Can't Stop the Serenity

It's hard to believe that it's been almost ten years since Joss Whedon's Firefly, the short-lived but much loved show first aired on television.  What's even more surprising, though, is the fact that for a 14-episode program, its fan base is still expanding, seemingly growing even more passionate as time passes.  There are certainly comparisons to be made to Star Trek, a sci-fi show that suffered from low ratings and network bungling only to grow in popularity until its eventual return (fingers crossed in the case of Firefly).

Even if Firefly never makes it back to television, it still holds a place in my heart and stands, to me, as one of the best productions I've ever had the chance to experience.  It has all the elements of a good space opera, but the characters - so real, complex and engrossing - separate this from other properties, science fiction or otherwise.  Every episode is just a masterpiece.

2005's Serenity movie, then, was an unexpected and delightful treat to all the fans of the show; even if I'd like to story to continue for years and year, Serenity allowed closure for much of the story.  The few comics produced for Dark Horse over the last several years, then, have been almost as satisfying, though none more than Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale, the original graphic novel that's been out for a few months now.  The story answers many of the lingering questions about the character Shepherd Book, which is extremely fulfilling, but even more than that, it shows me that Joss Whedon and the production crew are still passionate about the property and still have stories left to tell.  If you are a fan of Firefly/Serenity, even if you didn't pick up the previous comics from Dark Horse, this book is an absolute must have.

Serenity, as it turns out, is screened annually in many cities across the country, and 2011 marks the sixth show here in Pittsburgh.  On Friday, July 8th the movie will play at the Orpheus Singing Society at 6301 Butler Street in Pittsburgh; there'll be games and prizes given away starting at 4:00, with the movie being shown at 8:00.  Tickets are $10 in advance, and here's the best part - all proceeds go to benefit the charity Equality Now, which (as per its website) is "dedicated to action for the civil, political, economic and social rights of girls and women."

I am goin' and I'm really excited!  I'll be wearing my Jayne Cobb hat, and I'm sure that about 50 percent of everyone else there will be, too.  But I don't care because it's a damn cool hat.  And hey, if anyone living near Pittsburgh reading this wants to come, too, even better.  I have it on good authority that "Teddy and the Yeti" co-creator Jeff McClelland will be there too, available for pictures, autographs and swift punches to the face, in the event that you hate him.

You can buy tickets in advance and get more info at the official Can't Stop the Serenity Pittsburgh homepage.  Hope to see you there!  Except for the punching part!

Sea Monkeys look nothing like comic books would let on.

It's a shame that Sea Monkeys aren't advertised in the back of comic books anymore - this really is a former comic book advertising staple that disappeared from modern comics, what, 25 years ago?  Regardless, anyone who digs through the back issue bin at a local shop is sure to find an ad for these seemingly magical creatures that appear from dust to form 1950s-style nuclear families with water and a bit of luck.  Despite my staunch opposition to the mistreatment of animals and the understanding that Sea Monkeys are both living things and probably easy to kill, there's still something exciting and fanciful about sending two bucks in the mail and creating an entire underwater society on a whim.

In stark contrast to the artistic renderings on ads such as the two above (Sea Monkeys are just like people! They live in happy family units, wear bows in their hair and fly kites!!), the first time I made my own Sea Monkey pod, I was shocked at the actual appearance of these mystical sea swimmers.  It turns out that Sea Monkeys are a hybrid version of brine shrimp (you know...what blue whales eat!  Oh wait, that's plankton) and they look something like this:

Creepy, right?  I mean, this guy's doing some kind of hideous backstroke, not barbecuing, building a castle or tossing around a football with junior, as was implied in all of the comic book ads.  Why, I'd go as far as to say that real Sea Monkeys don't act nearly American enough for the average comic book reader.  Where's your patriotic spirit, creature so small that the standard tank comes with magnifying lenses built in?  Why aren't you wearing a funny crown, trying on pants or buying nail polish for your wife?  Why aren't you out doing manly things in the open air (water?), positioning yourself so that a well-placed fin covers your exposed human-like genitals?  WHY DON'T YOU ACT MORE LIKE ME?!

I recently bought another batch of Sea Monkeys (16 or 17 years after my mom "accidentally" knocked our first family into the sink), and I'm happy to report that everyone is doing well (I think.  They're swimming a lot, which I take to mean they're doing well).  I even bought a number of things from the official Sea Monkey catalogue to make sure I'm prepared, like vitamin-rich "Red Magic" food, banana-flavored (flavored?) treats and a tiny manual air pump.  I'm gonna make sure that, overinflated comic book expectations or not, I'll take care of these guys as best I can.

Wait, banana treats?  I love banana treats.  Hey, Sea Monkeys: maybe we're not so different after all, you and I.

(For now the "tank" sits in front of my Fantastic Four bookends box...and some Shrinky Dinks).

Thing sketchbook, part 8

I look at these additions to the vaunted Thing sketchbook and I think to myself that these might just be the best group of five in the entire book.  Then I think that I tend to think that about just about any group when I see them.  It's still worth mentioning, though.

Let's take a look at the goods, shall we?

Dominic Vivona - New York Comic Con 2010

I met up with fellow FUBAR creator at the New York Comic Con and foisted upon him the first challenge I'd ever posed for the book.  Whenever someone does a sketch, I make sure to tell them that they can do whatever version of the Thing they'd like - but they usually end up drawing their version of the classic, cigar-smoking Thing.  That's not bad, mind you, but I decided to add some variety to the book and ask Dominic to draw the much-maligned She Thing, formerly the second Ms. Marvel.

Dominic had a heck of a time with it, drawing a couple versions before settling on what you see above.  He did a great job with the costume (check out the sash!), and the flowers are a nice touch.

I'm not going to go near the "Female Thing" line.

Jacob Chabot - New York Comic Con 2010

Jacob and I each had a story printed in Dark Horse's Strip Search anthology a few years back.  Since then, he's really made a name for himself with "The Mighty Skullboy Army" and several Marvel projects like "X-Babies".

Jacob did a short story in a recent Strange Tales miniseries where the Thing and the Human Torch grow mustaches, and I mentioned how much I liked it to him before handing him the book.

I bugged Jacob way too often during the day as I had plans to give the book to one more person - probably to the point where he hates me now - but wow! Look at that artwork.  It's got a speech balloon and everything!

Danny Cruz - New York Comic Con 2010

Danny spent the weekend at the Wagon Wheel Comics booth for last year's New York Comic Con.  I planned on asking him to draw in the sketchbook earlier, but he didn't end up getting a chance until there was about an hour left in the show.

I asked him to draw another variation of the Thing - the spiky "Pineapple" version from when he was powered up for a bit - and he really delivered.  Rarely does the Thing look so mean!

C. Martin Croker - Xcon World 2010

You might recognize the name C. Martin Croker from his work as both an animator and a voice actor - he's played Zorak and Moltar on Space Ghost Coast to Coast - but he's also a big fan of Ben Grimm (and Kirby creations in general, though who isn't?).

I spent a good deal of time chatting with him and distracting him from doing other work over the three-day mini convention, and on Sunday I got him to draw this beauty for me. I love the brow on this one.

Thomas Scioli - Pittsburgh Comic & Collectibles Show 2010

Tom Scioli is best known for his work on the Image Comics Godland series, where he channels Jack Kirby every issue.  Tom also drew a cover for Teddy and the Yeti #3, so it was great to meet him in person.

Knowing how Kirby-esque Tom's artwork is, I asked him to draw an "early" Thing (when he looked more like a monster and less like an awesome rocky guy) and he drew this piece reminiscent of 1961's Fantastic Four #1 - the torn spacesuit is a great touch!

That's 40 total sketches I've shown so far, and we are just about caught up with the entire book - I've got one more sketch after these, so I just might wait to show it until I get more (hopefully soon).  This sketchbook is something that I started on not much more than a whim, but has quickly become one of my more prized possessions - not just because of the artwork itself (though there is that, too), but because of all the great stories and memories behind them.  I've decided that if my house ever catches on fire, this is one of maybe two things not living that I'd try to get before jumping out of a window or whatever.

Google Images has been kind, FUBAR v.2 cover, stats and more!

- Blogger is kind enough to save viewing statistics for this blog, and I am obsessive enough to check them all the time; the stats tell me nothing other than how many views specific posts have in a given time period and what countries the views come from, which is juuuust unintrusive enough for me to be okay with.  These page views, for the most part, seem to follow a predictable trend, with new posts getting the majority share (but fading away after a week or so) with a few time-tested posts continually getting hits.  Sometimes, though, a post from three months ago will all of a sudden pop back up on the radar and top the list in a given week.  This is thoroughly confusing.

Case in point: I've had, what, seven different posts with art from my Thing sketchbook; one entry (the third, I think?) keeps getting more hits than any other.  I think the big reason for this is because, as someone else pointed out to me, some of the sketches show up pretty early on in Google Images searches, which I think is extra cool.  The wording is sometimes tricky, but I've found that searching for images of the Thing with the keyword "cigar" somewhere in there brings a bundle of familiar sketches, like the one above from Chuck BB.  I've seen images from the sketchbook as high as on the sixth page of results, which, when considering how many thousands of images of the Thing there are out there, is fairly surprising.

- Speaking of statistics (YOUR FAVORITE SUBJECT!), the month of June still has a few days left in it, and it already is my most-viewed month since Blogger started keeping record of such things (according to this graph, it looks like a total of zero people viewed it in May of 2009).  November, 2010, directly after the New York Comic Con, held the previous high, but woo!  No more.  Thanks, everyone, for reading my stupid ramblings!

- One of the big reasons for this jump is because of the "Accordion Theory" comic strip, which has quickly become one of my most-viewed posts.  It seems that Yahoo! Images is bringing the strip up very early when people search for "Weird Al" Yankovic, which is great - especially since the man is getting a lot of publicity lately for his brand new album, "Alpocalypse", which came out on Tuesday.  It's a tremendous album, and you should totally buy several copies of it.  My goodness, look at the cover!

And holy crap, buy it buy it buy it!  And marvel and how incredible it is.

- You know what other cover is cool?  The just-released cover to the much-anticipated FUBAR volume 2, due out this fall.  Danilo Beyruth drew this one just as he did the cover for volume 1, and as with that one he knocked this out of the park.  Really, how awesome is this cover?  Very awesome.  That's the answer.  It is.

- Your friend (and mine) Paul Tucker is hard at work on a new story featuring John Watkins, Phantom for Hire!  Here's some thumbnails...see if you can guess what's happening!  I can, but...I wrote the script.

- Lastly, happy birthday to friend and Franks and Beans co-creator Larry, whose exact date of birth I always manage to forget, but hey, it's around here some time.  I hope he enjoys the Dukes of Hazzard parody porno DVD that I bought for him, which is sure to bring laughs and laughs.  And boobs.

Oh, hey, we (and I think eight other people) went to Kennywood amusement park last week, and I filmed the Thunderbolt roller coaster while riding it.  Watch it, and hold your hands up when the car goes down the hill.

website maintenance

If you head on over to the main Teddy and the Yeti website, you'll find...well, nothing.  The same is true for the Franks and Beans website, and this may cause undo consternation and wild, speculative rumors regarding my personal life.  Don't worry, though, because this is all due to some much needed updates on the server that hosts both sites.

Perhaps you've noticed that Teddy and the Yeti's homepage hasn't updated in, oh, forever, and this is due in large part to said server issues (plus perhaps a small dose of laziness).  Once the updates are complete and everything is ready to go, there'll be a new - and get this, functional - Teddy and the Yeti page up to view.  And boy,  I hope I don't have to redo the entire Franks and Beans website again, but it's possible as all of those files are saved in different formats, as opposed to the T&Y site which is saved in the wonderful "iWeb" program for the Mac.

Jesus Merino's look of constant and unbelievable shock

I can't stress enough how much I enjoy the artwork of Jesus Merino, current penciller on Action Comics.  I'm even more impressed at the fact that the artist has broken out of his role as permanent inker to Carlos Pacheco and has become a distinguished artist in his own right.  Even so, I continue to be amused every time I pick up a book that Merino has illustrated, because there's one feature that constantly stands out to me: in any given issue, several characters will be drawn with a shocked expression to the point that their eyes look like they are about to pop out of their sockets only to swing loosely, dangling from their optic nerves.

All of the images in this post are from Action Comics #900, a book where Merino shared artistic duties with Pete Woods and a few others.  Let's take a look, shall we?

Wow!  There must be some incredible, mind-blowing, surprising-beyond-belief action happening in these pages.  I've never seen Superman so obviously worried!!

Ah well.  We all have our little quirks, Mr. Merino, and I suppose that this is yours.  I still enjoy your work, and honestly, this is something I've come to look forward to every time I see your name on the cover of a book.

The blog is mobile! Plus, Mr. Massive CGI, FUBAR and more!

- Technology is an ever changing beast, my friends, and if you don't keep up with it...well, you're liable to be left behind, like...Napster or something.  Oh, wait, Google tells me that Napster is still around.  Really?  Huh.  That's nice.  Anyway, this blog recently took a small leap forward as I was able to update it for mobile devices.  So if you're reading this on an iPhone or some equivalent piece of technology, it now is simpler and easier to read.  Fantastic.

- Hey, and speaking of rampant, unwarranted self promotion, Blogger was also helpful in pointing me to the site www.wepostalot.com, a site where a lot of people go to...uh...well, hope that other people will find and read their blogs about random things.  I joined up and put links to a few posts I thought were interesting (they're all interesting, right??), and what do you know?  Those posts got a bump in readers almost immediately afterwards.

This picture from the Motor City Comic Con is floating around the Internet, thanks to the site www.conpictures.com.  This site collects pictures from various comic conventions and posts them online for all to see.  It seems localized to the Michigan-Ohio-Pennsylvania area right now, but I suppose that just means there's room for growth.  Check 'em out and send them some pictures of conventions you've been to if you can.

- I got this image in my e-mail a few days ago of a CGI version of Mr. Massive and his alter ego, Andy Vann.  I will be honest here - I have no idea what it's for, but it does look pretty cool.  I'm not crazy about Mr. Massive's explosive hair, but the rest works and overall it's pretty intriguing.  If there are more...I'll show 'em.

- My new FUBAR story (with artist Mario Wytch) is slowly coming together - this is an image from the fourth page.  The FUBAR guys are in Philadelphia this weekend for a Wizard World convention, and from everything I hear things are going very well.  Volume II is out in August for the Baltimore Comic-Con!

- If you're looking to apply in person for the new Batman movie filming soon in Pittsburgh, today's the last day!  So get to it!

- Lastly, I just got the complete series collection of Beast Wars in the mail and woo! is it cool.  It comes with a comic that serves as the official prequel to the series, new special features, and oh yeah, 52 episodes of the best Transformers series ever produced.  Buy it.  Buy it!!  Beast Wars!