Most strips are still available. Just e-mail me with the URL of the strip you want and your address and we can set it up! I’ll even throw in an autograph for another $5!

I don’t part with these strips easily, but I need money for a project that’s going to knock your socks off.

Steve

In the interim, though, we have had several great reviews I’d like to share — including the news that our first issue won Cryptozoological Book of the Year 2008! We also reveived glowing reviews at Comics Worth Reading and recorded a podcast with Parahub Radio!

Just as a reminder in the meantime, there are still plenty of CryptoZooey items available in our store. Enjoy!

From the files of CryptoZooey #2…

Comic for December 16, 2008 – 12/16/2008

In case you hadn’t heard, there’s a new Melonpool book available — just in time for Christmas for a few lucky Melonpool fans!

The never-before-published four-part series The Melonpool Chronicles (originally created in 1996), will be available through ComixPress.com in January, but I have a few copies that can be shipped in time Christmas to most areas (if ordered before Saturday, December 20)!

This is the only way to get an autographed copy, aside from seeing me at a convention, since all future orders will be handled through ComixPress’s automatic print-on-demand ordering system. I’ll even sketch something in there and number them out of this first batch of only 10 copies!

The books are 122 pages with a color cover and black and white interior pages, penciled and written by a bright, bushy-tailed 22-year-old Steve Troop and inked by Linda Medley, Jorge Pacheco and me, with alternate covers by Doug TenNapel and Jae Lee!

If you want one of these first ten copies, e-mail me immediately with your name and address! If there are still copies available, I’ll e-mail you back with a Paypal invoice for $15 plus shipping to your location. Don’t miss out! Supplies are limited!

I’ve reduced the costs of all three books from $19.95 apiece to $14.95 as well. Think of it as my own private stimulus package. There will be at least three more books coming out in early December through Comixpress and possibly even a fourth — we’ll see how fast I can get TUM VI done.

Enjoy them! You can buy all three books here!

Probably my biggest influence puppetry-wise has been Jim Henson’s Muppets. One of the things that has plagued the Muppet line over the years is that none of their puppets actually look like the characters — this is especially the case with Kermit the Frog. Other than being green, none of them have more than a passing resemblance to Kermit the Frog.

I’ve had several of these puppets over the years — the Fisher Price one from 1978 was probably the best — but it’s made for small children and becomes unusable once your hand grows too big to fit inside his head. The next best — though far from perfect — was the Eden Toys Kermit produced in 1993. There also was one made in 1994 or 95 by Applause which is similar in design.

My goal was to fix my Eden Toys Kermit puppet to more closely resemble the real Kermit puppet — in about four hours of work and using no more that $20 in materials.

So, here’s what the real Kermit looks like, as compared to me performing the Eden Toys puppet:

You can see the major flaws in the Eden Toys design: The mouth is too low on his face — he has a horrible overbite and his body is way too skinny. It’s kind of hard to see in this picture, but the Eden Toys Kermit also has a double collar (which may have been a side effect of a double-layered collar becoming unglued over the years) and his hands are more like mittens with sewn-on finger definition than actual hands.

In examining the puppet and talking to other puppeteers, I realized that the stuffing in the Eden Toys Kermit’s head can be pushed down into his body. With a little work, you can get just about all of it out of his head, making it a lot more sock-like. This doesn’t do a lot for his overbite, but it does make the puppet a lot more expressive and usable.

The overbite can be fixed by giving Kermit a new mouth plate out of gasket rubber. Basically, all I did was put the puppet on, bit the mouth down on a piece of card stock and traced around the upper jaw. I also marked where the seam hit on the nose as a center point. I folded the card stock in half, using the seam mark as a guide, and cut out the pattern (this will ensure that the mouth is symmetrical). The final piece should be about 1/8 of an inch bigger all the way around than the red part of the puppet’s mouth. I then cut about 1/8 of an inch off the back of the pattern, to give a little space on the finished mouth plate for the movement.

I made two plates out of gasket rubber and duct taped them together with about 1/4 inch gap where they join. This allows the mouth plate to fold and open easily. I turned Kermit inside out. Surprisingly, the outline of the original mouth plate was sewn right into the lining, making it easy to line up the new mouth plate and contact cement it right in place!

The new mouth plate should be about 1/4 inch bigger than the old one, so bear this in mind. Also, I didn’t use the brush to apply the contact cement to Kermit — I wasn’t sure what it would do to the fabric — so I used a scrap piece of foam rubber to dab it on. Once the new gasket rubber mouth plate sets, You can turn Kermit right-side out again.

That, pretty much fixed the shape of Kermit’s head. See how much these simple alterations made in his head shape?

I then turned my attention to Kermit’s collar. The way the puppet was constructed, it looks like they used two pieces of felt glued together to make a stiffer collar. Over the years, the glue had given way, to pretty much give Kermit a double collar — neither of which stayed down correctly. I turned the top collar up and carefully cut away the lower one. This allowed the upper one to lie flat.

My Kermit’s body was also way too skinny — even with all the stuffing from his head in there. I split the seam on his back to add some more polyfill. I also removed the Eden Toys tag, which always got in the way. Once he was sufficiently stuffed (I put my arm inside while I was doing this so Kermit didn’t look too fat once I put my arm inside), I stitched up the seam using the ladder (or Muppet) stitch.

The last alterations I made was to give him arm rods and fingers. Those of you that have the Eden or Applause puppets know that the hands are basically mittens with three lines sewn on to indicate fingers. I always hated this, but I was afraid to try to do something to fix it… but after the success of the other modifications, I figured, what the heck?

I took some copper wire and made little finger armatures for both hands, using the “mitten” as a guide. The thumb was left as-is, but I then very carefully cut along each of the sewn “finger lines” to create the four individual fingers. I also pulled the seam at the bottom edge of the hand (opposite the fingers), to allow access for the rod and to have a hole to insert the armature.

Once the armature was in place, I sewed closed the fingers. It’s not the prettiest thing in the world (there’s not a whole lot of fabric to work with). but once everything was closed up, the posed hands look a LOT better than the mittens. Finally, I inserted a couple of arm rods I had into each hand and stitched them to the inside of the palm and sewed the hands shut. 

The arm rods I made have a loop at the end, so it was pretty easy to attach them to the hand. I suppose you could use a wire coat hanger instead, but I had the rods left over from another puppet, so I figured why not use them? Likewise, I’m sure an alternate could be used for the new mouth plate, since gasket rubber’s not the easiest thing to find, either. It just has to be stiff enough to hold the shape and pliable enough to move with your fingers.

So, here’s the final Kermit:

All told, I spent about 4 hours on these alterations. He’s not perfect, but for about $20 and a half-day’s work (plus the cost of the original puppet which I think cost about $22), I now have a usable puppet. Up next: converting an Eden Toys Gonzo plush into a working Gonzo puppet.

The podcast focuses on all ages and kid friendly comics and is hosted by Lion King and Bad Horse, The Thoroughbred of…wait, that’s not right. Hosted by Ryan King and Eric Martin who run the Comics Playground site which is part of the Comic Book Noise  family of podcasts.  You can find the review in Episode 16 - Big, Red & Cheesy.

Keep checking back  for upcoming interviews with Steve on The Gigcast and Parahub Radio. More interviews will be announced once the dates have been locked in. 

More appearances, both at comic-cons and at paranormal related cons and festivals are being considered. We’ll let you know where and when you can find Cryptozooey and Steve. In the meantime, Cryptozooey #2 is well underway!

As well as meeting so many new people at San Diego Comic-Con last month for Cryptozooey’s debut we’ve been hearing from even more since returning home.

We were already excited about sharing Cryptozooey, but have become elated at the overall reaction and reception the book is getting from such a variety of people. Comics people we expected — but the response and interest from the paranormal communities has been of special interest, especially since I have been working the past few years as a physics specialist in the paranormal investigation field. 

Thank you to everyone who has been talking about the book, posting about it on your blogs, the critics who have taken the time to review Cryptozooey and those of you who have been so supportive.

Later this week, a post will be dedicated to the creation of the jackalope puppet. See you then!

– Sarah

Ever wondered what Zooey sounds like? Or Bigfoot? Well, now you can hear the entire first issue for FREE! This file is meant to be played along with the first issue, but even if you haven’t purchased CryptoZooey #1 yet, you can still listen along with the Five Page Preview!