Itty Bitty Plush

I’ve been a huge fan of Art and Franco’s for a very, very long time.  I was thrilled when their Tiny Titans book became as popular as it did.  My son may have been named after a certain Wolf Boy; okay he was totally named after Patrick the Wolf Boy.  The Tiny, ‘Lil, and Itty Bitty line is moving across all sorts of comic publishers now and I can’t be happier. 

One of the newer titles is Itty Bitty Hellboy.  This isn’t the first time Hellboy has been showed younger.  Obviously there is the famous “Pamcakes” comic.  Bill Wray also did the Hellboy Junior stories.  Bill is famous from Mad and Ren & Stimpy; his Hellboy Junior stories are set in a similar tone.  The Itty Bitty Hellboy has more of that Tiny Titans feel.  It’s a cute, punny book that makes Hellboy available to an all age’s audience. 

Someone saw the Itty Bitty designs and must have said “those characters are so cute I wish I could hug them.”  Because there is a line of plush Itty Bitty plush coming out.  To start with you can pick up a Hellboy or an Abe.  If these sell well I can’t imagine they wouldn’t add others to the line.  I won't lie, I'd be pretty tempted if they added a Roger to the line.  Both Hellboy and Abe sell for under 20 dollars and should be available for pre-order at your local comic shop or favorite comic website. 

Aw Yeah.

Aw Yeah Kickstarter

We interrupt our normally Shark Cowboy news with some pretty big Kickstarter news. In January we covered how Art and Franco’s Superman Family Adventures was canceled by DC in a really cowardly way. Well that may have been a blessing in disguise; because they are now pushing forward and releasing their own all ages comics. They aren’t doing it by themselves either. The Eisner award winning duo are teaming up with other comic professionals to create the books, they are also teaming up with fans to publish them.

By teaming up with fans, I mean Kickstarter. The Kickstarter started yesterday with a goal of 15,000 dollars. The Aw Yeah team believed that would be what was needed to create and print 6 issues. Among the other rewards, 30 dollars would get you the first 6 issues. Well it only took 8 hours for them to reach their goal. 8 hours for comic fans to pledge 15,000. That’s impressive. With 29 days left and their Kickstarter already complete they did the only reasonable thing, they started adding push goals. Why stop at 6 issues if they could fund 12?

If you’re wondering why I keep coming back to talking about Art and Franco’s comics let me try and explain. I like monster comics. I like violent pulp comics. I like comics written specifically for adults. But that can’t be the only thing in the industry. If there aren’t comics for kids to read the industry is going to continue to get smaller and smaller. If you’ve read Tiny Titans, Superman Family, or Patrick the Wolf Boy you know how enjoyable these comics can be. The link to the Kickstarter is here http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1197720703/aw-yeah-comics please check it out.

Superman Family Adventures Canceled

DC Comic’s new April solicitation came out yesterday. Buried under all the re-launches and crossovers is the solicit for Superman Family Adventures. No big deal, the All Ages section of these releases are always at the bottom. Unfortunately that listing contains the words, “FINAL ISSUE”. That’s right, after 12 issues Superman Family Adventures is ending. That’s sad news in and of itself. Art Baltazar and Franco brought the same charm to the Superman Family that they brought to their Eisner winning Tiny Titans. It’s a loss to an industry that needs to keep kids reading. That listing was also a shitty, cowardly thing to do.

Let’s say you’re DC. You have a writer and illustrator team that has created 60+ books for you. Popular books. Award winning books. Maybe, the sales have slipped. For whatever reason, you decided to cancel their book. Do you do it over email? That’s not the best way of course, but it works. Do you show that you’re a decent human being and call these people who’ve been working for you since 2008? Or do you not say anything and break the news to these two men through the April sales solicitations? Guess which one DC did? Fuck DC. I read somewhere last night defending DC, that is how things are sometimes done in the comic business. An industry that is hemorrhaging fans can’t afford to treat its talent like that.

If you loved Tiny Titans or Superman Family Adventures, you really need to be following Aw Yeah Comic’s twitter account @AYCPublishing. There will be new Art and Franco comics and the Twitter account has already teased some covers.

Flash Friday: Aw Yeah Comics

Happy Flash Friday everyone! If you remember there wasn’t a Flash Friday last week due to me being in Chicago. While I was there I was lucky enough to take an afternoon and head to Skokie, Illinois. I know that doesn’t sound very interesting, but Skokie is where Aw Yeah Comics is located. Now I understand the confusion. You’re saying, “Ken, what does Aw Yeah Comics have to do with the Flash?”

Aw Yeah Comic is owned by Franco Aureliani, Art Baltazar, and Marc Hammond. You may remember Art and Franco from Tiny Titans. Art also does the art on DC Super-Pets line, including the book Salamander Smackdown. In my mind that qualifies them as Flash artists. Marc Hammond is not a Flash artist. He did help run my local comic shop for years though. So when he moved up to Skokie to run his own shop I was very happy for him. Happy for him, but I totally miss talking with him over coffee and donuts and the shop. Consider yourself lucky Skokie.

The actual shop is wonderful. Even from the outside you can see how bright and friendly it is. When you go inside there are large open spaces. There are four chairs that you can sit down and read your books and hang out for a bit. This isn’t one of those stores that have piles and piles of things stacked to the ceiling. You don’t have to worry about being crushed under a copies of old books and never having your remains found. It also isn’t one of those stores that you have to be worried about bringing your kids into. Just like Art and Franco’s comics, the store is very kid friendly.

I suppose the big news about the shop is that Art and Franco will be publishing an independent comic about the stores mascots. It won’t just be Art and Franco either. They have a number of other creators already lined up to help tell the stories of Action Cat and Adventure Bug. The comics aren’t ready yet but Aw Yeah already has T-Shirts, buttons, and patches. The comic is going to be huge, I can’t wait.

If you’re up in Chicago do yourself a favor and make a side trip to Skokie. Also...Skokie is kinda fun to say.  Skokie Skokie Skokie.

Flash Friday: Tales from the Brain Jar, #17

Happy Flash Friday everyone! Today I’m doing something that I’ve never done on the site before; I’m merging two of the regularly occurring features together. Today Flash Friday meets up with Tales from the Brain Jar! TftBJ runs about once a month on That F’ing Monkey and shows off the sketches in my brain jar themed sketchbook. Obviously Flash Friday runs Flash related topics every Friday.

The featured sketch today was done by Art Baltazar at FX back in 2008. As you can see it is of Kid Flash and Brain Flash racing neck and no-neck. In some sketches I ask for something very specific, but on this one I handed my book to art and just asked him to come up with something involving Kid Flash. As you can see it is magic. If you’ve never checked out the Eisner award winning Tiny Titans you owe it to yourself to read it. Charming and funny, I know more then one Titans fan who prefers the Tiny version over anything other Titans in recent years.

This is the second Art Baltazar sketch in the Brain Jar book, my second page was a sketch of Patrick the WolfBoy which I talked about last August here. In case you’re wondering about the style of the sketch, Art and Franco do con sketches a little different then most artists. Instead of only doing a few super detailed sketches, they churn out tons of marker and crayon doodles on comic backboards. They are of course, super popular.

That’s it for this week. If you see Art and Franco at a con, get yourself an awesome sketch and give them an “aww yeah man” for me.

Tales from the Brain Jar, #1

I like original comic art a lot, but there are problems with collecting it. It gets expensive quick and before you realize it, you’ve run out of wall space to display things. Back in 04 I got the idea to start a sketchbook. Now I had seen some amazing books online, so I knew I wanted a theme. At the time I had grand illusions of writing a few web comics and using a brain in a jar as the logo. So I figured I’d get some of my favorite characters interacting somehow with a brain jar. This has made it very hard to set up with some characters but so far has gotten some pretty amazing results.

The link to my sketchbook is on this blog, so you may have already seen the sketches. But I figured I’d take one sketch a week and tell the story behind them. Some of them are pretty funny. Some may just introduce a comic or character you aren’t familiar with.
Check out after the jump to see the first sketch.