Happy Halloween!

I did absolutely nothing for Halloween.  ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!  But I'm thinking of going next year as evil Jeff, a la Spock from the Mirror Universe episodes of Star Trek...that's right, just adding a mustache and goatee and bam!  Instant costume.  Maybe I'll wear a Hulk shirt or something.

Anyway, that doesn't mean that others weren't more in the spirit of Halloween, if there is such as thing. Look at how Franks and Beans co-star Larry spent the night!

It's tough, however, to top cute babies, and it's even tougher when they're dressed as the Flash, as my nephew was.  Although he looks totally fat in this apparently padded costume.

Tomorrow: maybe I'll post something real.

FUBAR signing at Pittsburgh Comics - January 7th, 2012

The second volume of FUBAR is set to arrive in comic stores across the globe on December 17th, and the plan has always been for a national signing event to take place once the books are available.  To play it safe and not conflict with the Christmas holiday (being an indy book, Diamond distributors won't guarantee that they'll ship the books exactly on the 17th, even though the book is in their warehouses as we speak), the FUBAR braintrust made the decision to push the signing event back a few weeks.  Thus, the big day is now Saturday, January 7th, 2012.

As a change of pace, I'll be signing the book at Pittsburgh Comics in McMurray, PA.  If you haven't been to Pittsburgh Comics yet and you're in the area, do yourself a favor and check it out - it's one of the nicest, friendliest shops I've ever been to and they've got a great selection of new books, independent books, back issues, trades, toys and statues.

Seeing as January 7th is still more than two months away, we haven't set a specific time for the signing just yet, but it'll probably be in the afternoon as traffic should be a little higher later in the day.  As soon as I know, I'll post an update.  In the meantime, check out the back cover, featuring some fantastic art by Steve Becker!

Find out more about Pittsburgh Comics at their home page: http://pittsburghcomics.com/.  Hope to see you there!  I'm sure I'll look at least THIS enthusiastic:

Teddy and the Yeti cameo in "War of the Independents"!

Yesterday at Pittsburgh Comics, I picked up the first issue of Dave Ryan's War of the Independents, an ambitious crossover event with independent comic characters galore from dozens of different publishers.  Dave first previewed the book at the 2010 New York Comic Con, and the first part of this miniseries is now out in comic shops everywhere.

As I made my way to the back of the issue, I came to the following spread:

There are a lot of recognizable characters to be seen - Bone, Hack/Slash, the Tick, Ms. Monster, Todd Nauck's Wildguard, Digital Webbing's Fist of Justice...oh, and if you look near the top left corner, you'll see the Yeti!

I knew that Teddy and the Yeti would be making an appearance in this book at some point, but I didn't know it'd be so soon.  The image is taken from Jorge Correa's cover to T&Y issue #3 - it seems that there was a lot of cutting and pasting when it came to characters in this shot.

This won't be the last appearance of either Ted or the Yeti in this series - I'm told that they'll both have a part in issue #3 and, if I'm remembering correctly, we'll see them in issue #6 as well.  So check for this at your local comic shop...if you can't find it, I'll try to get some ordering info to pass along.  Issue #2 arrives this December!

Pictures from XCon World 2011

Last weekend's Xcon World (or maybe they're calling it Xcon Myrtle Beach now) has been over for a few days, and after ten hours there and ten hours back, I think I've finally gotten over the car lag.  Is that a phrase, car lag?  It's like jet lag but in a car.  Maybe I should call it "car jet lag".  I'll think about it.

Anyway, Xcon is a nice little show (that just happens to take place at the beach), and it was fun to meet some new people and hang out with friends new and old.  As always, I took a handful of pictures that I'll now share, to the delight of all involved.  Let's begin!

I was told that the little guy was a Doombot.

There's always zombie related events during XCon, to the extent that there's a booth just for people to get their zombie makeup.  The picture doesn't do this girl's makeup job justice, as close up it looked like she really had torn flesh on her face.  Plus, what is that, a My Chemical Romance shirt?  Funny.

I usually take a picture behind the table of the Wagon Wheel Comics booth at every show - one of me crying or in a rage or something equally fun.  I went solo this time and didn't have the opportunity...so you'll just have to imagine me, just slightly off panel, crying so much that I'm throwing up.  Or something.

We're mixing imagery here.

After the show we had a nice night out with some of the fellow organizers and guests.  In this picture we have folks like Laura Benjamin, David Hammond, Space Ghost Coast to Coast's C. Martin Croker and Ren & Stimpy co-creator Bob Camp.  I'm there, too, looking svelte and dashing.

Oh, and did I mention that the show was at the beach?  It totally was.

Teddy and the Yeti pinup by Danny Cruz!

Take a peek at this awesome new Teddy and the Yeti artwork from Danny Cruz!  Danny's a rising star in the gaming and comic industry, recently working on titles like G.I. Joe for IDW...but c'mon, folks, we all know him better as the guy who sat at the Wagon Wheel Comics booth at the 2010 New York Comic Con, right?  Right?!?  I have photographic evidence of this, Danny.

Danny was nice enough to put this together for T&Y and I'm thrilled to have it.  If you haven't seen more of his work, you can check out his deviantART page here: http://dannycruz4.deviantart.com/.

Mr. Massive Saves the Universe! webcomic

Several months ago, I started working on a webcomic featuring one of my favorite co-creations, Mr. Massive.  For those who don't know, Mr. Massive is a comedy about a 15-year-old boy who becomes a  superhero and does really selfish and stupid things with his powers.  It plays right into my sensibilities.

The opportunity to work on this came out of the blue, and I never really knew how long the wheels would keep turning.  Eight strips and nine pages in, I'd say that this is probably all we'll get out of this concept.  That's a shame, because I was really having fun with this.  There's plenty more written (Mr. Massive even gets off the planet and into Universe Saving), but who knows if the accompanying art will ever surface.

Even so, it seems a crime to waste all of this work, incomplete as it is, so I'm posting the first nine pages of "Mr. Massive Saves the Universe!" for all to see and, perhaps, enjoy.  Mr. Massive is, of course, co-created by Artboy_X, and he provided layouts for these pages.  The only name I (frustratingly) got for the artist was "RJB"; I never spoke to him (her?) directly and to this day I don't know just who that person is or where he (she??) hails from.  But the art is really energetic, simplistically cool and I enjoy the heck out of it.  I wrote and lettered the thing.

These were originally supposed to be released one at a time, which is why there's a title and credit section on each strip (with the exception of the first, which was supposed to be released along with the second).  Read these comics!  And enjoy them!!!

Magic Bullet #3!

Thanks to Rafer Roberts and, well, the United States Postal Service, I got some copies of DC Conspiracy's The Magic Bullet #3 yesterday, and it looks great.  I'm always happy when some of my work gets printed, but it's more of a treat to read the other entries and see what else people are creating.  The page limit is a real challenge and it's something others find more creative ways to deal with that I do.  Even so, I think "The League of Obscure Historical Figures", with art by Jeff McComsey, turned out very well.

As with any publication featuring multiple contributors, I found that this issue contained stories that I liked alongside others I didn't enjoy as much, but there was more good than bad.  I especially enjoyed entries by Bill Ellis, Dominic Vivona, Matt Sheean and Michael May & Jason Copland.

To find a copy of is issue, you can check out this Google Map for locations around the country.  The map is as of yet incomplete, as I haven't added my stack to the list.  If you're in the Pittsburgh area, I'll be dropping copies off at the Century III New Dimension Comics, Impossible Dreams, Pittsburgh Comics and Evil Genius Comics.  I'll also take a few copies with me to next week's Xcon World and maybe even Fanboy Comics in Wilmington, NC.