Ooo! Carry Me! Carry Me!

Comic book cover art is all about getting the consumer to pick up that issue and buy it. There are tons of great covers out there, but today let's look at that time-honored tradition of the carry.

Usually its a hero or heroine being carried, or a hero doing the carrying. For clarification, here's an example from The Flash:


What? The Flash running from something? Carrying a woman?

Ok, that's not really a great example of what we're talking about, but at least you get the visual.
The 'Carry' cover can have little to do with the actual issue...


Uncle Sam carrying a dead Wonder Woman? Oh no, how can that be?
Here's another good example of this one from The Fantastic Four:


Reed's dead? Nooooo!!!

But, sometimes the Carry is actually representative of the issue. Check out this Batman carry:


and this Crisis Carry:


There are other types of Carry covers. There's the 'But How?' Carry, like this one from the X-Men:


Prof. Xavier and Magneto fighting together? And the Professor is standing? And holding a woman? But how?

This is an extreme example from Star Wars:


C3PO carrying an injured Luke? But how? I suppose it's possible but...

Whatever is happening on the Carry cover, it's designed to make you ask a question and hope that gets you to buy the comic.


Daredevil and Man-Thing fighting in a swamp over some guy? Why?


Gigantic Stormtroopers carrying Princess Leia off to a Tie Bomber? Whaaaat?


The one dude from the New Mutants carrying off the one girl from the New Mutants, while the other New Mutants struggle in a fire? Huuuhhh?


Superman vs. Bizarro Superman for Lois Lane? OMG! No way!


The Werewolf carrying off a woman while the villagers close in with torches? How in the... Ok that probably happened every issue. Bad example. Should've stopped with Superman.

Yeti Love from the Comics

I've recently discovered the awesomeness that is I Love the Yeti. As the name implies, the site offers tons of artwork of the Yeti, links to the Yeti art of others, and a look at things which might seem Yeti at first glance, but on closer inspection, aren't.

I was perusing my comic book collection for the first time in years (honest) and was surprised at how many times a Yeti showed up on covers.

As a tip of the cap to I Love the Yeti, here are a few of them.

After the success early on of the Indiana Jones movies, Marvel Comics had a fairly decent series based on the the character. Naturally, he eventually ended up in the Himalayas.

I occasionally checked out the comic book Alpha Flight. Mainly because they crossed paths with the X-Men on a frequent basis. Alpha Flight was kinda the Canadian version of the X-Men. They did have a member named Sasquatch, and yes, that's what he was. At one point, a shapeshifter decided the best way to fight Sasquatch, was to become one. The shapeshifter could only transform into white creatures so this is what you get...

Maybe we can classify that one in the not Yeti column?

Another that hovers on the Yeti/Not line comes from Batman.

In this issue, Batman is on the trail of a crook that leaves his victims frozen solid, kinda like Mr. Freeze. His investigation leads him to follow a champion skier as his prime suspect. His investigation leads him to discover the suspect's mother's diary. Here it's revealed that she was once stranded on a mountain and near death. She was rescued by a stranger who nursed her back to health. Apparently, she was very grateful. Not until after showing her gratitude did she realize who her hero really was..

Yeah. Him.

Now, I'm no expert, but even if they were waiting out a horrible snowstorm in a dark cave with no fire, wouldn't there be other ways of figuring out she was shacking up with a Yeti? Never mind.

Anyway, the son turned out to be a sort of superpowered combination of human and Yeti, able to change his looks from normal to, well, this:

What name is that? Snowman. Not really all that frightening, actually. Eh. Whatta ya gunna do? All the good cold-weather villain names were probably taken.

More Bad News For Bigfoot

You've all followed the story right?

A couple of guys claimed they found a family of Bigfoot, noticed a dead one and hauled it back to a freezer in their garage or basement or something. They then froze the Bigfoot corpse solid and started contacting the press.

A promoter/Bigfoot hunter gave the men some up-front money against future earnings if they would turn it over to him and let him do the authentication before taking Bigs on the road.

After a huge press conference, they turned over the freezer and... made themselves scarce.

Why? Because this:


turned out to be a fake. When the freezer thawed out, there was obviously nothing but a costume inside.

This is bad news for Bigfoot hunters, scientists and several other bipedal mammals, but the news anchors and reporters failed to talk about the shadow it will cast on this year's presidential election. The mad scramble to prove or disprove the authenticity of the thing in the freezer turned up more than anyone expected.

I'm sorry. I don't want to admit it any more than you do, but

The Yogi Bear/Bigfoot presidential ticket isn't going to happen.


That's right. BEARFOOT in '08 is history.
Here's why:

1. Cloud of uncertainty hangs around Bigfoot's birthplace. May be a Canadian.

2. Yogi's felony arrests for pic-i-nic basket theft and hiker mauling.

3. NRA wouldn't endorse them; both candidates support gun control. Heavily.

4. Bigfoot is a Nader fan, Yogi refuses to go third party.

5. Boo Boo's threats to disclose certain information about Yogi's lifestyle.

6. Yogi's laughable foreign policy.

So there it is. As much as it hurts, I said it. I think we can all start the healing process and move on. I'm going outside right now and take the sign off my lawn.



Won't you do the same?

The Super Friends get no respect.

The Super Friends were never allowed to play in any of D.C.'s reindeer games. Their stories weren't a part of the overall continuity, and with pretty good reason. I recently stumbled on the trades of the SF comic series and found some things that would make your cape curl (not in a good way).

Example?
How about this one, where The Overlord built some puppets and then put on a mind control helmet and was immediately able to addle the Super Friends' minds? He
controlled them all at the same time, making them angry and ready to take over the world.

Naturally, Wonder Woman went to free the oppressed women of Africa, The Wonder Twins decided to take over all of Europe and Asia (Huh? What was the plan there?), Robin went to crush Australia, Batman covered North America and Superman, naturally, wanted to put the smackdown on South America. Yeah.

Anyway, Supes ran into trouble.



Yes, the Green Fury showed up to stop him. She eventually showed off some pretty rockin' powers.

Eventually.

That's all well and good, unless you show up like this...



Yeah. She rode in on green flames coming out of her nose! Think about that. Superman, in all his crazy powerful glory, versus the flaming snot powers of The Heroine of Brazil.

Are you seriously going to ask what the outcome was?

Sure, the comic was aimed at a younger audience, but come on.