Franks and Beans ad in Magic Bullet #8

The Magic Bullet is a free, Washington, DC-based comic newspaper that publishes on a semi-annual basis.  Why, then, am I posting this to the Franks and Beans website?  That’s a great question.  Here are some answers:

1) Because I do what I want.
2) See #1.

Ha HAAA!!  Wow, what witty banter you can expect from the Franks and Beans website.  We’re basically out of control over here.  Seriously, you can ask anyone.

The eighth installment of the Magic Bullet came out a few months ago, and inside was a one-page comic that I wrote titled “I Hate the Moon”, for obvious reasons.  Also included is this Franks and Beans print ad:

Hey, look!  It’s the “Double Delivery” ad that we made a couple years ago for Comic-Con!  I think we’ll be submitting another episode to the Comic-Con Film Festival in 2015, if for no other reason than to create another print ad.

One of the things I enjoy the most about advertising in the Magic Bullet is getting a thank you card in the mail addressed to Franks and Beans, like those are our names.  According to the printed names on the inside of the card, I am one of the creators thanking Franks and Beans.  Well, you’re welcome, Jeff McClelland.  I guess.

Franks and Beans comic book ads

Have I ever mentioned that I sometimes write comic books?  Even in passing?  Ever?  Probably not, as I rarely self aggrandize or post meaningless links to other projects that aren’t innately tied to Franks and Beans.  I’m much too classy for that.

In any case, I do write Teddy and the Yeti, a comic with great intrinsic value that will perhaps one day spawn a cartoon series and various merchandizing opportunities, and I take every chance I get to advertise for my other great love (besides Funyuns), Franks and Beans, and I thought that it would be at least a little bit interesting if I posted the various F&B ads that have taken up residence in Teddy and the Yeti comics throughout its publication history.

At the top of the post, you’ll see the very first Franks and Beans ad, appearing in the pages of Teddy and the Yeti #1, and perhaps you’ll notice how quaint and simple it is.  This is because everything must start somewhere, and also because I was still learning how to use Illustrator at this point (not that I’ve mastered it in the time that followed).  Still, we did get the slogan that adorns this website, a bastardization of the Kix cereal slogan.  It replaced our previous slogan, “Better than anything YOU could come up with”, which I’m sure will one day make a comeback, as all things trite and spiteful do.

Next up is a familiar image, as a colorized version of it serves as the background of the official Franks and Beans YouTube page.  The ad showed up in a black and white version of Teddy and the Yeti #2.  This photoshoot was a fruitful one, as we got two ads and a background for our business cards this day.  Born from this ad was probably our best slogan ever, “comedy worth fighting for”, which also finds itself on the YouTube page.  I should/will put this day’s photoshoot online at some point.  There were some good shots taken this day by friend of the show Mitch Mitchell, who just so happens to have a really nice DSLR camera.  And we take advantage of that whenever we can.

I’m fairly sure we stole the background image from this ad from Google (take that, Internet!), before we realized that we could just take our own damn picture of baked beans.  The ad itself refers to the “Franks and Beans Beans and Franks” episode at the end of season two, and we keep the label facade up with our own mock nutrition facts.  This ad appeared in Teddy and the Yeti #3.

Space was tight in the tiny Teddy and the Yeti’s Back! promo issue, so the Franks and Beans ad had a minimum of space to work with.  The end result, though, might just be our best ad yet, in which both Larry and I are perhaps about to have the life crushed out of us, which is always good for a laugh (a literal side-splitter).  This was from the same photoshoot that begat the “comedy worth fighting for” ad.  I particularly enjoy seeing the very top of my Thing shirt as well as my apparently stroked-out face.

Lastly, we have the newest Franks and Beans ad, straight from the inside back cover of Teddy and the Yeti #4.  This image comes from the still promotional photo for the “Double Delivery” episode and features obvious worldplay and also mustaches.  When people see these ads placed in my comics, I’ll bet that they nearly kill themselves in a desperate attempt to locate a computer and access this very website.  Who knows, maybe putting these ads online for all to see will draw the masses to this site, where they will laugh and laugh their lives away.  I’m about 85% sure that this will happen.

So there we have it – Franks and Beans comic book ads.  So why don’t I just use the same one all the time?  Why make new ones for each appearance?  I do it for you, loyal readers.  I do it for you.  And also me.  Perhaps the next one will feature one of my cats.  Only time will tell.

Awards? BAH! Recognition? Fame? Who needs ’em?

Well, the Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival (*heavy breathing*) recently released its schedule for the 2012 show!  That’s exciting, because…wait, what the hell?

Wh…Franks and Beans isn’t on the list?  Franks and Beans isn’t on the list!  But that mean…Double Delivery…and…it’s not…

Heck.  Well, I guess the word is out and our much anticipated episode didn’t make the cut.  Looking at the list, it seems that the IFF went with longer films this year, as opposed to years prior, when there was more of a mix between long and shorter films.  I was hoping that the short length of our episode would help it squeeze in to a slot: if there were five or ten minutes out there to spare, hey!  Why not throw in Franks and Beans!  But it was not to be.

This is a shame, of course, but it’s not entirely unexpected.  The IFF has become increasingly competitive in recent years, which *actual* actors starring in some of the submitted films.  I suppose that’s the mark of a growing, successful film festival.  It’ll be interesting to see what some of the selected films are like.

Regardless of this disappointing news, Larry and I will still be at Comic-Con, flying the F&B flag.  I think we’ll be able to get a few more people to take a look at the website and check out some of the episodes.  Maybe someone will even (gasp!) leave a comment on this website!  It’s coming up soon…if you’re going to be at the show, come and say hello to your mustache buddies.  Best of luck to all of the 2012 Comic-Con IFF selections!

Happy June!

June is already upon us, and you know what that mean – pretty soon, Comic-Con will contact us and let us know that Franks and Beans didn’t get selected for their film festival! What’s that?  I’m being overly negative about the chances of “Double Delivery” showing in San Diego?  Well, PROVE ME WRONG, COMIC-CON!  That would be a pleasant surprise.

By the way, what’s going on with those red jumpsuits?  Those looks pretty awesome and pretty film-able.  I’m just sayin’.

“Double Delivery” mini update and creator bios!

Here’s a tiny update on our entry to the San Diego Comic-Con Independent Film Festival: it got there.  Hooray!  But that’s not all; not only did it arrive in sunny San Diego, but it also apparently broke the laws of time in doing so.  As you can see by the above image, our entry packet was delivered on February 1st at 11:43 am local time.  It’s expected to be delivered by February 2nd.  Perhaps that means on someone from the postal service got to take the package home for a day, tossing it up and down in a playful manner, before returning it to the PO box in time to be picked up.

Or perhaps not.  In either case, the film festival committee got our submission before the deadline!  Now the real waiting begins.

In the meantime, it was mentioned to me that displaying the creator bios necessitated by the festival might be a good idea.  And who am I to stand in the way of a good idea?  I’m considering pasting these to the Franks and Beans “About” page, but we’ll see.  In lieu of a better introduction, here are the official Franks and Beans Comic-Con International Film Festival Creator Bios!

Jeff McClelland (writer/director/actor) once saw two alligators rip a man in half, and he’s never been the same since: what had been a promising career in tromboning quickly gave way to comic books and Internet television.  Jeff currently lives in southwestern Pennsylvania where he writes the comic book Teddy and the Yeti, contributes to the New York Times best selling FUBAR series of graphic novels and creates Franks and Beans videos with his good friend Larry Franks.  He also showed up in One Tree Hill a couple times.  Find Jeff online at www.teddyandtheyeti.com and www.franksandbeansonline.com.

Larry Franks (producer/director/actor) threw a hot dog as part of the Dukes of Hazzard movie in 2005, thereby justifying his Master’s Degree in Multimedia Technology from California University of Pennsylvania.  Now that I think about it, I suppose that it also contributed to his video editing skills and camera work on productions such as Franks and Beans.  Larry lives in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, hopes to one day open a Dukes of Hazzard museum, and unrepentantly makes fun of Jeff McClelland’s hair loss.  Find Larry online at www.dukescollector.com and www.franksandbeansonline.com.

Bon Voyage!

We have here, for your viewing pleasure (or ambivalence), the official, completed, in before the deadline Franks and Beans Comic-Con Independent Film Festival submission.  This sucker took an extra long time to perfect, so it gets several blog posts about it.  I sent this package in the mail yesterday, but beforehand I took this picture of the entire submission packet.  Feel free to download the picture and stick it on your fridge!

Included in this mailer, we have (numbered for your convenience):
1) the “Double Delivery” synopsis and creator bios
2) a cover letter
3) the official entry form
4) a production still
5) a stack of four DVDs, each with “Double Delivery” burned on them
6) a priority mail USPS envelope
7) a checkered tablecloth.  This isn’t included in the envelope.  But just in case, it’s labeled.

Being as neurotic as I am, I spent 75 cents on tracking information, and as I am a generous fellow, we can all follow along as our hopes and dreams are mailed all the way to sunny California.  Just click here to be whisked away to the postal service’s tracking website.

The postal worker promised me that the package would get to the PO Box in San Diego by Wednesday, February 1st.  If it doesn’t, I will be sad.  But hope spring eternal.  Good luck, little package.

…that’s what she said.

“Double Delivery” photo shoot & production still

One of the requirements for the Comic-Con film festival submission was a production still from our film (or as I like to call it, “episode”), “Double Delivery”.  The episode itself is coming together and is now completely edited – all that’s left to do is burn the DVDs, stick everything in an envelope and ship it off to the folks in San Diego – and it’s as complete a package as anything we’ve done here at F&B headquarters (Larry’s house) since its inception, so we’re both pretty excited.

Above you see the finalized production still that is heading off with our submission.  We snapped a number of pictures a few nights ago and this seemed to be the best one.  A few other takes can be seen below, though…including one of Larry kicking me in the groin, proving that we’re all class at Franks and Beans.  On a completely unrelated note, “Double Delivery” includes both a long burp and a fart in it.  Oh, how the mighty have fallen…