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.

You heard me. Giant. Styrofoam. Robots.

Oh I wish I could attend this excellent exhibit at the San Jose Museum of Art. It only goes until October 19th, though.

Robots: Evolution of a Cultural Icon features the work of many artists, including Michael Salter’s packing foam robot creations like this one:

His largest is 22 feet tall.

I love art. Why don't more museums have 2 story robots on exhibit?

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.