Friday, May 30, 2008

Not Yeti Friday - Ice Golem

Traditionally, golems are man-shaped beings created entirely from stone or clay that are then animated to do their creator's bidding. Think Frankenstein but without the dead bodies - a kind of grown-up Pinocchio, a proto-robot.

The golem story originated with Jewish folklore: a rabbi made one out of clay to defend his neighborhood. Ever since, the clay golem has popped up in popular culture.

In recent times, the popularity of games set in fantasy worlds (video games, role-playing, table-top, etc.) has led to MILLIONS of them created each year, and there has been an enormous demand for more and more varieties of monsters for players to interact with. Folklore and mythology from all cultures are mined and then transmuted. The golem is no exception.

In the fantasy game worlds made today, golems can be made of any material imaginable: metal, crystal, fire, plants, mud, paper, wool, and ice.

Images of the Ice Golem:





Do not be fooled by the ice golem. It is not yeti.




'Course, there was already an ice golem in our popular culture... we just didn't know it!

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Perry Yeti



For her 100th sketch blog post, illustrator Gina Perry made this painting inspired by the Ogden Nash poem:

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Abominable Snowman by Ogden Nash

I've never seen an abominable snowman,
I'm hoping not to see one,
I'm also hoping, if I do,
That it will be a wee one.


~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gina Perry wishes she had a wee abominable snowman in a snowglobe.

This echoes a sentiment shared by MILLIONS.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Screen Novelties Yeti



The super-talented folks at stop-motion animation studio Screen Novelties made a short for Nickelodeon called "Monster Safari".

The principal antagonist of the short is the above yeti.



You can watch a clip of it in action on this page - it's the fourth one down.

Their design reminds me of Rankin/Bass Bumble crossed with a Muppet.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Putnam-Pouliot Yeti



Artist Matt Putnam-Pouliot made these hominid plushes for his son for Christmas.

He makes cool web comics like this one: The Littlest Daikaiju. And here is his sketch blog K-Log.

Note: I like that he made his Skunk Ape green (like this one). I hope this becomes a trend. The world needs a green hairy hominid. You have brown bigfoots, white yetis, and now green skunk apes. It just makes sense!

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Not Yeti Friday - Anti-Venom



This August, a new super-villain will be revealed in Amazing Spider-Man #568.

His name is Anti-Venom.

Like Venom, he is also an alien symbiote with a spider on his chest and the mouth of a monster.

Only this time, he is not black... but WHITE.

I will not spell out all of the many obvious similarities Anti-Venom shares with the yeti, but here is one big one:

Would not hesitate to eat the Hulk.

Blast the Hulk's luck with the ladies! .. No fair!

Associate to the Legion of Lunatics!

The Lunatic Legion was a group of supervillains in the Marvel comics universe.



There was an associate (not even a full member) of the Lunatic Legion named Yeti.

Little is know about him, but he apparently had good taste in utility belts.

According to The Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe:

"He had no apparent powers, though he seemed to be an able hand-to-hand combatant."

Despite his prowess at the fisticuffs, Yeti was short-lived. He was apparently murdered in cold blood by the vile and wrathful Incredible Hulk.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Van Tee Yeti



Illustrator Martinus Van Tee is a big fan of the yeti. He is even writing a children's book featuring the himalayan simian.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Monday, May 19, 2008

Mummy Yeti

The new 'Mummy 3' movie trailer is out and I snagged this quick shot of the yeti from it:



Update: For a better look, check out Cryptomundo's post about it.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Not Yeti Friday - The Brute

The Brute was a short-lived comic book in the 1970's.



It featured a blue-skinned Neanderthal monster named The Brute.

He was a lot like the yeti.

He was thawed from ice in 1975 and went on a rampage and killed people. That was basically the plot.





The Brute *loved* toy balls.



So it was really serendipitous that the super-villain's device to take over the world looked like a toy ball. The Brute went right for it, foiling his plans. Go The Brute!

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Ode to the Yeti Crab



Check out the first video listed on this page to view the yeti crab in action, scuttling along the ocean floor.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The yeti crab is not just a new species. It is a new genus and family, too.

Since it's a hairy, blind albino lurking in the darkness of the deeps, the scientists could have easily nicknamed it the Marine Morlock.

But they love them the yeti.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is a snippet from the article "Encyclopedias of Life: From Diderot to the Yeti Crab" (FASEB Journal, Weissmann, Vol. 21 August 2007) about the creature's discovery:

"The crab was a serendipitous finding in the course of
a 2005 expedition designed to discover how creatures
found in deep hydrothermal vents in one part of an
ocean can colonize other vents in vastly distant parts.

To this end, an international team of marine biologists
probed the ocean floor, 7200 feet down, at a site 1000
miles south of Easter Island in the Pacific. They were at
the end of a six-hour dive in a deep submersible vehicle
called 'Alvin,' a craft best known for exploring the
sunken Titanic, when they struck scientific gold.

Michel Segonzac, from the Institut Francais de Recherche
pour l’Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER) in Brest,
noticed unusually large, half-foot long, albino creatures
in areas where warm water from geothermal vents was
seeping into the ocean floor. The pilot of the Alvin,
Anthony Tarantino of the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution (where Alvin was developed) suctioned one
of the blind, lobster-like creatures into the vehicle by
means of a vacuum-like hose known as the 'slurp gun'.

It took less than a year of morphologic and molecular
genetic analysis for Segonzac and his associates to
ascertain that they had found not only a new species of
an unknown genus, but—bigger still in the world of
taxonomy—an entirely new family of crustaceans. They
called the new family Kiwaidae (from Kiwa, the goddess
of shellfish in Easter Island mythology), and the crab’s
new Latin name became Kiwa hirsuta. But among
marine biologists, the crab immediately became known
as the 'Yeti crab,' after the hirsute snowman of Himalaya
legend. It seemed better than calling the creature
a Hairy Goddess."




- Alvin the Submarine (previously of the Titanic)?
- Easter Island?
- A "slurp gun"?
- Hairy Goddess?



...it makes for quite a story!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have read that the yeti crab were seen placing their hairy claws over the hydrothermal vents. Scientists think it's possible they are doing this in order to harvest the bacteria found in their hairs for future consumption. Yes, you read that right, the yeti crab may be bacteria farmers.

Is there anything they're not?!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The folks at Grandgood used the adjective "yeti crab" to describe their podcast featuring a mix tape of unclassifiable music.

Perhaps this will get picked up as a term. Something that is "yeticrab" will mean anything unclassifiable. Later, it will mean non-conformist... and eventually be synonymous with 'cool'.

"That is way yeticrab, dude!"



The yeti crab is way yeticrab in my book.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

White Tea the Yeti




White Tea is a plush sold by a purple octopus named Dr. Perfect.

White Tea was designed by Brian Gubicza and fashioned in plush form by Jen Bennett Gubicza, both very talented.

On a personal note, "White Tea" is probably the best name for a yeti I've ever heard.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Monday, May 12, 2008

What Yeti Does When Wanted



This Threadless t-shirt design by Jean-sébastien Deheeger illustrates what yeti does when confronted with Wanted posters depicting his mug shot:

- He defiles them!

- To thwart his pursuers!

- And further elude capture!


Aces!

Friday, May 9, 2008

Not Yeti Friday - Megaloman



A tv show devoted to Megaloman aired on Japanese TV in 1979.



Look at his long white hair.

Is he a yeti underneath that suit and mask?

Uh, probably not.





Megaloman has a similar origin story to Superman's. He is also known as Honô No Senshi, or Warrior of Flame, because he can fling fire out of his hair.



Trivia on Wikipedia is interesting:

"Megaloman has gained popularity on the Internet because of his long-hair (unconventional among sentai armored super-heroes) and especially because his name sounds like 'megalomaniac'. This was most obvious among French-speakers, as French for megalomaniac is 'mégalomane' which pronounces almost exactly like 'Megaloman'."



Above is a fan in a dress-up disguise.




MEGALOMAN, WE LOVE YOU!

We can't get enough of you. We are Megalomaniacs.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Warhammer Yhetee



This is concept art for the (clearly) nasty creature in the Warhammer game known as "yhetee".

Astute readers will note a remarkable similarity in the pronunciations of this creature's name and that of the beloved Himalayan man-ape from our world.

Question: Coincidence?

Answer (highlight to read): No.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Mask



mostlymade made this mask.

In his post about it, he writes:

"Sometimes I mount this on the front of my bike and ride around town."

He also made a yeti doll which I featured in an old post.

Friday, May 2, 2008

Not Yeti - Bigfoot vs. Abe Lincoln



A tee shirt is available for purchase which purports to depict the epic showdown of the Bigfoot and American Sixteenth President Abe "Honest Abe" Lincoln.

"We at Glarkware feel that [Lincoln's] legacy would be bolstered even further by evidence that, one day, during a walk in the woods, he came upon Bigfoot, and the two came to fisticuffs."

I prefer to think that Abraham and the Ape-Man would never have come to actual blows. This picture depicts our beloved president instructing his simian compatriot in the gentlemanly pursuits of pugilism and proper sportsmanship.

Bigfoot has trouble affecting the correct fighting posture, so Lincoln illustrates. Later, Bigfoot will explain to Lincoln which berries are safe to eat.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Lauder Yeti



If you want this shirt by Annette Lauder , you have to buy it... today, May 1, 2008! It's only 10 bucks, free shipping.

Update: The world has moved on. You can read more the design here.

Robots and Yetis go together like a horse and carriage!

Rae Yeti

Chelsea Rae is a maker and seller of plush toys, earrings, art prints, and more.



She obviously loves the yeti.


Whoah - Totally Yetis - Blue or Pink



Yetis for Your Ears



For more on Rae and her work:

  • etsy shop for plush
  • etsy shop for art
  • deviantart
  • myspace
  • flickr
  • blog
  •