10 Things You Didn’t Know About My Story “Fever”

Inspired by Minty Comedic Arts YouTube channel, here is a top ten list for those of you who have already read my story “Fever” in “YEET Presents” #32, out this month from C.O.P. Comics.  If you haven't read it yet, please do and then come back here for some fun facts!  

10. This Is My First Published Story

All my life I have wanted to be a published author.  I self-published a series of comics and magazines which were mostly photocopied pages when I was in my teens.  As an adult I took a mail correspondence course from the Institute of Children’s Literature based in Redding, Connecticut.  I passed the course and got my diploma, but this didn’t help me get published with any of the children’s magazines that I submitted stories to.  Jump ahead to ten years later and I am finally getting my first comic book story published in an independent comic named “YEET Presents”.    

09. The Character Taanda Was Created In 1951

Taanda, the White Princess of the Jungle was a character published by Avon Periodicals, Inc. from 1951 to 1952.  The writer who created her is unknown, but at least three artists worked on the Taanda strip.  Everett Raymond Kinstler drew the cover for issue #1 but the stories inside the comic were drawn by Louis Ravielli.  Kinstler drew the cover and the first two stories of issue #2, but an unknown artist drew the third Taanda story for that issue.  Kinstler drew the cover for issue #3 and he and an artist named Gene Fawcette worked on #3’s stories.  Kinstler drew the cover for issue #4 and Fawcette drew stories for issue #5, but all of the other remaining credits are unknown.     

08. The Story Was Originally In Color

I hired an artist named Charles E. Butler from the U.K. to draw, letter and color my story “Fever”.  Mike Jones, the editor of “YEET Presents”, chose to print it in black and white.  His reasoning is it is too expensive to print in color.  I was not informed of this before it was printed, and neither was the artist.  Had either of us had been contacted in advance Charles would have altered the art to make it more suitable for a black and white comic.  I really wanted my comic book story debut to be in color, and I wanted the readers of “YEET” to see it this way too.  What’s worse, the art on the outer edges is slightly cut off.  I am really irked by this.    

  

07. The Jungle Cat On Page 2 Is Not A Tiger!

Charles drew some jungle animals in the pages of “Fever” that I did not mention in my script.  That is okay, as far as that goes.  But the jungle cat on page 2 looks vaguely like a tiger, and my story is set in Africa.  I want to go on record as stating that I was fully aware of the fact that tigers do not live in Africa.  They are native to Asia and India.  African jungle cats include cheetahs and leopards.  So the orange jungle cat you see is either a cheetah or a leopard! 

06. Kwandi The Medicine Man Is An Original Character

All of the characters in my story “Fever” are in public domain except Kwandi, the medicine man.  He is my first original character to be published in a comic.     

05. Taanda’s Name Changed To Tarinda For One Issue

For the final issue (#5) of “White Princess of the Jungle” Taanda was renamed Tarinda.  And I have no idea why! 

04. Changing Hair And Skin Colors

As I stated above, there were at least three artists who drew “White Princess of the Jungle”.  It’s possible that there was more than one colorist and that they did not consult with each other.  As a result, Koru’s skin color changed from black to white depending on the story.  Taanda has red hair, although in reprints from various publishers Taanda’s hair color is changed to black or blonde.  

     

03. Cave Girl Has Three Family Names

Surprise guest star Cave Girl is a character that was published by Magazine Enterprises from 1952 to 1953.  Cave Girl’s real name is Carol London, Mantomer or Gandomer depending on which page in Cave Girl #11 (her debut issue, by the way) you are reading.  Again, I have no idea why.  I can only assume the writer or letterer did not check what was written on previous pages.        

02. The Title Was Taken From A Song By Devil ANTHEM.

Those who know me know that I am a fan of Japanese female idol singers.  I took the title of my story “Fever” from a song by the group Devil ANTHEM., which is the title of their 2017 album. 

01. This Story Is Meant To Be The Beginning Of A Series

As you might guess from the ending of my story, I meant this to be the start of a series of stories featuring not only Taanda and Cave Girl, but possibly other public domain jungle characters.  I haven’t scripted any sequels yet, but I would like to soon!   

Thank you for reading and have a great 2020!   

YEET Presents

What is a YEET?  You'll have to ask Mike Jones, the editor of "YEET Presents", an independent anthology comic published in the state of Michigan in the U.S.  He also writes and draws some of the stories you'll find within this black and white comic.  However, this comic is actually the combined talents of many people.  YEET has been published off and on since 1994!  In the past couple of years it has been published more frequently, almost on a monthly schedule.  I won't claim that I know much about the history of "YEET Presents", so I'll just give you the lowdown on the past few issues that I have received.   

Issue #27 features three stories.  The cover pictured above is for "Wonder Squad Part Four" by Brad Hyman.  This is the conclusion of a superhero parody about a former team of heroes who parted ways after a public fight among the members.  A man with no powers, by the name of Wondrous, held a grudge against the hero known as Dr. Spectral, who has telekinetic powers.  Wondrous acquires a weapon called the Agony Dynamo which he plans on using to destroy Dr. Spectral's band of misfit heroes.  The story features some nice art, a lot of humor and well-developed characters.

After a letters column you need to flip the comic over for the next two stories.  The reverse cover (not pictured) is for the story "Creatur" by Quentin Bennett and Fish Lee.  This is apparently part nine in a series (and I haven't read the other parts), but it's not too hard to follow.  A scaly, green monster with human intelligence is part of a power struggle between corrupt individuals and those who know he isn't evil.  Fish Lee's art is really good, with a lot of detail that enhances each panel.  This is followed by fan art and a short story called "Rage Against the Machine" by Mike Jones and Tod Higgins.  It ties in with a series of stories in "YEET" about The Black Fury, a superhero now in the public domain originally published by Fox Publications / Fox Feature Syndicate.   

Issue #28 was just released, and a month or so after issue #29!  Each comic came from a different printer in an effort to see if newsprint or slicker, thicker paper is preferred by the fans.  Issue #28 has a newsprint interior, and this time eight color pages!  I have mixed feelings about this issue, so I'll just tell you about them.

The cover and first story in this issue is "Guardians of the Blue" Chapter 3 by Mac of BIOnighT with art by Kent Clark.  (Yes, that's his name.)  Mac originally wrote and drew all the previous installments, but felt that he didn't have the time to devote to drawing everything he wanted for his series.  After seeing Kent Clark's art he was satisfied with handing over the art chores to him.  And Kent's art is very good!  This time we have the story of a hero who is out of control, and beats a petty criminal who wanted good clothing for his daughter.  The story flashbacks to the hero's childhood where the reader sees him abused by bullies and then by his alcoholic mother.  Not the type of story you want to read if you need something to cheer you up, but a well-done story nonetheless.

The second story is "The Adventures of Jade!", the aforementioned color story.  This is the debut of a new jungle girl character (at least I think she's new) written by Brian Cole, drawn by Jo Wong and colored by Suyman Repaja.  The title of this story is "Minos: The Hands of Fate!", a nod to the bad horror movie Manos: The Hands of Fate.  So far, so good.  But then my eyes see a well-endowed jungle woman skinning a decapitated jungle cat!  Ewww!  Sorry, but as a fan of the jungle girl genre I don't recall anything so graphic in classic stories from the Golden Age of comics.  And why does every modern comic book artist need to draw oversized breasts on the women?  The colors are very good, but twice in the story characters known as the "white couple" are mentioned - yet every human character in this story is white!  Were the natives meant to be black?  The story itself is okay, but with characters double-crossing each other it's hard to care for any of them.

The final story is "The Candle Man" by writer Don Everett Smith Jr. and artist Gabriel Perez.  This is a basic urban legend horror story in which murderous youths find out that a scary legend is very real.  It reminds me of a lot of silly but watchable horror movies I used to watch on cable TV.  Another letters column follows this story and the back cover (pictured above) is The Black Fury.  I was able to get the front and back of this issue in the same photo due to getting two copies, like all the other subscribers did.

This brings me to last month's issue, #29.  Pictured above is a Black Fury cover that pays tribute to the cover of "The Blue Beetle" #13.  Inside are six stories, including some good stuff such as the pulp fiction of "The Crooked Man!" by writer Allan Rowlands and artists Caley Tibbittz and Dan Schaefer; the humorous "...And a Dog..." by Brian Cole and Gregory Woronchak; a one page frontier delight (not titled) by William Messner-Loebs and Randy Silverman; and (on the flip side of the comic) "Holy Wars", a Universal Monster and Marvel Comics mash-up by writer / layout artist Michael John De Stasio and art by Charles E. Butler.  Someone will have to explain to me exactly what is happening in a three page story titled "The Interview", and what the source material the author is referring to is.  I don't keep up with everything, folks!

As a bonus for subscribing to "YEET Presents" through their Patreon program (see link below) I also got a reprint of "Ultra Force" #1.  Cover to cover it's twelve pages and mostly looks like an artist's sketchbook.  There's a lot of talking heads and posing, and includes a character who looks like Wolverine from The X-Men.  The story makes little sense and I'm not even sure what order I'm supposed to read the panels in.  But thanks for including this, Mike!

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