY CRAP MORE PEOPLE LIFTING UP MANHOLE COVERS AS IF THEY WERE MADE OF PAPER MACHE!  Didn't people read my post from a while ago explaining that it's actually really, really difficult?  Sigh...apparently not.

Manhole covers notwithstanding, I suppose I'm enjoying Jonathan Hickman and Dale Eaglesham's early run on the main Fantastic Four title.  It's not exactly reinventing the wheel (and Mr. Fantastic is drawn like he's a professional wrestler), but I'm giving it a chance.

One thing that bugs me, though...okay, one thing OTHER than misrepresenting how hard it is to lift up a manhole cover (they weigh hundreds of pounds! If it was easy everyone would steal one and there would be countless accidents with people falling down into open sewers!!), I'm a little irked at how Marvel has seemingly forgotten all about the Fantastic Four/Iron Man: Big in Japan miniseries where all of the Moloids (the weird creatures pictured above) formed into a giant spaceship and rocketed away form Earth, leaving the Mole Man sad and lonely.

Okay, I'm not saying that this particular plot point made a whole lot of sense, but the fact is that a writer at Marvel wrote it, an editor at Marvel approved it (probably several editors), and it went right through the process for publication.  I read it and thought it was crazy, but hey, it is what it is, right?  I guess not, because it's been entirely forgotten.  It seems that if something of this nature is going to be left behind months after it sees print, then perhaps someone within the company should put a stop to the story (or at least that aspect of the story) before it gets that far.

This has happened before, of course, but maybe not as often as it happens to Dr. Doom.  There have been several stories where Doom has seen an incredible power upgrade, changed his costume and told the Fantastic Four that they are now beneath his concern, but he'll kill them at a moment's notice if they bother him again.  Walter Simonson did a great story around FF #350 dealing with a new, improved Doom (who had apparently been in space or somewhere for a long time previous to the picture below), and Millar and Hitch did it again just a few months ago.  But now even though barely any time has passed since the story was printed, Dr. Doom is back to being his same old self, at his same old power level.  It just seems...poorly planned.

I sound like a pretty big nerd right now.  So I'll stop.  But seriously...manhole covers.  Come on.

Teddy and the Yeti on Comic Book DB and Collectorz Comic Database!

Sometimes it's fun to watch and see other people mentioning Teddy and the Yeti or listing the book on new release forms without any input from me.  Other times, dammit, I have to mention it myself.  I thought about pretending that I wasn't the one who made the submissions/updates, but what the heck.  I hold the smoking gun.

Teddy and the Yeti is now listed on the catalogue site Comic Book DB and on the organizing software from the Collectorz company!  The Comic Book DB site post thumbnail covers, story synopses, and character and creator information for tons of comics, and now they have listings for issues 1 and 2, along with the New Dimension Comics version of #1.

Collectorz picked up on this info and uploaded it to their database, and the cover to issue #1 was used on their page that lists the daily updates for the software for January 27th.  They've uploaded the three issues to their own page as well!  I've used their database before, and it's pretty sophisticated.  It's a handy tool when you're looking to organize a gigantic collection - all you do is enter the title, select the issue number, and all of the other relevant info (even the stuff you really don't need to know) including a cover scan uploads right along with it.  I'd probably purchase it myself, but they don't yet have a version that works on a Mac...which causes me to scratch me head, because Macs are awesome.

I've also updated the main website a bit, with a preview of issue #2 (including a the first look at the final cover) and a few other minor things.  Just a few more weeks until the second issue is out!

Cover preview, part 6

I'm in the planning stages of putting together a "convention exclusive" edition of Teddy and the Yeti #3, one that I'd sell only - get this - at conventions.  Hopefully that includes more than just the Pittsburgh Comic Con, as I have the application for the New York Comic Con filled out and ready to mail.  Fingers crossed!

Jorge Correra, of Action Comics and Protector fame, put this together for me, featuring a strange party with - gasp! - Teddy and the Yeti and all of the characters from the backup stories that appear in each individual issue.  Outside the window is the monster from my as-of-yet unpublished story, "You Don't Mess with the Big Red Rex!" (co-created by Paul Tucker), which would conceivably be the backup story for Teddy and the Yeti issue #4...premature, for sure, but I had to get the character in because I like him so much.

I really like this cover, because ist has that "crossover" feel.  Even if it's completely misleading and the characters don't interact inside the covers at all.

Other stuff, part 4 - Faith and Charity

It's been a while since I've posted anything about some of the other comic stuff I've been working on, and now seems a good a time as any.  Faith and Charity hasn't seen much movement in quite a while, but it's one of those stories that I always hold out hope for - maybe one day it'll get untangled and see print, one way or the other, because while it's probably one of the more different stories I've ever written, it's also one that I think holds a lot of promise.

The story is your basic coming-of-age tale with two sisters - Faith and Charity - and superheroics mixed in for good measure. The two learn that they have inherited special abilities from their mother, and soon their entire lives are turned upside down by the consequences.  Plus, their high school principal is totally turned into a rhinoceros, and as anyone who has ever watched an episode of Beast Wars knows, rhinos are completely awesome.

The art (and most of the production work you see) is by none other than Mario Wytch, who contributes a great pinup to Teddy and the Yeti #2 (and possibly #3, though that's not certain).  I'm not sure if Mario will agree with this or not, but I think that his best work is done on these slice-of-life stories such as Faith and Charity.  His distinct, fluid style is great for showing emotions, and Faith and Charity has plenty of that to go around.

We'll see what happens with this story - I believe that a first issue was once upon a time completed to the inking stage, so we do have something to go on if these wheels would start turning again.  In the meantime, I've written a script titled "The Ferryman" (not the most action packed sounding title, I admit) with Mario in mind - it's a one-issue story involving zombies...in space.  If it pans out, I might be publishing that story after Teddy and the Yeti #3 and before an issue #4, which I'm still hopeful for.