My life in six lines or fewer

A few days ago I received a mailer from the Pittsburgh Comicon - the cover image changes from year to year, but it's amusing how those at the con have managed to put out the same basic show advertisement since I first attended with my dad nearly 15 years ago.  I remember being so excited getting this in the mail when I was younger - I even took a copy one year and had golden age Green Lantern creator Mart Nodell sign it (a story for another time to be sure).  Heck, I might even still have it stored away in a box somewhere.  Anyway, this year's mailer features a cover by Tom Mandrake with the Spectre, a character he's known for, and...a skull.

If you take a peek inside, you'll eventually stumble upon this:

This is quite a thrill, of course.  Seeing your name in print is always fun (unless you're, I don't know, getting arrested and it's in the police blotter or something), and this time is no exception, though it's a little disconcerting to think that everything I've worked so hard to accomplish in the realm of comics can be summed up (rather nicely at that) in just about six full lines of text.  I suppose that most of the comic professionals got just as much space, so perhaps this makes it look like we've had the same number of accomplishments.  Two sides of the same coin, perhaps.

Once again my "right next to Scott McDaniel" thunder was stolen by Jeff McComsey, the man who shares the same first seven letters of my name.  Perhaps I will meet him at the show, and we will fight.  But perhaps not.

Birthday swag

The past few weeks have been, in a word, busy.  It's midterm time at school, my brother-in-law got married, I sent Teddy and the Yeti #3 off to the printer (forgot to mention that, huh?), filmed another episode of Franks and Beans, and what's my reward for all of this?  Apparently lots and lots of comic book related presents, courtesy family and friends.  Oh, and it was my birthday, too.

Among the awesome things I got are those pictured above.  My buddy Larry got me a Marvels hardcover, a Fantastic Four plug &; play video game and (as a gag, I assure you), the first issue of the Madballs comic series from Marvel's Star Comics imprint.  They've started to reissue Madballs since their heyday in the 1980s and, as I had a bunch of the originals, I plan on getting some of the new ones.  But I haven't yet.  But I will.  Maybe.

I also managed to snag the next book in Scott McCloud's instructional series, Reinventing Comics, and a Time Capsule backup for the Mac.  Now I can actually save my progress and not kill myself if the computer ever crashes and I lose all of my comic book work for the last three years!

My wife got me Funko's Thing bobblehead, which is AWESOME, a "Weird Al is my homeboy" shirt (which has nothing to do with comics but I'm showing it anyway), and a yeti keychain that you can see below:

The key ring comes off to make it like an action figure.  I'm not sure which way I'll use it yet.  Finally, Batman: Year 100 came in the mail on Saturday, which rounded out quite the haul for me on my...uh...19th birthday.  Right.

Oh, and I got an ice cream cake that had "Beast Wars" written on it.  Dairy Queen was pretty confused about that one.

Rainbow team! Unite!

I need a small favor of you, my oh-so faithful readership (and also the people who decide to leave notes in Chinese every once in a while).  I'm in the early stages of putting some ideas together with artist Mario Wytch, who did the Faith and Charity pages I posted a while ago and drew an awesome pinup for Teddy and the Yeti issue #2.

The basic design for the main character of this project is what you see above - what we haven't been able to decide upon is the color scheme for said character.  I'm looking for opinions.  Which (if any) do you like best?  Which would be a horrible choice?  I'm asking this because I can't seem to come to any conclusions myself.  I'll tally down the answers, and whoever picks the color we ultimately choose wins nothing.  This ain't no soccer game "two-dollar for as long as your arm" ticket raffle!  But really, opinions would be helpful.

The Second Hundred Years

I stumbled upon a copy of America's Best TV Comics recently and snatched it up because it is relatively rare and features an original Stan Lee/Jack Kirby Fantastic Four story.  This 1967 oddity was produced primarily by the ABC television network to promote their Saturday morning cartoon lineup, which featured Marvel properties like the FF and Spider-Man along with other cartoon classics like George of the Jungle and Casper, the Friendly Ghost.

The short stories were all fairly simplistic and rather pointless, but I'm sure they served their marketing purpose at the time.  What interested me more than the actual content of the book was some of the advertisements included promoting some of the network's prime time broadcasts.  These shows ranged from ones that are still fairly recognizable, like the Flying Nun (really?  Someone thought this was a good idea?) and the Adam West Batman show, to shows that I had never heard of before.  Of these, one stood out, and I scanned the ad to post below:

The Second Hundred Years, according to those cagey geniuses at the Internet Movie Database, as well as...well, this ad in front of you, is about a prospector who gets frozen in ice, only to be revived 67 years later, and - get this! - he has to ADJUST TO MODERN SOCIETY!  Holy crap, what a concept!

Okay, okay...I'll admit that this isn't the worst idea I've ever heard for a television show, and the concept of the man's son being older than he is is kind of funny...I guess.  What I don't get from the ad is this - why would you let your recently returned grandfather who has been obviously traumatized and absent from the world for two-thirds of a century carry a gun around the house?  And better yet, why would he just randomly decide to shoot the television?  You'd think that, rather than remarking that we're gonna have to teach grandpa about "modern miracles" (we apparently have low standards for how we define miracles), we might have given him the tour before we left him alone?  Absurdity, I tell you!

Monte Markham, who played both grandfather and grandson in this one-season series, has acted fairly regularly since 1966, but unless I'm mistaken, this show is STILL the most work he's done on any one production other than - get this - Baywatch.  A jack of all trades, it seems.

Roll Call

I got an envelope in the mail on Wednesday from the Pittsburgh Comicon - it contained, among other things, a flyer promoting the show and its many guests.  I've scanned and posted it above for all to see.  Do me a favor and click on the picture to see a full-size version, then let me know if any of the names stand out.

Okay, let's take a look.  Oh!  Margot Kidder from the Christopher Reeve Superman movies will be there!  That's great, but I'm looking for something a little more pencils-and-ink comic book related...hey! Gene Colan, I love that guy!  But no, keep going...Scott McDaniel?  No...Pat Olliffe?  No...oh, dammit, my name is on there somewhere.  Apparently the fine folks at the Pittsburgh Comicon decided to toss in EVERYONE who will be in attendance, because if you look hard enough you'll see this:

Yes, that's right, sandwiched in between the names "Adam Mayfield" and "Jeff McComsey" (a bit too close for comfort, Mr. McComsey...you stole my spot right before McDaniel!!) is the one and only author of Teddy and the Yeti.  This is sure to bring the fans in!

Also included in the con's information packet was the layout for the show.  Take a peek:

Wagon Wheel Comics will be at booth S088, situated right by two necessities - bathrooms and food.  I suppose time will tell if this is good placement or not, but at least I'll know where they are.  Only about a month until the show!  I hope to see everyone (in the world) there!

I'll probably regret this later.

Please file the above under "Stuff I theoretically like but will complain about when I have to pay for it".  Yes, yes, I know...my category headings are atrociously long.

According to the teasers Marvel has been slowly leaking, the Thing will be part of the New Avengers book once it relaunches in a few months.  This is great, because I love the character and think that he should get more exposure.  The Fantastic Four in general seem to get pushed to the back burner when it comes to books that are promoted, really, but it seems a particular affront to the Thing because he DID have great marketing power - as much as Spider-Man and Wolverine - in the 1970s and 80s, when he had his own title (either Marvel Two-in-One or a self-titled book) and was more or less the star of every other issue of the FF.  So it's nice to see my favorite member of the Fantastic Four getting to be a part of one of Marvel's better selling titles.

On the other hand, I think I just heard my wallet cry.  The Avengers in all their iterations (New, Secret, Dark, Cheddar) are so overexposed - they get showcased in a great number of books, even if they're not necessarily Avengers books to begin with.

It seems that I always do this to myself: I wish for more exposure for the comics and the characters and the creators that I enjoy, but when more DOES show up, I always resent it a little.  Nearly every issue of the Fantastic Four has shipped with two or more covers for the past half year or so.  At first, this was novel.  Now I'm ready to start knocking things over.

Inside Jokes, part 2

My last post mentioned a little "inside joke" I snuck into the "Presidents and Precedence" tale that leads off our third issue.  That joke was subtle and had some great backstory regarding my relation to Civil War General George McClellan, a story which I think was worth telling.

"Presidents and Precedence" has another hidden joke in its pages, and I'd like to say that there was some deep meaning behind it as I feel I've set the bar at least somewhat high; however, they can't all be winners.  The title of this series, of course, is Teddy and the Yeti.  In the scene pictured above, where the Yeti is being attacked by mechanical constructs of historical figures, we see none other than a representation of 26th U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt (Duane drew him biting the Yeti, which I think is spectacularly funny).  Teddy...and the Yeti.  Get it?!  I know...this one was much more obvious.  But I've got the original art to the page hanging in my house, and I still chuckle at it every time I see it, which it quite often.  Maybe it's where that FATE Magazine article came from.